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Let us pray. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15.22 Dear Lord, You are the author of life. The closer we are to You, the closer we are to truly living. Sometimes I can get caught up in patterns of brokenness and sin. This is the old me, the pattern set by Adam and Eve.
I do not want to follow in their footsteps by rebelling against you. I want to walk the path of Christ and be led by the Spirit to resist temptation and live a life of purpose. Empower me, Lord, and may your kindness continually lead me to repentance. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for praying with me today. Stay tuned now for another episode of Stories of the Messiah with Rabbi Schneider. Where are you?
The voice that spoke earth and sea into existence called out to him, and instead of feeling comforted, he felt terrified. Adam's legs shook, and he immediately ran through the forest to escape his creator. Shame is what drove him away. Shame is what caused him to flee like a deer from a lion. Adam no longer felt safe. Whatever greatness he was destined for dissipated.
He leapt into the bushes and curled into a ball. He covered his ears, unable to escape the resounding voice booming from the trees. Adam. Welcome to the Stories of the Messiah podcast. I'm Rabbi Schneider with Discovering the Jewish Jesus, here to guide you through the season, Jesus the Greater. This will be an epic adventure through the Old and New Testaments. I am constantly blown away by the greatness of Jesus interwoven into the fabric of Scripture.
This series will showcase cinematic settings of the most prominent heroes of the Bible. We will listen to the highs and lows of their lives, then unpack what they mean together. As we dive into their stories, we'll discover one abiding and never-ending truth. Jesus is the greatest hero of all. Noah, Moses, David, and Daniel are all but fractured images of the long-awaited Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Today's episode begins, well, at the beginning. God formed Adam and Eve and gave them a purpose, to partner with him in unity, tend to creation, and multiply on the earth to fill it with God's image bearers. But God gave Adam and Eve a choice. They could follow in his ways or seize autonomy and live for themselves. The choice was tempting, and an enemy lurking in the shadows made it all the more enticing.
Let's jump into the story of Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve meet a strange creature seeking to lure them away from God. The morning was enveloped with a refreshing coolness. The forest mist carried different scents of wild berries and blooming flowers. As Adam and Eve walked in the garden, something caught Eve's eye near the forbidden tree. She approached it slowly, all the while admiring its mesmerizing beauty.
Its fruit was gorgeous, perfectly ripe for the picking. Eve's head cocked to the side as she scanned the tree. Coiled around the trunk was a brilliantly colored serpent. Eve wasn't afraid. She didn't yet know how to fear. Instead, she approached the snake and innocently gazed up at it. What are you? She asked. The creature responded with an indecipherable hiss.
His voice was like the echoes of a thousand whispers. Eve watched as the serpent's body slithered up the trunk and into the leaves. Then, slowly and methodically, its head emerged from the top. His eyes were filled with cunning and deceit.
His long tail draped over the branches and caressed the fruit. "Did God really say you couldn't eat any fruit in this garden?" the serpent asked innocently, masking his sinister and crafty plot. Eve furrowed her brow. "No, we can eat of every tree except this one. We can't even touch this tree, or we will die." The serpent scoffed. "Ah! You will not surely die?"
The serpent coiled his tail around one of the branches and bent it closer to Eve. She looked at it for a long while, pondering the serpent's words.
Adam had caught up to Eve and watched her from a distance. He inched his way forward, silently enticed by the serpent's words. Eve looked at Adam, then back at the fruit. She raised her hand and touched the fruit. Nothing happened. She didn't die when she felt it. It must have been a lie after all, she whispered. Deception and doubt coiled around her heart. She plucked the fruit from the tree and held it in her palm. I can be like God, she whispered.
Then, as a decisive act to claim autonomy from her creator, Eve took a bite of the fruit. Dark red juices dripped down her chin and hands. It was the sweetest fruit she had ever tasted. She did not realize that the bitterness would come afterward. She looked back at her husband, who was meant to care for her soul and help her live in God's will. She held the fruit up to him. "It's delicious!" she said with a crimson-stained smile. "Taste and see for yourself." Adam approached Eve, then peered up at the serpent.
He gently raised the fruit to his lips and took a bite. Adam knew what he was doing. God had made himself clear. This was a deliberate act to be like God. They had been deceived into thinking God was holding back from them, and perhaps something better awaited them if they separated themselves from him. They were tragically mistaken. It came shortly after he ate it. It felt like a tightened grip on Adam's heart, as something invisible was squeezing the divinity from him.
What followed was the immediate feeling of overwhelming and soul-crushing shame. Adam didn't just feel naked, he felt vulnerable. He looked at his bride and saw the same terror and sadness in her eyes. They cowered from each other, taking leaves from nearby trees and wrapping them around themselves. They didn't want to be exposed. They no longer felt naked and unashamed.
There was another distance they felt. A distance between them and the one who had fashioned them. God's presence used to feel just as close as their own heartbeats. But now, they didn't quite know where he was until Adam heard the gentle whisper echo within the forest. "Adam, where are you?" The voice that spoke earth and sea into existence called out to him, and instead of feeling comforted, he felt terrified.
Adam's legs shook, and he immediately ran through the forest to escape his creator. Shame is what drove him away. Shame is what caused him to flee like a deer from a lion. Adam no longer felt safe. Whatever greatness he was destined for dissipated. He leapt into the bushes and curled up into a ball. He covered his ears, unable to escape the resounding voice booming from the trees. Adam. Adam.
Adam's chest was heavy. His whole body shook in fear. He knew there was no escaping God's gaze. He raised his head from the bushes and replied, Here I am. Adam emerged from his hiding place. He looked at Eve. Fear had overtaken her as well. I heard a sound approaching, and I became afraid, because I'm naked and vulnerable. Who told you that you were naked? God replied, but he knew the answer. He had seen it all.
In an attempt to draw repentance out of his image bearers, God asked, "Did you eat the fruit I commanded you not to eat?" Adam was faced with another challenge of character. Would he bow before God and beg for forgiveness, or would he choose the cowardly way out? With a mouse-like voice, he pointed to Eve and said, "The woman that you gave me offered me the fruit." And there it was, betrayal. Adam was supposed to be Eve's covering and lover, but sin had already sunk its teeth into him.
Rather than take responsibility, he passed it on. God turned to Eve. Disappointment and sorrow were in the air. "Eve, what have you done?" he whispered. Eve's knees crumbled and she looked up at the branches. The serpent hid in the tree's shadows. "The serpent lied to me!" she said with a frantic voice. The Lord's power howled like a mighty wind and shook the tree. The serpent fell to the ground and writhed in pain.
The Lord's voice descended upon the enemy and declared, "Because you have done this, cursed are you. You shall eat dust all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers. A son will be born from her, and he will crush your head, and you shall bruise his heel." God turned to Adam and Eve and proclaimed curses over them. Childbirth would be painful, and tending the ground would be arduous.
The land would no longer yield food easily. Then the two were banished from the garden, so they would not seize the tree of life and live eternally in sin and shame. God slew an animal and clothed them, and the rest of the days were spent pining after paradise. Yet there was still hope, a promise of a future son who would crush the head of the serpent. The tragedy of Adam and Eve matches our own.
They gave into temptation and chose a path apart from God. We too find ourselves east of Eden, pining after paradise again, but hindered by our sin. We search for Eden everywhere: relationships, substances, careers and technology. But they all fall short, don't they? The false Edens never give us what they promise, and the pain of separation from God only grows within us.
Adam and Eve fell for the serpent's lie that they could be like God. They thought they could be the masters of their own destinies. They were gravely mistaken. It's easy for all of us to fall into this trap, isn't it? We want to be the masters of our own lives and seize control over God. Yet every attempt only draws us further away from paradise.
Our ministry, Discovering the Jewish Jesus, has been dedicated for years to searching out for the hope of Christ in these stories. And we see that hope here in the tale of the fall. Hidden within this tale of tragedy is a kernel of hope, a whisper of redemption. Did you notice it? God promised that one day Adam and Eve's son would crush the serpent's head. This was the first prophecy of a promised hero greater than Adam.
As generations passed, mankind continually gave into the same temptation as Adam and Eve. Humanity descended further into darkness, struggling to return to God. But then, one day, a new figure appeared in Israel, proclaiming truth, love, and unity with God.
The serpent would visit this hero just like he did Adam and Eve. He wanted to draw him away from his purpose. Would this new hero give in like his forefather Adam? Let's look together. The midday sun shone harshly upon the barren wilderness. Jesus, prompted by the Holy Spirit, trod alone, his silhouette casting a long shadow across the sands. He'd been fasting alone in the wilderness for 40 days, and the hunger gnawed at his stomach.
Suddenly, the wind picked up again, carrying a cold, unsettling presence. Jesus paused, eyes scanning the dunes until they rested on a figure slithering from dried-out trees. His eyes, filled with cunning and deceit, reflected the relentless sun. He spoke with an indecipherable hiss.
His voice was like the echoes of a thousand whispers. "If you are the Son of God," the devil began, a small, cruel smile playing at his lips. "Command this stone to become bread." The devil gestured at a desolate rock, its surface hardened and weathered by the elements. Jesus met the devil's gaze with quiet strength. He glanced at the rock, but made no move towards it.
"Man shall not live by bread alone," he quoted, his voice carrying authority despite his apparent physical weakness. Undeterred, the devil raised his hand and the arid desert transformed into a mountaintop, revealing all the kingdoms of the world bathed in the twilight. "All this authority and their glory can be yours," the devil proposed, his voice hissing across the landscape.
All you need to do is worship me. Again, Jesus stood unyielding. You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve, he retorted. With a swift gesture, they were transported atop the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem. Persistent in his temptation, the devil quoted scripture, using it as a weapon. If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written...
"That God will command his angels to guard you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone." Jesus remained unswayed by the devil's theatrics. His voice was firm and unyielding as he countered. "It is said, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'" The devil fell silent, his dark eyes narrowing as he scrutinized Jesus.
He did not have the sway with Jesus as he once did with the ancestors of old. He stepped back, then, without a word, vanished. Now a gentle breeze, the wind carried the devil's defeated energy away as it swept over the land. He would return, but Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, remained steadfast, ready to resist his cunning temptations and crush his head under his heel. Where Adam and Eve failed, Jesus succeeded.
He did not give in to the temptation of the serpent. Instead, Jesus brought the perfect will of God to earth. He tended to the hurting and broken. He spoke truth to the souls of men and women. And finally, after living a perfect life, he set his eyes towards the serpent seeking to crush his head. But just as the prophecy foretold, he would not defeat the serpent without first being bruised. He was crucified to rid humanity of sin and shame.
He endured the cross with joy to undo what Adam did long ago. He did what Adam failed to do. He chose the providential path toward peace with God, even if it meant suffering. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul described Adam as the first man who represents the old us, caught up in sin, shame, and brokenness. Yet Jesus is the second man who overcame sin, death, and chaos.
Adam brought death, but Jesus brought life because he rose above evil instead of succumbing to it. Those who have entrusted in Jesus share Adam's fate, doomed to walk the path east of Eden, always searching for paradise but never attaining it. However, anyone who trusts Jesus gets to share in his victory over sin, shame, and darkness. They get to be ushered into heaven, restored to Eden,
Have you been living in the pattern of the first man, Adam? Have you tried repeatedly to find purpose and unity with God, but failed? I've got good news for you. The second man is greater than the first. Jesus is the greater Adam. Thank you for joining me today in this journey. Join us next time as we go forward one generation to Adam's sons, Cain and Abel. We'll go through the tragedy of Abel's life and the corruption of Cain's heart.
to see that Jesus is not only the greater Abel, but the greater Cain.
If you want more resources on Jesus and the Old Testament, visit us at discoveringthejewishies.com. Another resource you might find impactful is my new book, Messianic Prophecy Revealed, Seeing Messiah in the Pages of the Hebrew Bible, which can be found on my website, discoveringthejewishies.com. If you've enjoyed today's podcast, leave us a review and share it with a friend. We want the story of the Bible and the hope of Jesus to be spread to the whole world.
To make prayer a priority and hear more stories that inspire hope, visit pray.com.