The birth of the Lord Jesus was an event long anticipated by His people. Generations of saints lived anticipating the coming of God's Messiah/Saviour. Sometimes error was mixed up in that expectation, as in 4:1. This text has the distinction of being the very first announcement of an event planned in eternity past. Even though the Saviour appears here in anonymity, there is no mistaking that He is in fact the one identified as the seed of the woman. Creation at this point has just been freshly polluted by the fall of mankind into sin. That Fall brought ruin upon the created order and plunged mankind in spiritual darkness and death. Man, created to be the very chief of God's creation after his probation, had become the voluntary slave of the devil. The birth of Christ is central to God's purpose to combat and ultimately destroy the influence of Satan over creation. This announcement gives us a first insight into how He intends to do that—by declaring war on Satan and predicting the coming of the Divine Champion who will wage it. Christ's birth is to be seen as an act of war!!