First Prophecy
What is the first prophecy in the Bible? Who gave it and to whom is it directed?
Since Genesis is the first book in the Bible, let’s start our search there. We won’t have to look far. We find the first prophecy in the second chapter. The prophecy concerns a man, a woman, a serpent, a tree and ultimately, you and me.
The man (both male-man and female-man) is God’s first recorded human species to be created for planet earth.
Two Trees
The Tree mentioned in the prophecy is one of many in the Garden of Eden. God told the man that he could eat fruit freely from any tree in the garden, with one exception. God commanded Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Here’s a wonder; did Adam wander through the garden looking for that forbidden tree? The Bible doesn’t say, but here’s what it does say…“for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:15-17 Concerning the death penalty, the literal Hebrew text states, ‘dying you shall die’. That sounds like the man is going to die twice doesn’t it? Indeed they did.
The man and his wife Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They died instantaneously…spiritually separated from their Creator. God swiftly expelled them from the Garden lest they eat from the tree of life and doom themselves and all future generations to death without the possibility of parole. After their spiritual death in the garden, their souls and bodies lived on for hundreds of years.
Nevertheless, outside the garden, they did indeed succumb to physical death.
All in the Family
You and I are decedents of Adam. We were born in the prison of sin; dead, separated from God. Thus, the prophecy has been, or will be fulfilled by *every person born from Adam onward. Fortunately, the Judge of all creation offers a freeway to freedom.
What else do we know about that serpent? The serpent represents Satan, the devil who is evil incarnate. God commanded Adam not to eat from that tree because He didn’t want him, nor us to know evil. Satan deceived the woman by telling her she wouldn’t die. Adam wasn’t deceived, he simply swallowed the devil’s lie. So God prophesied to the serpent saying, “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He will bruise your head and you shall bruise His Heel.” Genesis 3:15
This prophecy was fulfilled at Jesus’ first coming. Satan bruised Jesus when He was nailed to the cross. Jesus bruised (or fatally crushed) Satan after Jesus died on the cross, descended into the underworld, took the keys of hell and death then rose from the dead. (Ephesians 4:9-10, Revelation 1:18)
*Enoch and Elijah are the only two individuals mentioned in scripture who did not die a physical death. However, it is commonly believed (and I concur) that they are the two witnesses who will be killed during the tribulation. Here, they will be martyred, thus fulfilling the first prophecy in the Bible. Revelation 11:1-12
