Had a few busy days there, but I’m back and ready to talk about…

Option #3: Temporal curse AND temporal blessing

This option asserts that the verse isn’t saying anything about the eternal state of anybody. It’s talking about the here and now. Again, we the first consideration is whether or not the verse is talking about Abram in a literal way or a vicarious way. Some sort of vicarious interpretation makes the most sense I suppose, but there is still a fair bit of room for differences within that. Are we talking about Israel as a nation/race? Are we talking about a spiritual Israel that would include the Christian church? Are we talking about a particular individual, such as Jesus whose special status as Messiah would allow this possibility? So many questions….

Let’s move on to the nature of the curse. When presenting Option #2, I described the temporal curse as some sort of military, economic or socio-political impact. Since then another option occured to me. Perhaps the curse - in fact, the total promise of curse and blessing found in the verse refers not to something new, but rather restates the original promise recorded in Genesis 2 at the Fall.

Scripture has this habit of cyclical and progressive revelation. For example, I’m reading thru Scot McKnight’s so-far-excellent book, Jesus Creed. In an early chapter, five I think, he discusses the progressive revelation of what it means for God to love people. He points out Hosea, and the progression made in his ministry. God is not just a ruler but a spouse and lover. Jesus continues the progression: God is not just a king and not just a spouse but a parent. God is Abba.

So perhaps this promise to Abram is part of the progressive revelation, building on the promise made in Genesis 3:

The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all the wild beast
and all the living creatures of the field!
On your belly you will crawl
and dust you will eat all the days of your life.
And I will put hostility between you and the woman
and between your offspring and her offspring;
her offspring will attack your head,
and you will attack her offspring’s heel.”

To the woman he said,
“I will greatly increase your labor pains;
with pain you will give birth to children.
You will want to control your husband,
but he will dominate you."

But to Adam he said,
“Because you obeyed your wife
and ate from the tree about which I commanded you,
‘You must not eat from it,’
cursed is the ground thanks to you;
in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
but you will eat the grain of the field.
By the sweat of your brow you will eat food until you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust, and to dust you will return.”

To Adam and Eve (and the Serpent) God promises a mix of blessing and curse, and we have the slightest hint of the blessing to all (which I take to be the Messiah). To Abram, God expands on the these established themes. The present curse is restated, affirmed and continued; but the promised blessing and end to the curse is elaborated upon.