The texts for today are Genesis 3:8-15 and Luke 1:26-55.
I think I've mentioned here that my Sunday School class, like several groups in our church, decorates a tree at Christmastime. The building has a large foyer that is perfect for a beautiful display of decorated Christmas trees. The trees each year have various themes. Our class is, for the second year, decorating our tree in honor of an Atlanta ministry, Out of Darkness, that reaches out to women and men trapped in prostitution. (To the glory of God the Father and His Son and the Holy Spirit, over 200 women's lives were changed through that ministry this calendar year!) Tiny stockings, holding a lipstick tube, are the backbone decoration of the tree, with the tree colors being white (purity) and red (love/sacrifice). Each year, class members and my friends donate tubes of lipstick to go on the tree, and then, at the end of the season, I mail them to Out of Darkness. They put their contact info on them and then slip them to women on the street, to give them an "out" when they are ready to escape The Life, as the women call it. How incongruous that name .... That life is anything but....these women often see themselves as hopelessly trapped, unable to get themselves free.
Yesterday, I went to meet a friend who had collected several lipsticks for this ministry effort. She asked for prayer. Her 15-y.o. granddaughter, with the best of intentions, ran afoul of the law and is now charged with a felony. She unwittingly became a victim in the aftermath of one of the most evil acts of which I've ever heard personal testimony. This girl was a former honors student. Her entire life is now in jeopardy, one of several lives scarred by this monstrousness. My friend, and her entire family, are reeling from the sheer evil that precipitated this situation and brought itself into their godly, Christian family. I was devastated by the news, brokenhearted and resolved to rally prayer warriors to "storm the gates of Heaven" for justice and restoration to take place.
In Genesis 3, we see the aftermath of Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden. God stated in verse 15 (NET):
"And I will put hostility between you {Satan} and the woman
and between your offspring and her offspring.
Her offspring will attack your head,
And you will attack her offspring's heel."
Eve was the first human being to commit sin, and it had long-ranging, far-reaching consequences. Every other human being born is now born tainted with the "original sin" of our ancestors. I've had two excellent pastors make this statement from the pulpit: "Sin will take you farther than you want to go, make you stay longer than you want to stay and make you pay more than you want to pay."
In Genesis 3, God the Father, who was not at all surprised by what happened there, Himself gave the first prophecy about Jesus. There are two layers of meaning in that verse. The first has to do with humankind and snakes. Satan had taken on the form of a "serpent", which most interpret to be a form of today's snake family. They bite us on the heels and we mash their heads in. But, the deeper level of meaning here, and the more important, is spiritual. Eve's sin led to God putting hostility between Satan and humankind. (Did you realize that, prior to this, Satan and Adam and Eve were "jolly good buddies"?) Satan now bruises our heels (such as in the two examples I gave above); but, the offspring of the woman fatally bruises his head. This occurred with the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So, in the intervening centuries, Satan did everything he could to prevent the coming of Messiah, to corrupt the human race to the point that Messiah's bloodlines would no longer be pure. (That's at least one whole blog post in itself...)
Yet, one day, God the Father decided the time was right to make all things right between Himself and mankind. (Luke 1:34-35)
Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?” 35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called
the Son of God.
God's final solution to all sin: His Son, Our Savior, the One for Whom we wait this Advent season, the One whose miraculous birth we contemplate. A woman committed the first sin, and a woman was the vehicle for the eternal solution for mankind's sin. What a marvelous God, the "lover of the lowly", as John Piper puts it! He condescends to us, hopelessly mired in our sin, trapped, unable to free ourselves. As Mary says in Luke 1:48 - -
"He has looked upon the humble state of His servant"
He provided a way out, a way "home".
It is impossible to embrace the full meaning of Christmas, to "magnify the Lord" in your soul, as Mary did, without acknowledging your "humble estate", your need for the Savior - - - not just for the initial decision of salvation, but in every step of every day. Becoming a child of God does not insulate a person from the perils of sin, which are all around us.
We need a Savior, the One and Only. Oh, on this Advent day, magnify the Lord with me!
Lord, the verses 2 Cor. 4:8-11 just came to mind this morning, about how "we have this treasure (our salvation) in clay jars" (our bodies) and about how we are so often pressed down by sin, but not destroyed. I am so thankful that You provided Your one and only, unique, like-no-other Son, to make a way for us to be restored to You. And, it is for this reason we who claim Your name, who know you as Savior and Lord can rejoice! We can rejoice in Your mercy, in the strength of Your arm. Hallelujah, Lord God! We praise and magnify You on this beautiful Advent day! In Jesus' name, amen.
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