Today is the first day of Advent (at least according to the Advent calendars I have seen around.) I wasn't raised with the tradition of Advent, but I like the idea of it, having been exposed to the practice more recently in my Christian walk. In the midst of all of the gross commercialization and secularization of the holiday it is wise to make a conscious effort to focus on the actual point of the Christmas season - the coming of the Messiah who would deliver the children of God from their bondage to sin and usher in a new Kingdom to the earth. The event that would mark the end of satan's dominion over the earth and would be the beginning of the end of his influence over the earth.
It is with this end in mind that we at Conspiracy of Kindness and StillWaters intend to provide a daily devotion based on the various themes of Advent that you can use with your family as we approach Christmas. It is our sincere hope that these meditations will help you and your family to have a very meaningful, Christ-centered holiday.
December 1, 2007
Ancient Words
Text: Genesis 3
Key Verse: Genesis 3:15 "And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
It had been a glorious week! God had started with next to nothing, a formless blob of... well, we're not sure, but we know there was water. Then by the word of His mouth God spoke light into existence. BAM! There was light. Then He spoke and the sky was formed. Then He commanded the land to arise from the waters and ordered plants and trees to grow. Just like that it happened. After that He ordered the stars and the planets and the sun and the moon into existence. He arranged them in the sky and gave them set paths to follow.
Next God set Himself to populating the world. First He spoke all the fish, birds, and sea-creatures into existence. Then He spoke and created all of the land dwelling animals, but God saved the best for last.
God had an amazing plan - an audacious plan - to make a creature in His own image. He would make man to be like Him and give him dominion over the entire creation that He had made. When this work was finished, God looked everything over and declared that it was, "Very good."
So, after God had set Adam up as supreme ruler over creation and provided Eve as his wife He gave them only one rule. The only thing that they couldn't do was eat from one particular tree in the garden.
We really don't know how long it took, but eventually satan entered the garden as a serpent and talked Eve into eating from the forbidden tree. Then she gave some of the fruit to Adam and he ate it too. Instantly they knew that something was horribly wrong. That sense was heightened when God showed up in the garden. Instead of running to Him as they usually did, they hid themselves from Him.
Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”
“Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”
The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”
Then the Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, you are cursed
more than all animals, domestic and wild.
You will crawl on your belly,
groveling in the dust as long as you live.
And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
Then he said to the woman,
“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
and in pain you will give birth.
And you will desire to control your husband,
but he will rule over you.”
And to the man he said,
“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.
All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.
It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
though you will eat of its grains.
By the sweat of your brow
will you have food to eat
until you return to the ground
from which you were made.
For you were made from dust,
and to dust you will return.”
Thus, man gave away the glory that God had created him for. God had justly dealt with Adam's sin, but the damage had been done: from that point forward man has had a sinful nature. This sinful nature made it impossible for God and man to enjoy the kind of friendship that they had enjoyed in the Garden of Eden. But God wasn't satisfied with this arrangement.
Perhaps you didn't notice it, but in verse 15, during God's judgment of the serpent, God makes the very first prophecy about His provision to re-establish His friendship and fellowship with man. God promised that one day one of Eve's descendants would bruise the serpent's head, but in the process of doing so the serpent would bruise his heel.
We know from other scriptures that satan was the serpent in the garden. So from this prophecy we know that one was coming who would bruise satan's head, but what does that phrase mean? The head is a symbol of authority. It is where kings wear their crown - the symbol of their authority. So if one was coming that would bruise satan's head, that means that one was coming to remove satan's authority over Eve's descendants.
Now who do you suppose is the descendant that God was talking about? Have you heard of any Bible stories where someone's heel was injured? Of course it is talking about Jesus.
God was promising in the midst of the punishment that He had to deliver that He would make a way to put everything back to the way it was supposed to be. When Jesus was born thousands of years later it marked the beginning of the fulfillment of this prophecy and when He was crucified He destroyed satan's authority over God's children.
Questions and thoughts to discuss with your family:
1) Of all of the things in creation what are your favorites? As beautiful as all of these things are we know from this story that they are only a shadow of what God created them to be. With that in mind, try to imagine what life would have been like in the Garden of Eden.
2) Has anyone ever tricked you into doing something wrong? What did you want to do when you knew you had been tricked?
3) Do you ever have trouble obeying the rules? Have you ever done something that you know was bad, but don't know why you did it? How did it make you feel?
4) Have you ever had something nice or special that someone else stole or broke? How did it make you feel? What did you want to do to the person who messed up your property? How did God respond when Adam, Eve, and the serpent ruined God's creation?
5) In the key verse, God told Eve that one of her descendants would strike the serpent's head and that the serpent would strike his heel. Which of Eve's descendants is God talking about? Who is the serpent? How did the serpent strike his heel?
6) What does this story have to do with Christmas?
7) Why do we need a Messiah?
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