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In my last blog article, I focused on the way that Genesis 3:15 anticipates and foreshadows the coming of a Messiah, generally, and how it was specifically fulfilled in the virgin birth of Jesus. Not only that, but it introduces a thread in Scripture (the elevation of women) at the very beginning that runs through the entire Bible.

That the Bible uniquely elevates the stature of women despite the distinctly male dominated history of mankind should be noted. That this thread is embedded in the earliest biblical texts despite the ancient, backwards culture of the time speaks to a creator God who is able to influence the course of history even when people have a tendency to go their own ways.

I am constantly amazed how many hidden threads are woven into the great tapestry that is the Bible. I see new ones all the time, and I am going to highlight another thread in this article that I see in Genesis 3:15. In fact, I only noticed it as I was writing the last blog.

Genesis 3:15 reads as follows:

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

In the last article I focused on the woman’s (Eve’s) offspring (seed) as a foreshadowing of the virgin birth. In this article, I will focus back on the second half of God’s statement to the serpent: “he [the woman’s offspring] will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

In my contemplation of the prophetic quality of this verse for the last article, I was drawn to Isaiah 53, which is (perhaps) the clearest prophetic passage anticipating and foreshadowing Jesus in all of the Old Testament:

• 2 – “He grew up before him like a tender shoot”;
• 3 – “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain…., and we held him in low esteem;
• 4 – Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted”;
• 5 – “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed”;
• 6 – “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all”
• 7 – “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth”; and
• 8 – “By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished”;
• 9 – “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth”;
• 10 – “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of he Lord will prosper in his hand”
• 11 – “After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities”; and
• 12 – “Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors”.

In reading through this passage again, I noticed multiple uses of the word “crush”. The Hebrew word, דָּכָא, (daka), found in Isaiah 53:5 and 53:10, is the same Hebrew word used in Genesis 3:15. It means, literally, “to crush” in English. It can also mean, figurately, to oppress (and it can mean contrite of heart for those who “are crushed”).

The appearance of the same word in both passages caught me eye. What are the odds of that? The imagery, however, is confusing.

Genesis 3 says that the offspring of the woman will crush the serpent. Whereas, Isaiah 53 says that God will cause the crushing and “cause him [the suffering servant] to suffer” as an “offering for sin”.

On the one hand, God will crush the suffering servant as an offering for sin (Isaiah), and on the other hand the woman’s offspring will crush the head of the serpent. (Genesis) These verses seem to describe very different things, but the very particular use of the same word in both passages is cause for further consideration.

I am reminded that Jewish scholars in the 1st Century did not expect a Messiah like Jesus. They expected a Messiah who would crush the head of the serpent. They expected a Messiah in the line of David who would ascend to David’s throne and rule Israel again against all comers.

They didn’t expect a Messiah who was like the suffering servant in Isaiah. Jewish scholars still don’t know what to do with Isaiah 53 today. My Jewish professor in college tried to make a case for Israel as the suffering servant. Jewish people have certainly suffered very long and very publicly throughout the centuries, but it doesn’t quite fit.

How does Israel “justify many” and bear the iniquities of mankind? (53:11) when Isaiah says, “he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors” (53:12a), Isaiah is not speaking collectively, unless we want to ignore the pronouns. When Isaiah says, “he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (53:12b), Isaiah seems to be talking very specifically about an individual – one who seems very much like Jesus.

Perhaps, though, the language is the clue. The word raka (crush) takes us back to Genesis 3:15. Isaiah 53 is clearly messianic in its character. It begins with the question:

“Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

Isaiah 53:1

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Following the opening question, Isaiah 53 reveals why people would question:

• “He grew up before him like a tender shoot.” (v. 2a) (He would appear weak and vulnerable.)
• “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him.” (v. 2b) (He would not be a natural object of our affection or praise.)
• “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.” (v. 3a) (He would not just be unattractive, he would be repulsive.)
• “Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.” (v. 3b) (He would be the last person on earth, perhaps, that we would ever suspect to be a Messiah.)

It’s no wonder Isaiah begins with the question, “Who has believed our message”?!

Yet, read on to the end of the story: God says,

“Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong”

isaiah 53:12a

This suffering servant will ascend from the depths. God will raised him to prominence. Though he appears to be crushed, the blow is only a strike on the heel! He is crushed (contrite and oppressed), but the pain and suffering do not crush him.

The suffering servant depicted in Isaiah 53 is the Messiah! The suffering servant is the offspring of Eve who will crush the serpent’s head. The suffering servant – the Messiah – is Jesus.

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“He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”

john 1:10-11

I am reminded that the serpent in the garden was a cunning creature. When God told the serpent that Eve’s offspring would crush its head, God might have given away His plans if it was couched in language the serpent would understand.

More specifically, the prophetic word of God to the serpent was couched in language the serpent might think it understood! A cunning serpent would naturally think that a Messiah should be strong, powerful, attractive, popular – a celebrity king!

But, that isn’t how it went down. The clues are in the text, though it isn’t plainly evident to anyone who trusts in earthly power and might. “Might makes right” in the kingdoms of this world, but the wisdom of God is foolishness to the world.

Isaiah 53 is clearly messianic, but the pattern doesn’t fit a might-makes-right way of looking at the world. This was the hard lesson that the nation of Israel never really learned well. Most Jewish leaders in the 1st Century still assumed the Messiah would be a powerful king that would use force to reestablish the throne of David in the world.

We find clues in Old Testament, however, that this idea is not God’s plan. When the Israelites asked for a king like the other nations, the prophet Samuel tried to discourage them because asking for an earthly king was a rejection of God. (1 Samuel 8:7-8)

The Israelites were not to be like the other nations. They had a unique relationship with God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, but they were continually influenced to be like the nations around them, and that was their downfall.

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We turn that verse into a platitude spoken when a loved one dies, and we miss the real point of that verse when we do that. The real point of that verse might be summed up by Paul this way:

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

1 Corinthians 1:18 NIV

The 1st century Jews were looking for a Messiah who would be an earthly king. When God became man and entered the world, they did not recognize him, because he did not come in the way they expected.

Yet, God wove the clues into the message from the beginning. The Messiah would come from Eve’s seed, apart from Adam, and the Messiah would crush the head of the serpent.

Isaiah depicted the Messiah as a suffering servant, but that did not make sense to anyone who was more attuned to the world than to God. 1st century Jews we’re not thinking of Isaiah 53 when they anticipated a Messiah, but the clues are in the text.

The Messiah would appear to be crushed (Isaiah 55:5 & 10), but he would rise again. (Isaiah 53:12) Using the same word incorporated into the first messianic text in Genesis should have been a clue to those 1st century Jews, but they were not tuned into what God was doing.

We cannot really blame them, however. We are largely the same. Many Christians have been deceived by the idea that a pompous, foul-mouthed, crude man who despises weakness should be their earthly king.

The same question might be asked as poignantly today as it was in Isaiah’s day: “Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (Isaiah 53:1) The answer is that the message has been believed and the arm of the Lord has been revealed to people who are willing and able to receive and understand it.

“Christ crucified [is] a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”

! cCorinthians 1:23-25