In the beginning
God creates Adam and Eve, who are human beings with eternal souls, and permits them to live in the perfect world of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2).
God gives one law, that they should not eat from one certain tree, for if they do, they will die (spiritually and physically):
but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. (Genesis 2:17, WEB)
Adam and Eve, however, eat from that one tree, after being tempted by Satan. God then calls out the problem of sin and alludes to the need for a solution, which we later learn is a savior who would suffer and die for the sins of others:
I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15, WEB)
In this verse, God is the speaker, the you and your refer to Satan, and the He is the savior who would resolve the problem of sin, by confronting Satan, by injuring Satan, and by becoming injured himself, for the benefit of the offspring of Eve, which would be all of humanity. The injuries should be understood as being fatal, because Genesis 3:15 is about the problem of sin, and because Genesis 2:17 already told us that sin leads to death.
Genesis 3:15 introduces us to the problem of sin and the promise of a solution (the Messiah). These are the two underlying themes for the rest of the Bible.
The details of this prophecy in Genesis 3:15 are revisited and expanded upon in Isaiah 52:13-53:12. Both are prophecies that foretold that the Messiah would suffer and die for the sins of others.
Genesis 3:15 is the first mention of a problem, of any kind, in the Bible, which is the problem of sin. And it contains the first prophecy about the Messiah, who is to be the savior to the world and resolve the problem of sin, so that believers can regain what Adam and Eve lost -- eternal life in a perfect world, which is known as heaven, the Kingdom of Heaven, and as the Kingdom of God.
Genesis 3:15, and its relationship to other prophecies in the Old Testament, is explained in detail in the book, Jesus the Messiah, by Ray Konig.
Related article: The Messiah would reconcile mankind with God
Next: God chooses Abraham as part of God's plan of salvation
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