Am I Living Under a Generational Curse? Curses Series (Part II)

Christian Questions Bible Podcast

Our God is a God of order. Psalm 89:14 says that righteousness and justice are the very foundation of His heavenly throne. This means that all He does must be based in what is right and just. While some of us may look at this through fearful eyes, this is actually great news. It means God is and always will be dependable and trustworthy. If this is the case, why did God seem so over-the-top angry in the Old Testament? Why did He seemingly curse not only wrongdoers, but the generations that followed them as well? Did these “curses” of God work the same way the curses of our day are said to work? Were they a wishing of evil upon someone or something? Did God give anyone the authority to curse others? The idea of a generational curse can be daunting From the sound of it, somebody does something deemed bad or evil and the response to that action is to strike their children, grandchildren, greatgrandchildren and so on with some dark and even sinister retaliation. Such treatment reeks of injustice, revenge and nastiness. The problem here is that in the Old Testament, God has pronounced generational consequences, but they are often interpreted as generational curses. There is a massive difference between the two. Such a gross misinterpretation of Scripture results in a serious misunderstanding of God’s character. How do we know this is the case? How do we know God isn’t cursing generations of people for what they didn’t do? It all comes down to understanding what curses mean in the Bible, beginning in the Old Testament. This is no easy task. In the Old Testament alone there are over a dozen words that are translated “curse.” To really know what the Jewish Scriptures teach, we need to gain a comprehensive understanding of who cursed what, to what end result and what it really meant. The first curse The best place to start this investigation into Old Testament biblical curses is at the beginning. The first curse pertaining to humanity was when God pronounced the curse upon the ground for Adam’s sake. While this was a serious consequence, it is also critical to remember that this curse was proclaimed within the context of God’s previous blessing. The key thought here is that God was proclaiming a consequence for sinful actions and not “cursing” Adam in the sense that pagan beliefs would have us believe. Check out our September 20, 2021 podcast, “Am I Living Under a Generational Curse? Curses Series (Part II)” for more. We examine several different accounts of God’s “curses” in the Old Testament and see exactly what they were intended to accomplish. Putting all of this in order ends up being a fascinating journey of discovery. We learn the thinking behind God’s procedures and consequences. We uncover a level of wisdom and justice on the part of Jehovah God that rises high above the typical idea of revenge that people say God has. Join us; there is much more to this than meets the eye. Did you miss Part I? We laid a lot of groundwork worth exploring.