In the book of origins, Genesis, the first prophecy emerges in Genesis 3:14-15, revealing God's plan to redeem mankind. Within the curse on the serpent, God exposes the role of Satan in humanity's sinfulness and foretells the devil's future humiliating punishment. Simultaneously, God promises a Savior and His church, preaching the fundamentals of the gospel to our first parents. Though the immediate effects of the curses seem burdensome, the struggle against Satan's deceptions and the ongoing battle prepare human character to inherit eternal life. We live in hope and faith that God will see this curse through to its end, bringing about the total humiliation and imprisonment of the adversary.

Genesis, the book of origins, contains the foundational elements of prophecy, holding the key to identifying significant names of people and nations that feature in later prophecies, as well as introducing numerous symbols and basic principles of interpretation. Within its pages, the first prophecy is recorded in Genesis 3:14-19, a passage often overlooked but crucial for understanding fundamental relationships and consequences. This prophecy encapsulates the nature of satan's relationship to Christ and the church, woman's relationship with man, man's struggle with nature, and the role of sin in human suffering. The setting of this initial prophecy unfolds in the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve, deceived by satan through a serpent, disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit. God's judgment, expressed as curses, reflects the consequences of their rebellion. Though they had received clear instruction from God, their actions and subsequent blame-shifting revealed their character, leading God to voice the inevitable outcomes of their sin in prophetic terms. This prophecy outlines satan's ultimate guilt and punishment, the ongoing conflict between genders, mankind's struggle for survival, and the necessity of a Savior to mend the damage caused by sin. Addressing the serpent, God sets it apart from other creatures as a symbol of satan, the originator of sin. The imagery of the serpent crawling on its belly and eating dust signifies humiliation, serving as a constant reminder to both humanity and satan of the devil's ultimate fate of abasement before God. This theme of humiliation and imprisonment continues as a certainty throughout the scriptures. God further prophesies a spiritual enmity between the serpent and the woman, symbolizing the church, and between their respective seeds. The seed of the woman is identified as the Messiah, Jesus Christ, while satan's seed represents those who rebel against God. The prophecy details a conflict where the Messiah will crush the serpent's head, a fatal blow rendering satan powerless, while satan will merely strike the Messiah's heel, causing temporary harm. This imagery underscores satan's subservience and mortification under the Messiah's authority, a recurring theme of victory and submission. In Genesis 3:14-15, God symbolically preaches the gospel to the first sinners immediately after their transgression, ensuring they are aware of the truth. This early prophecy lays out the major elements of God's plan, revealing the spiritual battle and the ultimate triumph of Christ over satan. As part of the woman's seed, the body of Christ shares in the Messiah's victory and anticipates the rewards in God's Kingdom.

The inclusion of economic themes in biblical prophecy begins as early as Genesis 3, where God pronounces judgment on Adam following his sin in the Garden of Eden. This pronouncement, found in Genesis 3:17-19, constitutes what is identified as the First Prophecy, and it carries profound implications for the entire course of human history. Through this curse, sinful mankind is doomed to hard labor in order to produce what he needs merely to survive, finding himself pitted against nature in a brutal struggle for existence. The prophecy foretells that man, worn down by a lifetime of arduous toil, will ultimately return to the earth having lived a futile life and accomplished little of lasting value. This foundational prophecy establishes that human life would center on meeting basic needs, subduing the environment, and striving to get ahead economically, leaving little time or energy for more important spiritual pursuits, particularly the seeking of God. Compounding this reality, the verses that follow reveal that most of humanity would be cut off from God and His way of life altogether. As a result, human existence would be structured around conflict, fear, aggression, and misery, with war, greed, lack, and death becoming the rule rather than the exception throughout history. This dynamic set in motion by the First Prophecy connects directly to the broader trajectory of biblical prophecy concerning the end times. The deteriorating human condition established in Genesis 3 is shown to intensify progressively until conditions become so severe that, as Christ Himself warned, no flesh would be saved unless those days were shortened. This establishes an essential principle that runs throughout the whole of Scripture's prophetic material: economic hardship, born from the original curse on mankind's labor, is not a minor or incidental detail but a driving force behind the escalating crises of the end time. By opening the biblical narrative with a prophecy so deeply rooted in economic consequence, the pattern is set for economic factors to remain a consistent and significant thread throughout the whole of prophetic Scripture, from the patriarchal promises and tribal blessings of Genesis and Deuteronomy through the warnings of the prophets and into the New Testament's depictions of the last days. The First Prophecy thus serves as the foundation upon which all subsequent economic themes in prophecy are built, demonstrating that the struggle for survival and provision, born out of humanity's separation from God, would remain a defining characteristic of human civilization until the return of Jesus Christ brings an end to the curse and ushers in true and lasting prosperity under God's rule.