We begin this morning at Genesis 3:15 where, in the course of condemning the serpent, the Edenic promise is given. As we read it, we wonder what our first parents understood by this statement to the serpent. Did they see its long-range implications? And we need to ask ourselves: What are the implications of this statement by God for us?
The events of Genesis 3
The sequence of events started with God’s command to Adam in Genesis 2:17 (RSV throughout): “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.” Included was the consequence of death for non-compliance, “for in the day you eat of it you shall die.”
Sometime later, the woman and the serpent had a conversation about the command and the consequences of disobedience. The woman supplies two previously unrecorded details. The tree was “in the midst of the garden” and they were not even to “touch it, lest you die.” The serpent also provides supplemental information. It had somehow concluded there were other previously unstated consequences namely, “God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened” and “you will be like God knowing good and evil.” In addition, the serpent added the great lie: “You will not die.”
Accepting this rationale the woman started down the path of self destruction. She saw, took and with her husband ate the good, delightful and wisdom-providing, but forbidden, fruit.
Sin has consequences
Some consequences were immediate: “The eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons” (Gen. 3:7). But death was not immediate — not only did they not die “in the day,” but they both lived to have children and Adam continued to live until he was 930 years old, some 800 years after the birth of Seth.
The man and woman tried to conceal their nakedness and their embarrassment from God by covering themselves with fig leaves and by hiding among the other trees. This is an obvious contrast to the earlier comment that they were naked but unashamed (Gen. 2:25). Their effort at concealment could not succeed for “before him [God] no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Heb. 4:13).
These experiences were new and unsettling to them as they are to any human when he recognizes the searching power and sovereignty of God. We also have to learn that we cannot escape God’s detection or find our own cover for sin. A sin-covering is only provided by God through Jesus.
The punishment
In spite of trying to shift the blame — an interesting revelation of how much we are like our first parents -punishment was pronounced.
The serpent was “cursed” being forced to “go” on its “belly” and “eat dust” in a much reduced stature. In addition, the familiarity that once existed between it and the woman was replaced with “enmity” that has lasted for generations.
The woman was told childbearing would be painful. She was also informed cleaving to her husband would be more emotionally intense. And, in a clear rebuke of her performance, God said the “husband…shall rule over you” implying the serpent had dominated her thinking and behavior. The bride of Christ must also not let the serpent rule over her.
Adam was told living and working conditions would undergo a drastic change. The good ground was cursed, tilling became toil and providing food became a sweaty task. Finally, a return to the dust was now guaranteed for them both.
Their descendants share the same fate.
God provides hope
In Genesis 3:20, 21, God injects a message of hope for the primal pair and provides some basic principles for the rest of mankind. It is significant the woman is now named for the first time. Eve means “living,” so named by Adam because “she was the mother of all living” (v. 20).
Note that she is the mother of all living, not the mother of all dead! This phrase suggests a lesson had been learned and a repentant, faithful response to God’s discipline had been evidenced.
When referring to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Jesus says of God, “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Lk. 20:38). Not only is Eve physically the mother of the human race, she is the mother of those who always live before God. By naming her “Eve,” Adam recognized her unique relationship to the faithful of all ages.
Along with Adam, Eve demonstrates how to avoid death and together they are the first human recipients of God’s grace. The Lord God made coats of skins for their covering, shedding blood that these sinners might be covered. This principle is repeated throughout scripture and in the life and death of Jesus. Forgiveness is only available when an effective sacrifice is made through the shedding of blood. This is God’s provision for any of the human race who confesses his sins and repents. Forgiveness is available to us because of Christ’s perfect sacrifice.
God in His mercy acted to save them. The covering of their sin was God’s guarantee that the victorious conquest over sin by a male descendant would benefit them and all their descendants.
The seed of the woman
Considering again Genesis 3:15 we note “enmity” means a “state of being enemies.” This enmity resulted in a conflict between two combatants: the serpent, a figure for sin, and the seed of the mother of all living, even the Lord Jesus Christ. The seed of the woman “shall bruise” the “head” of the serpent. On the other hand, the serpent “shall bruise” the “heel” of the woman’s seed. The seed of the woman is presented as the victor.
An interesting observation — it is not the seed of Adam who is to accomplish this. Yet the seed is a male, “he shall bruise your head” (3:15) as Mary the mother of Jesus was told: “You shall conceive in your womb and bear a son” (Lk. 1:31). Jesus’ unique birth by the power of the holy spirit was thus indicated in the words of Genesis 3:15.
The serpent is gender less and therefore represents sin in all flesh, male and female. Herein lies a message that all sin at some point will be dealt a death blow by being struck in the head while “he,” the victor, will feel pain in the heel from which he can recover and continue to live.
Abraham understood the principles
When we consider the incident of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22, we see the depth of their understanding of God’s saving ways. This sequence is an enacted parable in which Abraham and Isaac portray the future work of God and Jesus. Abraham is willing to give up the life of his only son based on his confidence in the resurrection of the body. Isaac submitted obediently and whole-heartedly to his father’s will and was willing to die at God’s behest.
In Romans 4:1-5, Paul comments on the reasons for their actions and relationship with God. The apostle says faith and trust which produce courageous action are the two qualities that allow God to justify, forgive and count us righteous even when sin has occurred. He continues this theme in verses 13 and 16-25, where the emphasis is on faith. The fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham were dependent on Abraham’s faith. Even if he were to kill his son, as God requested, he never doubted that God would be true to His word to make Abraham “the father of many nations.”
Abraham saw Christ’s day and was glad
But there is more evidence of their faith. In Genesis 22:7,8, Abraham’s response to Isaac’s question demonstrates the depth of his faith and breadth of his understanding as he sees the future salvation. “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” In faith “they went both of them together” (v. 8). This unity of spirit and action foreshadows the unity of purpose that God and Jesus were to demonstrate. The ram caught in a thicket is symbolic of the Lamb of God. Interestingly, the Hebrew word translated “thicket” is sabach. It is the word included in the phrase uttered by Jesus on the cross: “Eloi, Eloi, Lama sabach-thani?” Which means “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken (entangled) me?” (Mark 15:34) thus linking the Lord to the ram entangled in the thicket
Look at some other details and see how Abraham rejoiced to “see” Christ’s day when the “lamb of God” would “take away the sin of the world.” Consider the wood Isaac’s father laid on him and compare how the gospel describes Jesus bearing his own cross on which he was to be the offering (John 19:17).
The “place of which God had told” Abraham is in Mount Moriah (Gen. 22:9), the same area where God gave His son as an offering. David later selected this site as the location of the temple to house the God of Israel. At the same site, Jesus’ body was the temple he referred to when he told the religious leaders “destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). This was the real temple in which God manifested Himself, the temple of Christ’s body in which “the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Col. 1:19). Jesus is the temple site “in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:21,22).
The Edenic covenant on Calvary
Jesus did receive a painful wound in the heel when he was nailed to the cross by the ruler of the world. But the serpent-sin power was dealt a fatal blow when Jesus overcame sin and rose to newness of life. God has “forgiven us all our trespasses, having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it on the cross” (Col 2:13,14). “We should be of good cheer,” says Jesus, “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Jesus says, “Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day, he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). David foresaw “future generations” (II Sam. 7:19) and “spoke of the resurrection of the Christ” (Acts 2:31). God’s faithful people have always had a vision which propelled them into faithful service. We have their visions preserved in the Bible and in symbol on this table before us. Do we share their vision of Christ’s future day? Do we enact in our lives living parables which express the depth of our trust in the Almighty.
Listen to the words of Jesus: “This is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:39,40).
These principles bring joy to us
Let us together, as we partake of this feast, actively rejoice that we have seen Christ’s day of resurrection and kingship. Let us renew our resolve to be servants of each other and our God while we joyously and enthusiastically prepare ourselves to be the dwelling place of the fullness of God in the day of our Master’s return. Let us pray earnestly for the time when we become “perfectly one” with God and Jesus.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One