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3:8-19 The aftermath of the fall

Genesis 3:8-19 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 trees 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 from which I commanded you not to eat? 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 the 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. To the woman he said, I will greatly increase
your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your
husband, and he will rule over you. To Adam he said, Because you listened to your wife and ate
from the tree about which I commanded you, You must not eat of it, Cursed is the ground because
of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and
thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your
food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you
will return.

Satan is a cunning deceiver while men and women are always pretenders. As every preacher looks
at every congregation he is aware that everyone sitting before him is a pretender just like
himself. Bonnie Prince Charlie, grandson of James II, was called the Young Pretender claiming in
1745 the British throne. King Davids son Absalom was also a pretender to his fathers throne.
Satan, the great deceiver, seduced our first parents and made Adam and Eve pretenders, offering
them a seat on Gods throne, promising that they would be as powerful and as wise as Jehovah
himself. What vanity! They were beguiled by what the serpent said and the result of their
foolishness is known around the world. They couldnt handle the consequences; men are never up
to being God. Adam and Eve were mere people like you and me, with a human brain and human
resources, but after listening to the serpent they made a pretense of being Someone Else whom
they could never be a God who infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power,
holiness, justice, goodness and truth. How pathetic to think they could become like the Ancient of
Days by eating a piece of fruit! Theyd become believers in magic. It was all a pretense and they
were deluding no one but themselves.

Theyd become like that teenager who tells his friends in school that his father knows Wayne
Rooneys father and he can get that famous soccer player to visit their school. Its all a pretense
and finally he has to admit it. How painful! How embarrassing! The boys been dreaming. He cant
dive off the high board no matter his fine words; the best he can achieve is a belly flop. What were
Adam and Eve thinking in dreaming of becoming the sovereigns of the universe? It was their pride
that deluded them. They had believed a lie and overextended their reach, far beyond their
capabilities as creatures made in the image of God. They were attempting to be what they could
never be God himself. It was, we would say, an ontological impossibility! Down they fell! Pride
goes before destruction; a haughty spirit before a fall (Provs 18:18).

What falls are created by mens pretense. Men pretend that their marriages are happy, that they
are model husbands and fathers; they pretend that their businesses are a runaway success story,
that their CVs are accurate, that the qualifications theyve printed out the schools and
universities theyve attended and the exams theyve passed are all accurate, while we know that
a quarter of all CVs are false. A girl suggests that top model agencies are fighting over her contract;
a boy pretends that famous football clubs are outbidding one another to get his name on their
books; the government pretends that things are good in Iraq, in the National Health Service, in
education, in the Home Office; older women pretend they are ten years younger than they really
are; an alcoholic pretends he is now completely dry and a drug addict that he has kicked the habit.
It is a civilization dominated by pretense.

Christians too can pretend; Abraham told his wife to pretend she was his sister; Jacob pretended
he was his older brother Esau; Josephs brothers pretended that a wild animal had killed him;
Pharaoh pretended to let Gods people go; Delilah pretended she was heartbroken because
Samson wouldnt tell her the secret of his strength; Judas pretended he loved Jesus by kissing him;
Pilate pretended he wasnt responsible for the death sentence on Christ. Adam and Eve pretended
to one another that they could be up there on the sofa with God, ruling the universe. Men and
women are great pretenders, living Walter Mitty lives instead of facing up to themselves and
coming to God exactly as they are;

Just as I am, without one plea,

But that Thy blood was shed for me,

And that Thou bidst me come to Thee

O Lamb of God, I come.

Kill your pride! End the pretense! It is a wall stopping your coming to God. The key mistake Adam
and Eve made is the same one made by many today, to think that they have a natural ability to
decide what is true and right, but ultimately they know they dont. In the Times yesterday was a
long interview with a thoughtful middle-aged actor. At one point the reporter said to him, Ever
seen a shrink? He replied, No, but Id like to. I wish someone was there just to tell me; You were a
complete fool for doing that. Maybe Id just like someone to talk to a confessor. How sad! The
search for infallible moral judgment, and looking to a shrink for that of all professions the shrink is
the one most steeped in the non-directional school of moral thinking. I am saying that we dont
need a fellow sinner to explain what is right and wrong. What we have to do is listen to the
Creator God speaking in the Bible. Without the Word of God we are in moral darkness. There is no
other ethical way. Jehovah has given his judgment.

Let me illustrate that; you dont feel well and so what are you going to do? Its possible to take
some pain killers and sleeping tablets and so you feel better. The pain has gone. In other words,
you can diagnose yourself and treat yourself. Many do just that. Or theres the alternative, you can
go to a registered doctor and put yourself in his hands. What do you hope from him? Well, three
things really: (1) an accurate diagnosis. You expect the doctor to tell you just what is wrong. Then,
you hope for (2) an authoritative prognosis. You want to know the possible implications of whats
wrong. What might be the outcome if you leave things unchecked? Then, anything more? One
thing, you expect the doctor to give you (3) an effective prescription. You want treatment that will
work.

Let us go back to Genesis two and three: the Lord, the great Physician, told Adam and Eve what
would be the inevitable road to death defying him and taking the forbidden fruit. You can know
that prognosis because God has told us. He has declared to all that the wages of sin is death. The
soul that sins shall surely die, but there are plenty of quacks around just like this serpent. They
oppose God. Hes told you wrong, they say. Take the forbidden fruit and life begins! Youll become
like God, the serpent said to Adam and Eve. You dont need some God over you spelling out what
is right and wrong. You become God! I am reminded of how Harold Macmillan described the
benefits of an Oxford education; All Oxford need teach you is to know that someone is talking rot.
What happens when you listen to serpents?

1. YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD IS BROKEN.

This is what we read, Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realised that they
were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 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 trees 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. (vv.7-10). When the Lord visited the Garden Adam and Eve did something they had
never done before, they hid from him among the trees. They werent comfortable in his presence.
Their guilt made them afraid of God and ashamed. It had never happened before; there had once
been pleasure in meeting this glorious Lord. He had made Eve for Adam. He had visited,
counselled and advised them. There had been unity and harmony all their days, but now there had
been a divorce not between Adam and Eve but between man and God. When the Lord arrived
then the pair of them went into hiding, holding their breath, careful not to tread on a stick,
crouching behind trees, not wanting God to see them.
Man has been doing that ever since. Why dont people crowd this church on Sundays? They dont
want to meet with God. They have built a screen around their lives; they have declared them to be
God-free zones; the Lord has no admission; their lives are off-limits for God; there the Bible is
unread, one day a week is unobserved; they are strangers to prayer. Theyve pushed God out of
their minds, and yet very often he knocks, disturbing them and he summons them to give an
account to him. They dont like it, because they dont like him.

The prophet Jonah went on the run from the Lord getting on a boat in Joppa and heading for
Tarshish, but on that boat in the Mediterranean God met Jonah in a storm, and even in the belly of
a great fish he couldnt hide from God. The psalmist says that if he took the wings of the morning
and flew to the uttermost part of the earth the moment he arrived hed find God waiting for him
there. I fill the heavens and the earth, says the Lord. There is no creature hidden from his sight,
but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account (Heb. 4:13).
Think of the hidden cameras that dot the banks, building societies, shops, hospitals, streets and
motorways. Our movements are recorded by a hundred cameras on a simple journey around the
shops. There is no need of a private detective to dog our trail. Our daily walks are being captured
on video tape, but God knows exactly where we are and what we are doing when there are no
cameras around. He knows our thoughts, and God can see that your relationship with him is
broken. What is the second consequence of the fall?

2. YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR CLOSEST FRIEND IS INJURED.

You see how God interrogates Adam, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from
the tree from which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, The woman you put here with
me she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it. (vv.11&12). Adam and Eve had had the
only perfect marriage this world has ever seen. They could sing together in perfect harmony as
they worked and rested. Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, Adam had said of her; We
couldnt be closer. But now that theyve listened to the words of the serpent their eyes have been
opened and they are looking at one another as one sinner looks at another with guilt and
judgment and shame.

When God asked Adam had he really eaten from the tree Adam replied by blaming God and
blaming Eve The woman you put here with me she gave me some fruit from the tree. Adam
and Eve had been companions; they had clung together but after the fall they began to blame one
another and Adam began the long wretched history of men abusing women. God said to Eve, Your
desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you (v.16). What a mess weve made of our
lives; weve done it but well never admit it. Confessing our sins is utterly alien to us. Its always
someone elses fault, and if theres no man or woman we can find to blame then we can always
blame God. So Adam says, It was your idea to make a woman; you put her here with me. Dont
blame me, Lord! What else did you expect from me as a dutiful and loving husband? I had to go
along with my wife didnt I? Its her fault! Im telling you, Her fault! If she hadnt done it, I wouldnt
have done it. She was the one who took the first bite of the fruit and then she came to me and
offered it to me. What would you expect me to do but take it from her? Its another fine mess
youve got us into. The wine of Adams love had turned to vinegar. The woman then speaks and
she blames the serpent, He deceived me and I ate. Didnt she freely go along with the serpent? We
accuse one another in order to excuse ourselves. We justify ourselves by pouring out our
grievances against other people, and so on we go, limping on and on to judgment day. Its always
somebody elses fault.

There, in the most intimate relationship of all the husband-wife relationship strife and discord
have entered. Here was Adam trying to pass the buck, putting the blame, the responsibility, onto
his wife Eve. It still happens, doesnt it? How many torn and broken marriages are there in our
own community? I was looking at some of the statistics for the nation not so very long ago and it is
running something like this: for every three marriages there are two divorces, and the ratio is
increasing. What on earth is going to become of society if it goes on like that? No wonder theres a
housing shortage. You can trace the discord right back to the Garden of Eden marital enmity,
strife, animosity, hatred between those who should be loving towards one another (cp. Graham
Harrison, Beginning at the Beginning, Bryntirion Press, 1999, p.21). Until you take responsibility for
your own life, and confess your own sin there can be no healing. You remember how chapter five
of the prophecy of Isaiah contains five Woes on the nation for its drunkenness and violence and
greed. Woe, woe, woe to them all! Then in chapter six Isaiah himself sees God high and holy and
lifted up, and Isaiah stops pointing the finger at other people; Woe is me! I am ruined. I am a man
of unclean lips (Is. 6:5). The prophet has seen what hes really like. Has God brought you there yet,
or are you still blaming your family or finding some serpent to blame? Take responsibility for your
own life, and take your sins to God the great Forgiver and plead the name of his Son. He will give
you rest, but not without you confessing your sin. What is God saying to you? Where are you?
Does he know? Of course God knows; it is a rhetorical question. God is asking it to get from you a
confession of your sin. Here I am Lord the sinner.

3. YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOURSELF IS DISORDERED.

A report was released this week claiming that 51 per cent of British men feel down, stressed,
depressed or anxious at least once a month. One in five had such feelings every day. Two-thirds of
the 1,212 men questioned had experienced depression or anxiety. Think of the millions of
prescriptions for tranquilizers and antidepressants that doctors write each year. The figure is
enormous. We are a restless unhappy nation in which many get by through drugs. Look at Genesis
three and the revolution that had taken place in the Garden of Eden. Here are two people
burdened with a sense of shame something theyd never felt before. Theyre embarrassed by
their nakedness. Theyre guilty before God at what theyd done, and theyre hiding from him. They
know they have done something horrendous; they have defied the mighty loving Creator and they
deserve to be punished. In place of inward harmony there is disorder caused by sin. The man and
the woman began to realize the terrible difference between what they should have done and what
theyd actually done. Evil was right there with them. Instead of saying No to sin they had
embraced it. They had done this absolutely freely. Paul talks about this very thing. Its something
we have all felt; When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight
in Gods law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the
law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a
wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through
Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to Gods law, but in the sinful nature
a slave to the law of sin (Roms. 7:21-25). We know what is right, Paul says; weve got a conscience;
we even want what is right, yet how weak we are; somehow we still end up doing whats wrong. It
is as if there are two persons inside us, each fighting the other for control and the evil one wins
again and again. Paul is finally so frustrated with being a battleground that he roars out his misery:
What a wretched man I am! The misery of disorder. Christ is the one who gives us peace.

What God ordered in creation men and women have disordered by sin. Why, even this very week,
there will be a Speaker needed in the House of Commons calling out to over 600 intelligent men
and women the nations leaders Order! Order! Come to order! Why? Because our natural
inclination, after the fall, is toward unruliness. Why do police and military commanders have to
give orders? Because if each one did what seemed right in his own eyes there would be chaos a
lot of little people would be trampled on. Why do soccer referees have to keep control of every
single game in the World Cup? Because we cant even play a game unless rules are applied. Why do
citizens sometimes demand a return to law and order? Because in their eyes an ordered society is
turning into a riot.

God likes things done decently and in good order, as the Bible says, and we are made in his image.
Gods law is a way of restoring order to a fallen creation. When God says Love me above all else,
and fully and always, and love your neighbour as yourself. God is calling us to order. He is calling us
to trust and obey. For theres no other way to be happy than with Gods law and order, trusting
him and obeying it. Since the fall of man there is inward disorder.

4. YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE REST OF CREATION IS DISRUPTED.

God speaks to Adam; Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I
commanded you, You must not eat of it, Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil
you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat
the plants of the field (vv.17&18). There is some kind of cosmic dimension to sin and its
consequences. In other words, the very natural order in which we live, the ecological climate of
this planet, is also disordered and put out of joint, because of mans sin. Working the soil is less
cooperative, and persistent weeds are producing new virulent strains that had to be dealt with.
There is the pollution of land and river and lake not just in capitalist countries maybe less in
democratic nations but very much so in eastern Europe, Russia and particularly China , the
mighty socialist nations. Air, soil, sea and even space have all become the dumping ground for
mans noxious filth. Man abuses the creation of God. There is a passage in Romans 8 where the
apostle Paul is looking forward to that great time when the Lord Jesus Christ is going to return and
everything is going to be put right. He speaks of the present sufferings of the animate and
inanimate creation: The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For
the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who
subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and
brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has
been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (Romans 8:19-22).

The world of nature round about us has a groaning ugliness about it, for all its beauty. Nature is
raw in tooth and claw, as Tennyson put it. Natural disasters, flooding, tsunamis, hurricanes,
famines even when they arent caused by human sin have come because of this initial act of
man rebelling against God. That is why this is such an important chapter in the unfolding story of
Gods revelation to us in the Bible. Man has rebelled against God, and man is living with the
consequences. God made Adam the head of humanity, so when the head of humanity declared
war on God we all got involved. God created man to rule creation, so when the human king of
creation fell, his entire realm was affected, the fields, the plants, the weather, the insects, and the
various processes of nature. The soil became less productive, plants became less nourishing, and
some animals that had once lived on vegetation and fruit began to get nutrition by eating other
animals. Weather became harsher. Some bacteria, viruses and parasites which once had been
entirely harmless and even helpful, became harmful, even fatal. Cells and organs which once
operated perfectly could become cancerous. Hospitals are keeping one or two steps behind the
super-bugs because the antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection, MRSA, has spread to every ward.
What were the headlines in the Times this week? Headlice Defeat the Lotions and the Potions.
How Lice are Becoming invincible. (June 14, 2006). 80 per cent of the headlice infecting the scalps
of Welsh schoolchildren have developed a resistance to the various over-the-counter treatments
that are commonly used to eradicate them. There are their photographs, grossly enlarged,
headlice looking like fearsome dinosaurs, and they inhabit the heads of the children sitting next to
your children in school tomorrow. It all goes back to the fall of man. There is this bondage to decay
all around us in our groaning creation.

And that is not the whole story. Man is dying with the consequences. I did not quite complete
what it was that God said to Adam: By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you
return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.
(Genesis 3:19). Death was unknown till man sinned. You and I one day, unless the Lord Jesus
should return before, will die. My very body will perish and be lowered into the ground the very
ground across which I have walked as Gods vicegerent, as one made a little lower than the angels.
This body of mine will be buried six feet under the earths surface. We die because we are sinners,
and sin entered the world here, in the Garden of Eden, in the way described in this third chapter of
Genesis. God had warned Adam, when you eat of it you will surely die (Genesis 2:17). I know that
it was to be many years after this that Adams spirit and body were torn apart and he breathed his
last, but long before that he was dead spiritually, dead while he lived. The union between him and
God was sundered. One day, unless the grace of God intervenes, not only will you be dead
physically, but you will linger in spiritual death throughout eternity (cp. Graham Harrison, op cit,
pp. 23&24).

5. GOD WILL SEND THE SEED OF THE WOMAN WHO WILL BRUISE THE SERPENTS HEAD.

The third chapter of Genesis works up to its climax in some sober words which were addressed by
God to his implacable enemy the serpent. Let the devil never forget what judgment lay before
him. Whatever wanton damage he may do his doom is secure; God has pronounced it. That sin of
Adam and Eve had divine and cosmic repercussions; a wedge was driven between themselves and
God, their own harmony as husband and wife has been wrecked, their own state of heart and
mind become disordered, and their relationship with the rest of creation was disrupted. That
became the plight of man, and thus it has been ever since . . . but that is not the end of the story.
There is more than a divine diagnosis and prognosis in Genesis 3, there is also a divine prescription
for restoration. There is one more reality in this chapter and that is the power of God. This chapter
really climaxes in verse fifteen. Hear the great words of God; 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 (Gen. 3:15).

i] Notice there is first of all a divine initiative: God says that he is going to do something about this
mess; I will put enmity (v.15). Eve had been gushingly sweet and helpful to the serpent; shed
listened sincerely to what hed said and acted upon his words. Thered been no enmity there. Now
God speaks and his words are not directed to the man or the woman cajoling them to start hating
the serpent from now on. No. It is not an exhortation to man to do anything at all, Be at enmity
with the serpent! No. Rather here is the promise of a divine initiative. God himself is the one who
will establish a new enmity against the serpent. Salvation is always of grace, which means simply
that it is of God, and had not God taken the initiative here and intervened with lost and ruined
man, there would have been no salvation.

ii] Secondly, we notice that the deliverance entails the reversing of the disastrous attitude of the
woman: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers;
(v.15). This means that the woman had to learn who was her enemy and who was her true friend,
that the serpent despised her while God loved her. There was no change of heart in the serpent;
he ever hated God, even when he was in heaven, and he hates all the offspring of God. Know this!
The devil is not like that cute figurine with a forked tail and a tripod in his hand which some hang
from their rear view window. There are principalities and powers; there are rulers of the darkness
of this world. They are intensely active never taking a day off. Beelzebub and his hosts live! Your
own life has been affected by the devil. This serpent has blinded the eyes of the men and women
of our community so that they cant see Gods glory in Christ. Youd better take him seriously! God
says. Learn from Eves truce with the devil, God warns. Such a new attitude of determined enmity
to the devil comes about by God himself. Its a work of God; here is a foretaste of the New
Testament doctrine of the new birth, deliverance from the serpents kingdom caused by a more
powerful King. I will establish this enmity, says the Lord.

iii] In the third place, we notice that this enmity extends to both the respective seeds. Enmity will I
place between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers, that is, between the
descendants of Satan on the one hand and the descendants of Eve on the other. God announces a
never ending jihad that will last to the end of history. What is meant by the offspring of Satan? I
am inclined to think that it refers to evil men, men who throughout the course of history have
placed themselves on the serpents side as over against God. In this world, God announces, there
will be two kinds of people, those who are pro-God and those who are anti-God. This enmity
extends generation after generation between their respective offspring. There will be two
kingdoms at war, a kingdom of darkness over which the serpent rules where you find demons,
fallen angels, and all who would do the will of Satan in opposition to God, and then there is the
kingdom of heaven over which the Lord of love reigns. Entry into this kingdom is by the new birth.
Our weapons are now guns and bombs but the power of truth and the sword of the Spirit.

iv] In the next place, we notice that the enmity will culminate in a decisive blow being struck which
destroys the serpent. Let me quote the verse literally: He shall bruise thee as to the head, and
thou shalt bruise him as to the heel. Thus the promise is given that from the human race One will
arise who will deliver a blow that will crush the serpent. God does not say that he will bruise the
seed of the serpent, but that he will bruise the serpent itself. This is the first Messianic promise in
the Old Testament. This is the Mother Promise, the initial gospel news in Scripture. It is the
fountain head which gathers volume and momentum as the pages of the Bible are turned. Here it
is enigmatic and rudimentary, as becomes its place in redemptive history, but it promises some
great victory over Satan which will come, and from this promise onwards, as time progresses, the
Lord will reveal more and more details concerning the Messiah who is to come. This is a true
Messianic prophecy. It points forward to one who shall come, the Son of Man for these words
are ultimately where this title of Jesus comes from. It says that the seed of the woman, a human
being, will give that fatal blow which will destroy the serpent and set man free from his power.

v] Fifthly, notice that the serpent is cursed. You understand? This serpent, not all literal snakes.
We are not told that the woman was cursed or that the man was cursed, but the ground too was
cursed. Yet as a mother she will know increased pain. There will be complications at birth,
miscarriages, babies stillborn, genetic diseases passed on, births that threaten the very life of the
mother. Here is a hint of all the sorrows a mother knows because of her children that continue
throughout her life, pain rendered more difficult by the lack of perfect harmony with her husband.
The miseries of this life are hers as well as the mans. Be she the richest of women, like the mother
of the American Kennedy family; be she a peasant in the third world, her family life wont be
without pain. So much Eve had lost by listening to the devil; what might have been hers. She could
have enjoyed intercourse and pregnancy without pain when babies came. She could have enjoyed
good children without the agony of destructive kids Eve had to experience the agony of one of
her sons murdering another; A foolish son brings grief to his mother (Proverbs 10:1). In her
marriage she could have delighted in submitting to the considerate leadership of her husband
instead of the battle of the sexes and the blame he would have hurled at her. The Bible says that
the earth trembles for an unloved woman who is married (Proverbs 30:23).

Adam and Eve heard these words spoken by God to the serpent. What a brave new world they
were entering. They had never had to deal with an enemy before, but from now on they would
face attacks from this sly, relentless, hurtful being. Yet God was saying, Dont despair even though
youve fallen far and brought such pain into the world. Satan is not going to triumph. One of your
offspring will destroy him more effectively than his attempt to destroy you.

Do you understand what weve been saying to you today from the Scripture?

i] Behind the confusion and explosions of wretched cruelty in this world lies a darker force than
that which flows from the evil hearts of men. There is the dread power of Satan and his armies of
demons (Ephesians 6:11-12). He is the god of this world; he is the prince of darkness; he is
Screwtape, Satan who is filled with fury (Revelation 12:12) and looking for someone to devour (1
Peter 5:8).

ii] Let not your hearts be troubled, for I have also said this to you that Almighty God has taken the
initiative and determined to stamp on his head and crush him, so that even when this awful
enemy does his worst, we dont have to give in or give up. A son miraculously born to a woman
Jesus Christ, son of the virgin Mary and Son of God will destroy Satan and will give believers
power to overcome the evil one.

iii] Resist the devil and he will flee from you. What happened to Eve need not happen to you. Your
own capitulation to the prince of darkness need not be the end of the story. The Lord Christ is a
Colossus, and the Captain of our Salvation. The Lord Christ, throughout his entire life in the
wilderness of this world, did what mother Eve failed to do in paradise. He resisted all of Satans
temptations delighting in the will of God He was the target of Satans undiluted malice.
Throughout his ministry our Lord was confronted with many men women and children possessed
with evil spirits. Easily and constantly Christ delivered them all. At the end Satan, filled with fury,
entered Judas and moved him to betray Jesus (Luke 22:3). The Lord Christs enemies then tortured
him and nailed him to a cross. That is where we see the serpent striking Jesus heel.
iv] In dying on the cross, the Saviour in fact crushed the head of the serpent. Christ endured all the
malice and strength of Satan and all his hosts but proved stronger. The serpent gave Jesus his best
shot but he couldnt overcome him. The Lord Jesus would not end his work of redemption. He
refused to stop loving his people and paying for their redemption. Christ wouldnt come down
from the cross. He took the terrible bruise that the serpent inflicted but in that blow Jesus also
took all the power and life out of Satan exhausting him. He took all the condemnation of sin
hanging over his people and dealt with it all by himself so that Satan had nothing to bring against
them. The church in Christ can now face its fierce accuser and tell him, Jesus has died. Christ has
conquered the power of death by rising from the grave; he has shattered Satans power. Since that
time defeated Satan has been slithering about this world trying to do whatever damage he can in
what little time he has left. Where is your archenemy the serpent today? He is still the great
pretender. He boasts of his power; he spreads the lie that this is a post-Christian era. What a
pretender he is!

v] We know where the serpent is and what hes doing. He is crawling on his belly and eating dust
as hes been doing and as he will continue to do all the days of his life (v.14). When he comes and
attacks you taunt him! Disdain him. You crawler! Hugger of the ground! On your belly you slide
around! Lick the dust! Go back to your hole old serpent and dont bother me! My Saviour has
whacked you once and for all. No Demons Dispensary for Sick Serpents is going to heal you. Your
doom is secure; tis written with Gods finger. Soon you will be cast into the lake of fire thats
prepared for you and all your hosts. Resist the serpent and he will flee from you. Satan thought it
was going to be easy. If he could pull down Adam and Eve from their perfection, then how much
easier to destroy those who had been weakened by the fall of their parents? Wont evil breed evil?
But God has intervened. God declared war on the serpent and sent forth a mighty conqueror. The
Seed of the woman has come and continues to come to save and keep us. Cry mightily to him.
Give him no rest until you know he has saved you.

11th June 2006 GEOFF THOMAS

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