Undoing the Curse

If you've ever read fairy tales or other fantasy literature or watched princess movies, then you are familiar with what we consider to be a curse and also with the striving to find a way to thwart the curse, or to reverse the curse, or undo it. In Sleeping Beauty, for example, the evil fairy puts a curse on Aurora, that she will sleep forever. But the good fairy puts her own incantation to work, and instead of Aurora sleeping forever, she will wake up when she is kissed. (Of course, it has to be true love’s kiss).

We think of curses usually this way, something bad done by someone bad. In the classic fairy tale, there is a villain and a hero. The villain is the one who puts the curse on someone, and the hero is the one who undoes the work of the villain. But when we look at the curse that sin has brought on the earth, we see it is not a curse brought on by an evil lord or witch or bad fairy, but a curse from God, who is infinitely good.

Theology over time has often warped our view of God. God is good, and He is unable to do anything not good, we are told, so that means that anything bad that happens is only from the evil one, Satan. Anything good comes from God. People misunderstand understand salvation sometimes in what is known as “Ransom Theory”, which is an understanding that when we receive Jesus, we are being saved from Satan and his minions in hell, who stand ready to poke us with pitchforks and work the bellows that cause the burning fire in hell to burn hotter. Bugs Bunny cartoons and other fanciful ways of understanding hell contribute to this wrong idea.

However, it is not Satan who we should fear if we fear hell. It isn't devils that will torment those in hell. And Satan may have some power in this world to warp and twist God’s good creation, but ultimately God is in control. And from the very beginning, the curse on the earth resulting from the sin of Adam was not a curse put on the earth by Satan. It was God who gave the curse to Adam and all his descendants.

Genesis 3:16–19 ESV

To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” 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; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 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.”

It was God who put the curse on Adam and Eve, and also on the serpent, but putting a curse on us does not mean God is evil like a witch in a fairy tale. God gave the curse because we deserved it. In His holiness, righteousness and justice, He decided that the curse was right and just. After all, we had committed cosmic treason against a holy God.

When God gave the Law to Moses, there were blessings and curses attached to it. The blessings were there if the law was kept. Provision, safety, fertility, and other blessings could belong to those who keep His commands. But there were also curses that were to come when the people sinned against God. And if you read carefully, the curses are very detailed. In fact, it takes twice as many words to list the curses than the blessings.

In today’s passage, we see a reminder of the Law and the curses associated with it. Zechariah, like all prophets, is calling people to holiness. Calling us back to God. And the vision we look at today is one that reminds us that God does indeed judge sin, and the sinner cannot expect to not have the effect of the curse come upon him. However, we also can celebrate that in our story, we may very well deserve the curse, but God in His mercy has sent the curse-breaker, Jesus Christ.

Zechariah 5:1–4 ESV

Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying scroll! And he said to me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a flying scroll. Its length is twenty cubits, and its width ten cubits.” Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land. For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side. I will send it out, declares the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of him who swears falsely by my name. And it shall remain in his house and consume it, both timber and stones.”

A scroll 20 cubits by ten cubits. That is one big scroll. As you may already understand, scrolls were used in those days to record words. A Scroll was rolled on two rolls, and as you read, you would roll the parts you read up and unroll the part you hadn't read. When you started reading, the scroll would all be on one side, and when you finished, it would be on the other. The Law, and the Prophetic writings were written on scrolls. A scroll could be very long, but would normally never be much more than a foot wide. This scroll is like a billboard. It would be about 30 feet by 20 feet in our measurements. This scroll was huge, and that wasn’t the only thing unusual about it. It was flying. Many students of the Bible see this as signifying the scroll was from God. The size was huge to signify its importance, and it was written on both sides.

This scroll represents the Law of God. Some feel it represents the 10 commandments. Remember what Jesus said was the greatest law: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.” The second greatest law, he said, was “Love your neighbor as yourself”. Why were these two laws so important? Because, Jesus said, they are the sum of all of the Law and the Prophets.

There were two basic categories of Laws. There are two basic categories of the ten commandments. The first category is those that have to do with our relationship with God. “Have no gods before Me. Don’t make idols. Don’t take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Remember the Sabbath Day, which is a day set aside to honor God, but as Jesus said, was really for man.” The other commandments have to do with our relationships with other people: Honor your parents. Don’t murder. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t steal. Don’t lie to get someone in trouble. Don’t covet things that aren't yours.

The same is true of all of the law. The law had to do with worship (those things that are in relationship to God) and laws of civilization (things to protect us from one another).

Jesus said that all of these can be summed up in two commandments. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind” and “Love your neighbor as yourself”. It we truly love God and love others, then we will want to do those things that bring honor to God and convey our love towards others. And that means obeying the laws of God.

When we don’t keep those laws of God, there are curses we will have on us as consequences. For Israel, those curses included invasion, crop failure, even captivity. However, these curses do not make God evil. Instead, they are, in His love for His people, a way to correct their behavior so that they can get back into a right relationship with Him. He said, after giving all those curses that would come if the law was broken, that even after the curses had had effect, that if people would repent, meaning turn away from wickedness and back to Him, then he would restore once again. And we see this happen throughout the Bible. God is always working to redeem His people. He wants us always to turn toward him. God said through Zechariah “Return to me, and I will return to you.”

2 Chronicles 7:12–15 ESV

Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.

So even though God may shut up the heavens and send pestilence, if the people will become humble, turn from wickedness, and pray and seek God’s face, then He will hear and he will forgive and he will heal. Isn't it interesting that when James says that when one calls for the elders to pray if they are sick, that he then links the healing to confession of sins? So the elders are responsible to each of you, if you should ask us to pray, to also ask you to search your heart to see if there is any unconfessed sin in your life.

Here in our passage from Zechariah, we see two specific sins mentioned. Each one represents a sin against God and a sin against man. The two parts of the law are mentioned here. There is a curse, and the curse is the law itself. Highlighted are two sins. One who swears falsely, which is a reference to the third commandment, “Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” and the second is stealing, which relates both to the 10th commandment about coveting and also, obviously, the commandment about stealing. Violations of the law that are directly against God and violations directly against people. These violations bring a curse, and Zechariah is reminding them of the curse. It may be that in this time, these were two of the more prevalent sins.

However, it is important that we understand that it is the law itself in our passage that is the curse. Does this square with the rest of scripture? I think it does. Let’s look what Paul wrote to the church in Rome:

Romans 4:13–15 ESV

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.

So Paul is saying here that not only does the law not save, but only faith, but he is also reminding them that the law brings the wrath of God. That does not mean the law is sin, he says in Romans 7:7, and later says that the law actually produced death in him. And He tells that Galatian church:

Galatians 3:10 ESV

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”

And we know that no one can keep the law, it is impossible, only Jesus Christ has ever lived perfectly without breaking the law. So the law makes us realize how we can never be right with God in our own power or by any works.

Zechariah’s vision of the scroll reminds us that judgment begins in God’s house. We can spend a lot of time looking at the bad things in the world and forget all about the evil in our own hearts. We must hold each other accountable.Galatians 6:1–2

Galatians 6:1–2 ESV

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

This is what the men in the Warrior class were doing. They had accountability groups. They met together regularly to challenge each other to holiness. Not to put one another down, or to make each other feel bad about their shortcomings, but as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another! This is so that the heart is changed from Hard to soft:

Jeremiah 31:31–34 ESV

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

So now God has given us a new covenant that is in our hearts. He will forgive, He will remember our sin no more. But this is not some universal statement that applies to everyone. We’ve all been to funerals where the person has been spoken of as the greatest saint ever, and yet you have wondered how the person could be immortalized when you know all the less positive things about them. Well, I can tell you this. Just because a preacher at a funeral says the person is in heaven doesn't make it so, but neither does your bad experience with a person make them unredeemeable. God’s grace is more than we can understand. It may be that someone had some rough edges, but God may have been working on them.

For the one who seeks God, He gives a new heart:

Ezekiel 11:19–21 ESV

And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, declares the Lord God.”

So he gives a new heart to those who seek Him, but still the curse remains to those who persist in their sin. “I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, declares the Lord God.” Sounds a little like what Zechariah is saying in chapter 5:

Zechariah 5:3–4 ESV

Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land. For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side. I will send it out, declares the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of him who swears falsely by my name. And it shall remain in his house and consume it, both timber and stones.”

Will you defiantly remain in your sin, or would you turn to Christ to have your sin forgiven? God promises He will respond to you if you turn to Him:

Ezekiel 36:25–27 ESV

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

He will give you a new heart. The Law of God remains, and you can’t live up to it. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try. The law is not deserted, even though we have a New Covenant through Christ. Jesus said he did not come to abolish the law. The law will outlast the earth itself, He said in Matthew 5:18.

What do the two laws mentioned in the vision of Zechariah 5 mean to you? Do not steal. Seems simple enough. But this may not be limited to only stealing like we normally think of it, like shoplifting or burglary. Malachi said we can even steal from God, when we do not give Him proper worship. We steal from each other when we claim to be brothers and sisters in Christ but do not cultivate the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

And what about taking an oath, or using God’s name in vain? Well, this has very broad implications. Taking an oath in those days was very serious. If you went to court to testify, a curse would be called down upon you if you were not telling the truth. You would swear by God’s name that you were telling the truth, particularly if you made an accusation against someone. Think how casually oaths are given today. People put their hand on the Bible and swear to tell the truth, and sit down and lie. If they only knew what curses they bring upon themselves!

Sometimes the oath may be in the form of a person saying they have a word from the Lord. They would be quick to say they are not a prophet, but they will give others direction in life, saying “The Lord told me”. Be careful with this, whether you do this or someone tells you God is telling you to do something. We often lack discernment. Nothing you hear should be different than what scripture tells us, and an out of the blue “word” over your life that does not confirm to you what the Spirit of God has been telling you may not be from God.

A friend and his wife went to a church service where one of these so-called prophets was going from person to person, saying what the Lord had in store for them. (Of course, they never prophecy that things are going to go really badly for you. The offering plate is less full when they do that). The mark of a true prophet is one who is always calling people to holiness and repentance. See what the prophets opposed to Jeremiah did. Tell everyone God is going to bless, Israel is protected, everything is peachy. Jeremiah was preaching that the people would be hauled off into exile. He rebuked those false prophets, and He was proven right.

Anyway, our friends were at this prophecy meeting and the so-called prophet told them they were destined to children's ministry. They were so excited. This had to be from the Lord. Problem is, they had never had the slightest inclination towards children’s ministry. In fact, I don’t think she even really liked kids all that much. But they were on cloud nine to hear this “word from the Lord”. They never did enter children’s ministry, and in fact, sadly, he left ministry all together. Meanwhile, the so-called prophet continues to make his rounds, convincing many people that he speaks for God. God says in Zechariah’s vision:

Zechariah 5:3–4 ESV

Be very careful if you listen to someone claiming to be speaking for God. As I often say, check everything I say from this pulpit by scripture. If it doesn't add up, drive me out of town on a rail. God speaks through His word, and He also does speak through people. Listen to what you hear, but then pray, read the Bible, and see if the Holy Spirit confirms to you what you are told. If you are one who claims to speak the Lord’s will into other people’s lives, you should probably stop doing that. If you are not entirely sure, 100% sure that what you say comes from the Lord or if there is a chance it is just your opinion, then it may be best to not speak the word you feel is prophetic until He confirms it absolutely to you.

We need to be careful about swearing oaths. We should not feel the need to say something like, “I swear to God”. Instead, we can be guided by scripture that says:

James 5:12 ESV

But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

And James was only repeating a teaching of Jesus:

Matthew 5:33–37 ESV

“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

Our passage from Zechariah today should remind us of the seriousness of sinning against God’s law. At the same time, we should be turned towards God through Jesus Christ. The entire Bible reminds us of our sin problem, but let me close with some hope from Paul. We should try to keep the moral law that God gave, but we also need to always be reminded that it is through faith we are saved. It is God’s gift to us that we are granted eternal life through Jesus when we turn from sin and toward Him.

Romans 3:21–31 ESV

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

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