Hope is Born in Bethlehem
By John Dillon
“And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
Tensions are high in the Garden… something is different, not quite right. Adam and his wife have lived their entire lives in intimate fellowship with the creator. But now, they are hiding with an unusual feeling never experienced before. The ones created in God’s image are ashamed of their nakedness, afraid to be seen by the one who made them from the dust.
Something in God’s perfect creation has been broken, and they are the ones who broke it.
Confronted with a convicting question, Adam stubbles with his words. He looks to redirect the responsibility of this tragedy onto another; he points to Eve. The bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, the one God created to be Adam’s perfect helper is now his scapegoat.
And so, the brokenness of God’s perfect creation begins to spread.
It began with a rejection of God, a lack of trust in Him and His Word. An idea that their own knowledge and desire was more important, more fulfilling than God. And yet that simple act brought shame, a rejection of themselves; and now they begin to reject each other in blame.
This is not what God wanted for them. Things are progressing out of control. What is He to do?
Conventional wisdom says that God should have been done with man, should have rejected them back. And while God did remove Adam and Eve from His presence, expelling them from the Garden, He did not do so in rejection of man, but of sin. God’s holiness and justice cannot tolerate sin; it must be dealt with.
Man knowingly committed this egregious transgression in the most perfect and holy place, and thus judgement was necessary, but in the midst of judgment, God makes this promise:
“And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
Adam and Eve can’t believe it… They had experienced the most perfect and beautiful place ever created. They had the privilege of walking in the presence of the Holy God and partnering with Him to steward this perfect creation and they ruined it all. They deserved their punishment. But God is promising a way back. He has a solution. A way to be redeemed. A future hope.
From this point forward, all of creation was waiting in eager anticipation for the fulfillment of their hope. There was never a question on IF God would fulfill His promise, only WHEN. When would God end the brokenness that we propagated on His creation?
Finally, when the time was right, God sent forth His solution. The God of the universe, the one who created all things holy and perfect, the one who we rejected in the garden, and continue to reject through our daily sins. This God, lowered Himself and took on the form a man, born of a woman in Bethlehem, born with the intent to sacrifice Himself to fix the problem we created.
What kind of love would do something like this?
God’s love for us is so radical, He desired reconciliation with us so much that He was willing to solve the problem that our rejection of Him created. The penalty of sin has been dealt with, and Jesus promises that when He comes back, the remaining brokenness sin has caused will be addressed.
Christmas is God’s promise fulfilled. It is both the fulfillment of our hope, and the reason for it. Our redemption, our way back to the presence of God, the solution the problem of sin and our rejection. All of it, born on Christmas Day in Bethlehem.
