The Lord God listened to the answers,
heard the innocence declared and turned
without arguing, to declare Himself.
And speak His answer!

But God as Perfect Father had long before
laid in store the solution,
the provision, the redemption,
of His bad children.

First to the serpent, the lowest creature.
God declared the curse of crawling,
confined to a feast of dirt.
Consigned to eat the dirt of flesh
and reduce humanity to the need of God.

A promise of seed, from the woman, and not the man.
The seed of one who would "crush" the serpent's head,
the thinking seat of his evil arrogance.
To destroy the logic-poison of the Hater.

Next to the woman tricked,

"I will greatly multiply
your pain in childbirth,
in pain you will bring forth children:"

The Creator of her feminine self,
who knew the mother-heart He formed within her . . .
pronounced a magnified pain of childbirth,
to pass her through a threat of physical death
at their birth and . . .
a tunnel, long and dark, of emotional death
for their growth to leave her.
So that Eve might - in her helpless pain -
find her need of God.

God let her have the long leash of her desire
to possess the husband, yet confined her to the
frustration of his role of power
"He will rule over you"
that she might bow down
to her need of God. 

Finally, to the man, held in a divine vice of accountability
"Because you have listened to your wife and
have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you
'you shall not eat from it;'
Cursed is the ground because of you,
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
By the sweat of your face,
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground
Because from it you were taken,
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return."

Confined to struggle,
condemned to toil and opposition.
suffering and strain, so the proud and
unbowed man would know his need of God.

For each party to the fall,
God erected a fence of limitation
in which they could find Him,
if they chose. 

The liberty, their gift from God, was forfeited for the
right only to . . . DIE in their independence!

The freedom they stole from God, turned into a prison.
They were free to reject God,
He accepted their choice.

But they could not escape from Him,
nor keep Him from being Father.

And not one of the three conspirators
had any power to stop
the Inventor of the Story from
writing the last chapter.

For God has shut up all men to disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.
Romans 11:32 NAS

Copyright © 2001 Martha Kilpatrick