The Covenant to Isaac - Lent Mid-week 3 - February 27, 2013 - Text: Gen. 26:1-5

Our text for this evening is Genesis 26:1-5: “1Now 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. 2And the Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. 3Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. 4I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, 5because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” This is our text.
 

This year during the season of Lent and Easter we are following the thread of God’s promise to send a Savior for all people (one covenant, not two). We began in the Garden of Eden when God first made His promise to send a Savior to Adam and Eve, before there was a Jew or Gentile. Last week we continued with the reiteration of the covenant and the announcement of its fulfillment being narrowed, that is that the Savior of all nations would be born through the line of Abram whose name was later changed to Abraham. This week we move ahead to God’s reiterating His promise to Abraham’s son, Isaac.
 

As we said, God chose Abram and changed his name to Abraham. God chose Abram, not because of any innate goodness within him, but simply because God chose him. By God’s grace He chose Abram. Out of all the people in the world, God chose Abram. And remember, Abram was not a perfect person. He had his flaws, even suffering from the sin of idolatry as he had to put away his own household idols. But God chose him and called him to be the one through whom He would keep His promise of sending a Messiah.
 

God chose Abram and promised him that He would make his name great, he would be a great nation and all nations of the world would be blessed through him, through the fact that the Savior of the world would be born through his line of descendants. It took God many years to begin to fulfill His promise, especially of children, Abraham and Sarah did have a child, Isaac. And even though after Sarah died and Abraham remarried and even though he had other children, Isaac was considered his only son.
 

Abraham’s son Isaac was the son of the covenant. You might recall, that when God tested Abraham and asked him to sacrifice his son, Isaac, that God called him his only son, even though Ishamel was already born. God chose Abraham and God chose Isaac to be the one’s through whom He would keep His promise of sending a Messiah.
 

After Abraham had passed away, God reiterated His promise to Isaac. “1Now 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. 2And the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. 3Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. 4I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, 5because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws’” (Gen. 26:1-5).
 

Let me point out, again, the parts of the threefold promise that God made to Abraham and reiterated to Isaac. First, He promised Abraham and now Isaac that He would give them the land, that is the promised land, the land that would, at least for a while, be known as Israel.
 

Second, God reiterated the promise He made to Abraham and now to Isaac that He would multiply his offspring. In other words, from Isaac, the son of Abraham, a great nation of people would come. Here again, this nation was and is the nation of Israel. And even though Israel had a rough history, a history that included idolatry and all forms of disobedience and even though the family of Israel had been divided into the tribes of Judah and the tribes of Israel, they were and are a great number of people. But, I would be remiss if I did not mention the fact that this great nation was simply a great nation by genetics. I have to mention this because God’s promise of a great nation was never simply a promise of a great physical nation, but always was in reference to an eternal, spiritual promise. We know this fact to be true, because Jesus reminds us that God can raise up children of Abraham from stones. The true nation of Israel is not the physical nation we know of today, but is the nation of all believers in Jesus. So, even if one is genetically a child of Abraham, unless s/he believes in Jesus, s/he is not a part of the true Israel.
 

Finally, the third part of the promise was that through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed. In other words, this was a reiteration of the promise of the Messiah being born through the line of Abraham and now Isaac. All nations, all people, past, present and future would be blessed with forgiveness earned by the Savior, born through the family line of Abraham, Isaac, and later Israel.
 

So, lest we get confused and begin to think there was more than one covenant, let us review what we have been hearing and seeing so far. Immediately after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, God stepped in and promised that He would take care of their sin, that He would send a Savior for all people, all nations. This first covenant was given in Eden, to Adam and Eve, before there were any other nations or cultures on the earth, before there was a Jew and a Gentile.
 

After a while, after the earth began to be populated, after the tower of Babel and the nations and cultures were scattered throughout the earth, God remembered His promise. So, God chose Abram, whose name He changed to Abraham and reiterated and narrowed the covenant He had made with Adam and Eve. God remembered His promise and would keep His promise and He would keep that promise by sending the Savior of all nations, of all peoples, of the world, through the line of Abraham.
 

And now, this evening we are reminded that God continued to remember and reiterate His one covenant as He now promises Isaac, that the line of the Messiah would also be through his family. Notice, not a new covenant, but a reiteration and a narrowing of the fulfillment of the one and only one covenant.
 

Again, I want to make sure we get this right, so here are the covenant facts, if you will. First, there was and is only one covenant. God did not give two covenants, one for Israel and one for the rest of the world. God gave one covenant.
 

The one covenant God gave was a covenant for all people, of all places, of all time. His covenant was first given to Adam and Eve, before there were all the nations and cultures we have today. The covenant was reiterated and its fulfillment narrowed through the line of Abraham.
 

Jesus came and fulfilled the covenant so that those who reject Jesus also reject the covenant. In other words, even if a person is born of the physical, genetic line of descent from Abraham, if that person rejects Jesus, that person is no longer considered a child of the covenant. God’s covenant is a covenant of grace, not genetics. It is by grace that we enjoy forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.
 

Again, by faith in Jesus, faith given to us, we are children of Abraham, not by birth, not by genetics or DNA, but by grace. All nations are saved, are children of Abraham, by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus alone. All people who reject Jesus, reject His covenant and reject forgiveness and life.
 

Thus, we are the new Israel. We are the heavenly and eternal Israel. The property over in the Middle East has nothing to do with the property of heaven. Being born of a certain genetic, DNA line means nothing. Being born again of water and God’s name means being born into the eternal family of heaven.
 

We are children of the covenant, by faith He gives to us. We rejoice because Jesus came for us. He came to live the perfect life for all of Israel and for us because they could not nor can we. Jesus came to fulfill all God’s promises and prophecies concerning the coming Messiah perfectly and then He took all the sins of all people, of all places, of all times on Himself and suffered and died paying the price for our sin. All because of His great love for us.
 

Today it is important that we continue to remember and follow God’s covenant because His covenant is a covenant, not based on human desire, need or work, but based on Jesus and His work of salvation for us. We need that constant reminder of our part in Jesus suffering and death. It was not only because of Adam and Eve’s sin, not only because the earth has been cursed, not only because we are conceived and born in sin, but also because of our own actual sins that Jesus had to come and die to pay the price for our sins.
 

Even before God began creation, He knew what was going to happen. Even before God began creation, He could look through time and He could see us, you and me. Because of His great love for us, for you and for me, He set into motion, not only creation, but also our redemption. Yes, you and I put Jesus on the cross. Yet, He went to the cross willingly because of His great love for us. At our Baptism He put faith in our hearts and made us His children. As we confess our sins and hear His words of absolution, as we hear His Holy Word read and proclaimed, as we partake of His body and blood in His Holy Supper, we are strengthened in our faith, we participate in His life, death and resurrection, and we will ultimately be given His robes of righteousness. And all we can do is rejoice and give Him thanks, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Blessed Is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord - February 24, 2013 - Second Sunday in Lent - Text: Luke 13:31-35

The goal in most sporting events is for one team to outplay and outscore the other team, in other words, to defeat them in the game. The goal in most labor disputes, as each side looks at the dispute, is for each side to get their own way, which means one side wants more pay and benefits and the other side wants more work, output and profits. We live in a world and in a country where there is constant competition. People race to get in line first at the bank or grocery store. People race to get home from work. Christians race to get out of church early to beat the other Christians to Luby’s. People buy the newest cell phone, the newest Ipad computer, the newest car. People build bigger and better houses. Often we call this behavior, “keeping up with the Joneses.” Very often our goal in life is to stay one step ahead of the competition and everyone is competition. Well, let me tell you, we are no different than our ancestors. Even in Jesus’ day too many people were constantly looking out for “number one,” meaning only for themselves.

This morning we see more of the shenanigans of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were pretending to want to “help” and “save” Jesus by warning Him about Herod. They approached Jesus with some startling news, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you” (Luke 13:31b). How nice of them to want to warn Jesus so that He might get out of town and not be killed by Herod. At first glance it looks more like they are Jesus’ friends than His enemies.

The problem with the Pharisees is that they constantly broke the first commandment, “You should have no other God’s before me.” Dr. Luther gives us the explanation for this commandment as, “we should fear, love and trust in God above all things.” Thus, whatever or whoever we fear above all things truly is our God. In the case of the Pharisees their fear was a fear of man rather than a fear of God. Jesus was rather popular with the people and that was making it hard for them, since, in essence, they were afraid of the people. If God was their God, that is, if God the Father in heaven was their God, then they would have been more concerned about His will than about their popularity with the people.

The Pharisees approached Jesus, not out of concern for Him, but because they wanted just to be rid of Him. If He was not around then maybe the people would forget about Him and maybe He would not be so popular and maybe they would be more popular and people would listen to them. So here, under the guise of wanting to help Jesus, wanting to show that they really do care about Him, they are warning Him that Herod is out for His blood. If Jesus would leave, this would accomplish both their “show” of concern and the getting rid of Jesus.

What about us? What about you and me? Of what or of whom are we afraid? Are we more concerned about our own popularity or doing what is popular, or are we more concerned about doing the will of our God? Are we more concerned about being perceived as being tolerant or about proclaiming the truth of God’s Word, that God does not tolerate belief in anyone or anything other than Himself and that He does not tolerate sin? Are we more concerned about what other people think of us or about what God thinks of us? Are we more concerned about our lives on this earth, our time in this world, or our eternal existence in heaven? Are we more afraid of other humans or God? Yes, all of these are First Commandment question.

In our text we see that Jesus is not afraid. He calls Herod a fox, because He is sly, cruel, and destructive. Herod is the one who had Jesus’ cousin and forerunner, John the Baptist, beheaded. Herod is the one who married his brother Phillip’s wife even though this was wrong and it was a sin. One of my Bible Dictionary’s says this about Herod, “His administration was characterized throughout with cunning and crime, intensely selfish and utterly destitute of principle” (Unger’s Bible Dictionary p. 472). Yes, Herod was a fox.

Even though Herod is so great a sinner, even though Herod might be out to get Him, Jesus is not afraid of Herod and will continue to do the work He came to do, until it is finished, until He reaches His goal. And His goal is to save the world. Our sin separates us from God and our sin is ever before us. We show our idolatry in that we are more afraid of others than we are of God. We are more interested in our own concerns than those of God and we see this in how we live as well as in the decisions we make. Yes, our sin separates us from God and left in our sin we would be doomed to die an eternal spiritual death in hell.

Jesus goal is to save all people, thus His goal is to die. We see Him allude to this goal in our text when He says that, “for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem!” (Luke 13:33b). The only way Jesus could have been any clearer would be to outright say, “I will die in Jerusalem.” From creation and the fall into sin by Adam and Eve, and from His physical birth into this world, Jesus had the cross ever before Him. Ever since the Garden of Eden, the eternal spiritual death penalty of hell has been hanging over us and Jesus goal is save us, in other words, His goal is to die, to die, once and for all, the eternal spiritual death penalty for us, for you and for me, so that we might not have to suffer eternal spiritual death, but so that we might have life, even eternal life with Him in heaven.

And so, Jesus is grieved. He is grieved over the sins of His own people, the children of Israel. He is grieved because they have not lived as they were asked to live, instead they have constantly rebelled against Him. Instead of fearing God they have feared other nations. Instead of fearing God they have feared each other. Instead of fearing God they have gone running after other gods and idols. And Jesus is grieved because of their sins. His goal was to gather them together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings in order to protect them, but they were not willing, instead they refused, resisted, and rejected Him.

Jesus is grieved not only for the sins of His own people, but the sins of the world as well. He is grieved because the world does not live as it is asked to live, instead it constantly rebels against Him. Instead of fearing God the people of the world fear other people. We see this in the competition of national and world powers, in the wars and rumors of war which are happening around the world. Instead of fearing God the people of the world fear each other. Instead of fearing God the people of the world go running after the other false gods and idols of this world. And Jesus is grieved because of the sins of the world. His goal was to gather them together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings in order to protect them, but they were not willing, instead they refused, resisted, and rejected Him.

Jesus is grieved not only for the sins of His own people and the sins of the world, but our sins as well. He is grieved because we do not live as we are asked to live, instead we constantly rebel against Him. Instead of fearing God we fear other people and what other people might think. We fear losing our status in society, we fear losing our positions of power and influence, and yes, even in the church we fear losing our perceived positions of status, power and authority. Instead of fearing God we fear each other. We see this in the competition among Christians, constantly working at odds with each other, pointing the finger at who is not doing what and who is doing what, instead of working together. Instead of fearing God we go running after the other false gods and idols of our own world. And Jesus is grieved because of our sins. His goal is to gather us together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings in order to protect us, but too often we are not willing, instead we refuse, resist, and rejected Him.

Jesus goal is the salvation of all people, of all places, of all times. His goal is to save you and me. He will accomplish His goal, and He did accomplish His goal. As we journey with Him through the Gospels we see that He did signs, wonders and miracles as “proof” of His divinity, that He was the Messiah. Jesus is the one promised in the Old Testament. He is the one who came to do all things for all people. He came to fulfill all the Old Testament promises and prophecies. He came as the embodiment of Israel, to do all things, all that the whole nation of Israel could not do, He came to do perfectly. He came as the embodiment of all people, even and especially, He came to do for us, for you and for me, what we are unable to do, live perfectly according to all His commands and decrees. Yes, Jesus is the Messiah, He is who He says He is.

Not only do we believe Jesus because of the signs, wonders and miracles He performed, but we also believe Him because He is His own authority. We believe Him because He says He is our Savior, our Messiah. We believe Him because the Holy Spirit has given us that faith through the very means He has given to give us faith, His Word and Holy Baptism. It is especially through the Bible which is God’s Word, a word of authority that we are given faith and so we believe Him and we “fear, love and trust in Him above all things.”

Jesus took all our sins upon Himself and suffered and died the eternal spiritual death penalty for us, in our place. He died that we might live. He is faithful and just. We see His justness in the fact that the wages, the cost, the price for sin was paid. The price for sin is eternal spiritual death and He is the one who died the eternal spiritual death penalty for all people. We see His faithfulness in the fact that what He did He did because of His love for us and His promise to us, His promise to save us from our sins, His promise first made to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

What is your goal in life? Is your goal in life defined by the things of this world? Or is your goal in life defined by things above? Is your goal in life defined by what or whom you are afraid, the things or people of this world? Or is you goal in life defined by your fear, love and trust in God above all things? Rest assured my friends, Jesus’ goal was to save you and He accomplished His goal, thanks be to God. My prayer for each one of you is that the Lord will continue to work through His Word and Sacraments to give you all His good gifts and blessings, forgiveness, faith, strengthening of faith, life and salvation and that He will continue to work through these means to guard and keep you in faith and by the power of the Holy Spirit, also working through these means, to guide you into a life lived to His glory. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Covenant to Abram - Lent Mid-week 2 - February 20, 2013 - Text: Genesis 12:1-3

Our text for this evening is Genesis 12:1-3: “1Now 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. 2And 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. 3I 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.” This is our text.
 

This year during the season of Lent and Easter we are following the thread of God’s promise to send a Savior for all people (one covenant, not two). Last week began in the Garden of Eden when God first made His promise to send a Savior to Adam and Eve, before there was a Jew or Gentile. This week we continue with the reiteration of the covenant and the announcement of its fulfillment being narrowed, that is that the Savior of all nations would be born through the line of Abram whose name was later changed to Abraham.
 

We begin this evening with a bit of a review of history. Last week we talked about God’s creation of the universe and especially His creation of our earth as well as the first humans, Adam and Eve. God crowned His creation with the creation of Adam and Eve and He put them in a garden that He had especially created for them, the Garden of Eden. However, following their disobedience and sin, and because the tree of life was still growing in the Garden of Eden and so they would not eat of its fruit and live forever in their sin, God put them out of the Garden.
 

Now remember, God had promised that He would send a Savior, a seed of Eve, one born as a human, except without sin, in order to save the world, by taking the punishment for their sin. But God was not quite ready to fulfill His promise and as we can see, reading the history of the world, the sin of the world magnified with the birth of each new generation. Adam and Eve had many children and two in particular that we read about are Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel were important figures in our genealogy because their story helps us to understand how sinful the world was and it was even getting worse. Remember the story of Cain and Abel, how Cain killed his brother Abel because he was jealous and his jealousy turned into hatred and finally murder.
 

Well, as time went on, the world got worse and worse and worse until God decided that He had seen enough from this world which became sin infected and continued on its path to self-destruction. God decided to destroy the world and He would do that by sending a flood to cleanse the world. At the same time, God recognized the righteousness of Noah and so from Noah and his family God decided to repopulate the earth by saving them through the flood.
 

Yet, even after the flood and as the numbers of people again increased on the earth, sin continued to abound and increase. At one point the people of the world, after disobeying God’s command to spread out and subdue the earth, to be fruitful and multiply, at one point because the people failed to spread out, believing themselves to be gods so much that they decided to build a tower to themselves, one which would reach to the skies and show the nations and generations what great people they were. Yet, God would not allow this to happen and so He came down and confused the languages of the people so that they had to scatter to the various parts of the world taking with them certain knowledge and genetic coding which accounts for the various cultures we see in the world today.
 

As time went on, God continued to watch over and remember His people. As the populations of the world continued to grow, sin continued to grow as well. And yet, God never forgot His covenant to send a Savior. As a matter of fact, God remembered His covenant with the world and as He looked at His world, and in particular, at the timing of the events of the world, by His grace, out of all the people who were now alive in the world, God chose Abram. God chose Abram to be the one through whom He would fulfill His covenant.
 

Now please notice that God did not change or alter His covenant, the covenant He made with Adam and Eve and the world in the Garden of Eden, the covenant that He would send a Savior to take the punishment for their sin and our sin. When God chose Abram He was simply narrowing down the line of fulfillment of His covenant. In other words, God was simply reiterating His covenant with Abram that He would fulfill His covenant with Mary and Joseph through His family tree. God did not change the covenant, nor make a new covenant.
 

God came to and called Abram. Abram did not approach God nor initiate anything. It was God who came to and called Abram and said, “1 . . . ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2And 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. 3I 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.”
 

Notice God’s promise to Abram. God’s promise was to make him a great nation. Please understand that this did not necessarily mean a great nation by genetics, in other words it was not simply physically born humans that were to be a part of the great nation of Israel. We know today that by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus, as Jesus Himself tells us, we too are children of Abraham.
 

God promised Abram that he will be a blessing and indeed Abram was a blessing. He was a blessing for all those of his household as he cared for many people. But even more, he was a blessings, because through him all nations of the world were to be blessed. In other words, the Savior of all nations would be born through the line of Abram. And this is the line and the covenant that we are following and will continue to follow during lent.
 

Today God’s covenant made with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden continues to be remembered. The Christian faith and the Christian church goes back to the Garden of Eden when God promised to send a Savior. In Jesus’ day and even today, those children of Abram who rejected and who continue to reject Jesus are the ones who reject His covenant. The religion of Judaism was begun immediately following Jesus death and resurrection by those who refuse and reject Jesus’ Himself. The Christian faith was not born at the time of Christ, the religion of Judaism was born out of its rejection of Jesus. Thus, those who rejected Jesus are no longer children of Abram, no longer children of the covenant, because they have rejected the covenant.
 

Likewise, all who believe in Jesus as the Messiah are children of Abram. You and I are children of Abraham, not because we are born from the genetic line of Abraham, not because of some innate goodness within us, but by faith in Jesus and because God has made it so.
 

We are children of the covenant, by faith He gives to us. We rejoice because Jesus came for us. He came to live the perfect life for all of Israel and for us because they could not nor can we. Jesus came to fulfill all God’s promises and prophecies concerning the coming Messiah perfectly and then He took all the sins of all people, of all places, of all times on Himself and suffered and died paying the price for our sin. All because of His great love for us.
 

Today it is important that we continue to remember and follow God’s covenant because His covenant is a covenant, not based on human desire, DNA, genetics, need or work, but a covenant based on Jesus and His work of salvation for us. We need that constant reminder of our part in Jesus suffering and death. It was not only because of Adam and Eve’s sin, not only because the earth has been cursed, not only because we are conceived and born in sin, but also because of our own actual sins that Jesus had to come and die to pay the price for our sins, which He did freely because of His great love for us.
 

We see God’s great love for us because even before He began creation, He knew what was going to happen. Even before God began creation, He could look through time and He could see us, you and me. Because of His great love for us, for you and for me, He set into motion, not only creation, but also our redemption. Yes, you and I put Jesus on the cross. Yet, He went to the cross willingly because of His great love for us. At our Baptism He put faith in our hearts and made us His children. As we confess our sins and hear His words of absolution, as we hear His Holy Word read and proclaimed, as we partake of His body and blood in His Holy Supper, we are strengthened in our faith, we participate in His life, death and resurrection, and we are given His robes of righteousness. And all we can do is rejoice and give Him thanks, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The First Promise to Adam and Eve - Ash Wednesday - February 13, 2013 - Text: Genesis 3:15

Our text for this evening is Genesis 3:15, “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.” This is our text.
 

This year during the season of Lent and Easter we will follow the thread of God’s promise to send a Savior for all people, demonstrating that, contrary to the new theology of millennialism which teachs that God made a separate covenant with Israel than with the rest of the world, that God made one covenant with all people, a covenant of grace and faith. We will begin in the Garden of Eden when God first made His promise to Adam and Eve, before there was a Jew or Gentile. We will follow that covenant reiterated and its fulfillment narrowed, that is that the Savior of all nations would be born through the line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and so forth. We will then move to see the fulfillment of that promise in the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist as the way preparer, as well as in the announcement of Jesus birth to Mary, and Simeon’s words of prophecy to Mary and Joseph at the presentation of Jesus. Finally, we will rejoice on Easter in the fact that Jesus was the Savior of all nations, including all people, you and me and in His resurrection as the ultimate fulfillment and defeat of sin, death and the Devil.
 

This evening we begin, interestingly enough, in the beginning. In the beginning God created all things out of nothing. Talk about the power of the Word of God, God spoke, “Let there be . . . ” and it was. God said, “Earth,” and there was earth. Today we may wonder how God could have created all things in six days. In Luther’s day the questions was why did God take so long. God is God and He can do whatever He wants. In His Word He, who was there, tells us how He did it.
 

On the sixth day of creation God crowned His creation with the creation of the man and woman. Adam was created in the image of God meaning that he was, originally, created perfect and holy, without sin. All Adam knew was good. He did not know evil nor what evil was.
 

After creating Adam and Eve, God put the man and the woman in the Garden of Eden which He had created especially for them. The Garden of Eden was a place for Adam and Eve to live. It was a place that provided for all their needs. It was a place in which they could work, reminding us that work was not a result of sin, but was, in the beginning, a gift from God.
 

God created everything and gave everything to Adam and Eve. Notice that, like us, Adam and Eve had nothing of their own, but only all that they had was a gift from God. So, along with all that God created, in the Garden He placed two trees, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God placed these trees in the garden and I would suppose that in order to give Adam and Eve something to give back to Him, because, again, nothing was theirs except what God had first given to them, God gave them the command and the ability to obey His command to not eat from the fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And remember, Adam and Eve only knew good.
 

So, at the end of day six, God rested on Day Seven and everything was perfect. Here I always like to point out that when God is running the show, creating, making, forming, and so forth that everything is indeed good, very good, perfect and holy. It is not until man starts running the show that, as we will see, everything starts falling apart.
 

Which brings us to the fall into sin. Earlier, sometime between God’s creating the angels and His creating the world, one angel, Lucifer, which means the Light Bearer, or Satan as he has become known, rebelled against God. Perhaps he thought himself to be on par with his Creator and so God created hell for Satan and cast him out of heaven. However, for whatever reason, only God knows, He still allowed Satan to roam about, seeking someone to devour.
 

Satan took the form of one of God’s creatures, a serpent, and according to the text, the serpent was not what it is today, but Satan taking the form a of a serpent tempted Eve and in tempting Eve he also tempted Adam who was standing right beside Eve watching the whole series of events as they unfolded. Satan tempted Eve to doubt God, to believe that God was holding back from her, as it would seem he believed about God prior to his own rebellion. Satan tempted Eve to believe she could be like God herself.
 

Eve believed Satan, and why should she not believe, after all she only knew good. She did not yet know evil and lying. Eve believed Satan and doubted God and ate of the forbidden fruit, she also gave some to her husband Adam who also ate thus he too disobeyed and sinned. Adam had been created first and so he was the one in authority, the one who was responsible in this whole scenario. We call this the order of creation, that is that God created Adam first and so God would hold him accountable. This order of creation has never been negated and is still in effect in our world today. Adam’s disobedience began with the fact that he did not step in and send Satan off in the first place. Like many men and husbands in our world today, Adam shirked his responsibility. And fortunately or unfortunately, none of these events escaped God.
 

God knew what had happened. He knew Eve and Adam had been disobedient and so being a just God He entered the scene to disperse justice, which came in the form of a curse. God came walking through the Garden and He came calling for Adam. Adam where are you? It was Adam who was in charge as He was created first and so God calls him to account for his actions and the actions of his wife, Eve. Of course, Adam does what most men do today, he passes the buck and blames his wife, Eve and truly even blames God Himself for having put the woman in the Garden with him. Eve blames the serpent and so the buck is passed on.
 

God is God and so He cannot be deceived. God knows what has happened and now He must deal out the just punishment, which was promised, death. The curse which is inflicted on all creation is that Adam will now have to work hard, because thorns and thistles will grow and stifle his gardening. Eve will have pain in her most joyous experience, childbirth, and she will continue to struggle with her husband, seeking to usurp his authority. And the serpent will be changed so that now he will have to slither on the ground and eat dust.
 

Yet, God being not only just but also being a merciful God, He also gives a promise, even the greatest promise, that is that He will fix what man has broke. Man has broken his relationship, his perfect relationship with God and now only God can fix that relationship and His promise is that He will.
 

God’s  promise is to send a Savior, a Messiah, One who would take care of the punishment inflicted on those who disobeyed and ate of the forbidden fruit, that is One who would die. God’s promise is, “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.” God’s promise is that He would send a substitute to take the place and the punishment for His people. A substitute means someone who is like the one being substituted. In other words, the substitute for human beings will be a human being, thus an offspring of the woman. In order for this substitute to be a substitute, however, He must also be perfect, having no sin of His own, thus He would also have to be truly God, because only God is or can be perfect. Finally, this substitute, in order to complete His substitutionary act, must not only die, suffering a bruising death, physical and eternal spiritual death, hell, but He will also have to defeat Satan, with a complete defeat.
 

Notice that God’s promise to Adam and Eve came before they had any children, which means this promise was made before there was a Jew or Gentile and so His promise was for all people, of all places, of all times, you and me included.
 

As Lent begins we are reminded once again, as we are or at least should be reminded every year, of our part in Jesus’ suffering and death. It was not only because of Adam and Eve’s sin, not only because the earth has been cursed, not only because we are conceived and born in sin, but also because of our own actual sins, sins we commit, sins of commission and sins of failing or omitting to do as we should, sins of omission, that Jesus had to come and die to pay the price for our sins.
 

Even before God began creation, He knew what was going to happen. Even before God began creation, He could look through time and He could see us, you and me, we call this God’s foreknowledge, that He knows all things even before they happen. Because of His great love for us, for you and for me, He set into motion, not only creation, but also our redemption. Yes, you and I put Jesus on the cross. Yet, He went to the cross willingly because of His great love for us. At our Baptism He put faith in our hearts and made us His children. As we confess our sins and hear His words of absolution, as we hear His Holy Word read and proclaimed, as we partake of His body and blood in His Holy Supper, we are strengthened in our faith, we participate in His life, death and resurrection, and we are given His robes of righteousness. And all we can do is rejoice and give Him thanks, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.