Seeking the Christ Child in Old Testament foreshadowings and prophecies can quickly drift from seeking Christ to seeking only things theological. And much has pressed on my heart, concerning this series so far – much that word count prevented including.
So today, connecting with On Your Heart Tuesdays, I’m following its direction to pause and reflect on my own recent posts. I doubt I’ll get past the first and keep this post a readable length. So I’ll share further reflections later – next Tuesday, maybe Five-Minute Friday, maybe even tomorrow. But for now…
(1) On Eve, and the painting:
The painting of which I showed a chunk is inaccurate. You can find several errors: Only
one angel oversees Eden’s entrance, and Genesis 3:24’s “cherubim” is plural. Eve and Adam are naked, and by then God had clothed them in animal skins – at the cost of some innocent creature’s life, which leads many to believe the victim a lamb. And so on…
But whenever I thought of Eve and Genesis 3, that painting filled my mind, because of that greatly authentic thing in it (I believe): the vivid portrayal of anguish, overwhelming grief.
Sin is not a light thing – any sin. It leaves a path of destruction behind it yawning wide. And the sin they sinned left the greatest destruction…
2) Why their sin was so bad:
~Ask people what’s the worst sin, they’ll probably answer something like murder or terrible treatment of other humans. But Eve and Adam’s sin murdered not just one person, but, in a sense, all of us: Now we all die!
~Their sin itself shut us all out of God’s kingdom, because it chose man’s own kingdom instead: our own “knowing”/determining of good and evil over God’s, our own godhood instead of His, our own exclusive rule of our own little world. In all respects they decisively rejected God’s perfect Kingdom, wisdom, rule, provision, love, and all.
~And in shutting us out of His kingdom into a kingdom of our own – where we decide good and evil and make up the rules and judgments and punishments, where naturally the biggest bullies secure sway – they put us in a place of erroneous everything, as the pre-Flood world so clearly proved. All selfishness and cruelty and human violence and destruction arises from us each doing “what is wise in our own eyes.”
~ And above all, it sinned against the greatest, most undeserving, sinless One – their own all-wise Creator, and all-loving Provider, to whom they owed everything!
So now the beautiful, innocent enjoyment of knowing only good went lost amid the knowledge of evil they had coveted as well.
And so the wrenching anguish, the sense of immense loss. Not just the idea of physical death would have grieved Eve. After all, she’d have no idea what human death was, till Cain killed Abel. But she knew already, painfully well, what it was to be outside God’s perfect way and love and care, the irrevocable choice she’d made.
No wonder her grief! And no wonder her heart-straining hope, for the “seed of the woman,” who would crush the kingdom of rebellion and evil, and restore that of only love and right and good.
Nothing man could do could reverse the damage.
Only God could. And would. And will.
And that’s what the baby in the manger is all about: the little Lamb Who would sacrifice His own skin for us all, and later return to restore the Kingdom – no, to establish a kingdom even better than if they’d never sinned – because now man would know grace, beautiful, shining grace.
Thus, Eve’s hope. Our hope. The Christ Child, the Seed to come.
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Seeking the Christ Child (in the Old Testament)
In the weeks leading up to Christmas, I am searching for prophecies and foreshadowings
of the Christ child, book by book. I plan to post (nearly) every weekday (leaving myself some margin) a short peek at some hint or promise of the coming baby who would make all the difference. Like the wise men, I’ll be Seeking the Christ Child, but in Old Testament promises and foreshadowings, and sharing what I find. I hope you’ll join me, because if it turns out as rewarding as the past spring’s pre-Easter explorations, this focus could make this one of the richest, most blessed Christmas seasons yet.
Previous posts in this series:
(4) – Wrestling Babies Lead to Christ?
(5) – Hope Hanging by a Slender Thread
(6) Power in Small Things, and Fear of Babies
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Eve’s hope is our hope. I’d never thought of that before but it is pretty profound. Something to meditate on.
Thank you, Shanda, for your encouraging comment. You know, I don’t think the concept ever occurred to me before doing this present study, either. I find some of these foreshadowings of the Christ Child I’m discovering, and glimpses of the hope long seeking Him, stir my heart deeply.
the little lamb who would sacrifice His own skin for us all…
Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty laid Himself down for me. It almost seems profane to type such wonder. I am undone,
Dawn
Yes, Dawn. Beautiful. Thank you.