A Recipe for a Savior - Day #2 Adam and Eve

Advent continues. We see sin. We see promise. We see the frustration of waiting. Yet God has it all in control despite what we might think.

ADAM AND EVE

Day #2

Genesis 3:15 The Lord said, “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.”

            This is much better. Here is where should begin A Recipe for a Savior. This makes more sense than starting in Proverbs. Here is where the recipe begins.

            Adam and Eve have sinned. They ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Then they tried to hide their actions from God but it was to no avail. God found them, as though He didn’t already know where they were or what they had done. He knew what had happened even before they admitted their sin in their round about fashion. How quickly they learned to sin by pointing their finger at the other instead of admitting that the sin was their own. Then God speaks to Satan those words of hope for Adam and Eve, words of judgment against Satan.

            Yet imagine that you are Adam or Eve. What must those words have sounded like to them? They had done what the Lord God had told them not to do and He says to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring…” That doesn’t sound like much of a promise. Is that how the recipe begins? Adam might think, “Is that all You are going to do, God? Can’t You do something real or tangible, something we can see and take hold of in our lives?” All they are hearing is some veiled promise. How difficult it must have been for them to stand by and hear what God had to say. Then they had to wait.

            Even with their extended years of life, more than 9-10 times longer than we live today, they did not see the recipe come together. This was only the first of the ingredients that the Lord God was bringing together. “Lean not on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5b)

            How can we wait for it all to come together? Waiting for the Lord is like waiting for the brownies to bake or the turkey to be done. We know that it will happen but it is so hard to wait for the outcome. One difference between waiting for the brownies or turkey to be done and waiting for the Lord is that we have an idea when they will be done. We set the timer and wait. With the Lord, it is not so clear cut. He tells Adam and Eve that the Savior will come but they don’t know when that will be. They don’t even know all the ingredients that will go into the Recipe for a Savior. We look back on Proverbs 3:5.  Trust in the Lord? Lean not on your own understanding? That is so difficult.

Prayer: Dear Lord, You promise to bring all things together for our good and yet we don’t always like to wait for You to act. Help us to have the patience to trust in Your Word as we wait. Amen.

Deeper Thought: Spend some time considering the challenge that Adam and Eve faced as they tried to live their lives trusting in the Word of the Lord, even when they didn’t see the fulfillment. Consider the challenge you face as you wait for the Lord to bring the recipe together for you.