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The Fall and the Promise of Redemption
8 Comments | Posted by Lionel Woods in Genesis, Matthew, New Testament, Old Testament
Today’s reading plan contains the beginning of sin, grace, promise, the implications of sin, two curses, two acts of God’s grace, worship, false worship and the implications of these and finally we begin to see a promise fulfilled in the birth of Jesus the Christ.
After God has now called everything good and Adam has a wife and a law was given (don’t eat of the tree) with a promise of life if obedience was practiced, we are introduced to a “serpent”. We later come to find out that this serpent is named the Devil, Satan, Adversary or the prince of the power of the air. He enters the scene quickly and he gets right to his duties of being the enemy of God. He convinces them to eat of the tree, their eyes are opened and we now have something called “sin” (not sins) and everything God promised would happen began to happen. There was a death, we later come to find out this death is spiritual one (Ephesians 2:1) though they will also die physically and that everyone has been infected by sin (Romans 5:12-15). God pronounces a curse over all of His creation and it doesn’t take long to see this curse working in and through humanity (Genesis 4:8-16 and Genesis 4:23-24)
Yet in spite of this we see a promise in the midst of the chaos. In Genesis 3:15 we see a promise of a seed that will crush the head of the serpent. My friends this is the beginning of what is known as redemptive history (we see a genealogy that follows the Godly Seth versus the cursed Cain) and we see this “seed” unfold to be a promised prophet, king, God with us, and later fully as the Lord Jesus Christ. In our New Testament reading Matthew 2:1-6 the child being born to Mary and Joseph will “shepherd” the people (you will see this shepherd language throughout your reading of the Old Testament).
I want to point out a few things that we begin to see that will be clearer as we read throughout this year. We first see a picture of “substitute”. Two animals are killed in our readings. The first in Genesis 3:20-21. An animal is killed to clothe Adam and Eve (no animal has died before this point). Next we see an animal being a satisfying offering to God as worship. We read this in Genesis 4:1-7. This will become more apparent as to why the slaying (blood) of animals is necessary to worship God. We also see dissatisfaction of false worship. God will not allow false worship and Cain is angered (just as many today are angered by the Gospel) and kills his brother because of it. We see early on that God has a very SPECIFIC way to be worshipped and nothing else is accepted (today many believe they can worship God how they please, and that is because God has been created in our image not His revealed image).
Finally we end with the birth of a King, so we are left with a cliff hanger. What will this king do? He is only a child yet he is being worshipped by Magi from the East who followed his star. We see again false worship. There is another king who does not want this new king to be worshipped, so he goes into deplorable depths to ensure that this child king does not grow up to become an adult and take his rightful place as the true king., God’s king. Well we have to continue reading to see how this unfolds and how it harmonizes itself with our Old Testament readings.
8 Comments for The Fall and the Promise of Redemption
Hutch | January 2, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Author comment by Alan Knox | January 2, 2010 at 12:57 pm
I like the fact that today’s reading plan shows how God continues his plan through two births: Seth’s and Jesus’. In spite of evil and sin, God’s plan continues.
-Alan
Author comment by Lionel Woods | January 2, 2010 at 2:44 pm
Hutch, those are some good observations and we see how our tradition of Christmas actually mimizes the true story of Jesus’ birth and what accomponied it.
I would have like to have dived more into the picture/shadows/fullfilment of Egypt and how Matthew in both Matthew 1 and 2 use old testament prophecies to point to the true Messiah/King. But there is only so much room 
Author comment by Lionel Woods | January 2, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Alan,
I couldn’t agree more. I tried to point that out a little but entire books have been written on the subject. But there is a lot of texts coming up that will help us dig deeper!
Steve Scott | January 2, 2010 at 10:43 pm
All,
Following what Hutch said about a large caravan of dignitaries, the gifts they would have brought – especially coming to worship him as opposed to a normal tribute to a foreign king – following the custom of the time would have been worth untold millions of dollars. So, was Jesus poor like in our traditional interpretation of the NT? What ever happened to those gifts? Hmmmm.
A few random observations: Eve said of God’s commands, “neither shall you touch it.” Did God really say that? Notice that sons of Cain invented musical instruments. And, if Noah’s father Lamech lived 595 years after Noah was born, he would have seen Noah build most of the ark.
Steve Scott | January 2, 2010 at 10:51 pm
Another thing I noticed a few years ago: the serpent inverted the authority structure that God set up. God was the highest authority, then man (then woman in some sense under man), then animals, then fruit. The serpent found himself missing from that authority structure, so he wanted to be God. He inserted himself as an animal to get Eve to agree that he was a higher authority than she. Then the serpent lofted the fruit above all other things as the source of knowledge. Eve got Adam to eat and God was left out of the picture altogether.
So the serpent changed the authority from God, man, woman, animal, fruit to Satan, fruit, animal, woman, man, God. Crafty indeed.
Author comment by Javetta Mercadel | January 3, 2010 at 3:38 pm
@Lionel-Great post! I’m starting to think you really read your bible 
. And yes, God does have a specific way to be worshiped…what is that and what does it look like today?
@Steve-WOW! Your insights are priceless. I love the way you think.
@Hutch-I never knew any of that stuff about Herod. That was very good to know and enhances the text drastically for me.
Hutch | January 4, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Steve-
We know for sure that it must have been helpful to have those costly gifts to finance an immediate “drop what you are doing”…”leave your home and livelyhood/job behind” flight to Egypt and back…God truly takes care of His children especially His one and only unique Son.
Good stuff Lionel.
I liked this: We see early on that God has a very SPECIFIC way to be worshipped and nothing else is accepted (today many believe they can worship God how they please, and that is because God has been created in our image not His revealed image).
Some thoughts on MATT 2.
Although the massacre of the innocents is a tragic evil act of Herod, there is a certain amount of ironic humor contained in the narrative of the Gentile Magi seeking the one “born” King of the Jews. I can just see the expression on the murderous and paranoid King Herod’s face when he hears that a large caravan of powerful and esteemed foreign men have entered his kingdom and are inquiring about one “born” King of the Jews and that they intended to worship Him.
First off, Herod knew that he was never “born” king of the Jews as he was an Idumean a group of people who are non-Jews who converted to Judaism, thus he was not qualified to sit on David’s throne…and he knew that he had been appointed as king of Judea by Rome as a puppet government.
No wonder he was “troubled” and when Herod was troubled, everybody was troubled.
Can you think of the thoughts that went through Herod’s mind…excuse me, you’re in my kingdom and in case you have not heard, I’m the king of the Jews!
Keep in mind that Herod as the master builder and schemer had an elaborate system of surveillance towers all across his empire and the outlying frontiers, complete with fire-signaling abilities and runners on horseback, these men did not show up inside his kingdom without Herod knowing they were on their way debunking the common error that there were only three wise men, this is usually derived from the fact that we are told that the Magi bore three types of gifts, the actual number of people who entered Herods territory is unknown, but if there had only been three wise men, Herod would have detained or killed them when he heard of their purpose for visiting his kingdom. Most likely what showed up within Herods kingdom was a huge caravan with armed escorts to protect the mission and “gifts” from attack by armed bandits. It was most likely a force big enough to keep Herod who had no qualms about killing people to secure his grip on power from laying a hand on those who had the audacity to come to him seeking the one born King of the Jews!
Yes, Herod was troubled! Grin.