Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“I will put hostility between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will bruise your head,
    and you will bruise his heel.””
Genesis 3:15

This is the second individual involved in this and the second that God is pronouncing a curse on: the devil. The fallen angel that is the ONLY being in existence who rebelled against God without being tempted. He is the INSTIGATOR. Why didn’t he at this point get tossed into the Lake of Fire that was created for him and his angels (the ones who fell with him, after being tempted by him – Matthew 25:41)? Because he had taken up the authority of humanity (symbolized by the keys to death and Hades – Revelation 1:18). They gave him the authority they should have kept – the lease on the Earth, as it were. The devil was now holding it (2 Corinthians 4:4) instead of the humans who were created to hold it (Psalm 82:6). Legally, the devil now had a right to be here. Instead of being unjust, God cursed him. God set into motion the Messiah plan that had been spiritually put into place before creation (Revelation 13:8). The offspring of the woman (redeeming her of her deception by mothering Messiah – 1 Timothy 2:15) would deliver a fatal blow to the devil (John 19:30) who would merely be able to bruise (Isaiah 53:5).

Jesus fulfilled this prophesy in part. But Romans 16:20 speaks of the crushing of the devil under the foot of Jesus in the future as well, possibly referring to the events of Revelation 20:10 “The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are also. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.“

In addition to the spiritual aspects of this curse, the sage Steinsaltz also points out the physical aspect of it: ‘God declared an additional punishment: I will place enmity between you and the woman, and between your descendants and her descendants. If, for whatever reason, you sought to establish a connection with the woman, your efforts will be unsuccessful. Henceforth, an irrational hatred will prevail between you and the woman, and between your descendants and hers. This hatred will be expressed by the fact that he shall strike your head, and you shall strike his heel.‘ There has been nothing but strife between the godly and the ungodly throughout history. Also, the chosen people of God (the Jewish people AND the Jewish nation of Israel) have been the targets of almost everyone on the planet and continue to be the targets. From the outside it seems that even when attacked, they defend themselves, and are accused of horrible behaviour in conflicts they didn’t start. People engage in protests against them while chanting catchy chants that LITERALLY call for the extinction of the Jews off the Earth (though most people don’t realise their chants are genocidal). Even if you don’t agree with everything Israel has done or is doing, you cannot argue that they are not and have not been unfairly and disproportionally targeted for systematic and fanatic persecution.