The Promise Series

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.

“He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?”’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”’ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

“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. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ And he said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’ He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’ 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.’

“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.

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.’” [1]

Christmas begins with sin. I mean by that statement that had there never been rebellion against God there would never have been need for a Redeemer. However, our first parents rebelled against God Who gave them their being. God gave them a perfect environment with but one proscription—they were not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Doing so would be an act of lèse majesté.

Our first parents rebelled against the will of their creator. Thus, God’s good creation was plunged into ruin through their rebellion against God. All was not lost, however—God offered hope in the midst of death. The Creator extended hope when all was hopeless. That divine hope is the foundation for the celebration of Christmas.

Our world is in desperate need of hope. After destroying the economy of nations, terrorising the people, and dividing entire populations through fear and intimidation, world governments appear to have learned nothing. Politicians, derelict in their duty, allowed bureaucrats to make decisions devastating relationships, consigning multitudes of elderly residents to care homes where they would die alone and isolated, while driving thousands of small businesses into failure. Politicians shirked their responsibilities because they are by nature risk averse, fearful of offending powerful constituencies, and they are almost universally determined to secure their power by appearing to know what they are doing. Thus, politicians failed in their responsibility to fulfil their elected duties to make decisions by deferring to experts who did not need to answer to the electorate.

Doesn’t it seem that we’ve learned so much that we didn’t know during the twenty years we were locked down? Well, it does seem we have been locked down at least that long? We learned that a pesky virus bearing a “Made in China” label is beyond clever. It knows not to travel beyond six feet. It is deadly in any small business setting, but steers clear of all big box stores. It would immediately unleash an Apocalypse in a church gathering, but it avoids mass protests and riots. It can be stopped dead in its tracks by wearing a mask… or two… or possibly even three. The virus also revealed that approximately seventy-three percent of all people who visit one of the aforementioned big box stores are unaware that air both comes in and goes out through their nose. This assertion is based on the fact that people generally wear their masks as a hammock for their double chins. Throughout all this government-imposed foolishness that wrecked a vibrant economy, people were dying from lack of hope. More appear to be dying of opioid overdoses than of the virus on almost any weekend! There appears to be an epidemic of hopelessness that politicians are incapable of stopping. Politicians kept telling us that the two weeks to flatten the curve would soon end! Throughout this fiasco, this government-imposed marathon, we learned that ersatz hope is no hope at all!