Reversing the Curse
“You do not have, because you do not ask.” (James 4:2)
Prophetic Images
I recently re-read the 2 volumes 1500-page commentary on Ezekiel which intriguingly contains references to the prophet as a “living idol”. Daniel Block reminds us that the various prophetic actions recorded in scripture, laying on one’s side for long periods, shaving and scattering his hair with a sword, cooking on dung, going about naked, marrying a harlot, binding Paul’s hands and feet with a belt etc. are lenses of divine revelation. As conveying Truth as the living image of God, prophets they were holy figures dynamically opposed to manmade images which, “have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. 6 They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. 8 Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.” (Ps 115:5-8). All this points us ultimately to Christ, and the unenlightened state of the Church surrounding us. I have detailed this call to dynamically image Jesus at length (http://cross-connect.net.au/video/mystery-is-christ/), and the more crushed by the hand of the Lord I become (cf. 2 Cor 1:8), the less apologetic I become about mentioning these mysteries of God’s personal call. This teaching expounds a recent example.
Background
I have been praying through a seemingly insoluble medical crisis. Though regularly counselled by caring Christians to present to ED with (faked) pain on the left side of my body, the Spirit said to do this would negate my call to live out, “the testimony of Jesus, the Spirit of prophecy” (Rev 19:10). Things were tough at home and beyond. Praying in the darkest hours I sensed a “stuckness”, personally, maritally, in our local congregation and across the Church in Perth. Praying though this sense I remember certain prophetic promises and past situations, times when the Spirit moved suddenly and unexpectedly, and how the Lord brought about a massive prayer revolution in my own heart. Suddenly a breakthrough insight came at 3:13 a.m.
The Agonies of Jesus
3:13 a.m. stands for 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 hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ…we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” (Gal 3:13-14). This profound scripture must be expounded with care. Paul does not say that the Son was cursed “by God” (Deut 21:23). Whilst by faith Christ accepted God’s full judgment on our sin, not even the father of all sin, Adam, was cursed by his Creator. it was the serpent and the ground which are cursed and subject to a naturally irredeemable futility (Gen 3:14, 17; Rom 8:20). The popular songwriter comments of the cry of dereliction, “my God, why have you forsaken me” (Mark 15:34), “the Father turned his face away” (https://www.stuarttownend.co.uk/song/how-deep-the-fathers-love-for-us/), but scripture prophetically testifies, “For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.” (Ps 22:24). Jesus was both fully heard and seen by his ever- doting Father (https://theaquilareport.com/10-reasons-father-didnt-turn-face-away-cross/ ). His, and the Father’s anguish, is that in bearing our sin he cannot be given this revelation! Our idolatries (Ezek 14:3-7), blind us into limiting Christ’s sufferings to his life-end, whereas Matthew testifies, Jesus regularly took into himself the broken state of lost humanity. “he healed all who were sick…to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”” (Matt 8:17 citing Isa 53:4). I treasure these words from the Heidelberg Catechism Q37. “What do you understand by the word “suffered”? A. That during his whole life on earth, but especially at the end, Christ sustained in body and soul the anger of God against the sin of the whole human race.” In taking on the frailty of fallen human flesh, our “poverty” (John 1:14; 2 Cor 8:9), Jesus stripped himself of the glories of heaven (Phil 2:5ff.). This presents a vast challenge for all his disciples, that is, to you and me!
Sharing the Curse in Christ
Then, shortly after 3:13 a.m. I suddenly saw a connection to Romans 9:3 “I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” Paul identifies with Moses, who prophetically interceded with God asking that if his own destruction could bring forgiveness to idol-worshipping Israel he is willing to be blotted out of the book of life (Ex 32:20-23). Neither Moses nor Paul could suffer to atonement to the lost. But their sympathetic depth of grief point to Jesus who “made intercession for transgressors” (Isa 53:12) by offering his life to the Father. Paul allows himself, for Christ’s sake and the salvation of many, to be treated as a cursed person in union with the sufferings of his Lord (1 Cor 4:13; 2 Cor 4:7-11; Col 1:24). As Calvinist candidates for ministry once had to indicate a willingness to be condemned if it would bring greater glory to God, Jonathan Edwards insight into revival as a radical change in religious affections (https://www.jonathan-edwards.org/ReligiousAffections.pdf ) speaks to us today. To explain this, I need to go back to my early morning prayers.
Vicarious Intercession
My mind and heart were then taken to a recent tragedy that struck a devout Christian family known to me. I felt uniquely gifted to enter into the traumatic shock and inconsolable grief of a young mother who discovered her infant drowned and unrevivable in their bath. Likewise, the Church in Perth is unrevivable, unrevivable until we believe that the power to reverse the curse of God on lost humanity abides in us, “Christ in you the hope of glory” (Col 1:26). If Jesus was willing to die, as an apparently cursed man outside the covenant, if the prophets and apostles were willing to suffer in any way, no matter how weird/shameful, to see the redemption of people for God, we must follow them in accepting a mode of life as vicarious prayer (Col 1:24), which will make us seem like “the tail and not the head” in all things (Deut 28:13).
Conclusion
Under the old covenant it was limited to the holy prophets (Acts 3:21) to be “living idols”, but now, covered by the new covenant blood of Christ (Heb 13:20; 1 Pet 1:2), all God’s people have this high and costly privilege within the testimony of Jesus (Rev 19:10). I do not enjoy day after day being awake to pray well before dawn, but for the sake of Christ, I will endure it as it brings forth ever- new revelation. What are the difficulties and reproaches the Spirit of Jesus is calling you to endure to reverse the curse of God? I implore you in the name of Christ, to say “Yes Lord, I will follow you, whatever the cost.” Jesus can answer the heart of all our prayers, but only as far as he has our hearts.