B’resheet (In the Beginning)
Torah: Genesis 1:1-6:8
Haftorah: Isaiah 42:5-43:10

Long ago, the Jewish sages created reading calendars to be read annually throughout all the synagogues every sabbath. They are the Parsha (from the Torah, the first five books of the Bible), and the Haftarah (selected readings from the prophetic books of the Old Testament). Today, I continue my series exploring the Messiah in each of these portioned readings that was planned and scheduled in ancient days and appointed for our present days. For October 18 this year, the readings are cited above. I would encourage you to read those passages first before you read my post, or at least read them in tandem. I missed posting on this reading during the week it was scheduled, but I don’t want to skip it. So here it is late. The passages are still applicable for any day of the year.

This series I’m doing is about finding Jesus in every weekly reading of the Torah and Prophets, so that is what I will focus on with my exegesis. The Very first prophecy we have of the Messiah comes immediately after the first sin was committed. Eve ate the fruit she was told by God not to eat, and she shared with Adam. The serpent’s deception had worked. The first idolatry was committed. Eve’s desire for the fruit was placed above obedience to God, and anything we put ahead of God is an idol. Sin entered the world, and nothing would be the same. Most of all, Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden, the place they communed and walked with God daily. They could not remain in His presence with that special intimate relationship anymore.

But God gave the first prophecy of Messiah, and it actually wasn’t addressed to the people, but to the serpent: “I will put enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen 3:15). A blow to the heel can maim, but a blow to the head is fatal. In paraphrase, God tells the serpent, “You will win a battle here and there, but the Messiah will win the war.”

Idolatry is putting something else in God’s place. Adam and Eve put the serpent’s words ahead of God’s words by their actions. They committed the first idolatry. In Deuteronomy chapter 29, Moses warns the Israelites against idolatry:

“You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed. And you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them. Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit” (16-18).

In the ESV, the words translated “root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit” literally mean “a root bearing a head and wormwood.” The fruit the serpent offered to Eve turned out to be poisonous and bitter, for her body and Adam’s body became corruptible unto death (Gen. 2:17) and life became bitter in many ways (Gen. 3:16-19). It’s like Moses is telling the Israelites who were newly called out of slavery, “Be careful, because the serpent will try to come after you again.”

The serpent did crush the heel of the Messiah, Eve’s seed, on the cross, literally. A huge nail went through his heels or feet. But Jesus, on the cross, crushed the serpents head. He defeated sin and death through His suffering and death. He crushed the serpent’s power.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they were forced out of the Garden of Eden, the place of their fellowship with God. Jesus, the night He was betrayed, fellowshipped with the Father as one, and He wanted us to have that unity with God again (see Jn. 17:11, 21-22). Then He was forced out of the garden by His arrest. He was taken away from the garden and the Father’s presence. Jesus cried on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt. 27:46). Why was He taken away? Why was He removed from that garden, that fellowship? Why was He forsaken? Isaiah says it was for our sins:

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed (Is. 53:5).

The enemy wounded Him on the cross. He bruised His heel for sure. In Revelation, John reveals to us that the enemy, the serpent, is Satan (Rev. 12:9, 20:2). He is also called a dragon in Revelation chapter 12. The terms in Hebrew and Greek are basically interchangeable. Then something happens with this serpent or dragon. He has seven heads. Some say seven is a Biblical number symbolizing completion, others say it means holiness. In this case, it does not mean holy in a good way for sure, but the antithesis to holiness. Perhaps the seven heads represent complete and absolute evil, a world saturated with idolatry, a sequence of powers that set themselves up as the exact opposite of anything holy and godly. There is more than one beast or monster in Revelation with multiple heads, and I won’t get into those particulars here, but I think it’s safe to say that anything in Revelation, serpent or dragon or beast, with multiple heads represents something not good. Why do I bring all this up when we’re supposed to be talking about Genesis? That same serpent we saw at the beginning of the Bible shows up again at the end. He was always there, actually, and he is rearing his ugly head (or heads). That’s a convenient English idiom for this context.

But God told us Eve’s seed (the Messiah) would crush his head. Jesus defeated death on the cross, the curse that the serpent introduced to the world through deception.

The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. ² The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. ³ One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast (Rev. 13:1-3).

Is this fatal wound to the head literal or spiritual? I won’t presume to know for sure, but I think it is at least spiritual.

⁵ Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? ⁶ And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. ⁷ For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way (2 Thes. 2:5-7).

Perhaps it is the removal of the restraining Spirit on the antichrist that is the mortal wound that appears to have been healed. Once God no longer holds back the antichrist spirit, it will look like the devil recovered from his fatal blow that Jesus dealt him upon the cross. It’s just something worth considering, and the Biblical texts seem to connect this way.

What we do know is that this seemingly healed beast by the power of Satan will be defeated by Jesus and thrown into a lake of fire (Rev. 19:20). Revelation 20:1-3 tells us the serpent will be bound in a pit for 1,000 years, during which time Jesus and His resurrected saints will rule the earth. Revelation 20:10 tells us this battle will be finally completed when God takes the serpent and throws him into the lake of fire forever. So is the prophecy of Genesis 3 fulfilled? Yes, and not yet.

Revelation 12:17 says, “Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.” This is still going on, and I believe will culminate in a future great persecution. Maybe we are entering it. Christians in Nigeria are certainly enduring great persecution right now. More Christians are persecuted globally now than any time previously in history. Remember, Genesis 3:15 says, “I will put enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.” In Genesis, there is a woman. In Revelation, there is a woman. In Genesis, enmity is between the woman’s offspring and the serpent’s offspring. In Revelation, the dragon wages war on the woman’s offspring, the saints (Daniel 7:21). Those are some pretty strong parallels to me.

God made this world just like Genesis 1 says, and one day, Jesus will make all things new with a new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1, 5). God is making believers new right now (2 Cor. 4:16, 5:17). Just as He separated light from dark, the water from the land, and the kinds of plants and animals according to their kind, so he separates believers from the rest of the world. Holiness means set apart, different. “Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you.” (2 Cor. 6:17). I believe we can set ourselves apart by choosing to abstain from worldliness, but we can also be set apart by the world’s rejection of us because we choose to follow God. This rejection comes through persecution. This persecution refines us like precious metals in a fire. When you are set apart, God is making something new. God made the world by separating things from one another. The Haftarah for B’resheet, from Isaiah, says,

“But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
    he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
    I have called you by name, you are mine.
² When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
    and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
    and the flame shall not consume you.
³ For I am the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior (43:1-3).

Until all things are made new by the One who crushed the serpent’s head, if you are a believer, embrace the renewing of your own soul through sanctification and being set apart as holy. The Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:8, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” If you are not a believer or aren’t sure, think about these things, and choose the One Who crushed the serpent’s head, the head of the bitter root that grows poison and idolatry and death, Satan, the dragon.

God’s Faithfulness to Israel

At the end of each of my posts, I began adding a little section about God’s faithfulness to Israel, especially after I got into the life of Abraham. As I go back through the Word again and update my posts, I’m adding those sections to posts I made about Biblical content before Abraham or Israel were introduced, because now I understand more. The whole beginning of Genesis is a preface to understanding God’s redemptive plan through Abraham’s offspring, which is through Israel.

I know the way we mark our tears on the Gregorian calendar is not exact to the year (Jesus was not born in 1 AD, but more like 3 BC), but what I am about to explain is an amazing testament regardless. In the very least, I believe God is using the way we have marked time to give us a message of his greater plan. The JPS Commentary says,

In its (Genesis’) entirety the book claims to cover a time span of 2,309 years, a figure that is computed from the data found in the narratives and the genealogies in the traditional Hebrew text. It offers a rapid sketch of 1,948 years of universal human history, from Adam to the birth of Abraham, with the remaining 361 years to the death of Joseph comprising the bulk of the work (Sarna, xii).

Now what stood out to me in this: from Adam to Abraham is 1,948 years. Paul compares Jesus to Adam in this way:

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶ The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. ⁴⁸ As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. ⁴⁹ And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man (1 Cor. 15:44b-49).

Jesus starts humanity over again spiritually. In Him mankind is recreated spiritually. On the day Adam took the forbidden fruit, he did not physically die that very day (though his action did bring the inevitable consequence of physical death), but he did die spiritually that day in that he became separated from God by his sin and thus had to be expunged from God’s presence in the garden. Jesus, the “that Adam,” brought that spiritual life back to us. As a result of Jesus’ existence, we now tell time in years BC and AD. He is the central reference point of time past, present, and future. And working on this time scale, what is something special that happened in 1948 AD? The nation of Israel was reborn! That’s right. Just as Abraham was born 1,948 years after Adam, so Israel was reborn 1,948 years after the first year on our calendars affixed as the year of our Lord (anno Domini). The man who began the distinction of the Israelites was born 1,948 years after the first Adam (who is the progeniture of physical humankind). The nation Abraham begat was reborn 1,948 years after the hallmark year of the second Adam, Jesus Christ (who is the Life-Giving Spirit of humanity’s souls).

In Revelation, Jesus said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true” (Rev. 21:5b). Jesus made our lives new, and He has also made Israel new. They are a sign of his trustworthy and true words, as we shall see as I go through the first five books of the Bible again with you.

Until next time, God bless.

Holiness

You spoke into nothing, "Let there be light!"
You separated it, and called it good,
Split heaven from earth by ethereal hood,
And gathered dry land from waters just right,
Set stars above to guide and give earth sight,
Made holy the Sabbath to rest, and would.1
You created a nation by Your might
To be a holy priesthood, Your delight2
And set them above all; Mount Zion stood.3

So this day You speak light into my heart4
Where there was nothing but darkness and death
And call me out from sin to be holy,
By persecution or my will depart
Their midst rejoicing with my breath
That I counted to suffer as worthy.5

1. Genesis 1:3-2:3
2. Exodus 19:5-6
3. Deuteronomy 26:19, Joel 3:17
4. 1 Peter 2:9
5. Acts 5:41

Sources

The Bible. English Standard Version. Biblegateway.com. Accessed 26 Sept. 2026.

The JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis. Philadelphia, The Jewish Publication Society, 1989.