Awaken Biblical Prophecy Commentary – The Curse of Jesus’ Blood 1-31-24

Awaken Biblical Prophecy Commentary – The Curse of Jesus’ Blood 1-31-24

Transcript:

In recent posts, I’ve addressed serious issues concerning Preterism and other non-pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrines.  What I’ve dealt with is a somber reminder that when we don’t read the Word of God as it is literally written – except where it specifically tells us something is symbolic – then false belief systems generally arise from this error.  As a result, not only can, and do, people end up embracing that which is contrary to God’s will and intent, very often they can fall from the grace God has given them through salvation into worldly thought and even apostasy because of the deliberate choices they’ve made to dismiss God’s Word.  This has always been a problem in the church; it is an even worse issue now in these end-times of rampant deceit – just as Jesus warned us about.

Today I want to point out why these problematic, and arguably false doctrines, get it wrong about the Jews and Israel.  You know the drill.  Most of these errant eschatological positions believe in Replacement Theology.  They hold to the (frankly ridiculous) understanding that God has abandoned the Jews, reneged on His promises, and has redirected them to the church.  Thus, the promises to Israel in the Old Testament are really now only intended for the church.  Why?  Because – according to these people – the church is the new Israel.  The Israel as we know it today is finished prophetically because God has nothing more to do with it.

And why is this?  A major rationale is likely that because the Jews killed Jesus, they’ve made their bed and must lie in it.  They killed the Savior of the world, so why would God want to redeem them?

Our errant friends think that God in His love for only the church has crossed them off the list as irredeemable.  He has nothing left in His bag of tricks in order to bring Jews in the nation of Israel into a saving relationship with Him.  Why think this?  Because in these people’s minds, the Bible never speaks about any future deliverance of Israel.

To think that is utter folly.

That is, as long as you don’t read the Old Testament.

In other words, this line of thought comes from pure Biblical ignorance.  It’s so stupid that it’s utterly disgusting.

But we’ll move on from my righteous irritation at such thinking to one reason I believe these Preterists and others have come to the conclusion about God forsaking Israel.

At the time just before Jesus was crucified, Pontius Pilate brought Him out before the people and gave them a choice: should he execute the notorious murderer Barabbas, or should he put Jesus to death?

This is what happened in Matthew 27:24-26:

So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.

Note again verse 25: And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” 

I’ve commented extensively in this blog about curses.  If interested, go to my website blog and put the word “curse” in the Search box.  The bottom line is that God takes curses very seriously.  He also has pronounced that certain issues worthy of His curse can extend to the 3^rd and 4^th generations.  Let’s explore that a little.

Here are three verses that tell us about this generational curse:

Exodus 20:5

You shall not bow down to them [i.e. false gods and idols] or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me.

Numbers 14:18

‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’

Exodus 34:6-7

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Thus, we see that those who are guilty of transgressing against God can earn a curse that extends multiple generations.  What does this mean concerning the curse that the Jews clamoring for Jesus to be crucified called down upon themselves?

Let’s do some calculations.  But first, how long is a Biblical generation?

According to GotQuestions.org a typical Biblical generation is about 30 years, although there are instances depending on context that can make it more or less.  We’ll use 30 years for our discussion.

If we calculate for three generations, we get 90 years; for four generations it would be 120 years.

What year was Jesus crucified?  For reference we’ll again verify through GotQuestions.org.  It tells us that Jesus died in 33 AD.

Three generations means that we add 90 years to Jesus’ year of death; for four generations we add 120 years to when He was crucified.  That math takes us to the range of years for three to four generations being 123 AD to 153 AD.

We’re all aware that things didn’t go well for Israel following the death of Jesus.  The city of Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.  That wasn’t quite the end, however.  In 135 AD the Roman emperor Hadrian completely annihilated the last of the rebel Jews such that the nation of Israel was crushed and gone, seemingly forever.  It was so bad that Hadrian turned the knife in Israel’s back and renamed the land Palestina in “honor” of Israel’s mortal enemies the Philistines.

Through these events, the curse of three to four generations was fulfilled.  For the holy crime of the Jews crying out against God’s Son and calling down a curse upon themselves, they literally brought about the complete end of Israel.  That’s a heavy curse.  But we must understand that it was completed by 135 AD – right in the range we would expect.

In other words, that curse had no longer to run – it was finished.  Because of that, God could then allow the effects of the curse to dissipate, which He did and continues to do.

Here is what Ezekiel 37:21-28 has to say about this reversal that God is orchestrating:

Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 

“My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”

In reading this, it’s quite obvious that God is NOT done with National Israel and the Jews.  Any teaching that contradicts God’s Word in this matter is a false teaching.  Replacement Theology is a false and verifiably noxious doctrine that leads Christians far from God’s true Word.  I warn again as I have numerous times: When people allow false shepherds to lead them astray, it is not only on the pastor who deceives them, but on his flock for not having Holy Spirit discernment to flee such a church.

God is gracious and merciful, but He is also very clear in His Word that believers don’t just get a free pass with their initial salvation.  We have an obligation to read the Bible and to know what it says so that we know good from evil, right from wrong, bitter from sweet (Isaiah 5:20).  Ignorance of Scripture only goes so far.  There are consequences for deliberate and repeated sin.  It seems to me that staying in a church where the true Word of God is dismissed as untrue would be a situation where God may bring consequences to bear for such a sin.

In conclusion, God still has much work to do on His part to bring about the redemption of Israel such that the Jews declare that Jesus Christ is their Messiah.  Israel is God’s supersign for prophetic fulfillment.  The fact that so many in the church dismiss Israel, causing many to fall into apostasy is a major indicator of how close we are to the end.

We need to read our Bibles and believe what God tells us.  It’s only through knowing God’s Word that we can discern that what anybody tells us is true or false.  This applies more than ever to the church of today.  Just because someone has the title of pastor doesn’t mean that he is someone you should listen to.  That applies to me as well.  I urge you to verify what I say.

Sharpen your spiritual senses.  Watch and anticipate the soon-coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  You won’t regret it.