In the Fellowship of the Rings, as the bereaved company makes their way to Lothlerien they come upon the stream of Nimrodel and Legolas sings this song of the loss of Nimrodel and of the Elven King Amroth.
This is how I sing the song to my girls as I read to them aloud.
“Our first lesson is from Genesis 3 verses 1, verses 8 through 15, and 17 through 19, wherein God tells sinful Adam that he has lost the life of Paradise, and that his seed will bruise the serpent’s head. And then from Genesis chapter 22 verses 15-18 wherein God promises to faithful Abraham that in his seed, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
15 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.”
17 And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”
15 And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
“This has been the reading of God’s Word.”
During the Advent season leading up to Christmas all Christians have had opportunities to hear and meditate on Mary’s Magnificat found in Luke 1:46b-55. It’s likely that we didn’t meditate on it’s application to ourselves, Christians in relation to God’s commandments and our duty, and most of all the exact nature of God’s victory in Christ here prophesied by Mary. This excerpt from Rushdoony’s work, The Institutes of Biblical Law titled “The Virgin Birth and Property” (VIII.10) is timelessly timely.
An excerpt from the section:
Very obviously, Mary meant that history would see a mighty reversal of things because of her Son's birth. By His strength the vain imaginations of men would be confounded. The Mighty would be dethroned, and the blessed meek of the Lord exalted, the hungry people of God would be filled, and the rich sinners would be cast out to beg. All this would be in fulfillment of the prophesies to patriarchs and prophets that, through the seed of Abraham and David, the Israel of God would possess the whole material earth.
