This Advent we’re going to talk about exactly what that last song was called—“What Child Is This?” We’re going to think about who Jesus is. Thankfully, it’s no secret who Jesus is. In fact, the Bible gives Jesus lots and lots of names. Can you think of examples? Immanuel. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Jesus. Christ. Savior. What child is this? There are a lot of beautiful names for Jesus!
But none of those is the first name given to Jesus in the Bible. Actually the first name given to Jesus at the beginning of the world isn’t very well-known. Do you know what it is? “Snake-crusher!” Have you ever heard that before? It’s true! In the first promise about Jesus in the Bible, that’s what Jesus is called: the “Snake-crusher.” What a great name! It sounds like a good name for a monster truck or superhero, doesn’t it? What do you think? “Snake-Crusher!”
To understand that, we need to go back to the Garden of Eden. Remember what the Garden of Eden was like? It was perfect. Adam was perfect. Eve was perfect. Everything was perfect! God gave them just one command. Remember what it was? “Don’t eat fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Sounds easy, right? But you know the story. What did the devil—the serpent—tempt Eve to do? Eat the fruit. They sinned. Just like we do. In fact, we’re so sinful that if God only gave us one command, we wouldn’t be able to keep it either, would we? What if God’s only command was, “Always say kind things about other people…” Could we keep just that one command? No! We’re sinful. What if God’s only command was, “Always be content with what you have…” Could we keep that one command? No! We’re so sinful!
And sin is a big deal. Remember what happened to Adam and Eve when they sinned? When they followed the devil instead of following God, everything changed. Perfect became wrecked and broken. God came looking for Adam and Eve, and what did they do? They hid from God. Do you think that was a good idea? No, but sin separates us from God! Our sins make us afraid of God and his anger. We know we deserve to be punished! And when God confronted them with their sin, did they tell the truth and admit it? No, they blamed each other. Do you think that was a good idea? No, but sin separates us from each other too. Does that sound familiar? Our sin separates us from God, and our sin separates us from each other. We deserve the wrath of God!
Think of it like this: Have any of you ever played with Play-Dough? What do you do when what you make doesn’t turn out? You smash it and start over, right? That’s what God should have done with us people! He made Adam and Eve perfect, but they broke his commands. We have too. God should smash us like Play-Dough and start over!
But is that what God did? No! Listen to God’s promise—it’s the first promise of Jesus in the whole Bible: “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” (Genesis 3:15). Maybe you hear that, and you think, “What? That doesn’t sound like it’s talking about Jesus!” Let’s think about it. God says he is going to put enmity between Eve and the devil. Do you know what enmity is? Hatred or wrath. Remember who there was enmity between? Us and God because of our sins. Us and each other because of our sins. So what’s God’s promise? God promised to take that hatred from between us and God and put it between us and the devil instead. Your enemy isn’t God—ever! Your enemy isn’t the people next to you—ever! Your enemy is the devil. He wants to get us to sin.
So how do we defeat the devil? Here’s the cool thing: We don’t have to. Defeating the devil is someone else’s job. Listen again to God’s promise: “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.” It sounds a little like a cowboy movie. Picture a cowboy out in the desert where there’s rattlesnakes. Imagine that a rattlesnake comes up and bites his heel, but then he takes his heel and stomps on the snake to kill it. Can you picture that? That’s what God promised was going to happen. The devil was going to hurt one of Eve’s descendants by biting his heel, but that same person was going to crush the devil’s head. The Snake-crusher!
Who was God talking about? Who was the descendant of Eve who was going to defeat the devil once and for all? Jesus! When people sinned, God promised a Savior—Jesus! Jesus was one of Eve’s great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great … grandchildren. The devil fought against Jesus. He even hurt Jesus very much. That makes us think about all that Jesus had to go through to suffer and die on the cross. But the devil didn’t win, did he? Jesus didn’t stay dead, he rose from the dead and gives eternal life to everyone who believes in him. When Jesus rose from the dead, he crushed the devil and his power. We don’t have to be afraid of him. Remember how God should have smashed us? That’s what God did to the devil instead—crushed him.
Here’s two passages from the New Testament that prove how Jesus came to defeat the devil: “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:8). That’s the whole reason Jesus came—to destroy the devil! Don’t be fooled by the little baby in the manger. He’s the Snake-crusher! The Bible adds this, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20). I know it doesn’t look like the devil is defeated. I know that there are still so many temptations. That evil so often seems to win. But one day soon, you’re going to see the truth. On Judgment Day, you will clearly see how God has crushed Satan under our feet.
So add this name to the list of names for Jesus in your head and your heart—the Snake-crusher. When you sin, you don’t have to hide like Adam and Eve did. God knows, and God has already forgiven you in Jesus. When you sin, you don’t have to make excuses or blame other people, like Adam and Eve did. Those other people aren’t your enemy. The devil is. When you’re tempted, you don’t have to be afraid of the devil. Jesus already defeated him when he died and rose for us. The Snake-crusher! So that when you sin, God doesn’t say, “Try harder!” He says, “I forgive you!” When you see that little baby in the manger, don’t be fooled. This is someone special. This is someone awesome. This is the real superhero. It’s the Snake-crusher! Our Savior. Amen.
Comentários