Adam was created as the heir of the world.
When Adam came under the sentence of death who would be the heir of the world?
When God spoke to the serpent he cursed the serpent and in the context of cursing the serpent he promised that the offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent.
Would the offspring of the woman then become the heir of the world?
The promise was not made explicit to Adam, neither the man nor the woman.
God did not address the man nor the woman with this promise that the offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, nor was there any offspring of the woman there at that time to be addressed personally by God with this promise.
When God made the promise he was only addressing the serpent, and was therefore making the promise to the serpent in the sense that he was making the promise against the serpent, to curse the serpent.
It might be thought to be implicit in this promise made against the serpent that there was a promise being made to the offspring of the woman as a blessing, but there was no one present at that time to receive this promise as a blessing.
It could not be that Adam, either the man or the woman or both, would have been intended to receive the promise as a blessing on behalf of the offspring of the woman as Adam was already under the sentence of death and was being cursed at that very time by God in connection with that sentence of death.
It might be said that the curse of God pronounced upon the man and the curse of God pronounced upon the woman were in some way a mitigation of the sentence of death in that they did not immediately die the moment they came before God after that they sinned but instead were told that they would suffer in various ways for days until they did finally die. Thus the curse might be understood as an interpretation of the sentence by the Judge which provided for a temporary stay of execution and this could be thought of as a kind of blessing. Again, this understanding would be do to an interpretation, not to a direct or explicit expression or promise being given to Adam.
Anyone who had this understanding would have to hope that it was true and wait to see if there was really the sense of blessing and the hope of blessing for Adam concealed in the curse by waiting to see what God said or did further.
What would this have to do with the promise made against the serpent that the offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent?
Clearly, if there would be a blessing in this for the offspring of the woman then this blessing would have to do with Adam, the man and the woman, as the woman would have to live long enough to bear offspring in order for this promise to be kept. Therefore, it could be thought that the possible extension of time or temporary stay of execution of Adam was for the sake of allowing the woman to bear offspring in order that this promise be kept.
Why else would Adam be given a certain amount of days to live unless it was in order to overcome the serpent that had overcome them?
Still, Adam, the man, was not blessed with a promise that he would overcome the serpent. And Adam, the woman, also was not blessed with a promise that she would overcome the serpent.
Instead, a promise was made that the offspring of the woman would overcome the serpent. Was it only incidental that this offspring was referred to as the offspring of the woman and not as the offspring of Adam? Indeed, it could be thought from this that it was being implied that the offspring referred to would be the heir of the world in place of Adam.
If as a result of crushing the head of the serpent it were being implied that the offspring of the woman would live and not die, or else live again, then clearly, in contrast to the man and the woman about whom no promise was made that they would overcome the serpent, the offspring of the woman would become the heir of the world.
Yet again, while a promise of God was made here against the serpent, and God cannot lie, no promise was made here as a blessing being given explicitly to anyone, even though it would appear that someone must be blessed through the victory of the offspring of the woman over the serpent.
If anyone were to deduce that the possibility of repentance for Adam and of annulling the sentence of death entirely should be assumed from the fact and form of the curses made upon the woman, the man and the serpent they would be in danger of agreeing with the serpent that the sentence of death was not certain but could be altered.
Even the fact that when God promised that the head of the serpent would be crushed he did not say that the head of the offspring of the woman would be crushed but only that the heel of the offspring of the woman would be crushed or bruised cannot be taken to mean that the sentence of death for Adam could be altered. For God must be believed to mean what he says.
Thus, while there remains a certain sentence of death and while there is also a promise that the offspring of the woman will overcome the serpent all remains at the point of the curse still in a cloak of concealment with what God will say and do in the end being a mystery.
Into this exact situation come Noah and Shem as witnesses of hope and bearers of vindicated faith.
For without any other knowledge or revelation than this there were those who walked with God. There were those from Adam and Eve to Seth and Enoch unto Noah who repented just for the sake of repentance and in so doing prepared themselves for what God was going to say and going to do.
This is the tradition that Noah and Shem brought with them from the other side of the Flood of Judgment to this side, and in this tradition they were prepared for the day of the special revelation when God called Abraham out of the land of the Chaldeans and, for the first time since Adam came under the sentence of death, made a promise directly and personally to anyone to bless them and make them a blessing.
The school of Shem and Eber, therefore, is the place of Abraham, the place where Abraham stands out as the recipient of the Good News of the promise of blessing and of certain life against the backdrop of the sentence of death and against the cloak of concealment created by the curse and the judgment of the flood, cloaking the hope that there would be a redeemer and a redemption for Adam.
What then is the promise made to Abraham and to his offspring? It is nothing other than the promise of the resurrection of the dead! And in this promise is the promise of the victory of the offspring of the woman over the serpent.
For so long as the promise against the serpent was not made personally to Adam or any child of Adam it even remained uncertain what the outcome of the destruction of the serpent would be. Once, however, that the promise of blessing was given to a certain child of Adam, that is to say, to Abraham it became clear that it was the intent of the promise made against the serpent by God from the beginning to bring life out of death through the offspring of the woman.
To this end Noah and Shem stand to testify about the place of Abraham and to bear witness that through Abraham and the promise given to him their hope which was cloaked and uncertain as to whom it applied is made clear and certain as applying to the offspring of Abraham and through this to the blessing of all the world. As it was said to him, “through you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Having then the confirmation of their faith through the Good News given unto Abraham that by the offspring of the woman was meant the firstborn of Adam as the heir of the world and that this firstborn should be, as the one who would defeat the serpent, the great priest unto God, Shem became a priest of this faith for Abraham in order to pass to him the sceptre of testimony to the mystery of God.
May God grant us to understand this well, for the hour is coming upon us when Israel’s cries are reaching to Heaven as in the days of her oppression in Egypt, so that the time of testing is come upon all the world.
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