Ash Wednesday

Genesis 3:14-19

So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,

Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals!

You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers;

he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;

with pain you will give birth to children.

Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'

Cursed is the ground because of you;

through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground,

since from it you were taken;

for dust you are and to dust you will return."
NIV

When I was nine I bought a baseball. I was ecstatic for about three seconds. You see, I switched price tags and “bought” a premium baseball for pennies on the dollar. Immediately, Mom noticed and gave her orders: “March into the store, return the baseball, apologize!” Consequences were everywhere.

Today’s scripture reminds us of the tragic, long-term effects sin brought into this world. After Adam and Eve failed to trust that God is good and his word reliable -- when they disobeyed God -- everything went horribly and enormously wrong. The story of Adam and Eve became our story.

Everything is affected. We are separated from each other and from God. We cannot fix what we have broken. We desperately need God to save us from ourselves.

Amazingly, right here in Genesis 3:15, embedded in a text about the consequences of sin and the real war humanity faces, we also find the “seed” of promise.

Even at the beginning, God has rescue in mind. The Messiah will come. To us he has come, and on the cross guilt, sin, and death have been defeated.

DJI