The Old Evil Foe

Genesis 3:1-15

First Sunday in Lent  -  5 March 2017

Rev. John Derme

"The old evil foe now means deadly woe." That old evil foe meant to bring deadly woe on Jesus in the wilderness. There Satan attacked Jesus with his strongest temptations, trying to get him to sin, trying to derail his path to saving his people. This wasn't their first battle. Satan and Jesus had been enemies ever since Satan rebelled against God and fell from his honored position in heaven.

That old evil foe means to bring deadly woe on you and me, as well. Satan has also been the enemy of people ever since he fell from heaven. He attacked our first ancestors, and he still battles to get us to sin, to derail our path to heaven. Satan is our old evil foe.

Our First Lesson, from Genesis chapter 3, tells us of the first time Satan attacked human beings. It was in the Garden of Eden. After God created the world and the plants and the animals, he carefully formed the first man out of the dust of the earth and breathed the breath of life into him. God placed him into the Garden of Eden, a perfect and beautiful place, where the Lord would provide for all of his needs.

There were two special trees in the middle of that garden. One was the tree of life, whose fruit was intended to sustain people's physical life forever. The other was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God's one command to the man was that he not eat from this tree.

It wasn't that this tree was evil in and of itself. It was that people could show God that they loved and trusted in him by not eating from that tree. This was not a burdensome command. There were plenty of other trees from which to eat. But by not eating from this one tree, the Lord was giving people the opportunity to not only live in the innocence in which he created them, but to actively live holy lives. To this command, God attached a threat, that if they ate from that tree, they would die. This was a significant threat, because when the Lord spoke those words, there was no such thing as death in the world. Yet it was a fitting threat, because eating from that tree would be a complete rebellion against the Creator.

It was after God spoke this command that he put the man into a deep sleep and formed the woman. God intended that the man would teach his command to the woman, which the man did after God brought the two of them together. That first man and woman enjoyed a perfect marriage, a perfect relationship in which they were completely united and happy in every way.

It was in that setting that Satan attacked. We don't know for sure when Satan fell from heaven, but it was very soon after God finished his work of creating the world. Satan was originally one of the holy angels that God created. But he became prideful of his honored and powerful position. He led a significant number of the other angels in rebellion against the Lord. So God cast them out of heaven because of their sin.

Since Satan couldn't defeat God, he decided to attack God's people. He took the form of a serpent and spoke to the woman one day as she was in the middle of the garden. We don't know why she didn't start running the other way when a snake started talking to her. She clearly didn't understand what he was trying to do to her.

The first thing Satan tried to do was to cast doubt on God's Word: "Did God really say you can't eat from any of the trees in the garden?" With those same words he tried to make God's command seem unreasonable. The woman's response was that God had said they could eat from any tree in the garden except the one, and if they ate from that one they would die. Although the woman's answer was good, her continued conversation with the serpent gave Satan the opening that he needed. So he kept lying: "You will not die. You will be like God!" Satan said that God was a liar and was hiding the truth from them. She listened to Satan. She looked at the fruit. She ate it.

The woman sinned. But the man wasn't guiltless in all of this. He was there with her the whole time. Remember that God had given him the command. It was his responsibility to teach it to his wife. It was his responsibility to be a good leader. But instead, he let her become the leader while he stood in the background. Rather than stopping her from eating the fruit, he joined in as soon as she handed it to him. In spite of better knowledge, he ate. God had created them with the ability not to sin. They could have said "no" to Satan. They chose to listen to him rather than God.

That one simple act changed everything for them. Now they knew what evil was like, and it was bad. Now they experienced shame for the first time, and tried to cover it up. They no longer loved and trusted in God. When God came looking for them, they hid. He called, "Where are you," not because he didn't know, but because, in love, he was giving them an opportunity to confess their sins. They no longer had a perfect relationship with each other. When God asked the man what had happened, he blamed his wife. The woman didn't repent of her sin, either. When God asked her what she had done, she blamed the serpent.

God's people not only sinned. They stopped trusting in him. They were now followers of Satan. So the Lord resolved the matter by himself. He spoke to the serpent. "Cursed are you." God wasn't speaking primarily to the animal. He was speaking to Satan. He told Satan that he would be completely and utterly defeated. He spoke for the benefit of the man and the woman, who could hear. "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers." God was placing hostility between the woman and Satan, so that they would no longer follow him. From now on, there would be hostility between followers of Satan and believers in the Lord.

Then came the big promise: "He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." One offspring of the woman would completely crush Satan. Although the first man and woman had not defeated Satan's temptation, one man would one day come and defeat Satan for them. This was the first gospel promise. God's Word worked faith in the man and woman and brought them to trust in him.

Unfortunately, that day changed the world. It was the saddest day in history. The perfection God had created was lost. The man and woman had been made in the image of God, but now they had a sinful nature, instead. They handed their own sinful nature on to their children. It has passed down from generation to generation all the way to you and me.

When we heard the account of what happened in the Garden of Eden, you and I thought, "Why did Eve do that? Why didn't she refuse? Why didn't Adam stop her?" As though we could do better. Yet we often do the same thing. The old evil foe comes to tempt you and me. And we don't run away from temptation. We listen to him. We do what he says. We join in Adam and Eve's sin. Unlike the first man and woman in the garden, you and I do not have the ability to live perfectly. We have not fought off all temptation. Satan has defeated us, too. The curse is on us. We will surely die.

Yet that promise that God spoke to the first man and woman is also for us. God has fulfilled that promise, exactly as he said he would. The offspring of the woman came and crushed Satan's head for us. Jesus Christ was born of a woman, so he is true man. Yet he was not born of a man. He was born only of a woman, of a virgin, because he is also true God, and has no sinful nature.

We heard Jesus crushing Satan's head in our Gospel of the Day from Matthew chapter 4. Adam and Eve didn't do it. You and I can't do it. But when Satan attacked Jesus with his strongest temptations, Jesus defeated every one. Jesus lived perfectly in spite of a lifetime of temptations. Jesus remained sinless for us.

Today is the First Sunday in Lent. We are beginning a journey of following Jesus through his Word to his cross on Good Friday. When he suffered and died, Satan struck Jesus' heel. It hurt him physically and spiritually. But when he died, Jesus crushed Satan's head once and for all.

Even though Jesus has defeated him, Satan still tempts us, because he wants to rob us of our trust in him, so that we will suffer the curse of hell with him. But God's Word of promise forgives our sins and keeps us with Jesus in the faith. Our sinful nature and the sins we have committed do have consequences. Yes, we will surely die. But because Jesus suffered the curse of death and hell for us, you and I have eternal life through faith in him. Therefore he will raise our bodies from death, and we will live with him forever.

After we're raised from the dead, you and I will have it even better than Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden. God created them with the ability not to sin. But in the new creation v , you and I will never face any temptations and we will never sin. We will live in perfect service to our Creator and Redeemer. Even now, through faith, God has made us new people, and he is at work in us to help us fight off Satan's temptations and live lives that glorify our Savior.

The old evil foe still means to bring deadly woe on us. But we do not fight him alone. Jesus fights for us. Jesus has defeated him for us.