The First Sunday in Lent - February
Reverse the Curse
I began the sermon by noting the first chapters are essential to establishing a Bible, Christian worldview. Chapter 1 and 2 tell us about God’s beautiful creation, the one from a cosmic point of view and chapter 2 an up-close description of God creating the first man and woman. He calls everything that he makes “good” except for the man and woman whom he calls very good.
Chapter three gives the account of YHWH dealing with the man and woman’s doubting of His Word. They were told not to eat of the tree that is in the midst of the garden nor touch it. The serpent claims to the woman that if she eats it her eyes will be opened and she will be like God, knowing good and evil. She eats this fruit and gives some to her husband. Then they know that they are naked.
YHWW responds by cursing the serpent, the woman, and the man. The serpent will eat dust and his head will be crushed, though he will nip at the heal of the woman’s seed. The woman will have pain in childbirth, reminding us that pain foundationally defines the life we live. To the man YHWH says that work will be hard and it will wear him down.
The word used for curse is אָרַר ararh, and entails the connotation of paralysis and binding up. In other words, it’s not like I have described previously as in disintegrating and falling apart. Rather, under the curse this creation does not flourish the way it should. Things are stifled. Things are muted. Things are tightly wound up.
I next transition to the slide with an image of the earth coming back together and put the verses from Matthew 27 over them: “ 51And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, (Matthew 27:51–52). When Jesus dies there is release from this אָרַר ararh. The earthquake manifests this. Jesus death releases this creation from the curse. We await the fulfillment of this release when he comes again!