When Paradise fell due to the
sin of man, God spoke (after giving the sin-curse) of what would be to come. Genesis
3:15 is the first prophecy in the Bible, and is adapted into Book 10 in lines
179-181
“Between thee and the woman I will put
Enmity and between thine and her seed:
Her seed shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel.”
This tells of the ultimate defeat of the serpent, millennia before. But in the present (or, Adam & Eve’s present), the adapted narrative showcases the misery sin had caused, and the hopeless condition it brings with it. There is a “real” (contrived, but sensitive) moment in the poem where Adam is broken and feels like he has nowhere to turn.
Lines 720-732, 740-741
“O miserable of happy! Is this the end
Of this new glorious world and me so late
The glory of that glory, who now, become
Accurst of blessed, hide me from the face
Of God whom to behold was then my heighth
Of happiness? Yet well if here would end
The misery: I deserved it and would bear
My own deservings. But this will not serve:
All that I eat or drink or shall beget
Is propagated curse. O voice once heard
Delightfully, “increase and multiply,”
Now death to hear! For what can I increase
Or multiply but curses on my head?
. . .O fleeting joys
Of Paradise dear bought with lasting woes!”
What a sharp and piercing picture of sinful state! The first phrase almost pounced on me from the page—“O miserable of happy!—for isn’t that sin? We find the miserable happy and are left unhappy when we find the miserable.
What then of the wrath of God for sin? Adam takes the philosopher’s position, asking questions. If the Lord is infinite, is thus so His wrath? If so, man would man only be mortally doomed? How can he exercise wrath without end on man whom death must end? Can he make deathless death? Is God One of contradiction? (Lines 794-800)
We know that every prophecy from God is a promise. Adam only understood that his foe would be vanquished if he had children. What he wouldn’t know, until the twelfth book, was that God would make a way for restoration, a new Paradise—one that could not be lost. Thus so, the tenth book ends in a picture of repentance. Tears watered the dewy ground, now ravaged with thorns, only to show how broken a person must be before they can find saving, restoration, redemption, and hope for the future—a new life.
I know this is a long post, but it’s the last blog post for Paradise Lost! Let me have some fun!
I commented on Madison's and Rebecca's posts
“Between thee and the woman I will put
Enmity and between thine and her seed:
Her seed shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel.”
This tells of the ultimate defeat of the serpent, millennia before. But in the present (or, Adam & Eve’s present), the adapted narrative showcases the misery sin had caused, and the hopeless condition it brings with it. There is a “real” (contrived, but sensitive) moment in the poem where Adam is broken and feels like he has nowhere to turn.
Lines 720-732, 740-741
“O miserable of happy! Is this the end
Of this new glorious world and me so late
The glory of that glory, who now, become
Accurst of blessed, hide me from the face
Of God whom to behold was then my heighth
Of happiness? Yet well if here would end
The misery: I deserved it and would bear
My own deservings. But this will not serve:
All that I eat or drink or shall beget
Is propagated curse. O voice once heard
Delightfully, “increase and multiply,”
Now death to hear! For what can I increase
Or multiply but curses on my head?
. . .O fleeting joys
Of Paradise dear bought with lasting woes!”
What a sharp and piercing picture of sinful state! The first phrase almost pounced on me from the page—“O miserable of happy!—for isn’t that sin? We find the miserable happy and are left unhappy when we find the miserable.
What then of the wrath of God for sin? Adam takes the philosopher’s position, asking questions. If the Lord is infinite, is thus so His wrath? If so, man would man only be mortally doomed? How can he exercise wrath without end on man whom death must end? Can he make deathless death? Is God One of contradiction? (Lines 794-800)
We know that every prophecy from God is a promise. Adam only understood that his foe would be vanquished if he had children. What he wouldn’t know, until the twelfth book, was that God would make a way for restoration, a new Paradise—one that could not be lost. Thus so, the tenth book ends in a picture of repentance. Tears watered the dewy ground, now ravaged with thorns, only to show how broken a person must be before they can find saving, restoration, redemption, and hope for the future—a new life.
I know this is a long post, but it’s the last blog post for Paradise Lost! Let me have some fun!
I commented on Madison's and Rebecca's posts
Comments