Today’s reading in our Advent devotional is one of my favorites. God’s mercy in the midst of the curse is astounding. So often, we look to the gospel proclaimed in Genesis 3:15 and see the next verses only through the lens of judgment. But when we do that, we miss the reality that God’s restrained judgment in 3:16-19 are what make it possible for him to keep his promise. The promised seed can and will come in spite of pain in childbearing, and in spite of the new difficulty to sustain life in a fallen world. God restores his wayward children to himself through the promise of redemption, and he restores them to each other through his promise of sustaining, common grace.
