The Curse That Saved the World

Generational Curses track back to the first human family of Adam and Eve

We don’t have to look far into the Bible to understand that what is going wrong in our lives can be clearly tracked back to the real human lives that are lived out in scripture

We can learn that the dysfunctional and dark strongholds in our family lines are eerily similar to the condition of humanity we read about in the Bible.

Why is that??

Today I want to do a broad overview of what a generational curse really is by looking at two moments in the Old Testament that are symbolic and reflective of each other.

Adam and Eve in the Garden being given the opportunity to choose life or death

Moses and Israel about to enter into the Promised Land and being given the same opportunity to choose life or death

I want to talk about what these choices (and long term choices) meant for the future of humanity, how they apply to our own lives, our families lives, and how Jesus at the Cross ultimately bore these decisions on His own fleshly body so that he could create a new human family who would be able to experience life as it was presented to us in the Garden.

God with us in the Garden

Genesis 1:1 NIV

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

I want you to notice something here that stands out in the next verse

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

The Earth was not yet filled with anything… which we will learn by reading the rest of Genesis 1-2 that it was empty because God had not yet placed humans in it.

He would ultimately design the world for humans to flourish and spread His Presence throughout the whole Earth.

Is 6.3 “And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.””

In other words, you can say the Earth was being designed as a Temple for the Glory of God to dwell in it, and the image of the God in this temple would be humanity.

Gen 1.26-28 “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.””

God was giving man a vocation and purpose, and their actions from there would determine the finishing work on God’s good world.

When Adam and Eve stepped out of the design they were given, they ultimately lost access to the source of life and empowerment that would energize the development of this planet, as well as human society.

Humans would have been able to develop into wise people who could steward the world in a way that would fill it with life, joy, justice, peace and liberty.

Human developing the world empowered by the Spirit of God would have created waves of the Glory of God, and those waves would have rippled throughout this planet for eternity.

(Actions cause reactions, which is basically actions turning into actions into actions)

Paul would identify this as whats called the patterns of the world

Romans 12:1–2 NIV

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Of course our loss of access to Gods Presence turned into our inability to handle basic human relationships which we would see later on when Cain murders his brother Abel because he wasnt able to handle the emotions of his complex human design without being energized by the Spirit and Wisdom of God.

This murder kickstarted a long line of tragic history filled with murders, wars, violence, sexual oppression, slavery, greed and ultimately nations dominating the world by the bloody backs of the vulnerable.

What was meant to be a place for Gods glory to to dwell became a place where digressed human beings grew up with patterns of dysfunction, perversion and violence surrounding the atmosphere.

Garden 2.0 The choice God gives Israel

God made a way to redeem His creation and bring humanity back to Him by starting a new family through a man named Abraham

His promise to Abraham was that He would once again bring His “blessing” (echo of the Garden) to the nations of this world.

Genesis 12.1-3 “The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.””

Abraham’s family would become the twelve tribes of Israel, and would eventually be led to the land that Abraham was promised by a man named Moses.

At the mountain God and humanity are once again together (however sin and death has caused a dangerous boundary they are unable to cross)

Listen to the decision they are given before entering into the land where God will once again be with them

Deut 30.11-19 “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter …”

Ultimately the long line of idolatry in Israel led to the curse of this passage coming to pass.

But the curse of this passage isnt far from our own experience is it?

Why would it be?

We too live in the same world Israel did?

God wasn’t punishing Israel, he was simply lifting His hand of protection and His covering presence from over Israel, and they ultimately experienced what we all experience in this world… the patterns of murder, perversion, wickedness and violence.

Yet when Jesus came onto the scene, he somehow would fulfill the promise given to Abraham and create a new family.

Paul talks about this in Galatians 3

The New International Version (Chapter 3)

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (Galatians 3.13)

The New International Version (Chapter 3)

He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. (Galatians 3.14)

Dont miss what just happened here… This movement at the Cross disarmed the curse by Him taking the results of the curse onto Himself and disarming it

Colossians 2:14–15 NIV

having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Even more, humanities inability to live empowered by the Spirit was also solved at the cross

Romans 8:1-3 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,”

Your family line was broken at the Cross, you are now a part of a new lineage

Colossians 1.15 “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.”

1 Cor 15.20-23 “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.”

If you feel you have generational curses, you have grown up in a family plagued by the dysfunctional patterns of humans who are broken and far from God.

But you are now in a new family free from this curse, but you can only live in this freedom when you live a life built around Jesus and living in His Presence empowered by His Spirit.

Ephesians 1.15-23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him…”