First Day of Lent

First Day of Lent

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Ash Wednesday

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

Genesis 3:15

This powerful promise from God should cause us to rejoice not only at Easter but all the time. Most of us are afraid of snakes, and this deadliest snake of all God promises to take care of for us!

We must look at the whole verse. What about the heel? How is Satan going to bruise the heel of the One who is to destroy him? I am told that the only form of execution in the world that bruises the heel of its victims is crucifixion! Am I reading too much into this verse, or is God telling us right here in Genesis 3, right at the very beginning of the Book, that there is going to be a costly atonement for the sin of man?

Most Bible-believing theologians concede that this is the beginning of God’s promise to bring Jesus, the proto-evangel. They agree that the pronoun he refers to Jesus and that Jesus is going to suffer a death for our sin that will crush the head of the snake and will damage the heel of the Lord. Jesus will be crucified.

God made Adam and Eve, the parents of all mankind, and he said when he saw them in the garden together, This is very good. (Genesis 1:31) They spoiled that place and hid themselves from God. He had to do something to restore relationship with the creation that he loved. So he promised to send a Savior – to destroy the snake but to be wounded in the process. Amazing!

Prayer: Thank you, Father, for your wonderful, specific promise made and kept! Thank you for Good Friday, unbelievably painful for Jesus and life-giving to us! Amen.

And He Set His Face toward Jerusalem. . . .

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, Spring 2007,
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator.