HE BECAME A CURSE
The crucifixion was a horrifying experience. It was a method of torture. Beatings, the crushing of bones, tearing of flesh was some of the things that Jesus faced. But Jesus went through something else for us. The bible says he became a curse for us.
Gal 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."
The definition of a curse has a few meanings.
An appeal or prayer for evil or misfortune to befall someone or something.
One that is accursed.
A source or cause of evil; a scourge: “Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race” (William Ewart Gladstone).
A profane word or phrase; a swearword.
To invoke evil or misfortune upon; damn.
To swear at.
To bring evil upon.
Katara – denotes an “execration” meaning the act of cursing, a curse or something that is cursed or loathed. Something uttered out of maliciousness, a wishing evil to another.
PT 1: SIN BROUGHT CURSES
Gen 3:14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
You will crawl and you will eat dust.
Gen 3:17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ’You must not eat of it,’ "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
Gen 3:18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
A result of the cursing was now the land would produce thorns and thistles.
Gen 4:11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
Gen 4:12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth." Gen 4:13 Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is more than I can bear. Gen 4:14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me."
Curses in the bible brought about a great deal of suffering.
Num 5:11 Then the LORD said to Moses,
Num 5:12 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ’If a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him Num 5:13 by sleeping with another man, and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act), Num 5:14 and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure--or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure--Num 5:15 then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour on her behalf. He must not pour oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a reminder offering to draw attention to guilt. Num 5:16 "’The priest shall bring her and have her stand before the LORD. Num 5:17 Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. Num 5:18 After the priest has had the woman stand before the LORD, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse.
Num 5:19 Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, "If no other man has slept with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you.
Num 5:20 But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have defiled yourself by sleeping with a man other than your husband"--
Num 5:21 here the priest is to put the woman under this curse of the oath--" may the LORD cause your people to curse and denounce you when he causes your thigh to waste away and your abdomen to swell. Num 5:22 May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells and your thigh wastes away. " "’Then the woman is to say, "Amen. So be it."Num 5:23 "’The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water. Num 5:24 He shall have the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water will enter her and cause bitter suffering.
Adultery in our day brings about it’s own suffering. Intense guilt, bitter pain and anguish when the offended party finds out. Cursing, lies, deceit, divorce and even death.
PT 2: DISOBEDIENCE TO GODS WORD BROUGHT CURSES
Deu 28:15 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 upon you and overtake you: Deu 28:16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.
Deu 28:17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.
Deu 28:18 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.
Deu 28:19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.
Deu 28:20 The LORD will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.
Deu 28:21 The LORD will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess.
Deu 28:22 The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish.
Deu 28:23 The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron.
Deu 28:24 The LORD will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.
Deu 28:25 The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth.
Deu 28:26 Your carcasses will be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.
Deu 28:27 The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured.
Deu 28:28 The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind.
Deu 28:29 At midday you will grope about like a blind man in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.
Deu 28:30 You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and ravish her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit.
Deu 28:31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them.
Deu 28:32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand.
Deu 28:33 A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression all your days.
Deu 28:34 The sights you see will drive you mad.
Deu 28:35 The LORD will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.
Deu 28:36 The LORD will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your fathers. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone.
Deu 28:37 You will become a thing of horror and an object of scorn and ridicule to all the nations where the LORD will drive you.
Deu 28:38 You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it.
Deu 28:39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them.
Deu 28:40 You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off.
Deu 28:41 You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity.
Deu 28:42 Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land.
Deu 28:43 The alien who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower.
Deu 28:44 He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the tail.
Deu 28:45 All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the LORD your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you.
Deu 28:46 They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever.
Deu 28:47 Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity,
Deu 28:48 therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
Deu 28:49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand,
Deu 28:50 a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young.
Deu 28:51 They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined.
Deu 28:52 They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the LORD your God is giving you. Deu 28:53 Because of the suffering that your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you. Deu 28:54 Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, Deu 28:55 and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities. Deu 28:56 The most gentle and sensitive woman among you--so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot--will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter Deu 28:57 the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For she intends to eat them secretly during the siege and in the distress that your enemy will inflict on you in your cities.
God was quite serious about his people obeying his word. They would be blessed if they did and cursed if they did not. In our day are people under a curse if they don’t obey Gods word. Absolutely!
1 Cor 16:22 If anyone does not love the Lord--a curse be on him. Come, O Lord !
How do we show that we love the Lord? By obeying his commands. John 14:21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
PT 3: CHRIST BECAME A CURSE FOR US; PRAISE GOD!
Gal 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."
What was the curse of the law? Deu 27:26 "Cursed is the man who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out." Then all the people shall say, "Amen!"
God had placed all men under his law. (Rom 3).
Breaking God laws was sin and if you broke one you broke it all (James 2:10)
No man could be saved by law (Gal 3:10).
Gods law demanded that you be perfect in keeping it. Jesus was the only one who fulfilled the demands of God. Only Jesus was perfect. Rom 3 tells us that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Wages of sin, is death, condemnation, separation from God. Because of our sin we were under a curse, but when Christ went to the cross and was crucified he took on our sins and became a curse for us.
Isa 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
He was holy, but became a curse.
Righteous, but became a curse.
Innocent, but became a curse.
Why? Why become something that God hated. Because he loves you and wants you to be saved. Celebrate him, honor him, find out how to get close to him and if you haven’t given your life to him yet what are you waiting for? Let us pray.
