Reading Reflection Assignment
Malcolm Short
BIBL 315: Major Prophets
December 10, 2022
The Messianic prophecies are fundamental to understanding the biblical metanarrative.
The prophecies are not randomly dispersed within the text of the Bible but strategically woven
throughout, revealing God’s solution to a restored relationship with His creation. Humanity’s
sinful condition created the need for a Messianic figure, and God’s grace produced a deliverer.
God uses the Old Testament to introduce the Messiah and His purposes and New Testament to
execute His atoning work.
My favorite prophecy to examine begins the Messianic texts of the Old Testament.
Genesis 3:15 is the first introduction to a promised “seed” that will crush the head of the
representative of evil, the serpent. Seth Postell clarifies, “The serpent stands as the parentcreature
in a metaphorical line of evildoers who oppose God’s purposes for humanity and who war
1
against a divinely appointed seed.”1 However, there are several debates surrounding whether the
serpent-crushing seed represents a Messianic promise. This verse has always piqued my interest
because if it loses its Messianic value, it fails to set the stage for the following Messianic text of
the Pentateuch. Although God curses humanity because of the disobedience in the garden, He
immediately provides hope for His fallen creation. Postell states, “Adam and Eve’s disobedience
in Gn 3 became the catalyst of a plot embracing all humanity, a plot that ultimately found
resolution through the victory of a particular seed (collective and singular) from Adam’s line…
over hostile enemies….”2 Failing to acknowledge the Messianic implications of Gen 3:15 results
in the following chapters losing redemptive significance.
God continues to provide contradictions of the seed of evil vs. the seed of good
throughout the development of Israel’s history, which follows the pattern of the curses and
promises in Genesis 3. Indications of this pattern can be seen as early as one generation post
paradisical exile. In Genesis 4, the story of Cain and Abel clarifies the meaning and patterns of
Genesis 3. Cain’s actions and expulsion from his home reflect his successors’ story in the garden,
and God’s curse on Cain deems him and his children as the serpent’s seed.3 Postell emphasizes
another significant observation, “a number of key words in Gn 4:25 (woman, to put, seed) appear
in only one other place in the entire Hebrew Bible, Gn 3:15. This means we must look to Gn
4:25 to gain further insight into the meaning of Gn 3:15.”4 Eve’s wording denotes an indication
that seed of the woman in Gen 3:15 can be interpreted as an individual son.5 She states, “God has
granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” (Gen 4:25 NIV). This implies
1 Seth D. Postell, “Genesis 3:15: The Promised Seed,” in The Moody Handbook of Messianic Prophecy:
Studies and Expositions of the Messiah in the Old Testament, ed. Michael Rydelnik and Edwin Blum (Chicago, IL:
Moody Publishers, 2019), 245.
2 Ibid., 242.
3 Postell, “Genesis 3:15: The Promised Seed,” in The Moody Handbook of Messianic Prophecy, 245.
4 Ibid., 245.
5 Ibid., 245.
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the assumed rivalry between the wicked seed and the good seed. 6 Through these texts, the
serpent is identified as the progenitor of evil, and its seed, as the opposition to
God’s redemptive plan. The righteous seed of the woman, divinely preserved and appointed by
God, ultimately culminated as the Messiah, Jesus Christ.7
Jesus taught, and His disciples understood that the entirety of the Old Testament led to
His life and work. Michael Rydelnik asserts, “The Lord’s point was not that there is one verse in
each section of the Hebrew Bible that points to the Messiah. Rather, Jesus was saying that the
whole Hebrew Bible, down to the DNA level, was messianic.”8 The disciples understood these
prophecies using various methods of prediction and fulfillment. The Moody Handbook of
Messianic Prophecy explains these techniques as direct, typical, applicational, and summary
fulfillment. Rydelnik clarifies that the New Testament writers did not use creative interpretation,
failing to understand these prophecies in context.9 He states, “Rather, their hermeneutics were
contextual and reflective of the intent of the OT passages.”10 Just as the New Testament writers,
it is imperative to view the Old Testament as a redemptive book of Messianic intent.11
6 Ibid., 245.
7 Ibid., 249.
8 Michael A. Rydelnik and Edwin A. Blum, “Introduction,” in The Moody Handbook of Messianic
Prophecy: Studies and Expositions of the Messiah in the Old Testament, ed. Michael Rydelnik and Edwin Blum
(Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2019), 26.
9 Michael A. Rydelnik, “The Old Testament in the New Testament,” in The Moody Handbook of Messianic
Prophecy: Studies and Expositions of the Messiah in the Old Testament, ed. Michael Rydelnik and Edwin Blum
(Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2019), 114.
10 Ibid., 114.
11 Ibid., 114.
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Bibliography
Rydelnik, Michael, and Edwin Blum, eds. The Moody Handbook of Messianic Prophecy: Studies
and Expositions of the Messiah in the Old Testament. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers,
2019.
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