Day One
A very happy 1st December to you all! Thank you for joining us on day one of our devotional leading up to Christmas Day!
This season was birthed out of a desire to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ; a birth that is still transforming the world today.
What you may not know is that this birth was spoken about long before it ever happened. Right at the beginning of time, recorded in the very first book of the Bible, we find the first occurrence where the birth of Jesus is spoken about.
Following the serpent deceiving Eve (the first woman ever created) and getting her to eat from the tree that God had told her and Adam not to eat from, God spoke to the serpent and said, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” (Genesis 3:14-15 NKJV)
This can seem pretty complex at first glance, but when you dig a little deeper, you realise that there is more to it than meets the eye…
The serpent all throughout the Bible is used as a picture of the devil. So when God here is addressing the serpent, He is addressing more than an animal, He’s addressing the devil himself. Then God speaks about the seed of a woman. This is describing a child born to her.
We know from the Bible that the lineage of Jesus can be traced all the way back to Adam and Eve, making Him a descendant of theirs.
So the devil is the serpent and Jesus is the seed. Now notice what the seed will do to the serpent… He will bruise its head. Another translation of this Bible verse says that He will crush its head!
This victory would take place several thousand years later when Jesus would put right what Adam and Eve put wrong, by dying on a cross as the payment for humanity’s wrongdoing. This was the serpent bruising Jesus’ heel… Jesus had to go through indescribable pain in order to pay for our wrongdoings and although He suffered, He was not defeated because three days later, He would defeat the devil by conquering death and being raised back to life in order to offer us life through a relationship with God. What was once lost through Adam and Eve’s disobedience is now made available through Jesus’s obedience and His sacrifice on our behalf.
When we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we celebrate the birth of a Saviour. We celebrate the birth of a Conqueror. We celebrate the birth of the One who made a way for you and I to be in relationship with God our Creator.
The birth of Jesus is so much more than a school nativity and it’s so much more than a date on a calendar. It’s the fulfilment of something spoken about since day one. This occurrence in Genesis is the first of hundreds of prophecies that all spoke about a Saviour who was to come. And for you and I today, He has come and He’s still doing what He’s always done, inviting you and I into a relationship with God Himself.
Accept the invitation today and allow His story to transform yours.
This season was birthed out of a desire to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ; a birth that is still transforming the world today.
What you may not know is that this birth was spoken about long before it ever happened. Right at the beginning of time, recorded in the very first book of the Bible, we find the first occurrence where the birth of Jesus is spoken about.
Following the serpent deceiving Eve (the first woman ever created) and getting her to eat from the tree that God had told her and Adam not to eat from, God spoke to the serpent and said, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” (Genesis 3:14-15 NKJV)
This can seem pretty complex at first glance, but when you dig a little deeper, you realise that there is more to it than meets the eye…
The serpent all throughout the Bible is used as a picture of the devil. So when God here is addressing the serpent, He is addressing more than an animal, He’s addressing the devil himself. Then God speaks about the seed of a woman. This is describing a child born to her.
We know from the Bible that the lineage of Jesus can be traced all the way back to Adam and Eve, making Him a descendant of theirs.
So the devil is the serpent and Jesus is the seed. Now notice what the seed will do to the serpent… He will bruise its head. Another translation of this Bible verse says that He will crush its head!
This victory would take place several thousand years later when Jesus would put right what Adam and Eve put wrong, by dying on a cross as the payment for humanity’s wrongdoing. This was the serpent bruising Jesus’ heel… Jesus had to go through indescribable pain in order to pay for our wrongdoings and although He suffered, He was not defeated because three days later, He would defeat the devil by conquering death and being raised back to life in order to offer us life through a relationship with God. What was once lost through Adam and Eve’s disobedience is now made available through Jesus’s obedience and His sacrifice on our behalf.
When we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we celebrate the birth of a Saviour. We celebrate the birth of a Conqueror. We celebrate the birth of the One who made a way for you and I to be in relationship with God our Creator.
The birth of Jesus is so much more than a school nativity and it’s so much more than a date on a calendar. It’s the fulfilment of something spoken about since day one. This occurrence in Genesis is the first of hundreds of prophecies that all spoke about a Saviour who was to come. And for you and I today, He has come and He’s still doing what He’s always done, inviting you and I into a relationship with God Himself.
Accept the invitation today and allow His story to transform yours.