The Curse Upon The Jews
Watch this blog on this week’s episode of The PRODCAST.
INTRODUCTION
We are now in our seventh installment of this new Revelation series, and our goal has been simply to understand the most complicated book in the Bible but to do so in a way that you don't need charts, decoder rings, or eschatology shamans on TBN in order to understand. Our goal is not to bring a theological system of doom and gloom into the text and pound it into the Bible like a child trying to cram a square peg into the round hole. No. Instead, we want to derive meaning from the text. We want to let the text tell us what it means and what the original author was trying to communicate to the original audience, and then we want to submit our lives to that inspired meaning. Because, as Peter said in John 6: "Lord, you have the words of life… and where else shall we go?" This has been our posture so far in this series.
And because this has been our attitude, we have totally and completely rejected the tabloid style, end-times hysteria that is being peddled by the modern-day dispies, which has led to a defeatist mindset in the Church of the Living God. Lie after lie, whether it was intentional or unwittingly, they have foisted upon the modern Church, telling her that we are ever losing, that the world is going from bad to worse, that the Kingdom of God is shrinking, and that the most significant spiritual exercise that we can be doing in these dark days is planning our escape from the world, instead of trying to work and build in the world as Jesus commanded. This Houdini-like mentality, waiting for the right moment to disappear, has caused the Church to fail, the saints of God to be fearful and depressed, the world to fall into deeper levels of repugnancy, and the Church to waste away into total and complete irrelevancy.
With that, it is clear to me that Dispensationalism is a doctrine created in the salt mines of hell because wherever it is sprinkled on the Church, she becomes fat, sick, and nearly dead. She becomes depressed and dejected, which are not attributes that arise out of a right relationship with God; they are certainly not fruits of the Spirit but carefully gift-wrapped poisons from an enemy that wants to render God's elect immobile in panic, fear, and dread. I want you to think about this in a very obvious way: How could such a corrosive theology honor Jesus when it so perfectly devastates His royal bride? Instead of robust exegesis, dispensationalists employ what I like to call: "exit-gesis," looking everywhere in Scripture for proof of their imminent exit, instead of joyfully working to see this world conformed to His image. So, because of that, I do not care how many dispensationalists drop into the comments like a prowling Chester lurking on the playground, trying to call me a false teacher and a heretic for teaching what the Bible actually says. I am going to keep teaching what the Bible says because their view is as corrosive as battery acid to the Church. And for the last hundred years, the only hundred years in all of church history that this aberrant system can claim to be the majority view, the once vigorous Church of Christ, under this toxic system of doctrine, looks more like a jittery toothless meth addict from Chicago than a vigorous, and victorious, warrior for Jesus Christ. If Dispensationalism were a pill, you would stop taking it, and we, the Church, need to bury this destructive doctrine in the pages of history and move on in faithfulness beyond it.
And I know this is not what this article is about today, but I am so tired of the Church living out a loser mentality, retreating from the world, living like cowards, and refusing to live for Christ today because we are too busy trying to catch our rapture tomorrow. This has got to stop, and it is one of the overarching reasons I am writing this series!
Now, if this is the first time you are reading this blog, a hearty welcome to you and a suggestion. I would recommend that you pause here and go back to the six prior articles in this series. Because, in those articles, we provide the critical context you will need to navigate what we are discussing today. And what are we discussing today? We are continuing along with the same topic we had last week, showing how and why the tribulation has already happened!
And, before we get into the new evidence I am going to show you, I want to set the scene and remind us of where we have been.
Last week in the blog, we ignited a few claymore mines in the direction of Dispensationalism, hopefully waking them up to the reality of what the word "tribulation" actually means. As we showed last week, the word "Tribulation" (in the Greek, it is "thilipsis") does not mean what many people have told us that it means, which is a proper noun referring to a specific, unique, 7-year period of unfathomable suffering at the hands of the "Antichrist" at some point in our future. That is not what this word means at all! Instead, it is a general word that applies to any period of time when people are suffering. You could say you are having a thilipsis when your dog or cat dies. You are having a thilipsis when your grandma gets run over by a reindeer. Or any other number of things that cause you heartache, grief, and suffering. And as we pointed out, this word occurs hundreds of times in the Bible, never pointing to a future apocalyptic 7-year super cycle of terror and pain. It just doesn't.
In addition to this, last week we proved how Jesus wasn't talking about events that would happen on a "Late Great Planet Earth," but how the tribulation was going to happen in the first century, to His beloved Church, at the hands of the bloodthirsty Jews, who hated and crucified Jesus and abhorred His followers to the point of murder. We saw that this is the only faithful meaning of this word and what it meant in the context of Matthew 24, which was the linguistic case.
After looking at the language, we then turned to two examples of the word "Thilipsis" in the Greek Old Testament (which we call the Septuagint). From these two examples (one in Exodus and one in Deuteronomy), we were able to draw some Biblical and theological parallels with what Jesus was predicting in Matthew 24. And what we saw was how Jesus was intentionally comparing the people of God in the book of Exodus to the first-century church. We saw how Jesus (a few verses later) would compare the first-century Jews to the Egyptians of old. And… By doing this, Jesus was showing His disciples how, just as Pharaoh oppressed Israel with relentless cruelty, the Jews of Jesus' day had become the new Egypt—oppressing the Church, infuriating the rage of Yahweh, leading to their devastation and disaster. Like the children of Israel in Egypt, the Church would go through a momentary "thilipsis." Like the Egyptians drowning in the Red Sea, the first-century Jews would go through a "great thilipsis," signaling their total doom.
Now, once we established this Exodus motif in the first use of thilipsis, we then turned back to the Levitical and Deuteronomic curse language from the Mosaic covenant (Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28). By doing this, we proved that Israel's fifteen hundred years of covenant unfaithfulness had finally warranted the snipers' laser to center upon her chest. From Mount Sinai to Mount Calvary, the Jews were a stiff-necked people who killed the prophets, sacrificed their children in the fire of Moloch and Baal, played the whore with every idol and every nation, and even thought they would get away with murdering God's one and only Son. By Jesus marching into Jerusalem, the city plotting to kill Him, and announcing seven covenant woes upon the city in Matthew 23, He was telling everyone that they were not going to get away with it! God had not forgotten her crimes; He was not blind to the injustices and inequities she had piled up high as heaven, and by announcing seven perfect woes upon her, Jesus was starting the countdown. He was pulling the covenant cursing lever that, within a single generation (Matthew 24:34), would render her no more.
Finally, in last week's blog, we tied it all together in the book of Revelation, where we saw how the early Church endured tribulations (such as in Revelation 2:9-10) but how the great tribulation was reserved for their Jewish oppressors (Revelation 6:12-17; Matthew 24:21). The very ones who cried, 'His blood be on us and on our children' (Matthew 27:25) were the ones who were crushed under the weight of God's curse and like sheep being led to the slaughter they marched toward their doom until they were no more.
This has led us to the consistent conclusion that Matthew 24 and the book of Revelation are not about futuristic sci-fi pandemonium — but a faithful accounting of how old covenant Judaism, and its custodians, the lawless Jews, were crushed by God and sent away from Him like a newly discovered whore receiving her freshly printed certificate of divorce (Revelation 17:1-18; Jeremiah 3:8).
And that is where I would like us to continue today, jumping right back into where we left off last week because there is so much more we could not cover. Today, we are going to look at how the Jews came under the curse of God. We will see how they had three dramatic covenant curses applied to them. We will see what those curses did to them as a people. And we will look at how these covenant curses define them as a people today!
Last week, I said that this may be my most ambitious article yet, and that is certainly the case here, as we are trying to identify what in the world happened to the first-century Jews.
PART 1: THE JEWS AND THE THREAT OF CURSE
To understand the curse that fell upon the Jews, we must first immerse ourselves in covenant thinking. Not taking this seriously is one of the significant reasons that dispensationalists misunderstand their Bible, as covenant theology is the backbone of Biblical theology. Covenants are how a thrice-holy God stoops down to establish a relationship with sinful man. They are agreements cut in blood, sealed with the promise of God, and their stipulations binding upon the people God has chosen to enter into a relationship with. Through covenants, God extends His hand to His people, drawing them into fellowship, promising blessings for their fidelity, and warning of awful paralyzing curses if they persist in their rebellion (Deuteronomy 28:1-2, 15-16).
In this way, covenants in the Bible are entered into voluntarily but become forever binding once the parties agree to the terms, which opens up humans to unimaginable blessings and curses, depending on which direction of faithfulness they end up going. And, as you study these covenants, you will soon realize how all of them follow the same pattern of solemnizing them.
First, it is always God who initiates the relationship. Whether with Noah, Abraham, or Israel at Mount Sinai, it is God who takes the first step, calling a people to Himself (Genesis 9:8-9; Genesis 12:1; Exodus 19:4-6). Second, the relationship comes with stipulations—terms that God lays out that must be followed in order for Him to share His holy presence with sinful men and for the covenant to remain intact (Genesis 17:1-2; Exodus 20:1-17). These covenant stipulations are not on the level of mere suggestions that you can obey when you get the chance. On the contrary, they are divine ordinances that must be obeyed, or you will forfeit the very grace of God that is protecting you from His holy, purifying wrath. That is the second essential element of every covenant. Third, both future blessings and curses are attached to the stipulations as a reward for obedience or the dire consequences for violating the covenant of God. Fourth, every covenant is sealed in blood, which demonstrates how this is a life-and-death commitment (Genesis 15:9-10; Exodus 24:6-8). Fifth, God gives a sign of His faithfulness—a rainbow, circumcision, the Sabbath—all to remind His people that He will be ever faithful, and if the covenant is broken, it will not be by Him (Genesis 9:13; Genesis 17:11; Exodus 31:16-17). And finally, sixth, covenants are generational. They extend beyond the original recipients to their children and their children's children, making the stipulations, blessings, and curses binding on all future generations as well (Genesis 17:7; Deuteronomy 29:14-15).
Now, because all covenants follow this pattern, we should be able to demonstrate these elements showing up in each of the five Old Testament covenants… And we indeed can. Consider the covenant with Abraham. God initiates a relationship with the man, calling him out of his paganism and into a good land where God will relate with Him (Genesis 12:1). In this covenant, God commands Abraham to walk blamelessly before Him (Genesis 17:1), and because God decides to take the curses upon Himself (Genesis 15:9-17), the only thing left for Abraham are the covenant blessings (Genesis 12:2-3), which make this covenant most unique. God was saying to Abram, even if you do not live up to the conditions, I will make sure, on my own life, that these blessings end up coming down to your seed, which Paul tells us is none other than Jesus Christ. In the meantime, while all of this would play out in space and time, God reminds Abram of these blessings by giving him a covenant sign called circumcision (Genesis 17:10-11) so that he would never forget the lovingkindness of the Lord. Then, the Lord gives Abram offspring so that the covenant will have a legacy and so that future generations will inherit its blessings (Genesis 17:7). And that is the covenant with Abraham in a nutshell.
Yet, unlike the Abrahamic covenant, where God took all potential punishments upon Himself when you get to the covenant God made with the Jews at Mount Sinai (the Mosaic Covenant), you see pretty quickly that the covenant curses very much apply. If the Jews, who God ransomed out of Egypt, and entered into covenant with them at the base of that great mountain, obeyed the terms God laid out in the covenant (Exodus 20:1-21), then God would have rained down such extraordinary blessings, like abundant harvests, victory over enemies, peace in the land, and the very presence of God dwelling ever among them (Leviticus 26:3-13; Deuteronomy 28:1-14). But, if they were to disobey these stipulations and ordinances, the curses would be equally and horrifyingly extraordinary. In Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, God warns His people in the most vivid language imaginable what will happen if they break their covenant with Him.
He tells them that their disobedience will bring famines so severe that parents will eat the flesh of their own children (Leviticus 26:29; Deuteronomy 28:53-57). Their cities will be reduced to rubble, their enemies will crush them, and their survivors will be scattered to the ends of the earth (Leviticus 26:31-33; Deuteronomy 28:64-67). Their land will become a desolation, overrun by wild animals, and their bodies will lie unburied rotting and exposed upon the ground, food for the flying fowl who peck away at them until there is nothing left (Leviticus 26:22; Deuteronomy 28:26). In Deuteronomy, God warns that these plagues will cling to them, madness will overtake them, and their lives will hang in constant psychological dread (Deuteronomy 28:20-22, 28-34). Their enemies will besiege their cities until the people are reduced to cannibalism in desperation (Deuteronomy 28:52-53). Even their sons and daughters will be taken from them, sold into slavery, while they stand by, powerless to stop it (Deuteronomy 28:32, 41).
Among all the covenants in Scripture, obeying and disobeying this one came with the most specific list of blessings but also the most dire and biting curses. And for their part, Israel knew the terms and agreed to them. They heard them with their own ears and said: "All that the Lord has spoken, we will do" (Exodus 24:7), committing themselves to the most bitter cursings should they abandon their covenant with God. This is the active covenant, which ensured that an entire generation died in the wilderness for their faithlessness. And it was this covenant that the younger generation renewed in the plains of Moab before entering the Promised Land, pledging undying loyalty once more (Deuteronomy 29:1, 10-15) not just from them but from their children and their children's children forever.
When the blood of this covenant was sprinkled on all the people at Mount Sinai, it was not just a symbol of the life-and-death nature of this agreement. It was a solemn act, binding them to God and making the blessings and the curses of the covenant real and inescapable (Exodus 24:8).
If you are a Jew, this covenant was your life. More than the covenant with Abraham, Noah, and Adam (which applied to all people on earth), this covenant was peculiar to the Jewish people, and it became entwined with their identity as a nation, but not in any way that led to their obedience. For, as we will see, all throughout their history, they broke it again and again. They chased after idols, despised God's law, and hardened their hearts against the prophets He sent to call them back (2 Kings 17:7-18; Jeremiah 7:25-26). And for many centuries, God chose to be patient with them, not giving them the curses that they wholeheartedly deserved.
And that, of course, leads us to our second section, which is:
PART 2: THEY PROVOKED GOD TO CURSE THEM
THE NORTHERN KINGDOM
Israel's history reads like a daytime soap opera, where immorality, raunchy scandals, and infidelity occur in every frame. Yet, by the sheer grace and long-suffering of God, Israel, and Judah were spared from quickly tasting the bitter pill of cursing their behavior so deserved. While being extremely patient with them, God allowed Israel and Judah to go decades and centuries before pouring out His fury upon her. This kindness from God, which should have led her to repentance, seemed to embolden her to even more brazen and lurid crimes against her maker and her husband. The prophets, with tongues set afire, described her actions as nothing less than spiritual prostitution—a whoring after foreign gods and alliances that provoked the fury of God (Ezekiel 16:15-34, Hosea 4:12-13). Like a faithless spouse, Israel turned her back on the God who rescued her from Egypt and betrothed her at Mt. Sinai, defiling herself with ongoing displays of grotesque infidelity.
The northern ten tribes, collectively called "Ephraim" or "Israel," were the first to feel the crushing weight of the Mosaic covenant curses. Their idolatry and flagrant rebellion caused God's patience to expire, causing Him to enact the total weight of those curses upon them in 722 BC. It was the Assyrian Empire who became the instrument of God's wrath, using it like a loaded Colt 45 to put all ten of the Northern Tribes beneath the ground (2 Kings 17:6-23). It was the curses described in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 that came to brutal fulfillment in the fall of Samaria. Their cities lay in ruins, their women were raped and violated, their children clubbed to death or enslaved, and their lands were left desolated by the avalanche of Assyria. This once-blessed people, who drew its lineage from Abraham, was now ethnically eliminated from the face of the earth, bearing the full shame of the covenant divorce that was issued by the creator she spurned through rampant infidelities.
THE SOUTHERN KINGDOM
Judah, the southern Kingdom of Judah and Benjamin, observed the fate of her sister from the next nation over and should have been left trembling with fear. But instead of repenting, she pursued the same path of wickedness, doubling down on her rebellion, like her older sister Israel. But this did not go unnoticed. The prophets called her out with graphic and shocking imagery, depicting her sin in terms that completely offend our modern sensibilities.
For instance, Ezekiel 16 records one of the most devastating indictments against her. In that passage, God metaphorically recounts how He adorned Judah with beauty, lavished her with jewels and gold, and elevated her to the place of royalty (Ezekiel 16:10-14). Yet she took His gifts and prostituted herself in the most shameful ways (Ezekiel 16:15-19). God even says (and this, of course, is metaphorical) that Judah took the gold and silver that God gave her to glorify Him, and she melted it down, fashioned it in the shape of a penis-like god, and then violated herself with it shamelessly, which demonstrates the level of her depravity (Ezekiel 16:17). God accuses her of lusting after foreign peoples and their gods because they were hung like mules and horses (Ezekiel 23:20), which is a symbol of her carnality and ludeness, like a harlot in the marketplace (Ezekiel 16:17, 25).
Now, I get that these words and phrases are shocking. I also get that you will not likely hear a sermon about them. But, they are a part of the Revelation God revealed to us and show us that Judah was playing the whore, and betraying her pure love of Yahweh, with the fertility cult gods of the surrounding nations, such as Baal or Asherah. The language is intentionally provocative as if to say that Judah used the very blessings God gave her (gold and silver) to create objects for her own spiritual self-destruction. As the title of this section suggests, she was provoking God, even begging for Him to put her under a curse.
Her depravity deepened as she built shrines on every high hill and under every green tree, transforming these places into metaphorical brothels of false worship (Jeremiah 2:20). Ezekiel does not mince words, describing Judah as spreading her legs to every passing nation, seeking alliances and pleasures in idolatry, desecrating the covenant bond she was supposed to have with her God (Ezekiel 16:25). Ezekiel tells us, she was not acting in desperation, as if God was withholding love from her. Instead, she was acting out of an insatiable lust for sin, an open rebellion against the God who had been her faithful and loving husband all along. Ezekiel even tells us that the surrounding pagan nations, steeped in their own disgusting sex religions, got to the point where Judah's behavior made them want to vomit from revulsion (Ezekiel 16:27).
The horror reached its zenith when Judah sacrificed the fruit of her own womb—God's covenant children—on the altars of her lovers. Ezekiel's words seethe with righteous anger as God cries out, "You slaughtered My children and offered them up to idols by making them pass through the fire" (Ezekiel 16:21). This grotesque act of child sacrifice, born from a frenzied devotion to false demonic gods, revealed the depths of her spiritual adultery. Judah had desecrated not only the covenant but the very image of God in her offspring. To say that God had every reason to destroy her and would have been more than just in doing so is an understatement of understatements.
This lewd and appalling behavior was not met by an imminent well-aimed meteorite from Yahweh right at the heart of Judah. God kept loving her patiently and faithfully, even as she continued in her adulteries. Prophet after prophet was sent by Him. Men like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, the twelve minor prophets, and countless unnamed voices were sent thundering God's case against her, but she remained unmoved.
Here's something crucial to grasp: the prophets were not just fiery street preachers or moody messengers. They were God's covenant prosecutors—His divine attorneys—bringing Judah to trial. Like courtroom heralds, they laid out the damning evidence, pointing directly to the covenant terms their ancestors had solemnly sworn to uphold. They didn't mince words as they thundered the terrifying consequences of rebellion, each indictment carrying the weight of heaven's gavel. Yet Judah, like her wayward sister Israel, hardened her heart and plugged her ears. She turned from the prophets' warnings with contempt, silencing them with swords or sending them away in chains. Those who survived were left to grieve bitterly over her spiritual whoredom. Isaiah mourned with piercing clarity: 'How the faithful city has become a harlot, she who was full of justice!' (Isaiah 1:21). Jeremiah, with tears streaming, unveiled her hypocrisy, crying, 'You have played the harlot with many lovers; yet you turn to Me,' as if Judah could mask her infidelity with hollow repentance (Jeremiah 3:1). The prophets' laments weren't just sorrowful—they were cries of a heartbroken God, who was pleading with His people to return before it was too late.
Yet, after centuries of prophetic warnings, Judah's sins reached a boiling point, and God's patience finally ran out. Malachi, who was the last prophet in the Old Testament, announced the coming "great and terrible day of the Lord" (Malachi 4:1-6). This day wouldn't be a distant event at the end of history but a day when God Himself comes and visits the temple, unleashing His fire upon all flesh, burning the rebels like chaff, and purifying His people as the flame does to gold.
Before that occurred, John the Baptist, the prophesied "coming Elijah" from the book of Malachi, came as the final covenant lawyer, pleading for the people to repent and prepare for the Judge who was coming. His fiery message echoed the prophets before him: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2). But, like their fathers, the Jews rejected him, dismissing his warnings and despising his call for repentance. This rejection sealed their fate. The Judge, long-suffering and patient, was now coming like Malachi predicted, not as a gentle shepherd but as a consuming fire to punish. The covenant curses would now fall with their full and terrifying weight on Jerusalem. The city would burn, the temple would crumble, and the people who had shouted, "His blood be on us and on our children" (Matthew 27:25), would drink the cup of God's wrath to its bitter dregs.
What we have seen is that Israel provoked God repeatedly; she spat in His face and dared Him to enact the covenant curses He sanctioned upon her. He sent her one prophet after another to call her to repentance, but she did not repent. Then, as the Old Testament drew to a close, God sent one final prophet (Malachi) to His apathetic people, and they still did not listen. As a result of their infidelity, Malachi prophesied that no more prophets would come until a final Elijah came in order to prepare the way for the Lord. This coming visitation was not one of joy. It was not like long-lost family members gleefully reconnecting. God sent John the Baptist to announce that Judah's judgments were about to overtake her, like a hurricane ready to make landfall. Her Judge, the second member of the Trinity, was coming to enact the curses she deserved for breaking the covenant with God and ignoring all the prophets He had sent to her.
In this sense, the coming of Christ should be seen both as salvation for the people of God and as judgment upon the rebels. This leads us to our next section, which is:
PART 3: JESUS CAME TO CURSE HER
In the modern, evangelical Church, we like to think of Jesus' coming as a joyful event. And it was in one sense. He came to save sinners. He came to bring life, hope, and redemption. And, praise the Lord for that!
But how often do we miss the other side of the story? How often do we hopscotch through the Gospels, skipping ahead to the cross, imagining that the only reason that awful gory symbol of brutality stands aloft at the top of Jerusalem's hill is for Jesus to come and save His friends? But… Jesus didn't come just to save His friends; He also came as a Judge against His enemies.
He came not just to bring peace but a sword. The fire that Malachi spoke of—the fire that would burn like a furnace and reduce the arrogant and evildoers to chaff—that fire began to burn the moment Jesus stepped into the world (Malachi 4:1). And guess what? That fire wasn't for the pagans. It wasn't for the Romans. It was for the Jews.
Think about this. John tells us, "He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him" (John 1:11). The people who had every advantage, who had the prophets, the promises, and the covenants—they rejected Him! Jesus performed miracles in Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, and these were Jewish cities! But what did they do? Nothing. They didn't repent. They didn't turn. This is precisely why He rebuked them, saying, "It will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you" (Matthew 11:20-24).
It wasn't until Jesus preached His first sermon in Nazareth, telling the Jews there about God's future blessings to Gentiles, that they tried to kill Him (Luke 4:16-30). And why did they try to kill Him? What got their blood boiling so violently? It was the thought that a dirty Gentile could come under the blessings of God, that they could inherit the covenant blessings that they believed only belonged to the Jews. In the Jewish mind, they were the superior race; they were biding their time until God lifted them up above all the nations so that they could enact their visions of Jewish supremacy. So, when Jesus told them to repent, they yawned at Him. When He called them to come and enter the Kingdom, they barely batted an eye. But when He announced that the covenant blessings of Yahweh were coming to the Gentiles, they were ready to murder Him.
This deep-seated pride and sense of racial superiority blinded them to the very heart of their Scriptures. The covenant they so fiercely guarded had always pointed to God's plan to bless all nations through Abraham's seed. Yet, instead of humbling themselves before the Messiah who came to fulfill these promises, they turned their anger toward Him. Their rejection of Jesus wasn't just ignorance—it was active hatred. Jesus exposed this hypocrisy when He confronted their supposed devotion to Moses, saying, 'If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me' (John 5:46). They didn't just reject Him—they hated Him. And Jesus warned them, "Unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins" (John 8:24).
Jesus didn't come to plead with them or negotiate terms for their peaceful surrender. He came as their covenant Judge, prosecuting their rebellion with the full evidence of those covenant attorneys that had gone before Him. As a Judge, He cited what the prophets said about them as part of the trial against them. For instance, He quoted Isaiah, saying: 'You hypocrites! Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: "This people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me" '(Matthew 15:7-9). This was exhibit A.
He then invoked Jeremiah to condemn the corruption of their worship, saying: 'Is it not written, "My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations"? But you have made it a den of robbers (Mark 11:17, referencing Jeremiah 7:11). This is exhibit B.
But the most damning indictment in their trial came when the Judge declared,
"You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning" - John 8:44.
Jesus announced in open court that the paternity results had come in and that the Jews of that first century did not have God as their Father, but instead, they were the bastard sons of hell. And, even more than this, because of their covenant rebellion, God was intentionally blinding them, confusing them, and deliberately keeping them from repentance. They had reached a point of no return. They had gone too far to turn back. They had arrived at a place where God would not even allow that hellish generation to repent, which is an astounding thing. John 12:40, referencing Isaiah 6:9-10, says this:
"He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and be converted and I heal them." - John 12:40
This is curse language. God was actively hardening them and blinding them just like He did to the Egyptian Pharaoh of old. And just like that slimy tyrant had no ability to soften his own heart but was propelled by God toward his demise, so too that generation of Jews were on an inevitable collision course with Rome in AD 70.
Jesus tells us that He spoke in parables to the Jews, not to reveal the truth to them, not to break it down into simple stories so that they would make sure to understand, but to hide it from them so that they could not repent, could not turn, and could not be saved (Matthew 13:13-15). 'To you,' He told His disciples, 'it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to them, it has not been granted' (Matthew 13:11). What Jesus is saying here is clear, even if it strikes against our Evangelical sensibilities. He is not saying, I came to save everyone. He is saying that I most certainly did not come to save them; "I came as a righteous judge to ensure that they would be convicted and condemned."
Jesus wasn't just a stumbling block to that generation of Jews or the stone they rejected; He was the righteous Judge who had come out of His heavenly chambers, where He had been deliberating for centuries, and had now stepped back into the courtroom of Judah, to read off the list of indictments, which were a mile long. Here are a few of them:
He indicted them for giving God lip service instead of covenant faithfulness (Matthew 15:7-9). He indicted them for giving an outward appearance of religion while being internally corrupted, comparing them to whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23:25-27). He condemned them for being blind guides (Matthew 23:16) and told them that their blindness was precisely why He would be delivering the guilty verdict (John 9:39). He not only called them sons of Lucifer in open court but decried their disciples as twice the sons of hell as they were (Matthew 23:15), which meant that their cursed condition was infectious and was being transferred to another generation. For their crimes, He promised that they were going to die in their sins (John 8:24) because they were a wicked and adulterous generation (Matthew 16:4) and that where He was going, they would not be able to follow Him (John 8:21).
Jesus further indicted them for their rejection of the prophets, saying, "Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them" (Luke 11:47). He charged them with bearing the guilt of their ancestors' bloodshed, declaring, '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' (Matthew 23:35). He condemned their corruption of worship, accusing them of turning His house into a den of robbers instead of a house of prayer (Mark 11:17). He rebuked their greed masked as piety, saying that they were "lovers of money" (Luke 16:14-15) and the ones who "devour widows' houses" in their insatiable greed (Matthew 23:14). To the Pharisees, who knew God's heart for the widow and the orphan, Jesus promised, they will receive greater condemnation.
Jesus also exposed their unfaithfulness to the covenant. He asked, 'Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?' (Matthew 15:3). He cursed their fruitlessness, saying, 'The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing the fruit of it' (Matthew 21:43). He symbolized their judgment by cursing a withered fig tree (Mark 11:14) and mocking them for already being rendered over to Caesar (Matthew 22:22). Did you catch that? They wanted to argue with the righteous Judge on the efficacy of tax-paying, and Jesus reminded them that whatever belongs unto Caesar should be given back to Him. Ironically, the city was rendered over to Caesar in just a single generation, showing who the Jews belonged to all along, and it was not their Covenant God.
Perhaps most damning was Jesus' warning about a sin that would never be forgiven: the 'blasphemy against the Holy Spirit' (Matthew 12:31). According to Jesus' own words, the Jewish leaders committed this sin when they attributed His miraculous works to the power of demons. Their spiritual blindness was so profound that they failed to recognize the Holy Spirit's power in the miracles of Christ. Instead, they ascribed God's pure and perfect work to despicable, unclean spirits. For this, Jesus declared that the Jews standing in front of Him, the ones who committed such a heinous sin, would never be forgiven. They had committed the unpardonable sin; they were the walking damned who had no hope of rescue. If that sends shivers down your spine, then thank God for His grace that holds you and keeps you from the madness, blindness, and hardness of heart that we are seeing among the first-century Jews.
As a part of this blindness, Jesus confirmed that they could not understand His message:
'To you, it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them, it has not been granted… so that while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand' - Matthew 13:11-13.
Jesus references Isaiah here to show how God was actively keeping them from repentance. Listen to the words Jesus is using and tell me if that generation of Jews had any hope of salvation. Jesus says:
"He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and be converted and I heal them" - John 12:40, referencing Isaiah 6:9-10.
The picture of what was going on is starting to gain 8k resolution. Jesus did not come to save those Jews. He did, as a matter of historical fact, save many priests, scribes, Pharisees like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, and many of the population of Jerusalem (such as all those who were saved at Pentecost and beyond), which constituted a great revival and reformation among the Jewish people… But, the majority of them were under a covenant ban, a curse, that held them under the water like rip currents pulling them down and to their doom.
In His final act as covenant judge, Jesus chided them that even though they touted being sons of Moses, that Moses had become their greatest accuser. This does not mean that Moses would show up in the flesh to condemn them Himself. Jesus was appealing to the head of the Mosaic covenant, letting them know that his entire covenant stood in condemnation of them, warranting the curses that were promised to be poured out on them (John 5:45). For three years, Jesus had prosecuted the lawsuit against them, and in the final week of His life, in Matthew 23, the Judge finally announced the verdict to the courtroom. He said:
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, 35 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. 36 Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. - Matthew 23:34-36
As the Holy Judge of Heaven, Jesus announced to the entire city of Jerusalem that all of God's covenant fury and all of the covenant woes were going to fall upon them. He told them directly that they would persecute, maim, and murder His Church for forty years while they attempted their self-righteous appeals, but the execution date was already set. Firmly fixed a generation from that very day, so that the hungry guillotine would have its heads in the fateful events of AD 70.
And with paralyzing accuracy, this is precisely what occurred. For forty years after this edict, the Jews killed and persecuted the Church as its most violent oppressor. And just like Jesus said, after that forty-year window (Matthew 24:34), Jerusalem was reduced to a pile of smoldering rubble and ash.
Jesus didn't come to negotiate. He came to judge. And the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 was not a random event of history—it was the final, devastating fulfillment of a thousand years of warnings and the finality of Jesus' woes. The temple fell, the city burned, and the old covenant passed away. The Son had come in the flesh, and His judgment was final.
Now, before continuing, I want to take a moment to talk about the nature of Judah's curse because there are three aspects of it, and so far, we have only covered one extensively. So with that:
PART 4: THE CURSE IN ITS TRIFOLD STATE
Like most things in Biblical theology, a repetition of an event three times moves it outside the realm of speculation and into the realm of certainty. For centuries, Judah lived on the knife's edge of God's patience. Prophets warned her. Her covenants bound her. Exile disciplined her. Yet with every mercy, her defiance grew sharper, and her rebellion grew bolder until the Judge came against her. And as we have already noted, God's patience was finally exhausted. Judah's sins—like Sodom's (Genesis 18:20-21)—had wafted its way to heaven, and now the destroyer had come (Genesis 19:13).
CURSE 1: THE DEUTERONOMIC WOE
The first curse Judah came under is the one we have spent the most time on. She was under the law of Moses, and for 1500 years of infidelity, the Mosaic curses listed in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 were going to be unleashed on her. When the people of old said, 'All that the Lord has spoken we will do' (Exodus 24:7), they bound themselves and their descendants to the covenant blessings and curses, which is why Jesus says all of God's wrath, even wrath from previous generations, had been stored up and was now going to annihilate that generation (Matthew 23:35-36). The long-overdue curses for breaking the stipulations of the covenant were now being poured out, and first-century Judah was left holding the covenant hot potato.
Within a single generation, those curses erupted like a storm over Jerusalem. The Roman siege of AD 70 brought famine so severe that mothers devoured their own children—just as Moses had warned in Deuteronomy 28:53-57. Pestilence swept through the starving city. The walls of Jerusalem were breached, the temple burned to ash, and the city was left in ruins. The words of Deuteronomy 28:52 rang true: "They will besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land." It was a complete fulfillment of God's covenant justice.
CURSE 2: A SELF-IMPOSED MALEDICTION
The second curse that Judah came under was a self-inflicted woe, spoken by the Jewish leaders at the crucifixion of Jesus. As Pilate washed his hands of Jesus' blood (which is ripe with covenant imagery), the Jewish leaders and the mob cried out foolishly, 'His blood be on us and on our children!' (Matthew 27:25), sealing their own fate. With these words, they invoked a devastating maledictory curse upon themselves that echoes the covenant language of Sinai. Like their ancestors in Exodus, they wanted the covenant blood to be applied to them and their children (Exodus 24:8). But, unlike their ancestors, this application was not for blessing but for the most awful cursing (Deuteronomy 28:15-68), not just upon them, but also upon their children.
Even more incredibly, the same Judge who pronounced the covenant curses of Deuteronomy upon them in Matthew 23 was now standing battered and bloodied before them in Matthew 27, as they called down curses upon themselves. In their zeal to prove Jesus wrong, they were confirming His righteous judgment and sealing their own condemnation. As God in the flesh, Jesus could have stopped them. He could have exerted divine power to keep them from cursing themselves in a fit of madness. But, this was the moment when the triune God purposefully withdrew His grace. A grace that could have spared them, a grace that could have prompted them to relent. But now, in terrifying silence, Jesus was quiet, letting them call down doom upon their own heads, His job of bringing them under the covenant curses was completed.
In their frenzy, they sealed their fate. The curse they invoked was poured out upon them and their children in the destruction of the temple, leaving no doubt that this judgment was specific, intentional, and complete.
CURSE 3: THE CURSE OF "PARTIAL HARDNESS" AND JEALOUSY
The third and final curse leveled upon the Jews was perhaps the most devastating. Unlike the first two, which drove them into a temporary madness that ensured their first-century destruction, this final curse was different—it would remain on them until they repented. This curse affected all surviving Jews who escaped the destruction of Jerusalem, those living in diaspora scattered throughout the Roman world, and those who survived the Jewish War with Rome. They were placed under a permanent and indefinite curse that has attached itself to the Jewish people and persisted for the last 2,000 years.
Paul describes this curse in Romans 11 as a "spirit of stupor," where the eyes of the Jews have become incapable of seeing, and their ears unable to hear (Romans 11:8). This "partial hardening" Paul tells us is not arbitrary. It is God's judgment for their persistent rebellion, a judicial blinding that ensures their rejection of Christ and lingers with them until God is ready to bring them to repentance.
How will Israel come to repentance? Paul tells us that the purpose of their hardening was twofold: to bring salvation to the Gentiles and to provoke Israel to jealousy. This idea wasn't new—it was a covenant consequence God announced as far back as the Torah. In Deuteronomy 32:21, God warned Israel that if she disobeyed and broke the covenant with Him, He would say, 'I will make them jealous with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.' Paul picks up on this in Romans 11:11, explaining, 'By their transgression (breaking covenant with God and rejecting Jesus), salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.' In other words, Israel's disobedience opened the door for the Gentiles to enter the covenant blessings of God, and their inclusion is now meant to awaken Israel to her need for repentance.
And here's where we, as Christians, come in. When Paul says, 'We are fools for Christ' (1 Corinthians 4:10), he's not just speaking about humility or appearing odd to the world. He's declaring something profound: we, the Church, are the 'foolish nation' prophesied in the Torah, chosen by God to provoke Israel to jealousy. Think about that. As Christians, our mission isn't just to spread the Gospel to Gentiles—it's to live in such a way, to build Christ's Kingdom in such a way that the Jews see what we have in Christ and long for it.
This is why the Church was never called to play footsie with the Jews. We were not meant - like the modern-day dispensationalists - to honor the Jews as God's "chosen people" while refusing to build the Kingdom. By communicating that the Jews are still in a place of honor, covenantally speaking, we are damning them to hell with cheers and smiles. They are lost! They need Christ! The only thing that will lift the "partial hardening" God has placed upon them is for us to increase their jealousy!
How do we provoke the Jews to jealousy as Paul commands? We stop staring at the clouds, stop lamenting the sorry state of the world, and start building. We must create a robust, glorious Christian Kingdom—one marked by excellence, power, dominion, and wealth—so glorious that the Jews look upon it with bitter jealousy. This will either lead them to repentance or ignite opposition. The Jews, as a people, carry a deep sense of pride rooted in their understanding of the prophets. They believe they are destined for greatness, to be exalted above the nations. This belief fuels their remarkable drive, propelling them into leadership roles across banking, entertainment, government, and other sectors of influence. Their rabbis, their Mishna, and their Talmud reinforce this identity, teaching them that they are the superior race chosen for leadership. Until they are humbled to the point of bitter misery, they will not see their need for Christ.
The Church, however, has often adopted a dispensational path that destines it to mediocrity and irrelevance. Why not take Paul seriously instead? The Jews are under a hardening until their jealousy provokes them to repentance. Should we not give them something holy and good to envy? Let's be honest: the pitiful state of the Church under Dispensationalism hardly inspires jealousy. But imagine if the Church repented, took up their tools, and got to work. Imagine Christians starting businesses, building cathedrals, taking over government, revitalizing healthcare, and spreading the Kingdom so far and wide that the nations look upon Christendom as the queen of Sheba gazed upon the halls of Solomon—with awe and wonder. That is a vision worthy of jealousy—a church embodying the very destiny the Jews believe is theirs.
This is the path of true love for the Jews: not placating them or leaving them unchallenged, but showing them a compelling vision of Jesus that makes them long for the Kingdom they rejected. Only then will their hardening be broken, and only then will they see their Messiah for who He truly is.
Now, after examining this threefold application of cursing, is it any wonder that the first-century Jews persecuted the Church with such relentless intensity? Is it any wonder that they became the authors of the tribulations—bringing thilipsis upon the earliest Christians—because the Deuteronomic plague of madness had overtaken them (Deuteronomy 28:28), the self-maledictory curse had poisoned their minds, hearts, and souls (Matthew 27:25), and, as Paul said, they were provoked to violent jealousy (Romans 11:11). These three aspects of the curse fueled the Jews to become the most brutal and violent persecutors of Christianity in history. For a moment, let us prove how these curses propelled them in their violence and ensured their total destruction.
PART 5: HOW THE CURSES MADE HER VIOLENT
Jesus didn't leave His disciples in the dark about the storm that was coming. He warned them that they would face rejection, hatred, and violence at the hands of their own cursed people. These warnings do not just show up in chapters like Matthew 24; they are present throughout the Gospels. Take Matthew 5:10-12, which shows up in the section of Scripture we know as the Beatitudes. There, Jesus blesses those who suffer for righteousness, saying:
"Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me... for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." - Matthew 5:10-12
At first glance, this seems like a general encouragement to all Christians who suffer for the Gospel at the hands of irreligious jerks and moral meanies. But notice who Jesus identifies as the persecutors. He says they're the same group that killed the prophets, which means it is not Rome; it is not the New Atheists, but it is the first-century Jews, the very ones who killed the prophets.
It gets even more explicit in Matthew 10:16-22, where Jesus describes sending His disciples out "as sheep among wolves," warning:
"They (the Jews) will hand you over to the courts and flog you in their synagogues." - Matthew 10:16-22
This isn't a warning for Christians in all times and places. Jesus is not envisioning lefty lunatics in New York City handing you over to the courts or a weaponized DOJ arresting a group for praying outside an abortion mill. No, He says that they will flog you in their synagogues, which is a decidedly Jewish institution. Jesus promised that His disciples were going toface betrayal, public floggings, and trials orchestrated by their own people, all because of their loyalty to Him. Again, this is not primarily a warning to us, but first and foremost, it is a warning to them.
In Matthew 10:34-36, Jesus also reveals that the Jewish-inspired tribulations and persecutions would infiltrate their homes. He says:
"I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to turn a man against his (Jewish) father, and a daughter against her (Jewish) mother… a person's enemies will be the members of his own household." - Matthew 10:34-36
For Jewish Christians, this wasn't poetic musings. When one family member converted to Christ, it often led to tremendous relational strain and, in some cases, execution. Fathers turned their sons over to the mobs to be stoned. Mothers handed their daughters to the executioners. The Jewish jealousy and hatred for Jesus tore family members apart, creating battle lines in what should have been sacred spaces.
But that is just the Gospel of Matthew. Look at a few examples from the other Gospels.
JESUS' PREDICTIONS OF JEWISH PERSECUTIONS IN OTHER GOSPELS
As is often the case with Mark, his Gospel picks up the thread of persecution with urgency, wasting no time in confronting the harsh realities of what discipleship would look like in the first century. For instance, Jesus promised the following in Mark 10:29-30:
"There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age… along with persecutions." - Mark 10:29-30
This promise must have struck a chord with His disciples, who had already begun to lose family, homes, land, and legacy for following Him. Why did they suffer such losses? Because their own countrymen, under the curse of jealousy and madness, perpetrated countless injustices against them. Brothers turned on brothers, fathers abandoned their children—all pointing to the evidence of a plague foretold in the covenant curses, a divine judgment that fractured families and unleashed chaos upon a nation.
This is why Jesus says in Mark 13:9-13, that:
"Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child… and you will be hated by everyone because of My name." - Mark 13:9-13
Yet even as these horrors loomed, the Gospel was on the move. Governors like Felix and Festus, kings like Agrippa, would soon sit across from the accused, unknowingly playing their part in the story Jesus had foretold.
In spite of the pain and frustrations this would cause the early Church, Jesus reminded them in Luke 6:22, that this was also an occasion for great joy, saying.
"Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you… Rejoice on that day and jump for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven." - Luke 6:22-23
Their reality would include stones hurled by the Jews in a jealous rage, the whip cracking against their backs, and the cold sting of rejection from communities they had once called home. Jesus encouraged His disciples to remember that the world in general, and their countrymen in particular, only hate them because it first hated Christ (John 15:18-21) and that they were slaying them because they thought it was pleasing to God (John 16:2). But, God would give them great joy in their suffering (Luke 6:23) because He has already overcome the world (John 16:33), and that they should have full confidence that the Spirit would lead them, and give them the words to say, even when they were dragged before kangaroo courts and sham trials (Luke 21:12-19).
This is what Jesus prepared His disciples for in the Gospels. He warned them that the Jews, who were under a curse, would perpetrate these very hostilities, and that is precisely what we see unfolding in the Book of Acts.
THE JEWISH PERSECUTIONS IN THE BOOK OF ACTS
Just days after Pentecost. Peter and John, filled with the Holy Spirit, preached boldly in the streets of Jerusalem, and thousands turned to Christ… But not everyone in the city was rejoicing. The Jewish authorities, it seemed, were furious at the apostles' defiance, arrested them, and dragged them before the Sanhedrin (Acts 4:1-3), just as Jesus predicted. Yet, despite their hollow threats, the apostles refused to be silenced, igniting a fire that no prison walls could contain.
The flames of persecution only intensified from there. In Acts 5, the high priest and Sadducees, driven by their curse of jealousy, had the apostles arrested again, thinking they could snuff out the movement. But God intervened. An angel opened the prison doors, and by morning, the apostles were back in the temple, boldly proclaiming the Gospel again in defiance of the Jews. Furious, the council brought them in a third time, and when threats against them failed, they resorted to violence. The apostles were flogged, their flesh torn apart and bleeding. Yet even as the blood flowed down their shins, their joy, as Jesus predicted in Luke 6, was unshaken. They counted it an honor to suffer disgrace at the hands of the bloodthirsty Jews, all for the honor of Jesus Christ (Acts 5:40-41).
As the Church grew in size, so did the Jewish jealousy. Arrests and floggings soon gave way to murder, beginning with Stephen, who became the Church's first official martyr in Acts 7. Before his brutal death by stoning, Steven provoked their jealousy by preaching one of the most powerful sermons in all of Scripture. Near the end, as the Jews were boiling with Fury, Stephen indicted them by saying:
"You are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did!" - Acts 7:51
This enraged them beyond measure. In their fury, the council dragged Stephen outside the city and stoned him to death—an act that was technically illegal under Roman law. But blinded by their jealousy and hatred, they disregarded the law and took the risk, unleashing their violent wrath upon him.
It was from this moment forward that large-scale campaigns of violence were unleashed upon the Church, making Stephen's death a critical turning point. The persecutions steeply escalated after this led men like Saul, who could make a name for themselves and climb the religious hierarchy, but bludgeoning defenseless Christians. Like a wolf given full access to the sheep pen, Saul tore through markets, communities, and homes, dragging men and women into the street for execution or off to prison where they would rot away to nothing (Acts 8:1-3). His fury and his jealousy drove him beyond Jerusalem on the road to Damascus, where the most unexpected moments of His life unfolded. On that very road, he met the risen Christ he had been persecuting. Blinded by the light of Jesus' glory, Saul was transformed from persecutor to apostle, which did nothing short of fanning the Jewish flames of jealousy.
Now, as a Christian, Paul became the target of the very hatred he once embodied, with the Jews attempting to murder him in Acts 9:23-25. After escaping from the city, Jewish opposition pursued Paul relentlessly across the empire, hoping to 'Epstein' him wherever they could get their hands on him. In Pisidian Antioch, they incited the crowds to expel him (Acts 13:50). In Iconium, they stirred up Gentiles to attempt his stoning (Acts 14:5). In Lystra, they succeeded in stoning him, dragging him out of the city and leaving him for dead (Acts 14:19). But God raised him up (Acts 14:20), and Paul walked back into the city to continue declaring the Gospel (Acts 14:21). Like Jesus predicted, even though Paul and the early Church faced thilipsis (tribulation), they were fueled by a supernatural joy and an eagerness to name Christ, even among those who hated Him.
In the years that followed, the Jewish leaders' vendetta against Paul only grew more desperate and psychopathic. In Corinth, they dragged him before Gallio, accusing him of heresy, but their charges fell apart (Acts 18:12-17). In Jerusalem, their rage exploded into a violent mob, forcing Roman soldiers to intervene and save Paul by arresting him and taking him into custody (Acts 21:27-36). These very Jews also conspired to assassinate him, vowing not to eat or drink until he was dead, which is not a great plan if you need the energy to kill someone (Acts 23:12-15). Rather than the Jews behaving rationally, what these passages demonstrate to us is that they were fueled by both a curse of madness and jealousy against Christ and against those who dared proclaim Him.
Through all of this, Paul's resolve never wavered. His chains became pulpits, and his scars became trophies of grace. When he declared in Acts 28:22 that 'this sect is spoken against everywhere,' he wasn't lamenting the persecutions he endured from the Jews. He was testifying to the unstoppable advance of the Gospel against all enemies. The hatred of the Jews only scattered the Church's seeds more broadly, and as Tertullian once said, 'the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.'
But the persecutions recorded in Acts were only the beginning. The letters of the New Testament reveal a continued pattern of Jewish opposition to the Gospel—persistent, organized, and deeply entrenched in the synagogues and communities where the Gospel was taking root. Because there is more to cover, let us now turn to the epistles, where the echoes of this opposition resound through Paul's own words, Peter's, James', and John's, exposing the depth of the Jewish resistance to Christ and to His Church.
JEWISH PERSECUTIONS IN THE EPISTLES
The Epistles pick up the tale where Acts leaves off, plunging us deeper into the jealousy and madness of the Jews. Paul's heart aches as he reflects upon the tragedy of the Jewish rejection of Christ. They hadn't stumped their toe on a minor obstacle—they had tripped over the very cornerstone of their salvation (Romans 9:32-33) In their zeal for God, Paul laments in Romans 10:2-3, they oppressed Christianity with every fiber of their being, not knowing that this was a sign of their hardness of heart and blindness of eyes. Instead of embracing the Messiah, they clung to their own hollow works, their hearts as heart as iron and as unbendable as steel. They pursued a law of righteousness as if it could be attained by their own works, but in doing so, they rejected the One who came to fulfill it.
This was the hardened Spirit of stupor that Paul refers to in Romans 11:8, that will only be overcome, as God attests when the Jews have totally exhausted their jealousy. Until then, they will go on groping in the dark, lashing out in rage against Jesus' followers, which is what we see in Thessalonica.
Paul delivers an unflinching indictment, saying:
"The Jews who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved; with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost." - 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16
Paul is not being coy. He is saying that jealousy provoked the Jews to thwart early Christian missionary efforts to the Gentiles. Jealousy fueled them to drive the Church out of cities. And jealousy of the Church was the very reason God's wrath was overflowing onto them. 2 Corinthians 4 captures the brutal reality well, as Paul claims:
"We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed." - 2 Corinthians 4:8-10
Each word throbs with the pain of a battered church, a people pressed to the edge yet miraculously unbroken. Interestingly, the Greek word for "tribulation" shows up in this verse (rendered here as crushing). Here, like in every other place where the word is used, it doesn't refer to a future period of 7 calamitous years but refers to a constant reminder of the crushing pressure the early Church was facing at the hands of the Jews.
James condemns the oppressors for condemning and killing the righteous, likening them to wolves fattening themselves on the blood of the innocent (James 5:6). But the attack went further; the Jews infiltrated the Church with false teachings. Paul rebukes the Galatians for being "bewitched" by Judaizers who turned the Gospel into chains of legalism (Galatians 3:1). In Philippians, he warns against "dogs," "evil workers," and the "false circumcision" who sought to corrupt the faith (Philippians 3:2). Jude, with vivid imagery, describes these infiltrators as "hidden reefs," "wild waves," and "wandering stars" destined for eternal darkness (Jude 1:12-13).
Amid this chaos, the apostles stood firm, urging the Church to endure. Paul called believers to "rejoice in hope, persevere in tribulation, and remain devoted to prayer," proclaiming that nothing could separate them from Christ's love—not tribulation, distress, famine, or sword (Romans 12:12; 8:35). Even in suffering, they found joy: Paul rejoiced in his trials for the Church (Colossians 1:24), and Peter called fiery ordeals a forge that strengthens faith, promising that suffering leads to glory (1 Peter 4:12-13; 5:10).
The story of persecution was predicted in the Gospels, poured out in Acts and the epistles, and culminates in the book of Revelation, where the martyrs' cries are answered, their blood avenged, and their faith vindicated. This is the vision of triumph to which we now turn.
JEWISH PERSECUTIONS IN REVELATION
The book of Revelation thunders with the fulfillment of covenant curses, unmasking the Jewish leaders as agents of Satan who, in their madness and jealousy, waged war against Christ and His Church. These events are not eschatological fantasies but first-century realities, predicted by Jesus when He declared, "They will deliver you to tribulation and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name" (Matthew 24:9). Revelation presents this tribulation as the direct outworking of Judah's covenant rebellion, her curse-induced irrationality, and her unholy alliance with Rome.
"Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the land will mourn over Him" - Revelation 1:7.
The language here speaks unmistakably of Judah: "those who pierced Him"indicts the Jews who crucified Christ, while "all the tribes of the land" reflects the divided tribal allotments under the Mosaic covenant. Their mourning is not of repentance, but the anguish of a nation suffering under the covenant curses—culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, when their temple burned, their people perished, and their covenant was shattered.
Revelation 2:9 reveals the spiritual depth of their rebellion: "Those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan." These leaders, claiming covenant faithfulness, are exposed as blasphemers aligned with Satan, their actions driven by covenant-induced madness. Their hostility toward the Church culminates in Christ's promise of ultimate vindication: "I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them know that I have loved you" (Revelation 3:9). Here, the synagogue of Satan—the cursed remnant of apostate Judah—is stripped of its pride, forced to acknowledge the triumph of the Church they sought to destroy.
The harlot of Revelation 17—adorned in purple and scarlet, drunk on the blood of saints—is none other than apostate Jerusalem. Her luxurious attire echoes the high priestly garments, revealing her Jewish identity, while her bloodlust exposes the violent madness predicted in Deuteronomy 28:28. Jerusalem, once the city of God, has become a harlot, selling herself for political power and security in her alliance with Rome. But this unholy partnership seals her doom. The beast she rides turns on her, devouring her flesh and burning her with fire, as Rome becomes the instrument of her destruction.
"In her was found the blood of prophets and saints and all who have been slain on the earth" - Revelation 18:24.
This verse underscores the culmination of covenant rebellion. Jerusalem, under the curse of madness and jealousy, became a city of blood, her streets flowing with the blood of the prophets and the early Christian martyrs. Her destruction, prophesied in Matthew 24:21, is the "great tribulation" unlike any other, as the covenant curses fall with devastating precision.
The apocalyptic imagery of Revelation 6:12-17—earthquakes, blackened sun, and blood-red moon—depicts not the end of the cosmos but the end of Judah's political and religious order. These signs mirror the Mosaic covenant curses, symbolizing the extinguishing of Judah's light. Similarly, the plagues of Revelation 8:6-13—hail, fire, poisoned waters, and darkness—echo the judgments on Egypt, now directed at the new covenant-breaker, Jerusalem.
Yet Revelation's story does not end in despair. The fall of the harlot city is contrasted with the rise of the bride of Christ. As Jerusalem burns, the Lamb stands victorious, His Kingdom advancing despite the fury of His enemies. Revelation 19:6 proclaims: "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns." The Jewish leaders' rebellion, their violence fueled by jealousy and madness, failed utterly. Their persecution of the Church only scattered the seeds of the Gospel further, and the blood of the martyrs became the seed of an unshakable kingdom.
SUMMARY
From the Gospels to Revelation, Judah's rebellion unfolds as a tragic fulfillment of covenant curses. In the Gospels, her leaders reject Christ and invoke destruction upon themselves. In Acts, their madness and jealousy erupt into violent persecution, chasing the apostles and scattering the Church. The Epistles reveal their spiritual blindness as they infiltrate and oppose the Gospel with relentless fury. Revelation brings this rebellion to its climax: Judah becomes the harlot city, riding Rome's beast to her destruction in AD 70. Her temple burns, her streets flow with blood, and the covenant curses are fulfilled, which is precisely what we see in the New Testament, but also in the various first-century writings that further confirm what we are seeing.
Thus, as we close, I would like to share with you what extra-Biblical writers were saying about Judah, her madness and jealousy, and how it was obvious that she was under the doom of God.
PART 6: HOW THE CURSE BROUGHT HER TO DESTRUCTION
The tale of first-century Israel unfolds like a harrowing tragedy, its verses etched with blood and fire. Imagine the streets of Jerusalem, alive with the cries of a people calling for the death of their King. "His blood be on us and on our children!"they screamed, fists raised, faces flushed with fury (Matthew 27:25). They did not know—could not know—what they had just done. Those words, sharp and reckless, would ricochet through the heavens and seal their doom. The curse they demanded would echo across time and strike them with divine precision.
In the years that followed, that curse began to tighten its grip. Their rebellion festered, fed by zealots who mistook rage for righteousness. The holy city became a cauldron of violence and betrayal. Brother turned on brother, and the streets ran red. Josephus, the Jewish historian, saw it all. He fought in their wars, witnessed their madness, and survived to tell the story—a story no one could believe unless they had seen it themselves.
"I cannot but think," Josephus wrote, "that it was because God had doomed this city to destruction, as a polluted city, and was resolved to purge His sanctuary by fire, that He cut off those who clung to them with such tender affection."
The siege of Jerusalem was no ordinary battle. It was divine wrath poured out, a cleansing fire wielded by the hand of God Himself.
The signs had been there, clear as day. A star-shaped like a sword hovered over the city. A comet blazed in the heavens for an entire year. During the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a great light shone around the temple at the ninth hour, so bright it turned night into day. And yet, the people did not repent. They mocked the warnings, clung to their rebellion, and marched headlong into destruction.
The Roman legions, led by the ruthless Titus, encircled the city like a noose. The walls were strong, the defenders fierce, but they could not withstand the weight of their own folly. Starvation set in, turning mothers into cannibals. The zealots, those self-proclaimed defenders of God's honor, defiled the temple, spilling blood where sacrifices should have been offered. "The most sacred place in the world was polluted with murders," Josephus wrote. It was as if the city itself had become a living curse, collapsing under the weight of its sin.
Even the Romans could see it. Titus himself marveled at their destruction.
"We have certainly had God for our assistant in this war," he said. "What could the hands of men or any machines do towards overthrowing these towers?"
To him, it was clear: the Jewish God had turned against His own people. Tacitus, the Roman historian, sneered at the Jews' plight.
"The Jews' loyalty is stubborn, and they show a fierce passion for liberty. They are also prone to riot and rebellion,"
He wrote. To the Romans, the Jews were an enigma, a people set apart by strange customs and unyielding pride. But this pride, this zeal, had curdled into madness. Their refusal to bow—to Rome or to their God—had made them the architects of their own annihilation.
The early Christians, watching from the sidelines, saw in the destruction of Jerusalem the fulfillment of prophecy. Jesus had warned them: "Not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down" (Matthew 24:2). And now, those words have come to life. The temple, once the symbol of God's presence, was reduced to rubble. The city, once the jewel of His covenant, was a smoldering ruin.
Josephus, in his grief, could only describe the devastation as the climax of divine anger. "It was, I suppose, owing to the anger of God for their abominable crimes, that all this came upon them," he wrote. No other city, no other people, had suffered as they did. "Neither did any other city ever suffer such miseries, nor did any age ever breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness than this was, from the beginning of the world."
And yet, there was one voice that had warned them, a voice that rang through the streets long before the siege began. Jesus, son of Ananus, appeared in Jerusalem four years before the revolt, crying out day and night: "A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the sanctuary, a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this whole people!"
Day after day, night after night, his lamentation echoed through the city. Arrested and tortured by the authorities, he refused to be silenced. Brought before the Roman governor, he endured beatings and ridicule, but still, he would not relent. His message was simple, unwavering: "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!"
For seven years and five months, Jesus, son of Ananus, walked the streets, crying out his warnings. Even as the city burned and the walls fell, his voice carried above the chaos. Then, as the Roman siege engines launched their deadly stones, his prophecy came to an end. A massive stone struck him, silencing him forever. His last words were chilling: "Woe, woe to the city again, and to the people, and to the holy house! And woe to myself also!" And then he fell, his life snuffed out like a candle in the storm.
This is the story of a cursed generation, a people who invoked the blood of their Messiah and reaped the whirlwind. The destruction of Jerusalem was not just a tragedy; it was a testament. God's Word does not fail. His promises, His warnings—they are as unshakable as the heavens. And though this tale ends in ashes, it points to a greater hope. Paul reminds us in Romans 11 that God's hardening of Israel is not final. One day, they will look upon Him whom they pierced and mourn. One day, the curse will be lifted.
Until that day, we look back on the ruins of Jerusalem not just as a warning but as a call—to fear God, to trust in His promises, and to build His Kingdom with unwavering faith. For His purposes will prevail, and His Kingdom will have no end.
CONCLUSION
This is the story of a cursed generation, a people who invoked the blood of their Messiah and reaped the whirlwind for rejecting Him. The destruction of Jerusalem was not just a tragedy; it was a testament that God's Word never fails. His promises, His warnings—they are as unshakable as the heavens, which is what we saw today.
As we draw this episode to a close, let us remember that the errors of Dispensationalism have not only misled many but have deeply undermined the Church's mission to advance Christ's Kingdom with power, authority, and purpose. We must reject any theology that exalts the modern Jewish people as covenantally significant apart from Christ. The reality is that they are lost—under judgment, under a bitter curse of hardening and jealousy. And, what they need more than our politics, alliances, and promises of future temples, is the saving power of Jesus Christ.
Our mission, as Paul outlines in Romans 11, is not to placate the Jews with hollow flattery or false assurance of their standing before God. Instead, we are called to provoke them to jealousy by the glorious, visible expansion of God's Kingdom on earth. This is not a call to timid coexistence but to bold advancement. To bring God’s Kingdom and His dominion so evidently and comprehensively that it forces the Jewish people to confront their rejection of the Messiah and to return to the Israel of God. Our task is to build, to flourish, and to declare the Gospel with such power and beauty that it leaves no room for neutrality. They must either join us in Christ or stand in opposition to the King of kings. This is our posture toward the Jews.
And with that, let us pray fervently for them, not in sentimental pietism but with a heart fully aligned with God's purposes. We must petition the Lord to break their hearts of stone, to lift the curse of judicial hardening, and to bring them out of jealousy and to repentance. Pray for their salvation, pray for a national awakening, but also pray for the Church to rise up in obedience while we wait for our prodigal brother, the Jews, to come home into the Father’s house. Let us be busy about His work, building, declaring, subduing, spreading, raising up godly children, entering into holy marriages, building the halls of Christendom so gloriously that the nations long to come in and know our King. May our lives, our churches, and our culture be so transformed by Christ that the Jews, and all the world, burn with a kind of holy envy, desiring the inheritance they have so long rejected. That is our task.
With that, thank you so much for watching this week's episode. If you've found this teaching valuable, I would ask that you share it, give it a like, drop a comment, subscribe to the channel if you have not done that already, and join as a member!
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Now, with all of that, let us go from here advancing Jesus’ Kingdom, remaining steadfast in the truth of His Word, ever humble and always grateful that Jesus has ransomed us from our futility, and is providing the grace we need to remain members of His covenant! See you next week as we continue uncovering the glories of eschatology. And, until then, may the Lord bless and keep you!
Now, get out of here.
