The Skull Crusher in the Bible – How Mary Became the New Eve

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

Shalom, everybody. My name is Matthew VanDroels, and I am one of the community pastors at Founded in Truth Fellowship in Fort Mill, South Carolina, just 10 miles south of Charlotte, North Carolina. So if you're ever in the area, we would love to invite you to visit one of our social events or for services. You can also check out our live stream every Saturday on our YouTube channel at Founded in Truth Ministries. So today I am so excited to have the opportunity to explore one of my favorite topics, and that is the Bible. I am a Bible nerd and I just love everything about it. Not only the stories and the poetry that are contained in its library, but also its history and the amazing journey it took to be formed and edited together until it became what we have today.

If you take away nothing else today from this message, I want to make sure that you take away the message of hope that is found in the Gospel of Yeshua. This person, Yeshua, Jesus, lived, died, and was resurrected by the power of God in order to birth a new kingdom, a new creation that you are invited into. That you can have forgiveness and peace and feel the truest love of God by choosing allegiance to Yeshua. Everything else about the Bible is cool, but that... That is the most important part of the Bible. And it would be a shameful thing for that not to be mentioned in this message.

The Gospel of Yeshua

So the topic of today's message is the skull crusher in the Bible and Mary as the new Eve or the seed of Mary. This is one of the more basic topics in the Bible, and what makes it so interesting is that this has been a teaching from the time of the earliest believers up until now. Its timelessness and its impact demand our attention to the subject. So without further ado, let's jump in. Skull Crusher.

Genesis: The Creation Story

So the story of the Bible begins on what page? Page 1, Genesis 1. We have this short poetic recount of creation. It is good, right? You have God commanding the functionality of the sun, the moon, the stars, time itself. You have dry ground appearing, the creation of plants, and you have the creation of the sea and the sky, the waters below and the waters above. And then you have the creation of the fish that swim in the sea and the birds that fly in the waters above, the sky swimmers, if you will. And finally, at its pinnacle, mankind is created. They are given a purpose, and that purpose is to be the ones who bear the image of God in the world.

They are charged with having dominion and being rulers over the world, all while being guided by God's wisdom and His Spirit. Where they went and how they ruled the world imaged the sovereign God of the universe. And then we jump, of course, into Genesis chapter 2. And it's a bit more detailed about some of the events, although it is a slightly different creation story. The chronology is different than chapter 1, where in chapter 1 the plants are created before mankind. Chapter 2 places the plants being created after mankind. It's one of those neat nuances. And things are going well. The communion with God being expressed with a fellowship through the form of community of humans as they exist in this area that is literally connecting heaven to earth. It's this mountain garden of Eden that is displayed here.

The Fall of Mankind

And things go great for the rest of the story of the Bible, right? Yeah, not so much. Things escalate very quickly in chapter 3. We don't even make it three chapters before we, mankind, messes everything up. And I chuckle because, as you know, the authors of the Bible, when they were scribing this, I'd like to think that they had a discussion when they were trying to figure out how they were going to write the Holy Spirit inspired observation of God and the creation account. And I could just see them having a conversation like, so shouldn't we show how blissful everything was for a long time and then mankind messes everything up? And I could totally see them just looking at each other. Nah, nah, let's just be honest. We mess everything up fast. And so chapter 3 of Genesis, we have an instance where Eve is just hanging out and the serpent comes into the garden and this snake nonchalantly begins to talk and Eve, as if completely normal for a snake to be talking, responds and they have this cordial conversation between a human and a snake.

The Serpent's Deception

So right off the bat, the Bible has sucked us into this neat intriguing narrative. And how is this serpent introduced? Well, he's introduced as being more crafty than any other beast in the field. So in Hebrew it's the word "arum"—crafty. And the snake whispers and says, "Hey, I know God doesn't want you to eat of that tree, the tree of determining good and evil. If you eat of that tree, you won't die. You'll become like God." Which is an incredible level of deception, because why? Adam and Eve were already like God. They were His very images in creation. They imaged God. And the snake tempts Eve, and of course Eve partakes of the fruit and gives it to her husband, and they sin, they fall. Now God wants to take a stroll, and He can't find His image bearers anywhere. Finally, He sees them, and they're afraid because they're naked. "Who told you that you were naked?" He asked them. "Did you eat of the fruit?"

The Wordplay of Arum and Arom

So the word there for naked that humans have now become is "arom." And so there's a hidden wordplay there in Genesis 3 that is only seen in the Hebrew. How was the serpent introduced? As crafty. "Arum." In man's pursuit to become "arum" like the serpent, they have now become "arom," naked. So you see with the biblical authors, it's just this little nerdy thing that's really cool. And if you read Hebrew, you're supposed to read that and say, oh, wow, it's an intentional poetic little spin on it. Their image had changed. They're no longer reflecting the characteristics of who God is working through them. They are now reflecting something more them-centered rather than image of God-centered. So God begins to show forth that He is a God of justice, and justice is dealt in the garden. Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent, and here is the curse that God deals out to the serpent in Genesis -15.

Proto-Evangelium: The First Gospel

So the talking snake is now cursed with what? He will crawl on his belly and he will eat dust all of his life. And we'll talk about those implications here later in the prophetic text. But what's the big theme here? Well, the big theme here is something called Proto-Evangelium. It is, in Greek, the first gospel. This section of scripture is actually a specific topic of interest in scholarship because generally it's viewed as the first glimpse of the gospel message in the Bible. We have this dragon of chaos, the serpent who has deceived the woman, which is important for future patterns in the Bible.

And now God has spoken that the seed of the woman will crush or strike with lethal force the head of the serpent. But what's the caveat though? The serpent in return will strike or crush the foot that crushes it. It's the same word used in both instances. The seed of the woman will wound the head of the serpent and the serpent is going to wound the foot of his adversary. So the implications here are plain. And we have to understand what the authors are thinking here. We would like to think if we're going to step on a snake—apparently a very dangerous venomous one. I mean it's obviously a deadly serpent, fall of mankind and all.

We would like to think in our mind's eye that we would have combat boots on or something, yeah, we'll crush the head of the serpent. But that's not the picture here. The picture here is the deadly snake will strike the foot and that foot will crush the snake. The implication is the crusher is not going to get off the hook. He'll likely die as a result of his pursuit to kill the serpent once and for all.

Patterns Throughout Scripture

Proto-Evangelium. The first gospel is what this topic is called. Now the Bible is so cool. Can I just say that? There are so many hyperlinks and patterns. We did a message called The Bible Code on our YouTube channel, and it goes through the consistent patterns that tell the story that lead to Yeshua. One of my favorites is how the story of Noah's Ark is the same story as Genesis 1-3. God creates a garden, a safe, sacred place where all of the animals are, and He gives Adam dominion over the animals. And the story ends with Adam eating the plant he shouldn't have and he's naked as a result.

The ark is a story about God telling Noah to build an ark, a sacred safe place, with all of the animals. And Noah has dominion over the animals. And a new creation account occurs. A new creation was the result. It was a new creation formed through divine violence. God attempted to use violence to stop violence. And guess what? It didn't produce the desired result at all. But where does the story of Noah end? Oh, Noah eats the fruit of his garden, gets drunk and ends up naked. So it launches forward a continual pattern throughout Scripture where the story of the garden repeats itself and really finds its climax in Israel's exile into Babylon. They went from their land with their temple. They decided to eat of the fruit of determining good and evil for themselves and were exiled away from God's presence.

The Woman Who Crushes

And so here in Genesis 3, I would propose that the launching of another pattern is happening. It's the pattern of skull crushing, most of the time by a woman. A woman crushing the skull of the seed of the serpent. So what's the obvious story? Well, some of you already know it. It's the story of Yael, right? In Judges 4, Deborah leads and Barak follows. It's kind of like a shadow of Eve leading Adam.

Jael's Victory and Blessing

And the author is getting our attention and framing this story out. And there's a character by the name of Sisera, the general of Javen's army. He's running to a house after an embarrassing defeat against Barak and Deborah's army. And he runs and he finds refuge in the tent of Yael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. And just like Eve ate the fruit and experienced a type of death the same day, Sisera takes of the milk given by Yael, falls asleep, and Yael crushes his skull with a tent stake. The seed of the serpent is embodied within the enemies of Israel. As a result, Yael is called this in Judges : "Most blessed of women be Yael, the wife of Heber the Kenite."

Quite the contrast of the curse of the serpent, right? Yael is blessed among women. The serpent is cursed among the beasts. Now, why is she blessed among women? Judges "She sent her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workman's mallet. She struck Sisera, she crushed his head, she shattered and pierced his skull between her feet. He sank, he fell, he lies still between her feet." Where? Between her feet. "He sank, he fell where he sank. There he fell dead." Now, if that phrase, "Blessed among women are you," rings a bell, it should. It's the same phrase that Luke uses to identify Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Just a few chapters later, the biblical authors give us yet another occurrence of a woman crushing the head of an enemy of Israel. And it's in the story of Abimelech. Abimelech was the son of Gideon and he took the reign as king. He was not a great guy though. He ended up killing all 70 of his brothers to make sure his throne was untouched. And, well, he was reckless. He participated in Canaanite worship and... he was just a bad guy. I mean, if you read the story, do we have another candidate for the seed of the serpent, anybody? Right here. So Abimelech is ravaging the countryside. He's killing men and women in the name of battle. He sets fire to strongholds that contain a thousand men and women for them to burn alive. And then he goes on to the next city and he sees another stronghold. So he begins to burn it too. Oh, but there's a girl that drops a milestone on his head. Sorry to break it to you, buddy, but she got you good, man. She uses it.

Goliath and the Serpent's Seed

Ezekiel labels the Philistines as being the enmity with Israel. And that word is used there to trigger us back to images used in Genesis -15. The serpent has enmity with the seed of the woman. The Philistines, the enemies of Israel, have enmity against or with Israel. So, who is the hero of the Philistines? Of course, Goliath. And how does the hero of the Philistines, Goliath, get described? Well, in 1 Samuel chapter 17, he's described as wearing bronze armor, a bronze helmet, a bronze javelin, and bronze armor on his legs. The word bronze here is the Hebrew word nakashet. It's one consonant off for the word that's used for snake or serpent in Genesis 3, which is nakosh.

Oh, and it also says that his armor had scales on them. And it's interesting. His name, Golgoliot of Gath, or Goliath of Gath. What's the Hebrew word for skull again? Golgoliot. So in the narrative, we have this figure that has enmity with Israel, the seed of the woman, is described four times in one verse with a word that sounds the same as snake, and the author wanted to make sure we knew that he had scales on his armor. Oh, and his name forces the word skull in our faces. I wonder what's going to happen. Oh, David. David is going to crush the skull of the enmity. The one described as a dragon, the Tanin, Nakas, with a rock.

So what happens next? David defeats the seed of the serpent. Yes, he crushed the skull. Victorious, right? Finally, victorious. Well, David goes on to celebrate after he kills Goliath. A huge party is thrown. We won! It's a huge party. The very next chapter, everyone is cheering and they're all chanting. They're chanting, Saul has struck down his thousands, but David, his tens of thousands. And what's the result? It says that Saul became very angry. He became jealous of David's favor, just like Cain became jealous of Abel's. See, the story of the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent is a repeating one in the Hebrew Bible.

It doesn't just stop. And I believe the focal point is understanding that your allegiance is what determines your lineage here. Here we see the attitude of the serpent dying in Goliath but re-emerging in Saul. This is like a scene out of The Exorcist. It's hopped to another host. But no, the reality is it's an issue of the heart. It's an issue of the heart.

The Heart, Not the Law

No wonder the religious leaders in the New Testament were accused of having Satan as their father. Where was their allegiance? What was the accusation? That is what the Hebrew Bible is actually all about. Your heart. Where does your allegiance lie? The Torah, the writings of the prophets, all of it is a story about mankind forfeiting their vocational calling to stand as the images of God in creation, to rule alongside God with His spirit of mercy, justice, and peace. We forfeit it because of the issue within our hearts. That's what Moses says. Oh, that you would have the heart within you. Moses understood when he gave that great pep talk before Israel went into the land.

You guys aren't going to make it. You have this awesome Torah. It's a gift from God, but you are not capable of actualizing its spirit. The Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament is literally a story of how Torah was not enough to enable a people to live out God's calling and vocation for them. Not the Torah's fault. That's why during the exile, prophets begin to rise up with a message of hope. A message of the future. Ezekiel and Jeremiah carry this motif of receiving heart surgery and heart transplants. Ezekiel says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, a heart transplant."

And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and careful to keep my laws. Jeremiah 31, 31 has the same type of theme in his prophecy. This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel. After that time, declares the Lord, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. Now, Isaiah has a different theme. Isaiah comes along and his vision for this time when the kingdom of God will become inaugurated on earth, where this king will rule as God's true image to the world, he can't help but to describe it as a new creation.

In Isaiah it says, "See, I will create a new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind." It's a time when, he says, "the wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like an ox, and dust will be the serpent's food." Look, at this time, when God's kingdom is birthed into this broken world, fusing heaven and earth together, wolves and lambs will eat together. It will be as if lions are going around eating grass instead of thriving off death. But look at that in the verse. Did you catch it in Isaiah? The snake. What will be the snake's food when God's final victory is assumed over evil and sin and the destructive powers of the adversary?

The snake? He will forever eat dust, just as Genesis tells us.

The New Creation Arrives

So, all of this taken into account, we enter the New Testament where Luke begins his letter with a story of Elizabeth and Zacharias. And what does Elizabeth say when she sees Mary? In a loud voice she exclaimed, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child that you bear." Blessed is you among women. Why? Because the child she's about to bear. She's excited and she's saying this because it's time. This is going to be the child that crushes the serpent's head forever. This is the skull crusher. Gosh, Mary is such an amazing figure in the Gospels. And it's actually unfortunate that in our pursuit sometimes to be more righteous than all of the other denominations out there, we almost intentionally want to minimize the author's directive to exalt Mary as the woman who is bringing forth the skull crusher.

With Mary, we are literally seeing the climactic fulfillment of the first gospel in Genesis . Why is this important? You could say Mary is the new Eve, much like Yeshua is the new Adam. In Genesis 3, Eve is prophesied that her offspring, her seed, will crush the serpent. But the serpent will strike the seed. And here in Luke, Mary is the woman whose seed will crush the serpent. But whose seed will also be struck by the serpent? The paradox. The paradox. The seed must be struck in order to kill the beast. You guys want to see something neat in John? So, John begins his account of this person of Yeshua, how?

In the beginning. This is of course to draw our minds back to the original creation account in Genesis chapter 1. However, John rewrites the creation account. Instead of listing all of the three things in creation coming forth, John makes this bold claim that no, no, the only way life can be found is through the person of Yeshua. The only things that are truly alive today come through and only through the power and the person of Yeshua. This is John writing a new creation account. The new creation account. See, in John's eyes and in Paul's, the prophecies of new creation have reached their fulfillment in the person of Yeshua.

This is why Paul quotes Isaiah 65 when he writes to the Corinthians saying, "...therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the new is here." 1 Corinthians 5.17 So, John is triggering our mind to go back to Genesis as a renewed retelling of the story. What most Christian scholars have observed is the timeline that John actually gives us. Not only has John started his account and witness to Yeshua with a retelling of new creation, but Christian scholars have observed a seven-day cycle within the text.

Day one is the testimony of John the Baptist in John . And then in John , you'll notice that John writes "the next day." That's two days, and we have the baptism of Jesus. Then in John , we see John write again "the next day" when Jesus meets Andrew and Peter. And then in John , guess what John writes again? "The next day" where he meets Philip and Nathaniel. Now, in John 2:1, he writes the third day. The third day. But we're already four days in. Why is he writing the third day? What's he doing? Well, this is at the wedding of Cana. In John 2:1, the third day doesn't make sense because it's technically the fifth day, unless John was hoping for the reader to add the third day onto the four days that he had already mentioned. And if that's true, what day do we arrive at? Day 7, at the wedding of Cana.

The Wedding of Cana

And what takes place on the seventh day in John's chronology? The wedding of Cana. What takes place at the wedding is pretty neat because it's Jesus' first miracle. That's right, and it's also the first appearance of Mary in John. In fact, Mary only appears twice in John's Gospel account. She appears here at the wedding where Jesus' first miracle happens, and she also appears the second time at the crucifixion scene. That's it. John is connecting those two events together. So let's read the text in John chapter 2 concerning what takes place at the wedding. Now, on the third day, there was a marriage in Cana, in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

Jesus also was invited to the marriage with his disciples. When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. And Jesus said to her, woman, what is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. Now six stone jars were standing there for the Jewish rites of purification, each one holding 20 or 30 gallons. Jesus said to them, Fill the jars with water. And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, Now draw some out. And take it to the steward of the feast. So they took it, and the steward of the feast tasted the water, and it had now become wine, and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.

The steward of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, Every man serves the good wine first, and when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now. This is the first of His signs Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested His glory and His disciples believed in Him. John 2:1-11 Now, here we see the trigger phrase on the third day. But what else did you notice about the story? Was there anything that you noticed that made you a little uncomfortable? Come on. The alleged decorum of Yeshua bothered you. Who calls their mother "woman"? Jesus does. Guys, let's be honest.

Husbands, can you get away with calling your spouse "woman," much less your own mother, much less a Jewish mother in the story? No. I don't believe it for a heartbeat.

Woman in Genesis

So, notice here that the way scholars arrive at seven days is by interpreting John's references sequentially and adding the first four days to the third day. In light of such parallels, it seems the Gospel of John is modeling the first days of Yeshua's ministry on the first week of creation in Genesis. John here is depicting Yeshua as a new Adam whose public ministry is beginning a new creation. This is it. John is convinced the birthing of new creation, the inauguration of God's climactic kingdom prophesied in Isaiah is here, through Yeshua. Now, if the seven-day counting in John is a correct interpretation, it provides a helpful explanation for why Jesus addresses His mother as "woman" in John 2:4.

Contrary to what some readers assume, He's not disrespecting Mary, which is His mom. John is simply continuing to use the words that link us back to Genesis 1-3. He's linking us back to the woman in Genesis , Eve. The woman whose seed will be the skull crusher of the serpent. Now, this occurrence of woman happens in two places: John and Revelation. That's right, Revelation chapter 12, John's apocalyptic nativity where the woman clothed with the sun and the moon at her feet gives birth to the child that will have dominion over all nations. The child is caught up to his throne as a result and the dragon, aka the serpent, was defeated.

Mary as the Counter-Eve

Now, some scholars believe Revelation 12 speaks of Mary, while others see her as the collective group of people, the people of God. I think it's just neat to see the imagery of Mary being in that role. She's like the counter Eve. Eve was called woman, just like Mary was called woman. Eve invited Adam to commit the first sin, while Mary invites Yeshua to perform the first miracle. Eve was with Adam in the fall, tempted by the devil to sin, while Mary was with Yeshua at His crucifixion. While Eve was the mother of the offspring who conquers the servant, Mary is the woman whose offspring conquers the devil. We know the long-awaited one was not Yael. It was not the girl who threw the milestone to Abimelech. It was not Esther. It was not David. All of these were shadows of what was to come. We know who the skull crusher is, the one who took the strike of the serpent in order to kill the serpent.

Colossians 2.15 says, And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. It is through the cross that the beast was defeated. It is through the cross that the banner of triumph is raised. It is through the cross that we find God's self-sacrificial love for us.

God's Love Demonstrated

Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrated His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." While you were yet sinners, while you were yet without the commandments of God, while you were yet a foreigner of God's covenants and His kingdom, God said, "They are mine." God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son. And so what happens now? Well, the message of the cross does not simply stop with the cross. No, it starts with the cross and goes forward, outward. Romans says this: "And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit that lives in you." Yeah, the same Spirit of Yeshua is given freely to you when you pledge allegiance to Him as King and His Kingdom. His Kingdom is victorious, right? Does that mean that you are also given the same victory over the serpent?

Victory Over Evil

See, when Paul was speaking to the church in Corinth, there were those who were divided, who argued, who only wanted to use the Bible and the knowledge of Yeshua to fuel their own pride. And this was the opposite of what the actual message of Yeshua was. He reminds the church in Rome of the victory that they have over evil when it comes to these types of contentious people. In Romans he says this: "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. Now here, Paul is pulling from Psalm 110 as well as inferring John 3.15. Yeshua is the one who trampled the serpent. When evil arises in your midst, know that God has given you that victory. God uses peace to conquer. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet wherever he may be manifesting. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

The Seed of Woman

So, in this message, we learned about the first gospel in Genesis 3.15, the prophecy of how the seed of the woman will crush the serpent, but will be struck in the process. We see a pattern of those bearing the seed of the serpent and those who are participating in the prophetic message that the seed will be crushed. And finally, we come to the New Testament authors who proclaim it is Yeshua, it is Jesus. He is the Son of the Woman. He is the One that was called to crush the skull of the serpent once and for all. And we believe this was done on the cross. As a result, we have access to new life, a new creation, the very spirit of triumph, and access to the kingdom that knows no bounds.

So, I hope this message was edifying. It was a very basic overview, but I hope it encourages you to jump in and take this study to a deeper level. It's a wonder why some of the scribes and Pharisees were called the sons of the devil in the New Testament. The language used throughout the New Testament is intentional. Whose seed are you? The one that strikes the heel of God's sovereignty, or the one that crushes it? So I hope it gets you to dive into the Word. But more than that, I hope it inspires you towards a stronger and more intentional relationship with Yeshua. So my name is Matthew Vanderells with Founded in Truth, and Shalom.

I'm Matthew Vanderells, and I hope you enjoyed this message. Founded in Truth exists to build a community that bears the image of God and lives the redeemed life only Yeshua gives. If this message impacted you or if this ministry has been a blessing to you, we invite you to take part in making sure the message of Yeshua and the truth of God's word continues to reach others.

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