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THE CONFUSING OF CURSES

As a child who grew up on Disney, I learned that curses came from magic spells, brought to boil in a big black cauldron, were wielded by wicked witches in shadowy towers, and cast upon unsuspecting innocents. These evil potions turned princes into frogs and princesses into ogres, that would be locked away in castles. But, should a hero arise, discovering the magical power of eroticism, and other such things that will make you gag, then the curse would be broken by the power of love and all would turn out right again. 

Perhaps nonsense like this is why I had so much trouble understanding curses in the Bible and why God was the one putting people under them. 

I was never told that God invented blessings and curses as a feature of covenantal relationships and not as a weapon against the innocent. You see, a covenant is a terms-based relationship between God and man. It is a relationship where a holy God makes promises to dwell with a sinful people. To do that, laws must be instituted to limit human sin and sacrifices must be given to atone for that sin. Without that there would be no relationship. 

Then, once the relationship has been codified, God gives a sign to the people to remember their commitment to God and His commitment to them. For those who obey God’s covenant, great blessings and favor end up coming upon the people. The greatest and best blessing of course is being near to and knowing God. But, for all those who hate God, spurn His commands, and live in opposition to His covenant, God would rain down curses upon them. 

In the Bible, curses do not come from the hand of a malevolent tyrant but a merciful God. They are not applied to good people who need to be rescued, but to deplorable people who must be destroyed. And the way these curses are avoided is not through the triumph of a love-sick, dragon-slaying, hero but by the loving obedience of the dragon-slaying LORD.

By the time we get to Matthew 23, the people have hated God so ferociously and lived in opposition to His covenant for so long, that the cup of His bitter curses was about to tip and drown them in His suffocating wrath. 

THE NEED FOR CURSE

God was gracious to outline all of the stipulations, laws, and requirements in the Mosaic covenant. He gave them explicit and specific commands to obey, feasts to attend, and sacrifices to offer whenever they sinned. He gave them priests to represent them before God and to mediate reconciliation on their behalf. The point of the law was not perfect obedience lest a lightning bolt will be slammed on top of your head. The covenant was a relationship of grace with a thousand mercies for sinners to be reconciled to God. Only those with the hardest of hearts toward God would experience the curses laid out in chapters like Deuteronomy 28. 

In that passage, God warns the ones who persist in covenant rebellion, that they will be brought under a total and unrelenting curse (Dt. 28:14). This curse would impact their food supply, it would poison their produce, and would kill all the livestock in their possession. It would cause the nation to be plunged into insanity, confusion, and chaos. It would doom their children, infect their citizens with incurable illnesses and diseases, rain down plagues upon the population, and leave their soldiers dead and roasting in the sun. 

If the people did not repent after the first round of seven curses, an additional seven curses would be poured out onto the people with terrifying and increasing intensity. This would culminate in a bitter exile where the people would be violently removed from their ancestral lands and mistreated in a place that was not their home. If they still did not repent, even after all of that, a terrifying nation would overwhelm them, besieging them in their cities, cutting off their food supply, raping and killing them, leaving them so hungry for food that they would willingly roast their children in the fire (Dt 28:15-68). As revolting as all of this sounds, this was precisely the kind of disasters that befell Judah during the Roman invasions of AD 70.  

In Malachi-like fashion, Jesus came to Jerusalem to forecast their destruction. The culmination of all of God’s covenantal fury was soon to descend upon them, destroying the root and branch of Jesse through covenantal cursing. In Matthew 21-22, Jesus came into the city with the prophetic fire (Mal. 4:1-2) but the people refused to repent. Now, in Matthew 23, His righteous indignation is boiling over and the hard-hearted people will be left to their demise. 

THE CURSE OF HIS COMING

It is important to remember two things as we approach this text. First, no time has elapsed between Matthew 22 and Matthew 23. Just a few seconds before the pronouncement of these woes, He indicted the Jews as God’s enemies in need of God’s judgment (Mt. 22:44). Second, it is important to understand that this seven-fold curse is the covenantal pattern of judgment that God revealed in Deuteronomy 28. In that original curse motif, two sets of seven-fold cursings were issued as warnings to the people, covering both the exile and annihilation if necessary. Now, after centuries of post-exilic rebellion, God is visiting these terrifying woes upon His people with a final set of seven curses. This spells the end for Old Covenant Judah.  

In the first curse, Jesus condemns the Jewish aristocracy for allowing God’s people to fall into spiritual ruin, which is akin to spiritual abuse (Mt. 23:13-14). Second, they are cursed for creating a leadership pipeline churning out more and more enthusiastic abusers, men who are more zealous to wound the people of God and spread their hellish errors than the generation before (Mt. 23:15). Third, they have become so morally blind, that they worship the trappings of their religion, putting their hope in temples and altars, instead of the God who occupies those things (Mt. 23:16-22). Fourth, Jesus reveals that they are infatuated with themselves and their traditions instead of obeying God with humility in truth. (Mt. 23:23-24). Fifth, because of this they have become entirely unclean, both inside and out (Mt. 23:25-26). They appear to be righteous, the sixth woe, while being spiritually rotten and dead inside (Mt. 23:27-28). And seventh, Jesus reminds them that they are the ones who kill the prophets, spurn the commands of God, and are in league with their father, the devil (Mt. 23:29-33). 

In exasperation Jesus exclaims to them: 

Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? - Matthew 23:32-33

The sad reality is that they could not escape the full cup of God’s wrath. Not only in this life, but also in the life to come. 

A CURSED GENERATION

Just moments before Jesus leaves the city of Jerusalem, He utters a haunting prophecy that will be expanded in Matthew 24 and will come true within the life of that generation. He tells them, first, that the nation will be brought to ruin by almighty God. Second, their temple would be rendered permanently empty, officially ending the Old Covenant era forever. 

Notice what Jesus says to the people who for centuries have killed and abused God’s prophets. 

“Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, ALL THESE THINGS will come upon THIS GENERATION - Matthew 23:34-36 (Emphasis mine)

Jesus prophecies that a short window of time will occur just before the great disaster happens. For a very quick season, Jesus will send prophets, wise men, disciples, apostles, missionaries, and evangelists from His New Kingdom people, to call the Old Covenant Jews to repentance. In response, the Jews will turn on the early Church with unrelenting hatred and persecutions; killing, scourging, bruising and abusing members of the early church as its greatest opponent.  

Once the final sands fall through the glass of that brief period, God will empty His cup of covenantal fury once and for all upon that generation. He says that all of His anger, since Cain killed Abel, in some way or another will be poured out on them. Just as Adam is the head of every reprobate man, Judah stands as the head of every reprobate nation. Upon that generation, all these things would come. 

A CURSED DESOLATION

The second part of Jesus’ prophecy was the desolation of the Jewish temple. After sobbing over the cursed state of Jerusalem, Jesus proclaims that their house will be left to them desolate. This would have been, perhaps, the most shocking thing Jesus ever said to them, since He already identified how they loved this house more than they loved their God (Mt. 23:16-22)

Jesus says:

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’” - Matthew 23:37-39

Two things are quite striking about this statement. First, the word used for “house” most certainly refers to the Jerusalem temple. The temple was the most significant building within the covenant city of Jerusalem and was the “house” God promised to make His dwelling known (See 2 Chr 29:16; Ezra 7:20; Dn. 5:23 and Matthew 12:4 for an example). So when Jesus declares that desolations are coming upon this house, He is prophesying the imminent destruction of the Jerusalem temple (See Matthew 24 for more). 

Second, Jesus does not attribute ownership of the temple to God. He tells them that YOUR house will be left to YOU desolate, which means God no longer lives there. He is likely reminding the people that God’s shekinah glory had departed long ago (See Eze. 10) and that the Jerusalem temple was nothing more than a national trophy dedicated to a bygone era. Had they been seeking God, as the law required, perhaps they would have noticed His vacancy. But they didn’t. So as Jesus leaves the temple mount the real presence of God left the temple wholly uninhabited. 

CONCLUSION

The prophecies of Malachi, the sermons of John the Baptist and Jesus, and the events of Matthew 21-23 have set a very deliberate context that we must not ignore. God is coming in judgment against rebellious Judah and that city-burning, temple-crushing, judgment will happen within the lifetime of that very generation. Like the generation whose dead bodies lined the wilderness floor, the generation who killed God’s Son would be shut out of God’s New Covenant kingdom and would pay mightily for their crimes

That is the context we must understand if we are going to understand Matthew 24, which is one of the most misunderstood chapters in all of the Bible. As you will see in the weeks ahead, Jesus does not switch His clear focus on Jerusalem to talk about future raptures, tribulations, and events thousands of years into the future. In Matthew 24, Jesus will give the most specific and frightening prophecy ever uttered against that generation in Jerusalem. And over the next couple of weeks, we will explore it. 

Until next time, God bless you!