Genesis 3:14: So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."
To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."
And to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return."
James 1:16:Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
The curse came from the breaking of the Covenant, not because God cursed mankind.
James 3:5:Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.
James 3:8: But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was always blessing? How would you like to get up in the morning with joy and peace and love, and nothing goes wrong during the day? Nobody says any nasty things to you. Everybody is kind and nice, and you have everything you ever desired and wanted available to you? Nothing ever gets taken away from you. It would be wonderful wouldn’t it? But … It doesn’t happen does it? No, that is unfortunately just not the way life is. It just does not seem to work that way. We do not walk continually in blessing. Why is that? God designed us to be walking in blessing.
God Made Everything Good
When God created the earth He made it a beautiful place, and He looked down on it and said, "It is good." He pronounced every single thing He had made, "good," and planted a beautiful Garden in Eden. He took the man and the woman that He had created and put them there in the Garden, and He said, "Enjoy yourselves. Enter into the blessing that I have made and created for you."
Adam and Eve had everything their heart could desire. They were living in a garden paradise. There were no pests, there was no harm, there was no danger, and each of them was living with the most beautiful specimen of creation that God had ever made. For the guy you had the most beautiful woman in the world all to yourself. For the woman you had the best looking guy in the world all to yourself.
There was no conflict, no strife, there was love and there was harmony. And God came right in there every day to visit and to share in that beautiful blessing and the joy that they were experiencing.
But it did not stay that way did it? Something went wrong, and something entered, which was not blessing. It was a curse.
What Blessing Means
Provision
Blessing consists firstly of provision, bountiful provision. God blessed and He gave everything - everything that man could ever not only need, but desire. When a person is blessed they have everything they could ever want, need or desire.
Protection
Secondly, blessing involves protection. God gave them protection. There was no harmful influence, there was no danger, there was nothing to be afraid of. There was no fear in the Garden of Eden whatsoever.
Harmony
Then there was harmony, total peace and harmony. There was no conflict between Adam and Eve, no husband and wife squabbles. There was no fighting between the animals. They did not even eat each other! The animals were all vegetarians in those days. There were no carnivores, there was no conflict, there was no strife. There was peace and harmony. There was security, safety, protection and boundless provision.
Love
And there was love – the love of God in the hearts of man, and His love permeating the earth as He came down to walk in the garden in the cool of the day to fellowship with them. He poured His love upon them, and received love from them in return. It is a beautiful picture of blessing.
We try to create that these days at a very great expense. People spend a lot of money to go to some paradise island somewhere to get away from it all, to get away from the rat race. They want to go to a place where they can be all alone, at peace and at harmony with just nature.
We somehow try and recreate that garden paradise. Isn’t there just something about being in a beautiful place where there is lovely green vegetation and a river of water bubbling past? There is something about it. We travel miles and miles and spend a lot of money to be able to get to places like that, to go and spend time just sitting on the banks of the river in the shade of beautiful trees, and the flowers, and all the beauty that God has created. It is blessing. That is what God designed for us originally. That is the way God wanted it to be.
He warned Adam and Eve and He said, "You can eat of every tree and you can take of the Tree of Life, but don’t you touch the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, because in the day that you do that you will die."
What happened in Genesis 3? Instead of bountiful provision there was loss. It got stolen from them. or really they gave it away. They lost what they had. They lost all that wonderful provision, and they lost that peace and harmony. It was all lost, and they had to leave the Garden of Eden. They were driven out. They lost the blessing.
Earth Under a Curse
And a violation of that original Covenant that God made with man, when he sinned and disobeyed God’s Covenant, he came under a curse, and that curse was passed down upon the generations of Adam, and on every human descendant of Adam. That curse came upon the earth, and it is under a curse. The Scripture speaks about the whole earth groaning and travailing under the bondage of that curse. It is known as the curse of Adam.
The Covenant of Law
If you read Deuteronomy 28, God says to them, "If you will obey My commandments that I give you this day; if you will do that, then blessed will you be coming in and going out. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. You shall be above only and not beneath, the head and not the tail. You will lend to many nations and not borrow. You will have no sickness and disease …"
All the blessings are there. All the elements of a blessing are returned. "I will give you bountiful provision. I will watch over you and protect you from harm. I will cause harmony, peace and unity between you, and you will walk in love."
Jesus Redeemed Us From the Curse-Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law.(Gal 3:13) Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
THE TRUTH -- WE ARE BLESSED, NOT CURSED:
In the midst of this superstition, the Lord God determined to reveal Himself to Abraham: "And I will make you a great nation, And I will BLESS you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will CURSE. And in you ALL THE FAMILIES of the earth shall be BLESSED" (Genesis 12:2,3). Here we see that BLESSING was God's sovereign choice toward ALL believers that desired relationship.
Scriptures say that those who put their hope and trust in God are BLESSED (Jeremiah 17:5). Conversely, those who put their trust in man are CURSED (Jeremiah 17:7). IF we believe, then we are blessed. Do you see? Our battle isn’t with the devil… our command is to love God and follow Him with all our heart, soul, and might… Our deliverance comes by comprehending that we are ALREADY BLESSED; regardless of our circumstances -- whether we “happen” to be rich or poor, healthy or disabled, whether our forefathers were successful, or we come from a long line of disreputable, good for nothing thieves. God’s not partial. He BLESSES those who believe upon Jesus Christ – (the One who became a CURSE for us) – that we might become the beneficiary (heir) of the blessings of Abraham (Galatians 3:13,14).
“Then the King will say to those on His right, Come, you who are BLESSED of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world'…” (Matthew 25:34,41). That’s our charge… to obtain our blessed inheritance.
NEW COVENANT:
Jeremiah foretold of our day (31:28-32) “…So I will watch over them to build and to plant," declares the LORD. "In those days people will no longer say, `The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.' Instead, everyone will die for HIS OWN sin; whoever eats sour grapes--his own teeth will be set on edge. "The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a NEW COVENANT with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will NOT BE LIKE the covenant I made with their forefathers…” NIV.
Ezekiel also knew of the coming new covenant concerning individual accountability, (Ezekiel 18:1-4,19, 20), “The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: "`The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge'? "As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel (you surely aren’t going to use this proverb anymore). 4For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son-both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one that will die. …19"Yet you ask, `Why does the son NOT share the guilt of his father?'
Since the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to keep all my decrees, HE WILL SURELY LIVE. The soul who sins is the one who will die. THE SON WILL NOT SHARE THE GUILT OF THE FATHER, NOR WILL THE FATHER SHARE THE GUILT OF THE SON. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE RIGHTEOUS MAN WILL BE CREDITED TO HIM, AND THE WICKEDNESS OF THE WICKED WILL BE CHARGED AGAINST HIM…” NIV.
For those who live In Christ Jesus, THERE ARE NO GENERATIONAL CURSES.
JESUS DID IT!
When Jesus died a transition happened from the Old Testament way. He alone provided liberation from the curse of death… Jesus finished His work. The Scripture is unmistakable on this topic. ... Christ’s work was and is sufficient. There is nothing left for Him to do. His salvation is complete. He gave us His LIFE. When we become “born again,” we are totally severed from that TIE with the devil. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13, 4:5) and the influence of sin (Rom. 6:18-23). The curtain of our personal tabernacle was rent.
TO BE CONTINUED.....
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