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And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel." (Gen.3:15)

We have mentioned in passing the sin of Israel's oldest sons — a negative outcome of associating with the people of the land of Canaan. And we have expressed our view that, though never stated in the Bible, it was for the purpose of preventing further spreading of sin to all the sons of Israel that God brought the tribe of Israel to the land of Egypt for a time, a protected place.

Genesis 3: In the passage of Genesis 3, we see the narrative of the Fall of Man, how Eve was deceived by the serpent to disobey God's single command, and Adam's transgression without the need for Satan's persuasion. As God judges each in turn, He has special words concerning the future of the serpent. There is mention of the ’seed of the woman,’ meaning at that point unclear, though highly irregular from the understanding of the Jewish people of Old Testament times. At that time, the lineage was always reckoned from the male, not the female.

Also, it was understood that the serpent was in fact the fallen angel Satan. This would indicate that the 'seed of the woman’ would ultimately destroy Satan, a remarkable feat as Satan was recognized to be supernatural in origin. In this way, the 'seed of the woman’ as indicated here must consequently also have supernatural powers. But from whence he would come, there is no indication here, except that He would be a 'seed of the woman,’ that is, mortal. There is no indication as yet in the narrative as to what would be His earthly lineage. This would turn out to be the long-awaited Messiah, the Son of God, who would come to rescue the Jewish people. (For a further indication of how He would come, see endnote 1. )

Genesis 12. The next clue we have as to Messiah’s lineage is God’s call to Abram, later to become Abraham.

Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you;

And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing;

And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Gen 12:1-3)

God promises Abram to become a great nation, that he would have a great name, and also concerning the blessings. And at the end of verse 3 is a remarkable promise. The reference is to the Gentile peoples who would be blessed, even though Abram, later called Abraham, was reckoned as the first Hebrew, the father of the Hebrew nation!

Genesis 28. Later in Genesis appears the land promise, and passing of the covenant not through Ishmael, Abram’s son through the maid Hagar, but through Isaac and Jacob. For at Bethel, God appears to Jacob and promises,

And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants.

"Your descendants shall also be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

"And behold, I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." (Gen.28:13-15)

Here, once again, the same language appears, that 'in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ Thus, the Gentile nations would be blessed through Jacob, later renamed Israel, and through his descendants. It is not clear to this point what form that blessing might take. However, the blessing would last through all of Israel’s descendants, consequently extending over a very long timespan.

Nevertheless, there is the hint that the blessing that God has promised would be none other than the Messiah, who would crush the head of the serpent, that is, would ultimately slay Satan. That being the case, we have learned by Genesis 28 that the earthly lineage of Messiah would be through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, namely though one of Jacob’s offspring.

Genesis 34-35, 37. It was essential that the 'seed of the woman,’ as yet carried in the loins of one of the sons of Jacob, not be corrupted. Yet by the time of Genesis 34-35 and 37, Jacob’s four oldest sons had already been caught in major sin.(2,3) And so it was necessary to transport the tribe of Israel away from that corrupting place, the land of Canaan, until they could grow to be a powerful nation. [And certainly in God’s plan, on their way back to Canaan from Egypt, God would instruct them in special ways. — But that’s another story.]

Genesis 49. Apparently following Joseph’s meeting with Pharaoh of Egypt and the subsequent gathering of the tribe of Israel into Egypt, the seed of the woman was now secure and God’s plan was set. For we read Jacob’s benediction just before his death in Egypt:

"The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples." (Gen.49:10)

Thus it would be from the descendants of Jacob’s son Judah that a king would come. (We would learn later that king would be David.) But more than that, the reign of the king’s house would continue until Shiloh comes. Some take the meaning of 'shiloh’ from the modern Hebrew of the possessive pronoun 'his’, meaning in this case 'He to whom it belongs,’ while others are not certain. There is general agreement, however that 'Shiloh’ represents Messiah.

Thus Messiah was prophesied by Jacob to come through the line of Judah. Also, Messiah would be a blessing not merely to the Jewish people, to whom he would be related through His earthly genealogy, but would also be a blessing to the 'peoples,’ that is, the Gentile nations, that He would rule over the Gentiles as well as the Jewish people.

It is for these reasons we conclude that t

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here was a special reason why God transferred the tribe of Israel to Egypt for a time, namely to protect the 'seed of the woman,’ who ultimately is destined to crush the head of Satan.

End Notes:

1 A further indication of how He would come, appears much later in the writings of the Prophet Isaiah.

In an encounter with the evil king Ahaz of the southern kingdom. God instructed Isaiah to go with Isaiah's own son to meet Ahaz to reassure him of God's protection for His people against Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel (northern kingdom). But when Isaiah allows King Ahaz himself to define the sign that God would send to assure their safety, Ahaz refuses. (For further information about the northern and southern kingdoms, see Event 7.)

In response, Isaiah at the Lord's command gives not one but two prophecies. The second (verses 15 & 16 below) for the short term deals with the immediate situation, in a prophecy which includes Isaiah's own son. And using the successful outcome of this second short-term prophecy as his authority, Isaiah gives also a longer term prophecy (verse 14) concerning the coming of Messiah.

His remarkable birth and the name that would be given to this Son born of a virgin, namely Immanuel or 'God among us,' confirm what we have suspected, namely His divine supernatural origin.

"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.

"He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good.

"For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.'' (Isaiah 7:14-16)

2 The sins of Israel's four oldest sons are as follows.

Simeon & Levi: After Shechem son of Hamor raped Israel's daughter Dinah, Israel's sons contrived to have Hamor's sons circumcised. While Hamor's sons were still in pain, Simeon and Levi slew all the males of Hamor's tribe, including Hamor. The sin of Simeon and Levi was that, though Shechem alone had sinned and ought to be punished, Simeon and Levi slew all the males of the tribe of Hamor, recalling Lamech's 'seventy times seven.' (See Genesis 4:23-24.)

Reuben: While Israel was living in a remote place, his son Reuben slept with Israel's concubine Bilhah (Genesis 35:22).

Judah: Judah had three sons, two of whom later died. In the case of Tamar, Judah's first son's wife, the levirate law of marriage applied, that the husband's descendants should continue through marriage to the husband's brother. But Judah refused to give his third son in marriage because of his son's youth. Consequently, Tamar lured Judah into sleeping with her, disguised as a temple prostitute. Later, when she was found with child, Judah sought to put Tamar to death. But Tamar produced proof that Judah himself was the father, to which Judah replied, "She is more righteous than I, in that I did not give her to my youngest son" (Genesis 38).

3 In connection with the sin of Judah, it is worthwhile to note that of Tamar's two sons, Perez and Serah, it was Perez who carried the 'seed of the woman.'

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