The Bible is often attacked today for its “patriarchal” teachings regarding male authority. One can add to this the fact that all God’s covenants are initiated and renewed with men—Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, etc. Of course, humans have no right to criticize how God has designed things, and there are good reasons why God has made men to rule. Yet we also should make clear that God has given women an important role in the story of salvation.
Immediately after the fall, God gave the vital promise that Eve’s seed would defeat the serpent’s seed (Genesis 3:15). This promise is fulfilled throughout the story of the Bible, as God’s people make war against those who follow the devil, culminating in the work of Christ on the cross. Part of this story of salvation is the theme of godly women preserving God’s covenant against the attempts of evil men. There are even instances of women carrying out God’s commands when men failed to do so.
The Woman’s Seed
After Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God judged them in their respective areas of work (Genesis 3:16-19). Prior to this, God cursed the serpent (Genesis 3:14-15), and as part of the curse, He promised warfare between the lines of the woman and the serpent:
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel (Genesis 3:15, ESV).
This is often called the protoevangelium, the “first promise of the gospel.” God promised to put enmity/hostility between two individuals, the serpent (“you,” singular) and the woman. But God also promised to put hostility between the serpent’s “offspring” and the woman’s “offspring.” Do these “offspring” refer to two groups or two individuals?
Part of the difficulty of this verse is that the word “offspring” (זֶרַע, zerah, literally “seed”) is a collective singular, meaning the word can be used as a singular and a plural with no change in grammar (like the English “sheep” or “fish”). So the woman’s seed could refer to either many of her seed or just one seed (and the same for the serpent’s seed). This is also the case for the singular “he” in “he shall bruise your head,” as this is simply the singular pronoun referring back to the collective singular “offspring/seed.”
God said that this hostility between the two groups would lead to the woman’s “seed” (singular or plural) bruising the serpent’s “head,” as well as the serpent bruising the “heel” of the woman’s “seed” (singular or plural)—“he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Because this latter clause of Genesis 3:15 refers to the singular serpent (singular “your head”), it is often argued that both the “seed” of the serpent and woman should be understood as singular. This makes good sense. While the two different “seed” refer to groups, they also refer to specific individuals that exemplify those groups, namely Jesus and the devil. Jesus had His heel bruised on the cross when He died, but He ultimately crushed the head of the serpent by conquering sin and death.
However, because Genesis 3:15 also speaks of hostility between the woman’s seed and the serpent’s seed (and not just the serpent), it makes sense to read this verse as also referring to a plural “seed” of the woman. In other words, there seems to be a double meaning, with “seed” being both singular and plural. In this case, Genesis 3:15 sets up a war between two lines that can be traced throughout the Bible. Satan is at war with both the woman and her seed.
But who is of the serpent’s line? Is this referring to humans? The collective “seed” of Genesis 3:15 could refer to the physical seed of the woman and the physical seed of the serpent, or it could refer to the spiritual seed of both. It may be possible to understand the serpent’s seed as physical, particularly if my interpretation of Genesis 6:1-4 is correct (that fallen spirit beings mated with human women and bore the giant Nephilim). This seed plays out with giants in the Promised Land, namely the Anakim and Rephaim. However, the emphasis in Scripture seems to be on the spiritual seed, meaning the seed of the woman is anyone who follows God and the seed of the serpent is anyone who follows the devil. There is a war between the ungodly line of the serpent and the godly line of the woman throughout the Bible. This is especially seen in Genesis with the stories of Abel and Cain, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, and David and Saul.
The godly line of Eve is filled with many godly men (Noah, Abraham, Jacob, David, etc.). And these men attack the seed of the serpent (Esau, Saul, Goliath, etc.). However, women in particular play an important role in the promised war against the serpent in Genesis 3:15, as women throughout the Bible preserve the covenant and help to defeat the devil. This begins with Eve’s provision of a son to replace the murdered Abel—“Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, ‘God has appointed for me another offspring [lit. “seed”] instead of Abel, for Cain killed him’” (Genesis 4:25).
The Wives of the Patriarchs
We will explore this theme in Scripture of women preserving the covenant, beginning with the wives of the patriarchs. God’s salvation was made clear in His covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15 and 17, and since Abraham was the “father of a multitude,” his wife Sarah would be the mother of a multitude. Sarah is often criticized for her behavior, as she gave her servant Hagar to Abraham in order to provide him with the promised seed (Genesis 16:1-4). This stemmed from unbelief and a worldly interpretation of God’s promise.
However, Sarah’s lying to deceive tyrants is to be commended, as she helped spare Abraham’s life (Genesis 12; 20). Abraham had similar encounters with Pharaoh in Egypt (Genesis 12:10-20) and Abimelech in Gerar (Genesis 20:1-18), in both of which he said Sarah was his sister. (Isaac did the same thing in 26:6-11.) Abraham’s claim was partly true, as Sarah was Abraham’s half-sister (Genesis 20:12). While many criticize Abraham for this behavior, he seemed to sincerely believe that both groups of people would kill him and take Sarah as a wife (Genesis 12:12; 20:11). So there is no reason to think Abraham acted unreasonably out of fear. And for Sarah’s part, she went along with the deception (Genesis 12:13; 20:13). Though it threatened the promise that Sarah would have a child by Abraham, God protected her from other men and gave her a son by Abraham, just as He had promised (Genesis 21:1-7).
Like Sarah, Rebekah is often maligned because she helped Jacob deceive Isaac so that Jacob would receive the blessing (Genesis 26–27). However, she was seeking to uphold God’s promise that Esau would serve Jacob. God had directly told Rebekah the prophecy that Jacob would inherit the covenant (Genesis 25:23), and Isaac almost certainly would have been aware of both this prophecy and Jacob’s possession of the birthright (Genesis 25:29-34). In this case, it was Isaac who sought to undermine God’s covenant by ignoring Jacob’s contract with Esau. Rebekah, in helping Jacob deceive the elderly Isaac, should be seen as one who defended God’s covenant. She helped ensure God’s promise that the older would serve the younger.
The Midwives and Moses’ Family in Exodus
Women also greatly protected God’s covenant in the book of Exodus. The Hebrew midwives protected Moses, as did Moses’ sister, mother, and his wife. When Pharaoh oppressed the Israelites and ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill the newborn sons, the Hebrew midwives “feared God” and did not obey Pharaoh (Exodus 1:15-21). Instead, the midwives let the boys live and deceived Pharaoh, saying, “the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them” (Exodus 1:19). This may have been partially true, but the midwives still deceived and disobeyed Pharaoh. And they are commended for this behavior—“So God dealt well with the midwives” (Exodus 1:20). The midwives “feared” God, and because of this He “gave them families” (Exodus 1:21).
Pharaoh then went further and commanded the Egyptians to cast the Hebrew sons into the Nile (Exodus 1:22). This was the setting of the birth of Moses, a Levite whom God sent to deliver Israel. Moses’ mother hid him and eventually put him in a basket in the river to be found by Pharaoh’s daughter (Exodus 2:1-6). Moses’ older sister was watching, and she was able to arrange things so that Moses’ own mother nursed him for Pharaoh’s daughter (Exodus 2:7-9). Moses’ mother brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter once he grew older, and he “became her son.” She named him Moses, which sounds like the Hebrew for “draw out” (Exodus 2:10).
Moses’ wife later preserved the covenant when she saved him in Exodus 4:24-31. The Hebrew in this passage is somewhat ambiguous, but it seems Yahweh sought to put Moses to death because his son was uncircumcised. God instructed Moses to tell Pharaoh that Yahweh would kill his firstborn son if he did not let Israel, God’s “firstborn son,” go (Exodus 4:21-23). Yet on the way to Egypt, Yahweh “met him” (probably Moses) and “sought to put him to death,” apparently because Moses’ son was not circumcised (Exodus 4:24; cf. Genesis 17:14). God would kill Pharaoh’s son for disobedience, and here God was ready to kill Moses because of his failure to circumcise his firstborn son. However—and this is the key point for our purposes—Moses’ wife, Zipporah, circumcised their son and touched Moses’ feet with it, calling Moses “a bridegroom of blood” (Exodus 4:25). Like the later Passover, blood averted death and God “let him alone” (Exodus 4:26). So we see several women—the midwives, as well as Moses’ sister, mother, and wife—protecting Moses and preserving God’s covenant.
A Canaanite Prostitute
After Moses died around 1406 B.C., Israel entered the Promised Land of Canaan under Joshua’s leadership. When Joshua sent two men from Shittim (east of the Jordan) to spy out the land of Canaan, they stayed at the house of Rahab the prostitute in Jericho (Joshua 2:1). Rahab deceived the king of Jericho and hid the spies on the roof (Joshua 2:2-7). She then told the spies that she knew of Yahweh’s works and that He had given them the land, and she asked them to “deal kindly” with her father’s house as she had dealt kindly with them (Joshua 2:8-14).
Rahab’s house was built into the city wall, so she let the spies down by a rope through the window and instructed them to hide in the hills for three days (Joshua 2:15-16). Then the men gave Rahab a scarlet cord to tie in the window so the Israelites could identify her house when they took Jericho, but she was to remain quiet about their plans (Joshua 2:17-21). The spies hid in the hills and then returned and told Joshua all that had happened, that “all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us” (Joshua 2:22-24). This fulfilled God’s promise to put “the dread and fear” of Israel on the people of the land (Deuteronomy 2:25; 11:25). Rahab protected the Israelite spies in Joshua 2, and thus she is an example of God’s welcoming Gentiles as His people, a theme expanded upon in the new covenant. Instead of criticizing Rahab for her deception, the Bible praises her for her faith (Hebrews 11:31) and good works (James 2:25). Rahab deceived Israel’s enemies and thus preserved God’s covenant people.
The Skull-Crushers of Judges
Women play an especially important role in Israel’s deliverance in the book of Judges. Two women in particular, Jael and an unnamed woman, preserved God’s covenant by crushing the skulls of two men who oppressed Israel, Sisera and Abimelech. These acts in part fulfill God’s promise to bruise the head of the serpent’s seed in Genesis 3:15.
After Yahweh “routed” Sisera and his Canaanite army in Judges 4, Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite (Judges 4:15-17). Sisera thought Jael was an ally because “there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite” (Judges 4:17). Heber had previously separated from the Kenites, who were descendants of Moses’ father-in-law and had settled in Judah (Judges 1:16; 4:11). However, Sisera did not know that Jael was still loyal to Israel. Jael came out to meet Sisera and welcomed him into the tent, giving him milk though he asked for water (Judges 4:18-19). While Sisera was sleeping, Jael drove a tent peg through his temple into the ground (Judges 4:21). Thus, God “subdued” Jabin king of Canaan before Israel (Judges 4:23). The woman whom Deborah said would receive glory was not herself but Jael the Kenite (Judges 4:9). In their song of celebration, Deborah and Barak blessed Jael who “crushed” the head of Sisera—the seed of the serpent who opposed God’s people (Judges 5:26; cf. Genesis 3:15).
Several chapters later in Judges 9, an unnamed woman crushed the skull of Abimelech, the son of Gideon, who usurped authority in Israel and set himself up as king. Abimelech was an anti-judge, as he was not raised up by Yahweh and he oppressed Israel from the inside instead of delivering them. The family of Abimelech’s mother helped persuade the leaders of Shechem to support him over his 70 brothers, even giving him money which he used to hire “worthless and reckless” men to follow him (Judges 9:1-4). Abimelech then killed all 70 of his brothers at Ophrah “on one stone,” except the youngest, Jotham, who escaped (Judges 9:5). The leaders of Shechem made Abimelech king (Judges 9:6), but he resembled a Canaanite ruler, seen in the similarities with Adoni-bezek’s torture of 70 kings (Judges 1:7).
After carrying out a reign of terror in Israel for three years, Abimelech came to a tower in Thebez. And when he went near the door to set it on fire, a woman threw a millstone (about 25 or 30 pounds) down on Abimelech’s head and crushed his skull (Judges 9:50-53). Abimelech had his armor-bearer kill him with a sword so as to avoid being killed by a woman (Judges 9:54), but it did not matter—like Sisera, Abimelech’s head was crushed by a woman. The Hebrew for Abimelech’s “skull” is gulgaleth (Judges 9:53), which points to Christ who crushed the head of the serpent on Golgotha, the Place of a Skull (Matthew 27:33; John 19:17; cf. Genesis 3:15). Both Jael and the unnamed woman in Judges helped protect God’s people from their enemies.
Esther and Others
There are other stories throughout Scripture of women preserving God’s covenant. The wise woman in Abel of Beth-maacah spoke to Joab and got the people to cut off the head of Sheba the Benjaminite who rebelled against King David. Then they threw Sheba’s head out to Joab (2 Samuel 20:14-22). David’s wife Bathsheba (a marriage that began in adultery) preserved the covenant by protecting her son Solomon when he became king. Nathan the prophet informed Bathsheba that Adonijah, Solomon’s brother, became king and David did not know about it (1 Kings 1:11). Yet Bathsheba followed Nathan’s instructions to inform David (1 Kings 1:12-31). David had Zadok the priest anoint Solomon as king. Adonijah heard of it and feared for his life, and Solomon sent him home (1 Kings 32-53).
In the book of Esther, the Jewish queen Esther protected her people from the Persians and Haman. Esther risked her life before the Persian king, Ahasuerus, and God providentially worked through her to preserve the Israelites. There is fascinating seed theology in this story, as there was a long history of hostility between the Jews and the Amalekites. It takes some digging, but the Scriptures reveal that the hostility between Mordecai and Haman can be traced back to their ancestors Saul and Agag and further back to Jacob and Esau (Israel and Edom).
Haman was an Agagite (Esther 3:1), and Agag was the king of the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:32). Amalek was a son of Esau (Genesis 36:12), and the later Amalekites attacked the Jews after the exodus (Exodus 17:8-16). God had even cursed the Amalekites (Exodus 17:14; Deuteronomy 25:17-19). Mordecai, on the other hand, was a Benjaminite descendant of Saul (Esther 2:5). Saul had his own interactions with the Amalekites, particularly their king Agag. When Saul failed to carry out God’s orders to destroy the Amalekites and their king Agag, Samuel hacked Agag into pieces (1 Samuel 15:32-33).
This history helps explain Haman’s hatred of the Jews (Esther 3:5-6) and why Mordecai refused to bow before Haman (Esther 3:2-3). The seed of the serpent, Haman, attempted to destroy the seed of the woman, the Jews. However, Esther risked her life to help Mordecai and her people (Esther 4:16; 7:3-6). This war in the book of Esther is seen later in the attempt by Herod—an Idumean (Edomite) and thus a descendant of Esau (Genesis 36:1)—to slaughter Jesus as an infant (Matthew 2:16). Ultimately though, God delivers His people, and the seed of the woman prevails.
Preserving the Covenant Through Deception
An additional element of note is that many of these godly women preserved the covenant through deception. Sarah, Rebekah, the Hebrew midwives, Rahab, and Jael all used some sort of deception to preserve the covenant. Other examples of deception include Rachel deceiving her father Laban (Genesis 31:35) and Michal deceiving her father Saul (1 Samuel 19:17).
This is fitting, as woman—by her own admission—was deceived by the serpent in the garden (Genesis 3:13; cf. 1 Timothy 2:14). In turn, the seed of the woman deceived the seed of the serpent, giving the serpent a taste of his own medicine. Deceiving and being deceived—that is the story of many women in Scripture. Many godly women were obedient even when the men around them were disobedient, and they resorted to deception in preserving God’s covenant. James Jordan observes this theme in his commentary on the book of Judges:
Deception is primarily a woman’s tool. Faced with the tyrant, the woman is not in a position to fight, but she can lie and deceive. I have explored this at length elsewhere but here I can call attention to the following women who used lying to deceive tyrants bent on evil: Sarah (Gen. 12, 20), Rebekah (Gen. 26, 27), the Hebrew Midwives (Ex. 1), and Jael. According to Genesis 3:15, Satan attacks the woman as well as the seed. Since Satan made his initial assault on the woman by means of a lie (Gen. 3 :1-5), it is fitting that the woman defeat him by means of a lie, according to the principle “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” – lie for lie. It is the Satanic, humanistic tyrant in whose face these women told their brazen lies, and God blessed them each time for it (see the blessings in Gen. 12:16-17; 20:7, 14ff.; 26:12ff.; Ex. 1:20; Matt. 1:5; Jud. 5:24). (Jordan, Judges: God’s War Against Humanism, 89).
Of course, there are some forms of deception that do not seem praiseworthy, such as Tamar’s portrayal of herself as a prostitute to Judah (Genesis 38). Though even there, Tamar was responding to Judah’s mistreatment of her, and Judah pronounced Tamar as “more righteous than I” (Genesis 38:26).
Conclusion
In addition to the essential role of motherhood in producing godly offspring (Malachi 2:15; 1 Timothy 2:15; 5:14), women play a vital role in the history of redemption. There is a long line of godly women preserving the covenant, stemming from God’s promise to Eve in Genesis 3:15. Many of these women used deception in order to preserve the covenant, and some have literally crushed the heads of those doing the work of the serpent. All of this points ultimately to Jesus Christ, the seed of the woman, who crushed the serpent’s head on the cross and who will destroy him at the final judgment. Godly men and women have preserved the covenant because they have esteemed their Lord greater than themselves. Let us go and do likewise.
