807. Dean Payne-Smith speaks of this wonderful passage, Genesis 3:15, as “that promise, of which the whole of the rest of Scripture is but the record of the gradual stages of its fulfillment.” But though Jesus Christ has conquered death, by rising from the grave, the enmity still continues; the conflict is still on. Christ is seated at the right hand of God; nevertheless “we see not yet all things put under his feet” (Hebrews 2:8), for He sits “on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool” (Hebrews 10:12-13).
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809. Such being the facts¾and who can dispute them?¾have we not every reason for thinking that God would provide, in prophecy, some vision which would exhibit not a partial, a typical, but a final, complete fulfillment of that Great Promise that He had made regarding woman and her seed?
810. The student will now be prepared for an exhibition of the complete fulfillment of God’s promise that the seed of the woman should crush the Serpent’s head. The revelation of that greater fulfillment will be found in John’s vision of events attendant upon the Lord’s second coming¾Revelation 12. But the last verse of chapter 11 should be joined with it. John saw that the Temple of God was opened in heaven, “And there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament.” This last word is the same one which is translated in other places “covenant;” so we will read it “covenant” here,¾“The ark of His covenant.” God wishes all in heaven to witness that He remembers His covenant; He opens the temple in heaven,¾that is, the inner sanctuary of it,¾so that all can see into the very “holy of holies,” see the ark in it, to be reminded of a certain covenant. The twelfth chapter must, then, show the fulfillment of that certain covenant,¾or, at least, the beginning of its fulfillment.
