The Warrior
October 7, 2012
Genesis 3
It happens to all of us. It happens at different times, in different places and in different ways. Sometimes it happens when you start paying bills for the first time. Sometimes it happens when you experience depression for the first time, not knowing why. Sometimes it on the job. Sometimes it happens at home. At some point, we wake up to the realization that life is a battle, and we’re in a war.
Do you ever feel like that? You should, because it is. We all have to fight our own battles on a daily basis.
There are no conscientious objectors to this war. There are no deferments from this battlefield. Fame and fortune will not keep you out of the fight. John Daly, the PGA golfer, battles alcohol. Phil Mickelson battles arthritis. Mike Tyson battles anger. Drew Carey, the host of "The Price Is Right," battled depression so badly that twice, before he was 20-years-old, he attempted to take his own life. The truth is, we all fight our own wars, and we all face battles. Some will be physical, some emotional and some spiritual.
Everywhere you look, wars are being fought. There are wars between nations, wars between governments, wars between families, wars between spouses. Wars seem to be a constant, and people are always willing to fight.
So, how did these wars get started? How can we win? and How will it end? That’s what I want to focus on over the next few weeks.
Beginning with Genesis 3, the Bible tells a story about a warrior, who is also known as the Prince of Peace. He’s the only warrior capable of winning this war. He alone will have the victory, and He alone will bring us everlasting peace.
The story begins in the Garden of Eden. It was a place of perfect peace. There were only two people in the garden: Adam and Eve. They were at perfect peace with God, perfect peace with each other, and perfect peace with themselves. Then, something happened. It’s the most tragic event in human history. This event plunged our world into a war we continue to fight.
God’s solution to this problem is wrapped up in a single verse in Genesis 3. It’s a passage which provides hope in the midst of the new war. God said, 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.
Amazingly, peace is wrapped up in a promise and a prophecy. This verse promises that a warrior will come to rescue us from conflict; it prophesies that this warrior is none other than Jesus Christ.
What we lose track of, and what we need to hold onto is this fact — the story of the Warrior is the story of the Bible. Not only that, but this should also become the story of your life. We need a warrior who can fight and win the war, for us.
Law school professor, Edwin Keedy, from Penn University used to begin his first class every year by writing two numbers on the blackboard: 4 and 2, side-by-side.
He would ask, “What’s the solution?” Students would call out, "6." Others would cry out “2.” Then several would shout out, “8.” Keedy would shake his head no to each response. Finally, he would explain they all made one fatal error. “There’s one reason why you cannot find the solution, and that’s because you failed to ask the key question, ‘What’s the problem?’ Unless you know what the problem is, you will never find the solution.
Folks, we’re living in a world that’s trying to find a solution to a problem that it hasn’t properly identified. Nobody can deny our world is in a mess. It’s in a mess morally. People debate the definition and meaning of marriage. We face terrorism all around us. Nations are threatening nuclear weapons. We have an important election, with candidates who will put each other down at every opportunity. Things we were once told were wrong are now right, and what’s right is wrong.
This world is in a mess politically. There’s political unrest on almost every continent.
This world is in a mess economically. We’re currently experiencing the worst global crisis since the Great Depression. Cities and countries are declaring bankruptcy.
But all of these problems are a symptom of a greater problem: this world is in a mess spiritually. We have never seen more interest in spiritual things in our lifetime, yet there has never been more cultural and societal chaos than now.
The problem, in one sense, goes all the way back to a snake in the grass. If you aren’t familiar with the story, in short . . . God created Adam and Eve. He put them in a perfect environment — the Garden of Eden. There was absolutely nothing that could make them do wrong. There was absolutely no sin. There was no need for greed, because they had everything they could possibly want. God said they could eat from any tree in the garden, except for one tree. It was off limits.
Then came the snake ~ 1Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
2The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die'" (Genesis 3:1-3).
The Bible identifies this snake as satan, popularly known as the devil. All Adam and Eve had to do was simply say one single word, and they, and we, would have lived happily ever after. That word was NO! But they made the mistake of having a discussion with the devil. Let me warn you: never discuss anything with the devil. Today, there are so many of us who are struggling with deep sin issues because we’re willing to dialogue with the devil.
That’s what happened to Eve ~ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it (Genesis 3:6).
You might think – that was Adam and Eve. That wasn’t me. Just because they gave in to the devil doesn’t mean I will. But think about it this way: If they couldn’t defeat the devil in a perfect world, what chance do you have in the world we live in right now? You don’t have a chance apart from God.
We’re all caught up in sin. For some, it’s pretty deep stuff that we’re stuck in. Maybe you feel like you’re a slave to your sin. You might be trying to quit sinning, but you can’t. Your facing an opponent you cannot defeat on your own.
God gave Adam and Eve a choice. He provided a way of life filled with peace and power; joy and happiness, but they rejected that way. He gave them a word to obey, but they chose to disobey. He gave them the will to follow his plan, but they didn’t. From that moment until now, our number one enemy is the same snake in the grass. You need to understand the devil is alive, and he’s busy. He’s alive and in your home, in your family, in your marriage, in your school, in your thoughts, and in your work life.
On your own, he cannot be defeated. We fight a war we cannot win.
The moment sin entered our world, God declared war against satan. satan, on the other hand, declared war against both God and us. If you can remember back to May of this year, when I told you this verse from Revelation 12 – 17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus. Do you see that? The dragon is the devil, and he seeks to make war against who? Against those who obey God’s commandment and hold to the testimony of Jesus. That’s you and I.
After eating the fruit, Adam and Eve immediately knew everything had changed: Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves (Genesis 3:7). For the first time, Adam and Eve experienced the siSLIDEckness of shame. For the first time, they experienced fear. For the first time, they were haunted by guilt. Do you know why? The were at war.
For the first time in human history, a man's wife had to go shopping for clothes. Imagine their conversation: Eve quietly told Adam ~
To cover my carcass
I've ordered a fig leaf
From Neiman Marcus.
Remember, God made a promise to Adam. It was the first promise God ever made to anyone. He said, But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die (Genesis 2:17)
At first glance, it appears God missed it. Adam and Eve weren’t killed on the spot. But they died that day. According to the Bible, death is not primarily the separation of the soul from the body. It’s really the separation of the spirit from God. The moment Adam and Eve ate that fruit, something inside of them died. It was their spirit. They began to die in their spirit and soul.
Ever since that moment, we’ve been in a war against sin. Apart from God, nobody has ever won that war. Apart from God, nobody ever will.
So, now we come to this great verse — God said ~ 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). The Lord said there would be enmity between the serpent and the woman, between her seed and his seed. Do you know what enmity means? It literally means war or conflict.
On the day this happened, God declared war against sin, against satan, and against anyone who would rebel against Him. From that moment until now, there has been, and there always will be, two wars that are going on. There is a war going on right now between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. Understand that the seed of the woman is Jesus. He is at war with satan.
There’s also a war going on within. We do things we know we shouldn’t do, and we don’t do things we know we should do. We mess up and ask for forgiveness, then we turn around and do the same sinful thing again. No matter how hard we try, we can’t get things right. We can’t be perfect.
Everybody fights this war. Peyton Manning, Barrack Obama, Mitt Romney, the pope, and Dr. Phil, fight this war. On our own, it’s a war we can’t win.
Please understand, I’m not being pessimistic; I’m being realistic. In the history of this world, no mere human has ever won this war. No mere human ever will. That’s why God’s promise is so important. It tells us about the final outcome. Because you see, there’s a Warrior who cannot lose.
Listen to this verse again: 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). For the people of Israel, this verse represented hope. To satan, it was God’s declaration of war. To Adam and Eve, it was a sign of God’s forgiveness. Although Adam and Eve had disobeyed God, one of Eve’s descendants would give birth to the one who would make things right.
The key to this verse is the phrase "her seed." The word seed is used over 300 times in the Bible, and this is the only time it is used to describe the seed of a woman. Every other time it describes the seed of a man. Technically and medically speaking, a woman does not have a seed. The woman has the egg; the man has the seed. Why would God speak of the seed of a woman? How can a woman have a seed?
There can only be one explanation, and it’s found in Isaiah 7:14: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. This was a prophecy about something only God could do. The Warrior is going to be a human being. He’s going to have an earthly mother. It says He is of the seed of a woman. He’s not going to have an earthly father. But we know every child has to have a father. Therefore, the only father this child will have is the heavenly Father.
This seed could not be a son of a man like Adam; he would have failed just like Adam. He had to be a human in order to fight and win the battle that Adam lost. But only a sinless man could undo what a sinful man had done. In order to be a sinless man, he also had to be divine. Only God is sinless. Therefore, this seed was both the Son of Man and the Son of God.
From this point on, for the rest of the Old Testament through the Gospels, this mystery unfolds. A warrior is coming. He will be of the human race and come from a woman. He will not be an angel. He will not be a visitor from another world. He won’t be just an ordinary human. He will also be God. This warrior is not just a man. This warrior is not just God. He is the God-man.
God prophesied that when Jesus came, two bruisings would take place. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel (Genesis 3:15, NASB). The serpent’s head would be bruised, and the Savior’s heel would be bruised. The Warrior will not go unbloodied.
He will not fight this battle without being wounded. He will be bruised. Isaiah said, He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him; and by His wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).
But there is a second bruising to take place, a bruising of the serpent’s head. A bruise that will ultimately destroy the serpent, the devil. He will ultimately be thrown into the lake of fire.
The Warrior took his bruising 2,000 years ago at a place called Calvary. But what about the snake? What about the bruising of his head? God promised that we are going to win this war if we’re in His army. If we’re on the side of the Warrior, our victory is guaranteed. But He won’t just win the fight for us; He will let us take part in the victory.
Adam started a war he couldn’t win, against an enemy he couldn’t beat. We face that same enemy, and we fight that same war. However, we’re going to win, because we have a Warrior who cannot lose.
Some men were talking about the body of Christ, about which part of His body they would like to be. One man said, “I would like to be his heart so I could love like He loves.” Another said, “I would like to be His eyes so that I could see and understand the way He sees and understands.” Another said, “I would like to be His brain so I could know everything He knows.” A last man, who had come from a hard, sinful life, who had been beaten and battered by the devil, until he gave his life to Jesus, smiled and said, “I would like to be one of His feet so I could bruise the devil’s head.” I guarantee you, that day is coming, because of the Warrior. And victory, forever, will be ours.
