Advent: Nov. 28 // His Name is Jesus

2022 is coming to an end. As we look to the next four weeks — the Advent season — my prayer is that we listen carefully, as the God of the Universe speaks to us through His Word. This first week of Advent, we focus on “hope.” This hope is not one that is fleeting, here today and gone tomorrow, but one that is anchored deep... a hope we can hold on to until eternity.
 
We read in Genesis 2 that God gave Adam and Eve all the Garden of Eden, but He asked that they not eat the fruit from the one tree in the center. Then, in Genesis 3, the serpent convinces Eve that the tree would not cause death, but rather allow her to be like God, knowing good and evil. Eve eats the fruit and shares it with her husband. The two become aware that they are naked and immediately feel embarrassed. They cover their bodies with leaves and hide from God. When God asks where they are in Genesis 3:10, Adam responds, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid." He continues to admit in verse 12, “The woman you gave to be with me — she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate."
 
God then asks Eve in verse 13 why she chose to eat from the tree. “The serpent deceived me, and I ate,” she answers.
 
Shame, sorrow, worry, the wish to go back in time, or for the present moment to pass by quickly... I am sure we can all relate in some way to the emotions Adam and Eve may have been feeling in those moments. 
 
Then God turned to the serpent in Genesis 3:14-15: 
 
Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than any livestock
and more than any wild animal.
You will move on your belly
and eat dust all the days of your life.
I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.* 
 
Verse 15 is known as the Protoevangelium, or the first gospel. It is where hope is introduced — the anchored-deep kind of hope. It is where the anticipation of a Savior is introduced. It is a hope that has a name, and His name is Jesus. God tells the serpent that Christ will strike his head, releasing man from the grasp of death.

The truth of the Gospel is that hope entered this world to die in a worldly way, so that those of us living in this world may have life beyond this world. We can be encouraged by the promise of God to conquer death so that we can have life with Him. A life with hope.

Hope // His Name is Jesus | Delaney Archer