12 Extraordinary Women, Week 4
Notes
Transcript
Her Expectation
Her Expectation
Last week, we looked at the curse of Adam and of Eve. Adam would have to till the land, fighting weeds and varmints. Eve would bear the the pains of childbirth, and there would be conflict between woman and man for headship and authority. As bad as those sound, though, God’s curse on the serpent was the most severe of all. In the most literal and obvious sense, the curse appears to be addressed to the actual reptile. But remember, this reptile was somehow indwelt or controlled by Satan. The true significance of the curse, therefore, actually looks beyond the snake and his species. Its primary message is a grim sentence of condemnation against Satan himself.
Still, the curse does have important implications for the literal serpent and his species. Don’t miss the fact that the Lord implicitly declares “all cattle, and … every beast of the field” accursed (Gen. 3:14 nkjv). Of course, God did not hold the animal kingdom culpable for Adam’s sin. (Scripture never portrays animals as morally sentient beings, and this is no exception. Even in the case of the serpent, the moral fault lay in the satanic spirit who used the reptile’s form, and not in the beast itself.) But God cursed even the animals for Adam’s sin. In other words, the curse on them was part of God’s judgment against Adam.
Remember, the curse had negative ramifications for Adam’s whole environment. Evil is infectious, and, therefore, when Adam sinned, his entire domain was tainted. The sweeping extent of the curse reflects that truth. That is why, in verse 17, the Lord cursed even the ground.
Genesis 3:17 (ESV)
17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
Obviously, the animal kingdom would be likewise subject to the many and far reaching effects of Adam’s rebellion. Every beast of the field would henceforth live in a decaying and dying world. They, too, would be subject to disease, destruction, disaster, death, and various other hardships that all stemmed from the presence of evil. Therefore the animals were also formally included in God’s curse. They were consigned to suffer the miseries of evil that Adam’s sin had brought into his environment. This was all part of Adam’s judgment, a constant reminder to him about God’s displeasure over sin.
Ever wondered why sheep go in circles, cattle balk and kick, horses buck, etc???
But the serpent would be cursed above all species, reduced to crawling on his belly in the dust. This seems to suggest that serpents originally had legs. We’re not given a physical description of the serpent prior to the curse, but it could well have been a magnificent and sophisticated creature. From now on, however, all serpents would be demoted to the dirt, condemned to writhe on the ground, and therefore unable to avoid eating the offscouring of all kinds of filth along with their food. Whatever the glories of this creature prior to the fall, he now would take a form that signified the loathsomeness of the tempter who indwelt him.
Furthermore, the serpent would forever bear the stigma of human contempt. The very real effects of this pronouncement are clearly evident in the human species’ near universal hatred of snakes. No other creature arouses so much fear and loathing.
But again, the full meaning of this text really looks beyond the reptile and addresses the satanic spirit who controlled him. The serpent’s degradation to the dust simply mirrors and illustrates Satan’s own demotion from heaven. “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground” (Isa. 14:12 nkjv).
12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!
The loathing of all humanity likewise applies to Satan. Although our race is fallen and spiritually aligned with Satan against God (John 8:44), the devil himself is a reproach and a disgrace among Eve’s children. People, as a rule, are naturally repulsed by Satan and satanic imagery.
44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
But that’s not all this means. The important spiritual implications of the curse against the serpent are even more profound than that. And I believe Eve understood this in some measure. Genesis 3:15 is often referred to as the Protevangelium (meaning, literally, “the first gospel”). Here is the earliest glimmer of good news for fallen humanity, and it comes in the opening words of God’s curse! He says to the evil spirit indwelling the snake: “I will put enmity … between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel”.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Though framed as a malediction against the tempter, that part of the curse was a bright ray of light for Eve. Here was an explicit promise that her Seed would bruise the evil one’s head. She could not possibly have grasped the full scope of the divine pledge concealed in those words, but she could hardly have failed to take heart from what she heard.
First of all, the mere mention of “her Seed” indicated that she would bear children and have the opportunity to raise a family. At the very least, she now knew she was not going to be instantly and abruptly destroyed because of her sin. She would not be consigned to unmitigated condemnation alongside the serpent. Instead (and Eve surely understood that this was only owing to God’s great grace and mercy), she would still have the opportunity to become the mother of the human race. Moreover, God would ensure that enmity would perpetually exist between Eve’s descendents and that evil creature. All of this was clearly good news from Eve’s perspective.
Even better, however, was the promise that her seed would bruise the serpent’s head. This was a guarantee that her race would not be hopelessly subordinated to the evil one’s domination forever. In fact, whether Eve fully grasped it or not, this curse against the serpent hinted at an ultimate remedy for her sin, giving Eve reason to hope that someday one of her descendants would inflict a crushing blow to the tempter’s head, utterly and finally destroying the diabolical being and all his influence—and, in effect, overturning all the wickedness Eve had helped to unleash.
Make no mistake; that is precisely what these words meant. The curse against the serpent held a promise for Eve. Her “Seed” would crush the serpent’s head. Her own offspring would destroy the destroyer.
This sense of Genesis 3:15 reflects the true divine intention. And that fact is made absolutely clear by the rest of Scripture. (Indeed, it is the main plot of the story the rest of Scripture tells.) For example, there is an echo of this same language in Romans 16:20: “The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly” (nkjv).
20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Hebrews 2:14 says Christ (who, of course, is the eternal “God of peace”) took on human form—literally became one of Eve’s offspring—so “that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (nkjv).
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,
First John 3:8 says, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (nkjv). Thus Christ, who was uniquely “born of a woman” (Gal. 4:4 nkjv)—the offspring of a virgin, and God in human form—literally fulfilled this promise that the Seed of the woman would break the serpent’s head.
8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
How much of this did Eve genuinely understand? Scripture does not say, but it seems clear that Eve clung to the hope that eventually one of her own offspring would wound her mortal enemy. To borrow words from a slightly different context, she seemed to sense that her species would, by God’s grace, be “saved in childbearing” (1 Tim. 2:15 nkjv).
15 Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.
We can be certain that her deep enmity toward the tempter never wavered as long as she lived. She must have longed for the day when one of her children would smash his head.
Evidence of that hope is seen in her great joy upon first becoming a mother. Genesis 4:1 describes the birth of Cain, Eve’s eldest son. Eve said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord” (nkjv).
1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.”
The Hebrew expression might literally be translated, “I have acquired a man; yhwh.” Some commentators have suggested that perhaps she thought Cain was God incarnate, the promised Redeemer. Scripture gives us few reasons to think her messianic hope was quite that highly developed. Certainly, if she even assumed Cain would be the promised Seed, she was sorely disappointed. He crushed his mother’s heart rather than the serpent’s head, by murdering Abel, his younger brother.
Whatever Eve may have meant by that expression in Genesis 4:1, it was nonetheless a clear expression of hope and rejoicing because of God’s grace, compassion, kindness, and forgiveness toward her. There’s a tone of exultation in it: “I have acquired a man from the Lord.”
1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.”
It is also clear that her hope was personified in her own children. She saw them as tokens of God’s goodness and reminders of the promise that her seed would be the instrument by which the tempter’s ultimate destruction was accomplished. In fact, when Eve bore Seth—after Cain had already broken her heart by murdering Abel—Scripture says, she “named him Seth [meaning, “appointed one”], ‘For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed’ ” (Gen. 4:25 nkjv).
25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”
The reference to the “appointed seed” does suggest that her heart had laid hold of the promise concealed in the curse, and she treasured the undying hope that one day her own Seed would fulfill that promise.
Were Adam and Eve saved? I believe they were. God’s grace to them is exemplified in the way He “made garments of skin, and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21 nkjv).
21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
In order for Him to do that, some animals had to be slain. Thus the first ever blood sacrifice was made by the hand of God on their behalf. Furthermore, concealed in God’s declaration that the woman’s Seed would defeat the serpent was an implicit promise that their sin and all its consequences would one day be vanquished and the guilt of it would be eradicated. We know from a New Testament perspective that this promise involved the sending of God’s own Son to undo what Adam’s sin did.
They believed that promise, insofar as they understood it. Scripture records that Seth founded a line of godly people: “As for Seth, to him also p 26 a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord” (Gen. 4:26 nkjv).
26 To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.
Where would their knowledge of the Lord have come from? Obviously, it came from Adam and Eve, who had more direct and firsthand knowledge of God than anyone else since the fall. This godly line (which endures in the faith of millions even today) was to a large degree their legacy. Happily for Eve, it will eventually prove to be an infinitely more enduring legacy than her sin. After all, heaven will be filled with her redeemed offspring, and they will be eternally occupied with a celebration of the work of her Seed.