The First Sunday in Lent
March 5, 2017
Text: Genesis 3:1-21
Theme: “Craft Show”
Craft shows—are they still around or has all the craftiness gravitated to sites like
Pinterest? I’m sure they must be around. Isn’t it much better to be able to see in real time,
to pick up the object and closely investigate the craftsmanship? People can put a lot of
time into their crafts. You take a little ordinary material, maybe some wood, a little paint,
and a few screws and you have a duck, actually a duck to hold those things you used to get
in the mail, but now electronically. Or you take a little yarn, and a little paint and you have
finger puppets. I got these at the last craft show I was at, probably ten years ago. There
are many more amazing items out there.
Crafting is the skilled shaping of materials. You can produce some nice creations.
Well, yes, and no. We consider them creations because the ideas came out of our heads,
but in a biblical sense, the only One who creates is the Creator. He begins with nothing
and produces quite something. Really all we can do is work with creation in crafting.
In our text today we see the crafty one. It remains me of Minecraft. Now I’m not
saying that the game Minecraft is of the devil. But as he would do with all things he would
delight in crafting it for evil. The text reminded me of Minecraft only because of the craft
part. I really know very little about the game, as is the case with me and all video games.
But since it popped into my head I do a little googling and I learned it is a sandbox game.
Now it is not a good idea to take your hand held devices into the sandbox, no, I learned
the sandbox genre of video games are those you play with no set objectives in mind. You
just mine and craft, among many other things. It’s like children playing in a sandbox with
each doing something different than the child beside him.
The crafty one makes appeal to the sandbox concept. “Just come and play; have
some fun!” “It will be great. Better than you have it now.” This one comes into God’s
creation and tells the woman that God’s good world could be, well, better. This new world
was filled with God’s creations, God’s wonders. It was different than now, these days of
all good in this world made from nothing in six days by God’s Word. In this creation God
planted a garden, and he made a man to work that garden. Then from the man He made
the woman, and it was all good—very good.. There were no swirling sand, no struggles,
disappointments, no sin.
And then the crafty one appears. The word translated “crafty” (~Wr[', ‘arum) has
both a positive and negative sense. If positive “prudent” might be the translation. If there
is evil intent then we get “crafty” or “sly” or “sneaky” or “tricky.” This is a new craft, a
self-acquired one. The devil was a part of the good. Somehow he decided good was not
good enough. It would be better not to be subject to God, be your own authority. He
rebelled. Now he had the self-taught art of the lie. He was in the earlier stages of
developing his expertise. Jesus tells us in John 8 (vs 44) that the devil was a murderer and
the father of lies. He’s always wanted to expand his realm.
So there in the midst of all that good he tries to put a new twist on God’s Word. He
has a question for the woman there in the garden. It could be she was in the act of picking
fruit and eating it with her husband close be. ‘Really, really now, did God really say, “you
shall not eat of any tree in the garden?” (vs 1) ‘No, not really what He said, what He said
was, “You shall not eat of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch
it, lest you die.” (vs 3) ‘No, no, dear thing, that’s not what’s going on here.’ “You shall
not surely die. For God knows when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will
be like God, knowing good and evil.” (vs 5) ‘You can be like me, your own authority.’
So she thought about it. Seems like she took a good, long contemplative look at that
fruit and concluded that it was good for food, a delight to the eye, and to be desired for
making one wise. (vs 6) So she took and she ate and she gave to her husband and he ate,
and…the eyes of both were opened, opened to see evil. Before they had nothing to hide,
but now they make a hurried attempt to hide. They try their hand at the sewing craft and
then when they hear God coming they try to hide their poorly clothed selves among the
trees of the garden. They were driven to hide, or at least to try.
It was disastrous. Even though the devil was new at his craft, he really had knack for
it. Now there was just sand all over and sand has a way of getting into the tiniest crevices.
Before where there was only joy and contentment now there will be sorrow and
frustration. For the woman there would be pain in childbearing, and pain in her
relationship with her husband. She would now find his leadership a source of frustration
instead of such a blessing. The man will find the ground to be cursed now, cursed because
of him. There will now be thorns and thistles where before there was corn and carrots
(and whatever he was growing). There would be the sweat of hard labor for the trade off
of bread. And it would be back to the dust. And not just for that man, no, for all of us.
“Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to
all men because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12—epistle lesson) Now the man and woman run
from God instead of to Him.
Now has the world become the devil’s sandbox? He would like to think he has total
control. In this fallen creation people are like kids in a sandbox. Each takes his place to
follow the imagination of his heart. It is more “mindcraft” than “minecraft.” We do mine
from the depths of our minds and build away and we are obsessed with the notion of
“mine!” People are not playing nice in the box. “Hey, I was here first.” “I was using that
shovel!” Castles are knocked down in ridicule or actuality and sand is kicked in the face.
The old evil foe tempts our old sinful nature to craft away. The sky is the limit.
“Reach, take the bite. It’s what you want, your way, so go for it!”
So it has been
happening down through the ages. The devil has probably gotten better at this craft. Cain
decided he was his own authority when he kills his brother, his executioner, not his keeper.
The people on the plain of Shinar decide to build a tower reaching to the sky to make a
name for themselves, no God needed. Tyrants have decided that they are the only god
which they or anyone else would ever need.
So it goes on today in the sandbox. God’s design of creation is ignored. We’ll just
try to fit together things they way we like them even when they don’t fit, individual taste
and desire being the rule. Do want you want to do there in your section of the sandbox.
Take a good look, if it looks good to eat, desirable to the eye, and the wise thing to do, by
all means take a bite. But how well does the sand go down?
What is there to show for such craft in the end? Apart from the Creator there is only
frustration, pain, and conflict, so much dust and sand. And time is short, short in this
world. It will be back to the dust, just a little pile in the sandbox. The crafty one knows
that his time for crafting is short in the eternal scheme. He wants to stir up as much sand
as possible.
His days are numbered. In fact he’s already been defeated. The accursed one will
on day be relegated to the lake of fire. The crafty one has been put under foot already. We
look back to our text and notice who is not cursed. The snake is cursed, and the ground is
cursed because of the man, but the man and the woman are not. Yes, they live under the
cruse, yet they are the object of God’s blessing. Unlike the snake they have a hope and a
future. There in the garden God acts in mercy and compassion. He knows their new need
for clothing and He provides. It did come at the cost of the life of animals. There was a
better clothing to come and it would come at a much higher cost.
The promised see of the woman (vs 15) comes in the fullness of time, comes to
redeem those under the curse of sin. He meets the crafty one head on. The evil one is
eager to show his deceptive craft to this very Son of God. They meet in the sandbox of
the wilderness. Satan does his best to bring the worst. There are three rounds and at the
end if is Seed of the Woman—3, snake, 0. There were more rounds to come. Matthew
tells us that when the temptations were over, the angels came to minister to Jesus (Matthew
4:11--I think they may have given Him food and drink). Luke tells us the devil left Him
until an opportune time (Luke 4:13). He would come in all his craftiness to attack through
both friend and foes, those who had their ideas of what the ideal life in the sandbox would
be.
But the Son of God, the seed of the woman, remains spotless and clean. Through all
that swirling sand of temptation He comes through perfectly. He is completely, always in
the Father’s will. He would never have a reason to hide in shame. His was a crushing
obedience. He would be obedient to death even death on a cross. There in that shameful
place He was bearing all our sin. And the crafty one thought that was great, after all, had
he not put it into the heart of Judas to betray Jesus? But his howl of delight would give
way to the scream of defeat. He, this One crucified, dead and buried was now alive, alive
right there before him on his homecourt of hell.
Soon He would be alive on earth and showing Himself to many witnesses. Then He
would ascend to the right hand of the Father, and then He would pour out the Spirit as
promised, and then the message would go out of repentance and forgiveness of sins
throughout the ages and the world beginning in Jerusalem. People would be freed from
the curse of sin and death—throughout the world, not just in one place—what a sad day
for the crafty one. He tries to keep things stirred as long as possible. But we don’t have
to stand in his little whirlwind.
There is re-creation, oasis in the desert. It’s true for us as individual believers. We
are new creations in Christ. We are branches in the True Vine of our Lord. It’s true for us
a part of the body of Christ. Here we come to this haven, the haven when our Lord comes
to us to refresh and strengthen us. Yet not a haven to hide in, also a harbor to launch
from to serve Him as His servants bringing that freeing message to more. And one day,
the Garden renewed, better. Our Lord comes and there will be no more sand, no desert,
now the new heavens and the new earth.
Satan shows his craft and he’s quite good at it, the best at evil. But we rest securely
in the promises of our Lord as His new creations. To bite the bait of the devil is to bite
the dust. We feed on the promises of our Lord and what we have to show for it is life.
For Jesus’ sake. Amen