Right after the fall from grace in the Garden of Eden we read in Genesis 3:15 of God speaking to the serpent (Satan): “And I will put enmity between you (Satan) and the woman, between your offspring and hers (humanity); he will strike your head (you will be defeated) and you will bruise his heel (Christ will suffer crucifixion.)
I sometimes wish that the Old Testament did not use the word “Old”. “Old” many times means something that has seen better days, is outdated and has been replaced by something new. And most often that is true. In the case of Scripture however, these normal connotations of “old” do not fit. Immediately after what we call the “Fall in the Garden”—Adam and Eve’s wanting to be like God knowing good and evil—God shared his “recovery plan” the gifting of his son to redeem the world. So yes, the “Old” Testament is old in the sense that it comes before the New Testament, but the message of the Old Testament is “new”, it is God’s rescue plan for you and me!
In our worship we frequently do not read a lesson from the Old Testament although one is provided for each Sunday. Time constraints being what they are, or what we have may them to be, rob us from hearing how our God’s love for us has always existed, that this love did not just begin when Christ as born. So, for this coming Sunday, Trinity Sunday, we have this early Genesis reading of God defeating Satan coupled in the New Testament with Jesus defeating evil named Beelzebub. The point is simply God has always been victorious, the creature can never destroy the creator.
The meaning this has for us is to strengthen our confidence that from the beginning of time God has been in charge, God has been ruling, and is still doing so today. That is not “old” news, that is as new as it gets! That is what we need to hear day after day.
Thank you, God, for creating us and when we fell you picked us up! You give us hope for today and confidence to walk into tomorrow. Your “old” message comes to us “new” every day.
Pastor Jerry
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