The
Promised Return
By
Stephen Terry
Commentary
for the Sabbath School Lesson for March 31, 2012
“So
the LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, Cursed are you
above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you
will eat dust all the days of your life.
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.’”
Genesis 3:15, NIV
The above passage contains the protoevangelion, the passage many Bible scholars believe points
forward to a promised messiah or deliverer. They see in the statement of
ongoing enmity between the offspring of the serpent and that of the woman a
promise of deliverance in the relative damage caused by each. Seeing the wound
to the heel as not being mortal but the crushed head as certainly so, they find
ultimate victory in the text and feel it points forward to Jesus and the
ultimate victory to be obtained at His second coming portrayed in the
apocalyptic scenarios of the book of Revelation.
While the Jews still look for this deliverer, the
Christians feel He has already come once. Both, though, have found this passage
to provide a nexus that in some ways connects the two faith traditions. Both
traditions strongly support the understanding that Eve expected her first-born
child to be that deliverer. However, Cain turned out to be the serpent’s
offspring instead of a messiah. Some Jewish traditions, such as the Targum Jerusalem (also known as Pseudo Jonathan) say that Eve gave
birth to Cain because she was impregnated by the Angel of Death, Sammael,
according to that document’s version of Genesis 4:1. Maybe they felt this would
establish the foundation for two distinct lines of offspring, those of the
serpent (Cain) and those of the sons of God (Abel).
Genealogy was of utmost importance to the Jews. We see
this in the many genealogies in the Old Testament and even in those of Christ
in Matthew, chapter one, and Luke, chapter three. This idea of a godly line
that could somehow maintain purity through all its generations was epitomized
in the establishment and continuation of the Aaronic priesthood. That it was an
erroneous concept can be seen in the example of Eli’s sons, Phinehas and
Hophni. (See 1 Samuel 2:12-17) Nonetheless, the Jews continued to believe righteousness
had more to do with who your father was than how you behaved. God tried to enlighten them about this. David
the Psalmist wrote, “The LORD looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if
there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned away, all have
become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Psalm 14:2-3 and
also Psalm 53:2-3, NIV Even Solomon wrote
“Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is
right and never sins.” Ecclesiastes 7:20, NIV
The argument against the “godly line” concept advanced
by the Jews and propounded even today by some Christians seems to be strong.
Even the lineage of Jesus which one would expect to exemplify the godly line,
if any would, had its rascals. King David’s adulterous romp with Bathsheba,
which included murdering her husband, Uriah, is only one glaring example.
Matthew felt so strongly about the evil of this relationship that even though
he had to acknowledge this was Jesus’ ancestry, he refused to write Bathsheba’s
name in the record. Surprisingly though he had no problem mentioning Tamar, who
slept with her father-in-law, and Rahab, who apparently was a Canaanite prostitute.
The sad truth is more in line with what Paul wrote in
Romans, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23,
NIV The Jews flattered themselves that
because they could trace their ancestry to Abraham, they were somehow more
righteous than others due to their godly genealogy. Yet, they were sinners as
well. Jesus tried to show them that their genealogy could not save them as
their deeds revealed their true ancestry was serpent based. (See John 8:31-44)
Early in the Bible, mankind demonstrated his inability
to deliver himself no matter what his parentage. Even though some were children
of the sons of God, Genesis tells us, “The LORD saw how great the wickedness of
the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the
thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” Genesis 6:5, NIV This was the state of the antediluvian world. But
since most of the world was unwilling to respond to God, probation closed on
that chapter of human history and only a hand full survived the ensuing flood. The
Bible relates that for well over a century God offered a life boat of salvation
to those who were endangered, but no one was willing to hedge their bets by
throwing their lot in with Noah. They did not see themselves as people who needed
that life boat.
The Jews prior to the Babylonian captivity were
descendants of Abraham. They lived in the holy city of Jerusalem. They belonged
to the one, true church that Solomon had built there. They did not see
themselves as being in need of rescue. When that temple and city were pulled
down around their ears, and they were marched away in shame, stripped of
everything, they saw that none of these things could save them. When they
returned, they eschewed idolatry which they thought was responsible for the
collapse of their society, but still their sin and their need for salvation,
for rescue persisted.
Those who confronted Jesus, before He walked the Via Dolorosa, still did not see
themselves as being in need of any kind of rescue. They continued to believe that
because they could trace their lineage back to Abraham, because they lived in
Jerusalem, because they belonged to the true church built by Herod, they did
not need saving. They could not see in their deeds the revelation of their true
heritage. Guilty of the same evils as their ancestors before them, once again
the Jews had their city and their temple pulled down around their ears, and
they were banished from the very city they claimed as their heritage.
The Bible tells us that in spite of all of this, there
is still a promised salvation waiting for those who want it. “Therefore, since
the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of
you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the good news
proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value
to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.” Hebrews
4:1-2, NIV However, just as they who
went before us did, we also can find ourselves trusting our hope to our
relationship to some spiritual predecessor who through his or her life demonstrated
an understanding we do not ourselves possess. We might also be placing our
trust in the country or culture we live in. We might believe we live in a holy
country and belong to the one, true church and that those things might save us
as a remnant from the rest of the world. But is that presumption placing us in
danger of having these things once again pulled down around our ears? Are we
claiming to be in no need of saving because we are of the godly line while
demonstrating with our deeds that in our hearts we are offspring of the
serpent?
Jesus is coming again to save those who desire to be
saved. Like Noah’s family, like the few who walked closely with God, like
Daniel, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel when Jerusalem was destroyed by Babylon, like
those Christians who were saved by fleeing Jerusalem in 70 A.D., will we be
among the remnant that finds an ark, a life boat of safety in Jesus? God has
told us who His offspring are. No special verbal razzmatazz will accomplish our
salvation. Reciting a perfect formula of doctrinal beliefs and claiming to
believe them is not going to save us any more than it saved the Jews in the past.
Jesus identified those who could expect to find salvation when He returns. He
told a simple parable based on Isaiah, chapter 58 that contains the answer.
It isn’t how much we sacrificially give to the church.
Without the actions Isaiah wrote of, any sacrifice was useless. It isn’t how
much we control the desires and appetites of our bodies, not even with fasting
and prayer. They also are useless to us without proper action. And what is that
proper action?
The prophet Habakkuk at least understood what was needed.
He wrote, “How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry
out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? Why do you make me look at
injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before
me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and
justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is
perverted.” Habakkuk 1:2-4, NIV The problem is injustice. The solution
needed is justice. Habakkuk wonders when it is going to happen. God wonders the
same thing.
C. S. Lewis in the book, Out of the Silent Planet, wrote about this issue. A character named
“Ransom was on a planet that was
facing an immoral assault from evil like our own planet’s Adam and Eve
experienced. He, like Habakkuk, asked “Why doesn’t God do something?” In the
end, he decided that God did do something, he placed him there. At that point
he got involved, and things changed.
We see the same problem today all around us and shrug
our shoulders and say that someday God will come and provide a solution.
Perhaps, He already has. He put us here. We are the vehicle for dealing with
the injustice we see, and in that we will find salvation when Jesus returns.
Only those who care about justice will want to live in the just world that
Jesus will create. The parable he told based on Isaiah 58 is found in Matthew,
chapter 25.
“When
the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on
his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will
separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the
goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
“Then
the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my
Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation
of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty
and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I
needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in
prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then
the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and
invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or
in prison and go to visit you?’
“The
King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of
these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
“Then
he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the
eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you
gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a
stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe
me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
“They
also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or
needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
“He
will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of
these, you did not do for me.’
“Then
they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Matthew 25:31-46, NIV
This Commentary is a Service of Still
Waters Ministry
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