Blessings and Curses

Blessings and Curses-

Good morning One River,

Next week starts Advent, so I want to kind of wrap up our series on the DCW and spiritual warfare, at least for a while.

We’ve spent the better part of this year examining these topics throughout the bible. We started this by looking at the scripturally referenced Divine Council of Yahweh. This is the idea that’s spelled out in scripture, that Yahweh sits at the head of a heavenly council. A place where he is advised by other elohim. Elohim are heavenly or supernatural beings.

Throughout scripture, we’ve looked at places that refer to God’s heavenly council. We see this in Genesis, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Daniel and the book of Revelation, just to name a few.

Throughout time, some of these elohim have failed and fallen away from the company of Yahweh. We know that some of them are still in heaven, or at least, in one of the heavens. We know that some of them have fallen although I think we’ve seen that they may have fallen much later in human history than we initially thought. Or it was not a singular event.

One of the biggest questions that comes when people start reading these texts in their original context is why? Why does Yahweh need a council of others. Is He not all knowing and all powerful. The answer here is yes, of course, He is.

Yahweh is still all of the things we’ve grown up knowing and believing about Him. But, as I hope we figured out when we read through Genesis our first time, Yahweh loves His creations.

He loves humanity, and He loves the other elohim that He created at the beginning.

Scripture is not as comprehensive when it speaks about the nature of other elohim, wicked or good. There is a lot on this topic we simply don’t know. The bible was written to humanity, to help us on our journey. It was not meant to give us a comprehensive understanding of the universe and all of its players.

We see shadows of the Divine Council and other elohim woven into scripture. They’ve always been there. We know that they’ve existed since Yahweh created them at the beginning of His creation cycle. They came first. They came before the creation of planets.

Hebraic euphemisms tell us that they are the heavenly bodies, formed in the first lines of Genesis.

We know that throughout history their story is also at work in the bible. We looked at the fall of humanity and the serpent. We know that he was created by Yahweh and that he had supernatural abilities and knowledge that surpassed what Yahweh had given to the other animals. He could speak, that’s not normal. I’ve never met a talking animal, especially a snake. He had knowledge of the trees of the Garden. Knowledge that surpassed that of Eve, even though we know she should have had a superior intellect to the animals.

I think it’s safe to say the serpent was an elohim- a supernatural being. Now, the big question is, was he Satan the main Adversary of Yahweh himself? I tried in earlier messages to present good arguments on both sides of this issue. Arguments for why he was Satan, and for why he was not.

At the end of the day, I don’t think it matters one way or the other as to whether or not the serpent was Satan. So, I leave the discernment to you all, hoping that you’ll put into it the effort that the answer to that question, truly deserves in your life.

We looked at the flood narrative. I showed you that many other religions and cultures around the world have similar flood narratives. All of which, date back to around the same time. We looked at why Yahweh would have done this, and how it affected the elohim and Nephilim here on earth.

We then jumped to the Tower of Babel narrative, which is relatively small in Genesis. But which is fleshed out more in Deuteronomy 23 & 32 by Moses in poetic form. We see that, not only were the nations divided by languages, but that Yahweh set elohim as spiritual rulers over them going forward.

We know that many of them failed and turned humanity from the worship of Yahweh to instead have humanity worship themselves.

This caused fallout in heaven and on earth. We know this was the cause for the mass slaughter Yahweh ordered the Jewish people to take, when they worked their way through the promised land. Their inability to follow this command, left mixed results for the success of Israel as a nation. As their allegiances to Yahweh waxed and waned over the centuries.

Then we jumped to the NT and looked at how Jesus saw the world through the lens of a DCW. He was acutely aware of the elohim in heaven and on earth. We know he had direct encounters with ha Satan himself.

We know he advised us on how to perform deliverance and exorcism. We saw him take the boys on a fieldtrip to Mt. Hermon and explain the nature of the fight that was to come after his passing and resurrection. He did something no Rabbi would have ever done at this time in history. He took his friends to the literal gates of Hades (Hell) to explain to them this conflict.

We jumped from this to the nature of demonic affliction. We saw how demons and wicked elohim can affect us in our lives; personally, and corporately. We also looked at models for our perfection from this.

I know a lot of this was a new perspective for most of you. I hope everyone, was at least able to find new truths in this series. We had many great conversations around these topics and I think there’s still miles to go as we unwrap the full nature of Yahweh and his Divine Council.

I hope that I have shown you all that this is not only a possible interpretation for scriptural understanding, but a probable one. And those of you that aren’t quite sold. I completely understand, it took me a long time and a lot of reading, praying and research to get to this place. Thank you for walking through this with me and I appreciate your patience.

Any final thoughts or questions before we move on?

Ok, I want to wrap this up with one final message in the series. I want to talk about blessings and curses. This is a comprehensive topic and could probably use a series of its own. But I’m going to try and hit the broad strokes today and leave us in a good place. The word blessing or one of its variations shows up 544 times in the bible. The word curse or one of its variations shows up 288 times in the bible. Yahweh is a loving God and He wants to bless you. The emphasis in scripture is on blessing, not cursing.

I want to start with saying there is a difference between a curse and a demonic affliction. I think sometimes we conflate the two. There is a difference between a generational curse and a generational demon. We’ve talked last month about generational demons and how they can attach to certain families and cause them issues for years and years. Often without the afflicted person knowing how or why they’re there.

This is a different thing entirely.

The concept of Blessings and Curses dates back to the earliest parts of scripture. We see this in Genesis 3 as the ramification of sin entering the Garden. Curses take root in both humanity and in the serpent line. But it gets a bit tricky here.

Blessings and curses come as consequences to the enactment and adherence to, or lack thereof of a Suzerain-Vassal treaty. Once a treaty is signed, at the bottom there is usually a list of blessings that will happen if the treaty is honored and curses the will come if the treaty is not.

This is the consequence of entering into this type of a contract. It is not arbitrary and capricious judgment. This is why the “curses” of most modern practicing witches have no real power. There is no treaty with authority by which to impose a curse. Unless they have first made a covenant with a demon or wicked elohim and that’s a separate matter.

It’s important to look at the language scripture uses when it talks about curses. God never curses someone. He simply lays out what will happen if His commands are not followed. Now, the ramifications of this action are His to enact, but there has always been a choice, and it’s often a natural consequence of someone’s actions.

Let’s look at an example.

Deuteronomy 28:15–19 (NIV)

Curses for Disobedience

15 However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees, I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:

16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.

18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.

Yahweh’s telling them flat out. You will be cursed, not I will curse you. These are the consequences of your own actions. Not, I’m going to be mad and do this to you.

This is a direct reaction to falling outside the will of Yahweh.

Now, we can spend weeks scratching our heads about whether acting outside Yahweh’s will and seeing a curse as the reaction is because Yahweh willed it that way. Or if the law was written as a warning because He knew that acting in such a way would result in these curses.

What came first the Chicken or the egg?

The answer, practically is, it doesn’t matter. It’s the way it is. Yahweh has warned us against certain behaviors. They result in being cursed. In the OT that’s being outside the law.

Practically speaking, we know the concept of outlaws. Extricated from Hollywood, outlaws were people that chose to commit crimes and live outside the law. They were not afforded the protection of the law and were allowed to be killed and robbed and other horrible stuff. Now, this is of course, the human version of outlaw. Yahweh warned us well in advance what it would look like living outside His laws. We failed this task completely and Jesus fulfilled the law for us, freeing us to a certain point.

We are still not allowed to live outside Yahweh’s law entirely, but there are remedies for us when we sin and fall short.

I want to look at a passage here.

Deuteronomy 11:26–32 (NIV)

26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known. 29 When the LORD your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses. 30 As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, westward, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh, in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal. 31 You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you. When you have taken it over and are living there, 32 be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today.

This is the contract. They can sign it or not. It is in fact a choice, even though we never explore in scripture what it would have been like if the Hebrews chose not to sign on with Yahweh. He even tells them why this is an issue. They are going to be tempted in this foreign land with other gods. Now if we look at these as lifeless idols made of stone this seems a little extreme. But if we explore this through the lens of the DCW the reasoning here makes a lot more sense, doesn’t it. Yahweh is protecting them from wicked elohim. He knows they’re there and its time for them to move along. But Yahweh’s people can’t succumb to their temptations or this exodus wont work. And, in fact, it didn’t work. We never got them fully out of the land, and there is still conflict there to this day.

I’m going to pivot a little bit here. Most curses have a lifespan. Usually something like. You will be cursed to the third and fourth generation.

Deuteronomy 5:8–10 (NIV)

8 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

There’s a reason for this. Yahweh stamped a time on these curses and they seem to have natural reflections. How long is the Third and fourth generation? In all the exploration of biblical “generations” it’s almost universally agreed upon that we’re talking about something in the neighborhood of 20 years.

There’s one instance where Yahweh is quoted as saying 100 years, but the math doesn’t work out on that one. So, 20 years. Well, how long is that? It’s basically a human lifespan. If I sin when I’m 20 and live with the curse of it, and the curse extends to the third generation, that’s 20 twice, plus my age, so 60 years. The curse dies with me.

We often don’t like the wording, and I’ll admit its confusing. Scripture itself does not always see it this way. But what Yahweh is saying here is your sin live and die with you.

The scriptural passage also ends the phrases with “those who love me, those who hate me.” It’s very specific about the types of people that will be cursed to the maximum allowable penalty.

We can be forgiven for almost anything, accept turning our back on Yahweh permanently.

We see this in the law. If I kill someone. The law says I’m allowed to be killed, but the sentence may not fall on my kin.

If I sin, and live outside the law. I will naturally take my wife and kids with me. They are still protected by the law, but they live with me. There lives will be harder, because of my choices not theirs.

That dies with me. It does not, or at least, it’s not supposed, to carry on when I’m dead. The Hebrews, like many modern people, were not quick to forgive. Something else Jesus tried to iron out of us.

There’s no real evidence in scripture for a curse being a supernatural affliction. Fleshed out, there’s overwhelming evidence that they’re natural consequences. This is where the main differentiation comes in between curses and demonic elohimic affliction.

Blessings functions in a similar way, but there does seem to be a supernatural lifespan attached to blessings. God is most often at least the understood agent of blessing in this sense, and blessing a person often amounted to calling on God to bless them. In another sense the word could mean to “praise,” as if filling the object of blessing with honor and good words. So, individuals might bless God, while God also could bless men and women. Persons might also bless one another, or they might bless things.

While curses are punishment or natural consequences of actions, blessings are rewards or natural consequences of actions.

Living a fruitful life was seen as one blessed by God. We see this throughout the bible, but no where more stark a contrast than in Job. Job was blessed because he was rich and successful and had many children. That was the mark of blessing. However, Jesus flipped this model. We know Job was blessed; the book tells us so. But we also know Jesus tells us that those without, and in need are also blessed by Yahweh.

It seems to me that through the preponderance of evidence in scripture, including the earlier passage we read in Duet. That blessing is really the mark of living a life in right relationship with Yahweh. Sometimes, that relationship will lead to earthly riches and gains, but more often than not, it leads to spiritual fulfillment.

Once these relationships are crafted, they tend to carry on from generation to generation. Although modern examples suggest that dynamic is starting to change, at least in the West. It would explain why our standard of living is at an all-time high and our happiness is at an all-time low.

The biblical concept of blessings and curses is meant to draw us into right relationship with Yahweh. It’s designed to keep us away from the Worship of other creatures or things. The rewards we see are byproducts of that relationship, as are the negatives that we see when we try to set our own path. Yahweh truly knows what’s best for us.

When mortals bless you and curse you, whether they know it or not, they’re merely wishing you good or bad will. They have no ability or authority to contract some malevolent force and cause you problems that you didn’t personally sign up for.

Yahweh is good. God is good and he protects those whom He loves. He wants you in relationship with Him. That’s the nature of blessings and curses. His way leads to blessings. Our way leads to curses.

This isn’t Burger King. You can’t have it your way.