Amen. If you’ll turn with me please to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 3, beginning at verse 23. Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about 30 years of age, being the son, as was supposed, of Joseph, the son of Healey, the son of Matha, the son of Levi, the son of Mey, the son of Janii, the son of Joseph, the son of Matathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esley, the son of Nagi, the son of Maath, the son of Matathias, the son of Samine, the son of Josec, the son of Jodah, the son of Joanna, the son of Risa, the son of Zerubabel, the son of Shelo, the son of Neri, the son of Meli, the son of Adi, the son of Kosum, the son of Elam, the son of Ar, the son of Joshua, the son of Eleazar, the son of Joram, the son of Mata, the son of Levi, the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonah, the son of Eliakim, the son of Malia, the son of Mena, the son of Mtha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Oed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salah, the son of Nation, the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arie, the son of Hez, the son of Paris, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, the son of Serug, the son of Ru, the son of Pelle, the son of Eber, the son of Shayah, the son of Canan, the son of Arfad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lch, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Canan, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
From there, we turn back to Genesis, chapter 3, beginning at the first verse.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?’
And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”
But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
And they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
But the Lord 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, and I hid myself.’
He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’
The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’
Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’
The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’
The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
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.’
To the woman, he said, ‘I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.’
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; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’
The man called his wife’s name Eve because she was the mother of all living. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray. God, we are so grateful for your mercy. Help us to see it, to feel it, to believe it, and experience it, knowing how much worse for us it could have been, how much more we deserved.
Keep our hearts rightly focused upon you, knowing our place and your place and the place that you bring us up to from out of what we deserve.
We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Advent is a very special season of the church year. Although there is no clear direct biblical warrant for its observation, it remains helpful for us in our devotional lives and for our spiritual growth. Advent is a special season of preparation for Christians, not just as the remembrance and celebration of our Savior’s birth, but also as we prepare for Christ’s return.
During this season, we celebrate and remember the wonderful works of God which He has done throughout redemptive history, leading up to the first Advent of Jesus, the Incarnation of God the Son, His entrance into time and space, and His assumption of our human nature.
As we prepare for His second Advent, His coming in glory with judgment, wrath, and mercy culminating in the restoration or renewal of all things, each year it is common for many pastors to do a limited seasonal sermon series as a way to focus us upon some particular aspect of redemptive history and its anticipation of our Savior’s coming.
Every week we connect to the different Christian responses of hope, peace, love, joy, and faith, which come from our own anticipation and the prompting of the Holy Spirit within us.
Two years ago, we spent the Advent season looking ahead, focusing on Christ’s return, His second Advent. Last year, we focused on the names and titles of the Messiah as given in Isaiah chapter 9, that He’s Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.
This year, our emphasis will be upon certain members of God’s people who were exemplars of these spiritual fruits. The most important contribution of these women towards our redemption is not limited to their place within the genealogy of Jesus but is also found in their lived example within church history.
Who they were and the things which they did on account of their faith remain important for God’s people to remember, understand, appreciate, and learn from their example. This Advent, the first lady whom we shall consider is Eve, the greatest grandmother of us all—the first mother.
Now, I expect that we’re all familiar with the narrative of mankind’s fall from grace in the Garden of Eden. While there is a lot going on within that passage, today we’re only going to focus upon the latter portion following Adam and Eve’s sin, the Lord’s promise of curse, and the initial aftermath.
So, after being deceived by the serpent and after choosing to sin rather than trust their Creator’s wisdom, goodness, and continuing provision, when the Lord came down to visit them in His holy garden, Adam and Eve sought to hide from His presence. But they could not hide from the only omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God.
God’s call to Adam of ‘Where are you?’ was not due to any lack of knowledge on God’s part because He already knew precisely where Adam and Eve were. He already knew exactly what they had done. Furthermore, He already knew how they had been deceived and were convinced by the serpent to disobey His commandment.
God’s questions were rhetorical, but because He is merciful and forgiving, they were also an invitation to confession and repentance. But sadly that was not the response He got. Instead of being repentant, Adam was accusatory towards God, and he blamed Eve: ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’
Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’
The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
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.’
To the woman, He said, ‘I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.’
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; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’
The ground was cursed on account of Adam’s sin, but it was not the ground that sinned. So, why? The ground was not so much cursed in and of itself but for the effect it had upon the man.
See, the ground was made into a curse for man because of why man was made and why the Lord had put Adam where he did. Genesis 2:15 says the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden to work it and keep it, defining Adam’s original purpose as a gardener.
That’s the vocation through which he was to exercise his delegated dominion over all creation as the Lord’s Regent, as His Image, as the Imago Dei. Then, as recompense for his work, he would enjoy the gracious blessing of the Lord’s free provision.
But now, after God’s curse, work became toil, and he was no longer fed by God’s free grace alone. Now, he had to struggle in order to earn his daily bread.
‘By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.’ No longer could he just wander through God’s garden and pick whatever he wanted to eat whenever he wanted to eat it. First, he had to go remove the weeds, till the earth, sow the seed, and then wait for it to eventually, hopefully, maybe grow.
See, Adam no longer had the certainty of God’s grace. Now, he only had the vain hope that his work might somehow be good enough in the end. While Eve was given hope for the future, the hope of life, Adam was given only the certainty of death.
‘For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’ There was no hope for Adam because there is no hope in Adam. He broke the Lord’s Covenant of works and earned the reward of death for everyone who also shares in his vain hope, ‘for the wages of sin is death.’
But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Maybe Adam recognized and understood this key difference between them—Eve’s hope of life and his certainty of death—because it was only after the cursing that Adam gave the woman her name.
Eve, the name of Eve comes to us mediated by several ancient languages from the Hebrew form of Hava, a word which simply means ‘life.’ This is why the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
The woman was given her name by Adam. She was named by her husband because of her hope—God’s promise of future life. Yet toil and work and the hopelessness of our own efforts were not the totality of the Lord’s curse upon Adam and the whole human race for our sin.
The Lord also reminded Adam of what he was: ‘Dust, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’
Adam’s name in Hebrew is actually Adam. That same word can be used to mean ‘man’ as in a man or it can be used to mean ‘man’ as in mankind or humanity, and Adam’s name comes from the Hebrew word Adama, which means ‘ground’ or ‘dirt.’
So, his name serves as a perpetual reminder of what he and we are and where we come from. We’re God’s creatures, His creations, and we were formed from the dust of the earth.
Now, while the Lord was reminding Adam of the lowliness of his origin, God was also informing him and warning him of a greater, further-reaching implication of sin’s curse upon him.
Do you recall the second part of the Serpent’s curse? ‘And dust you shall eat all the days of your life.’ See, the serpent was permitted; he was allowed to consume, absorb, devour, and rule over the dust—the afar—so long as he lived, for so long as the Lord chose to suffer his existence.
This part of the Serpent’s curse, strange as it sounds (because, well, snakes generally don’t eat dirt), was never about food. Instead, it was about authority and dominion. The Lord allowed the serpent and his offspring dominion for a limited time.
The Lord allowed the serpent to have authority over Adam and his offspring, who are dust as part of this curse. This is like the same kind of limited authority the Lord permitted Satan to exercise over Job.
So, in cursing both Adam and the serpent, God permitted and granted the serpent to have authority over Adam. The authority of Satan, which Adam had chosen once to obey through his sin, was confirmed with him being his new Lord and Master, which means that part of Adam’s curse was chosen by himself.
Now, Satan surely considered this to be a boon for himself. I mean, victory was found from his perspective in the enslavement and subjugation of mankind to his vile depredations, even though his own personal ending was predetermined to come one day. But surely Adam, upon reaching his understanding, considered this a personal travesty.
Yet there still remained a slight glimmer of hope, perhaps not for himself, but hope for an ending to their bondage. Adam’s enslavement to Satan would one day be ended by death. And again, mankind’s enslavement to Satan would one day be finished at Satan’s promised ending in his overthrowing.
Now, I know that was a lot, so let’s rewind and repeat just to understand the curses a bit more concisely.
The serpent was humbled and forced to abase himself before and beneath God. He’s hated, feared, and reviled by all of creation, and was permitted authority over man, but that authority is limited in scope and duration till the end of Satan’s days and the bruising of his head by the woman’s Offspring.
The Woman, Eve, she will be haunted, hunted, and hated by the serpent along with all of her descendants. She was given hope through the Lord’s promise that one day her offspring would be the one to overthrow and defeat that serpent.
She was granted pain in every aspect of childbearing, but she was also given hope for the future through the Lord’s promise that although there will be pain, there will also be life in her children.
The man, Adam, he would still perform his intended vocation, but now his work would be accomplished through toil and struggle. Trust in God’s grace would be replaced by his own effort, and his continued survival would depend upon the fruit of his labor instead of God’s bounteous provision.
Adam was now forced to trust in his own efforts until the Lord would either decide to show mercy and grace and restore him or consign him to death’s justice. Adam, and through him all of mankind, was now condemned to serve a terrible master—the serpent—instead of the benevolent God.
Because when Adam transferred his obedience and loyalty from the Lord to the serpent, he brought with him into his enslavement everything that was under his authority—all of creation and humanity. Therefore, since the Lord had already delegated this responsibility to Adam, the serpent now became the de facto ruler of this world.
Finally, after all of that, we may return to more closely examine Eve’s great hope—the promised victory of her offspring over the serpent: ‘He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.’
This is the very first Messianic prophecy written into Scripture and historically the church has understood this as being the cross. Depending upon the English translation you read, the sentence might carry a different tone.
For the NIV puts it, ‘He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel,’ forcing the interpretation to come out in the translation. But nevertheless, the interpretation stands true.
The Hebrew word translated here as bruise, crush, or strike is a verb of violent action, and that’s all that it needs to immediately convey.
Because although the verbal action is the same, it’s the location which matters most. The prophetic promise: ‘He shall bruise your head, but you shall bruise his heel.’ Eve’s heir will inflict injury upon the serpent’s head, while the serpent will only inflict injury upon the heir’s heel.
The great difference here is the extremes, both in degree of injury and in the symbolism of their relational authority. From the top of the head to the bottom of the foot—the heel—because the head wears the crown of authority. It carries the symbol of rulership. It is the height and pinnacle of achievement.
But the heel is the least favored part of the body. Because the head, the head wears the crown of authority; it carries the symbol of rulership. It is the height and pinnacle of achievement, but the heel, it is shown neither honor nor respect. It’s ignored, neglected, and trampled upon continuously.
Although the whole body stands upon it, it is still the head which gives its strength and even its power, because if the heel is injured, then the body may be hobbled and hampered for a time. But if the head is struck, then the body itself may be overthrown.
Now consider the conflict fought by Jesus through the cross. The only innocent man, the lamb without blemish, was sacrificed to suffer the just penalty due for all the sins of God’s chosen people.
The righteous one died for Sinners so that Sinners would live. ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin; the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’
Jesus’s death upon the cross was the serpent’s strike against his holy heel. Yes, Jesus died; He was in the grave over three days. The work of God appeared to be hindered, but all the Son of God died—God was not, and God is not dead.
Do you not know that all of us who’ve been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
For the death He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God.
Jesus’s resurrection from the dead, His triumph over the grave, was His strike against Satan’s head. Walking out of the tomb that early morning, Jesus knocked the crown from Satan’s brow and freed His people from the devil’s dominion.
All of the saints whom He had held captive for so long were rescued from his power. They were redeemed by Christ Jesus, restored to a right relationship with the Lord God, and are even now raised like Him to everlasting life in heaven until the world that is yet to come finally appears.
While we who yet remain, we are presently raised to life spiritually. Our hearts are regenerated; they’ve been turned from cold dead stone into warm living flesh.
Although that serpent struck our Savior’s heel, he could not keep the only good man down. But when Jesus struck Satan’s head, the ruler of this world was overthrown. The king is dead; long live the king!
This is the hope of Eve, and this is the hope that we share with her and all who wait upon the Lord.
Although God’s people are no longer subject to Satan’s authority, we do continue to suffer under the serpent’s power. Our allegiance is now to Christ—Christ our King.
Our citizenship is in heaven now, not the cosmos, but we still remain sojourners in this foreign land, in the occupied enemy territories. Before the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit upon our hearts, our hope was in Adam, in ourselves, and thus we were truly hopeless.
But now our hope is in Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Redeemer, our brother, and our King. Now we pledge allegiance to Him and God our Father in Heaven alone.
Now we remain steadfast and loyal to Him, and we obey Him alone. Now we will no longer put Satan above our God, nor all the world above Christ’s Kingdom. Now we will no longer claim the throne of authority and dominion over our lives for ourselves.
Instead, we submit joyfully to the love of God and His perfect plan. Still, we wait with hope and eager anticipation for the culmination and the consummation of Christ’s victory—the ultimate hope of Christmas future.
We now have hope in our waiting, a hope we once did not have. We wait for Eve’s hope to be actualized, even while it has already been accomplished—Eve’s offspring, Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, the virgin, has bruised the serpent’s head.
Although the serpent also bruised Christ’s heel, Jesus emerged victorious from the grave of sin, and now He is leading us out from our place of bondage in a new Exodus to the land which God has promised His children.
Now, as we follow wherever He leads us, we have a beautiful hope in which we can trust. Amen.