Now the serpent was the most cunning
of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, did God really say
you can't eat from any tree in the garden?
The woman said to the serpent,
we may eat the fruit from the tree in the garden,
but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden,
God said you must not eat it or touch it or you will die.
No, you will certainly not die,
the serpent said to the woman.
In fact, God knows that when you eat it,
your eyes will be open and you will be like God
knowing good and evil.
The woman saw that the tree was good for food
and delightful to look at,
and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom.
And so she took some of its fruit and ate it.
She also gave some to her husband who was with her
and he ate it.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened
and they knew 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 walking in the garden
at the time of the evening breeze,
and they hid from the Lord among him,
among the trees of the garden.
So the Lord God called out to the man,
and said to him, where are you?
And he said, I heard you in the garden
and I was afraid because I was naked,
so I hid.
And then he asked, who told you that you were naked?
Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you
not to eat from?
The man replied, the woman you gave to be with me,
she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.
So the Lord God asked the woman, what have you done?
And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate.
So the Lord God said to the serpent,
because you have done this,
you are cursed more than any livestock
and more than any wild animal.
You will move on your belly and eat dust
all the days of your life.
And the serpent said, I will eat it.
I will eat it all the days of your life.
And I will put hostility between you and the woman,
between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head and you will strike his heel.
This is God's word.
Hope delayed makes the heart sick,
but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
Hope delayed makes the heart sick,
but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
In the midst of one of the darkest chapters
of modern history, the Holocaust,
a man named Victor Frankel,
a psychiatrist and a prisoner in the concentration camps,
witnessed and later wrote about a profound discovery
that he made while in the concentration camps.
Amidst the unspeakable horrors around him,
he observed something remarkable.
Hope.
He discovered that it was hope
and the search for meaning in life,
for meaning to this life and even to suffering,
that often determined who survived
and who did not survive.
Imagine, if you will, the grim reality
of the concentration camps, the despair, the suffering,
and the seemingly endless nights.
Yet in this place where hope seemed lost,
Frankel noticed that those who had found meaning
in their suffering and clung to a vision of the future,
whether it be reuniting with a loved one
that they were parted from or completing some unfinished work
that they had in their life,
those who had this vision for the future
found meaning in the suffering,
managed to survive against all odds.
Frankel himself, clings to the hope
of seeing his wife again and dreaming of lecturing
about the psychological lessons learned
from the camp experience.
And so he found the strength to endure.
The horrors of the concentration camps
are but one example of a long tale of evil's exploits.
And humanity's fall that all began in Genesis chapter three.
But what is equally interesting is that nested right there
in the story of the fall of humankind,
a hope and a promise are placed right there
at the beginning.
This tragedy of cosmic proportions
will not be the final word.
This serpent or dragon or shadowy figure,
however you see him in the garden,
who successfully lured Adam and Eve
to abandon the glory of being in perfect communion
with their creator, he will not ultimately prevail
because God has made a promise and planted a seed of hope.
Sin has spiraled humanity into darkness
and has turned humankind against one another.
Each one is fighting for his own godness.
Battling and destroying and even killing his neighbor
to achieve his pursuits.
But the advent of hope, the advent of hope
is the reality that God was unwilling
to consign his creation over to this condition forever.
Though from the beginning in his perfect wisdom
and knowledge, God had a plan to redeem and save
what is rightfully his.
The basis for any true lasting hope
would have to be in the character of who God is,
not in the character of humanity.
Because the story of the Bible is one of hope
in who God is and what he has promised he will do.
And so we begin our advent journey this year.
We're going to take a few minutes to explore this hope
through this story.
We're going to take a few minutes to explore this hope
through the Bible.
And we'll start there with verse 14 which says,
so the Lord God said to the serpent,
because you have done this, you are cursed
more than any livestock and more than any wild animal.
You will move on your belly and eat dust
all the days of your life.
And I will put hostility between you and the woman
between your offspring and her offspring.
God talking to this serpent who had deceived humanity
says that there will be a hostility or an enmity
between the serpent and the woman,
between her offspring and the serpent's offspring.
So what is this saying right here in Genesis three?
This is saying that from this point forward,
there will be two paths to walk, two paths to walk.
Woman made in the image of God
and made for faithful obedience and communion
represents humanity as it was intended to live
in the wisdom and fear of the Lord.
She failed to do that in being tempted by the serpent.
And the serpent is the epitome of evil
and the rejection of God's wisdom
and this will be the second path.
And from this point forward, humanity will have a choice.
Will they follow the serpent's temptation
to look away from knowledge and fear of God
or will they trust in God
and lean not on their own understanding?
Will they choose to live in a way that honors the creator
or will they exchange their glory
and live for created things?
The rest of the Old Testament will answer these questions
and the answer is some will at times trust and obey God
only to turn away from him and trust in their own ways.
Over and over again, we see this play out.
Over and over again, we see the character of God
in the midst of human failure.
He will be faithful to his promise
no matter humanity's failures.
He will remain faithful to who he is
and not dependent on how humans respond.
A quick survey of the Old Testament
shows this narrative working itself out.
Will evil win?
Will God's promises fail?
Will God remain faithful?
Well, what happens right after Adam and Eve?
What's our first glimpse to see?
Will humanity walk in obedience to God
or will humanity follow the path
or become like the offspring of the serpent?
Cain and Abel, Genesis chapter four.
Almost immediately after the fall,
we see Cain, son of Adam and Eve,
aligning himself with the serpent's offspring,
taking on the characteristics of the serpent
and killing his brother Abel
because Abel did what was right before the Lord
and Cain did not.
And so right away, we're immediately faced with the question,
is evil actually prevailing?
Yet God's plan continues and we see
even in the midst of that situation, Seth is born.
The son Seth and through Seth's line,
the godly lineage will persevere.
Noah in the flood, Genesis six through nine,
humanity's wickedness has grown to epic proportions.
Humanity has followed the way of the serpent.
But Noah's faith marks the preservation of God's plan,
a new beginning for humanity.
God faithful to move the plan forward
even in the midst of that wickedness
even in the midst of human wickedness
and it culminates in a flood that represents
and while we see a glimpse of faith in Noah,
what happens right afterward?
Noah, he's born.
He's born in the midst of the wickedness
and he's born in the midst of the wickedness.
And so God's plan continues and we see
God's plan continues and we see
Noah, Noah is confront, we're confronted with the reality
that Noah too is tempted to choose the way
of the serpent and to fail.
And this continues, Abraham, his call to follow God
and he follows God into this land
but almost immediately a famine hits and what does he do?
He goes to Egypt and Egypt becomes this name,
this nation synonymous with the serpent and evil.
And even in the midst of Abraham's response
to all of that as he goes down to Egypt
and truthfully he pawns off his wife
to the Pharaoh.
Even in the midst of that, God's faithful
to his promise to prosper Abraham
and Abraham actually comes away from that circumstance
with all sorts of treasures,
silver and gold and livestock
and it leaves you scratching your head.
Clearly this is not contingent upon the character
of humanity but the character of God
to move his plan forward.
The barrenness of Sarah, Abraham's wife.
Abraham is that lineage of godly man
who by faith is walking with God and yet
there's going to be an end to his line,
Sarah's barren, God makes a way.
But then Isaac is to be sacrificed, God makes a way.
God continues to show himself faithful
to his covenant and to his promise.
And so time passes, much time passes
and we find the Israelites,
the offspring of Abraham, the Israelites
are now suffering under slavery in Egypt
and they're suffering under a Pharaoh
who by all accounts represents the way of the serpent.
And yet through Exodus, God dramatically delivers his people
leading them out of slavery, not for their namesake
but for his namesake, for who he is
according to his power and his faithfulness,
God delivers the people.
And what are the people?
Are the people full of faith and worship?
At times, they're a mixed bag of faith and failure.
We catch a glimpse of something great
in the story in 1 Samuel 17 when David
confronts a giant named Goliath.
And David who, full of faith, runs out to the battlefield
and despises anyone who would stand
against the Lord and his armies
and by great faith runs out to the battlefield
and slays the giant and we think maybe this guy
has got it together, a guy who will walk in faith,
walk in obedience, walk according to the ways of the Lord.
Here is our salvation and true, he did deliver
for the people against their enemies
so that the people might have freedom.
But what happened to David?
Failure, he chose the way of the serpent
with Bathsheba counting of the troops
and over again he fails to meet his covenant with God
to remain faithful to God and instead walks
in the ways of the serpent.
The two ways, will you walk in obedience,
faithfulness to God or will you walk in opposition to God?
Will you walk as the serpent enticed?
Will you live as if you are your own God
and you answer only to yourself?
And the Bible over and over and over again says
that humanity has failed but God continues to be faithful.
And then we see in the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
that the prophets speak of times
that the Israel has gone astray and they're oppressed
but it seems like the upper hand is given
to the serpent's offspring and evil
and yet the prophecies always come back to reaffirm
that God has a plan and he's making a way
and he's preparing to do something.
He's going to do something in history.
He's going to do something and therefore people hold hope.
Hold hope all the way to the Babylonian captivity
and you see the people of Israel taken into captivity.
And the question is, did evil win?
Did evil prevail?
It is God's word that faithful men and women
throughout the Old Testament put their hope in.
Over and over again, God reaffirming his promises
and reaffirming his commitment.
They trusted God and they took him at his word
even though at times it seemed evil had prevailed.
Evil had won the day but the Old Testament,
the Old Testament ends without an answer.
Y'all have gotten there, right?
Flippin', where's the answer?
Where's the fulfillment?
Nothing.
The end of the Old Testament, we have all the promises
but we don't have the fulfillment yet.
We don't have the fulfillment yet.
400 years between the final words of the Old Testament
and the first events of the New Testament,
400 years was all hope lost.
What was the first thing that God said to the serpent
or the final thing that God said to the serpent
in Genesis chapter three, verse 15?
Speaking of the offspring of the woman,
he said, and he will strike your head
and you will strike his heel.
He will strike your head and you will strike his heel.
Most theologians call this the proto-gospel.
This is in your Bible, Genesis chapter three, verse 15,
the first good news after the fall.
The first gospel glimpse.
You get right there in Genesis chapter three, verse 15.
What does it say?
It says, evil will certainly get a strike in
on the heel of the offspring of the woman
but in the end he will strike or crush
the head of the serpent.
Evil will not ultimately win.
It says that God, through the offspring of the woman,
will crush the head of the serpent
or the dragon.
But our survey, our quick survey we did
of the Old Testament revealed that no offspring
of the woman had completely and totally,
without fail, chosen to obey faithfully
and honor God come what may.
There was no human to choose from
who would accomplish this.
Every single one of them had given into selfishness,
had given into greed, had given into fear,
had given into temptation.
Every single one had taken what seemed pleasing
and right in their own eyes at some point.
Every single one had chosen at one point or another
to walk the path of evil.
They were not serpent head crushers.
They were divided.
Every single one of them.
And so what we have is we're left with a hope
and we're left with a promise unfulfilled.
We have clear evidence that it will remain unfulfilled
if humankind alone is responsible for bringing it about.
We can't do it.
We couldn't do it.
Failure after failure.
Even our superheroes failed.
But hope remains.
And here's why.
Because the form, the shape,
the outline of a deliverer
had steadily, one line upon the next
been drawn on the pages of the Old Testament.
One who would deliver God's people
from evil by first resisting the forces of evil.
One who would be a substitute bearing the sins of mankind.
One who would appear in Bethlehem, a man,
but also God with us.
He would do the will of God faithfully.
He would faithfully obey, even setting aside himself
and enduring great suffering and death.
He would be the fulfillment of all of our sins.
He would be the fulfillment of all of God's promises.
He would be the ultimate serpent head crusher.
He was the offspring that God promised in Genesis chapter 15
but he is painted on all the pages of the Old Testament.
Everywhere you look you can find a sketch,
one line of who he was until the full vision of
the deliverer, who is this Messiah.
And so, when a baby, Jesus, is presented in the temple
shortly after his birth, in Luke chapter two,
there's a man there and he's waiting.
And he's been waiting.
He's been waiting for the one.
The one that he saw sketched out on the pages
of the Old Testament.
The one that he saw over and over again
as there was hope and there was a potential promise.
Maybe someone who was rising up, a human who was coming
to be, maybe a hero and they failed.
He could see, no, behind all of that there is one.
If it hasn't been fulfilled yet, if it hasn't been
completed yet, then he must still be coming.
And this man is waiting in the temple courts,
waiting for the fulfillment of God's promises.
400 years of silence could not silence this man's hope.
Luke chapter two, verse 25 through 32 says,
there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
This man was righteous and devout and he looked forward
to Israel's consolation and the Holy Spirit was on him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that he would not see death before he saw
the Lord's Messiah.
Guided by the Spirit, he entered the temple.
When the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform
for him what was customary under the law,
Simeon took him up in his arms, praised God,
and said, now, master, you can dismiss your servant
in peace as you promised, for my eyes have seen
your salvation.
You have prepared it in the presence of all people,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory
to your people, Israel.
Everywhere mankind failed, Jesus prevailed.
Jesus is hope fulfilled.
Jesus is the hope of everyone who has wondered
if there is more to life.
Jesus is the hope of everyone who has prayed
for the end of evil.
Jesus is the hope of everyone who has cried themselves
to sleep, broke their hearts,
who has cried themselves to sleep, broken and humiliated
and humbled by their own sin and their own failures.
Jesus is the hope of anyone who has suffered disease
and sickness and hoped for deliverance.
Jesus is the hope of everyone who has reached out
for God, for in Christ, God came to us,
hand reaching out for us.