The true story is told of a man who was a very qualified TV meteorologist but for some reason he did a terrible job when it came to actually forecasting the weather. In fact, he became something of a local joke when a newspaper began keeping a record of his repeated faulty predictions. They followed up w/ a feature story that showed he had been wrong almost 300 times in a single year. Thanks to all this bad press, the poor meteorologist was fired. After living off his unemployment for a few months he moved to another part of the country & applied for a job as a weather forecaster at another TV station. The job application asked him to state the reason for leaving his previous position so he wrote, "The climate didn't agree with me."
In spite of all our scientific advances in weather forecasting we are still far from perfect when it comes to predicting the weather. Predicting the weather can be a very difficult thing.
We could say the same thing when it comes to predicting other things like: which team will in the championship game or how the New Year will turn out. Dr. Neis Bohr, a noted physicist once commented on this frustrating principle & said, "Prediction is a very difficult art...especially when it involves the future."
There is only 1 person who has gotten every prediction he has made right & that’s God. As you know, Jesus' coming had been predicted for thousands of years. In fact, the OT contains about 300 specific predictions about the Messiah. And God got each 1 of them correct, so it would be ridiculous to say that this was accident. The nature of Jesus' birth, life & death was not some sort of Messianic coincidence. In Lee Strobel's book, “The Case For Christ,” he points out that the probability of just 8 of these predictions being fulfilled in 1 person is 1 in one hundred million billion. And what are the odds of fulfilling 300?
I don't know about you, but for me that goes a long way toward helping me know that the Bible & therefore God is completely trustworthy. No committee of authors could have made this up.
Today we want to look at 1 of these predictions, actually the 1st one. God didn't waste any time telling us that Christmas was coming. He began predicting Jesus' appearance in the very 1st book of the Bible even though in the counsel of the Godhead it has been planned before creation itself. Turn to Genesis 3:15.
So here we have this prediction/promise from God. What I want you to glean from this today is YOU BELONG TO A PROMISE-MAKING & PROMISE-KEEPING GOD! If He has given you a promise in His Word – you can take it to the bank. How He keeps it & the timing of His keeping it may puzzle you, but the fact that He will – you don’t ever have to question. And I would like to illustrate that by shifting our focus off God & onto Satan for the next several minutes. For you see not everyone was enthralled about the Promise that God had made in Genesis 3:15. In fact, Satan was going to do everything in his power to make sure God did not keep that promise.
Adam & Eve destroyed the goodness of God's creation when they sinned in the Garden. But in the midst of a series of curses God pronounced because of their sin, He also gave this promise, made this prediction – that 1 day 1 would come that would destroy the one who had tempted Adam & Eve & make right what had been made wrong. That was great news to Adam & Eve & all mankind, but it was bad news to Satan. And so ever since that day, Satan has tried to overthrow God's plan by:
? 1st by trying to keep Christ's 1st Advent from happening;
? 2ndly after Christ did come, Satan tried to have him killed & eventually succeeded in the crucifixion;
? 3rdly by trying to keep anyone from pledging their allegiance to Christ now;
? 4thly by sometime in the future gathering all the forces of hell to do battle against Christ again in that final
battle.
Today we just want to concern ourselves with the 1st 2 strategies of Satan - his attempt to keep Christ's coming from happening & killing him after He came thus causing God's promise of Gen.3:15 to be broken. Satan, as we will see, is going to do everything in his power to stop God from keeping His promise.
Now there are a lot of different perspectives you can read the OT from.
? You can approach it from the perspective of the story of redemption & note how God is preparing the scene
for the coming of His Son.
? Or from the perspective of man's repeated failure against God
? Or from the perspective of God's infinite mercy in light of man's repeated failure.
But there is another way you can approach the events of the OT. And I doubt very few of us approach it or read it from this perspective. It is from the perspective of Satan's continued attempts to keep the Christ from ever coming - to prevent Gen.3:15 from ever coming true. You know I am not 1 who looks for a demon behind every bush. I don't blame everything on some demon, but if you will read the OT w/ this truth we are talking about today in mind, you will see how Satan was continually trying to wipe out Israel for he knew God had predicted that this one that would bruise the head of the serpent would come from Israel. And that is why, I believe you see such a fierce attack of Israel throughout OT history.
I don't think we comprehend how much Satan hates God & how badly he wants to overthrow God. Sometimes in sports we speak of a person or a team really wanting the victory. And sometimes you see a much weaker team actually defeat a stronger team because they come in really pumped up & wanting the victory. Maybe it is 1 of those fierce rivalries.
I don't think we comprehend how badly Satan wants to "defeat" God. If you do comprehend it, then nothing in the Bible or in human history will surprise you. Also, if you comprehend it, it will cause you to constantly be on guard against the schemes of the devil because tempting you to stumble is part of his consuming attempt at defeating God.
Now obviously we don't have time to go through the entire OT in order for me to show you how Satan attempted to defeat the promise of Gen.3:15 - so I will just highlight some.
-Genesis 6 - Satan has succeeded in getting man to sin. He then succeeded in having Cain kill his brother Abel. Who knows, maybe he thought he had thwarted the promise at that point. But God blessed Adam & Eve w/ another son, Seth. And now we are several generations removed from that period. This is the time of Noah.
-6:1-6 - v.2 - Now I'm not trying to open a can of worms here for there is much debate over who were the "sons of God". Some same they were fallen angels; some men who, to use a NT phrase, were demon possessed; some say they were the descendants of Seth & the daughters of man were the descendants of Cain. We don't have time to discuss it. And it really doesn't matter, in terms of what we are looking at today, for all I want you to do is see the results of what happened here. The results were a world full of corrupt, wicked, vile, sinful people - 6:5.
Satan had not forgotten God's prophecy that a promise Seed of the woman would 1 day destroy him. He had implanted his own spiritual seed in Cain & his descendants, but God had preserved the line of the true Seed through Seth. When Noah was born & Lamech was led to prophesy that "comfort" concerning the Curse would come through him, Satan & his angels must have feared that their opportunities for victory in this cosmic conflict were in imminent danger. Therefore desiring reinforcements for a coming battle against the hosts of heaven & also desiring, if possible, to completely corrupt mankind before the Promised Seed could accomplish Satan's defeat we see the events of Gen.6 taking place. This is really the 1st place where we see an all out assault by Satan. Yet at the same time we see God's response by sending the Flood.
But please understand that when a person is impassioned w/ a purpose, they will not let anything stand in the way of them achieving that purpose. They do not give up easily. Satan is such a being. The Flood must have been a devastating blow to his plan, but I want you to take note of the tenacity of Satan. For in just a short time he has his hook in Noah & 1 of his sons. Noah gets drunk & Ham shames his father to the point that Noah pronounces a curse on him & his descendants (Genesis 9).
If you skip over a couple of chapters to Gen.11, we will see again Satan's attempt to totally corrupt & control mankind before the Promised Seed could come. Here we have the story of the tower of Babel. And once again, it appears he has won over the people of the world. They refuse to go forth & populate the earth as God commanded after the Flood. Once again it appears Satan is getting the upper hand but then God moves again. He confuses the languages & did He not do a masterful job of it?
I hope I am not losing you in this survey. My concern is that we can read these accounts & just view them as separate incidents in the history of mankind & the history of Israel instead of viewing them for what I believe they are - an ongoing attempt by Satan to keep the Promise One of Gen.3:15 from coming & therefore from destroying him. We could look at a host of other attempts in the OT but I would like to call your attention to a few more examples where you see an all out attempt to destroy Israel so that the Promise One could not be born.
-Exodus 1:8-10,15-16,22 - Now you may read this & just think it is the act of an evil, insecure, immoral king. But please understand it is so much more than that. Down through the centuries, God has become a little more specific in His prophecy about the coming of the Promised One. Before we just knew he would be a descendant of Eve, then of Seth, then of Noah. But now we know that he would come through the descendants of Abraham, which were the Israelites. And that is why you have seen such fierce attacks & hatred against the Jews down through history. It is satanic in origin.
And so this action by Pharaoh is not just the actions of 1 individual king. It is another attempt by Satan to destroy the line leading to the Promised One.
-2 Kings 11:1-3 - As we noted in Exodus, down through the centuries God continued to get more specific in His prophecies of the coming Messiah. At this point in 2 Kings we now know he will come through the tribe of Judah & even more specifically through the kingly line of David. Thus what we see in 2 Kings 11 is another attack by Satan. This time it is not against every Jewish male. In fact, in proportion it is against a very small number but a very critical number in terms of fulfilling the promise of Gen.3:15.
In 2 Kings 11, we discover that Ahaziah, the king of Judah, who was one of David's descendants, has been killed. Although Ahaziah has been the king the real power has been his mother, Athaliah. And so word reaches the king's mother that the king has been killed.
Now watch what she does – 11:1-3. Can you imagine a grandmother killing her grandchildren? I'm not sure even the trash TV talk shows have had something that bizarre on although I’m sure in today’s world it has happened.
The norm is to expect grandmothers to spoil their grandchildren. How unnatural for a grandmother to kill her grandchildren, but that is exactly what Athaliah did. She got all the royal line except 1 - Joash, who was 1 yr. old & was taken by his aunt & hid for 6 yrs.
This was simply another attempt by Satan to destroy the line that the Messiah was to come from. And the line of David was destroyed except for this 1 survivor.
Do you realize that w/ just the slightest change in history, you very well would have never been born? If just 1 person somewhere in previous generations had died before they did or some other "chance" happening did or did not occur - you may not be here today.
Satan got to within 1 person of keeping God from fulfilling His promise in Gen.3:15. Humanly speaking, it was that close. Maybe he thought he had got them all. If so, I can't imagine his devilish delight at that moment nor his rage when 6 yrs. later Joash is brought forth & proclaimed king.
-Esther 3:13 - Here is the story of Esther, Mordecai & Haman. And you know the storyline of how Haman got the king's permission to totally destroy every Jew alive. He was able to get it written according to the law of the Medes & Persians, which means it could not be changed once issued. [3:15] Are you beginning to grasp that Satan doesn't give up. But God moves again to protect His people & to keep His promise.
-Matt.2:16 - Please understand that Satan doesn't give up. He has been working feverishly from the beginning of time almost to keep the birth of Christ from happening. But it happens anyway, despite his best efforts. It happened because God promised it would. And so now he has to adopt a new strategy. He could not keep him from being born, but maybe he can keep him from growing up. And so he sets into motion, through Herod, the plan to kill all the baby boys around Bethlehem, 2 yrs. old & younger. But God intervenes again & Joseph & Mary & Jesus are protected.
But the day is going to come in 30 yrs. when Satan will get his wish. Jesus will be put to death, but it is not because Satan in his persistence has finally got the victory, it is because God, as at every other point in history, is in complete control. Satan had thought he had finally won but how wrong he was.
When my children were little I liked wrestling w/ them. On occasion I would let them get on top of me or put me in some hold. But while it appeared that they were in command & were winning, I knew that I was completely in control of the situation.
Satan thought he had finally won, but God was in complete control. And thus Satan was defeated again at the resurrection.
Know today, on this side of the birth of Christ & the death of Christ, Satan is working just as feverishly as ever in preparation for the 2nd Advent of Christ. And you are part of that for he is after your heart. He is attempting to conqueror as many souls as he can, just like in the time of Noah & the tower of Babel. But our God, who is in complete control, will come again & forever defeat Satan & cast him into hell where he will be for eternity.
People in different ages have asked why did God allow Satan's rebellion to continue. Why didn't God destroy Satan way back then? Why did he give Satan an opportunity to exploit every avenue of his power to its limits - from Gen.3:1 until the establishment of God's final kingdom? Why did God allow that?
The Bible doesn't explicitly say. But I believe 1 reason was to let rebellion run its course as an illustration to all creation that nothing & no one can dethrone God or thwart 1 of His prediction/prophecies. When Satan's rebellion is finally put to rest, no one will ever wonder if God's authority can be usurped.
Satan has not stopped in his all-out attempt to thwart God’s promises simply because Christ was born & raised from the dead. He continues to march on in an attempt to thwart another promise of God concerning the end of time. So the battle goes on.
I don't want that to discourage you or scare you because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. And brethren, you can rest in the strength & might of your God. It may appear in this world, in our country, in some situation you are facing that the enemy is winning the wrestling match. God says, in the Psalms, “Be still & know that I am God” - not Satan, not you or any other being. He says, “I am God.” And if you ever need any assurance of that just read through the Bk of Isaiah sometime taking special note of the authority & power of God. But you can put your complete confidence & trust in Him for whatever situation you are facing. And whatever promise God has made to you, you can rely on it no matter how feverishly Satan tries to fight against it.
God is a promise-making & therefore a promise-keeping God. So as you celebrate the Christmas season, as you think back to that very 1st promise & prediction – rejoice & be glad for the God that you belong to. Search out His promises. If it is a conditional promise make sure you are fulfilling the condition, but search out His promises & take courage – from the very 1st to the very last promise – God will be faithful to keep it – so you have much to thank God for this Christmas.
