Understanding the Curse & God’s Promise of a Redeemer

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has taught home-style Bible classes for twenty years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les' teaching is so interesting, people say, the time seems to fly by. And now, here's Les Feldick. Alright, it's good to have you back again, and let's go back to Genesis. We've been out of it now for almost three weeks, and let's go back and pick up where we left off. In chapter 3, remember when Adam sinned, and then in verses 14 and 15, we have what I call kind of a parenthetical statement in here, and we'll just touch on it briefly, and then we'll probably come back to it at a later class. But in verse 14 and 15, in Genesis chapter 3, the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, in other words, he had tempted and caused Eve to fall, which in turn led to Adam's fall, since thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, above every beast of the field, upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And then verse 15, this is one of the primary verses of the book of Genesis, and this is the first prophecy, if I may call it that, of the coming of the Redeemer. Now I left the Word on the board from last week specifically, so we wouldn't miss it, that the Redeemer concept is begun right here in chapter 3, verse 15. And what is it? Where God, speaking to Satan, says, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, because she was the one that was tempted first. And now here's the important part. He will put enmity between thy seed and her seed, it, that is, the seed of the woman, shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Now, a lot of people just read that verse and they don't even know what they're reading. But what's it really talking about? All right, God is going to put an enmity between the forces of Satan and all the powers of darkness and the seed of the woman. Now who is the seed of the woman? Well, well, they've got to take it from Scripture, turn back, keep your hand in Genesis, go back again to Galatians. As I've said so often to my classes, what I say doesn't really hold that much water. But if we can show that it's what the Word says, and oh how I want people to learn to just study the Word, not just read it casually, but to study it, and then these things get so exciting. All right, Galatians chapter 3, Galatians chapter 3, verse 16, and this is what it says. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made, promises. And he saith not, and to seeds, which is plural, as of many, but as of one, singular. And to thy seed, who is whom? Christ, see? So according to the Bible, the seed of the woman is Christ. Now like I said, we're not going to take time for that in this session. We're going to come back to that at a later time. And following the seed of the woman and why the term is used concerning Christ. But looking at verse 15 again, there's going to be a running enmity, back in Genesis, back in Genesis, there's going to be this running enmity, this battle between the forces of Satan and the Christ. Now you get a little glimpse of that as you come up through the Old Testament. Everything that God put in place to bring about the coming of the Messiah, Satan did everything to destroy and disrupt. Now, right off the bat, you come into the line of Cain and Abel. Abel is the one who is in the line of the seed of the woman. What does Satan prompt? Cain to murder him. Oh, and I imagine Satan thought he had now already won it. But you see, God in His sovereignty came back with a replacement for Abel in the man Seth. You come on up into Israel's secular history as a nation, and how many times did Satan almost succeed in destroying the nation of Israel? Oh, he came close, but the sovereign God made sure that he didn't succeed in it. And then you come to the birth of Christ. And when those wise men went to Herod asking, where is he that is to be born king of the Jews, what does Herod immediately do? Out of jealousy and envy put out a decree to put to death all the Jew babies under the age of two. Well, it wasn't just Herod, but it was the satanic effort again to destroy the seed of the woman. And so be aware of that as you study your Bible, how that the forces of Satan, the powers of Satan are constantly thwarting the work of God. And of course, God foretold that it would be that way. And then you go a little further, and He actually foretells the crucifixion, not as crucifixion, but by the language He's referring to it when He says in verse 315, "...it," that is, the seed of the woman, "...shall bruise the head of Satan, and Satan would bruise the heel of the seed of the woman." Now when did all that take place? At the cross. At the cross, Satan was defeated. And there's only one way you can really put a serpent to death, and that is you attack the head. You can cut off his tail, and that's not going to bother him any. You can probably even segment a serpent, and it's not going to stop him. But you have to destroy the head. And so this is why that language is used. Christ literally defeated Satan at the cross. He bruised the head of the serpent. But Satan got his licks in by bruising the heel of Christ by causing the suffering. And all that Christ went through there at the cross was the bruising of His heel. All right, then let's go on into the following verses, because I want to come on as quickly to verse 20. But in the intervening verses from 16 on down, we have now the curse brought on the sea. The curse. Now even as we speak, the world is in turmoil over the Middle East. And it's been that way for the 6 ,000 years of human history—war, pestilence, catastrophe, enmity between individuals and between nations and between family members. Why? The curse. Sickness and disease. Why? The curse. Everything that is connected with the world's problems—I don't care what it is—all comes back to the curse. You can't escape it. As someone has put it, it's like this. When Adam was created, he was human. But the moment Adam sinned, as we saw in the last few weeks, the human race became inhuman. Now that's not original with me. I read that somewhere in the past, and you know, the minute I saw it, I thought, isn't that exactly the way it is? Can you think of a single species in all of creation that will torture members of its own species like man will with man? My, when you read of some of the things that man can invent to torture his fellow human beings. Why? Oh, because he's inhuman. He is a sinful creature. And he is so prone to think up things that will hurt the other individual. And it's all because of the curse, because of sin. All right, let's just read them quickly. Verse 16. So unto the woman, that is, unto—she hasn't been named yet. That's not going to happen until verse 20. So unto the woman, as we know as Eve, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. Do you realize why a woman goes through the birth pains and all the turmoil of delivery? That isn't the way God intended it originally. It's part of the curse. It's all part of the curse. This is what sin brought in. Secondly, you remember way back in chapter 2, you may not have taken note of it, but I said when God looked at all of creation and He had charged it with all the energy it would need, and I said it was the first law of thermodynamics. Do you remember that? The first law of thermodynamics, there is nothing being created nor destroyed. All right, now with sin coming in the picture and the curse on the scene, the second law of thermodynamics became operative. And you know what that is? That even though there is nothing being created nor destroyed, yet everything is constantly going into a less usable state. And the best way I can always describe that, say you have a beautiful home, everything is tip-top, and you decide to leave for a year. I mean, you're just simply going to leave town, and you're not going to charge someone to watch over your property. You just lock the door and you leave. What's it going to be like 12 months later? Better or worse? Worse! Something is going to happen in that 12 -month period. A windstorm will knock off some shingles, a hailstorm may break some windows. Something is always going to make that thing deteriorate. Now the scientific word, of course, is entropy. Everything is constantly moving into a less usable state. You take a tree. It may have taken a hundred years for nature to grow that tree. The sunlight and the rain and the nutrients from the ground all go into that tree. We cut it down, and we cut it up, and we put it in our fireplace. You burn that tree to the place where there's nothing left but the ashes. In our common everyday way of thinking, that tree is destroyed. No, it isn't. Every part of that tree is still in the universe. The heat that went up the chimney, it's part of the universe. Heat is energy. The ashes that are left is all part of that which came from the sun and the earth to begin with. So that tree was not, as we would think of, as destroyed. It was merely put into what? A less usable state. You take your gasoline. You fill up your car with gasoline, and we think we burn it up. No, we don't. We merely put it into a less usable state. It goes up into the atmosphere as heat. It creates energy to move our car down the road, and that's all part and parcel, then, of that second law of thermodynamics that everything is constantly going into a less usable state. Now, that tells us that sooner or later things are going to run out of steam. But God in His own sovereign grace has so programmed it that we're not going to run out and things are going to fall apart. He has set it so that there will be enough to take it to the end of His program. All right, that's all part of the curse. Let's read on. Chapter 3, verse 17. Now unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened, or listened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow thou shalt eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. This is all a result of the curse. Before Adam sinned, there were no thorns and briars and obnoxious insects or whatever. Everything was perfect. But when sin came in, the curse just literally ruined everything. And all of our problems, everything in this world that's a problem, goes back to the curse. And it will never end until the curse is lifted, which of course it will be, we think, one day soon at the return of Christ. All right, then verse 19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the ground. In other words, as long as man lives, he's going to have to work for his living. You know, Iris and I have often talked about it. And I wonder how many folks have ever thought about it. What would our economy be like if people didn't have to eat? Have you ever thought of that? Have you ever thought of all of the jobs and industries that are all in place simply because mankind has to eat? You can just about lay awake at night for four hours some night and be thinking of all the things that are connected with our having to eat. I mean, it's just mind-boggling. But here it started. Oh, man wouldn't have had to have all that, but yet it had to come about. And so our whole economy is structured on the fact that man has to work and man has to eat, all right, until he goes back to the dust from which he came. For God says, Thus thou art, and to thus thou shalt return. Now then, verse 20 is an interesting verse. But again, I'm afraid too many people don't stop to just think of what it says. I don't know how long Adam and Eve were in the garden. I've read all kinds of conjectures from one or two days to a year or more. Again, the Bible doesn't tell us. I wouldn't have the slightest idea. But however long they were in the garden, Adam never had a name for his wife. She was just called the woman. But now you see, after sin entered and after the curse has come down, Adam calls his wife's name Eve. And if you've got a marginal help, what does it say? The mother of all living. Now, all Adam has been told from our scriptural account is that in the day he would eat of that tree, he would die. But now Adam comes back after they're ready to be out of the garden, if they aren't out already, and he names his wife Eve, which meant the mother of all living. Now, what does Adam understand? That even though he has sinned, he has lost fellowship with God, God must have told him something that he believed. And what is it? That he's going to live, he's going to have children, and the whole human race is going to come from him and his wife Eve. Now, you have to study that, and you have to really think about it to get the whole picture, but what's really involved here is God told Adam that this is the way it would be, and what did Adam do? He believed it. See? And here is the first instance now of faith, taking God at His word. By faith, Adam believed what God said concerning him and the woman, and so he names her the mother of all living. All right, now then, Adam's faith prompts God to do something, just like we saw with our circles for the last few weeks, that when the Spirit of God prompted us to believe, then God moved in on our behalf and does everything that needs to be done. He does the same thing back here with Adam. Adam shows that particle of faith that he believed what God said, and God moves in and does what needs to be done. And in verse 21, what is it? Well, remember, Hebrews says, "...without the shedding of blood there is no remission." All right, there had to be a sacrifice. Now, the Old Testament animal sacrifices are merely a foretelling, a picture of that supreme sacrifice that was to come in Christ Himself. But now God institutes animal sacrifice. Verse 21, "...unto Adam, and also to his wife, did the Lord God..." See, now Adam and Eve didn't do this like they did the fig leaves. This God did. God somehow or other killed the animal, or animals. The blood was shed. And the language here, you have to again study Scripture in order to comprehend it, and we're going to look at it in just a moment. But it says, "...the Lord God made them coats of skins..." Now, that covered their physical nakedness. But then He did something else. What did He do? He clothed them. Now, let's go look at Isaiah. Isaiah 61. I'm afraid too many people think that when they read verse 21 it just meant, well, He gave them skins and hides where they could make some kind of a physical covering. But oh, it was more than that. Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61, drop down to verse 10. Isaiah 61, verse 10. All got it? All right, now this should tell us something. Where Isaiah writes, "...I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for He..." Who does the He refer to? God. "...for God hath clothed me with the garments of..." What? Isn't that beautiful? "...God has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness." Whose righteousness? God's righteousness. "...and all He has done it as a bridegroom, decketh Himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels." That's what God has done for you and I. All right, now let's go back again to Romans chapter 3, where we were last week. Romans chapter 3. We looked at the verse, but I didn't make this point because it wasn't the appropriate time. But now we can. In Romans chapter 3, again we'll start with verse 21. But 22 is the verse that we want to compare with Isaiah 61. Now remember what he said. "...Thou hast clothed me with the garments of salvation." All right, now look at Romans 3, 21. But now, "...the righteousness of God without the law is manifested," or has been brought into the spotlight, center stage, if I may use that expression. "...the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets." That's all been building to bring us to this point in time. And then verse 22, "...unto even the righteousness of God, which is by faith," or the faithfulness again, "...of Jesus Christ," now look at it, "...unto all and up on all that," what? "...believe." Isn't that beautiful? Oh, the righteousness of God clothes us, like the young man decked at his wedding, or like the bride decked for her wedding. And the righteousness of God is placed upon us, and as I said before, so that God doesn't see you and I. But what does He see? The righteousness of Christ that covers us. And how do we get that beautiful covering? By believing. Now look at that verse, because I'm going to put something in there that everybody else tries to put in there, and it's not here. "...and this righteousness comes upon all them that keep the Ten Commandments." Doesn't say that. "...and this righteousness comes upon all them that repent and are baptized." Doesn't say that. "...this righteousness comes upon all them that join a church." Doesn't say that. You see what I'm driving at? We have to understand as much what the Bible does not say as what it says. And all these things I've just used is not in there, and we have to leave the Word as it is. "...this righteousness comes," how? When we believe. Well, believe what? The Gospel. And when we believe the Gospel, everything else falls into place. Oh, we can't believe all the things that are in Scripture. While we're in the New Testament, let me just show you what I'm talking about. Turn over just a few pages to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. And Paul has been rehearsing all through the first 12 verses of this chapter how that he wasn't something special. He wasn't some great orator that got their attention. But, oh, how did he get to where he is? Verse 13 and 14. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 13, "...which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual," and then come into verse 14, "...but the natural man," now that's why I'm always glad I've taught the circles. See, now you should be able to start seeing what we're talking about. Who is that natural man? That only body and soul. The natural man is the one who is spiritually dead. He can't comprehend the things of God. He is spiritually dead. All right. "...the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them." Why? Why? Because they are spiritually discerned. So a lot of time, if I have unbelievers come into my class, I'll just simply, without pointing them out, I don't know who is or isn't, but I'll just make a blanket statement. Listen, if you don't know the Lord, you're not going to understand everything that I'm teaching. It's impossible. It's just going to go over your head. But, oh, I've had so many people who knew nothing, who knew nothing of the things of God, but as soon as they became a believer, what happened? Oh, they could just see the whole thing. And they could question nothing. And, oh, I've had so many, especially men, I've had men come after class umpteen times and say, you know, it's just like you turned on a 300-watt light bulb tonight. No, I didn't. That's the Spirit's work. I just show what the Bible says. I think I spend half my time just reading to people, and they'll see things as I read that they never saw before. Oh, that's not me. That's the Spirit's work. And, oh, this is what we have to understand. All right, now let's come back quickly then, if you will, to Genesis chapter 3. Our time is gone. But Genesis chapter 3. We'll wind it up now so that we'll be ready for chapter 4. See, I'm not going to get to the word Redeemer even this time. We're going to leave it up there for the next time. All right, but in chapter 3, let's finish the chapter. Verse 22, God has now restored Adam and Eve to fellowship by virtue of His faith and the animal sacrifice. And now, He says, Behold, man has become as one of us, no good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever. Do you realize how that leaves you hanging? There's no period there. The English has a colon, and the Hebrew has, again, a punctuation that just says, now you just try to imagine what it'd be like. And so that's where you're left. What if Adam would have been able to partake of the tree of life and live forever in this body of sin? That'd been awful, see? All right, then verse 22, we've got a half a minute left. Verse 22, 23 rather, Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. He drove out the man and placed on the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned away everyone to keep them from the tree of life. And now we're going to pick it up next week with Adam and Eve out of the garden. It's all over, so far as they're concerned, in that beautiful setting. And we'll pick it up there next week. Lord willing. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible is viewer supported and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.