I WILL BE YOUR GOD: Part 1

A Promise of the Promise
In Genesis 3:15 we find God’s determination to maintain a relationship with the people he has created in spite of their foolish rebellion against him. In the verses that precede, we read the account of Adam and Eve’s fall into sin resulting in alienation from God, alienation from each other, alienation from the world in which they live, expulsion from the garden, and the certainty of physical death. Yet here in the very first interaction God has with Adam and Eve after their rebellion against him, God makes a “promise of the promise.” God pronounces a curse on the serpent (the serpent whom we know to have been Satan himself) who tempted and deceived Eve saying, “he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” In saying this God is offering what has been referred to as the proto-euangelion, the first gospel. It is the first mention of the Redeemer who would come and fix the mess mankind has made. It is the first promise of the Messiah, Jesus, who would come and save his people from their sins. This promise of the promise is the subject of the first sermon in our new series for Sunday Evenings.

Read Genesis 3.
Questions for thought and/or discussion:

1. Who is speaking to who in verses 14-19?

2. Who or what is “your offspring,” the offspring of the Serpent (verse 15)?

3. Who is “her offspring,” the offspring of the woman (verse 15)?

4. How is the offspring of the woman’s heel bruised, and how is the offspring of the serpent’s head bruised?

5. What is the significance of these statements for us today?

Points of Application
1. Do not underestimate the depth of your sinfulness, and it’s deep, thorough impact on you, intense alienation, resulting in deep need for the gospel.

2. God is never taken by surprise by anything. He is always one step ahead. Adam and Eve sin, and God responds immediately, definitively, graciously. He already had a plan.

3. God is the initiator of conflict against the evil one and his schemes against you. He does not just allow Satan to go unchecked. God established enmity between “his offspring” and “her offspring.” The conflict is painful but good. The only other option would be certain defeat having been given over to Satan, and God would not allow that.

4. God upholds his relationship with his people. God’s commitment to have a people and be their God is the core of his promise. God demonstrates his commitment to have a people even at great cost to himself. We sinned against him, but rather than turning his back on us and walking away, he turned his back on his own son, allowing him to be crushed for us (Isaiah 53), so that we would not have to be crushed, and so that he could have a people forever.

5. In his sacrificial death and victorious resurrection, Jesus has won the definitive victory that was necessary for sinful people to have a relationship with God.