The Lord’s Love Crushes . . .
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of God through which the Holy Spirit guides our hearts and minds today is recorded in Genesis 3:8-15
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the tree of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
The man said, “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
So the LORD God said to th serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:8-15 NIV) – This is the word of the Lord.
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
“There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiates 1:9 NIV), King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiates. Many in the modern world may disagree. They consider the modern world more advanced, more sophisticated, than the ancient. Granted, we have devices and technology unimagined years ago, but has the world or the people in it really changed? Are people innately different now than years ago? Has human nature fundamentally changed because we have cars and space shuttles, televisions and computers? “There is nothing new under the sun.” We can learn much about ourselves from those who lived long ago.
God’s Word for today takes us back to the beginning. What we learn about fallen human nature in the days of Adam and Eve teaches us about our human nature today. “There is nothing new under the sun.” Yet this historical account in Genesis 3 teaches us not only about our fallen nature. It teaches us about the Lord’s love – his unchanging, constant love. The Lord’s love that was at work to seek and to save Adam and Eve is at work to seek and to save you and me.
What does the Lord’s love do as he works to seek and to save us sinners? The Lord’s love crushes. Crushing isn’t usually considered a loving act. But whether it is loving or not depends on what is crushed. Crushing a bee in your hand before it stings your child who is deathly allergic to it is an act of love. The Lord’s love crushes. That’s the theme for today. First of all we want to see that the Lord’s love crushes our excuses that try to hide our guilt. Then we want to see that the Lord’s love crushes our enemy who wants to destroy us. May the Holy Spirit comfort us with the joy that such love of our Lord does not change.
1) The Lord’s love crushes our excuses that try to hide our guilt
The text begins in the middle of the record of how sin came into God’s perfect world. Remember what has happened up until this point? God created a perfect world in six, normal days. On day six he created Adam and Eve from whom we’ve all descended. He created them in his image, that is, they were holy and sinless like God. He gave them the rule over the animals.
How could our first parents thank the Lord God for the wonderful world he had given them? He provided them a way. He gave them the Tree of the Knowledge or Good and Evil and told them not to eat from it. Each day as they gladly obeyed their God’s command, they would be worshipping him with thankfulness.
So we see the perfect relationship of love, thanks, and joy between God and our first parents. Satan aimed to change that. Who is Satan? He was originally created as a good angel. But he and his followers rebelled against God and were thrown out of heaven. His name, “Satan”, means enemy. He is the Devil, the father of lies.
He uses a snake to speak to Eve. “Did God really say, ’You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1 NIV) He tries to get Eve to doubt God’s Word and his love. Eve corrects him that it is only this particular tree that God commanded them not to eat from so that they wouldn’t die. Then the snake says, “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, know good and evil” (Genesis 3:4, 5 NIV). With this lie Satan deceives Eve. She no longer believes God’s Word. She turns her back on God’s love. She eats. She gives some to Adam, who had stood there and failed to intervene. He, too, eats.
They lost God’s image. No longer were they holy like God. They were filled with sinful desires. They tried to cover their nakedness for in their sin they felt shame. Then they heard the Lord God walking in the garden. Fear fills them. They scurry around like cockroaches caught in the light trying to hid themselves.
“There is nothing new under the sun.” Our sin drives us away from God. Some may claim that we have some remnant of natural power to seek God, to choose him, to decide for him, or to invite him in. But after Adam and Eve sinned, they no longer had such power, even though they were originally created with it. How much more aren’t we lacking any such power! For we inherited Adam and Eve’s sinful nature. God is holy and just. He does not leave sin unpunished. The natural reaction of any sinner toward God is to scurry away and hide before he crushes us like cockroaches.
But it’s impossible to hide from God, isn’t it? Sin makes us think we can get away with it, but we can’t. God in his holy justice has every right to crush us because of our sins, just as he had every right to crush Adam and Eve. But the Lord’s love didn’t crush them. His love crushed their excuses that tried to hide their guilt.
The Lord’s love seeks out Adam, calling “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9 NIV) The Lord God knows, but he wants Adam to see that he can not hide. Adam, though, tries to hide behind an excuse: “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid” (Genesis 3:10 NIV). “It’s not my fault I was hiding, someone created me naked so I was afraid.” The Lord’s love crushes this excuse with two more questions. “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (Genesis 3:11 NIV) Adam tries to hide behind other excuses by blaming Eve and God who gave her to him. “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it” (Genesis 3:12 NIV).
Even those last words, “I ate it” were not a good confession. Yes, Adam admits his sinful act; he knows he deserves death and can’t hide from it. But he doesn’t rely on the Lord’s mercy. At this point he can’t, for the Lord hasn’t yet spoken his promise of mercy. Before the Lord comforts sinners with his promise, he must first crush the excuses that blind us sinners so we see how helpless we are because of our sin. We can’t hid behind excuses. By his questions his love has done this for Adam and now does it for Eve, crushing her excuses.
“There is nothing new under the sun.” “I can’t help myself. That’s the way I am.” Ever use that excuse? That’s blaming God like Adam did. He’s the one who made you. “So and so makes me so mad.” That excuse blames others. How easy isn’t it for family members to fall into that cycle of blaming each other, hiding behind excuses.
With his holy Law the Lord crushes our excuses. He holds you and me accountable. We cannot hide. But thanks be to God that he does do this; otherwise, we would die in our sin, since we would not believe his promise. We would rely on our excuses instead of trusting in him.
All who keep on hiding and refuse to let their excuses by crushed by God will only hear: “Cursed are you,” as the snake heard. They will eat the dust of hell forever. When you see a snake crawling on its belly, remember the sin that corrupts us; remember the punishment we deserve. But also, when you see the snake’s punishment, remember the victory God gives us over the enemy, who once used a snake to overcome us. For God’s love crushes our excuses so that he can bring you the Good News that his love has crushed your enemy who tried to destroy us.
2) The Lord’s love crushes our enemy who wants to destroy us
You see, the words the Lord speaks to the snake and not simply meant for the snake. They are addressed to Satan. His words to Satan carry a wonderful promise – not for Satan, but for Adam and Eve and for you and me. “I will put enmity between you and the woman” (Genesis 3:15 NIV) the Lord says to Satan. Satan had gotten Eve to trust him as a friend, so that she and Adam turned into God’s enemies like he was. The Lord God would end that relationship. He would put enmity, that is hatred, between Eve and Satan.
But this promise is not only for Eve. The Lord continues, “and between your offspring and hers” (Genesis 3:15 NIV). Satan’s offspring are all who follow him, that is, all who do not trust in God whether human or demon. Eve’s offspring referred to here are not all her physical offspring. That would include all people, even those who continue to follow Satan. Rather these are Eve’s spiritual offspring, namely all her descendants who trust Lord’s promise of the Savior as she now was brought to trust it. Those who trust in God are not on Satan’s side. God would place enmity, hatred, between them and Satan’s slaves. Those who trust Lord’s promise are God’s friends.
How would this all be brought about? The Lord makes that clear by speaking the first promise of the Savior. Referring to the ultimate offspring of the woman, the Lord says to Satan: “he will crush your head, and you will strike his hell” (Genesis 3:15 NIV). Someone born from a woman would destroy Satan’s power, just like crushing a snake’s head destroys it’s power. But in so doing this person would be wounded, although his power would remain. Through this person the Lord’s love would crushes the enemy who wants to destroy us.
You know who this person is. And although Adam and Eve did not know his name. They trusted that he would come and do as the Lord promised. Jesus came. He is the eternal, almighty Son of God. He was born from a woman, not from a man and woman, but from a virgin. He is the woman’s offspring. As the God-man he crushed Satan’s power. Satan’s power rested in sin. So Jesus paid for all sins. He paid God the full price of his holy, precious blood to ransom us and set us free from Satan’s power. But in so doing, it cost him the suffering of the god-forsaken cross. It cost him his life as God’s just anger punished him in our place.
But he truly did crush Satan’s head. He destroyed the devil’s power. In fact, when he came back to life, Jesus descended into hell to show that even in Satan’s domain, Jesus had the conquering power. Jesus’ glorious resurrection appearances prove that his is the Victor. He is the Crusher. And he gives you the victory through faith in his blood. Through faith in Jesus, you can say to Satan, “Eat dust,” for Jesus has crushed his head.
“There is nothing new under the sun.” The Lord made his promise to Adam and Eve. He kept that promise. That promise is for you still today. Believe it. Trust it. For you see, the Lord will not go back on his promise. He is the Lord. Notice that the word translated Lord is all upper case letters in these passages. The word translated LORD is the Hebrew name for the true God which teaches us that he is the eternal “I AM.” He does not change. He freely makes his promise. He faithfully keeps his promise. He promises you that Jesus has crushed Satan’s power by his death and resurrection. Believe it. Trust it. The Lord’s love crushes Satan, your enemy.
