A Corporate Crushing

The first hint we have of the gospel in the Bible comes to us in Genesis 3:15. There, God tells that old serpent, the devil, these things, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." If you want to impress people at parties, you can call this passage the proto-evangelium, which means "first gospel." There, the victory of the seed of the woman over Satan is foretold for the first time. From there, we see the promise pass to Abraham (Gen. 12, 15), Judah (Gen. 49), then to David's line (2 Sam. 7).

In short, the entire hope of the prophets of the "Old Testament" is based on the seed of the woman, who will be the Immanuel, who will usher in God's everlasting kingdom, and who will take away the sins of the people. So the ultimate "bruising" of Satan comes at the hands of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

However, we should not think of the death and resurrection of Jesus as the only bruising of the head of the wicked one. No indeed! In point of fact, the defeat of Satan is constant, daily, and eternal because of the Son of God. Satan has never overthrown a single plan of God. Satan has never ultimately defeated a single one of God's children. Every single day brings fresh defeat of Satan.

Every one of the devil's plans is frustrated daily. The Lord said to Satan, "On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life!" (Gen. 3:14) This is a picture of dismal defeat. That great enemy of God and man is seen licking the dust all the days of his life. Even in the restoration of all things, behold the lot of Satan! "The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain" (Isaiah 65:25). You see that? The wolf and lamb grazing together, not at war with each other. The lion, with his big pointy teeth, is eating straw like an ox. But the serpent? What of him? "Dust shall be the serpent's food." When all things are made new, the devil will still be eating the dirt of defeat. He will never feel victory. The win column will always be set to zero.

God has defeated Satan through the Lord Jesus Christ, and Christ daily defeats Satan through His glorious bride the church. Even still, a day will come where every saint of God will gather before the throne of God and confess the victory over the world of Satan's schemes through Jesus Christ. This is why Paul has written, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet" (Romans 16:20).

To sum up, the Bible teaches that Satan has been bruised, is being bruised, and will be bruised. He is an utterly pitiful person, full of rage and spite, eager to devour and consume, yet never achieving victory over his enemies. It is a most humiliating thrashing that old Beelzebub is getting. How I love it that he daily licks the dust. Eat your dirt, Satan, the Lord hath decreed it.

Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for a they loved not their lives even unto death. ~Rev. 12:10-11