FRIDAY, June 12, 2009                                                       READ: Genesis 3: 20 – 4: 26                                                                                                        

GOD’S REDEMPTION FORESHADOWED

MEMORIZE: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”         Genesis 3: 15

God created the human family to serve the divine redemptive purposes. Family began with God. He created the husband and wife relationship to serve also as a means of depicting the relationship between Christ and His Church (cf. Ephesians 5: 31). God required responsibility and accountability from Adam, the man whom He created in His own image and likeness. The devil sought to undermine God by enticing the woman, then, the man through his deceived wife, to refuse submission and obedience to God. Even when the devil tempts us to disobey God, we are still responsible to obey God. God knew ahead of time that Adam would have sinned against Him. He designed and planned for the redemption of Adam and his descendants,, before He laid the foundations of the world (cf. 1 Peter 1: 18 – 21; Revelation 13: 8b). In Genesis 3: 15, He began revealing the role and person of His Redeemer. There would be a Redeemer who would be born into the human family – the Seed of the woman. He would not enter the human family through natural conception. He would be placed into the woman’s womb by the Holy Spirit (cf. Luke 1: 35). In v. 21, we see that, after the man sinned against God, God lovingly and mercifully killed animals and used their skins to clothe the man and woman. This was God’s way of indicating that redemption, salvation would not be the product of human effort nor by self-salvation. Salvation would be substitutionary – His life given to provide the covering which Adam and his descendants would need. That - the substitutionary sacrifice of God’s Lamb on our behalf, incidentally, was what the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament were intended to point to (cf. Genesis 22: 8; John 1: 29; 1 Peter 3: 18). The sacrifices were never intended to save anyone from sin (cf. Hebrews 9: 13; 10: 4; Acts 4: 12). God did not leave the man and the woman in His garden after they sinned against Him vv. 22 – 24. God knew ahead what Adam and Eve would do, having already made the decision not to rely on Him. They would try to keep themselves alive in their state of sinfulness, by taking and eating “… also of the tree of life and live forever.” God is merciful and pities our condition (cf. Psalm 103: 13). He drove them out of His garden. People are still searching for that garden today, trying to avoid death. We are engaged in efforts of self-salvation and self-preservation. Sin has its consequences. In 4: 1, we see how Eve bought into God’s plan of redemption. When she gave birth to her first born son, she actually thought that that God had fulfilled His promise (3: 15), bringing forth the Seed who would deliver them from their sin. In 3: 15, God actually spoke of two seeds (cf. 1 John 3: 10 – 12; Matthew 23: 35). We are not told how long after Cain was born, but Eve bore Abel. It might well have been long enough for them to realize that Cain was not willing to conform to the will of God. He was the product of a fractured, rebellious relationship with God and with each other. Is it likely that Eve might have a little contempt for Adam for shifting the blame for his disobedience onto her? Is it possibly that Cain might have develop a lack of respect for his father? Adam had shown how he felt about Eve. Cain was the seed of the adversary. Quite likely, seeing the kind of person that their first son was, how he treated his father and brother, who listened to and obeyed his father, could have served to get their attention. Rather than turn around and do what was right, Cain did his part to eliminate the evidence that submission to the will of God brings blessings. He killed his righteous brother, Abel. Could this have led to Adam and Eve’s turning to God and relying upon Him to lead their lives? In 4: 25, 26, after God drove Cain away from his parents’ home, He gave them another son, Seth, through whom He began the line through which the Redeemer would come. It is evident that Adam and Eve had other children, a daughter at least. Seth got a son, whom he called Enosh. The way in which Seth and Enosh related to each other served as an object lesson of the relationship between God, the Father and His Son. It also indicated the pattern for human fathers to relate to their children and their children to their fathers. We are told, “Then men began to call on the name of the LORD” (cf. Malachi 4: 6).

PRAY: LORD, God Almighty, You have made Your point concerning salvation from sin through Jesus Christ. I want my heart to be opened to You, so that I will get the point and want to honor You with my whole life. Grant this in Jesus’ strong name!