From Splendor to Shadow

Chapter 58—Darkness Precedes the Dawn

Through the long centuries from the day our first parents lost their Eden home to the time the Son of God appeared as the Saviour, the hope of the fallen race was centered in the coming of a Deliverer to free men and women from the bondage of sin and the grave. SS 353.1

Hope was given first to Adam and Eve in Eden when the Lord declared to Satan, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15. As the guilty pair listened, they were inspired with hope, for they discerned a promise of deliverance from ruin. They need not yield to despair. The Son of God was to atone with His own blood for their transgression. Through faith in the power of Christ to save, they might become once more the children of God. SS 353.2

By turning man from obedience Satan became “the god of this world.” 2 Corinthians 4:4. But the Son of God proposed not only to redeem man but to recover the dominion forfeited. “O Tower of the flock, ... unto Thee shall it come, even the first dominion.” Micah 4:8. SS 353.3

This hope of redemption has never become extinct. From the beginning there have been some whose faith has reached out beyond the present to the future: Adam, Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Through these the Lord has preserved the revealings of His will. To the chosen people through whom was to be given the promised Messiah, God imparted a knowledge of salvation through the atoning sacrifice of His beloved Son. SS 353.4

The promise was made at the call of Abraham, and afterward repeated: “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Genesis 12:3. The Sun of Righteousness shone upon Abraham's heart, and his darkness was scattered. When the Saviour Himself walked among the sons of men, He bore witness of the patriarch's hope: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day: and he saw it, and was glad.” John 8:56. SS 354.1

This same “blessed hope” was foreshadowed in the benediction pronounced by Jacob on Judah: SS 354.2

The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
Until He comes to whom it belongs;
And to Him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Genesis 49:10, RSV

Again, the coming of the world's Redeemer was foretold by Balaam: SS 354.3

A star shall come forth out of Jacob,
And a scepter shall rise out of Israel.
Numbers 24:17, RSV

Through Moses also, God's purpose to send His Son as the Redeemer was kept before Israel. Moses declared, “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren ...; unto Him ye shall hearken.” Deuteronomy 18:15. SS 354.4