Season of Promise: Eve

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi 

Advent Musings 2015 Week 1

Easing back into the blogsphere slowly as things settle into their place little by little, I find myself on the threshold of another Advent season...and thinking about the people who received a promise anticipating the coming Messiah.

I think it's kinda wonderful that the first person who received the promise was Eve, after her devastating failure and loss, even if it was a kind of backhanded promise given in the form of judgement against the serpent:

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. - Gen. 3:15, NIV 84

This first promise, that a specific offspring of the woman ('he' not 'they') would deal a death blow to the serpent who deceived her, was to Eve and her descendants... really to the entire human race.  The battle with the enemy will not go on forever, and, while he can and does wound, the ultimate victory in that battle will be his final defeat.

Folks, this is hope.  In all the pronouncement of judgement and consequences, God proclaims hope.  There won't always be a battle.  The enemy will be defeated.  Oh, it will come at a terrible price...which is only hinted at here as a heel that will be struck...but God himself had already determined to pay that price.

In Advent, we anticipate the coming of the one who will deal that death-blow to the enemy's head.