The Protoevangelium

Since this blog is about prophecy in the Bible I wanted to do a series about the Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah and the New Testament fulfillment of those prophecies. There are more than three hundred different prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the coming Messiah that were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The Old Testement is a record of the promises of God concerning the Messiah and the New Testement is  a record of their fulfillment in Jesus. The chance of all the Old Testement prophecies being fulfilled in one man is 84 followed by 131 zeroes. There is no way that Jesus would be able to fulfill these prophecies by chance, this was God's plan and it was carried out to His letter. 

Today I would like to start with the very first verse in the Bible that concerns the Messianic prophecy.This is called the protoevangelium, or  first gospel.

And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”

Genesis 3:15

In the Bible, when the seed, or offspring are being discussed, it is always the man's seed. This verse is the one exception to that rule. There is only one man, Jesus, that is born of a woman without a man's seed. 

 ¹⁶ Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,”^[i] who is Christ. Galatians 3:16

In Genesis, God is predicting that Satan will be able to inflict temporary pain and suffering, but ultimately, Jesus will triumph. "He shall bruise your head" is a mortal wound, Satan will be defeated when Jesus dies for our sins. This is the ultimate triumph over Satan, we are saved because of the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross.

¹⁴ Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— ¹⁵ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.¹⁶ For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. ¹⁷ For this reason he had to be made like them,^[k] fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.  Hebrews 2:14-18