Breaking Curses, Commanding Blessings

Breaking Curses, Commanding Blessings

Scripture: Deuteronomy 27:16 / 28: 15, 60, 38

Introduction:
• Curse: a solemn utterance, spoken or written, intended to invoke a supernatural power to inflict harm or punishment on someone or something!

Curses are an unusual topic, but they are real, curses are not playthings and are profoundly emotionally disturbing for those who experience them. They are not just angry words or swear words; they are acts of power in the spiritual realm.

Curses are mentioned over 200 times in Scripture, and were foundational to the Old Covenant (see Deuteronomy 28-30). God Himself was the first one to pronounce curses – on the earth, on Eve’s fertility and upon the serpent. Curses are not just a primitive superstition; they are spiritual pronouncements recorded in Scripture that profoundly affect the very structure of reality in some way.
The world was created by the word of God and is held together by the power of His Word (Genesis 1, Hebrews 1:1-3, Colossians 1:17-20). Thus God’s words can change creation - Jesus’ curse caused the fig-tree to shrivel up.

• Curses and blessings can be from evil spirits or flow from the human spirit. Goliath's curses against David were “by his gods” (1 Samuel 17:43). The David and Goliath encounter was a power encounter of one spiritual system against the other and both contenders came in the name of their respective deities.
• Shamans and magicians such as Balaam were hired to curse people in OT times and still do this today. Though curses from evil sources are much less powerful than curses from God they still were feared and were able to do much damage.
• There are 22 references exhorting believers not to curse others.
• Curses are finally ended in the new creation (Rev 22:3).
Curses are real and in some cases they are even lethal; Ezekiel talks of magic charms that hunted lives (Ezekiel 13:18-20).
• David suffered from a curse – Psalm 109:17-18 (one of David’s enemies must have been cursing him…)
• God wants you to be blessed for the sole purpose to be a blessing

Disobedience brings the curse: Proverbs 26: 2 – Curse without a cause shall not come
• It is serious because your disobedience will affect generations.

We have in Duet. 27-30 a recorded event in the closing days of Moses’ life.
• Moses is a prince in spirit.
• He is a man who communicates with God face to face.
• The bible says that he is the meekest man in the earth.
• He has been allowed by God to discover the mannerisms of God.
• Moses in these chapters is speaking from experience.
• After 40 years of walking with God and multiple experiences with the Glory of God. He is penning these important words.
• If you study these verses carefully you will find these to be words of expertise and experience.
o Genesis was written before everything, Deuteronomy was written after.

Deut. 18 – Moses deals with witchcraft and sorcery in short verses, deals with Israel getting a king in 2 verses, but deals with curses in 4 chapters.

I. The Origin of Curses:
A. Curses that God speaks
1. The first blessing is upon the living creatures, which were told to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:22).
2. When God made mankind He also blessed them saying “be fruitful and multiply” and added a third blessing “have dominion over” (Genesis 1:28).
3. These three basic blessings of: “be fruitful”, “multiply” and “have dominion over” form the basis of all future blessings, such as the Abrahamic blessings, and their reversal forms the basis of all future curses such as those in Genesis 3
4. In Genesis 3 we see the first curses in operation.
i. The woman is made unfruitful, the man is made to work in futility and the serpent is told he will eat the dirt.
ii. The three things that make life good are reversed, thus when we are cursed we find life very difficult indeed.

B. Curses that people speak
1. Joshua 6:26 – 1 Kings 16:34 – Curse that Joshua spoke – almost 500 hundred years after Joshua spoke the curse.
2. Joshua 9:16-18 vs. 2 Samuel 21: – Joshua makes a covenant with Gibeon. In 2 Samuel there is a famine in the time of David. When David enquired of the Lord he found out it was the result of Saul harming Gibeonites!
3. 2 Samuel 3:28-29 - Abner took advantage of the war between the house of Saul and the house of David to gain power for himself.
i. Joab didn’t like Abner and went after him. Brought him back to Hebron and privately killed him at the gate for the murder of his brother Asahel at the battle of Gibeon.
ii. Judaic Encyclopedia – Joab was ruled innocent of this murder by the Sanhedrin at the Gate
iii. He was later killed in the house of the Lord because he slew Amasa (one of David’s General) – According to the historical writings, Joab declared his innocence in the matter and asked to live, or the curse of 2 Samuel 3:29 to come upon David’s descendants.
iv. The Curse did: 1 Chronicles 3:10
 Rehoboam – ended up dividing the Kingdom and died of a running sore as a result of the curse
 Abijah – Reigned 3 years and was diseased in his feet – 1 Kings 15:23
 Jehoshaphat – Broke the curse in the third generation! – 2 Chron. 21:1
4. Judges 9:3-20 – After Gideon dies Abimelech is made King. He kills all his brothers (70) to become king. One survived, Jotham, and pronounces a curse in 9:18-20 on Abimelech and Shechem for this injustice. In 9:52 Abimelech destroys Shechem by fire and is killed himself in the process – See: 9:55-57
C. Curses that are self-imposed
1. Our own words – Malachi 3: 13, Mark 11: 23
2. Gen. 31: 32 - Jacob said this when Laban accused him of stealing his idols, but his words came to pass. The next time Rachel gave birth, she died!

II. REASONS FOR CURSES:
A. Having false gods (Exodus 20: 3& 4, Deuteronomy 27: 15)
B. Disrespect for parents or life source (Deuteronomy 27: 16, Exodus 21:17)
C. Moving a neighbor’s landmark (Deuteronomy 27: 17)
D. Injustice to the weak (Deuteronomy 27: 18& 19)
E. Illicit sex (Deuteronomy 27: 20-23) - (Effect of wrong sexual relationships, particularly those outside of marriage or with members of one's family)
F. Perjury (Deuteronomy 27: 25)
G. Involvement in the Occult (Deut. 18:9-14, 2 Kings 7:17-23)
H. Stealing (Zechariah 5: 1-4)
I. Stinginess towards God (Malachi 3: 9)
J. Perverting gospel (Galatians 1: 8& 9)
K. Depending on the flesh (Jeremiah 17: 5)
L. Anti-Semitism (Genesis 12: 3, Genesis 28: 3& 14)

III. Indications of Curses: Deut. 28
A. Mental, emotional breakdown
B. Repeated sickness, especially hereditary sickness -doctors can't find the cause
C. Feminine problems -barrenness, miscarriage, menstruation problems
D. Breakdown of marriage -family alienation
E. Financial insufficiency, poverty. Sometimes poverty for a short period is just a test but if we are always in poverty it could be a curse.
F. Accident prone
G. History of unnatural deaths

IV. Preventing Curses Having An Effect On Your Life - Scripture reveals a number of ways in which we can break curses and/or be protected from them:
A. Live a righteous life free from major sin and acts of injustice. Abide in the righteousness of Christ where no curse can penetrate. (Malachi 4:6, Proverbs 26:2, Romans 8).
B. Put on the full armor of God
1. in Ephesians 6 :10-21 which is actually armor against spiritual attack.
2. Ephesus was noted for its magic practices (Acts 19) and its curses and witchcraft.
3. The primary purpose behind Paul writing to the Ephesians was so they could have some understanding of their power, authority and degree of protection in their pagan and occult city.
4. The armor of God is like the Kevlar of the spirit world protecting the Christian against curses, magic and occult practices.
C. God is able to turn a curse into a blessing
1. He did this when Balak tried to get Baalam to curse Israel. (Nehemiah 13:2, Deuteronomy 23:5, Numbers 22&23).
2. A brief prayer by Jabez that has received a lot of popularity lately is a case of a person appealing to God to have a curse turned into a blessing and succeeding.
3. David is particularly bold when he says in Psalm 109 where he seems to have been the victim of a curse (see verses 17 & 18) (Psalms 109:28 NKJV) Let them curse, but You bless; When they arise, let them be ashamed, But let Your servant rejoice.
i. David did not fear the curse, but instead asked God to bless him and outdo the curse, and then to turn the curse back on those who uttered it.
ii. God can out-bless the most fearsome and disabling curses. It gives us hope that our prayers to God based on the name of Jesus can not only break curses but have them turned into blessings instead.
D. Understand and plead the fact that Christ has taken all the curses due to us when He became a curse on the cross (Galatians 3:10-14).
1. In Christ that ground for curses to succeed against us is removed because on the cross Jesus became a curse for us and took all the cursing that may have been due to us due to our violation of God's laws.
E. Break associations with the sins of parents and ancestors particularly those involving the occult or idolatry
1. Exodus 34:6,7 says such sins bring a curse "to the third and fourth generation".
2. We have to break ties with such sins by not participating in occult ceremonies that may be traditional and even confessing such involvement of your parents and ancestors and forsaking them in a prayer of renunciation to God.
3. The essential thing is to make a clear break with the familial sin in your own heart, mind and spirit.
4. Contrary to popular teaching, there is no such thing as a generational curse for a Christian in the contemporary sense being taught today!
i. Only God haters can be under a generational curse: Exodus 20: 5, Exodus 34: 7, Numbers 14: 18, Duet. 5: 9
ii. God commands us to quit using the generational curse excuse: Ezekiel 18: 2
 Notice: 18: 17, 20 – Every man will stand on his own in the day of judgment.
 When we make iniquity a generational curse, there is excuse for sin!
iii. Where is one New Testament example of a generational curse – There isn’t one! John 9: 2
F. Get rid of objects that bring a curse particularly objects associated with pagan worship, idolatry or the occult
1. For instance if we have our Grandmothers pack of tarot cards we need to get rid of them. (Deuteronomy 7:25,26)
2. The Ephesian converts were moved by the Holy Spirit to burn their magic scrolls and occult objects. (Acts 19:18-20).
G. Do not engage in secretive or dishonest sins that you think you can get away with unobserved
1. In Deuteronomy 27: 15-26
2. Even in the New Testament God is referred to as the one who punishes those who defile the marriage bed. (1 Thessalonians 4:4-6, Hebrews 13:4).
H. Curses can alight where there is deep abiding injustice against an ethnic group
1. Saul’s bloodthirsty massacre of the Gibeonites, which lay uncorrected for years, later resulted in a curse and a famine in the time of David.
2. David broke this curse by going back to the offended ethnic group, humbly asking how they would like to see justice done and then enacting it. After ten of Saul’s sons were hung the famine ended. (2 Samuel 21:1-14).
I. Slackness in ministry can result in a curse
1. The priests in Malachi were under a curse because of their slackness in God's work (Malachi 2:2 ) and the prophet Jeremiah cries out "cursed be he who is slack in doing the Lord's work (Jeremiah 48:10).
2. If you are in ministry do the work of the Lord diligently and obey His specific instructions if you have been given such instructions.
J. Put God’s interests ahead of your own
1. In the book of Haggai God puts a curse on the nation (Haggai 1:5-11, 2:16,17 )for being self-centered and neglectful of their duty to God.
2. The curse is removed when the people obey the prophets and lay the foundation on the Lord's temple (Haggai 2:18,19) and a blessing is given instead.

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