Genesis 3:15

“And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.”

I would like to take you on a journey with me back to the beginning, before there was time when a Holy God would walk and talk with His creatures (Adam & Eve) in the cool of the day.Then it was possible to stand in His presence because mankind had no sin in them…they were righteous. But then Satan came with his temptation to doubt God, and Eve took a bite.

Adam knew he was breaking Gods law when he took the bite offered him by Eve. He ate of the forbidden fruit because his love for his wife was greater than his fear of God. Whatever this action would bring, Adam would accept the consequences and STAND with his wife whom he loved more than his own life. God would have to judge them together.

You know the story. Adam and Eve together brought in Original Sin that doomed the human race to be born once but to die twice, physically and then spiritually forever. The human race was no longer righteous and could not STAND before their God and walk with Him in the cool of the day.

In the garden mankind enjoyed the ultimate expression of what they were created for…to have a personal relationship with their Creator and to STAND in His presence.

This broken relationship would not be resolved again for thousands of years.

God instituted a sacrificial system of blood that would require the death of an innocent animal to pay for the sin of a guilty person. Blood would be required as a covering for sin. God became unapproachable. Man could no longer see Him or STAND before Him without paying his own sin penalty. “The Wages of SIN Is Death”.

When Eve took that forbidden bite, mankind’s guarantee of spending an eternity with God ended and time as we know it began. You would think this was the end of the story, but it wasn’t. God had a plan to bring His people back to a personal relationship with Him, so they could STAND in His presence again without fear.

So He chose a nation of people who would come to know Him and then be responsible to present HIM to the rest of the nations of the world. The nation is Israel, a people that God calls the apple of His Eye and the focus of His love.

Through the writings of Prophets God provided Messianic Prophecies of a coming Redeemer a Messiah, the anointed One who would save both Israel and the nations of the world from their sins. Someone who would recreate this relationship between the Creator and His creatures.

These prophecies would be sign posts that would allow the Jews to recognize the coming Messiah. The prophecies would provide information that would fit only one person in all of human history centuries before His birth.

When He was to be born, His ancestry, birth time, forerunner, birthplace, birth manner, infancy, manhood, teaching character, career, preaching, reception, rejection, sufferings, death, burial, resurrection and ascension were all prewritten in the most marvelous manner centuries before He was born in the Old Testament.

Yet when the Messiah finally came, fulfilling every Messianic prophecy given by God for people to recognize Him…they missed it and still do.

Then Jesus stepped out into the World from the pages of the Prophets. Jesus the Messiah brought Redemption through His death on the Cross as depicted in Isaiah 53; a death that was prophesied hundreds of years before in Daniel Ch.9 vs. 26.

All the Old Testament sacrifices weren’t the point. They POINTED to a God who forgives, not a god who trades sins for sacrifices. Not a god who “sells” forgiveness, but a God of loving kindness, justice and grace.

God demonstrated His grace by becoming the perfect sacrifice. He came for save you.

The last words of Jesus, the words heard throughout the Universe were “IT IS FINISHED”. Those words were not whispered from a dying Lamb, but were ROARED by the LION of the Tribe of Judah…and the Temple Veil that had separated God from Man was torn in half.

Now every man, woman and child who placed their faith in the Son of God as their Savior could now STAND in the presence of God and in the future walk with HIM in the cool of the day.