The Second Covenant
A little History:

Kelly Salbato

Gen 2:15 "The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it. The Lord God gave man this order: "You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and bad. From that tree you shall not eat: the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die".

After God gave this order to Adam, He created Eve.

Then we have Gen 3:1-24 The serpent asked Eve about the trees from which she could eat. Eve informed him that they were not to eat of the tree in the middle of the garden. (The tree of the knowledge of good and bad) The serpent tempted her by telling her she would be like a God herself so she ate it and brought some to Adam who also ate it. (Notice that Adam and Eve both ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they are still living. What does this mean? This means that when Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they disobeyed God and have now suffered a spiritual death. The loss of sanctifying grace.  They are also doomed to die a physical death at some time in the future.  lets see what happens to them as a result of this loss).

When God carne to the garden and realized what they had done he asked them why they had done it. Adam said that Eve had given it to him and Eve said that the serpent tricked her. God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, you shall be banned from all the animals and from all the wild creatures; On your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your lite. (Here is the important part) I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. He will strike at your head while you strike at his heel."

Then we have the curse of pain in childbearing for Eve and Toilsome labor for Adam.

Then God said in Chapter 22 "See! The man has become like one of us, knowing what is good and what is bad! Therefore, he must not be allowed to put out his hand to take fruit from the tree of life also, and thus eat of it and live forever" The Lord God therefore banished him from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he had been taken. When He expelled the man, He settled him east of the garden of Eden; and he stationed the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword, to guard the way
to the tree of life.

(When Adam and Eve experienced "death" because of their sin, they were now forbidden to eat from the tree of life. They were also forced to leave the garden of Eden. The tree of life is a foreshadowing of the Eucharist. Notice that in "death" that Adam and Eve are no longer allowed to eat of its fruit, lest they live forever. Also, the expulsion from the garden is a graphic representation of the loss of heaven that has also occurred. Heaven is now closed to mankind because of the sin of Adam and Eve. This is what the Church refers to as original sin. If Heaven is closed to mankind and Adam and Eve have now experienced the loss of sanctifying grace we can now understand why we as humans needed a savior).

Note: The tree of life in the garden of Eden is often referred to as the foreshadowing of the Eucharist (see John chapter 6)

Now back to God putting enmity between the serpent and the woman. What does this mean?

Well in a broad sense it refers to the snake as the devil. His eventual defeat is implied in the contrast between the head and heel. Because "the Son of God appeared that He might destroy the works of the devil" (1 Jn 3,8) , This passage is understood as the first promise of a Redeemer for fallen mankind.

In an immediate sense, we soon discover that the seed is Satan and the seed of the woman is ultimately not just reptiles versus humans, but the line of Cain which constitutes the seed of Satan, the family, the descendants, the legacy of Satan. The snake versus the seed of the woman, which will be shown as following through the line of Seth.

In Ch 4 Eve gives birth to Cain and Abel. Abel became a keeper of flocks and Cain a tiller of the soil. After a while Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the soil, while Abel brought one of his best firstlings of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not. Cain greatly resented this and was crestfallen. So the Lord said to Cain: "Why are you so resentful and crestfallen? If you do well, you can hold up your head;
but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door: his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master.

Cain then killed his brother. God found out and banned Cain from the soil. He was no longer permitted to kill the soil and receive it's produce. God said that he should become a restless wanderer on the earth. Cain then left the Lords presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Here we go, we now see Satan's seed springing forth in human culture, through Cain. Cain leaves and settles in the land ot Nod and has a son named Enoch. He then proceeds to build a city and names it after his son. If you follow the line of Cain, you can see sin growing in an almost diabolical way.

Meanwhile, in Ch 4:25 "Adam again had relations with his wife, and she gave birth to a son whom she called Seth". In Ch 5:3 it says "Adam was one hundred and thirty years old when he begot a son in his likeness, after his image; and he named him Seth.

If God had Adam in his own image and likeness and Adam fathered a son named Seth in his own image and likeness, then it follows that Seth is fathered in the image and likeness of God. And we read further in Gen 26 To Seth, in turn, a son was born, and he named him Enoch. At that time men began to invoke the Lord by name.

The phrase "to call upon the name of the Lord" signifies worship. When Cain had Enoch, he was building his own name. But when Seth had a son, his work is not for himself, but rather for God.

Now God's covenant family finally begins to progress.

Then something happens. The line of Seth is "calling upon the name of the Lord" and is good, while The fine of Cain becomes more and more evil. Then we see in Gen. Chapter 6:1 "When men began to multiply on earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of heaven (Seth's family line) saw how beautiful the daughters of men (Cain's family line) were, and so they took for their wives as many of them as they chose. (Now we have Seth's family line not only marrying into Cain's family, but marrying
more than one wife).

So God says in Gen Ch 6:3  "My spirit shall not remain in man forever, since he is but flesh. His days shall comprise one hundred and twenty years."

Gen 6:5 "When the Lord saw how great was man's wickedness on earth, and how no desire that his heart conceived was ever anything but evil, he regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was grieved.

So the Lord said: "1 will wipe out from the earth the men whom 1 have created, and not only the men, but also the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air, for I am sorry that I made them." But Noah found favor with the Lord. In Gen 6:11 God said to Noah:  I have decided to put an end to al! mortals on earth; the earth is full of lawlessness because of them. So I will destroy them and all life on earth.

Make yourself an ark... and God goes on to tell Noah how to build it. Then he says in Gen 6:18 But with you I will establish my covenant; you and your sons, your wife and your son's wives shall go into the ark.

(This is the first time that the Hebrew word covenant is explicitly used in Genesis)

Now we all know the story about the flood. Noah and his family were put into the ark and there was a year of flood waters.  When it is finally over, in Gen. Ch 9. God blesses Noah and his sons and says to them:

"Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth" ...  Every creature that is alive shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants. Only flesh with its life blood still in it you shall not eat. ... If anyone sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed. For in the image of God has man been made....

See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that was with you all the birds and the various tame and wild animals that were with you and came out of the ark. I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall never be another flood to devastate the earth."

The sign of Gods covenant to never again flood the earth was the rainbow.

Then in Gen 9:20 "Noah was the first tiller of the soil, he planted a vineyard and he drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent, and Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Shem and Japheth, however, took a robe, and holding it on their backs, they walked backward and covered their father's nakedness. When Noah woke from his drunkenness and learned what his youngest (Ham) had done to him, he said:

"Cursed be Canaan, the lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers". He also said Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem! Let Canaan be his slave may God expand Japheth so that he dwells among the tents of Shem and let Canaan be his slave."

There are differing opinions as to why Noah cursed Canaan rather than be contrite for being drunk. Suffice it to say that turmoil and family feud entered the world once again. From Noah we travel 10 more generations to the next covenant that God made with man....