Bruised heel
A good friend of mine bruised his heel last week, and had to go to the ER to get it looked at. It made him wonder about the prophecy in Genesis where Yaweh tells the serpent, "...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). Paul works from this when he prophesies that God will crush Satan's head under our feet.
I wonder if it's a sign? What if he asked for a sign? Is that ok?
We often ask for a sign... there's some similarity between asking for a sign and asking the Lord to tell us something clearly. Others dear to me have been asking the Lord to give them clear indication of what direction they're supposed to take, and have been really frustrated when the answer hasn't come with the clarity they hoped for.
The connection between that first sin and and our desire to know is something that I've been mulling over for the last week or two. Now my friend's question about his bruised heel helps me make a connection between this first prophecy and that which I've been considering. What is it about our need to know? such a deep desire in us to have the answer: and such was the woman's (that was her name then; she didn't get renamed Eve until immediately after God's pronouncement of judgment and prophecy) obsession with knowing: she was willing to risk relationship with the living God for knowledge. Why? we all want to turn to the end of the book and find out what happens. And that's the question we face today--every day: Lord, tell me what I want to know! and if you don't, you aren't really a good God; you don't really care for me.
Isn't this issue one of faith? Isn't the basic criterion of faith trusting that which we can't see? So when we don't know something, we need to rely on God to know, and to get me where he wants me to go without me having the luxury of knowing: I'm flying blind--walking by faith.
The persistent widow cried out for satisfaction/justice against her adversary. My friends have an adversary who is perpetrating injustice against them. I join them in crying out for justice: that this affliction you're struggling with would be stopped. I pray for great faith for them, too--that they'll love him so much that even if the path they're on leads through pain and loss, they'll hold on tight to the only one who can really carry them.
I wonder if it's a sign? What if he asked for a sign? Is that ok?
We often ask for a sign... there's some similarity between asking for a sign and asking the Lord to tell us something clearly. Others dear to me have been asking the Lord to give them clear indication of what direction they're supposed to take, and have been really frustrated when the answer hasn't come with the clarity they hoped for.
The connection between that first sin and and our desire to know is something that I've been mulling over for the last week or two. Now my friend's question about his bruised heel helps me make a connection between this first prophecy and that which I've been considering. What is it about our need to know? such a deep desire in us to have the answer: and such was the woman's (that was her name then; she didn't get renamed Eve until immediately after God's pronouncement of judgment and prophecy) obsession with knowing: she was willing to risk relationship with the living God for knowledge. Why? we all want to turn to the end of the book and find out what happens. And that's the question we face today--every day: Lord, tell me what I want to know! and if you don't, you aren't really a good God; you don't really care for me.
Isn't this issue one of faith? Isn't the basic criterion of faith trusting that which we can't see? So when we don't know something, we need to rely on God to know, and to get me where he wants me to go without me having the luxury of knowing: I'm flying blind--walking by faith.
The persistent widow cried out for satisfaction/justice against her adversary. My friends have an adversary who is perpetrating injustice against them. I join them in crying out for justice: that this affliction you're struggling with would be stopped. I pray for great faith for them, too--that they'll love him so much that even if the path they're on leads through pain and loss, they'll hold on tight to the only one who can really carry them.
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