In this enlightening discussion, we explore the profound symbolism of trees within the Biblical narrative from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to the Tree of Life. Our hosts delve into the curses pronounced in Genesis 3:15, and how they pave the way for redemption and new life. They also touch on the significance of Adam and Eve’s understanding of God’s promise—offering a beacon of hope that stretches all the way through to the New Earth described in Revelation.
The following is a listener-supported ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society. Hello, welcome to Grace in Focus. This week we are continuing a short series that we started last week about the Messianic thread, this theme that runs through the pages of Scripture. And today we’re looking at how it expands and develops through those pages of Revelation. Thank you for joining us. This is a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. And you can learn more about the Grace Evangelical Society by going to our website, faithalone.org. There you will find information about our conference ministry, about our online seminary where you can earn an MDiv degree, our free subscription magazine also called Grace in Focus, and our blogs. We produce blogs daily, and you can subscribe to them right through this website, faithalone.org. That’s faithalone.org. Now today, continuing our discussion about the Messianic Thread, here are Bob Wilkin and Philippe Sterling.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, Philippe, this time we were going to talk about the starting and ending points of the Messianic thread in the Old Testament. Now, we’ve already mentioned it goes from Genesis to Malachi, but we really haven’t gone into detail. You mentioned Genesis 3.15. Maybe we could take more look at that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. The starting point, of course, is what happened in the Garden of Eden. And the fact that Yahweh was personally in fellowship with Adam and Eve. And then, of course, I was disrupted by the temptation to sin.
SPEAKER 03 :
More than the temptation, but giving into it.
SPEAKER 02 :
The sin, followed by the sin. But yet, you know, there’s consequences and the curse and the physical death that will occur. And, of course, the disruption, the spiritual death, in essence, that also occurred there.
SPEAKER 03 :
And by the way, let me mention a quick thing on the spiritual death. I have a unique view here. I’ll see what you think of it. Yes. My view is that prior to them sinning, they didn’t have everlasting life, but they didn’t need everlasting life. They had a relationship with God kind of like the unfallen angels have a relationship with God. The unfallen angels don’t have everlasting life. And neither did Adam and Eve. But Christ hadn’t died for them. And everlasting life is for sinners who are the benefits of Christ’s shed blood and who believe in him for their salvation, for their everlasting life. But so my view is when they. sinned, they began the death process physically, took 930 years for Adam, but ultimately he began decaying and he began aging and he began dying. And in terms of spiritually speaking, he was spiritually dead. And that now became significant because he was a sinner. If he had not been a sinner, it wouldn’t have mattered that he didn’t have everlasting life because he didn’t need everlasting life. But once he’s a sinner, now the fact that he has everlasting life means that he’s what Paul calls in Ephesians 2, dead.
SPEAKER 02 :
He was dead in sins and trespasses and needed life. Right. The life that Paul goes on to talk about. Yeah, in verse 5 of Ephesians 2. Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
And so my view is, yeah, in a sense, they died spiritually, but in a sense, they didn’t. In a sense, they were already spiritually without eternal life, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that if they didn’t sin, they were going to, at some point, God would cut off their ability to sin. He would stop that. Yeah. And eventually what would have happened is they would have been fruitful, they would have been multiplied, they would have filled the earth, and they would have fulfilled the creation mandate. Well, as a result of sin, now we get Revelation 20, 21, and 22, the millennial kingdom on a restored earth, and then the new earth. Anyway, I’ve gone on a big tangent, but do you agree with me on that?
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, absolutely. You know, that makes, again, that makes perfect sense, especially, again, we follow that thread concerning life, you know, from Genesis to Ephesians 2. And to 1 Corinthians 15. Oh, that’s a resurrection.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s another quick question. Do you buy this idea of the trees? You know, you’ve got the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which leads to the fall. You’ve got Jesus dying on a tree. Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. The tree of life coming back, of course, and it’s in the Garden of Eden. It comes back in the new earth. It’s going to be there. Now, of course, it’s for blessing and reward, but the two trees— So that image, the image of the tree, and they are actual trees, physical trees.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. They’re not just symbolic, figurative trees, but they are actual trees. But that theme of a tree, like you said, is part of the thread. It is part of the thread? Okay. That will carry it. All right. All right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, very good. Well, let’s go through 315 then. And by the way, there’s three curses. The serpent gets cursed. The woman gets cursed. And the man gets cursed.
SPEAKER 02 :
And the ground gets cursed. Which is part of the man’s curse. Part of the man’s curse. Yeah. By the sweat of his web and the curse. And that curse is only finally… We moved with the new heaven and the new earth. Right. Even though there’s a partial lifting of it, I think, in the millennial period. Right. But not until Revelation 22, I think, verse 3 or verse 5, it says there’s no more curse. Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
I like that. That’s very good. And so Genesis 3.15 says, is put within the context of the curse on the serpent, but it’s actually wonderful good news.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. Let me read it again. Here, Yahweh is speaking directly to the serpent. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, now this is a lot of symbolic language here.
SPEAKER 02 :
So what’s going on? Well, I’d like to focus on the last two statements. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. You shall bruise your head. Thanks speaks of the final victory of Christ over Satan, over sin, over death.
SPEAKER 03 :
And where is when was that victory? Where is that victory?
SPEAKER 02 :
Ultimately, it’s the cross to the cross and the resurrection. Even though the final victory over death and over Satan is yet to come.
SPEAKER 03 :
So it began with the cross. But it ultimately will find its way to the new earth.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. Because it’s on the new earth to finally, I think it’s Revelation 21, 4, where it says there is no more death. Right. But here in Genesis 3, 15, I see it encapsulated, and then we see it expanded as we go through following the thread all the way through the scripture.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
But here in Genesis 3.15, I see encapsulated, you know, and then we see it expanded as we go through following the thread all the way through the scripture. Both the victory of Jesus, that will, he shall bruise your head. His victory over Satan, over death and all. And you shall bruise his heel. He shall. Yeah, you shall bruise. Oh, you means the serpent. You says the serpent. And of course, we know the serpent is Satan, the devil of old. Revelation 12 makes that clear. But here’s his suffering. You shall bruise his heel. And that’s… That’s also the cross, isn’t it? That’s also what happens at the cross. And again, what’s described in Psalm 22. So here we have both the victory and yet the suffering. There, that’s when we had talked about earlier about 1 Peter 1, the suffering and the glory, you know, follow things that angels, you know, long to look into. But here at the starting point of the thread, we have the idea, both of you, Ultimately, we’ll talk a ruling Messiah and a suffering Messiah that is there. And then, of course, Malachi, the final matter, is that he shall come to his temple. And then both, I think, the first and second coming we see in Malachi 3 and other scripture. But beginning with Genesis 3.15, I don’t know if we can spend time on what even Eve, Adam and Eve, understood by this promise. And so we have to take into the context of the entire chapter, even what follows from there. While they’re still in the garden, what follows is,
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, by the way, a lot of people think, and I would agree, that Adam and Eve understood what he was talking about to the serpent, and that they were born again at this point.
SPEAKER 02 :
I think they believed and were regenerated, were born again. And indicators of that within the text here, what is Adam’s immediate response? We see that in verse 20. And Adam called his wife’s name Eve because she was the mother of all living. So why did the name change? He had named her earlier in Genesis 2. If you remember, he called her, and there’s a wordplay there, you know, Isha, woman, you know. And there’s a wordplay because she came out of man.
SPEAKER 03 :
But that would have been her name, Isha.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, that was her name. But now he changes her name. Verse 22 says, Life. Right. And it explains because she was the mother of all. Does Eve mean life? Yes. Yeah. Now, you do have to follow it from Hebrew, I think, into Latin and Greek, Latin and everything. But it’s kind of an etymology that is sometimes difficult to follow. But those who have followed it says it just means life. Right. So Adam calls her life. She’s the mother of all living. And in light of what was just preceded, I think it’s both a mother of all who live physically, but also ultimately, you know, the mother to the seed of all those who will live spiritually and have everlasting life. So I think that’s Adam’s understanding and why there’s a name change. And then we see what Yahweh does next. And this is all still in the garden itself. Also for Adam and his wife, the Lord God, this is Yahweh Elohim, made tunics of skin and clothed them. So tunics of skin meaning that a life was taken. Right. To provide this for them and to clothe them. And the idea of clothing still carries the idea of being able to be in fellowship, I think, with him. Yes. And no longer having to hide from him because somehow there’s shame and everything is covered by this animal clothing. Instead of fig leaves. Instead of fig leaves. So that happens. And then it’s after all that that they are taken out of the garden. They can no longer stay there in the cherubim or guard it. But then what is Eve’s understanding of the birth of Cain?
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. We’re going to hold that off for the next show because we’re out of time. But Genesis 4-1. It’s a very important verse. So y’all hang with us because we’re going there in the next episode. But in the meantime, let’s keep grace in focus.
SPEAKER 01 :
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