Towards Thee I Roll - Herman Melville and The Enemy Within

I recently read an excellent book, The Enemy Within, by Kris Lundgaard. It is based on the great works by John Owen on the subject of sin. I found that what has stayed with me is a quote from Herman Melville's Moby Dick, which Lundgaard uses in chapter four to illustrate important truths about sin, sin's struggle against God, and the intensity with which we should struggle against the remaining sin in our lives.

Herman Melville's classic work Moby Dick is the story of Captain Ahab's unrelenting pursuit of the great White Whale. This quote captures the vehemence with which the captain pursues his archenemy:

The author offers two very helpful analogies that developed from this potent little excerpt.

1. God is like the white whale. The flesh is not the Captain Ahab, it is not the harpoon, but rather the pure hatred (Rom. 8:7). The sad reality is that we, every human being, in our unregenerate state, are all the Captain Ahabs, waging war in our hearts against God. Only when we are saved and this enmity is put to death, are the whale and the Captain Ahab reconciled.



2. If slightly altered, the excerpt could be read as a declaration of war on our remaining sinful flesh that wages war against the Spirit that abides within us (Gal.5:17):

"Towards thee I roll, thou all-consuming by unconquering FLESH; to the last I grapple with thee, from HEAVEN'S heart I stab at thee; for LOVE'S sake I spit my last breath at thee."

May we always show this sort of rabid hatred against the sin that remains within us. May we stand strong, resolved and determined to go-down-swinging, to "spit our last breath" at it's unwanted presence in our lives. May we worship God by waging war against sin.