Advent Day 05: The Hope
Today, we light the Green Candle, the Black Candle, and the Blue Candle. The Green Candle represents life and all that Father God created in Christ, Good and Whole. The Black Candle represents the Evil and Corruption of Sin that entered our World through our rebellion. The Blue candle represents the Hope that comes from the Promises of a future Savior and King.
Genesis 3:14–15
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 seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
3:16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”
3:17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 3:18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 3:19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
3:20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 3:21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. (ESV)
In the aftermath of the man and woman – Adam and Eve – eating from the forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Lord God speaks words of curse and judgment, but He doesn’t leave mankind there. He also speaks words of hope.
First, only two things are cursed: the Serpent and the ground. A blessing is a word spoken to enable someone or something to fulfill its purpose and establish its significance. A curse is a word spoken to reverse blessing or to cause someone or something to be unable to fulfill its purpose.
Neither the man or the woman are cursed, they have already been blessed by God. But they do receive consequences for their rebellion.
The woman was disciplined with pain in childbirth. The blessing—“be fruitful and multiply”—was not reversed, but now it would be painful and difficult to fulfill. There would also be hostility in her relationship with her husband. Her desire would be to control her husband, but now, he would “rule” over her.
The earth was cursed directly because of the man’s sin. Now the man would have to work hard with a sense of futility—the earth would be set against him. Adam—and every man after him—will now live out his time in a world that is hostile to him. The world literally begins to unravel and die around him.
Finally, even though the man and woman did not die in the moment they ate the fruit, they will die and return to the dust, the dirt that Adam was made from.
Notice, all of creation is devastated by the rebellion and sin of Adam. What was created with the ability and possibility to become holy and glorious—perfect—under the rule of God is now plunged into chaos.
Romans 8:19–22
For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it—in the hope 8:21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children. 8:22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. {HCSB}
Even now, Creation itself longs for the Lord God to set things right. We will see this hope and longing all throughout the rest of The Story. Yet even in the middle of this dark passage of judgment, a glimmer of hope is given.
One of the major themes that runs throughout The Story leading to the birth of Jesus is that the Curse is never the last word. In the midst of the curse of the Serpent the Lord reveals that a conflict will exist between the “Seed of the Woman” and The Serpent and His “Seed.” The word “seed” is a way of talking about a descendant. In the end, the Seed of the Woman will deal a fatal blow to the head of the Serpent, but the Serpent will land a strike on His heel.
By the time we get to the end of the Bible, we discover that The Serpent is associated with The Devil, Satan – the terrible fallen, angelic adversary of God and all that is Good – the Liar and Deceiver (Revelation 12:9). But who will The Seed, The Offspring of the Woman, be?
We already know the answer, but as we trace through the Story of Advent, we will see how the Lord revealed more and more about this One who would come to destroy the Serpent and His works.
By rebelling against God’s word and wisdom, humanity became alienated from God. The relationship established in creation was broken. What is worse, the world was now corrupted by sin and its effects. As the story unfolds we will see that this alienation will spread throughout the human experience.
We begin to see God’s grace at work even here, however. As the Lord had said, if Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they would die. Later we learn more specifically that, “the payback for sin is death” (Romans 6:23). When Sin is committed, a life must be given. The Lord, however, does not kill the man and woman but instead gives them skins of animals as coverings.
For the first time, Adam and Eve see death: The Lord God kills the animals instead of the ones who had sinned. This suggests that God’s purposes in humanity were greater than the sin that seems to derail his plan in the Garden. The Lord’s words and actions give Hope. As in the chaos before Creation, He will take what is not right and transform it into something good.
From this point forward, people of faith and hope will be looking for the One who will come to destroy the Serpent.
One day, all things would be set right.
*This year, we have a downloadable pdf with the complete readings. You can get it HERE.
