All Tied Up

So says Yahweh, the God of Israel, “Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt” Jeremiah 11:3

Cursed – What comes to mind when you think of “cursed?”  If you’ve been the victim of the Hollywood view of the world, then you probably think of voodoo dolls, spells, incantations and magical rites.  It sounds scary and dangerous.  Maybe it’s time to clear up the confusion.

God is mysterious, but He is not magical.  The idea behind magic is secret powers that allow someone to control the world.  That’s why magic has such an appeal.  That’s why we love superheroes and all the Hollywood foolishness.  We want control.  We want the magical secret, the red pill, the ability to be God.  We want to be “Bruce, Almighty” (about as blasphemous a movie as you could ever imagine).  God is mysterious, but He is not into magic.  We are.

So, when God says that not obeying Him will result in a curse, He  doesn’t mean that He’s going to stick a pin in our voodoo dolls or utter an incantation over us.  God is warning us about the inevitable, built-in consequences.  How does this work?

The Hebrew word for “curse” is ‘arar.  The idea behind this word is binding, hedging in with obstacles and rendering powerless.  In other words, the natural result of disobedience is to make things not work they way they are supposed to work.  Disobedience renders life powerless.  God doesn’t have to put a spell on you.  Sin has powerlessness built into it.

The best example is the story of the Fall.  When Adam sinned, the earth was cursed.  What that means is that the natural productive capacity of the soil was bound.  The earth was rendered powerless.  Adam could still produce food from the ground, but now he would have to force the earth to do what it would otherwise have done automatically.  That’s what sin does.  It binds the harmony and fruitfulness that God built into creation.

The same thing happens to us when we are disobedient.  Just ask an addict.  Addiction renders us powerless over the things in life that damage us.  We can’t fix it.  Willpower is worthless.  We are cursed – powerless.  The greatest paradox of the universe is that sin promises power but delivers bondage.  That’s what the New Testament means when it says that Yeshua freed us from bondage.  He released us from the powerlessness we brought upon ourselves through disobedience.

So, do you want to experience a life of struggle and frustration?  Do you want to be powerless?  Let me tell you how.  Disobey.  The results are guaranteed.

Topical Index:  Obedience