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Curses of the Law
Galatians 3:13
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming
a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a
tree."
You can claim
redemption from any of these curses. For instance, "By
becoming a curse for me, Jesus has redeemed me from the curse of
confusion of mind."
The Law is the
Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, all authored by
Moses. The Law is full of curses for violating even one of the
hundreds of laws. We are redeemed from these
curses of the Law, and all others:
- You will be cursed in the city
and cursed in the country.
- Your basket and your kneading
trough will be cursed.
- The fruit of your womb will be
cursed
- the crops of your land, and the
calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks will be cursed
- You will be cursed when you come
in and cursed when you go out.
- curses, confusion and rebuke in
everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed
- The LORD will plague you with
diseases
- The LORD will strike you with
wasting disease,
- with fever and inflammation,
- with scorching heat and drought,
- with blight and mildew
- The sky over your head will be
bronze,
- the ground beneath you iron
- The LORD will turn the rain of
your country into dust and powder
- The LORD will cause you to be
defeated before your enemies.
- you will become a thing of
horror to all the kingdoms on earth.
- Your carcasses will be food for
all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there
will be no one to frighten them away.
- The LORD will afflict you with
the boils of Egypt
- with tumors,
- festering sores
- and the itch, from which you
cannot be cured.
- The LORD will afflict you with
madness,
- blindness
- confusion of mind.
- At midday you will grope about
like a blind man in the dark.
- You will be unsuccessful in
everything you do;
- Day after day you will be
oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.
- You will be pledged to be
married to a woman, but another will take her and ravish her.
- You will build a house, but you
will not live in it.
- You will plant a vineyard, but
you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit.
- Your ox will be slaughtered
before your eyes, but you will eat none of it.
- Your donkey will be forcibly
taken from you and will not be returned.
- Your sheep will be given to your
enemies, and no one will rescue them.
- Your sons and daughters will be
given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching
for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand.
- A people that you do not know
will eat what your land and labor produce
- you will have nothing but cruel
oppression all your days.
- The sights you see will drive
you mad.
- The LORD will afflict your knees
and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from
the soles of your feet to the top of your head.
- The LORD will drive you and the
king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your fathers.
- There you will worship other
gods, gods of wood and stone.
- You will become a thing of
horror and an object of scorn and ridicule
- You will sow much seed in the
field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it.
- You will plant vineyards and
cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the
grapes, because worms will eat them.
- You will have olive trees
throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the
olives will drop off.
- You will have sons and daughters
but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity.
- Swarms of locusts will take over
all your trees and the crops of your land.
- The alien who lives among you
will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and
lower.
- He will lend to you, but you
will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the
tail.
- in hunger and thirst, in
nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD
sends against you.
- He will put an iron yoke on your
neck until he has destroyed you.
- The LORD will bring a nation
against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an
eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not
understand, a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or
pity for the young.
- They will devour the young of
your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed.
- They will leave you no grain,
new wine or oil,
- nor any calves of your herds or
lambs of your flocks until you are ruined.
- They will lay siege to all the
cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in
which you trust fall down.
- They will besiege all the cities
throughout the land
- you will eat the fruit of the
womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has
given you.
- the LORD will send fearful
plagues on you and your descendants,
- harsh and prolonged disasters,
- severe and lingering illnesses.
- He will bring upon you all the
diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you.
- The LORD will also bring on you
every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of
the Law, until you are destroyed.
- it will please him to ruin and
destroy you.
- You will be uprooted from the
land you are entering to possess.
- Then the LORD will scatter you
among all nations
- Among those nations you will
find no repose, no resting place
- There the LORD will give you an
anxious mind,
- eyes weary with longing,
- and a despairing heart.
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You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night
and day, never sure of your life.
- terror that will fill your
hearts and the sights that your eyes will see.
- You will offer yourselves for
sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will
buy you.
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