The Serious Post

dated 30 June 2007

Jesus came to set the captives free.

Sorry for procrastinating. I've been busy the last two weeks and haven't had enough sleep, roughly 4-5 hours only a day, and am really exhausted. But thank God, the flu is finally gone. My younger daughter prayed for me and said, "Mommy, Jesus is sending His angels to heal you." I believe He did because I really feel good now and the coughing is not totally gone but comes only once in a while and doesn't annoy me anymore. Meanwhile, she has been telling me again and again how Jesus had taken good care of her at the hospital and that Jesus was the one who healed her of the flu and vomiting. I didn't hear her sleep-talking when we were at the hospital but she had consistently related that Jesus was sitting on the spare chair next to mine at the hospital and said, "Hi ______(her name)," to her. She would sometimes just burst out, "Mommy, I love Jesus! He's so nice!" I know that she really knows Him and has encountered Him many times.

Well, yes, she's a blessed child. Sometimes I feel that if she gets healed and becomes smart she would lose that childlike faith she has in Jesus. This I have observed with the smart people around me. Sometimes I feel maybe it's better she remains "simple-minded" as she is now so she would continue in her child-like faith in Jesus. After all, for me, that's the only thing that really matters in this life – being in a friendship with Jesus, in preparation for an endless life with Him in His kingdom in the next life. For me, anything less than that means failure in this life. "For what can a man give in exchange for his soul?"

So, before I get side-tracked, here's the serious post:

"Cursed is the man who carves an image or casts an idol—a thing detestable to the LORD, the work of the craftsman's hands—and sets it up in secret." (IDOLATRY)

"Cursed is the man who dishonors his father or his mother."
(DISOBEDIENCE TOWARDS, OR, TALKING BAD ABOUT YOUR PARENTS)

"Cursed is the man who moves his neighbor's boundary stone."
(STEALING SOMEBODY ELSE'S PROPERTY)

"Cursed is the man who leads the blind astray on the road."
(INTENTIONAL DECEPTION)

"Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow."
(BULLYING THE WEAK AND DISADVANTAGED)

"Cursed is the man who sleeps with his father's wife, for he dishonors his father's bed."
(INCEST)

"Cursed is the man who has sexual relations with any animal."
(BESTIALITY)

"Cursed is the man who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother."
(INCEST)

"Cursed is the man who sleeps with his mother-in-law."
(INCEST)

"Cursed is the man who kills his neighbor secretly."
(MURDER)

"Cursed is the man who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person."
(BEING A HIT-MAN)

"Cursed is the man who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out." The King James Version translates this as: Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.
(FAILING TO TEACH ANY OF THE ABOVE AND AFFIRM THE SERIOUSNESS OF SUCH OFFENSE)

The above is from Deuteronomy 27: 15-26, New International Version Bible. Now, there are other parts in the Bible as well that show curses can also be incurred by violation of some other of God's laws. So, the above passage is only a portion of the whole thing. Besides, there are other sources of curses as well. These are word curses that people in authority over you may have uttered over you and that you yourself may have unknowingly uttered over yourself. These word curses can also be passed down to the generations, depending on how and when they were uttered.

Now you might think it's not so bad if you have not done any of the violations mentioned above. The trouble is, with generational curses, it means that the curse was handed down to you because somebody in your family line at least four generations ahead of you – that's your parents (2), your grandparents (4), your great-grandparents (8) and great-great grandparents (16) – a total of 30 people in all – committed any of the sins that incurs a curse.

This concept comes from here:

"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

(Exodus 20:4-6, New International Version Bible)

That's the second of the well-known Ten Commandments.

God punishes people who sin, not only them, but their descendants as well, to the third and fourth generations. That means if you sin, you suffer its consequences and so will your children, grand-children, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. However, we do not readily see the consequences because not everyone in the generational line gets it.

The King James Version of verse 5 goes like this:

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

God only "visits" the sins of the fathers. Meaning, He may visit this generation (the sin and its consequences are manifested ) but He may not do so, i.e., He skips, the next first generation, the second and the third generation and then again "visit" the fourth. That's why the manifestation of a generational curse is "random." And that's why most people don't believe it exists.

So, now, here's something for you to ponder about: Who among us never had an ancestor 3-4 generations before us (the 30 people described above), who never did any of the sins described above that can incur a generational curse?

But thanks be to God, Jesus became a curse for us that we may be free from the curse. And our responsibility is to confess our sins and the sins of our ancestors (as if they are our sins) and stand in the gap for our generations, and pray that these curses be lifted from us and our descendants, in Jesus' name. And if multiple curses are upon us because of multiple sins that cause curses, just imagine the layers of curses that need to be lifted from us. But praise be to God, Jesus came to set the captives free!

Bald eagle-in-flight image from http://a0130905.uscgaux.info

A child's stick drawing from http://www.noacsc.org

Scales of justice image from http://www.cnn.com