Christ is the Cure for the Curse(s)
Genesis 3:16 (KJV)
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Genesis 3:16 (NAS)
To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you."
Genesis Chapter 3 contains many curses given by God Himself. There are ones that none of us can escape. But there are some for which we need to take the cure provided by God instead of living under the control of the curse spoken into the life of sinful flesh.
Followers of Christ are set free from the chains that bind unredeemed souls.
Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He anointed me to preach the
gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery
of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed...(NAS)
John 8:31-36 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who believed in Him, "If you continue in My
word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make
you free...So if the Son makes you free, you will be free in deed." (NAS)
Galations 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not
be subject again to a yoke of slavery. (NAS)
Speaking as a female and a Christian, one of the most pervasive burdens I have lived under is the rabid desire for a man. Our society, both Christian & non-Christian feeds this desire. We spend countless hours & funds on encouraging people to navigate through the chaos of the curse of this burdensome desire as opposed to pointing people to Christ and His cure for the curse.
And, as is typical when man or Satan handles God's word, we have distorted it in so many ways, that even the curse has morphed into grotesque variations. The word husband in the original Hebrew is transliterated 'iysh (eesh). As a noun, it can mean man (man, male, husband, human being, person, servant, mankind, champion, great man); or whosoever. In our society today, Woman desires not just her husband, she desires someone else's husband. Woman desires a man, any man. She desires not just one man, but many men in her lifetime. Woman desires also the leadership position of the man. She desires also woman. Her life is burdened with desire.
We have dressed up the desire and made it look appealing. We have given it many great forms. The melodious ballad of a love song. The mythical story of the princess awaiting her prince charming. The music and stories are all so fantastic! They evoke such warm, pleasant fantasy that they are usually not seen in truth. Surely this desire is a good thing, we surmise.
The word desire in the original Hebrew is transliterated T@shuwqah (tesh-oo-kaw'). Synonyms include the word longing or craving. It is used 2 other times in the Old Testament. In Genesis 4:7 God spoke to Cain to give him insight into his own heart and the remedy for his jealousy. ...And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it (NAS). In Song of Solomon 7:10, presumably Solomon's love speaks of his desire for her. I am my beloved's and his desire is for me (NAS).
God instead calls us to love (agape) Him with all of our heart, and all of our soul, and all of our mind, and all our strength (paraphrase of Mark 12:29-30). While we can receive the freedom to do so through a life fully surrendered through Christ; we instead give God the shreds of left overs because of the time consuming, pressing weight of desire for so many other things.
As my brother-in-law Ken preached in a recent sermon, "TAKE THE CURE! TAKE THE CURE!"
