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establishment could only follow after the covenant idea had been developed in history. At the
same time Gen. 3:15 certainly contains a revelation of the essence of the covenant. The
following points should be noted:
a. By putting enmity between the serpent and the woman God establishes a relation, as He
always does in making a covenant. The fall brought man in league with Satan, but God breaks
that newly formed alliance by turning man’s friendship with Satan into enmity and re-
establishing man in friendship with Himself; and this is the covenant idea. This rehabilitation of
man included the promise of sanctifying grace, for it was only by such grace that man’s
friendship with Satan could be turned into enmity. God Himself had to reverse the condition by
regenerating grace. In all probability He at once wrought the grace of the covenant in the
hearts of our first parents. And when God by His saving power generates enmity to Satan in the
heart of man, this implies that He chooses the side of man, that He becomes man’s confederate
in the struggle with Satan, and thus virtually establishes an offensive and defensive covenant.
b. This relationship between God and man on the one side and Satan on the other side, is not
limited to the individuals, but extends to their seed. The covenant is organic in its operation and
includes the generations. This is an essential element in the covenant idea. There will not only
be a seed of man. but also a seed of the serpent, that is, of the devil, and there will be a
prolonged struggle between the two, in which the seed of man will be victorious.
c. The struggle, then, will not be indecisive. Though the heel of the woman’s seed will be
bruised, the head of the serpent will be crushed. It can only bite the heel, and by doing this
endangers its very head. There will be suffering on the part of the seed of the woman, but the
deadly sting of the serpent will terminate in its own death. The death of Christ, who is in a
preeminent sense the seed of the woman, will mean the defeat of Satan. The prophecy of
redemption is still impersonal in the protevangel, but it is nevertheless a Messianic prophecy. In
the last analysis the seed of the woman is Christ, who assumes human nature, and, being put to
death on the cross, gains the decisive victory over Satan. It goes without saying that our first
parents did not understand all this.
2. THE COVENANT WITH NOAH.
The covenant with Noah is evidently of a very general nature:
God promises that He will not again destroy all flesh by the waters of a flood, and that the
regular succession of seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night
will continue. The forces of nature are bridled, the powers of evil are put under greater
restraint, and man is protected against the violence of both man and beast. It is a covenant
conferring only natural blessings, and is therefore often called the covenant of nature or of
common grace. There is no objection to this terminology, provided it does not convey the