In my previous post, we observed the sin and brokenness that entered the world when Adam and Eve sinned against God by eating from the forbidden tree. However, we also noted that God continued working after the Fall in and through dysfunctional families to accomplish his purposes. In this chapter we will look at how God continued working through those families.

After the events of Genesis 3, God still intended to fill the earth with image bearers who reflected his glory and enjoyed relating to him. That is why he gave the command to be fruitful and multiple again after the Fall. And God would fulfill this plan, even in a world broken by sin, by making promises that would be fulfilled through the gift of children; promises that he would keep from generation to generation until the ultimate gift of his Son.

These promises are the bedrock of the Bible. Without them, there’s no redemptive storyline, no Savior, no salvation. But with them, the glory and perfection of Eden that was lost can be found again. God’s original purpose for mankind can be restored. A new heaven and a new earth can be inaugurated. Thank God for these promises! Let’s look at each of them in turn.

God’s Promise to Crush Satan (Genesis 3:15)

God’s first promise is embedded in the same infamous chapter in which sin enters the world. When God confronts Adam and Eve, he pronounces a curse upon the serpent for deceiving them, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen 3:15). Here we see a battle that will take place throughout the rest of the Bible: the offspring of the serpent vs. the offspring of the woman. This does not mean that the offspring of the woman will always be righteous, however, but that from generation to generation, God will have a people, and those people will have to continually wage spiritual warfare against the serpent and his minions.

The ultimate offspring promised in Genesis 3:15 is Jesus. He is the perfect righteous one, the seed of the woman who stands at enmity with the serpent himself. The verse contains two interesting lines that describe their enmity. The serpent will “bruise the heel” of the woman’s offspring, but he will “bruise your head.” Some sort of battle will occur where the serpent inflicts a minor injury on the Eve’s offspring (i.e. his heel), but where he bruises (or crushes- NIV) the serpent’s head. In other words, the serpent will strike and injure the promised offspring, but the injured offspring will deal the death blow to the serpent.

This verse is fulfilled in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Though Satan “bruised his heel” through the religious leaders and Romans that crucified Jesus, Jesus crushed the head of Satan, dealing the victorious blow to mankind’s foe. When speaking of Jesus’ work on the cross, Paul writes, “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (Col 2:15).

When speaking of rulers and authorities, Paul includes both the earthly rulers and authorities but also the spiritual ones behind them. And who are the spiritual authorities that Jesus puts to open shame and triumphs over, if not the serpent and his offspring? Indeed, he leads his people “in triumphal procession” over them, because he has rescued us from the their kingdom of the darkness and brought us into his kingdom of light (2 Cor 2:14; Col 1:13). He has crushed the head of the serpent and the heads of his offspring, and will continue to rescue his people from Satan’s rule until the day when final victory comes (Rev 12:7-12).

God’s Promise to Bless the Nations

The story of redemption has been revealed: the offspring of the woman will battle against the offspring of the serpent until one day the offspring crushes the serpent and ends the battle. This story begins with God making a promise regarding Eve’s offspring. And this story continues to unfold with God making similar promises concerning offspring to his people.

The next promise comes in Genesis 12:1-3, when God calls a man named Abram to leave his country and follow wherever God leads him. God says to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:1-3).

There’s a couple of important things to note about this promise. First, God calls Abram to trust and follow him. He calls Abram to leave what he knows, his family and his land, and to follow God into the unknown.

Next, God promises to make Abram into a great nation, to make his name great, and to make him a blessing. Furthermore, anyone who blesses him will be blessed, and anyone who dishonors him will be cursed. But here’s the heart of the promise, “and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” God promises to bless all the families of the earth through Abram. How will he accomplish that? In the same way he will accomplish the final victory over the serpent, through offspring.

This is clearly what Abram expected (offspring), because he begins to question why he doesn’t have any children yet in Genesis 15. God reiterates his promise to Abram in Genesis 15:1, “your reward shall be very great.” But Abram says, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” Abram understood the fulfillment of God’s promise to come through children, and yet he has none. He presses further, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir” (Gen 15:3).

God proceeds to tell Abram that his own son will be his heir, not a servant from his household. He takes him outside to view the night sky and promises him that his offspring will be as numerous as the stars. And we are told that Abram believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness (Gen 15:5-6).

Abram trusted that God would keep his promise. I think both in the immediate sense and in the future sense. He believed God would give him a son (immediate). But in some way, he believed that God would keep his promise in the future as well, long after Abram was gone (future).  I think faith is what Jesus referred to when he said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day” (John 8:56).

Many recorded promises in the Old Testament have immediate fulfillment followed by future fulfillment. The immediate fulfillment is partial, and the future fulfillment is complete. In this case, God fulfills his promise to Abram through the gift of his son, Isaac. God reiterates the promise to Isaac (Gen 26:2-5) and then to Isaac’s son, Jacob (Gen 28:3-4). Jacob’s descendants become the nation of Israel, who for a time, inherits the land promised and blesses the surrounding nations (see 1 Kings 10:24, for example). Yet all of this is only partial fulfillment.

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul sees Jesus as the final fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. He says that God “preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham” by saying “in you shall all the nations be blessed” (Gal 3:8). God preached the gospel to Abraham when he made him this promise. How can Paul say that? Because the promise centered upon Christ, who would bring ultimate blessing to the nations. That’s why Paul writes that the blessing of Abraham comes to the Gentiles in Christ (Gal 3:14).

In other words, Paul sees Jesus as the offspring promised to Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed. He writes, “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘and to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘and to your offspring,’ who is Christ’” (Gal 3:16).[1]

He then recognizes all who trust in Christ as Abraham’s offspring, “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal 3:29). Thus, the final fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham will be when all of those in Christ gather around the throne from every tribe, tongue, and nation to worship the Lamb (Rev 7:9-10).

Our goal as parents, church members, and extended family members is this: to raise children who trust Christ and become offspring of Abraham, who will gather with the redeemed from every tribe, tongue, and nation in eternal worship before Jesus. And we pursue this just like Abraham did, by faith, trusting that God, by his Spirit, will complete his work in us and in our families (Gal 3:14).

God’s Promise to Rule Over the Earth

If we fast forward in the biblical narrative to the nation of Israel, we find God making another promise concerning offspring to King David. David was a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam 13:14). He was by no means perfect, but trusted the Lord and followed him. His reign included some of the best days in Israel’s history.

In 2 Samuel 7, God promises David that he will establish his throne forever. How will he do that? You might guess….through offspring! Notice how similar God’s promise sounds to the promise he made to Abraham, “I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the great ones of the earth” (2 Sam 7:9).

God tells also David that he will make him a house. A legacy. A heritage. That will be great. “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (2 Sam 7:12-13). God concludes his promise with these words, “your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam 7:16). Notice the repeated word: forever.

God’s promise is partially fulfilled when David’s son, Solomon, takes the throne and builds a temple to worship God (1 Kings 6). Solomon famously asks God for wisdom, which God grants, and leads Israel into her glory days. People begin coming from all nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon (1 Kings 4:34). David’s house was flourishing and blessing the nations (also partial fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham).

Here I’d like to stop and consider that either David or Solomon wrote the words we read earlier in Psalm 127, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” (Ps 127:3-4).

I think it is certainly possible that David wrote the Psalm, considering the first verse, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Ps 127:1). David wanted to build God a house, but God promised David that he would make him a house instead through his offspring, and that’s exactly what God did.

The heart of God’s promise to David was this: that a member of David’s house will always rule and lead God’s people. It was immediately fulfilled in Solomon, but unfortunately the nation of Israel began to fracture. The nation divided into two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Judah continued the line of David all the way to King Zedekiah, whose reign ends around 586/587 BC when Judah is conquered and exiled by the Babylonians.

For several centuries, there was no offspring of David on the throne. Did God forget his promise? Of course not. But what about the offspring who would rule forever? As you might guess, the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise to David was fulfilled in Jesus, who was born of the lineage of David and who would rule forever (Matt 1:5-7).

Peter clearly understood Jesus to be the fulfillment of God’s promise to David. When he preaches after Pentecost, he declares that David “knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne” (Acts 2:30). Peter says that David, “seeing what was to come,” spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah when he wrote Psalm 16:8, “you will not let your holy one see corruption” (Acts 2:27-31).

Peter preaches the resurrected Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s promise to David. “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:36). He concludes with these words, “repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).

Jesus is the offspring promised to David who, by his death and resurrection, has become King. In Revelation 11, the voices of heaven proclaim, “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” (Rev 11:15).[2] The invitation is extended for anyone to become a citizen of his kingdom. He promises to receive anyone who comes to him by faith. “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off” (Acts 2:39).

God’s Promise to Save His People

The final child-focused promise of redemption that we will consider is found in the book of Isaiah. It is given during the years of the divided kingdom of Israel, and is addressed to the nation of Judah. Isaiah delivers the prophetic promise to King Ahaz himself when the kingdoms of Israel and Syria came up to wage war against Judah.

The chapter begins with God declaring that he will not allow Israel and Syria’s attack to prosper and calling the people of Judah to faith (Isa 7:1-9). God invites Ahaz to ask him for a sign that he will protect them against the ensuing attack. Ahaz refuses to ask, citing a reluctance to put God to the test.

God gives Ahaz a sign through Isaiah anyways. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isa 7:14). The sign that God will save his people is…a virgin conceiving and bearing a son. Should that be a surprise? No! This is more offspring language, and this promise includes both the offspring and the mother, which is uniquely reminiscent of Genesis 3:15. The son’s birth will a sign to Judah that God is still with them and will defeat their enemies (the meaning of Immanuel). In other words, he hasn’t left, and is still keeping his promises.

However, as can be seen in the other promises, there is immediate and future fulfillment. The immediate fulfillment in this context isn’t crystal clear. The Hebrew word translated virgin can also mean “young woman,” likely referring to a real woman in Isaiah’s day, whether on the royal court or possibly even his own wife (Isa 8:3). Either way, there was a literal woman who soon had a son (she was likely already pregnant) that was the sign of God’s presence with his people.

The New Testament, however, is crystal clear with regards to the later and final fulfillment of this promise. When Matthew records the birth narrative of Jesus, including the facts of Mary’s virginity (Matt 1:25), he writes, “All of this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us.)” (Matt 1:22-23).

The birth of this child was proof that God had not abandoned his people or his promises and that the enemies of God’s people would not prevail. This child was no ordinary child. Somehow he was living proof that God was with his people and would crush their enemies. Somehow he would save his people from their sins (Matt 1:21). And somehow he would redeem all that had been lost. He was the fulfillment of everything prophesied in the Old Testament. He was the child, the son, the offspring promised, who would crush the serpent, bless the nations, and rule forever. And they called his name Jesus (Matt 1:25).

The Blessing of Children

Why should we consider these promises regarding offspring throughout Israel’s history? Because they highlight what we learned in the first chapter: children are a blessing. God made and fulfilled his promise to bless all the families of the earth through the gift of children. He gave his people offspring, a continuous lineage of parents and children that eventually led to the birth of his own Son, Jesus.

Without these promises, without families, without children, we would not have Jesus. We would not have hope. But children bring hope for the future. Especially the Christ-child, the fulfillment of promise, who brings eternal hope for God’s people! The role of parents is to continue raising children in the hope of these promises, trusting that God will continue to use them and their offspring to bring the blessing of his Son to the nations.

Application

1. Marvel at God’s plan of redemption from Genesis to Revelation.
2. See Christ as the fulfillment of the promises regarding offspring and blessing the nations.
3. Trust that God is still keeping and fulfilling his promises today in and through our families as we follow Christ.
4. Remember that children are a blessing, and thank God for sending us the greatest blessing of, his Son!

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[1] Emphasis added.

[2] Emphasis added.