Advent – Day 2

“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.” – Genesis 3:15

All the way back in the beginning, within the first few pages of the history of humanity, the Old Testament opens with a prophecy pointing to the coming Savior. And as the rest of those ancient books unfold, we begin to understand that the whole of the Old Testament is the foretelling of a ransoming redeemer coming to rescue his people.

The whole of the Old Testament is the foretelling of a ransoming redeemer coming to rescue his people.

Back in Genesis 3, when the earth is new and Adam and Eve are the only people to have trod upon the ground, the LORD God gives the first prophecy concerning his son. After they eat the fruit, after they sew fig leaves together to cover their naked bodies, after they hide themselves from the presence of the Lord, after sin ushers in death and erects an impassable chasm between mankind and God … after all this, the LORD God tells 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.” Genesis 3:15

This scripture is the first time we see a foreshadowing of Christ. We’re just three chapters into the very first book of the Bible, and already a promise concerning the second Adam is given, one who will ultimately crush the head of the serpent and redeem all that has been lost. Dr. Thomas L. Constable puts it this way, “Most interpreters have recognized this verse as the first biblical promise and prophecy of the provision of salvation … The rest of the book, in fact the whole Old Testament, proceeds to point ahead to that Seed: Jesus Christ.”

Ever since that day back in Eden when the first promise of a savior was given, the people of the Old Testament lived their lives in hopeful expectation of Jesus. Through floods and famines and slavery and exile, through kingdoms rising and kingdoms falling, the people waited and hoped. And then one day, a star shone over a Bethlehem stable, angels appeared to frightened shepherds, and the baby born to save the souls of man let out his first cry. The waiting was over, and the promise was fulfilled.

During this season of advent, as we ready our hearts and wait in hopeful expectation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus, I pray we would find ourselves overwhelmed with gratitude by the compassionate sovereignty of God and his redeeming plan for salvation … a plan that that was prophesied thousands and thousands of years before the birth of Christ. 

Today, take some time to reflect upon the beautiful reality that even in the very beginning, God was already working out our salvation through the promise of Jesus. Dear Lord, awaken our slumbering hearts and tune our ears to hear your voice. Give us a fresh understanding of your Word, and let the glorious news of our promised redemption through your son fall upon us in a holy fire. 

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