“Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.” (Galatians 3:7, ESV)
Your identity as a believer in Jesus Christ has its roots in the Pentateuch. This story, the Beginnings, is a piece in the puzzle of answering the question “Who Am I?” not just for ancient Israel, but for modern-day Christians. For you!
“Who am I?”
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
(Genesis 1:1, ESV)
To answer that question, the story of Genesis begins not with us, but with God. And this is on purpose. The point is that the center of everything that exists, and at the center of our own identity, is not us, but God.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
(Genesis 1:27, ESV)
God created man and woman in His own image. This is profound, deep, and rich truth. But what I want to point out here is this, at the center of every human being, whether they know it or not, is their role as an image-bearer of God.
So that’s the first answer to the question “Who am I?” that Genesis answers, we are made in God’s image and thus we can know Him, worship Him, and enjoy Him. We are Image Bearers.
The second answer to that question in Genesis is that we are Corrupted to the Core.
“Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”
(Genesis 3:7–8, ESV)
They are naked and ashamed, so they hide from each other and from God. Everything has changed. Their ability to relate to each other and to God has been corrupted by their sin.
“Who is God?”
God is revealed to us early on in the story of Scripture to be the one who will fix the problem, draw us back to himself, and he’s going to do it on his own dime. He’s going to pay for our shortcomings. His love compels Him to initiate, to move towards us.
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.””
(Genesis 3:15, ESV)
1. The focus on offspring (also translated seed). This is a long-term, generational thing.
2. Notice that there is a “HE”. There is a singular, male pronoun, somewhere down the line of her offspring.
3. The serpent will have his head bruised, and the “HE” will have his heel bruised.
So evil itself, in this story, begins with the serpent. So simply what is being said here is that God is saying that a future “HE” is going to be an offspring of the woman, and he will stomp on the head of the source of evil in the world, and evil will strike back at him.
“To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.””
(Genesis 3:16, ESV)
The term husband, in Hebrew, is the same term used for “man”. They are indistinguishable grammatically; they simply take their meaning based on the context. So, for instance, usually when talking about a woman, if the Hebrew says, “her man”, it usually means her husband.
“Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.””
(Genesis 4:1, ESV)
Eve gets pregnant and has a baby, and she says, “I have gotten a MAN, with the help of the Lord.” That word “man” is the same word used for the one her desire would be for in 3:16.
God promised that from her offspring would come the serpent crusher, a singular “HE”, then God promised that her desire, in the context of the pain of bearing children, would be for “HER MAN”. Then she has a “MAN” with what she says is the “Lord’s help”.
“When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.””
(Genesis 5:28–29, ESV)
WHO does LAMECH think Noah is? The one who will reverse the curse. The promised one. The offspring of the woman. The fulfillment of God’s Redemption Pan! And Noah’s name means “REST”. So as the reader, you go “Huh, maybe Noah will finish this thing. Maybe he’s the promised one, the one who will bring redemption and then rest.”
The story is telling us something profound here. Noah is not the promised one. He is just like Adam and Eve in the end. So, the problem is deeper than we first thought. And we are still looking for the promised seed of the woman who will solve it.
God and his Redemption Plan will help you. It will help you to not just know the Bible better. It will help you to see that God is a Redeemer with a Redemption Plan. That God has initiated towards humanity, right from the beginning. And the lengths to which God has gone to redeem us, His chosen people. It REALLY is a LOVE LETTER.