Curse-Breaker

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. (Gen. 3:15)

These words from God come at a pretty dark moment in the book of Genesis. The darkest of moments, in fact. Adam and Eve had just eaten from the tree they had been commanded not to eat from, they have shamefully hidden themselves in the trees from God and feebly tried to cover their own nakedness from each other. God, the master of hide-and-seek, eventually finds them. (Of course, it is much easier when the person hiding yells answers when the seeker asks "Where are you?", the way Adam does in Genesis 3:10. Real smooth, guy.) And then God starts dishing out the curses: the snake who had tempted Eve would be forced to crawl on his belly and eat dust; the woman would experience pain in childbirth; and the man would have to work the ground in a sweaty mess in order to get food to eat. And in this moment of tragedy, the human race is cast from paradise, and the blessing they had experienced in Eden is replaced by these curses.

And yet, in the middle of all of these curses, there is hope captured in verse 15. The serpent doesn't win in the end. God promises a seed from the woman that would crush his head. There is a reversal of the curse in store. The damage done in the garden would be undone. 

For whatever reason, I always assumed that Adam and Eve knew that this descendant wouldn't come for a long time down the road. But the more I think about it, the more I think they may have very well expected it soon. After all, as the first man and woman, they had no real sense of lengthy historical process. In fact, it almost seems as though Genesis is written to bring out this sense of expectation. As you read the narrative, you run across certain figures that cause you to think, "Now could this finally be the one who is going to give the serpent a good, old-fashioned curb-stomping? 

However, as you continue through Genesis, even though there are some incredible figures of righteousness, this expected curse-breaker is not found. The first "seed" of Eve is Cain, and maybe she thought he would be the one to set things straight. But instead, he kills his brother and becomes a wanderer. So what about Noah? He's described as "a righteous man, blameless in his generation" (Gen. 6:9). Perhaps he is the curse-breaker come at last. But, even though his obedience preserves the human race, he also gets wasted and goes all natural in his tent. He's not the one. But then Abraham appears on the scene, and he seems like a good guy. God seems to show some favor on him, in any case. But he tends to deceive people in scary situations, and he struggles with believing God's plan for him from time to time. He's not the curse-breaker either.

You can go on down the line through Genesis, and through Israel's entire history, in fact. Isaac. Jacob. Joseph. Moses. Joshua. Samuel. Saul. David. Elijah. Daniel. Ezra. Good guys, for the most part. But they don't give the serpent the business. Mankind remains under the curse. From the very beginning of the Bible's story, there is an expectation for this promised curse-breaker, but no one who takes the stage ends up being the guy. 

Our society continues to look for a curse-breaker today. People work hard to find someone or something that can bring an end to the world's problems. "Maybe this presidential candidate will fix everything." "Maybe this medical treatment is the answer." "Maybe this business model will set the worlds to rights." "Maybe this version of the iPhone will make my life complete." 

We're still looking around for a curse-breaker. But the thing is, he's already come.

The Christian position is the the curse-breaking, serpent-stomping deliverer has already come in the person of Jesus. He's what the Old Testament expects, and he's what many in our world have missed. And while we continue to live in a fallen world that has a lot of problems, the curse is somehow set in reverse in Jesus. He brings a new kingdom. He talks about a new way of living. His Spirit lives in his people, bringing old dusty bones back to life. And he promises that someday, the creation will be made completely new and will be relieved of its "bondage to corruption" (Rom. 8:21). 

As a person of God, then, the responsibility of the Christian is to proclaim the end of the curse and the identity of the true curse-breaker--Jesus. We can stop worrying about pursuing the curse-breakers that our world promotes, because we've found the real thing. 

And that's a good thing, because I can't afford an iPhone 5 anyway.

In the way of announcements, one of my favorite power-couples, Chris and Monica Hengge, recently started up a new blog. It's titled "Hengge Heads and Hearts," and you can check it out by clicking here. Each of them possesses both a head and heart much more developed than my own, and I'm excited to glean as much as I can from their insights. So be sure to check them out, follow them, subscribe to them, leave them comments, and maybe even send them a nice present in the mail. And don't forget to do the same for me, too. Except a better present. After all, you just met these two.