I Beg Your Pardon, God Has Promised A Rose Garden, Someday. Series

Intro:

1. There is a flower called the corpse flower [ti-tan a-rum]. It can grow up to 10 feet tall. It has bright red blooms that look like rotten meat. It attracts flies and carion beetles.

Matthew Opel, from the University of Connecticut said:

"The corpse flower looks like something has died. It smells like something has died. Unlike other plants that offer nectar, there's no real reward here. They think they're going to get a meal because it smells like something dead."

2. Sin looks like the corpse flower, it seems attractive and advantages, it promises great good and rewards, but it brings nothing but death.

What a contrast with God's promise - the promise of ultimate defeat for Satan and Salvation for those who would receive the promise.

3. The Promise.

Trans: Gen. 3:15

I. FIRST, THERE WILL BE A BATTLE.

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed - this is a declaration of war!

"I'm declaring war between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers..." Genesis 3:15 (MSG)

A. First, we see the Master planner behind it all.

and I will put - notice God is always sovereignly behind the scene, it is His invisable Hand that is always working.

Today many think life is made up of chance, luck, accidents, and the like. A Wise, Sovereign, Loving, Powerful God is seen by only precious few.

The late Harry Fosdick, was the pastor of New York's Riverside Church. One evening a distraught young man burst into his study and said, "I have decided that I cannot and do not believe in God!"

Harry said, "Well tell me, what kind of God do you believer in?" The young man went into a long explaination of the kind of God he believed in.

Harry said, "Well were in the same boat - I don't believe in that God either!"

B. Furthermore, the Mandate.

And I will put hostility between you and the woman..." - The Hebrew word translated "hostility" is derived from the root ('ev, "to be hostile, to be an adversary [or enemy]"). The curse announces that there will be continuing hostility between the serpent and the woman. The serpent will now live in a "battle zone," as it were.

While Eve lost the first round against the Devil, God wants her and her descendants to view Satan as a foe. Satan is no friend but a persistent evil enemy who need to be constantly resisted.

Reports the Denver Post:

A sheep ranchers in the West, Lexy Lowler has tried just about everything to stop crafty coyotes from killing her sheep. She has used odor sprays, electric fences, and "scare-coyotes."

She has slept with her lambs during the summer and has placed battery-operated radios near them. She has corralled them at night, herded them at day. But the southern Montana rancher has lost scores of lambs—fifty last year alone.

Then she discovered the llama—the aggressive, funny-looking, afraid-of-nothing llama.... "Llamas don't appear to be afraid of anything," she said. "When they see something, they put their head up and walk straight toward it. That is aggressive behavior as far as the coyote is concerned, and they won't have anything to do with that.... Coyotes are opportunists, and llamas take that opportunity away."

We need to stand in Christ, fearless against Satan, he is an opportunist but we must stand against his having an opportunity. Just because Eve yield to temptation in the past, doesnt mean she has to yield to him in the future!

"26 "Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil." Ephesians 4:26-27 (NKJV)

C. Next, we need to look at the Mechanics of this verse.

First we need to try and identify the "you" - at first glance, since he is talking to this animal, the serpent - it would seem that he was talking to and about this physical serpent. But:

1. The word enmity - This feminine noun is derived from the verb which means "enmity" or "hatred." It occurs 5 times in the Hebrew Bible. In Gen. 3:15; and in Num. 35:21-22, the noun is used to refer to the hostility existing between two individuals (Num. 35:21-22).

Finally, in Ezek. 25:15; 35:5, the noun is used to refer to perpetual hatred that Israel's enemies display toward them.

In each of these instances, the word indicates a relational state which exists, not a brief rush of emotion.

Point it is always used of people, Leupold, "The object, "enmity" stand first for emphasis. Nofw enmity is a term not applicable to dumb beasts. Its scriptural use limits it, like its verb root, to enmity between persons or morally responsible agents."