The Curse of Enmity, the Blessing of Dissatisfaction

This is something I first learned a few months ago at a Ridley class, but I noticed it again today, and thought it worth sharing.

In Genesis 3, the serpent deceived Adam and Eve, winning their trust, and thereby winning their worship from their Creator.  Immediately after the fall, God intervenes, proclaiming curses for what evil has been done.

Culturally we have a strong aversion to the concept of God cursing.  This goes hand in hand with our aversion to God's wrath- we much prefer a gentle, forgetful grandfather, to a firm, all knowing Lord. But the curse is not something from which we ought immediately recoil- even God's curse is a blessing to His children.

Just as an example, the first curse is meted out to the serpent.  In Genesis 3.15, the Lord promises to put enmity between the serpent and the woman's children, one of whom would one day crush the serpent's head, though be bruised.

It has commonly been observed that 'the child' of the woman that would crush the serpent's head, though be bruised, is in fact Jesus.  He crushes Satan and the power of sin, even as He is bruised.  That curse is a blessing.

But less noticed is the curse of enmity. How is this a good thing?  Earlier I mentioned the serpent's taking of our trust and worship.  In turning to him we have made him our god, our joy, our trust.  And so we continue to do daily.  We trust things other than God, things other than His words.  Our desires, our lusts, our appetites, our strength and pride and beauty- all are things which vie for our trust and worship.  And we give them quickly, for seemingly nothing in return, like 'a prostitute who requires no pay, but instead pays her lovers' (Ezekiel 16.33).

And so, left to our own, we would pour our lives out to them, hoping to the very end that they would satisfy.  Unless, somehow, we found ourselves unsatisfied.  Unless we began to distrust, dislike, even hate the thing we clung to, the thing we loved, we would never look elsewhere.  Unless enmity somehow came between us, we would never leave our empty lovers.

Hosea 2.6-7 reveals this curse of enmity as an ongoing work of the Lord. Speaking of His adulterous people, Israel, He says:

"Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns,

     and I will build a wall against her,

     so that she cannot find her paths.

She shall pursue her lovers

     but not overtake them,

     and she shall seek them

     but shall not find them.

Then she shall say,

     ‘I will go and return to my first husband,

     for it was better for me then than now.’"

God keeps our wrong lovers from fulfilling us, that we might return to Him.  The curse of enmity between Satan and sin and our hearts is an incredible blessing. It means that the alcoholic hates his drink, the glutton hates his food, the sex addict hates that which leaves him feeling empty.  Our loves, by grace, begin to feel like enemies. And this is a blessing, so great a blessing, because it leaves us desperate for a true ally, a true love that will satisfy us.  It makes us thirst and hunger and long for something truly fulfilling, something we have long ago forgotten, but something that still seems perilously near to us- relationship with the Lord. While this curse of enmity is not in itself sufficient to birth in us the love of Christ, it is often the plow that breaks up the hard soil of our hearts to receive His Word of repentance.