Posted on 12/10/2011 5:06:46 PM PST by pastorbillrandles
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.(Genesis 3:15)
The gloom of judgment and wrath at the sinners in the garden, has been penetrated by this mysterious pronouncement of God, addressed to the serpent, and not to the guilty man and woman who had already refused accountability to God. Adam and Eve overhear in the sentence passed upon the serpent, the possibility of a reversal.
Evidently even in judgment, the Lord remembers mercy to the fallen couple, for the woman shall bear a son who will ultimately crush the serpent’s head.
This “proto evangel”, (first gospel) came accompanied with dark outline of the entire development of the human race even up to today. It is instructive to look at this brief but potent word of God.
* I will put enmity between thee and the woman….
First of all God says that He himself will be the instigator of this inveterate enmity, which will pulse through all future ages until the time of the final blow to the serpent.
The human race is to be polarized, there will be an invisible divide which will run through the heart of every man. Neutrality will be impossible, and any compromise or accommodation will prove to aid the cause of the serpent, not of the woman.
Jesus, the son of God will one day echo this word when he will proclaim,
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.(Matthew 10:34-35)
And the Apostle John also warns us of this very enmity, when he says,
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not…Marvel not that the world hates you bretheren”(I John 3:1.13)
Again Jesus, on the night that he was betrayed warned the little company of his followers,
If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.(John 15:18-20)
* Satan hates all mankind but has a special hatred for women… The devil hates women particularly, because the salvation of man would be born of a woman. This is why false religion such as Islam is so harsh and unjust to women, using and abusing them like so much chattel.
Secularism also , being Satanic, is hateful of true womanhood..What is feminism but the hatred of the truly female? It is war on motherhood, nurture, love and support of men, marriage, romance and loyalty. The greatest modern expression of the serpent’s hatred of women would have to be abortion and its twisted twin, homosexuality. Ironically this generation imagines that it has exalted the status of women, when in truth it is ruthlessly destroying it.
* But there is a typological understanding of ‘the woman’- The book of Proverbs is a revelation of God that revolves around the choice between two women, the gaudy harlot and the virtuous wife. Both women offer wisdom, and call out to the young and naive, but only one of the women is true and can lead to God. the other woman’s steps lead to death and Hell.
Revelation likewise features two metaphorical women, the appalling “great whore…mystery Babylon”, and “the Bride. The Lamb’s wife”. in scripture, woman are metaphors for spiritualities. There is a true woman, whom the serpent hates, she encompasses the true congregation of God. She is called the daughter of Zion, the Bride of the Lamb, for there is an unbroken continuity from Old to New Testaments.
The serpent hates the woman, and has always sought to defile or destroy her. This is the meaning of the hatred of Israel, the wayward wife of the LORD. This is also the reason why the true church has always been persecuted and rejected.
In the beginning of the Bible there is a talk between a woman, and a serpent in a garden, who is a fallen angel. She and her husband in effect said “yes” to the devil, and “no” to God.
At the time of the Incarnation of God, in the annunciation to Mary, we also have a conversation between a woman, and an unfallen Angel, Gabriel. She said “yes” to God, and so too did her engaged husband to be.
And at the end of the Bible, in the Revelation we have a vision of a woman, clothed in the Sun, crowned with twelve stars, writhing in agony of child-birth as a consequence of saying “yes” to God. She is confronted by a terrible dragon (this is how the serpent would develop), who hates her and her seed,seeking to destroy them.
But He can’t, for she is God’s woman.
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Well, as said, what is also analogous is that of today’s occupy movement to the original one, that of “occupy the throne of God” by a being, who like many protesters i believe, do not want strive lawfully for crowns, but seek to climb up some other way. As the devil would have God divest Himself of His rightful power and position, to “share the wealth” with the one from Hell, so these souls are at war with the principles of gaining position, and demand those who are worthy of their reward relinquish it so that the indolent can live as a wealthy man.
Their lust is for a Garden of Eden without God, in which no one has to work, or wear clothes, or where such commitments as marriage are required to enjoy sexual union, and discipline is needed to keep from being fat. Instead all just eat from the trees which grow food and whatever else is needed. But in this case the government is God, and provides all for these elite class, at the expense of the slave class who actually earn money. And the protest today is actually against the failure of their ideology, of the government to provide what this fantasy demands, and which the hippies used to seek to find in drugs.
The end of this is Hell, and its absence of anything positive and realization of the opposite, in contradistinction to those in glory, who being justified by the faith which effects works, enjoy the reward of the their labor. To the glory of God who gave it. May we seek to walk worthy of this calling, though we never will deserve salvation.
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Amen!
I always read your posts, Pastor Bill...and love them.
But Satan does not hate women.
He may hate Godly women...but he adores those women who lead men astray. He loves their wiles and curves and the movement of their bodies. He adores them because he has no evil attraction which is greater.
As the Bible says, an adulterous woman's feet run all the way down to Hell.
Check out the beauty of this verse..
Proverbs 5:3-5For the lips of a strange woman drop [as] an honeycomb, and her mouth [is] smoother than oil: But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
Thanks Rooster, I agree with your point and even referenced the evil woman in provers, however Satan hates, and despises even evil women, using them and degrading them in the procss and as in Revelation 17, when he is done with them, destroying them. But you are right in that Satan uses women effectively, “many strong men are destroyed by her, she has cast down many wounded...”(Proverbs 7)
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Of course, this is beyond our capacity to comprehend...but isn't this the source of humanities problems. Even Noah and the flood spoke of this battle.
Isn't the Fall of Man somehow tied up in this enigma.
I am re-reading the Charlesworth "Book of Enoch" for the umteenth time in trying to answer this question...
I am called to this...but the answer has yet to reveal itself.
How do I know I am called to this? I pray continuously and the Spirit always answers..."Did I not make you for this...have you not always sought this...and God?"
Just saying.
Sure would appreciate your help.
I’ve understood that it was the prospect of being able to procreate that ultimately captivated them most, an ability denied them in the created order of things, which they violated. Enoch was beseeched to relay an appeal for them to God, if I recall correctly from that book, and the response was that they would be bound in chains in the pits of Sheol and watch their sons be destroyed, that they would leave no legacy (paraphrasing).
Defiling the created order is what they did, in desiring women, in desiring progeny and otherwise tampering with and contaminating creation. The Book Of Giants, from the Dead Sea Scrolls, elaborates to the extent that can be deciphered from fragments. It’s available online, at least in part. Give it a look, maybe the understanding you feel compelled to find will be aided by that.
This is very Catholic teaching coming from a Protestant. Please consider no where does Mary say "Yes" to the angel Gabriel. Please note the text:
Comparing Joseph and Mary to Adam and Eve is simply a poor comparison. Paul rightfully compares Adam to Christ; two sinless men-one who fell in a perfect world and one who remained sinless in a fallen world. As much as the Catholics would like to compare Mary to Eve, there isn't a comparison. Mary did not make a choice. Mary was not married to Christ or her religion but to Joseph. And Eve was deceived into sinning; she didn't willfully carried out her sin.
Satan gets too much attention in my opinion. The real indiment of mankind can be found in the following verse:
Our Father, on the other hand, only seeks for our good. Every law that He has ever given us has been for our good and edification. When we fail to do the things that He would like us to do (omission) or do the things that He tells us that we shouldn't do (commission), we are rebelling against the very things that would bring about our joy and happiness. In other words, we create our own misery.
The redemptive act is a way to help us overcome our very nature through God's Holy Spirit. It is a most merciful and gracious Father that can find a way to forgive us for our very nature of constant rebellion.
I am not a catholic, Mary did NOT crush the serpent, she only said “Yes” to God when she said “Be it unto me according to thy Word” the opposite of what Eve did, and yes the ral comparison is Adam and Christ.
I never said the angel asked permission.
Reading some (many) of the discussions here I see the same arguments from the Catholics. Their line of thinking is that Mary gave God “permission” to have the Christ child. This is something that is insinuated in saying that Mary “agreed” (saying “yes”).
The scripture do NOT say that Mary said “yes”. Instead the angel only TOLD Mary what would happen ("And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,"). Mary was obedient and submissive to God's will in saying "I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.". There is no "yes" on Mary's part. Catholics would say that Mary could have refused, but then that would have made God's angel (and by de facto God) a liar. So no, that could not have happened.
Catholics are also fond of comparing Eve to Mary which is the reason for my comments. This is the basis of their belief that Mary was Co-Redeemer. If you click here you'll understand where I'm coming from. However, I suspect it won't be long before this turns into a Marianology thread and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Mary's response, btw, is exactly opposite of what Jonah did. When God told Jonah to go and preach to Nineveh, Jonah was not obedient to the word of God. Rather, Jonah went in the exact opposite direction and God had to bring Jonah around to His way of thinking.
The real lesson is that when God calls us we are either like Mary ready to be submissive to God's will or we are like Jonah ready to fight against God's will. We can do God's will either the easy way or the hard way, but in the end God will make sure we are obedient to His calling and that we bear much fruit for His kingdom.
When you say strong men are destroyed by her, that is not a truth....If the men were strong, no one could destroy them and what exactly is their responsibility in their own destruction...what are men according to you but weak willed humans that have no will to keep holy....you got a problem there pastor.. And how does that attitude differ from Islams that have men with no will keeping females prisoners cause they are so seductive the men cannot resist them. Keep them covered from head to toe and even their eyes can entice men so lets cover them up also. It seems that men need to learn to control their own passions and not blame the female cause that’s how God made her. Even in the Garden Adam had no will to say no...so lets blame the other one. and Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent....no one was responsible for their actions but it was when Adam disobeyed that got them toss out. If there is a blame, its not females they continue the species its God who made things that way according to His plan. Poor men, boo hoo hoo...
I see what you are saying Pastor Bill and agree. Satan even hates and destroys those who follow him.
Thx much...have read it many times and agree with your summary. Still have nagging questions though.
Goat granny obviously you don’t get what I am saying at all...I have spent the greater part of this series pointing out that Eve was not made responsible for the fall, Adam was, and that all of us are responsible for our own sin.
Nor am I blaming the woman for acts of immorality. “the woman” of proverbs 7 is a metaphor for the wisdom of this fallen world, and it’spower to seduce and take men to Hell, even “Strong men”(remember Sampson? He was physically strong but morally weak!) Please don’t liken me to that abomination,”Islam” because you couldn’t be further from the truth.
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