And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.” ~ Genesis 2:16-17
“I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” ~ God to the serpent, Genesis 3:15
As it turns out, Psyche’s husband is none other than Cupid, son of Venus, who had been commanded to force her to fall in love with the most wretched man in the world. Instead, he falls in love with her himself. Also noteworthy, he earns her love rather than forcing her to love him through his infamous bow.
His one, albeit strange, condition is that she never see him. Now, it is only natural for a woman to want to see her husband; so why this strange decree?
We cannot know all his reasons, however we can piece together some. As discussed on Tuesday, Psyche is simple-minded and silly. What if she began talking about how Cupid was her husband? How long would it be before his mother, Venus, found out? Thus, to protect her, Cupid hid himself from her.
That is why he was so angry when she gazed upon him. She had betrayed his trust by not trusting his character. Little did Psyche know that the knowledge she sought would destroy her relationship with her beloved.
And so he leaves her, seemingly forever.
Cupid and God
This seems a bit dramatic, especially since it was a rather silly rule to begin with….or so it seems to us. But wasn’t it the same in the Garden? It was just a piece of fruit, after all. Nothing to be killed over. Like Psyche, we believed the lies, and betrayed God in a seemingly insignificant way. Little did we know that the knowledge we sought would destroy our relationship with our Beloved.
I’m convinced we’ll never comprehend the enormity of the actions that day when man fell. I’m also convinced we cannot truly know all the reasons God made that condition. However, what we do know is that it was a betrayal. In breaking that “insignificant” rule, we betrayed God by not trusting His character.
Psyche journeyed on, longing for death to escape the nightmare of her life. She did not physically die – but certainly a part of her heart did. After all her trials, she eventually found what she sought by opening the jar of beauty from Proserpine. That jar of beauty may have contained good things for the gods; but for mortals, it contained only death. Psyche could not awake without divine intervention.
The knowledge of good and evil – what Adam and Eve sought through the fruit – may have been a good and “beautiful” thing for God; but for mortals, it contained only death. Like Psyche, they did not die physically, but spiritually. Physical death was now the only way out of the evil nightmare we had unleashed upon the world. It was a painful grace, for it was never meant to be this way; but it was a necessity. Also like Psyche, we could not “awake” from our spiritual or physical death without divine intervention.
God is Better than Cupid
Cupid left Psyche – but God never left us. Even immediately after the betrayal, God gave them the promise of a savior who would defeat the Enemy. He did send them away, but He did not intend for them to be out of His sight. The entirety of the Bible describes how God constantly watches over, protects, and upholds His people. This culminated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. Just as Cupid released Psyche from her death-like sleep, so Jesus releases us from our eternal slumber – both spiritually and physically. And Just as Cupid took Psyche to live with him forever as his bride, so too we may expect Jesus to take us home one day as His bride.
And what a joyful day that will be, when the Enemy will no longer have any hold on us!
