THE HUMILIATION OF THE MAN CHRIST JESUS "And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Him- “And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and SERMON XII THE DIFFICULTIES OF SCRIPTURE "En which are some things hard to be understood, which they 16 PAGE . 275 SERMON I THE FIRST PROPHECY “And E will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”—GEN. iii. 15. UCH is the first prophecy which occurs in Scripture. SUCH Adam and Eve had transgressed the simple command of their Maker; they had hearkened to the suggestions of the tempter, and eaten of the forbidden fruit. Summoned into the presence of God, each of the three parties is successively addressed; but the serpent, as having originated evil, receives first his sentence. We have, of course, no power of ascertaining the external change which the curse brought upon the serpent. The terms, however, of the sentence, "upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life,' seem to imply that the serpent had not been created a reptile, but became classed with creeping things, as a consequence of the curse. It is probable that heretofore the serpent had been remarkable for beauty and splendour, and that on this account the tempter chose it as the vehicle of his approaches. Eve, in all likelihood, was attracted 1 Gen. iii. 14. towards the creature by its loveliness; and when she found it endowed, like herself, with the power of speech, she possibly concluded that it had itself eaten of the fruit, and acquired thereby a gift which she thought confined to herself and her husband. But we may be sure, that although, to mark His hatred of sin, God pronounced a curse on the serpent, it was against the devil, who had actuated the serpent, that the curse was chiefly directed. It may be said that the serpent itself must have been innocent in the matter, and that the curse should have fallen on none but the tempter. But you are to remember that the serpent suffered not alone every living thing had share in the consequences of disobedience. And although the effect of man's apostasy on the serpent may have been more signal and marked than on other creatures, we have no right to conclude, that there was entailed so much greater suffering on this reptile as to distinguish it in misery from the rest of the animal creation. But undoubtedly it was the devil, more emphatically than the serpent, that God cursed for the seduction of man. The words, indeed, of our text have a primary application to the serpent. It is most strictly true, that, ever since the fall, there has been enmity between man and the serpent. Every man will instinctively recoil at the sight of a serpent. We have a natural and unconquerable aversion from this tribe of living things, which we feel not in respect to others, even fiercer and more noxious. Men if they find a serpent, will always strive to destroy it, bruising the head in which the poison lies; whilst the serpent will often avenge itself, wounding its assailant, if not mortally, yet so as to make it true that it bruises his heel. |