Week 24/2024
A word fitly spoken is like APPLES OF GOLD in a setting of silver [Proverbs 25v11]
Some of us restrict our Bible Study to the New Testament as we believe the Old Testament is mainly for the Jews. This is a big mistake because as we read in 2 Timothy 3v16: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”. This is the whole Bible including the Old Testament and there is a gold mine of blessings there if we will only dig deep – some gems are when we discover that Christ is in every book of the Old Testament!
For the next few weeks, I want to share very briefly some starting today, in the first book namely Genesis chapter, 3v15: “And I will make enemies of you and the woman, and of your offspring and her descendant; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel”. In the midst of the despair in the Garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve sinned, and the future seemed hopeless, God had a plan to restore what had been lost. He promised Eve that a descendant of hers (note singular) would severely wound Satan and his offspring. Christians believe that this deliverer does not refer to a political Messiah who would liberate God’s people from physical bondage, but it is a prophecy of the victory that Christ would accomplish at the cross over Satan and the powers of darkness. However, the prophecy only says Satan’s head will be bruised and that makes him dangerous as he is now an angry and injured adversary so we must be alert – as we read “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour”. Though he can harm us if we do not remain saturated in God’s Word, be assured Satan cannot overcome a Christian which is confirmed in 1 John 2v13-14: “I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God remains in you, and you have overcome the evil one”.
We should continually thank God for Eve’s descendent Jesus Christ through whom we are overcomers of the evil one. All we have to do, according to James 4v7 is: “submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”.
Amen
Graeme Greenwood