sermonette: Curses

Martin G. Collins
Given 22-Feb-97; Sermon #278s; 18 minutes

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Around the time of the oil embargo, you may remember in the early 70s, Americans felt somewhat cursed because they had to wait in long lines for the gas that they were receiving. The Arabs were tightening the rein on the gas and only allowing so much out of their country. You may remember this curse, but it was said in jest by Americans because they felt under a curse, “May the fleas of a 1,000 camels infest your armpits.” Now that was the way that Americans dealt with that curse from the Arabs. They just felt that they were under that curse. Americans tend to make light of or make jokes of curses of anything else that happens to them of a derogatory nature.

Curses have long been pronounced upon others with the intention of inflicting penalty or retribution. The Bible warns us about the consequences of pronouncing a curse upon someone. Pronouncing a curse upon one's parents, the handicapped, the king, or God is punishable by death in biblical standards.

Pronouncing a curse on God's people was not allowed. For example, in Numbers 22, Balak, king of the Moabites, asked Balaam to utter a curse against Israel. And of course, God declined to allow Balaam to put that curse on Israel, because God said they were a blessed people, and He would not allow that.

On the other hand, pronouncing a curse on evil was appropriate. For example, in Joshua 6, Joshua pronounced a curse on anyone who would try to rebuild Jericho, and anyone who tried to, the curse was upon their children. Their children would die. And so in that case, the curse was not upon the people, even though it appeared to be, but it was upon anyone rebuilding Jericho. If someone disobeyed that edict or command, then they would fall under that curse.

Jesus stated the proper response to those who do wrong against us in Luke 6:28 and Romans 2:14. He said, “Bless those who curse you.” So if someone is pronouncing a curse upon us or cursing us in some way, the proper reaction is to bless them, meaning to do good toward them and not to come back with them with another curse.

If you turn with me to Deuteronomy 27 for emphasis and clarity, God inspired Moses to command that the Levites shout out from Mount Ebal to the children of Israel just after they crossed the Jordan River, the details of what would bring a curse upon them if they disobeyed God. Let us pick it up and look at some examples here beginning in about verse 14.

Deuteronomy 27:14-17 “And the Levites shall speak with a loud voice and say to all the men of Israel: ‘Cursed is the one who makes any carved or molded image. . . ‘ [So of course you see there that that is a breaking of God's law.] ‘Cursed is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt.’ ‘Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor's landmark.’ ‘Cursed is the one who makes the blind to wander off the road.’ ‘Cursed is the one who perverts the justice to the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.’ ‘Cursed is the one who lies with his father's wife.’

You see there, as you reach the end toward verse 26 that God explains specifically some of the things that Israel would be cursed for if they committed these sins. And then in

Deuteronomy 27:26 ‘Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law by observing them.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’”

So as they crossed over into Jordan and they heard these things, they were required to say amen after each of these pronouncements for breaking the covenant or the law of God.

Some of the most terrifying scriptures in the Bible are found in Deuteronomy 28. That is where you find the blessings and cursings. That is just over just one page. Deuteronomy 28:15-68 gives those curses. And God emphatically sets down the curses that will come upon the children of Israel and their descendants for disobedience, and that is also the case for anyone in the world that breaks these laws. Curses will come upon them.

There are 27 types of curses that are found in Deuteronomy chapters 27 through 30. So there are a lot of curses stated there in detail. But these curses can be summarized by just six words, and interestingly enough they all start with D: Defeat, disease, desolation, deprivation, deportation, and death. Those are the main categories that those curses fall under.

These curses are warnings of what God will cause to happen on anyone who breaks them. Look at chapter 28 and let us pick up a few curses:

Deuteronomy 28:16-18 “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, and the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.”

There is no need to read through all the curses. You are getting the idea there that if a curse is pronounced upon a people for disobedience, it tends to be a thorough curse, and an extensive curse, and one that affects all aspects of a person's life.

Jeremiah speaks of the curse that attends the law in Jeremiah 11:3, and Paul also does in Galatians 3:13 that the curse is with the law if it is broken. Anyone who disobeys any aspect of God's law is a sinner and falls under the curse of the whole law, even just breaking one aspect of it.

Romans 3:23-24 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

If you will, turn with me to Galatians 3 I would like to spend a little bit of time in these verses.

Galatians 3:13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.

It seems almost like a contradiction of some of the scriptures in Psalms, that Christ would be a curse. For example, in Psalm 21: 6 and also Psalm 45:2, it says there that Christ is most blessed forever. So then you look at this scripture and it says, “That having become a curse for us,” it almost seems like a contradiction. And of course, you are already ahead of me, and you know that is just not the case.

So how has Jesus Christ become a curse for us? We will begin reading here in verse 10 to pick up the context.

Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.’”

Well, the word ‘curse’ here is the word katara, and it is a different word that is used generally through the Bible for the word curse. It means more than just your typical curse. It is a thorough curse; it is attended, or uttered out, with maliciousness and malevolence. So it is a thorough curse, or a complete curse; it covers all aspects of life. The penalty from it is ultimate.

Now the same word is used in II Peter 2 where we will just take a look at another context for the word katara.

II Peter 2:12-14 But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children.

The word “accursed” is the same word that is used in Galatians 3:10 and 13, katara, and it means, “thoroughly cursed; a complete curse.” Some translations translate the end of verse 14 of II Peter 2 as, “God's curse is on them,” or “they live under a curse.” But those living under the penalty of the law are under the law's curse; the law pronounced the curse upon all who failed to keep it in its entirety. And Deuteronomy 27:6, which we read a little earlier says, “Cursed is the one who does not conform to all the words of the law.” So we know that if we do not conform to all the parts, then we are breaking the whole law. If we break one part of the law, we are guilty of the whole law itself.

The point is that a curse is attached to any failure to keep God's law, no matter how small. And since we all fail, we are all under that curse until we repent. That is when Christ's sacrifice comes in and removes that curse from us.

Let us continue on reading in Galatians 3:11:

Galatians 3:11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for "the just shall live by faith."

Now no one is justified or no one is declared righteous by the law. You are declared righteous when you faithfully keep the law and have faith in God. Faith without works is a dead faith. Reading on in verse 12,

Galatians 3:12-13 Yet the law is not of faith, but "the man who does them shall live by them." Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree").

So here we see that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.

Now the same word is used here that I mentioned before for the word curse, katara. The root word kata, means “intensive.” That is interesting in itself. And then ara, just simply means curse.

This is an intense curse, an intensively thorough curse (if we remember that part of the definition is that it is a thorough curse). So this curse that Christ bears for us and became for us is an intensely thorough curse greater than any other curse or any single curse. It is a complete curse.

The curse of the law is the death penalty. And Paul's phrase is always, “the curse of the law,” rather than, “the curse of God.” It is just the way he phrases it throughout the epistles. Still, the law is God's law, an extension of His character and will. It is a failure to keep that law. It is a failure to keep the law that brings man under God's wrath.

Just as there is a relationship between obedience and blessing, there is also a relationship between disobedience and cursing. We see that directly when we break the law; we receive the curse of the law. And when we obey God—keep His word—we receive the blessings from that.

Now another phrase here that is an interesting phrase is, “Having become a curse for us,” which is really the pivotal point and a critical aspect of this verse. Christ having become what we were, that is, a curse, having disobeyed the law before our repentance. Once we have repented, then we receive forgiveness for the law that we have broken, and we are no longer under that curse, thanks to Christ becoming that curse for us.

Turn with me to Numbers 5. We will just take a look at an example of how a curse is pronounced upon a person, and they become a curse when they sin.

Now this section of scripture is concerning unfaithful wives, and the curse is pronounced upon wives who are unfaithful. Here God is speaking to Israel. We will pick this up in verse 20.

Numbers 5:20-21 “But if you have gone astray while under your husband's authority, and if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has lain with you"—then the priest shall put the woman under the oath of the curse, and he shall say to the woman—"the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the LORD makes your thigh rot and your belly swell.”

So we see that when a woman defiles her husband and becomes an adulteress, she actually becomes a curse. And that is the curse of the law. And then in verse 27, it is so important that it is repeated.

Numbers 5:27 “When he has made her drink the water, then it shall be, if she has defiled herself and behaved unfaithfully toward her husband, that the water that brings a curse will enter her and become bitter, and her belly will swell, her thigh will rot, and the woman will become a curse among her people.”

She actually becomes that curse. Until she is put out of the congregation of Israel, or under serious penalties, or is put to death, that curse still hangs over or is part of Israel as that woman being in Israel is the curse.

Now, in having become a curse for us, Christ also became a blessing and that He took the penalty and He removes the curse from us, and becomes a blessing for us.

Turn with me to Galatians 3 again, just to complete the thought regarding the last phrase in verse 13, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” That is taken directly from Deuteronomy 21:22-23. Beginning in verse 22, if your Bible is broken into headings, you will see there that it is under Miscellaneous Laws.

Deuteronomy 21:22-23 "If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree [primarily ‘wood’], his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God."

So when a criminal was given the death penalty for a law that required death and was hung on a tree, he was not allowed to be left there overnight. By becoming the curse, he broke the law. And not only did he become under the curse of the law but actually represented that curse hanging there over Israel; he was not to be allowed to hang there overnight, but was to be buried. And that is the scripture that Galatians 3, verse 13 is referring to.

In Matthew 27:46 Christ's cry of abandonment while on the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” shows the separation that is caused when we fall under the curse of the law. Christ at that time was bearing the curse for us. When we genuinely repent, Christ, having become a curse for us, removes that curse from us, and removes the penalty of the law from us.

Now very soon we are going to see the climax of the curses of this world as a result of the sin that this world is committing, and more so the result of the sin that modern Israel is committing; all of these curses are going to come upon this nation. They are building and building. You can see the curses now. And they come under the idea of defeat, disease, desolation, deprivation, deportation, and death. All these things are going to happen to Israel as we have read many times in the prophecies as a result, the curses that are coming from breaking the law.

But we can look forward to the Kingdom of God when these curses will no longer exist. Speaking of God's Kingdom, Revelation 22:3 tells us that there shall be no more curses!