The Promise of a Savior

Christmas is coming up and I’m sure we’ve all heard of Santa Claus, right? He’s this guy who brings presents to all the good little girls and boys Christmas night while your’re sleeping. He flies a sleigh pulled by reindeer all over the planet and comes to your house; and while he’s there he eats the cookies and milk you’ve left out. He puts presents under the tree and goodies in your stalkings hung over the fireplace. Then he sneaks off before you wake up and when you go out to the tree (usually at 4:00 am before your parents wake up and they wish you were still sleeping) there are presents and candies and goodies, right.

How many of you know the song Santa Claus Is Coming To Town?

You better watch out You better not cry Better not pout I'm telling you why Santa Claus is coming to town

He's making a list He's checking it twice; He's gonna find out who's naughty or nice Santa Claus is coming to town…

That song is a classic. That’s just the first two verses, since I’m not talking all about this song, but notice that Santa is supposed to make you happy and joyful because he is coming to town. And that hes making a list of the good and the bad kids, the naughty and the nice.

How many of you know what the bad kids get? (Coal) Right, they get coal. Why? IDK, to use for fuel or to BBQ or something. They bad kids don’t get anything (Sounds like a great bribe to get kids to behave).

Well, Santa is kinda like God in our story today, except that the ones getting the gift are the naughty kids, Adam and Eve.

The Bible tells us about where being bad came from. And it is in the form of disobedience. Adam and Eve didn’t listen to what God had told them to do and they took something that didn’t belong to them. They ate the fruit he told them not to eat. And they did it because they thought it would make them better or happier.

This is called Sin. We do this all the time, but we don’t think about as much as we should, or can. Because we all come from Adam, we inherit his sin and are in turn sinful. That is called our sin nature.

starts off saying:

The Lexham English Bible Chapter 3

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed together fig leaves and they made for themselves coverings.

Instead of being concerned with God and centering their thought on him, Adam was naughty and ate the forbidden fruit. By doing this, they became self aware rather than God aware. They became their focus rather than being focused on God.

And because they were now guilty, they sought to cover them selves. They were ashamed, or more accurately, they brought shame on themselves.

Shame/Sin Deserves Judgement

We have all done something we’ve been ashamed of. Like when you get caught doing something you shouldn’t have. When you’re guilty of doing something and your caught. Like when a little kid steals candy at the grocery store checkout. Your parents tell you no, you are in the checkout, and while your next to the Reese’s, you grab one (I would grab a Fastbreak, they’re my favorite, also a Reese’s product, BTW… ). Then you get to the car and while you’re sitting in the back, you start to open the wrapper.

You’re so self absorbed and only thinking of your self that you don’t notice your parents looking at you as you take the first bite. You’re caught, red handed! You stole the Fastbreak! They pull over and look back at you and scold you for stealing. That’s what God did in verse 8

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze

I have to gripe with the translation here. Most translations saw they heard God walking in the “cool of the day.” But the word for cool or breeze is the same as the word for Spirit, the Hebrew word is RUAH.

I would suggest to read it this way as you go through this section:

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of LORD God walking in the garden in the Spirit of the day of the LORD. ( - Trey’s translation). This captures the essence of what the text communicates, God caught them and pulls over to question them. The Spirit of the day of the LORD rings like he’s coming for judgement. The day of the LORD is the final day, the moment of Jesus return, where he judges mankind for their sin. And this is what he is doing here in the garden. He is ready to bring judgement on Adam and Eve. He is going to put them on the naughty list. Just like your parents when you do something like steal candy.

So you do what every kid does when they’re caught, you hide, you cower, you try to escape their attention.