MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
July 16, 2025
God’s Purposes Revealed by Inspiration
ENMITY: KEY PART OF PLAN OF REDEMPTION
Read Genesjs 3:15 for yourself (KJV or RSV). Enmity is translated from the Hebrew ‘eybah,’ meaning, “hostility; hatred.’ From ‘ayab,’ “be an adversary; enemy; foe.” (Strong’s Hebrew/Aramaic Lexicon).
It is true and universally accepted that it is because of God’s mysterious, divine LOVE that Christ, “the only-begotten Son of God” and Creator, volunteered to be offered as the Father’s sacrificial Lamb, crucified on Calvary’s cross as fallen man’s substitute and surety—the central part of the plan of redemption, but certainly not its end.
It is also equally true that divine HATRED against sin, transgression, “the mystery of iniquity,” and Satan, the author of all sin, “the father of lies and murderer from the beginning,” is as important as this love, where the plan of redemption is concerned.
It was out of divine love, omniscience, and omnipotence that God Creator made the earth first, for man, the final and crowning act of His creative power, man being the first, last, and only creature “made in the image and likeness” of God Creator. There was no inherent, intrinsic, original propensities of any kind of “enmity,” hatred, animosity in the man, Adam. The sacred record simply says after man, formed from the dust of the ground, was made a living soul, “and God saw that everything that He had made, and behold, it was VERY GOOD. And the evening and the morning were the SIXTH DAY [last day of creation]” (Gen. 1:31)
That God’s character and nature from eternity past to eternity future LOVES righteousness and HATES SIN (iniquity; transgression of the law), is clearly stated thus: Heb. 1:1-13 introduces Christ as the Son of God and Creator. In verse 8 God the Father addresses Christ, His only-begotten Son, as God! “But unto the SON, He saith, Thy throne, O GOD, is forever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom.”
Then we read: “Thou hast LOVED righteousness, and HATED iniquity; THEREFORE God, even Thy God [the Father] hath anointed Thee with an oil of gladness above Thy fellows.” And, Thou, LORD, in the beginning hast laid down the foundations of the earth: and the heavens are the works of Thine hand.” (Heb. 1: 8-10, KJV.)
Gen. 3:15 is the first and foundation of all promises and prophecies thereafter in the Bible pertaining to God’s plan of redemption.
So that when man fell by transgression in Eden, the plan of redemption “prepared before the foundations of the earth were laid,” immediately kicked in. It began with a sentence of enmity!
Notice:
“To man [Adam] the first intimation of redemption was communicated in the sentence pronounced upon Satan in the garden. The Lord declared, [Gen. 3: 15 quoted]. This sentence, uttered in the hearing of our first parents was to them a PROMISE. While it foretold WAR between man and Satan [not man against his fellowmen!], it declared that the POWER of the great adversary would FINALLY [not immediately] be BROKEN.
“Adam and Eve stood as CRIMINALS before the righteous Judge, awaiting the sentence [of death!] which transgression [through disobedience] had incurred [as its ‘wages’]; but before they heard of the LIFE OF TOIL AND SORROW which must be their portion, or the decree that they must RETURN TO THE DUST [not to heaven], they listened to words that COULD NOT FAIL TO GIVE THEM HOPE. Though they must suffer the power of their mighty foe, they could LOOK FORWARD TO FINAL VICTORY.” (End quote from Patriarchs & Prophets, pp. 65, 66).
Without this new principle of enmity placed between fallen man and Satan immediately after the fall, the plan of redemption could not proceed to unfold thereafter, according to God’s wisdom and plan!
Be sure to study carefully, harness and cherish this ENMITY without which victory over sin and Satan can never be achieved! It is never to be employed against our fellow fallen, finite, fellow mortals but against sin and Satan exclusively!
To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.
