January 14

Shall bruise thy head.—Genesis 3:15.

THIS passage contains the first intimation of redeeming grace that God ever gave to the world. He was now examining the guilty culprits, and in passing sentence upon them, in the midst of wrath he remembers mercy. In pronouncing sentence upon the serpent, he states that the seed of the woman shall bruise his head. Now we have heard and seen that Christ was made of a woman. That he was emphatically her seed, and there cannot be the least doubt, that he was the person distinctly alluded to in this promise. Besides, the conqueror was to be the seed of the woman only. And thus it became Christ to be the fruit of a virgin's womb. Hence by his miraculous conception, was this striking prediction realized. Then he was to be the adversary and opponent of that wicked one, that old serpent, the devil. It is admitted that Satan was to bruise his heel, that is, he should carry on an opposition to Messiah and his cause, that he should subject him to some pain, but the part affected was to be "his heel," not an essential vital part. This Satan did in the sufferings of the Old Testament church, but more literally in his attacks upon the Saviour himself. In the wilderness, in the garden, and on the cross, he bruised Messiah's heel. But on Christ's part, "the head," that is the authority and the power, the very vital part of the serpent, was to be bruised. Christ's incarnation was for this end, that "he might destroy the works of the Devil." By the power of his truth, he caused Satan's kingdom to fall as lightning from heaven. By his death on the cross, he spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly. And by his spiritual rule he will effectually undermine the throne and empire of Satan, and will finally bind him down with a great chain and cast him into the bottomless pit. The work is now going on which will effect this glorious consummation. Christ's triumph is pledged, and is absolutely certain. Let all the friends of Jesus rejoice that their great enemy is doomed to certain overthrow and ruin. And that what has in part been effected, is a sure prelude to the complete realization of this first delightful promise.