Curse & Judgment

Beginning with Moses and the Prophets

The Book of Grace

East of Eden - Paradise Lost

Part VIII(b): Curse & Judgment  

Genesis 3:8 - 24

Introduction

If you look at the first page of the insert you will see one of the Calvin & Hobbes cartoons from the 90’s it captures the no-fault characteristics of the culture then and more so how it is today. It’s mostly a monologue by Calvin, the little boy, to his tiger friend, Hobbes.

Victimhood is the fantasyland refuge of everyone, criminals, to politicians, lawyers, theologians who imagine you can put the blame for their conduct on other persons, or things or groups. Passing the buck is the treatment, the prescription drug of this new millennium, new age.

Its primeval root is original sin, (Genesis 3: 8-13). Looking at Adam’s sin through the lens of today’s world you’ll see the language of “victimhood - Adam is the poor victim of the woman and God gave her to him. God it’s your fault, You’re responsible for the situation that left me susceptible to sin -- my upbringing, my abuse, my inept parents and teachings;

This plays in our culture today where we have an excuse for every wrong done. It’s nothing new -- Adam’s sin brought instant death & instant sinfulness. Faster than you can snap your fingers they were both diffused with the tincture of sin - and just as fast both were dead in their transgressions & sins. Then came guilt and instant victimhood as Adam points the finger of culpability at the woman & the Lord God & as the woman pointed at the snake. Each passing the buck.

That’s how it has been throughout history until the Only Begotten One of Kind Son of God, the second Adam, God Himself became flesh and became the willing victim for our sins.

It’s significant to see that in the garden the Lord God did not question the serpent but without any hesitation whatsoever cursed him. Embedded within that cursing of Satan was a hope of grace for the couple. When God judged Adam & Eve, the judgments again were laced with grace.

The curse & judgment in the garden interwoven, strangely enough, with grace. Yes, paradise was lost; depravity & death became the lot for humanity. But the curse & the judgment as they were given, meant that paradise could be regained -- by grace.

The Curse

Here we summarize the events again but in reverse order. The last point in the “face-off” now becomes the starting point for the judgment, which proceeds to determine the punishment of the transgressors in the order in which each sinned: to begin with, the temptor; then the woman who was first to eat; and last the man who ate after his wife. The whole drame is reenacted in front of us in the original sequence of the happenings.

God made no corrective gestures to the serpent. Just a curse. There were two objects, the first was the reptile itself (v14), & then Satan who controlled the reptile (v15).

Reptile Cursed (14)

Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life;

The serpent being cursed is consistent, the same as what will be the fate of other animals in Scripture that cause harm to humans & were therefore put to death. Exodus 21:28 says: If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall surely be stoned . . .

Animals that were used for immoral purposes were to be put to death also, not because they were accountable, but because they were used to abuse men & women who were made in the image of God (Leviticus 20:15-16). -- If there is a man who lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death; you shall also kill the animal. If there is a woman who approaches any animal to mate with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them. The Animal was made for man and subject to him; any perversion or abuse of the order called for strict judgment.

There are two places in the Bible where God Himself verbalizes a curse, here and in 4:11 where we read that God cursed Cain for the murder of Abel. In all other instances men invoke curses in God’s name.

The curse upon the serpent is given in physical terms - the snake crawling on its belly & eating dust. Is this a new way of travel for the serpent? From up-right to moving on its belly? Maybe, maybe not. Derek Kidner argues that the crawling is symbolic, (Isaiah 65:25)- The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain,” says the Lord.

Like Gen. 9:13 gives a new significance for the rainbow is given not a new existence. So a new significance is decreed for the serpent’s posture. You have have heard the term when one man tells another, “eat dust, eat dirt”, in Scripture it has a humiliating significance. Psalm 72:9- Let the nomads of the desert bow before him, And his enemies lick the dust.

Micah 7:17- Nations will see and be ashamed Of all their might. They will put their hand on their mouth, Their ears will be deaf. They will lick the dust like a serpent, Like reptiles of the earth.

The image we see is fitting, the snake exalted itself above man therefore it would go on its belly.

The snake is a repulsive image, fittingly, even though there are some who seem to like snakes but that has to be something of an acquired taste. I fit in right with Indiana Jones who feared snakes. Calvin said that in words to the effect that though some take pleasure in snakes, the sight of them inspires us with horror and renew in us the memory of the fall. Even non poisonous coral snakes that crawl into the garage. Serpents keep the revolting image of Satan before our eyes & in our minds.

Isaiah 65 pictures the whole of creation delivered from the effects of the fall except for the serpent, which lives in perpetual degradation, fulfilling, “all the days of your life.”

Satan Cursed (v15)

God addresses the reptile, but His speech goes beyond the snake, & the one being referred became Satan. And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

Here in this verse we read, we hear, we learn how much the Lord God loves His creation. Though the Lord must punish transgressions, sin, still we see a crystal clear picture of the grace of the Lord God. Here, in the book of Beginnings, Genesis, we are given an astounding gospel prophecy. From the second century A.D. this verse has been recognized as the “first gospel.” This gospel message was verbally spoken, mouthed directly from the mouth of the Lord God.

We say there are “four” gospel accounts. Matthew’s, Mark’s, Luke’s, (the synoptics), & John’s. All four are inspired by the Lord God; but there is one that is spoken by the Lord Himself.

This, again, was recognized as the first gospel, or if you want to show off your Greek, “protoevangelium”, when the post-apostolic fathers Justin Martyr & Irenaeus preached that the woman’s offspring, (literally, “seed”) here referred to Christ who would crush Satan’s head.

In the early second century Justin Martyr wrote: "Christ became man by the Virgin that the disobedience which issued from the serpent might be destroyed in the same way it originated. Eve was still an undefiled virgin when she conceived the word of the serpent and brought forth disobedience and death. But the Virgin received faith and joy, at the announcement of the angel Gabriel...and she replied, "Be it done to me according you your word". So through the mediation of the Virgin he came into the world, through whom God would crush the serpent" (Justin Martyr, Apologia).

Irenaeus, a direct disciple of Polycarp - himself a disciple of St John, around 189 A.D., wrote on Genesis 3:15 as follows: "As thou canst perceive in Genesis that God said to the serpent, 'And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed...'. For from that time, He who should be born of a woman, [namely] from the Virgin, after the likeness of Adam, was preached as keeping watch for the head of the serpent" (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 4.21.1)

This had been the church’s position, with hardly no variation, until the rise of biblical criticism, which viewed it as nothing more than a statement that there will be perpetual conflict between humanity and the snake population, but eventually humanity would win.

But this thinking was wrong. When the old Testament was translated Hebrew to Greek in 250 B.C. giving the world the Septuagint translation, the translators interpreted the word “seed” (“offspring” in the ESV) as a single individual, “he” will crush your head . . .” The Septuagint translators, who would not have had any inkling of Christian presuppositions, understood the seed of the woman to be a future individual who would deal a deathblow to the serpent.

Hebrew scholar Jack Collins has examined every use of the word “seed” when it means offspring and found that when used in the singular, as it is in Genesis 3:15,  it always denotes a specific descendant and when it is an individual, the pronoun will be masculine. Collins argues that, in the broad context, that this could be read as God’s threat to the serpent of an individual is going to engage the serpent in combat and win.

This argument is sustained by Paul in Gal. 3:16 on the basis of the use of the singular “seed” in God’s promise to Abraham, that the word “seed” refers to Christ: the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.

In Genesis 3:15 we have the prophecy of the cross when Satan would strike the heel of Christ, through the suffering on the cross, but christ would strike the serpent's head through His death and glorious resurrection. All those who are in Christ participate in the crushing through Christ, as Paul writes in Romans 16:20 - The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

There’s more; when Christ came he understood the “first gospel” in Genesis. That He was the antidote to the venom of the serpent. We quote, I do, John 3:16, but just prior to that declaration verses 14, 15 He says As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

Jesus was referring to Numbers 21 where due to Israel’s sins, God sent venomous, poisonous, snakes into the camp so that many people died and were dying. As Moses was praying, God said to him to make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, “shall live” (vv8,9).

Listen to these details, they’re really worthy of attention. You got these snakes all over the camp as a result of sin - they’re the perfect expression in that it was a serpent who tempted Eve & Adam in the garden, thereby  bringing sin into the world. Our own natures have been polluted by the venom of the serpent. Paul tells us in romans 3:10 that “there is none righteous, not one.”

Now above the dying people we see a likeness of a serpent lifted up on a pole, foreshadowing Christ who was made to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). It is significant that Moses did not use an actual serpent, but a likeness! The symbolism would not have been so exact & perfect if he had used a literal snake. Our Lord became sin (or a serpent) for us.

Romans 8:3 says, what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin. 2 Corinthians 5:21 adds - He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And Galatians 3:13 states - Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us.

Out of all the animals in the animal kingdom, God chose the perfect representation - the serpent. On the cross our Lord Jesus Christ took the sins of the world upon Himself as symbolized by the withering serpent.

Let’s not miss the most important point, the gaze of faith. Numbers 21:9 tells us that, Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he LOOKED to the bronze serpent, he lived.

The command to look upon the uplifted serpent was a gracious foreshadowing of looking to the crucified Christ for our salvation.

Listen again to what Jesus says as written in John 3:14 - As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; --

Moses lifted up that serpent high on a hill in the camp in the wilderness, and any and all Israelites that were dying had to do was look at that pole & be saved. It didn’t matter how badly they were bitten, no matter how many times they had been bitten, no matter if they were on the very edge of death, the opportunity for salvation was there.

So too for anyone today, even the most degraded & miserable sinner who looks to Jesus Christ alone for salvation will be saved.

This great, wonderful grace had its origins & image in the “first gospel” in the garden. There was hope in paradise lost. And there is hope for you who are lost, who do not know Jesus Christ, who are lost in the most miserable of sin, just by gazing on the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal, only begotten Son of God, you will go from death to everlasting life.

This is grace, the free gift of the Lord God.

My prayer for you is that the Holy Spirit convince you of your need for salvation; that He draw you to Jesus Christ who said- No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). Come to me ALL who labor & are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)  I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).

My prayer is that you see this “first gospel”, that the Spirit will give you understanding of the words of Jesus when He said - As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3: 14-16)

I pray that: The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.’