ature doubt God's Word. The first
destructive critic who denied that God hath spoken was Satan. Every
man, no matter what learning he may claim, who denies the inspiration
of the Bible, and that the Bible is the revelation and Word of God, is
the mouthpiece of Satan. Emboldened by the woman's answer he said "Ye
shall not surely die," an out and out denial of what God had said; and
then adds the lying promise, "Your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be
as gods." He wanted to be like the Most High, and now he injects his
own character into man. The transgression followed; sin came into the
world and death by sin, the moment God's commandment was disobeyed.
What a sneer and laughter, what a triumphant shout Satan must have
uttered when the deed was done! And with the fall of man he laid hold
again on this earth and became its prince.

Satan's Doom Announced

Then the Lord sought that which was lost, the guilty pair, and
addressed the serpent. The words the Lord then spoke contain the first
prophecy of the Bible. It concerns Satan, how God will deal with him
and his final doom. "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou
shalt bruise his heel" (Gen. iii:15). Without fully explaining this
prophecy, which may well be termed the germ of all subsequent prophecy,
we but point out what it means. From the woman there is to come a
seed, an offspring who is to bruise the head of the serpent (Satan),
that is, overcome the serpent, and that the serpent is to bruise the
heel of the seed of the woman. Furthermore, there is to rage a
conflict between the serpent and the woman and between the serpent's
seed and the seed of the woman. There can be no question whatever that
the seed of the woman means the Son of God in His incarnation. Paul
writes to the Galatians, "But when the fulness of time was come God
sent forth His Son made of a woman" (Gal. iv:4). He is the seed of the
woman, the virgin-born Son of God. His death is mentioned in this
first prophecy as the bruising of His heel. Then the final victory
over Satan and his final doom, his head is to be bruised. And till
that is accomplished there is to be conflict between the seed of the
woman and the seed of the serpent, a conflict between those who side
with God, believe on and wait for the promised One, and those who side
with Satan and his works. Satan heard then from the lips of Jehovah