The First Promise

Call to Worship

Psalm 105:1–6 LSB

Oh give thanks to Yahweh, call upon His name; Make known His acts among the peoples. Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; Muse on all His wondrous deeds. Boast in His holy name; Let the heart of those who seek Yahweh be glad. Inquire of Yahweh and His strength; Seek His face continually. Remember His wondrous deeds which He has done, His miracles and the judgments uttered by His mouth, O seed of Abraham, His servant, O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones!

Psalm 105:37–45 LSB

Then He brought them out with silver and gold, And there was none among His tribes who stumbled. Egypt was glad when they went out, For the dread of them had fallen upon them. He spread a cloud for a covering, And fire to give light by night. They asked, and He brought quail, And He satisfied them with the bread of heaven. He opened the rock and water flowed out; It ran in the dry places like a river. For He remembered His holy word With Abraham His servant; And He brought His people out with joy, His chosen ones with a shout of joy. He gave them also the lands of the nations, That they might take possession of the fruit of the peoples’ labor, So that they might keep His statutes And observe His laws, Praise Yah!

Old Testament

Jonah 3:10–4:11 LSB

Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, so God relented concerning the evil which He had spoken He would bring upon them. And He did not bring it upon them. But this was a great evil to Jonah, and he became angry. And he prayed to Yahweh and said, “Ah! O Yahweh, was not this my word to myself while I was still in my own land? Therefore I went ahead to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning evil. “So now, O Yahweh, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.” And Yahweh said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?” Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of the city. And there he made a booth for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. So Yahweh God appointed a plant, and it came up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his miserable evil. And Jonah was extremely glad about the plant. But God appointed a worm at the breaking of dawn the next day, and it struck the plant, and it dried up. Then it happened that as the sun rose up, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun struck down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and asked with all his soul to die and said, “Death is better to me than life.” Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” Then Yahweh said, “You had pity on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came to be overnight and perished overnight. “So should I not have pity on Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”

New Testament

Matthew 20:1–16 LSB

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. “Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. “And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went. “Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. “And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’ “They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ “Now when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his bforeman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’ “And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. “And when those hired first came, they supposed that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. “Now when they received it, they were grumbling at the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ “But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? ‘Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. ‘Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’ “So the last shall be first, and the first last.”

Intro

Series

Today, we begin a series titled, The Long-Awaited. This series will trace the Promise of our Savior’s advent from Eden to Bethlehem. At each stage of the journey, God unfolded His plan and gave more details.

Sermon

Today, we look to Eden in Gen 3 to see the beginning of it all. Sadly, we begin with failure. But we shall also see that even in the face of defeat, God gave the promise of ultimate victory. That promise is why we are here today.

BIG IDEA: Even in the moment of judgment, God speaks a promise — and everything that follows in Scripture, all the way to Bethlehem, is the unfolding of that one sentence.

Genesis 3:1–15 LSB

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which Yahweh God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, ‘You shall not eat from it, and you shall not touch it, lest you die.’” And the serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, so she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. Then they heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God in the midst of the trees of the garden. Yahweh God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” And the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave to me from the tree, and I ate.” Then Yahweh God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” And Yahweh God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than any of the cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; 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.”

I. The Context: Judgment That Contains Grace

(3:14–13 recap, briefly)

The Fall

Genesis 3:1–3 LSB

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which Yahweh God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, ‘You shall not eat from it, and you shall not touch it, lest you die.’”

Satan approached Eve and began his deception of humanity.

He started in the subtle way, by just asking a question.

V 4-5. First lie recorded

Genesis 3:4–5 LSB

And the serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

He then directly contradicted God.

You won’t die (removed the bad)

You will be like Him! (dangled the prize)

Genesis 3:6–8 LSB

Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, so she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. Then they heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God in the midst of the trees of the garden.

The sin!

She fell for it and Adam went right along with it and never even raised an objection.

NOW they knew what evil was. They had tasted it far more than the taste of whatever the fruit was.

Their shame led them to cover themselves. It was innately wired into them to understand they could not longer stand before God.

2. The Pursuit

God's first question to fallen humanity is "Where are you?" — pursuit, not just prosecution

God came to find them.

He was pursuing them in spite of their sin.

He still pursues us when He calls us to salvation

In His questioning, God led them each to confess.

Look at the discussion:

Genesis 3:9–13 LSB

Yahweh God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” And the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave to me from the tree, and I ate.” Then Yahweh God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

TS: The curses on serpent, woman, and man are real judgments, but v.15 sits inside the serpent's curse as something more than punishment — it's a declaration of war on humanity's behalf

II. The Promise Itself

Genesis 3:15 LSB

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.”

in v. 14 the physical serpent was cursed. It became the snake we know today. Many suggest it once had legs and was reduced to its current state.

Far beyond that is the focus in v. 15 where God turns His full attention to the physical serpent, the lying seducer Satan, and cursed Him.

1. Enmity Declared

“I will put enmity....”

· God himself initiates the hostility — this isn't natural animosity, it's divinely appointed conflict

God draws the Battle line.

· Sin doesn't get to quietly coexist with humanity; God guarantees ongoing warfare between the serpent's line and the woman's line

2. Two Seeds, Two Destinies

First part of v. 15 implies plural seed: ("between your offspring and her offspring")

Satan offspring: Satan and unbelievers,

John 8:44 LSB

“You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

it has come in many debates, persecutions, heresies, etc

Eve’s Seed: Christ and those in Him.

Introduces a story arc, not just an event — the rest of the Old Testament will trace which offspring belongs to which line (Cain/Seth, Ishmael/Isaac, Esau/Jacob, etc.)

It expands to become whole nations!

Israel and the pagan kingdoms

it infiltrates Israel as many kings turn from following YHWH to false gods.

That is a key part of the story we are examining as we approach Advent. The Promised Seed

3. A Costly Victory

("he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel")

Many scholars agree that the second part narrows to a specific descendant.

we know Him to be Jesus

Notice the asymmetrical wounds — a head wound is fatal, a heel wound is survivable but real

Satan would wound The Seed’s heal

We know now that this points to Jesus on the cross.

It was a wound, but not ultimately fatal because of resurrection.

The seed would crush Satan

In laying down His life and through the resurrection, Jesus defeated Satan and crushed his kingdom

He paid for all sin and made redemption e possible.

This promised seed reversed the curse of the fall

This is the first hint that redemption will come through suffering, not around it.

III. Why This Is Gospel Before the Gospel

God speaks this promise before He speaks any command to Adam and Eve about how to atone, before any sacrifice, before any law

Theologians call this GK: "Protoevangelium" means "first gospel" — from the Greek protos (first) and evangelion (good news/gospel). It's the traditional theological term for Genesis 3:15, where God speaks to the serpent after the Fall

Grace here precedes law —

God displayed grace in not immediately destroying all of creation!

He also gave this blessed promise of victory!

Paul will later make that explicit (promise came before law, Gal. 3)

Thus for Paul, believers are thoroughly eschatological people, determined and conditioned by the reality of the future that has already begun, but still awaiting the final glory. We are therefore both “already” and “not yet.

Gordon D. Fee

we are citizens of God’s kingdom. We have eternal life. It will only fully be realized after Christ’s return Current war MacArthur reminds us that we should also recognize that we participate in the crushing of Satan because, along with our Savior and because of His finished work on the cross, we also are of the woman’s seed

God Himself foreshadows the process:

Genesis 3:21 LSB

Then Yahweh God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.

Their sin, created a rift between them and God. They could not stand before Him as they once did.

God replaced their shame with a covering

Instead of them dying, and animal died as a substitute.

This time, it did more, its hide became their clothes, or covering.

IV. Eden to Bethlehem

This is the seed we will be examining for the next thirteen weeks.

We will see each new aspect of the promise as God unfolds the understanding of His covenant with Eve, Abraham, Judah, David, etc.

At Christmas, we will celebrate the Advent, the entrance of Jesus, the moment the "offspring" finally, visibly enters the story (Luke 2, Gal. 4:4)

Galatians 4:4 LSB

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,

Conc

Today, we have been reminded of God’s great promise.

We have begun tracing the promise of the long awaited Savior.

Time of Decision

Baptism

Citations

Fee, Gordon D.

MacArthur Study Bible NASB (Commentary)

Wogemuth, Robert, Lies Men Believe