Advent Day 02: Hope

FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT – MONDAY December 4, 2023

READ Genesis 3:1–15
The fall of man. Despite the bleakness of the circumstances, God injects a strong note of hope in verse 15—the first prediction of the coming of Jesus.

REFLECT
There are numerous Old Testament prophecies and promises about the coming of a Messiah.

The first comes in Genesis 3. In verse 15, God predicts that a descendant of Eve will someday come and battle the serpent who, of course, is Satan. What will the outcome be? Eve’s son will be wounded (“you will strike his heel”), but Satan will be defeated (“he will crush your head”). Here is the first prediction of the coming of Jesus. God’s words indicate that Jesus’ coming will undo the work of the serpent—of sin and all the wreckage it causes—but not without cost to Jesus.

PRAY
Thank God that he is generous and the giver of all good things. Thank him that he has always had a plan for us and for the world that he revealed to the prophets and that finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.