It is most important to “the story of salvation” to look at the seed of woman of which God spoke in the Garden of Eden. Recall the words of God to the serpent, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). The Hebrew word translated into the English word “seed” is “zera.” Notice the action of creation: “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed (zera), and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed (zera) is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. (12) And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed (zera) after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed (zera) was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good” (Gen. 1:11-12). Without the power within the word “zera,” creation would never have been completed and God would not have been able to say at the end of creation: “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day” (Gen. 1:31). Why is this true, that creation would not have been completed without the power that is in the word “zera?”
Simply because there would be no continuity in what God created. Notice, the words, “after his kind;” this expresses the power to reproduce! It is in the Hebrew word “zera” that creation is perfected, as it is the container created by God with the limitless power of God for continuing. Therefore, the second chapter opens: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. (2) And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made” (Gen. 2:1-2). It will also help in understanding this point, if we notice what God said to the male and female whom he had created: “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. (30) And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so” (Gen. 1:29-30). It is in the “herb bearing seed” (zera) that the man and woman and the “beast of the earth,” “every fowl of the air,” and “everything that creepeth upon the earth,” wherein was life, that God gave for meat (The Hebrew word translated “meat” is “όkláh” and may be translated “food”) “the herb bearing seed (zera).” In other words, without the continuing power of life, which was in “herb bearing seed (zera),” there would have been no power of continuity! Life would have sprung up, only to die! Thus, the word “zera” expresses the continuity of life; the perpetual nature is within the “seed!”
What is this all about? When God said to the serpent: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel,” the pronoun “it” (hoo) should be translated “he.” The “he” is the “seed” (zera) of the woman. It is to a definite person that God is pointing. It was not to Cain, as it would not be true of him, for satan bruised his head. It was not true to Abel, for Cain murdered him. It was not to be Seth, as there is no evidence of him bruising the “head” of satan. However, it would be through the blood line of Seth, but the “he” is the same one through whom all families of the earth would be blessed. This brings us back to Abram and the promise God made to him: “… And in thy seed (zera) shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; …” (Gen. 22:18). It is in the means by which “all nations would be blessed” that the “seed” of woman woud bruise the head of satan! It is to these words that the apostle Paul directs our attention, when he wrote: “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed (sperma), which is Christ” (Gal. 3:16). Therefore, Paul has identified the “seed” of Abram, through which “all families of the earth” would be “blessed,” “which is Christ!” It was Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, who destroyed the bondage of sin, in that there was no way of forgiveness of sin until the shedding of the blood of the seed of woman, the seed of Abram, the seed of Mary.
This brings us full circle, “the seed of woman” and the son of Mary who is the Christ! Through whose blood the power of satan is destroyed. Sin, the power of satan, no longer holds mankind in bondage; but as Paul wrote speaking of Christ: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Eph. 1:7). “The story of salvation” is compelling!
— Frank R. Williams