I.　"I will put enmity / Between you [the serpent] and the woman / Andbetween your seed and her seed; / He will bruise you on the head, / But you will bruise him on the heel"—Gen. 3:15:

A.　The woman here signifies first Eve and then the virgin Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus (Gal. 4:4); she also signifies all the people of God who take the position of a woman before Him, trusting in Him:

1.　The enmity between theserpent andthe woman is the enmity between Satan and all God's people—Rev. 12:4.

2.　Theserpent's hating andfighting against God's people began when Satan instigated Cain to murder Abel and continues through all the generations until Satan is cast into the lake of fire for eternity—Gen. 4:8; 1 John 3:12; Rev.20:7-10.

B.　The serpent's seedarethe peoplewho follow Satan—Gen.3:15; John 8:44:

1.　Because Satan, the old serpent, has injected himself as sin into man's flesh, all men have become serpents in the eyes of God—Rev. 12:9; 20:2; Rom. 7:18; Matt. 23:33.

2.　As Satan's followers, they are his sons, his seed, by birth; thus, they have the serpentine nature and life, and they are used by Satan to persecute and fight against the woman's seed—3:7; 13:38; John 8:44; 1 John 3:10.

C.　The seed of the woman is the incarnated Jesus Christ and also the overcoming believers—Gal. 4:4; Rev. 12:5:

1.　The seed of the woman is the Lord Jesus, who as the very God was born of the virgin Mary to be a man, as prophesied in Isaiah 7:14, fulfilled in Matthew 1:23, and confirmed in Galatians 4:4; thus, the promise in Genesis 3:15 indicates that God Himself would come to be a human seed to bruise the head of the damaging serpent.

2.　Ultimately, the seed of the woman is enlarged to include the overcoming believers, the stronger part of God's people, signified by the man-child in Revelation 12:5.

D.　According to Genesis 3:15, the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent on the head, and the serpent would bruise him on the heel:

1.　The bruising of the serpent's head by the seed of the woman is the destroying of Satan, the one who has the might of death, by the Lord Jesus through His death on the cross—Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8.

2.　While the Lord was destroying the serpent on the cross, the serpent bruised His heel, that is, wounded Him by nailing His feet to the cross—Psa. 22:16.

II.　The seed in Genesis 3:15 is fully developed in Revelation 12:

A.　The vision in Revelation 12 of the universal bright woman with her man-child warring against the great red dragon covers all the generations from Genesis 3:15 until the end of this age—Rev. 11:15; 12:10.

B.　"A great sign was seen in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon underneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child"—vv. 1-2a:

1.　This bright woman is a collective, universal woman signifying the totality of God's people—v. 1.

2.　God's intention is, through the universal woman, to bring forth the man-child—the stronger part of God's people—whom He will use to defeat His enemy and bring in His kingdom—vv. 10-11.

3.　Throughout all generations God's people have been suffering the travail of delivery to bring forth the man-child to fight for God's kingdom—Isa. 26:17-18; Jer. 6:24; 13:21; 30:6; Micah 4:9-10; 5:3; Gal. 4:19.

4.　For the bringing forth of the man-child, there is the need for at least a portion of God's people to come back to the proper standing of thewoman andbecomepart of the woman in an actual and practical way—2 Cor. 11:2; Eph.5:24.

C.　"Another sign was seenin heaven; and behold, there was a great red dragon…The dragon stood before the woman who was about to bring forth, so that when she brings forth he might devour her child"—Rev. 12:3a, 4b:

1.　The dragon signifies God's enemy, called the Devil and Satan; the serpent is the subtle one, and the dragon is the cruel one—v. 9; Gen. 3:1; 2 Cor. 11:3.

2.　We need to see the vision that in the universe a war is raging between God's people as the woman and the serpent as the dragon—Gen. 3:15; Rev. 12:17:

a.　The enmity between the serpent and the woman's seed mentioned in Genesis 3:15 is manifested in Revelation 12, where this enmity is fulfilled to the uttermost.

b.　The dragon hates the universal bright woman, and he fights against her with the intention of devouring her child—vv. 4, 13-17.

D.　"She brought forth a son, a man-child, who is to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod"—v. 5a:

1.　God needs the man-child to defeat His enemy and to bring in His kingdom so that His eternal purpose might be accomplished—v. 10; Eph. 3:11; 2 Tim. 1:9.

2.　Because the church hasnotattained to God's purpose, God will choose a group of overcomers who will attain to His purpose and fulfill His demands; this is the principle of theman-child—Rev. 12:11; 2:7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3:5, 12,20-21.

3.　The woman's seed in Revelation 12 is not only the individual Christ but is also a corporate entity, the corporate Christ, including Christ as the Head and all His overcoming believers as the Body—Col. 1:18:

a.　The man-child in Revelation 12:5 is corporate; the man-childis neither the LordJesus individually northe overcomers separate from Him but the Lord Jesus with the overcomers—Psa. 2:9; Rev. 2:27.

b.　The Lord Jesus is the Head, the center, the reality, the life, andthe nature of theman-child, andtheovercomers are the Body of the man-child.

c.　Psalm 2:8-9, Revelation 2:26-27, and 12:5 indicate that theLord Jesus as God's Anointed, theovercomers in the churches, and the man-child will rule the nations with an iron rod, thus proving that the Lord Jesus, the overcomers, and the man-child are one.

4.　Through the Lord's death on the cross, Satan, the old serpent, was judged and cast out; that judgment will ultimately be carried out by the overcomers as the man-child, the corporate seed of the woman—John 12:31; 16:11; Rev. 12:9.