Read for This Week’s Study: Genesis 3; 2 Cor. 11:3; Rev.
12:7–9; John 8:44; Rom. 16:20; Heb. 2:14; 1 Tim. 2:14, 15.
Memory Text: “ ‘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 3:15, NKJV).
A
mid all that God had given our first parents in Eden also came
a warning: “ ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not
eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’ ” (Gen. 2:16,
17, NKJV). This warning against eating from the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil shows us that, though they were to know good, they
were not to know evil.
We certainly can understand why, can’t we?
And, too, the threat of death attached to the warning about disobedi-
ence (Gen. 2:17) would be fulfilled: they would die (Gen. 3:19). Not
only forbidden to eat from the tree, they also were driven from the
Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:24), and thus had no access to what could have
given them eternal life as sinners (Gen. 3:22).
However, amid this tragedy comes hope, which is found in Genesis
3:15, called the protoevangelium, or “the first gospel promise.” Yes, this
verse presents the first gospel promise found in the Bible, the first time
humans are told that, despite the Fall, God has made a way of escape
for us all.