I. V. 14. _And Jehovah God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast
done this, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above every beast of
the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all
the days of thy life._
After judgment has been pronounced and the whole case completely gone
through, follows the execution of judgment, in which, as we shall now
hear, there is rendered to each party according to their work, but not
one like the other. Now this passage claims our thoughtful attention
in the first place, because there is not found throughout the five
books of Moses so long a speech in the person of God. And in the next
place, because this divine speech contains no law whatever as to what
the serpent or man was required to do. The whole speech is occupied in
promising that good or threatening that evil, which should come upon
each party concerned.
And it is worthy our particular observation here that, after the sin
of the fall, no further law whatever was imposed on Adam, though
nature in its state of perfection had a divine law set before it. The
reason of this was, because God saw that nature, being now fallen and
corrupt, could not only derive no help or relief from any law given to
it, but that, being thus corrupted and also disorganized and confused
altogether, it could not bear any syllable of law whatsoever.
Wherefore God did not increasedly oppress nature, already thus
oppressed by sin, with any further law of any kind. But on the
contrary God mercifully applied unto sin as a terrible wound, a
healing plaster, that is, the promise concerning Christ, still using
that caustic, the curse on sin, which the devil had caused to be
inflicted. For as wholesome plasters, even while they heal, yet
corrode and pain the flesh; so the healing promise is so set before
Adam that the threatened curse on sin should be added, to operate with
it in curing the lust of the flesh. By the lust of the flesh I mean,
not only that foul motion and itching of lust, but also "all manner of
concupiscence" and uncleanness of soul, as Paul terms them, Rom. 7:8;
Eph. 4:19, through which we are by nature inclined to idolatry,
unbelief, self-security and all other horrible sins against the first
and second Table. To curb and cure all this depravity of nature, we
have need of the operation of this burning caustic, the curse of God
on sin.
I would that I could handle the text now before us in a manner
becoming its depth and dignity, for it embraces all that is glorious
in the whole Scripture, containing in it the curse of God on Satan and
the destruction of the seed of the serpent by the seed of the woman.
The former part of the text is wholly figurative. God speaks to the
serpent, but it is manifest that the serpent alone is not here to be
understood as addressed by God. For these are not the words of God as
a Creator, as were those words above, when he said unto the beasts of
the earth, "Be fruitful and multiply;" nor when he said to the earth
itself, "Let the earth bring forth grass, and herbs, and trees,
yielding seed after their kind." They are words of divine threatening
and a declaration of mind and will, such words as God never speaks to
an irrational creature, but to an intelligent creature only.
God does indeed address the "serpent" by name, but he is all the while
especially speaking to Satan, who ruled in the serpent, and by the
serpent deceived the first parents of mankind. Nevertheless as, on
account of the sin of man, the lord of the whole creation, all animals
and all trees perished in the flood, just as the subjects of a nation
are often punished on account of the misdeeds of their prince, so it
befell the serpent. That animal also was punished because of the sin
of the devil, who had abused the serpent in making use of it to work
so mighty an evil as the sin of the fall. God however intends,
figuratively, to be represented under this punishment of the serpent,
the deluging punishment of Satan.
The obscurity which lies in this figurative representation has been
the reason why this text, which ought to be most clearly known and
understood by all, has never to my knowledge been explained by any one
with sufficient diligence and clearness. And I have often wondered
what the fathers and the bishops could have been about, who, when
occupied in the government of churches and in the condemnation of
heretics, did not feel that they had a still more important duty to
perform in devoting themselves with greater diligence to the
explanation of such passages of the Scriptures as these. Such bishops
and fathers possess nothing more than the name, for they may with more
truth be called destroyers than watchmen or guardians of the churches.
I am now speaking of those of our fathers and bishops who really
excelled in holiness of life and doctrine. Even among these not one is
found to have explained the text before us in any manner becoming its
great dignity. Perhaps those various engagements which generally beset
the rulers of churches too deeply involve them to leave them time for
the purpose.
The disgrace of our more recent divines is notorious. They have even
shamefully corrupted this whole passage, and out of the neuter pronoun
_ipsum_ they have made the feminine, _ipsa_, which, with the most open
wickedness, they have thus wrested, and have applied it to the Virgin
Mary, "_She_ shall bruise thy head," verse 15. I can pardon Lyra, who
was as it appears a good man, but he conceded too much to the
authority of the fathers, and hence he suffered himself to be drawn
aside by Augustine, to the most weak and foolish allegorizings, which
system Gregory also follows in his "Morals," maintaining that by the
woman in this part of the sacred record ought to be understood the
inferior power of reason, as by the man, the superior power of reason;
and by her seed, the operation of good; but by the seed of the devil,
his evil suggestions.
But what need, I pray you, friendly reader, is there of all such
darkness of the most absurd allegories in all this clear light of the
truth? But grant that we might with any propriety divide reason into
two qualities or powers, the superior and the inferior. With how much
greater propriety may we term that the inferior power of reason which
is adapted to the government of domestic and political affairs, and
not that which is concerned in swine-like pleasure and gratification?
calling that the superior power of reason by which we contemplate
those things which are separate from economy or polity, and which
pertain unto religion, the solemn things of the Word, in which we do
nothing operatively, but only contemplate and learn? Although we thus
speak upon these things what have they to do after all with the sacred
text before us? Do they not altogether encumber and keep out of sight
its real sense, and substitute a spurious sense in its stead, a sense
which is not only useless but pernicious? For what can reason do or
what light can it give in the divine matter of religion?
There is also a further absurdity in this mode of interpretation, by
which Eve is made to be the inferior power of reason. For it is
perfectly evident that Eve was not inferior to her husband Adam in any
sense whatever; that is, neither in body nor in soul. It is from this
ridiculous mode of interpretation that all those profane disputations
concerning free-will have arisen, and concerning the doctrine "that
reason always prays for the best," etc., until all theology is lost in
philosophy and sophistical absurdities.
Wherefore let us, casting away all such pernicious and absurd follies,
enter upon a new road of interpretation, caring naught for having
disregarded the footsteps of those who have gone before us. For we
have the Holy Spirit as our guide, not setting before us in Moses a
heap of absurd allegories, but teaching us through him the mightiest
truths and the mightiest things which took place between God the
Creator and man the sinner, and Satan the author of sin.
First of all then let us settle it as a fact that the serpent here
spoken of by God was a natural and real serpent, but a serpent
besieged and occupied by Satan, who spoke through and by that serpent.
Let us next consider it to be a truth, that those things which God
spoke to the serpent are not to be understood as having been spoken to
the serpent abstractedly as a brute animal, but that the person
immediately spoken to was Satan, to whom God was all the while more
expressly speaking. By this manner of interpretation, I am sure that I
retain the plain and simple historical and literal meaning, and a
meaning in accordance with the whole passage; by which meaning, as
divinely intended, the serpent remains a serpent though occupied and
possessed by Satan, the woman remains a woman, and Adam remains Adam,
all which is proved by what follows in the sacred narrative. For it is
not an inferior power of reason and a superior power of reason, who
begat Cain and Abel, as recorded in the following chapter, but Adam
and Eve, that is, the first parents of mankind, who fell by sin into
death and became subject to the dominion of Satan.
When therefore God says to the serpent, "Thou art cursed above all
cattle and above every beast of the field, upon thy belly shalt thou
go," the divine meaning is not that which Augustine gives, and which
his disciples follow. They understand that by "belly" is to be
allegorically understood pride. But the divine mind in the passage is,
that as Satan abused the serpent in effecting the sin of the fall, so
the serpent is compelled of God to bear a part of the punishment of
that sin and therefore is thus cursed above all cattle, that it might
be the most hateful of all the beasts of the field. At the beginning
of the creation it was not so; but now through the divine curse, such
a nature has been imparted to the serpent, that the creature which
before the curse was the most delightful and the sweetest of all
creatures, is now hated and dreaded above every other animal of the
creation. Hence we find by experience that we have a natural
abhorrence of serpents, and that serpents as naturally dread and flee
from us. Thus the serpent is indeed made to bear this curse as part of
the punishment of sin.
These words however are not spoken unto the serpent only, God is
dealing all the time with Satan in the serpent. It is on Satan that
this sentence is pronounced, as his final judgment. It is Satan that
is here placed before God's tribunal.
For God here speaks to the serpent in far different language from that
which he used toward Adam and Eve, when he called them back in love
from their sin. His language then was, "Where art thou?" "Who told
thee that thou wast naked?" All these particulars indicate the love of
God towards the whole human race; showing forth that God will seek
after man and will call him back after he has sinned, that he may
reason with him and hear what he has to say. All this was a sure
announcement of grace. For although these words of God, spoken to Adam
and Eve, were legal and judicial words; yet they set before them a
hope by no means obscure, that they should not be condemned for ever.
But with the serpent and Satan God by no means dealt so mercifully. He
did not call Satan to him and say, "Why hast thou done this?" He
pronounced upon him at once the sentence of judgment; and that too, in
the most awful words, "Because thou hast done this." As if he had
said, Thou, Satan, hadst sinned before this and hadst been condemned,
when thou didst fall from heaven; and now to that sin thou hast added
this one. Thou hast by the abuse of the serpent hurled man into sin
also. Therefore in the first place the serpent shall bear this
punishment; that whereas before it partook of that blessing which all
other beasts also enjoyed; now it alone shall remain under my curse.
From all these circumstances it must follow as a manifest consequence,
that the serpent before the sin of the fall was the most beautiful
creature among the beasts which God had made, and most delightful to
man; as are at this day kids, and lambs, and kittens to us, and also
that it moved with its head erect; and moreover that it now creeps
upon the ground is not a property of its original nature, but the
consequence of the divine curse. Just in the same manner as they are
the consequences of the curse, that the woman conceives in
uncleanness, brings forth in sorrow, and nurses and trains her
offspring with toils and griefs. Were there no curse the whole process
of creation would be most pure and holy; the giving birth to children
most easy and delightful, and the training up of children the highest
pleasure. Sin therefore has not only utterly corrupted nature itself,
but most basely defiled it.
And yet the human reasoners even of our day dare to affirm that the
original properties of nature have remained essentially sound and
whole, even in devils. But if the serpent, which Satan had abused to
effect the sin of the fall, bore such a punishment on account of that
sin; that whereas before it was the most beautiful of all creatures,
it now on a sudden crawled on the ground upon its belly and drew after
it its viperous tail before the eyes of Adam, and thus all on a sudden
became an object of hatred and of dread; how can we doubt that the
same was the utterly changed case with the man, who was the very one
who had committed the sin and had imbibed into his very nature the
poison of Satan? As therefore the Egyptians beheld not without the
greatest amazement the rod thrown down by Moses suddenly changed into
a serpent, just so in paradise, immediately upon God's uttering this
word of the curse, the serpent was changed from a form the most
beautiful into an object the most disgusting and revolting.
And to this same curse pertains that which God moreover said, "And
dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life." The allegorists explain
this, as meaning that Satan would render men given up to the love of
earthly things one with himself by deceiving them. But as I have said,
God is here speaking to the serpent as such and cursing the serpent,
causing it to bear its punishment of the sin of the fall. For there
are other beasts which also feed upon the earth, but the serpent eats
the earth as its curse; that whereas before it had a certain peculiar
gift of subtlety and of beauty, and of food also, which it enjoyed in
common with man, it now bore as its punishment that the nature of its
food was changed.
It is the glory of sheep, of oxen and of other beasts, that they feed
on herbs and even on the fruits of trees, and also that they produce
various things useful for the food of man, such as butter, milk, their
own flesh, etc. The serpent also possessed this glory of his feeding
in common with the other beasts. But now he is cast out from this
society, and as it were from this common table and common feasting on
account of the sin of the fall, so that he is not permitted to feed
upon even the most useless herb; nor on apples, or pears, or nuts, on
which even the mice feed. These he dare not taste. He eats the crude
earth only. These are not my words, but the words of Moses; and they
teach us that the nature of the serpent is entirely changed and wholly
different from what it originally was.
And though I have said, and it is true, that it is to the serpent that
God here speaks, and yet so speaks, that his words are directed all
the time more expressly against Satan, as the following part of the
narrative will still more plainly show; yet I am by no means satisfied
that those things spoken, which rightly apply to the nature of the
serpent, should be transferred allegorically, as intended to be spoken
to Satan, like Augustine transfers them and is followed by Lyra. For
the serpent and Satan were intimately connected in the sin of the
fall, though Satan was the principal actor and the serpent only the
instrument. And therefore it is that they are made alike partakers of
the punishment. The serpent however bears a corporal punishment only.
But for Satan, the author and agent of the whole, a different judgment
is prepared, even that judgment concerning which Christ speaks, John
16:11, when he says, "Because the prince of this world is judged." The
description of this judgment will now shortly follow, as recorded by
Moses in the succeeding verses.
Wherefore when many say that the devil, like the serpent, no longer
walks erect and that he has lost his original form and stature, the
things they say are true; but they are quite inappropriate here and
have nothing to do with the right interpretation of the passage now in
question. And when I said above, that the serpent before the curse of
God upon it moved in an erect posture, I do not wish to be understood
to mean that it moved in an upright position as man, but with its neck
and head erect, as a stag or a peacock. To crawl on its belly
therefore after the curse, was the divine judgment on the serpent.
That which now follows belongs expressly to Satan only. And the things
here recorded of him by Moses paint forth his judgment in far more
true colors than any of those foolish and out-of-place descriptions of
the allegorists. They moreover set before us this strong consolation,
that the devil is now so situated that he cannot attack and harm us at
his liberty, as he wishes to do and would do, if the Seed of the woman
stood not directly in his way.
II. V. 15a. _And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and
between thy seed and her seed._
These are the things which are spoken expressly and properly to Satan.
And they contain his judgment. While in these same words of his
judgment, there is set before the godly their strong consolation. The
things above spoken are historical, as I have said, and apply to the
serpent, which because through the abuse of Satan it aided in
effecting the sin of Adam and Eve, bears as his part of the punishment
his ejection from the common life, as it were, and from the society of
the other animals of the creation; being made so different from them
that he dares not eat the same food nor live in any way like them.
The present passage might also be allegorically interpreted. But the
allegories used would be far less appropriate, and they would not
stand firm in the defense of the truth. For the facts of the case are
these: Satan on account of his sin was cast out of heaven and
condemned; and no longer goes about in his original form as an ox or a
hind does, but creeps on the ground; which may signify that he does
not attack the godly by open force, but uses wiles and devices for
their harm and destruction; which devices nevertheless the godly when
they look into the Word see and understand; and by them they perceive
how vast his deformity is, and hence dread and abhor him. And
certainly his creeping on the ground, and not walking upright, may
well indicate that his tyrannical power is broken and destroyed, so
that he cannot do so much harm to the Church as he otherwise would do.
These allegories, we repeat, may be used in the interpretation of the
present text; but they do not explain the meaning of Moses, and
therefore they are improper.
Wherefore, when we speak of Satan, let us ever follow the other
testimonies of Scripture upon the subject; for they are proper,
certain and sure; such for instance as the following: "The devil was a
murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because
there is no truth in him;" and also, "When he speaketh a lie he
speaketh of his own," John 8:44; and again, "Your adversary the devil,
as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour," 1 Pet.
5:8; and also, where Christ says, "The prince of this world is
judged," John 16:11.
In a word, who does not plainly see that the testimony of the present
passage applies properly to Satan; and that it is to him that the Son
of God is here opposed, expressly to prevent him from making any
attack upon us with open violence, as if he had no certain Antagonist!
The Church therefore, under this protection, is perfectly safe. And
not only is Satan deprived of the power of attacking the Church with
any open violence, but his power and desire of harming anything or
person else are also destroyed. Were it not so, he would not suffer a
single tree to grow to maturity. He would impede and crush all things
that spring forth in the earth; and would prevent, not the birth of
men only, but the bringing forth of beasts; and would destroy the
safety of everything. This insatiable desire to harm and to destroy is
fully manifest from his inability to attack by open violence, and from
his doing whatever he does by the means of craft, guile and snare.
We should here moreover carefully observe that these things are not
spoken by God for the devil's sake. For God does not deign to condemn
Satan on his own account, by these his words; but he deems it
sufficient to leave Satan to be condemned by his own conscience. All
that God speaks to Satan, he speaks for the sake of Adam and Eve; that
they may hear this judgment of God upon him and may comfort
themselves, by thus hearing and seeing that God is the adversary to
the nature of him, who had inflicted such a wound on man. For out of
these very words of God to Satan, there begin to shine forth grace and
mercy; yea, out of the very midst of that anger, which sin and
disobedience had so righteously kindled. It is here in the very midst
of the heaviest threatenings, that the mind of the Father discloses
itself; of a Father, not so angry as to cast away his Son, but holding
out salvation, yea, promising victory over that enemy, who had thus
deceived and conquered human nature.
For though both had sinned in the fall, Satan especially, and man
through Satan, yet the judgments now pronounced upon Satan and upon
man are widely different. God does not join them together in one and
the same punishment, as he might righteously have done. He makes the
widest distinction between them. For although he is angry with man
also, who obeyed the enemy of God, disregarding God himself, yet the
divine indignation against Satan is by far the greater. Satan God
plainly convicts and condemns in the sight of Adam and Eve, so that
Adam and Eve, from this very condemnation of their enemy, might have a
little time to recover their breath; and might feel how much more
blessed their condition was than that of Satan. The first part of the
great consolation here graciously given lies in this: that the serpent
was accused and cursed and together with the serpent Satan also, for
Adam and Eve's sake. Not so much for Satan's judgment and damnation,
as for Adam and Eve's comfort and salvation.
Wherefore, by this judgment of Satan that sun of consolation, which
had been just before hidden as it were behind the darkness of certain
heavy clouds, now rises above those clouds and shines with its most
heavenly light on the affrighted hearts of Adam and Eve. For they not
only do not hear themselves cursed, as the serpent was, but they hear
God declare, that he has put them into the ranks of a constituted army
against their condemned foe; and that too with the hope of an almighty
help, which the Son of God the Seed of the woman should bring unto
them. By this therefore the remission of their sins and their full
reception into grace were plainly revealed to Adam and Eve; who were
thus perfectly freed from their sin and guilt, redeemed from death,
and delivered from hell and from all those terrors under which they
were utterly sinking in the sight of God.
Such is the great consolation which arises from the fact so carefully
to be observed by the godly, that God did not curse Adam and Eve as he
did the serpent. All that God did to Adam and Eve was to put them into
an army of continual battle with this enemy, that they might not live
a life of ease and indolence. This very thing therefore turned out for
the good of man.
But the chief part of the great consolation here vouchsafed was, that
although this enemy should ever war by subtlety and snares, yet that a
Seed should be born, which should bruise the serpent's head. For
hereby is set forth the final destruction of the tyranny of Satan;
although that tyranny will never come to its end without a most
terrible conflict; a conflict which must be fought out by man. But
only reflect how unequal the conflict is; it is the "heel" only of the
man that is in danger; his head is safe and invincible. On the other
hand, it is not the tail nor the belly, but the "head" itself of the
serpent that is to be bruised and crushed under foot by the Seed of
the woman. And this victory is given also to us all; as Christ plainly
declares when he says, that after the strong man armed shall have been
overcome the spoils shall be divided. For the Christian is by faith at
once made conqueror over sin, the law and death; so that the very
gates of hell cannot prevail against him.
This first great consolation therefore our first parents and their
posterity searched into and learned with all diligence, as being the
original fountain and the fountain head as it were of all the
promises. For they saw, that had they been left without this promise
the blessing of generation would have indeed remained with men, as
with all other animals of the creation, but it would have been only a
begetting and a being born unto death. That great blessing bestowed of
God upon human nature is here highly increased, yea, consecrated;
seeing that the hope hereby added to the blessing of generation, is
such that through it the head of Satan shall be utterly crushed; and
that not only his tyranny shall be destroyed but that human nature
itself, thus made subject to death through sin, shall attain unto
eternal life. For Moses is now no longer dealing in his narrative with
the natural serpent; he is now speaking of the devil, whose "head" is
formed of death and sin; as Christ describes him when he says, John
8:44, that he was "a murderer from the beginning, and a liar, and the
father of it." Therefore, whenever and wherever his power is
destroyed; that is, when sin and death are taken away by Christ, what
remains but that the children of God shall be saved!
It was in this manner therefore that Adam and Eve understood this text
and comforted themselves against sin and despair by the revealed hope
of this future crushing of the serpent's head, by Christ, the Seed of
the woman. And through this, their hope in the promise thus given unto
them, they shall also rise again at the last day unto life eternal.
V. 15b. _He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel._
Who is not filled with wonder, yea, rather with execration, at the
malicious design of Satan in having attempted to transfer this divine
text, so full and running over with consolation concerning the Son of
God, to the Virgin Mary! For in all the Latin Bibles, the pronoun
_ipse_ is put in the feminine gender _ipsa_, "_She_ shall bruise." And
Lyra, who was by no means unacquainted with the Hebrew language, was
carried away by this error as by the violence of an overflowing and
resistless stream into the same impious interpretation; so that in the
face of its plain meaning, he interpreted the passage as applying to
the blessed Virgin; making her the person, by whom the power of Satan
should be broken through the mediation of her Son. And he applies to
the Virgin also that passage in the Song, "Thou art terrible as an
army with banners." And, although Lyra professes to hold this
interpretation of the present passage as received from others, yet his
sin is great in not refuting it. Many afterwards followed him. And all
the more recent interpreters have perverted this most holy passage to
serve idolatry, finding no one to stop or resist them.
All this however has arisen either from the ignorance or negligence of
the rulers in the Church. Because these did not set themselves against
idolatry, sound doctrine was by degrees suppressed and became extinct.
And since we have now by the blessing of God restored the sound
doctrine, these disgraceful beasts, given to serve the belly, plainly
show that they care not for religion, but for their own benefices
only. And because such idolatry promotes the interests of these men,
they even show their indignation at people being taught the truth. But
these blind beings do not see that the Gospel is a doctrine of the
divine nature, that those who receive it lose nothing by it but their
sins and eternal death; and that they gain in their stead deliverance
from all idolatry and from the dominion of Satan.
Wherefore let us render thanks to God that we have this passage also
restored to its full integrity. Not that thereby any honor due to Mary
might be taken from her, but that all idolatry might be shut out. For
as to men saying that Mary crushed all the power of Satan by giving
birth to Christ; if that be the true state of the case does not that
same honor belong equally to all the other women who preceded Mary in
the same line of genealogy? Nay, a part of this same honor pertains to
all the husbands also in Mary's line and to all her ancestors. For had
she not descended from all these as her forefathers, she herself could
not have had existence. For she was born by marriage according to the
common order of nature. If Mary, by the act of giving birth to her
Son, bruised the head of Satan, all the ancestors of Mary must of
necessity be ranked in the same degree of dignity and honor.
The Scripture however teaches us very differently, when it says that
Christ "died for our sins and rose again for our justification," Rom.
4:25; and when it said, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the
sin of the world!" John 1:29. Wherefore let the blessed Virgin hold
her place of due honor, as the woman whom God adorned with that high
privilege above all other women, that she as a virgin should bring
forth the Son of God. This honor however ought by no means so to be
bestowed upon her, as in any way to take from her Son, our Lord, the
glory of our redemption and of our deliverance from sin and death.
Moreover, the peculiar expression of the holy Scripture in this
passage is most carefully to be held and guarded by us, as affording a
truly wonderful light which opens unto us the depth of the divine
goodness, revealed to us in the present sacred text; where we are
taught concerning that enmity which God put between the serpent and
the woman; such an enmity that the Seed of the woman should crush the
serpent with all his powers. This crushing, Satan perfectly understood
at the time, and therefore it is that to this day he rages with so
much hatred against our human nature. Adam and Eve on the contrary,
raised up by the promise of this crushing, conceived the hope of their
restoration in all its fulness. And being thus filled with faith they
saw that their salvation would assuredly be God's peculiar care;
seeing that God had expressly testified, that the male Seed of the
woman should utterly defeat and crush this their enemy. For the words
are divinely put together with a wonderful emphasis.
III. The divine expression here is, "I will put enmity between thy
seed and her seed." As if God had said, Thou, Satan, by means of the
woman didst attack and seduce the man that thou mightest by means of
sin be the head and lord over them. I therefore in like manner will
execute my secret purposes against thee by means of the very same
instrument. I will take hold of the woman, and by her I will produce a
Seed; and that Seed shall bruise thy head. Thou by means of sin didst
corrupt and make subject to death the flesh of the human nature. I
will produce from that same flesh such a man, who shall crush and
utterly defeat both thee and all thy powers.
By these divine words therefore both the promise and the threat were
expressed with the most perfect plainness. And yet they were most
obscure. For they left the devil in such a state of doubt and suspense
that he held under suspicion all the women which brought forth from
that time, fearing lest they should give birth to this Seed; though
one woman only was designed to be the mother of this blessed
offspring. Therefore as the divine threatening was expressed in a
general term, "her Seed," Satan was so mocked thereby that he feared
this Seed from every woman who brought forth.
In the same proportion, on the other hand, the faith of all mankind
was confirmed. For, from the hour in which the divine promise was
made, all men expected that promised Seed, and comforted themselves
against Satan. Hence it was that Eve, when she brought forth her
first-born, Cain, hoped that she had now "gotten" that bruiser of the
head of Satan. And though she was deceived in that hope, yet she saw
that the promised Seed would assuredly at length be born at some time
or other from her posterity. And thus, with respect to all mankind
also, this promise was most clear and at the same time most obscure.
Isaiah threw some additional light upon this glorious promise when he
said, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son," Is. 7:14. For
it was then made certain that this Seed would not be born from the
union of a man and a woman. But the prophet added certain other
particulars, by which he still involved his prophecy in obscurity. In
such obscurity therefore this most clear promise still remained until
Mary had brought forth her Son. Of this birth then angels themselves
were witnesses; and after the angels the shepherds and the wise men;
until this birth was proclaimed abroad by the apostles, throughout the
whole world.
This obscurity therefore tended to increase the concern and suspense
of Satan to the highest degree. As it had been said, "I will put
enmity between thee and the woman;" so Satan suspected and held as his
enemy every woman alike, who gave birth to a child from the time that
word was spoken until Christ was revealed. On the other hand, with
respect to man, this same obscurity increased and strengthened his
faith. Though each woman saw that she was not the mother who gave
birth to this Seed, yet they all believed and were fully assured that
this Seed would be born from some other woman.
God having thus spoken individually or personally, if I may so express
it, that very manner of expression tended most effectually to mock and
rack Satan, and to console the godly and to raise them to faith and
hope. Thus women continued to bring forth until the Flood; and
afterwards also, until the time of Mary. But the seed of none of those
women could truly be said to be the Seed of the woman, but might
rather be said to have been the seed of the man. But that which was
born from Mary was conceived of the Holy Ghost and was the true Seed
of Mary, the appointed woman. This the other promises also testify,
which were made to Abraham and to David; according to which promises
Christ was called "the Son of Abraham" and "the Son of David."
The meaning of the original promise here given Isaiah first revealed,
when he prophesied "that a virgin should conceive and bear a son," Is.
7:14. Afterwards, a clearer explanation and confirmation of it was
made by the angel in the New Testament. Wherefore I doubt not that
there were many saints under the Old Testament, who did not understand
this mystery, but who nevertheless fully expected that Christ would be
born into this world of a woman, and that he would be the deliverer of
the human race; though they knew not what would be the particular
manner and circumstances of his birth. With this general knowledge
they were content and by this knowledge they were saved; even though
they knew not the manner in which Christ would be conceived and born.
For this knowledge was reserved for the New Testament to reveal, as by
the clearer and brighter light. And it was set forth in the first age
of the Church with a greater obscurity, purposely on account of Satan,
whom God willed to be mocked and racked in this manner that he might
thereby have less rest and be more filled with fear on every side.
Wherefore after this great original promise had been thus set forth
generally in the beginning and had by degrees been more
circumstantially particularized, and then confined to the seed of
Abraham; and further restricted by means of the patriarch Jacob to a
certain tribe, the tribe of Judah; after this the devil became
unconcerned about other peoples and tribes, and persecuted this one
line of generation with marvelous cruelties and stratagems; until
about the time of Christ it had been reduced to the extremest poverty
and had become a hopeless trunk-root, from which no one could hope for
either fruit or leaves. And hence it is that the Scriptures term that
line of succession a "stem" or bare root as it were of Jesse, Is.
11:1, signifying thereby a decaying trunk from which nothing whatever
could be expected.
This hatred and this fury of Satan are the effects produced on him,
which the Lord here predicts, when he warns the serpent of the enmity
which he had put between his seed and the Seed of the woman. For Satan
primarily sought this Seed of the woman with hostile hatred, through
all the peoples, families and lines throughout the whole world. When
the promise was transferred to Abraham and restricted to his
posterity, we see from history by what various means Satan attempted
to hinder its fulfilment. And when this glorious promise was further
transferred to the line of Judah and restricted to that tribe, we
behold with what horrible calamities it was oppressed and agitated,
until at length it seemed to be wholly subverted and eradicated. So
that at the time of the birth of Christ poor Mary was living at a long
distance from Jerusalem in the little and insignificant town of
Nazareth, and Jerusalem itself was possessed and governed by wicked
heathen. Wherefore most correctly and beautifully was this tribe of
Judah compared to a dead and hopeless "stem" of Jesse. But as God
cannot lie, this "root," so much decayed and despaired of, at length
blossomed forth.
Satan however did not even then cease from his cruelty, hatred and
enmity against the Seed of the woman. While he lay in the cradle Satan
sought him out by the instrumentality of Herod. So that the new-born
Christ was compelled to live among the Gentiles in Egypt. After this
also, Satan adopted and tried all possible means to destroy him, until
finding him and seizing him, he threw him into the hands of the Jews
and nailed him to the cross. No! nor could his inexhaustible hatred be
satisfied even then. He feared him even as he lay in the tomb, so
desperate was the enmity which was "put" between him and the Son of
God! Nay, even now, when Satan sees the Seed of the woman sitting at
the right hand of God, and, according to the old proverb, "out of
gun-shot," he vents his fury in every possible way against his Church
and the poor helpless members of his body. Of all these sufferings and
perils the clauses of the divine passage now before us were
prophecies. From these same words nevertheless, in meditating upon
which we ought to employ our whole souls, we derive a confidence in
the Son of God, that he will bruise Satan utterly.
But to return to the text. This promise, as I have already said, is at
the same time most clear and yet most obscure. For since God, as I
have also observed, here uses the expression, "The seed of the woman"
generally, he does it that he might cause all women alike to be
suspected by Satan, and that he might thus rack the serpent with
perpetual suspense and dread. The expression therefore is a wonderful
_synecdoche_, "condensation of instruction." It bears a general
reference to all individual women, and yet contains a direct reference
to one individual woman only, to Mary and to her Seed, who was to
become a mother without any intercourse with the male sex. For God, I
repeat, thus willed all women to be suspected by Satan, while on the
other hand he willed that a most sure hope should be left to the
godly, which should lead them to expect this salvation from all
parents until in the fullness of time the true mother should be
revealed. As therefore the first clause of the passage, "I will put
enmity between thee and the woman," refers to all women in general; so
this second clause, "her Seed" refers, with a special individually, if
I may so express myself, to that seed which should be born of Mary, of
the tribe of Judah, who was espoused unto Joseph.
This text therefore contains that glorious promise which revived Adam
and Eve and raised them again from death unto that life, which they
had lost by their sin; though the life to which they were thus raised
again was rather a life hoped for than a life possessed; as Paul also
frequently speaks when he uses the language, "We die daily." For
although we do not wish to call the life which we live here death, yet
it is in truth nothing more or less than a continual living on to
death. For as he who is infected with a pestilential and fatal disease
begins to die from the moment of his infection; so from the moment
this life of ours is infected by sin, it can no longer properly be
called life on account of that sin and death, its sure punishment. For
we begin to die even from our mother's womb.
But by baptism we are restored to the life of hope, or rather to the
hope of life. For this is the true life, which we live, before God, in
our renewed state. Before we come unto that life, we are in the midst
of death. We are ever dying and rotting on the earth like other
carcasses are; as if there were no life at all in us. But we who
believe in Christ possess a hope that we shall be raised again at the
last day unto the life eternal. It was in this manner also that Adam
was raised again from his state of death by sin through this promise,
thus spoken by the Lord. Not that he was raised to a perfect life; for
he did not as yet regain that life which he had lost. But he conceived
in his soul a hope of that perfect life, when he heard that the
tyranny of Satan was thus to be bruised and destroyed.
Under the divine mind and promise, declared in this text therefore, is
included redemption from the law, from sin and from death. And by the
same text is set forth the plain and certain hope of resurrection from
the dead, and of being called into another life after the present. For
if the "head" of the serpent is to be destroyed, most certainly death
is to be destroyed also; and if death is to be destroyed, with equal
certainty that which deserveth death, namely, sin, is also to be
abolished. And if sin is to be abolished, so also is the law; and not
only so, but that obedience which was lost is to be restored. And as
all these things are promised through this Seed of the woman, it is
perfectly manifest, as a natural consequence, that human nature since
the fall can neither take away sin by any powers of its own nor escape
death, the just punishment of sin, nor regain the obedience to God,
which it has lost by the sin of the fall. For all these things require
a greater power, a mightier strength than is possessed by man.
Hence it was absolutely necessary that the Son of God should become a
victim or sacrifice for us, that by the offering of himself he might
accomplish all these things for us; that he might take away sin,
swallow up death and restore unto us the obedience which we had lost.
All these treasures therefore we do possess in Christ, but in hope.
Thus Adam, and thus Eve, lived and conquered by this hope. And in the
same manner all believers live and conquer, by the same hope, and will
so live and conquer until the last day. Death is indeed a horrible and
invincible tyrant; but the divine power thus makes that, which is in
all things horrible, nothing; just as the same power of God made out
of that which was nothing all things. For only behold Adam and Eve.
They were filled with sins and with death. But as soon as they heard
the divine promise concerning the Seed of the woman, which should
bruise the serpent's "head," they were comforted by the same hope
which comforts us, that death shall be destroyed, and sin shall be
abolished, and that righteousness and life and peace shall be
restored. In this hope did our first parents live and die, and on
account of that hope they were truly holy and righteous.
In the same hope do we also live. And when we come to die, we hold
fast this hope of eternal life for Christ's sake, which hope the Word
always sets before us, while it commands us to trust in the merits of
Christ. But in vain do we expect to attain unto that perfection in
this life, that we should be altogether righteous, that we should love
God perfectly and that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. We do
indeed begin and make progress, but sin which is in our members ever
wars against us and is ever present; so that it ever mars or
altogether prevents this our obedience.
As therefore this life of ours, on account of the death within us and
before us, may truly be called a death; so righteousness is altogether
buried under our sins. It is in hope therefore alone that we hold fast
life and righteousness, as things altogether hidden from our sight,
but which will be revealed in their time. Meanwhile our life is a life
in the midst of death; and yet, in the midst of this death, we hold
fast the hope of life by the teaching, commanding and promising Spirit
of God. This consolation is blessedly set forth in, Ps. 68:2, "He that
is our God is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the
issues from death." For we ascribe to our God the great glory that he
not only helps us in this temporal life, as the devil sometimes stands
by his worshippers, as is manifest from numberless examples among the
heathen; but the glory which belongs to our God, is that "to the Lord
our God belong the issues from death;" that he delivers from death
those who are oppressed thereby on account of their sins and
translates them into eternal life, Col. 1:13. And our God does this as
Moses here teaches us by crushing the "head" of the serpent.
In this part of the divine history of Moses therefore we have Adam and
Eve restored, not indeed perfectly into that life which they had lost,
but into the hope of that life, by which hope they have escaped, not
indeed the first taste of that death, but the whole eternal substance
of it. That is, although their flesh was sentenced to suffer and was
compelled to suffer a temporal or momentary taste of death, yet, on
account of the promised Son of God, who should crush the head of the
devil, they hoped for a resurrection of the flesh and a life eternal
after the temporal death of the flesh, which hope we also have.
Next follows the other part of this divine speech, in which God first
threatens her temporal punishment to the woman and then to the man his
temporal punishment also.