How many times have you read the first story of the Bible? The story of Adam and Eve? Many of us have read it so many times we can easily retell the basic details to anyone who will listen. But without the Holy Spirit guiding our reading, these stories become trite and redundant. I, personally, have heard the story so many times. Yet, when I ask God to open my eyes to reveal great and unsearchable things (Jeremiah 33:3), He doesn’t disappoint. So while reading about the beginning for the (insert number of however many times), a great rescue story is revealed.
Imagine Eden.
A beautiful and perfect utopian garden, where every living creature praises the name of God. Every tree dances with laughter as God walks peacefully on the earth. The mountains and hills break into singing at the presence of the Almighty (Isaiah 55:12). The whole garden points to God. Adam and Eve want for nothing; their relationship with God is as tangible as an earthly friend. Their conversations are easy and heart-filling, and they are joyful as they live in perfect union with God.
But then enter the serpent. The antagonist. Eve and this serpent engage in conversation. We are on the other side and so we know that this serpent is bad news. Why, Eve, would you want to mess up all that God has made so perfect? Before we know it, Eve agrees with the serpent, eating the forbidden fruit and sharing it with her husband. Ummm, record scratch. WHAT??
So I have to ask:
If Adam and Eve wanted for nothing, why does Eve listen to the serpent?
Was the serpent new to the garden and Eve had not met this cunning creature before? Was she was just being polite?
Why does she look away from God for even one second to entertain the serpent’s words? Does she know how detrimental this will be to her and the whole world?
She has the Creator physically in her presence. His beauty, power, and love ever-present before her. And yet, she looks away from His brilliance to speak with this sly character. A potential albatross, the serpent is sinful to his core, but Eve proves sinful herself. Even in a perfect little garden, sin is present.
Herein lies the biggest question: did God orchestrate all of this? Did he know these sinful events would happen?
Had he already set into motion his rescue plan from before the beginning of time?
We see sin in the very first story of the Bible. And yet, this far removed from the beginning of time, we are callous to the forgiveness of sin just because we now know that Jesus walked this earth. He’s already saved us. He’s forgiven us. We’re all good.
When I think about Christmas, I think about a tiny little 8-pound baby Jesus coming into this sinful world to rescue us. I think about wise men, and promises, barns, and Joseph and Mary. I don’t necessarily consider Adam and Eve’s sin and the first events that caused the whole rescue mission’s urgency. My personal need for rescue is censored because Jesus has already come. He’s already been born. Present-day, we are merely celebrating his presence. We are celebrating what has already happened.
But when I read this first story of Adam and Eve in conjunction with Advent, I recognize our great need for rescue even today.
We are sinful people by nature. Adam, born from the dust of this earth, is sinful from the very beginning. Adam and Eve sinned. The end. Right?
But the story doesn’t stop there.
Jesus came so many years ago so that we would recognize this sin today, call it out, and run to his forgiving arms. That we would remember this birth as a great sacrifice on God’s part, always giving thanks for what he’s done and what he’s doing through each of us.
From the beginning, God wants to prove his almighty love to us. He wants to show us he is the great heroic rescuer. He is the only one who is good and true and able to rescue us from this sin. We are not able to rescue ourselves no matter what the world (or serpent) says.
Yes, we celebrate the Christmas season. And the birth of Jesus is observed as thorough washing of our sin from crimson to white snow. But when I read how God has rescued us from the first mother and father’s sins, I see the Christmas story in a different light. How everything he has done and does lead us to the perfect point of redemption. The depths he has traveled to prove his love to us–to you, to me–I can only read on in awe.
Story after story, in the long lineage of Jesus, I clearly see God’s rescue purpose for the good of those who love him.
He works in imperfect people to show his love, Jesus, to the world. From barren mothers to murderers to doubting philanderers, God continues to move forward in his rescue mission, bringing Jesus into the world.
But…
There are never any buts when it’s just Jesus and us. But, since we are here on this earth with the serpent sin, it’s not just Jesus and us…
The serpents, sadly, don’t go away because Jesus has walked this earth. In fact, the serpents grow even more cruel and vile as they feast on the souls of this world. They long to take our focus away from Jesus even if just for seconds at a time. Serpents are found where our hearts are most troubled. Even in things that this world says are good, serpents slither in and out and cause discord among God’s people.
The serpent’s cunning from the beginning has only gotten more deceitful. The intelligence that God has given them has unfortunately turned vicious. And when our eyes are not fixed upon the perfect maker, we are wooed into eating the forbidden fruit. Time and time again. As mothers, women, and daughters, we are susceptible to the serpent’s slick style.
But when we remember that God sent Jesus into the world to rescue us, to bring us back to him, to show us he has not abandoned us, the tempter’s ways become visible.
We cannot merely hear these stories and think we are safe from all that the serpent says.
It takes effort and hard work on our part to continue to fix our eyes upon Jesus. To retreat into his presence and look full in His wonderful face. To show our children how to do this and what this looks like. When we are seated at his feet, basking in the radiance of his presence, the “things of this earth will grow strangely dim.” (“Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” by Alan Jackson)
Advent is the perfect time to refocus our gaze from the matters of earthly importance to the things that matter to God.
Eve, lamentably, did not protect herself from the serpent even in the Garden of Eden. Her husband was not protected either. But God did not desert them. Even before the serpent spoke to Eve, God had a plan to showcase his glory through people that would be documented in the Bible, as story after story proves his rescue mission. God was never going to leave us alone.
This rescue mission is the beauty of Advent.
This is why the anticipation of Christmas is even more enlightening than the actual day of Christmas. This expectancy refines our hearts and shifts our gaze from the hustle of the holidays to the peace of perfect union with Christ.
As we celebrate Advent and the birth of Jesus, let’s not forget how God has used each person in the Bible to bring this rescue mission to fruition.
He continues to fight for you and me from before the beginning. And when the serpent slips his shrewd thoughts into our minds, I pray we are so focused on Jesus that these words have little impact on us.
So, after all of the waiting and fighting and sin, flash forward to the birth—the birth of the Messiah. Mary, holding her baby boy Jesus in her arms, gazes at his perfect face, counting his tiny fingers. I imagine, after everything she has heard and read, her heart sings, “Thank you, Lord. Thank you for sending this precious baby boy to rescue us. Your purpose was made known when you chose me, a lowly sinner, to be part of your rescue mission as the earthly mother to this most adored son. Thank you for this wonderful Christmas gift.” And everyone said Amen.
Your Turn
There are so many serpents ready to seduce and betray us. But these serpents need to be called out and tamed. Where are the serpents hiding for you this Christmas season? What are the serpents trying to get you to believe? What needs to be called out in your life for what it is: a lie that takes you away from God?
Here is a prayer for you to find and unhinge those serpents:
Dear Lord, you search me, and you know me. You know my coming and my going. Knowing when I wake and when I sleep, you know every part of my soul. I pray you would uproot anything in my heart that is not from you. That you would remove any sin in my life that I am either blatantly aware of and am too weak to overcome myself or remove the sin that I am blind toward. Lord, I know you love me and only want the best for me. As we draw near to the beautiful birth of your gift, I pray for shame and jealousy to be removed from my heart. Only your thoughts of me are welcome in this place. Thank you that your ways are not my ways. Thank you for this powerful season. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.
