Great Expectations in The Past
Preached by Jason Abbott
December 1, 2013
Introduction
This is the first message in our Advent series. Advent is a word that means coming or arrival, specifically the coming or arrival of the Messiah. However, we rarely approach the Advent season as we should. Often we lock Advent solely in the past. Christ came.
In one of my favorite movies, Napoleon Dynamite, there is a character uncle Rico. He is a middle aged loser who is constantly reminiscing about the glory days of high school football. “Back in ’82, we would’ve won state if coach had put me in!” Yet, this focus on the past “potential” glories has paralyzed Rico! He has no present glory, and he has no future glory as long as he only focuses on the past.
We too are like this if we merely see the Advent of Christ as a past event. For, it is not a coming or arrival that happened only in the past. It is more. Thus, for the next month, we are going to be looking at the Advent of Christ in a fuller way. Today we will examine the great expectations of the Advent of Christ. Then, next week we will look at the Advent of Christ into the world. Then, we will look at the Advent of Christ into the heart. And finally, we will look at the Advent of Christ in his glory.
Genesis 3:15 (in context)
8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God 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. 9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 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.”
14 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.
15 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.”
These verses introduce the dismal beginning of human life separated from fellowship with our holy and loving Creator. They present the Christian answer for how life came to be so painful and broken—constantly haunted by sin and death. They tell us that Adam and Eve (encouraged by the Serpent) chose to disobey God, and that the wages of that sin brought death for them and their offspring.
Now for just a moment, consider how quickly and acutely Adam and Eve learned about the serious consequences of choosing to rebel against God. Consider that in the very next chapter of Genesis, just 8 verses after our current chapter ends, the author of Genesis records that Adam and Eve’s oldest son killed his brother.
Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him
(Genesis 4:8).
Adam and Eve would have experienced Abel’s death as few parents in the history of the world would have had to experience the death of a child. For, Adam and Eve would have recognized that Cain’s sin and Abel’s death were directly attributable to their sin in the garden. Just take that in for a moment.
In fact, I’ve often wondered whether Eve and Mary (the mother of Jesus) aren’t much alike in this particular way. I sometimes wonder if Mary—as she witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus and later came to terms with why he was crucified (namely, as a sacrifice for sins, hers included)—wouldn’t have uniquely been able to identify with Eve. For, each woman would have known well what it felt like to have her child die as a direct result of her sinfulness. Imagine for just a moment how painful that would have been for Eve and for Mary!
Well, the high cost of sin and rebellion against God in this passage sets the dark backdrop against which a mysterious yet hopeful light shines. For, in the midst of the curses, God plants a promise. He says to the Serpent:
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 (v. 15).
What is this little statement God makes? What does it mean? We might pass over it far too quickly in reading Genesis chapter 3, but today let us pause and consider the importance of this one verse for the rest of the narrative of Genesis (and, indeed, the rest of the biblical narrative as well).
In order to move forward in our understanding of this verse, we will ask two questions of it: (1) what storyline is established here? And, (2) how are the storyline’s expectations met?
1. What storyline is established?
It must be said, as we begin, that the fact that God doesn’t end the drama of creation after the fall begs the question: What are his purposes for not ending it? We don’t consider that question enough. You see God is being incredibly gracious! It would have been completely just for him to send Adam and Eve immediately to hell for their rebellion against him. Yet, instead, he allows their story to continue. So, what is this story going to be about?
Well, verse 15 (I believe) suggests that it will be a story about a struggle. Specifically, it will be a plotline about the struggle between the woman’s “offspring” and the serpent’s “offspring.” It will be a plotline about a battle that extends far into the future—far into coming generations.
Now, some commentators would suggest this verse is part of a myth that is meant to explain “why there is hostility between mankind and the serpent world.”1 In their view, verse 15 is simply part of a myth to explain why people don’t like snakes. Or, it is a myth to explain and warn that snakes are dangerous so stay away from them.
In my opinion, this explanation has two major problems:
First, if it is explaining why people don’t like snakes or warning them that snakes are dangerous, it neglects to explain anything about spiders. (I, for one, am generally way more freaked out by a big spider than a big snake!) And, that’s not to mention all the other scary and dangerous animals—scorpions, lions, and bears (oh my!)—that aren’t being explained away or being warned against as dangerous. (Furthermore, why would they need to explain the hostility anyway? I mean, was there a real problem, when Genesis was being written, with people running around in the dessert grabbing snakes? As if someone had to say: “Moses! We better make up a story telling people why they shouldn’t like snakes because they keep getting bitten while trying to catch them!”)
Second, such a view seems to ignore the fact that the rest of the Bible continuously picks up and builds upon this theme of the hostility between the serpent’s “offspring” and the woman’s “offspring.” You see, the rest of Scripture progressively understands this struggle as not simply a struggle between mankind and snake-kind but as a struggle between mankind and evil as personified in the snake, Satan (Romans 16:20; Revelation 12:9). Even the book of Genesis shows constant interest in the provision of offspring. It continually picks up this theme of God’s promise to bless mankind through offspring (Genesis 13:16; 28:14). Consequently, (I’m convinced) this must be more than a mere myth.
Instead, this is the beginning of a grand redemptive storyline. It is a plotline that promises hope in the midst of the darkest possible moment. One commentator explains the storyline in this way:
In the narrative to follow, there is to be war (“enmity”). The two sides are represented by two seeds, the “seed” of the snake and the “seed” of the woman. In the ensuing battle the “seed” of the woman will crush the “seed” of the snake. Though wounded in the struggle, the woman’s ‘seed’ will be victorious.2
This (I’m convinced) is the plotline that is beginning here in Genesis three. It is the first taste of hope following Adam and Eve’s sin. Again, remember that God could have justly chosen to judge Adam and Eve and end the story right there, but he did not. Instead, God mercifully allows the story to continue and graciously establishes two sides by placing “enmity” between mankind and Satan-kind.
This brings us to our second question.
2. How are the storyline’s expectations met?
Have you ever noticed that we (human beings) are notoriously bad when it comes to having expectations? We regularly expect too much from things that could never meet our high expectations. We often knowingly or unknowingly expect far more of things than is reasonable to expect of them.
There is probably no better example of this than romantic relationships. Whenever Natalie and I meet with young couples in doing premarital counseling, we usually ask them to share the story of their romance with us. Invariably, during the course of their story, they will say some Jerry Maguire esque “You complete me.” statement or line about the other person. What this betrays is that they expect that being married to this person will make them happy. But, this is not true!
(When Natalie and I meet with these couples, one of our objectives is to dash their unrealistic expectations upon reality. So, we tell all these horror stories from our own marriage in an attempt to give them a realistic idea of how hard it is to love a sinner. They leave depressed but thank us after the first year of marriage.)
Well, even though we typically overvalue things—even though we usually expect more from things than they can actually give us—that was not the case with the storyline which God begins to establish here. That was not true of what Israel expected concerning the battle in which the woman’s offspring and the serpent’s offspring would engage. In this instance, Israel badly undershot in what it expected the offspring to be.
Israel expected this offspring to deliver them from their oppressive enemies. He would set Israel up as a great nation once again like in the time of David and Solomon. Perhaps he would even lead them to victory over the Romans.
(But this offspring would conquer a far worse enemy—namely, the enemies of sin and death!)
Israel expected this offspring to be a king who would rule and bring prosperity to the land. And after conquering, he would set up a just government for his subjects.
(But this offspring would rule an infinitely bigger and infinitely more just kingdom—the eternal kingdom of God in the new heavens and the new earth!)
Israel expected this offspring to come and do away with all idolatry. They expected him to once again establish the true worship of Yahweh. The people would, under this offspring, again worship God rightly as they had in the past.
(But this offspring would not simply do away with idolatry; he would transform the hearts of an idolatrous people so that their faithless and wandering hearts would always long after God!)
Israel expected this offspring to be a powerful and charismatic human leader whom they could serve.
(But this offspring would be far more than a mere human leader; he would be God in human flesh. He would not come to be served but to serve and even to die for his people!)
So, what expectations do you need to elevate? In short, how do you need to elevate your expectations of God’s salvation work in your life?
Or to rephrase this in a negative sense, what expectations to you need to de-throne? What idols do you need to stop placing undo expectations upon in order that you might place your greatest expectations upon the past, present, and future work of Christ Jesus for you?
1See Victor P. Hamilton’s summary of the two scholarly views of Genesis 3:15. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, 197.
2John H. Sailhamer, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Genesis, 56.
