Why Step on Snakes?
“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.” Genesis 3:15.
Why is the Bible so preoccupied with stepping on snakes? The simple answer is that the authors of the Bible were also readers of the Bible. They read previous Scripture, believed in God’s promises, interpreted their lives according to the promises of the Bible, and wrote further parts of Scripture in such a way as to demonstrate their faith in God and to encourage others to interpret their lives along the promise-shaped patterns of the images of Scripture. They saw their world through the eyes of faith. And it all began with the promise that there would one day be a son born of the woman who would step on a snake.
If the Bible is all one, big story, then we can expect unity. In this devotional, we track how the skull-crushing seed of the woman would be a part of the line of Abraham. As the story progresses, we discover stories of skull-crushing appearing in surprising places.
Abraham was told that his lineage would contain kings. Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, prophesied that his son Judah would have the scepter of kingship (Gen 49:10). Balaam, when looking out upon the masses of Israel, prophesied of a king: “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not close at hand. A star will march forth out of Jacob, and a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the skulls of Moab, and the heads of all the sons of Sheth.” (Num 24:17, NET). The seed of Judah will be a king who will crush skulls.
God is intentionally crossing the threads of this story, showing how these parts are all woven together, and a clearer picture of the tapestry is coming into view: the seed of the woman is also the seed of Abraham, who is also a seed from the line of Judah, who will be a king and crush the heads of his enemies, giving rest to the people of God.
Two Sides in the Conflict
Scripture shows us that there are two types of people in the world: those who are of the seed of the woman and those who are of the seed of the serpent. These two seeds are at war with each other, and all people are either one or the other. Throughout Scripture, we consistently see that those who are aligned with the serpent will be crushed.
For example, we read in Judges 4, “Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and placed a hammer in her hand and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground; for he was sound asleep and exhausted. So he died” (Judges 4:21). An enemy to the people of God had his head crushed. The book of Judges later memorializes this action in poetic celebration, combining together themes of skull-crushing and being placed under one’s feet in victory: “She sent forth her hand for the tent peg, and her right hand for the workmen’s hammer. Then she beat Sisera; she smashed his head, and she crushed and pierced his temple. Between her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay; between her feet he bowed, he fell” (Judges 5:26). The enemies of God’s people will be crushed and fall beneath the feet.
However, not all those who are of the seed of the serpent are foreigners. The warfare against the woman’s seed is spiritual and not always national. All those who are opposed to God, whether Jews or Gentiles, are His enemies and therefore are aligned with the serpent. Some are by blood Israelites and yet are enemies of God’s people. For example, in Judges 9 we read, “But a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head, and she smashed his skull” (Judges 9:53). Abimelech was a quasi-warlord in the time of the judges, and he did evil things in the eyes of the Lord, killing God’s people. He proved to be aligned with the serpent and met a serpent’s fate.
David is the Skull-Crushing Seed of the Woman
The imagery of skull-crushing and feet-trampling against the enemies of God becomes clearer through David. The boy from Bethlehem followed in similar patterns to his two skull-crushing predecessors in the book of Judges: “And David sent his hand down into his bag and took from it a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. And the stone sank into his forehead, so that he fell on his face to the ground…Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and put him to death and cut off his head with it. Then the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, so they fled” (1 Sam 17:49, 51). David shattered the head of the enemy of God’s people, beheading Goliath and giving God’s people rest from their enemies.
The books of first and second Samuel begin and end with expectations that the anointed seed of Judah would be the Lord’s warrior to fight against God’s enemies in bone-crushing warfare. The books begin this way: “The Lord shatters his adversaries; he thunders against them from the heavens. The Lord executes judgment to the ends of the earth. He will strengthen his king and exalt the power of his anointed one” (1 Sam 2:10). The anointed king will shatter the enemies of God.
The books conclude this way: “And I have consumed them and crushed them, so that they did not rise; and they fell under my feet…Then I beat them fine as the dust of the earth; I pulverized and stamped them as the mire of the streets” (2 Sam 22:39, 43). David’s song gives us his interpretation of his responsibility as the warrior-king who gives rest to the people of God. He understood his role as the one who would crush God’s enemies under his feet.
Ultimately David’s victory is the victory of the Lord. It is the Lord who will continue to give this victory through the seed of David. The final verse of 2 Samuel says, “He gives great salvation to His king, and shows lovingkindness to His anointed, to David and his seed forever” (2 Sam 22:51). David ended his song with the expectation that the kings of his line will continue to have victory over the enemies of God according to God’s covenant promise to give His people rest from their enemies (2 Sam 7:11).
The Widening Warfare of David’s Line
David continued to interpret the events of his life according to the Bible, and so he wrote in such a way as to highlight within Israel’s history and within his promised kingdom certain connections in Scripture. He did this so that the people of God might also interpret their lives according to the promise-shaped patterns of the imagery of the Bible.
The book of Psalms begins with a twin introduction in Psalms 1 and 2. The opening of the book frames the rest of the songs of Israel according to the warfare between God’s anointed warrior-king and the world which is in rebellion against God and His anointed. “Why do the nations rage and the peoples meditate on a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against Yahweh and against His Anointed… ‘But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.’ I will surely tell of the decree of Yahweh: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like a potter’s vessel’” (Psalm 2:1-9).
Israel’s existence is framed as being in conflict with all those who oppose God and His king. Yet the Lord will have the victory and give to His Son the nations through shattering warfare. They arrogantly oppose the Lord, but His king will break and shatter them as the instrument of God’s judgment. All the ends of the earth will one day be under the dominion of the king of Israel.
The only way to escape God’s judgment is to align oneself with the King of Israel: “So now, O kings, show insight; take warning, O judges of the earth. Serve Yahweh with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!” (2:10-12). The nations are blessed by aligning themselves with the Son. In essence, there is an open offer for them to switch sides from being in league with the serpent to becoming those who are in submission to the Son. It is through the Son that the nations will be blessed.
Elsewhere in the Psalms there is repeated imagery that is used by the authors who interpreted Israel’s life in terms of the skull-crushing warfare between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman and his heel. “I crushed them, so that they were not able to rise; they fell under my feet” (Psalm 18:38). “They have venom like the venom of a serpent; like a deaf cobra that stops up its ear…O God, shatter their teeth in their mouth; break out the fangs of the young lions, O Yahweh…The righteous will be glad when he beholds the vengeance; he will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.” (Psalm 58:4, 6, 10). “Surely God will crush the head of His enemies, the hairy skull of him who goes on in his guilty deeds” (Psalm 68:21).
In one familiar Psalm quoted by the devil in the New Testament, we read of the heel of the one who trusts in the Lord that will be preserved from striking against a stone. But when the Psalm is read in its context, it is curious, to say the least, that Satan, the ancient serpent himself, would quote a Psalm that promises the preservation of the foot that would trample upon the serpent. “For He will command His angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the fierce lion and cobra, the young lion and the serpent you will trample down” (Psalm 91:11-13). God has promised to protect the heel that will trample upon the snake. The devil rightfully, and without any apparent irony or self-awareness, said this Psalm is about Jesus.
World-Wide Dominion of the Anointed Seed
The two Psalms that have the clearest connections within the tapestry that God is weaving about both the lineage and the worldwide, skull-crushing dominion of His Christ are Psalms 72 and 110.
Psalm 72
This Psalm is a prayer of David for his son, Solomon (and for all kings who will come after Solomon). David prays that God’s righteousness may be given to the king and that the seed of David may rule with justice and give peace: “May he give justice to the afflicted of the people, save the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor” (72:4). We see that justice for the afflicted is accomplished by crushing the wicked.
David prays that his son would be given dominion and a kingdom that covers the whole earth: “May he also have dominion from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. Let the desert creatures kneel before him, and his enemies lick the dust…And let all kings bow down to him, all nations serve him” (72:8-11). The worldwide dominion of the son is presented in language reminiscent of Adam having dominion over the earth (Gen 1:28). His enemies are presented as serpents who will lick the dust. All nations will be in submission to the king of Israel. The seed of David is also the seed of the woman who will have Adam-like dominion and subdue the whole earth, with the rebellious, serpent-like nations being conquered.
The outcome of this worldwide rule is reminiscent of the garden of Eden: “May there be abundance of grain in the earth on top of the mountains; may its fruit wave like the cedars of Lebanon; and may those from the city blossom like vegetation of the earth” (72:16). We see that the curse against the land that would cause it to bears thorns and thistles is overcome by the abundance of blessing from the king of Israel’s reign over the earth.
Like rays of light that have now become focused on one point, the promises to Abraham to give him a great name and that “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” are focused now on the son of David: “May his name endure forever; may his name increase as long as the sun shines; let all nations be blessed in him; let all nations call him blessed” (72:17, cf. Gen 12:2-3). David teaches us in Psalm 72 that the fulfillment of Genesis 12 is through his son. And not only will the blessing of Abraham extend to the whole earth through David’s seed, but it is also the expectation of David that through his seed the glory of the Lord will cover the whole earth: “Blessed be Yahweh God, the God of Israel, who alone works wondrous deeds. And blessed be His glorious name forever; and may the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen, and Amen” (72:18-19).
Through Psalm 72 we see that David, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is teaching that these various threads of Scripture have now been revealed as overlapping each other as part of a larger tapestry. The role of Adam to rule and fill the earth, the skull-crushing seed of the woman that would conquer the serpent, the blessing of Abraham to undo the effects of the curse and bless all nations, and the forever-enduring throne of the seed of David are all intertwined in one, grand picture.
Psalm 110
David also prophesied of his son: “Yahweh says to my Lord: ‘Sit at My right hand until I put Your enemies as a footstool for Your feet.’ Yahweh will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying, ‘Have dominion in the midst of Your enemies’” (110:1-2). David’s son is also David’s Lord. The seed of David will be greater than David, being seated at the right hand of Yahweh. God will put all things under the feet of this king of Israel. He will have dominion over his enemies. Again, this language is intentionally reminiscent of Genesis 1-3.
And, surprisingly, this king will also be a priest: “Yahweh has sworn and will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’” (110:4). The priest-king will rule on behalf of the Lord and mediate the presence of the Lord before His people. David continues: “The Lord is at Your right hand; He will crush kings in the day of His anger. He will render justice among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will crush the head that is over the wide earth” (110:4-6). Through Psalm 110 we learn that the king who rules at the right hand of Yahweh will execute God’s justice upon the earth by crushing the heads of the enemies of God and exercising a world-wide dominion.
Yahweh is the Serpent-Crushing Warrior
Not only is the Lord’s chosen king the one who crushes the heads of the wicked, but also the Lord Himself. In several places in the Old Testament Yahweh is the One who assumes the role of the warrior. “In indignation You marched through the earth; In anger You trampled the nations. You went forth for the salvation of Your people, for salvation with Your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked” (Habakkuk 3:12-13). God is pictured as trampling underfoot the wicked nations that are aligned with the serpent, thereby crushing their heads.
Through the eyes of faith, God’s people poetically recast their lives within the unseen cosmic struggle with Satan and his followers. At times the language they used is set within grand, poetic mythology: “Yet God is my King from of old, Who works deeds of salvation in the midst of the earth. You divided the sea by Your strength; You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters. You crushed the heads of Leviathan. (Psalm 74:12-14).
Where does this idea of Leviathan come from? Ultimately, the Psalmist knew that the stories of the surrounding pagan cultures, which contained a fable of an ancient, seven-headed dragon, were in truth the stories of God’s warfare against Satan. In these pagan myths, the Leviathan was a sea creature that symbolized the destructive waters of the sea and, in turn, the forces of chaos that threatened the established created order. [endnote: NET Bible footnote 31 (Psalm 74:14).] The Psalmist knew that the ultimate battle against God’s created order would come from Satan, who is the true and ultimate Leviathan, the ancient snake. Further authors of Scripture also picked up on these themes, and by God’s inspiration, Daniel wrote about a vile beast that emerges from the sea (Daniel 7), and in Revelation 13 there is a seven-headed beast that comes from the sea.
God’s people in Isaiah looked forward to the day when Yahweh would win the final, decisive victory over the ancient dragon: “In that day Yahweh will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, with His fierce and great and mighty sword, even Leviathan the twisted serpent; and He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea” (Isaiah 27:1). The longed-awaited victory of Yahweh over His people’s enemies is depicted as the smashing of an ancient snake: “Wake up! Wake up! Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the Lord! Wake up as in former times, as in antiquity. Did you not smash the Proud One? Did you not wound the sea monster?” (Isaiah 51:9, NET).
The Final Battle
The hope of the Christian is that Jesus Christ, as seed of the woman, seed of Abraham, and seed of David, will have the final victory over sin and the devil, and that one day Christ will have dominion over all things. The Son of God, as both the seed of the woman and as Yahweh Himself, will be the One who will have victory over the ancient serpent and his seed.
The authors of the New Testament understood how Jesus would accomplish all of these things because He was the One who came to earth to fulfill the role of being a new Adam in a new creation. Hebrews 2:8, which quotes Psalm 8, says, “‘You have put all things in subjection under his feet.’ For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.”
The author of the letter to the Hebrews is interpreting Psalm 8 for us. It was God’s good purpose to place all things under the feet of man and to have him rule over the works of His hands. This Psalm says of mankind, “You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet” (Psalm 8:6). But Adam and Eve failed. All of humanity has not been able to place all things under their feet in dominion. So Another has come to succeed where we have failed, One who has the power to rule all things. God Himself became man and came to earth to redeem His own creation.
Ephesians 1:21-22 says that the Father has seated Christ “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church”
First Corinthians 15:24-27 says, “Then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be abolished is death. For He has put all things in subjection under His feet.”
One day Christ will have a world-wide dominion, sin will be defeated, death will be undone, and the ancient dragon will be cast into the lake of fire. The New Testament authors describe that day as when the new Adam will have His enemies under His feet, thereby fulfilling Genesis 3:15.
But until that day we who belong to the seed of the woman are persecuted by the serpent and his seed. The book of Revelation is a powerful reminder of the warfare that Christians must endure before ‘the church militant’ can become ‘the church at rest.’
Dr. Jim Hamilton summarizes the events of Revelation 12 nicely: “The scene in Rev 12 is also surely influenced by Gen 3:15. As a woman is giving birth to her seed (12:1–2), a dragon appears hoping to devour the child (12:3–4). Clearly there is enmity between the seed of the woman and the snake. She gives birth to a male child, who is identified as a scion of David through an allusion to Ps 2, and child and mother are supernaturally protected from the dragon (12:5–6). The dragon is thrown down to earth after a battle in heaven (12:7–12), whereupon he again pursues the woman and her seed (12:13). They again benefit from divine protection (12:14–16), so the dragon leaves off pursuit of the singular seed that he might make war on the rest of the collective seed of the woman—those who obey God and hold to the testimony of Jesus (12:17).” [endnote: James M. Hamilton, “The Skull Crushing Seed of the Woman: Inner-biblical Interpretation of Genesis 3:15,” SBJT 10.2 (Summer 2006), 42.]
Just like how the authors of Scripture interpreted their own lives in light of Scripture, so we too should see our lives within the struggle against the serpent and his seed. Ultimately our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12). Therefore, we take up the armor of God and fight against the schemes of the devil. But we know the victory is secured. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, and we too, as His Body, share in His victory.
Therefore, as those who are one with Christ, we can take up fresh courage and remember Romans 16:20 - “And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”