Easter Eggs: Promise

by Devin Dummel

This year Americans are projected to spend 14.6 billion dollars on Easter related products, a number which includes the expected 2.5 billion on Easter candy alone.  I don’t know about you, but that seems like a lot of eggs to fill and too many to hide.

Each year my boys go to their grandparents and go hunting for candy filled eggs.  With a little help from mom and dad they go home with a large bag full of sugar-packed goodies.  But the real treat comes months later – where if you’re lucky you may just find some hidden eggs with treasure left inside that were missed in the Great Easter Sugar Hunt.

Looking for Easter Eggs can be a wonderful family tradition, but in addition to being a decorated or plastic egg, an "Easter Egg" is also a term used to describe an unexpected feature in a piece of computer software, movie or a game - often included as a joke or a bonus.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be looking at some of the hidden "Easter Eggs" about Jesus in the Old Testament, and what they mean for the Easter story today. Hopefully as you and your family prepare your hearts for the Easter season, you can share not just plastic eggs filled with sugary treats but hidden “Easter Eggs” found in the Old Testament scriptures that have always been pointing us to the Easter story.

If you start at the beginning of the Old Testament scriptures, you don’t have to look far to find the first “Easter Egg”.  If you are familiar with the story of Genesis, then you know it all starts when God speaks.  As God spoke the world was created from light and darkness, land and sea, plants and animals and finally humans.  God placed the humans in the middle of his perfect creation and when it was all said and done, God looked at His handiwork and rested knowing that it was good in every way.

From that moment the humans had freedom and responsibility – a dangerous combination for sure, but at the end of each day after their work was done they would walk with God in the cool of the day.  Their relationship with God was just like His creation – good, pleasing and perfect.  This is what the world was like.  We aren’t sure how long it was like this.  It could have been a day … a year … a decade, no one really knows.  What we do know is that one day it all changed.

You’ve probably heard about THAT day.  Most of us have heard someone tell the story at some point.  The day sin entered the world.  The day we started blaming each other.  The day we turned our backs on God.  The day we realized we were naked.  The day we fell.

The consequences of sin entering God’s perfect world were severe.  The full effects are outlined in Genesis 3.  But let me share some highlights.  Because of sin …

• ·      Women now feel pain in child birth
• ·      The ground became harsher, producing less
• ·      Men now have to work hard to take care of their family
• ·      Tension between the sexes was born
• ·      And death entered God’s world for the first time.

The consequences of sin are extremely regrettable.  I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t wish to overturn the terms and conditions of sin in our world.  While we are familiar with these punishments when we reflect on Genesis 3 we often forget that we weren’t the only ones who were cursed.

So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock
    and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
    and you will eat dust
    all the days of your life.
¹⁵ And I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;

he will crush your head,
    and you will strike his heel.”

GENESIS 3:14-15

Nestled in the first curses found in scripture, tucked between the fall of humanity and Adam and Eve’s exile from God’s perfect paradise is the first “Easter Egg” pointing us to the promise of Hope we have in Jesus.

It’s easy to miss it if you don’t pay attention.  With all that’s going on in Genesis 3 it’s understandable to read over it.  But we would be wise to pay close attention to the promise that God declares even if it is found in a curse.  “I will put enmity between you and the woman ‘s offspring … he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

While the enemy may believe in the moment of “the fall” that he’s won – that he’s ruined God’s perfect creation by introducing sin and death, the reality is that he has signed his own death warrant.  The devil and all who would work against the LORD God may have won this battle, but they lost the war.

Even from this moment, from the very beginning God had planned to redeem the fallen world through the death of His Son.  While the enemy might wound Him and strike His heal.  The Son would deliver the final blow, striking the head of the enemy and declaring victory once and for all.

Jesus was never “plan B”.  In fact, the Apostle Peter tells us that “before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:20) Jesus was chosen to deliver God’s people from their sins.  What a wonderful treasure to find buried here in one of the hardest chapters of the Old Testament.

What the enemy meant for evil, God has redeemed through the event of Easter – through Jesus life, death and resurrection.  This week as a family, thing about how much God must love us to plan the story of our freedom in such detail, and over such a long time. 

His love is absolutely incredible.  So, no matter what you’re facing remember He has things under control.  You may feel like you have done something unforgiveable; or that God is done with you.  That’s simply not true.  The God who put an incredible plan in place for Jesus to come, loves you in spite of your sin.

Easter is a reminder of His love and His promise of hope for us all.