Gospel of the Kingdom

Study written by 3Crosses Church

Week 3 3Crosses Church Week 3 3Crosses Church

5. Share the Gospel + Life Group Discussion Questions

Day 5 • Week 3

Week 3 • Day 5

This week, we have explored the effects of sin and the serpent kingdom that are outlined in the remaining chapters of Genesis.

So many people get tripped up about the idea of sin when having a gospel conversation. That is why we need to be prepared to give an answer for the hope that we have!

This week, we encountered two potential stumbling blocks. The first hurdle revolved around a topic called theodicy. This is a fancy word for philosophical debates around the existence of sin in God’s good world. Be sure to watch this 2-part video outlining the Christian’s answer to the problem of sin!

Second, we were introduced to the scene of Abraham offering his own son as a sacrifice. Make sure to check out the Bible project video about “the test” to learn more about how the story of Abraham and Isaac fits into the overall narrative of scripture!

The existence of sin and the serpent kingdom allows us to understand God’s pursuit of His kingdom people through Abraham! The GOOD NEWS as Christians is that God did not sit on the sidelines as we suffered. God comes down to us and begins his rescue mission. This story is not about how we accomplish salvation, but how He chooses to accomplish the gospel of the kingdom!

Share the Gospel Video:

 

Week 3 Life Group Discussion Questions

Icebreaker: What is your favorite part of Genesis and why?

Question: What observations / reflections / prayers stood out to you about this week?

The Kingdom Lost: Genesis 3 is unique in its acceptance of the difficult human experience of life under the kingdom of the serpent. It also explains the cause, the purpose, and the results of sin. While we may not have all the answers to explain God’s will behind the origin of sin and the serpent, we can find hope in Genesis 3 as it points us to the one thing that will give us the God-given strength we need to persevere in the midst of our current reality of sin and suffering all around us. There is hope in the good news of God’s mercy and in the one who would come to crush the serpent while allowing the serpent to bite his heel!

Question: How have you reconciled with the existence of sin in this life? How might you approach a gospel conversation differently after reflecting on all that Genesis 1-3 has to say?

The Effects of the Serpent Kingdom: In the midst of a world of sinners, there was one person who God found to be faithful towards His kingdom rule. For the first time, we see the gospel of the kingdom begin to break through as a result of Noah’s faithful actions. Unfortunately, Noah could not overcome the kingdom of the serpent. Who will be the “new Adam” who will crush the serpent and rescue, return, and restore God’s kingdom?

Question: How is God telling you to stand out amidst our current cultural environment?

Humans Take The Throne: The pattern of the serpent kingdom is rather predictable. Genesis 11 is the anti-Eden image. The tower of Babel is where humans force shalom on a community of people attempting to use the resources of God’s created place to construct their own kingdom-tower and ascend to the heavens for their own glory. Humans had abandoned God’s powerful rule in favor of ruling over themselves.

Question: In what areas of your life are still attempting to make a name for yourself on your own throne rather than trusting God? What are the distinctions between the Tower of Babel and the story of Abraham that you see?

Abraham and His Family: Abraham is called to have faith in God’s promises. Abraham’s simple act of trust in the rule of God was enough for God to bestow upon him the quality of righteousness. Amidst the chaos caused by Abraham’s serpent-like family, God continues to orchestrate events on a cosmic scale and the gospel of the kingdom begins to slowly break through Abraham and his family.

Question: In what ways do you envision your faith being used to further God’s kingdom? Answer this by addressing the framework of God’s rule, over God’s people, in God’s space! What are some of the obstacles that hold you back from this vision?

Read More
Week 3 3Crosses Church Week 3 3Crosses Church

4. Abraham and His Descendants

Day 4 • Week 3

Week 3 • Day 4

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” - Genesis 12:1–3

In the midst of the prideful generation at the Tower of Babel, Abraham (who used to be called Abram) was called out by God to be the father of a humble and God-centered family of people. Oddly enough, Abraham was childless and past the age where he could have reasonably expected to have an heir to carry on his name, let alone become a “great nation” that would influence the world. He had very little way to build up for himself any kind of kingdom on earth.

Despite all of this, God announces these promises for Abraham and asks him to have faith in an unknown plan. Amidst the chaos caused by the serpent kingdom, God continues to orchestrate events on a cosmic scale and the gospel of the kingdom begins to slowly break through Abraham and his family.

Through Abraham, God promises to rescue His people from the fangs of the kingdom of the serpent in order to bless them as their true God!

Through Abraham, God promises to orchestrate all things to return His family to - “the land I will show you.”

Through Abraham, God promises to restore our image-bearing rule by making Abraham’s family a nation that would dispense blessing to all people!

Could Abraham be the serpent-crusher we have been looking for to reestablish God’s rule?

The sequence is completed with yet another story of an entire generation doing wicked things during their time.

GOD’S MERCY TOWARDS ABRAHAM

Just after Abraham makes a sacrifice to God to thank Him for their new relationship, Abraham decides it is “good” to leave the promised place to which God had led him in order to go to Egypt during a famine. In Egypt, Abraham decides that it is “good” to lie about his wife and endanger his family of people - namely His own wife Sarai. In the face of these “moment of truth” situations, Abraham rules according to his own knowledge of good and evil rather than trusting the good promises that God has made for him.

In all ways, unfortunately, Abraham remained under the ruling thumb of the serpent.

However, God routinely orchestrates the events of Abraham’s life according to His mercy in order to take steps in the direction of the gospel of the kingdom. First, in response to his sinful wanderings, God focuses on creating a way for Abraham and his family to remain in a safe place despite Abraham’s faults.

Genesis 13:14–17. “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”

When God speaks to Abraham in Genesis 15:1 (AMP) saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; Your reward [for obedience] shall be very great,” Abraham gets cheeky with God. Essentially, He responds with something to the effect of “What reward? Because what I really want is a child to be my heir, and all I’ve got now for an heir is my secretary.” God doesn’t get mad at Abraham’s forwardness, but instead gives him one of the most beautiful messages of reassurance in the Bible: the promise of his very own family of people through a biological son!

“This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he [Abram] believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. - Genesis 15:4-6

It was then Abraham’s simple act of trust in the rule of God that was enough for God to bestow upon him the quality of righteousness. In that moment, Abraham didn’t have to be perfect, or sinless, or win a battle, or preach a sermon, he just had to surrender his own throne in favor of buying into God’s kingdom rule over the situation. He couldn’t have made himself right with God on his own merit as one who remained under the rule of the serpent. Rather, it was God who mercifully reached out to this broken man and offered a relationship, a family of people, a place to live, and a purpose he never could have earned by himself.

The story of the Bible oscillates between human sin in the kingdom of the serpent and God’s mercy in the kingdom of God.

OUR RESPONSE: FAITH AND TRUST!

From Abraham’s generation forward, things would be different! This time, God establishes a covenant promise with Himself to go through with the plans of the gospel of the kingdom via Abraham and his family. In the passages below, we find this mysteriously divine “us” taking an extraordinary form and making a promise to rule by providing for Abraham’s family.

As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram...When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.” - Genesis 15:12, 17–21

Like Adam, Noah, and the generations before him, God anticipates that Abraham would inevitably “fall asleep at the wheel” of faith. So God begins to slowly work out the gospel of the kingdom through Abraham not because of any internal, Abraham-ish quality, but because the divine “us” uses His powerful rule to take initiative in the relationship. God calls Abraham, squares his rap sheet, and chooses to lead his family of people into the place of promise. In this Abrahamic covenant, God decides within Himself to maintain this promise for however long

it would take knowing that this was going to be a serpent-like family.

GOD’S MERCY TOWARDS ABRAHAM AND HIS FAMILY

If the serpent-kingdom pattern remains true, then we should expect to see the steady downfall of Abraham. Consider how Abraham’s life follows a pattern we have already seen..

 

Yet in every case of Abraham’s life, God would remain true to His covenant. After being sexually abused then sent away into the desert, God appears to Hagar, soothes her fears, and promises that even Abraham’s illegitimate family was known and He had a plan to help them. Hagar’s sentiment after experiencing God is so beautiful:

Genesis 16:13 “I have now seen the One who sees me.”

In the same way, God would intervene to protect Sarai from the multiple lies of Abraham and rescue Lot from the serpent’s kingdom-city that had developed around Lot’s family. Surely, God would be faithful to choose someone from his family to be this faithful serpent-crusher!

But if not Abraham, then who? That is what makes the next story so shocking.

OUR RESPONSE: FAITH AND TRUST!

Abraham eventually received the heir he longed for, so he learned to faithfully follow God’s

instructions, even if it meant offering the same promised son to be sacrificed on an altar.

“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” - Genesis 22:2

 

WHAT A DISTURBING PASSAGE OF SCRIPTURE! Yet, we have seen that God’s plans were consistently being twisted toward the glory of the self over and over again. Therefore, God saw fit to use this time to see if Abraham was following God to glorify the King of Kings or if Abraham wanted this son only to lift his own family legacy high. As a result of Abraham’s faithfulness in this ultimate test of faith, we receive one of the most powerful pictures of the gospel of the kingdom momentarily revealing itself! Thankfully, the Angel of the Lord stops Abraham and provides a substitute sacrifice to die in the place of Isaac.

But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” - Genesis 22:11–14

The imagery of this Mt. Moriah scene is stunning!

  • Abraham - the father of many nations - has a faith in God so strong that he is willing to offer the promised son of blessing as a sacrifice!

  • Isaac - the promised son of Abraham - remains obedient to death and is brought from sure death to life!

  • God’s chosen family is able to continue because of the sacrifice that God provides!

In this moment, Abraham decides to take the heavenly perspective and radically trust in the Lord’s rule over his life. Thousands of years later, we are still pondering this shocking and exemplary story of faith! Our minds still cannot comprehend a father who is willing to sacrifice his beloved son. We still wonder why Isaac was such a willing participant in laying down his life on the altar in complete obedience to his father. Why does God test anyone like this and is there a scenario in which God would ever let someone go through with this kind of act?

The reality is that there are more questions than answers surrounding this passage. However, the pattern of the Bible tells us that when God’s servants remain faithful, the gospel of the kingdom begins to break through. Perhaps the invitation is to anticipate a moment in which a father rules by faithfully offering his own son as a sacrifice. Perhaps we are given an even clearer picture of the serpent-crusher; the promised offspring of Abraham who would remain faithful even to the point of death. Perhaps this scene shows us the sacrificial means by which God’s family of people would be saved! Perhaps something significant will happen later on a mountaintop located in the place of Moriah!

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. - Hebrews 11:17–19

As we eagerly anticipate the fullness of the gospel of the kingdom, our journey moves on from Abraham (who has already fallen to the serpent) onto this child of promise named Isaac as the next “serpent-crushing” candidate. Could this young man - who remained faithful to his own death - grow up to be the serpent crusher that we have been waiting for?

GOD’S MERCY TOWARDS ABRAHAM AND HIS FAMILY

Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines. Isaac settled in Gerar. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance. - Genesis 26:1,6–7

Isaac’s serpent-like decisions precisely match Abraham’s lies threatening the safety of his wife. As the son imitates the sins of his father and bows the knee to the serpent, would we once again see this ugly spiral into sin? If so, in the same way Adam and Eve’s pair of children (Cain and Abel) experience strife, and Noah’s son acts wickedly (Ham), we should expect Genesis to introduce us to a similar story of hostility involving siblings.

 

Right on cue, Genesis introduces us to Isaac’s pair of twin children named Jacob and Esau. Per the kingdom of the serpent, Jacob schemes to cheat Esau out of the family blessing leading to a long period of hostility. However, instead of this event leading to murder, war, or any other serpent-like reaction, Jacob escapes the situation and God mercifully meets him in a dream.

Behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” - Genesis 28:12–15.

God does not only spare Jacob (whose name was changed to Israel after “wrestling with God”), He reaffirms His covenant promises, He works behind the scenes to reconcile Jacob’s relationship with Esau, and He blesses Israel with 12 sons. At the moment you would expect war and disharmony to break out, the Bible shocks us with a scene of beautiful reconciliation.

And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two female servants. And he put the servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. - Genesis 33:1–4

If you are keeping score at home, you should now expect to see a story about the troubles and complications of existing in a world in which people are slowly multiplying.

 

Abraham’s great-grandson named Joseph, was terribly mistreated by his large family of 11 brothers. The scriptures remind us, however, that God was with Joseph the whole time; even when he was in a pit left to die, accused of sexual misconduct, sold into slavery, and thrown into prison. Since God was working behind the scenes, Joseph’s enslavement slowly transformed

into a situation of respect. What seemed like steps backward to our eyes became the very means by which God raises up Joseph from the pit of death to the #2 leader in all of Egypt!

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.” - Genesis 41:39–40

Under the faithful rule of Jacob, Egypt becomes a place of abundance and blessing that provides for the family of people all across the world during a period of famine. Through Jacob’s rule, the gospel of the kingdom breaks through once again turning the desert land of Egypt into a space which taps into the Garden river of life and blessing that flows out of Eden and to the nations!

OUR RESPONSE: FAITH AND TRUST!

Yes, the pattern of the serpent continues forward through the serpent-like family of Abraham. At the same time, God has committed Himself to working through the sinful actions of this family in mighty ways! The summary of the Genesis story can be found in the passage below:

Genesis 50:20 “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives”

In Genesis 50, Joseph is forgiving his 11 brothers (yeah, those guys that sold him into slavery and started a whole chain reaction of terrible life events for Joseph). Joseph explains how the free-will decisions of humans in this life couldn’t stand against the outcome that God had planned for His kingdom. God can do anything, even use awful things to bring about His powerful rule over His family people in His kingdom place !

God rules over all things and always provides!

But when we look at the story of Genesis up to this point, we discover a family of people whose hostility continues to increase, located in a foreign kingdom place called Egypt under the foreign rule of Pharaoh. In the midst of God’s work, the serpent still roams free. While we have seen glimpses of the gospel of the kingdom seeping through the stories of Genesis, God has yet to provide the one who would crush the serpent.

Instead, all of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve remained “strapped to the altar” of the serpent. Death awaits us unless our Heavenly Father stops the knife of judgment that will destroy us. Will God provide a substitute that can bring us out from the pit of certain death?

It wasn’t Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or Joseph. But we are given more information about the one we ought to be looking for from the tribe of Judah (1 of Israel’s 12 sons with a troubled serpent-like history, yet the one who was willing to sacrifice himself so that his brother Benjamin might live).

The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his. - Genesis 49:10

Could this descendant from Judah destined to take a king’s scepter be the king who would crush the serpent and - like Joseph - escape the pit of death to make his way to the throne of glory? As you can tell from our chart below, our story is far from over!

 

Share the Gospel: Abraham is called to have faith in God’s promises. Abraham’s simple act of trust in the rule of God was enough for God to bestow upon him the quality of righteousness. Amidst the chaos caused by Abraham’s serpent-like family, God continues to orchestrate events on a cosmic scale and the gospel of the kingdom begins to slowly break through Abraham and his family.

Read More
Week 3 3Crosses Church Week 3 3Crosses Church

3. Humans Take the Throne

Day 3 • Week 3

Week 3 • Day 3

In many ways, the patterns we have seen in the story of Adam and Eve as well as their descendants reads very similar under the kingdom of the serpent. It all starts with a small act of succumbing to the kingdom of the serpent. With Adam and Eve, it was a bite of the forbidden fruit. In Noah’s case, it was over-indulging in the “fruit” of the vine and getting drunk. Next, this simple act of disobedience escalates into Cain’s murder of Abel. In the same way, the story of Noah continues by looking at the actions of his sons to see what they would do.

 

Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” - Genesis 9:20–25

Sure enough, Ham escalates sin by engaging in a rather lewd act considering that the phrase “saw the nakedness of the father” is thought to be a euphemism for something sexual with Noah’s wife, or his own mom. The serpent kingdom continues to advance and innovate in its wickedness as humans take their own thrones from generation to generation.

Earlier in Genesis, Cain’s story moves from his egregious sin to him multiplying and building his own kingdom-city in which humans progress in both technological innovations and serpent-like innovations (think Lamech). In the same way, the Bible takes us on a journey to see what would happen to Ham as his descendants multiply rapidly.

 

The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.” The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. - Genesis 10:6–12.

Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth, and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the clans of the Canaanites dispersed. - Genesis 10:15–18.

Ham’s descendants develop into multiple kingdom-cities that spread across the world and grow into kingdom-nations recorded in Genesis 10. Remember, God’s kingdom place was designed so that the 4-fold river in Eden would provide life for these very nations! Now, the exact same kingdom-nations which descended from Ham, flow through the line of Canaan, and built by Nimrod would quickly become filled with enemy combatants in the serpent kingdom.

With the first Adam, the story moved from his own sin, to Cain’s murder of Abel, to the development of Lamech’s sin in Cain’s kingdom-city, then to an entire generation of wicked people during Noah’s time. In the same way, Noah’s story (a second iteration of Adam) flows from his own sin, to Ham’s lewd sexual act, and to the development of enemy kingdom-nations of Nimrod and Canaan.

 

The sequence is completed with yet another story of an entire generation doing wicked things during their time.

THE SERPENT KINGDOM REALIZED

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” - Genesis 11:1-4

From the beginning, God’s kingdom family of image-bearing people have been designed to be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth by working and keeping creation. We see evidence of humanity doing exactly this with the latest technological advancement made with the raw materials of God’s kingdom place: brick and mortar. Then, as humanity multiplied, these kingdom people were destined to co-exist, co-labor, and co-operate together to further the human project. This is what image-bearers were designed to do!

In order to achieve this kingdom cooperation, Genesis 11 informs us that there was one language amongst all the people of the land. Could you imagine a world in which everyone spoke one language? All the words meant exactly what they meant, everyone understood what was being said, and all mankind shared the same experiences with each other. The Lord knew what His people could do with one language: build a kingdom! In fact, this specific building project would only be the beginning of what they could do. The scripture tells us that they would be able to do anything they proposed in this kingdom-city.

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. - Genesis 11:5-6

And so with the rule and authority that had been given to them by God, these kingdom people - just a few generations away from the Garden but with clarity in one language - used the latest technological advancement in God’s kingdom place and did everything they could to get back to that perfect place, the center of which was God’s kingdom rule. Isn’t that what we all want? What’s missing from the story? Why wouldn’t God allow this and where is God in this story?

After this week’s readings, we now know that there is one more additional experience introduced to humanity: sin. And we have already seen that the consequences of building a kingdom in the name of the serpent as opposed to the name of God can be catastrophic.

The truth in the language of the Bible is that there was no mention of these people ever looking to return to God’s kingdom, only the people wanting to get to the heavens and make a name for their own human kingdom. Instead of God’s people multiplying and “filling the earth” to spread God’s glory throughout His kingdom place, the tower of Babel marks the human attempt to stay put in one centralized location, build their own kingdom place, and sit on their own thrones.

It may have seemed nice that there was one common language and use of “the same words”, but this could equally be interpreted as those with powerful ruling positions dictating language and determining what others could and could not believe. Everyone, under the rule of the serpent, saw fit to believe the same things which motivated them to build a name for themselves instead of honor God. The Tower of Babel is like the anti-Eden. Here, we see the forced shalom of one family of people attempting to use the resources of God’s created place to construct their own kingdom-tower and ascend to the heavens in their own glory. Humans had abandoned God’s powerful rule to rule over themselves.

When Noah’s generation escalated to this level of rebellion, God allowed the chaos waters to flood the earth. Since the Tower of Babel is the imagery the Bible uses to show us the completed elevation of man’s own kingdom once again, how would God respond?

GOD’S RESPONSE: THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. From there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth. - Genesis 11:5-10

At this moment of complete rebellion, God responded with His mercy once more! The divine “us” comes down to protect humans from themselves in this state of being. Just like God prevented Adam and Eve from eating of the tree of life in their sinful state, God keeps this generation from doing anything and everything that they wanted apart from Him. He knew that their own knowledge of good and evil will inevitably lead to disaster. Therefore, he scatters their language and forces His image-bearers to fill the earth.

I can’t help but reflect on the fact that God’s word translates to my own sinful actions. Genesis 11 shows us how we all need a posture of humility in order to put God’s kingdom agenda ahead of our own serpent-like plans. Yet so often we fail. Over the past 3 days, as we have looked at Genesis 3-11, I see the Bible shouting to me that I too have inherited the sinful nature of Adam and Eve and that the kingdom of Satan has a grip on my heart in so many ways. Yet I pray that we can also find a growing desire to see the gospel of the kingdom fully realized: that there is hope that God would be merciful upon us and that one day the serpent will be destroyed.

GOD’S RESPONSE: THE SERPENT-CRUSHER?

In the flood generation, God singles out Noah and decides to work through him due to his faith. As a result, we saw glimpses of the gospel of the kingdom. This should leave us to wonder - at the Tower of Babel would God be able to find anyone that is righteous like Noah? Is there still hope that someone would come and finally crush the serpent?

 

Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.

Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran. - Genesis 11:27–32

The end of chapter 11 focuses on a genealogy that leads to a man named Abram. This genealogy shows God’s powerful rule over everything that has happened so far. As you see how Shem lived 500 years and fathered children who fathered children and on and on, it brings to life that all throughout the escalation of humanity’s sin, God still continues to orchestrate all things together! The early chapters of Genesis grows our desire to see the gospel of the kingdom fully realized including the demise of the serpent along with the rescue, return, restoration, and reestablishment of all things! Our attention now shifts to the next candidate to become this “serpent crusher” - Abram!

Share the Gospel: The pattern of the serpent kingdom is rather predictable. Genesis 11 is the anti-Eden image. The tower of Babel is where humans force shalom on a community of people attempting to use the resources of God’s created place to construct their own kingdom-tower and ascend to the heavens for their own glory. Humans had abandoned God’s powerful rule in favor of ruling over themselves.

Read More
Week 3 3Crosses Church Week 3 3Crosses Church

2. The Effects of the Serpent Kingdom

Day 2 • Week 3

Week 3 • Day 2

Ever since our human parents bowed their knee to the kingdom of the serpent, sin (or the disposition towards rebellion) has become a part of our fallen human story. The fangs of sin have sunk deep into all of our human hearts. We, like Adam and Eve, have consciously decided to bend the knee to the serpent’s rule. We, like Adam and Eve, are formed from the same dust of the ground that was cursed in Genesis 3.

And yet yesterday, we read that there is still hope in the Lord’s mercy even though humanity remains gripped by the fangs of the serpent and his kingdom!

There is hope that one day, God will rescue His kingdom family of people.
There is hope that one day, God will return His family back into His kingdom place.
There is hope that one day, God will restore our delegated rule once more.
There is hope that one day, the serpent-crusher will come and reestablish God’s powerful rule and God’s kingdom over all!

Today, we look at a section of passages that follow Genesis 1-3 to watch for how this gospel of the kingdom plays out. Would we see this gospel rescue, return, restoration, and reestablishment soon? Would the immediate offspring of Eve become the prophesied serpent-crusher? If not, what happens when humans continue to do what they were designed to do but in the name of the serpent kingdom? How is God going to respond as the ruler of all things?

THE SERPENT’S RULE OVER GOD’S PEOPLE AND PLACE

Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. - Genesis 4:2-5

Humans didn’t stop being fruitful, multiplying, and ruling the earth by working and keeping it. This is what image-bearers were created to do! However, the kingdom of the serpent introduced sin into the equation. One generation past Adam and Eve, Genesis 4 reveals the first major consequences of humans doing what they do in the name of the serpent kingdom: disharmony and hostility within God’s image-bearing kingdom family of people. While the reason is not explicitly stated, Cain’s offering is traditionally thought to be rejected for not being the “first” and “fat” portion. In other words, Cain doesn’t trust that God’s kingdom place would provide for his needs. Therefore, Cain comes to the understanding - according to his own rule - that it is “good” for him to reserve his resources and “bad” for him to offer the prime cut of his possessions.

Cain spoke to Abel, his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. - Genesis 4:8, 10

Needless to say, Cain was not the promised “serpent-crusher” and Abel did not live long enough for us to find out. Instead, it only took one generation of human image-bearers for things to turn radically sideways. Abel’s death was not because of something he did wrong, but because the rule of sin in Cain’s life. The entire saga shows that as sin grows and develops, its ultimate end is in fact death. The serpent was at work in the world immediately, sin escalated over the course of one generation, and the stench of death continues to pollute God’s kingdom place on earth as the shed blood of God’s people “cries out from the ground”.

And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. - Genesis 4:15–17

In His sovereign mercy, God winds up providing a mark of protection for Cain who moves “east of Eden'' where he multiplies and instinctively forms his own kingdom-city place. In this manufactured city, image-bearers continue to progress by becoming tent-dwellers to “keep” their multiplying livestock, by inventing “instruments of bronze and iron” to “work” the earth, and by developing music for their enjoyment. Image-bearers are in fact rearranging the raw materials of God’s place so that humans would flourish. That’s what image-bearers were designed to do! However, civilization is also advancing and innovating in the name of the kingdom of the serpent.

Genesis 4:19-22, 24 And Lamech took two wives The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron.

...Lamech said to his wives: Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.

Lamech was Cain's great-great-great-grandson. Now, five generations have passed and the effects of sin have grown to a point where Lamech not only escalates the abuse of God’s image-bearing people, but he decides that it is “good” to boast about doing so. This pattern is the same for sin in the world today. Sin only grows as time goes on and our knowledge of good and evil progressive drifts further and further away from God’s objective standards. It started with disobedience and now has increased to include murder, hate, abuse, jealousy...the list goes on and on.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them. - Genesis 6:5-7

Instead of a kingdom family of people who would submit to God’s rule and spread God’s glory throughout God’s place, God sees a kingdom of people who willfully have chosen to submit to the rule of the serpent spreading sin by manipulating God’s created place for their own human glory. God knew that as sin continued to grow unchecked, it would inevitably lead to more organized chaos and bloodshed in this human manufactured kingdom. This new reality grieves God because sin has moved His image-bearers further and further “east” of a righteous relationship with Him. In His justified anguish, God possessed every right to “speed up” the inevitable by removing His creative hand from the reigns of creation and allowing the chaos waters to “decreate” the serpent kingdom.

Could there possibly be hope in a worldwide all-consuming flood?

GOD’S RESPONSE: THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM

Gen. 6:8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord...Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.

In His mercy, God decides to rescue the human race. Even though humans are sinning everywhere under the influential power of the serpent, there was still one who remembered God and His kingdom. Genesis tells us that in his generation, Noah was a righteous person who followed God’s rule and “walked with God” just as Adam and Eve once walked in relationship with God. In the midst of the serpent’s rule, the gospel of the kingdom would break through ever-so-slightly in the person of Noah!

Hebrews 11:4, 7 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

...By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Today, this is why faith is the distinguishing factor between those in the kingdom of God and those in the kingdom of the serpent. We are saved by trusting in God’s knowledge of good and evil for us even though we may not see where it leads or it doesn’t make sense. Our faith in God doesn’t necessarily mean more success, more money, more fame, etc. Like Abel, it could result in devastation.

By faith, Noah and Abel stepped off of their own throne given to them by the kingdom of the serpent and placed their trust in God’s rule to lead them!

Ultimately, the kingdom story is about who you trust! Will you trust in what God says is good no matter the challenges or setbacks?

Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks...

And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive...

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.”- Genesis 6:16, 19-22; 7:2-4

Eventually, God would allow the chaos waters to flood the earth and wipe out the enemy combatants who had pledged their allegiance to the serpent kingdom. However, God mercifully spares His faithful servant Noah looking for a new start of God’s kingdom family of people.

Catch this! He calls Noah to build an ark that has 3-tiers, to include all living things - birds and animals according to their kind - both male and female. Then, there is a conversation to look for sets of seven. The imagery is clear: Noah was called to construct an ark and return to a garden-like 3-tiered kingdom place to shield him from the destruction of the kingdom of the serpent! In the midst of a sinful generation, the gospel of the kingdom was breaking through!

GOD’S RESPONSE: THE SERPENT-CRUSHER?

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth...I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” - Genesis 8:20-9:1, 11

The story of Noah introduces us to a key pattern of the Bible. In the midst of a world of sinners, God singles out the one person who remains faithful towards His kingdom. God then showers His blessings on this person and sets the gospel of the kingdom of rescue, return, restoration, and reestablishment in motion through them.

It was the faith of one person, in a world of sin, that proved to God there is still hope for humanity in this world.

The only piece missing here is the serpent-crusher! Could Noah be the humble servant of God who would remain entirely loyal to the kingdom of God and overcome the power of the serpent? Since we see the same “be fruitful and multiply,” command, could Noah be the “new Adam” who would rescue God’s kingdom people, return them to His place, restore their delegated rule, and reestablish His powerful rule in their lives? Could Noah be the central figure around whom the gospel of the kingdom revolves and is completed?

Unfortunately, just like all other descendants of Adam and Eve up to this point of the story, Noah is still marked by the kingdom of the serpent. In fact, Noah sins immediately after God miraculously protects him and makes a new promise with him.

Genesis 9:20-21 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.

Until we meet the real serpent-crusher, we learn an important truth about the gospel of the kingdom when it breaks through in the lives of people like Cain, Abel, Lamech, and Noah. While we as descendants of Adam and Eve attempt to live a life of righteousness that glorifies God, we will soon come to realize that the serpent’s fangs have bitten all of our hearts. Knowing this reality should help us relate to the suffering and hardship of others. We are not above anyone, but when we properly understand the kingdom of the serpent and that all people are marked by sin, we should begin to feel compassion for those who are lost.

The gospel of the kingdom tells us that there is hope coming for us who are completely lost to be rescued, returned, and restored. The gospel of the kingdom depends upon the one who will remain completely loyal to God’s kingdom rule, crush the serpent, and reestablish God’s rule over all things. Until this person arrives, the clash between the kingdom of serpent and the kingdom of God is far from over. How would God accomplish all of this and who would be this faithful servant that would crush the serpent and reestablish God’s rule?

Share the Gospel: In the midst of a world of sinners, there was one person who God found to be faithful towards His kingdom rule. For the first time, we see the gospel of the kingdom begin to break through as a result of Noah’s faithful actions. Unfortunately, Noah could not overcome the kingdom of the serpent. Who will be the “new Adam” who will crush the serpent and rescue, return, and restore God’s kingdom?

Read More
Week 3 3Crosses Church Week 3 3Crosses Church

1. The Kingdom Lost

Day 1 • Week 3

Week 3 • Day 1

Last week, we learned how God used His powerful rule to create a kingdom place (the cosmic temple), so that His kingdom people (human image-bearers) would flourish. Then we explored how God delegated His rule so that as God’s kingdom people multiplied, they would learn how to “work and keep” the garden in a shalom relationship with God and one another. This calling gave human image-bearers tremendous purpose. Each kingdom endeavor done in the name of God brought glory to the King of Kings!

However, with great power - the ability to rule on God’s behalf - came great responsibility! In the garden, Adam and Eve were faced with a choice. Would our human parents trust the rule of God the Father and the ways of His kingdom or would they succumb to the rule of the serpent?

Unfortunately, they both chose to submit to the kingdom of the serpent. They broke God’s healthy boundaries, “touched the stove”, and were forever scarred by their actions. This week, we will begin to explore the ramifications of God’s image-bearers bending their knee to the kingdom of the serpent.

THE SERPENT KINGDOM AND GOD’S RULE

In the creation narrative, we learned that God delegates His rule to humans. In response to this kingdom truth, humans and the creation bring glory to God in these 2 ways:

  • God’s people are designed to listen and obey the truth of God’s kingdom rule.

  • The center of God’s kingdom place is true eternal life and the true knowledge of good and evil.

...but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. - Genesis 2:17

In the garden, the forbidden fruit came from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. At this point, the one ruler who had been prescribing the label of “very good” (creation) and “not good” (for man to be alone) was God Himself. Instead of trusting God to lead them toward what was good, Adam and Eve grasped for a kingly role that was strictly meant for God. In other words, the man and the woman wanted to sit on their own thrones and follow their own rules apart from God.

In the serpent kingdom, humans follow their own knowledge of good and evil.

When you look around the world, you may have observed that when we rule according to our own human understanding of good and evil, our manufactured kingdoms tend to crumble rather quickly. As humans multiply, whose knowledge of good and evil is accepted and rises to the top? How do we know which understanding of good and evil is the true and correct understanding? How do we know if our own interpretations of what is good and what is bad won’t be influenced by peer pressure or the latest cultural fad? Without our objectively good and true King in the position of final authority and rule, things quickly descend back into chaos.

THE SERPENT KINGDOM AND GOD’S PEOPLE

In the creation narrative, we also learned that God rules by forming and filling His creation. In response to this kingdom truth, humans and creation bring glory to God in these 2 ways:

  • God’s people are designed to multiply and love one another.

  • God’s kingdom place was meant to extend God’s blessings to all nations.

Humans were commanded to be fruitful and multiply so that God’s people would continue to increase and His glory would spread to the ends of the earth. Now, under the rule of the serpent kingdom, the process of “multiplying” (childbirth and raising children) has become a painful, and sometimes life-threatening, experience.

To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. - Genesis 3:16a

These multiplying image-bearers were meant to cooperate and express their ruling authority over the earth so that we all could partner with God and watch His glory spread across His place. In the serpent kingdom, instead of using their rule over creation, humanity would now express their powerful rule over one another creating disharmony and hostility. God says to the woman:

Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you. - Genesis 3:16b

This week, we will see how this disharmony and hostility will routinely spiral out of control and spread the effects of the kingdom of the serpent all over the world.

THE SERPENT KINGDOM AND GOD’S PLACE

In the creation narrative, we learned that God rules by creating. In response to this kingdom truth, humans and creation bring glory to God in these 2 ways:

  • God’s people are designed to create and contribute to the kingdom on His behalf.

  • God’s kingdom place provided the materials needed for people to create for the glory of God.

In God’s kingdom place, humanity was meant to harvest earth’s plentiful natural resources. The design of creation was to facilitate the fruitfulness and flourishing of God’s image bearers. Here is God’s new description of His kingdom place as a result of humans bending the knee to the kingdom of the serpent:

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. - Genesis 3:17-18

God designed humans to create and contribute in His kingdom place as an endeavor that would yield tremendous blessing. Instead, God curses the ground and human work is met with resistance, pain, toil, and eventually death.

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. - Genesis 3:19

Here is the point...
Adam and Eve - our human parents - abused God’s rule delegated to them by completely abandoning His kingdom rule, by bending the knee to the serpent, and by crowning themselves on their own thrones.

In response, humans have become a people that will multiply in disharmony and hostility toward one another, extending the kingdom of the serpent across the world.

In response, God’s place has become incredibly resistant to the human effort to work and keep it as we toil to bring our own glory, but ultimately bring our deaths.

It’s at this point that many doubts about Christianity arise. “If there is a God who is in control of all things, why didn’t He stop humans from choosing sin? Did He create humans to fail and does that mean He really does not love us at all? Did He know we would experience pain and suffering throughout the world and do nothing about it?” These questions typically come up because we, as descendants of Eve, the mother of all living, can all relate to this bleak existence described in Genesis 3. It is the human experience for you and for me so long as we live in this world that has been affected by the kingdom of the serpent. While peering into the mind of God may be difficult, a much greater question is whether or not there is any hope to be found? Will God do something about this or does He delight in watching the human project fail?

GOD’S RESPONSE: THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM

In the opening verses of the creation narrative, we learned that God rules over all things! In response to this kingdom truth, humans and creation bring glory to God in these 2 ways:

  • God’s people are designed to love God and walk with Him as our Heavenly Father.

  • The Bible is all about the Lord establishing His kingdom place of residence with His people wherever they go.

Humanity abandoned their part in the relationship, yet God remains merciful!

Did you ever notice how God never directly curses the man or the woman? Even though God had every right to eternally curse humanity for choosing to follow the rule of the serpent, God chooses to forever curse the ground instead. God’s mercy towards our first human parents keeps the door slightly opened to His image-bearers for a rescue! Could it be that one day, humans could be brought out from the serpent kingdom and brought back into His kingdom family in order to walk with God in a loving relationship again? There is a glimmer of hope!

Additionally, it would have been easy for God to stop the entire creation project at this tragic fall within His kingdom place. Yet at the end of the chapter, God shows His mercy by merely cutting humans off from the Garden of Eden and access to the tree of life. So why is this merciful? God recognized that if Adam and Eve were to eat from the tree of life, they would live forever under the rule of sin. Yes, the exile from the Garden place serves as God’s punishment, but it also serves God’s mercy signaling that humans might one day return back to His kingdom place free from their choice to submit to the serpent. This too is a slight glimmer of hope!

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. - Genesis 3:22-24

Yet it still seems like this serpent needs to be dealt with once and for all lest the next generation of humans succumb to his kingdom rule.

In the immediate micro-context, God physically provides Adam and Eve with the skin of a killed (or “sacrificed”) animal to cover the guilt of their actions and their deep sense of shame that resulted. In this scene, God rules by creating - He creates a way to cover His image-bearers, pursue humanity, and meet them in their brokenness. He creates a way to restore His fallen image-bearers even in the midst of their own sin.

Genesis 3:20a And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

In the futuristic macro-context, God demonstrates the power of His rule over all things by cursing the serpent and then forming and filling a plan that was designed to crush the serpent and his kingdom rule. Genesis 3 contains what is called the protoeuangelion, or the “first gospel” promise! In this first iteration of the gospel message, God reveals His plan to delegate His rule to a specific image-bearing offspring of Eve so that this special “serpent-crushing” human would defeat the serpent kingdom once and for all. From the very beginning, God sets in motion the gospel plan to destroy the enemy and reestablish His own kingdom rule over all things! Pay attention to the mutual destruction of the one who will defeat the serpent.

Genesis 3:14-15 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

There is hope that one day, God will rescue His kingdom family of people.
There is hope that one day, God will return His family back into His kingdom place.
There is hope that one day, God will restore our delegated rule as image-bearers once more.

There is hope that one day, the serpent-crusher will come and reestablish God’s powerful rule and God’s kingdom over all!

Genesis 3 is unique in its acceptance of the difficult human experience of life under the kingdom of the serpent. It also explains the cause, the purpose, and the results of sin. While we may not have all the answers to explain God’s will behind the origin of sin and the serpent, we can find hope in Genesis 3 as it points us to the one thing that will give us the God-given strength we need to persevere in the midst of our current reality of sin and suffering all around us. There is hope in the good news of God’s mercy and in the one who would come to crush the serpent while allowing the serpent to bite his heel!

With the hope of God’s kingdom in mind, we now watch as the gospel of the kingdom unfolds! How would God actually pull off this rescue, return, restoration, and reestablishment in a world full of sinners?

Share the Gospel: Genesis 3 is unique in its acceptance of the difficult human experience of life under the kingdom of the serpent. It also explains the cause, the purpose, and the results of sin. While we may not have all the answers to explain God’s will behind the origin of sin and the serpent, we can find hope in Genesis 3 as it points us to the one thing that will give us the God-given strength we need to persevere in the midst of our current reality of sin and suffering all around us. There is hope in the good news of God’s mercy and in the one who would come to crush the serpent while allowing the serpent to bite his heel!

Read More