Good Friday

And I will put enmity

Between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her Seed;

He shall bruise you on the head,

And you shall bruise Him on the heel.

Genesis 3:15

Thus God cursed the serpent in the Garden, who tempted our first parents to exchange peace for brokenness.  

Satan would have the satisfaction of bruising the Promised One; though it would be as a mere wounded heel compared to the beating Satan would receive in return.  

Yet, in the meantime, while the weary, now fallen world awaited the One, striving reigned.

Behold, there were twins in her womb.  Now the first came forth... and they named him Esau.  Afterward his brother came forth with his hand holding onto Esau's heel, so his name was called Jacob ['One who takes by the heel'].

Genesis 25:24-26

Today we remember the day that Satan had his victory--when darkness triumphed, the Son of God was slain, the earth shook and God turned His face away.

But!  That horrific crucifixion scene was only as a bruised heel compared to the death blow that Satan would publicly receive three days hence.

Thus the moment of the serpent's triumph was the moment of his defeat.

God's people are not, in the end, crushed to death by the weight of their sin, but freed from it by the very One Whose heel was bruised on their behalf.

[Jacob] took Esau by the heel in the womb in order to obtain, if possible, the privileges of the first-born...

So the spiritual Israel lays hold of the heel of Jesus, "the First-born of many brethren"... 

Having no right in themselves to the inheritance, they lay hold of the bruised heel... and let not go their hold of Him who is not, as Esau, a curse, but, by becoming a curse for us, is a blessing to us.

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary on Hosea 12:3

When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

Galatians 4:4-5