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The Promise of Redemption, February 3
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
, NKJV.
In drooping flower and falling leaf Adam and his companion witnessed the first
signs of decay. Vividly was brought to their minds the stern fact that every living
thing must die. Even the air, upon which their life depended, bore the seeds of
death.
Continually they were reminded also of their lost dominion. Among the lower
creatures Adam had stood as king, and so long as he remained loyal to God,
all nature acknowledged his rule; but when he transgressed, this dominion was
forfeited. The spirit of rebellion, to which he himself had given entrance, extended
throughout the animal creation. Thus not only the life of humans, but the nature of
the beasts, the trees of the forest, the grass of the field, the very air they breathed,
all told the sad lesson of the knowledge of evil.
But mortals were not abandoned to the results of the evil they had chosen. In
the sentence pronounced upon Satan was given an intimation of redemption. “I will
put enmity between thee and the woman,” God said, “and between thy seed and
her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (
Genesis 3:15
).
This sentence, spoken in the hearing of our first parents, was to them a promise.
Before they heard of the thorn and the thistle, of the toil and sorrow that must be
their portion, or of the dust to which they must return, they listened to words that
could not fail of giving them hope. All that had been lost by yielding to Satan could
be regained through Christ.
This intimation also nature repeats to us. Though marred by sin, it speaks not
only of creation but of redemption. Though the earth bears testimony to the curse
in the evident signs of decay, it is still rich and beautiful in the tokens of life-giving
power. The trees cast off their leaves, only to be robed with fresher verdure; the
flowers die, to spring forth in new beauty; and in every manifestation of creative
power is held out the assurance that we may be created anew in “righteousness and
holiness of truth” (
Ephesians 4:24
, margin). Thus the very objects and operations
of nature that bring so vividly to mind our great loss become to us the messengers
of hope.
As far as evil extends, the voice of our Father is heard, bidding His children see
in its results the nature of sin, warning them to forsake the evil, and inviting them
to receive the good.—
Education, 26, 27
.
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