Desire

Desire is a funny thing. It can be good or bad. This should not surprise us since Satan, incapable of a truly original thought, can only take God's good things and give them a little twist.

Chapter 3 of Genesis is the story of the Fall and the curses that followed. It is in this context (curses) that Eve is told "Your desire shall be for your husband" (verse 16). If there were no context there, you might have thought it was a positive thing: Who wouldn't cheer for the idea of a wife desiring her husband?

But the pronouncement constitutes the second half of a double-barreled punishment-the first part on her childbearing, and the second part on her relationship. Our impression of a negative meaning of desire is further buttressed by its occurrence parallel to the husband's-and the serpent's-entirely negative curse.

Moreover, the word God uses for "desire" is the same word (tshuqah) found in the next chapter for sin's heinous and ravenous desire for Cain (4:7). On the other hand, the third usage of this word in the Old Testament is in Song of Songs 7:10, where it seems positive to me-which makes our point less tidy.

In a sense, we women don't need a Hebrew linguist to tell us that desire, even desire for our husbands, can go bad. I take God's words in Genesis 3:16 as a warning that goes like this: There is a tendency to make your relationship with your husband more primary than your relationship with God. There is a tendency to be idolatrous about your marriage. Fight it.

Where is the fine line between fervent love (1 Peter 4:8) and idolatry or unhealthy need? Every woman must check her own heart. One thing is certain: Jesus came to undo the works of the devil (1 John 3:8), and inordinate or misdirected desire is one of those works.

"He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found" (from "Joy to the World").

Therefore we women are not doomed to sick desires. Anyone who wishes to may, by the power within her, "put on" her new creation (Ephesians 4:24), and to be transformed (Romans 12:2).