Gen. 3:7-24, The Mosaic Messiah (1)

Perhaps you entertain questions about the authority of the Word of God.  Or perhaps questions about the person of Christ.  Or maybe you have a concern for friends and loved ones who have these concerns and questions.  I would like to say that for me, fulfilled prophecy is one of the greatest demonstrations of the truth of God’s Word and the veracity of the claims of Jesus Christ to be the Savior and Lord, the Son of God.  The Gospel of Matthew, as with all the gospels, but especially in Matthew, there are sprinkled throughout numerous literal fulfillments of Old Testament prophecy in the life and ministry of Christ.  These fulfillments in the first Advent of Christ are a strong encouragement for believing He will as literally and powerfully fulfill the prophecies related to His second Advent.

What does this have to do with Moses?  Let me mention two things.

·       First, Moses was the human author of Genesis through Deuteronomy, the Pentateuch.  In those five books are found some of those Messianic prophecies.  Our plan is to look at several of these.

·       Second, Moses’ writings give us a good “study” of what it was like believing in the Messiah before He arrived.  This is the nature of saving/justifying faith in Old Testament times.  We look back to the Savior’s finished work; they looked forward to the Savior’s promised work. 

I am anticipating this will take us several posts. 

Gen. 3:14-15

Theologians call this the “protoevangelium,” the first gospel.  God had come to the Garden of Eden.  Adam and Eve hid from Him.  Something had happened to bring estrangement into the relationship.  God’s response was to pronounce a curse on the serpent, the woman and the man.  The gospel is promised in His words to the serpent.  Satan had helped to bring sin into the world.  So, in God’s curse on the serpent, He promised to defeat Satan’s plan through the “Seed” of the woman. 

God’s curse on the woman and the man had to do with consequences for their sin.  In the woman’s case, it had to do with the travail of childbirth, a critical issue since God’s resolution of the sin and guilt was going to require the woman give birth to the “Seed.”  What we see in God’s promise is the entirety of the gospel.  It is not all the detail, but it is the good news to counter the horrible news of sin and guilt.  God made it clear that the “Savior” (deliverer, the one who will bring release from the serpent to the man and woman) would be a human.  The “Salvation” would be provided by God, the One who had been offended by the sinners.  Since the promise was made to the serpent, the sinners would need to receive the salvation.  In the story there is nothing said as to how that “receiving” would happen.  The man and woman simply needed to believe God’s promise.