“And I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; her offspring will attack your head, and you will attack her offspring’s heel.” — Genesis 3:15
I have read this passage close to a hundred times, and I am always struck by God’s grace. The culmination of God’s creation, the ones created in his image, and for a special relationship with him, had just severed that relationship by sinning against him. But God’s thoughts are not on revenge; they are on reconciliation. In the midst of judgment, God gives the promise of redemption.
During this reading, however, I realized something I hadn’t before. As I read the passage and reflected on God’s grace, my mind jumped to the Lord’s Prayer: “and forgive us our debts, as we ourselves have forgiven our debtors.” What Jesus is telling us to pray is for God to forgive us to the exact extent that we forgive others. So if we are always forgiving, we are asking God to forgive us always, and if we are only sometimes forgiving, we are asking God to be the same towards us.
And I suddenly thought: What if Genesis 3:15 is not simply a Messianic prophecy? What if it is not meant to just display God’s grace and plan for redemption? What if this passage is also an example of how we are to react when others sin against us?
Therefore, be imitators of God (Eph. 5:1).
When someone hurts me, what is my first reaction? Are my resulting actions ones that are aimed towards revenge or are they aimed (rightly) towards reconciliation of the relationship.
And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation. (2 Cor. 5:18)
Father God, please help me to be a minister of reconciliation to the world around me. When I am offended, help me to move past the hurt and seek to reconcile my relationship with that person and my relationship with you.