Tuesday, November 29, 2016

WOMEN OF CHRISTMAS - EVE - BLAME GAME, CURSES, AND PROMISE

EVE – Blame Game, Curses, and Promise

Genesis 3:12-14 (KJV) And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

God showed up for their evening walk but found Adam and Eve hiding from Him. God, knowing what had happened, asked Adam three questions: How do you know you are naked? Who told you? And Did you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Thus, ensued the first “blame game.” Adam blamed the woman and ultimately God by pointing out that God had given him this “helper.” Then God turned to Eve and asked her what she did. She blamed the serpent (really Satan, the enemy of God and all humankind,) saying he deceived her. She did not take responsibility for her part in the disobedience. After hearing His family’s case, God turned to the serpent and said, “For this you are cursed, crawl on the ground and eat dust all the days of your life.” God continued with the curse of the serpent; but in so doing, He was giving Eve the first prophecy concerning the Savior, the Messiah, to come.

Genesis 3:15 (KJV) And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

We felt the Amplified made this verse a little clearer:

Genesis 3:15 (AMP) “And I will put enmity (open hostility) between you and the woman, And between your seed (offspring) and her Seed; He shall [fatally] bruise your head, And you shall [only] bruise His heel.”

Yes, snakes (serpents) bite the heel and we stomp their heads; but there is more to this prophecy. Satan would be jealous – he was thrown out of Heaven for desiring to “be like God”; but Eve, who was made in the image of God and did not treasure that position, but disobeyed Him, was shown grace. Therefore, Satan is the enemy of man, constantly trying to prevent people from having a right relationship with their Creator. Crucifixion is one of the few forms of execution that “bruises the heel” as the spike is driven through the feet and the heels pushed hard against the cross. But as Jesus’ heels were bruised, He was delivering the deathblow to Satan’s head. Satan is truly a “dead devil walking.” Eve and Adam were the first humans to hear this promise that Satan would ultimately be destroyed by Eve’s Seed (singular) which would be Jesus. Usually “seed” denotes sperm, but it was by the woman’s seed that deliverance would come. Mary conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit without normally necessary benefit of a human man’s sperm, so Jesus was Mary’s Seed and ultimately that of Eve.

Romans 16:20 (KJV) And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Genesis 3:16-19 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

God then forecasted what would happen as a result of the fall: the pain of the woman would be increased in childbirth, and Adam would have to work hard to bring food out of the ground. The earth was cursed as well, as it would now yield thorns, thistles, and other unpleasant plants. It would be prone to drought, floods, earthquakes as well as many kinds of pestilence – locusts, mosquitoes, etc. Paul tells us that the earth longs for Christ’s return as we do.

Romans 8:22-23 (KJV) For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

Genesis 3:20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

We like the way the Amplified Version translates Genesis 3:20:

The man named his wife Eve (life spring, life giver), because she was the mother of all the living.

Since Eve, as the first woman, was the first mother, all other people are descended from her. This makes her crucial to the Christmas story in two ways:

1.   Without Eve, there would be no other people because Adam could not procreate alone.
2.   Without Eve’s being deceived and Adam’s following her advice in disobedience to God and in contradiction to what God had directly spoken to him, man would not need a Savior; and there would have been no need of the incarnation.

One of Eve’s first children, Cain, committed the first murder when he killed his brother Abel. However, we see that Eve did not cease to believe in God after being expelled from the Garden of Eden because when her third son was born, she credited God with replacing Abel.

Genesis 4:25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.

Seth means “anointed; compensation”. She believed God had compensated for her loss by allowing her to conceive another son. It was through this son, Seth, that Jesus, the Messiah came. You will find his name listed in the lineage of Jesus in Luke 3:38.

Genesis 3:21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

God then made the first animal sacrifice in order to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve. Ultimately, Jesus would become the final blood sacrifice, the Perfect Lamb of God, to cover us with His righteousness. One more way in which the account of Eve foreshadows the coming of the Son of God, God incarnate, the Baby Jesus of Christmas.

How does this apply to me?


You are probably seeing clearly that Christmas is not just about a cute little baby, lying in a manger on a bed of hay, in a barn. It’s not just about shepherds, wise men, and angelic messengers. It is about the all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere-present God of the universe descending down to earth in the form of that helpless baby in order to grow into the God-Man who would become our perfect sacrifice. Christmas leads to the death and resurrection of Jesus. If you have not already surrendered your life to Him, please do so today. If you are not sure how, contact us on our website at www.preciousjewelsministries.org or talk with a Bible teaching pastor. Christmas is about each of us having the opportunity to be in right relationship with our Creator. 

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