- Overview of Old Testament and history of redemption. God did not reveal Himself as a set of propositions, but rather in a story.
- This story takes place in history. Through historical events God reveals His nature and purpose. We have divided this story up into 5 acts.
1. Kingdom Offered
2. Kingdom Promised
3. Kingdom Prefigured
4. Kingdom Inaugurated
5. Kingdom Consummated
- The theme of the Bible is the kingdom of God and the way God achieves His Kingdom is through events that take place in redemptive history.
- We are moving from the first act, Kingdom Offered to Kingdom Promised
Covenant Lawsuit
- Genesis 3:8 says they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
- This verse suffers from a poor translation. It makes it sound as though God is taking a morning stroll through the garden and just happens on Adam and Eve.
- A better translation would be spirit of the day. The word for cool here is ruach which can be translated wind, but when used with the Lord God it is probably referring to His Holy Spirit. The spirit of God is His glory that feels the tabernacle in Exodus 40. Its the awesome shekinah glory.
- The day in conjunction with spirit is better thought of as judgment day. So when we read this verse we should think of God coming in His glory to execute justice. This is a visible, awesome manifestation of God. Similar language is used of God at Mount Sinai and you remember the people were afraid to go up the mountain and they told Moses they wanted to stay where they were and they it was a better idea if just Moses went to the top of Mount Sinai.
- That something remarkable is going on here can be seen by the language used here.
Q. What did Adam & Eve hear?
- Once again we have a poor translation. The verse literally says they heard “the voice of the Lord” walking. Something weird that transcends human experience is going here if the voice of the Lord is walking. The voice of the Lord actually has a rich history. I may do a blog post this week about the phrase voice of the Lord because its pretty cool.
- This day of judgment is God executing His covenant lawsuit. The covenant was a judicial instrument and there were provisions for the prosecution of the law suit. In the Ancient Near East messengers were sent to remind the vassal of the stipulations of the law suit and the sanctions that would result from non-obedience.
Q. Where do we see this taking place in the Old Testament?
- The prophets were the messengers God sent to remind the people of their responsibilities under the covenant.
- God begins His investigating by questioning Adam and Eve much like a judge holding court.
Q. What do you find interesting or remarkable about the judgment God orders in Genesis 3:14-19?
- The remarkable thing is that God does not execute them. Humanity has clearly violated the terms of the covenant and the penalty is death and yet God suspends the sentence to a degree and even allows humanity to continue.
- Before the man and women receive their judgment, God promises that the human race will continue. This is Adam & Eve’s first hint that they will not die immediately as might be expected. The serpent has not won a victory and in fact the serpent will be humiliated.
- The alliance the woman had made with serpent will also not stand. Remember last week we noted that Adam and Eve were becoming more as the image of the serpent than the image of God. There is the word play with naked and cunning. Adam and Eve act like the serpent in their answers to God’s questions.
- God however promises that He will put enmity between the children of Eve and the children of the serpent.
- From now on this means holy war between the followers of God and the followers of the Serpent.
- Furthermore, the serpent will have his head crushed and be defeated.
- In the very midst of God’s judgment and wrath against sin, God introduces the promise of grace for man in general as well as the coming of the Messiah who will defeat the serpent. We can divide the rest of this chapter in 4 parts:
1. Coming Messianic Seed 14-15
2. Common Grace & Common Curse for humanity 16-19
3. Covenant of Grace 20-21
4. Expulsion from the Garden 22-24
- 1 & 3 are related to each other in that deal with special grace and coming of Christ presented both prophetically and symbolically.
- 2 & 4 Deal with the common purpose of all humanity. God established an order of common grace and extends His kindness to humanity in general rather than by destroying humanity as justice demands - seed of the serpent is allowed to live, rain falls on the wicked and the righteous. God delays and restrains His judgment.
1. Coming of the Messianic Seed
- Enmity between your seed and her seed. Enmity is a good translation because just like in English, the Hebrew word for enmity comes from enemy. The two seeds will be enemies of one another.
Q. Who are these two seeds?
- The seed of the serpent could refer to the fallen angels, but that would not be parallel to the seed of the woman where humanity is in view.
- So the seed of the serpent are the spiritual offspring of the serpent and the seed of the woman are the spiritual offspring of God.
- We see this view held in 1 John 3:7-12 which is an extended commentary on Genesis 3:15. Here the seed of the serpent is interpreted as humans.
- Seed is a collective singular. It is a singular word but it can have a plural referent. I think both concepts are in view here.
Q. How can we say that the seed is singular?
- The pronouns used for the battle between the serpent and the seed of the woman are singular.
- A coming champion of the seed of the woman will battle the serpent representing the two sides just as Goliath and David fought as champions of the Israelites and the Philistines.
- Both this champion and the serpent will suffer wounds but the Satan’s head will be crushed.
- Genesis also sees both concepts in view:
1. Genesis 22:17-18. The offspring are multiplied like the stars in heaven, clearly a plural reference. However, the offspring will possess the gates of HIS enemies, a singular reference.
2. Genesis 24:60 The sister is blessed as one who will become mother to thousands of ten thousands, but then may your offspring possess the gate of those who hate HIM.
- The word for the what happens to the seed of the woman’s heel and the seed of the serpent’s head is the same in Hebrew. The serpent’s head will be crushed but the seed of the woman will also suffer a blow.
- So in Luke we are told that on the road to Emmaus, two men meet the resurrected Jesus and in verse 26, Jesus tells them “was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory.” you may wonder where does it say the messiah will suffer? You may think of Isaiah 53 but then Jesus says that “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” So right here at the beginning, the first reference to the Messiah, we are told of the necessity of His suffering.
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