Advent | A Family ReflectionSample

A Declaration of War
by Russell Moore 

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.

Genesis 3:15

What happened with Mary, as she listened to this angelic visitor, was prophesied a long time before. In a Garden somewhere in an unknown location there was another woman standing with her husband after they had eaten of a fruit and rebelled against the God who created them. A word came not to them but to another angel, a rebel angel, a snake—Satan. The word came to this devil from God that the day was coming when the offspring of the woman “will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen. 3:15). 

The Virgin Birth is not simply a sweet Christmas story. The Virgin Birth is not a comforting idea. The Virgin Birth is scary, because if we understand what is going on here, we will see that in the uterus of this little Nazarene virgin girl, God is declaring war.

When Mary finds out she’s pregnant, the satanic powers go into overdrive. Later they try to tempt her son. They try to destroy him. Ultimately, he is led by his friends and countrymen toward an execution stake where he will suffer the entire curse of death and agony—but even in that, especially in that, he is turning back the snake’s power.

God is saying to you exactly what God said in the Virgin Birth to the entire human race: You cannot fix this. Give up and find the freedom that comes in this infant who will grow up to be crucified and raised from the dead. Perhaps what all of us need this holiday season is to cry out with gratitude to a God who fought our Enemy for us. Perhaps we need to say, “All I want for Christmas is a crushed snake skull.” That’s the gospel.

Consider Genesis 3 alongside Luke 1:26–38. How does the prophecy in Genesis 3:15 deepen your reading of the angel’s announcement to Mary?

Russell Moore is the president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.