The Only Good Snake…
Genesis 3:15/ Galatians 4:4-5
Finish this statement…
“The only good snake… _is_a_dead_snake_”
The best snake to kill? Poisonous
Today is a very important day… the first Sunday in Advent…
Advent comes from the Latin word for “Coming” or “Visitation”
In the Christian church it is the season of expectant waiting and preparation
You could say that today kicks off the Christmas season… at least for the church.
Advent is a four week season that is designed to help Christians to remember the long, long wait of the Jewish people… who were waiting for the coming of the Messiah.
Each week we mark the wait by lighting one of the four candles on the outside of the Advent wreathe. Each candle has a special theme which we will celebrate that day.
Today we lit the candle of HOPE.
The Jewish people expected the Messiah to come with power and be a mighty warrior.
They were in hope that the Messiah would come as a political/military deliverer who would deliver Israel from the bonds of servitude to foreign powers.
The thought of the Messiah… the long awaited Savior coming as a helpless infant… was laughable and repugnant… not to mention VERY DISAPPOINTING.
All of those years of waiting, all of the expectation, the dreams, the promises… and this is what they get???
The Long Wait
How long had they waited. How many years do we symbolize with the Advent season?
Was it 400 years… the number of years that make up what we call the “Inter-Testamental” period… the period of time between the last word or message from God in the Old Testament
From the last message given by the last OT prophet, Malachi (430BC) to John the Baptizer, (c. 2 BC) God was silent. He had grown weary of sending message after message, prophet after prophet, warning after warning and call after call. The Jews refused to heed His call or listen to His threats. They persisted in their idolatrous and stiff-necked ways.
So… God decided to get their attention another way… silence.
For roughly 400 years, God said nothing, answered no prayers, sent no dreams, no miracles, no anything.
They looked to the skies, they prayed, they fasted, they begged, they did acts of penance… BUT NOTHING
Until one day, word came to a man named Zechariah, that his wife would bear a son and he was to be named John. John would be to one to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah.
Ironically, when God does decide to speak, after a 400 year silence, Zechariah is doubtful and God punishes him by making him mute until the baby is born…. More silence…. Go figure.
So had they waited 400 years?
Or was it almost 750 years… the period of time from the fall of Israel into the hands of the Assyrians.
Another of the disobediences of the Jews…
The Israelites had become a vassel state… paying tribute… protection money really to the new world power and political bully, Assyria. Soon the yolk of the tribute became too heavy and the King of Israel sought an ally in the king of Syria. Together they thought they could fend off the Assyrian bully.
God was angered that Israel had placed their faith in their political alliance with Syria rather than trusting in Him… so he allowed the Assyrians to utterly destroy the Northern kingdom, Israel.
It was essentially the end of the nation of Israel (until 1947 AD)
So they had waited 750 years for the Messiah to deliver them??
Actually, The period of waiting was much, much more than 750 years, more than 2000 years… the waiting refers to an even that happened way, way, way back in the Garden of Eden… long, long before there was a nation of Israel.
Back there in the Garden of Eden, in paradise…. One day Eve was walking in the Garden… this may be the very first recorded shopping trip. While Eve was looking at the beautiful things of the garden, perhaps choosing a meal… she had a run in with Satan.
Satan took on the form of a serpent… a snake! He slithered up to Eve and said, “Hey… Eve… over here… wouldn’t you like one of these?”
He was referring to the fruit of the tree of knowledge. One of two trees that God had told Eve were OFF LIMITS.
Long story short…Eve listens to the serpent
NEWS FLASH*** No matter where you are or what you are doing… if a serpent starts talking to you… THAT IS NOT GOOD!!!
Not only did Eve sin… she led Adam to sin.
NEWS FLASH #2 - When we sin God is NOT a happy camper
And “When God ain’t happy…. Ain’t NOBODY happy”
God came to the Garden and began to ask questions
Adam? EVE!!!!
Eve? SERPENT!!!
Serpent? Didn’t have a leg to stand on
What was the fall out?
Well first… DEATH Wages of sin
Adam and Eve not clothed like this…. Furs
100% wool… white as snow
Required!!!
THEN… God showed His unhappiness
Adam - toil, weeds, out of garden
Eve - pain in childbirth, subjection to husband, eviction
Satan - no legs, enmity
Some of you know that enmity… you are the ones who say, “The only good snake is a dead one”
So… Adam and Eve are driven out of the garden
But the story is NOT OVER
It is not over because our God is…
A faithful God
A loving God
A Father God who does not abandon His children
He is the creator who created us for His pleasure and to love
He was not finished with man… HE HAD A PLAN
A plan to redeem man, to draw them back to Himself, to reestablish the relationship, to allow Him to bless us and show love to us
So even as he cast Adam and Eve out of the garden… away from His presence, away from the flow of His blessings, away from the warmth of His love… He did one more thing and that is what we celebrate in Advent.
I told you that God punished Satan by…no legs… enmity
Really punishment on the creature… the serpent
He also punished Satan…
“You will bruise his heel, but He will crush your head”
He told the serpent… your’s is coming… HE WILL KILL YOU
Well, we know who YOU is---- Satan
But who is HE… and what does it mean you will bruise his heel but he will crush your head
Man was bound in the chains of sin
He is the Messiah, the conqueror, the one who would come and destroy Satan, and his demons and his chains.
And how would he do it? By his own death…. On the cross.
He is the Messiah… the long awaited deliverer who will free us from our sin.
Satan thought he had killed Jesus with one lethal bite
But Jesus shook it off… and said that was just a flesh wound
So in advent we celebrate the thousands of years of waiting and preparation
But THE WAIT IS OVER… the Messiah has come and the debt has been paid
The wait is over because He came as a baby in the manger
And if we will just trust and obey we can be set free from the chains of sin.
I have a free powerpoint for this sermon... rhpendleton57@gmail.com
