God tells us through the proverbist that WHERE THERE IS NO CAUSE, THERE IS NO CURSE (Prov. 26:2). Recall in Deuteronomy 28 that God promised to bless those who obey His Law and remain true to the covenant He made with them from atop Mt. Sinai. Those blessings had a cause–obedience. Note that His promised curses also had a cause–sin. So what forms do those curses take when He pours them out on mankind because of their sins? Verses 14 through 68 answer that question. As we highlight those curses, see if anything looks familiar now as well as in the past. Over the past 2000 years the prophecy of Jesus Christ (Mat. 24:4-8) has been coming to pass with ever-increasing frequency and destruction. We will now identify some of those curses with which God has afflicted mankind over the centuries since Jesus preached God’s Word as the way to receive both His promised blessings and His promised curses.

In verses 14 and 15 God, through Moses, warns the people of the world what will befall them if they do not obey His Law. He warned that the following curses “… will come upon and overtake you.” Law breakers would be cursed in the city and in the country. Their land would produce less and less and they would be able to store less and less of what little they reaped. They would be cursed when they came in and cursed when they went out. They would be cursed and rebuked as God would curse everything they would do because they had become ever more wicked by forsaking Him, which is apostasy.

God promised to make diseases of all kinds cling to them and kill them. Disease would afflict their crops and animals. Their heaven would turn to brass and their land to iron as rain would become ever more scarce and the earth would become powder and dust. Enemies would come at them one way and they would flee from them seven ways. They would become slaves in foreign countries. Their dead bodies would become food for animals. They would eat their own children as they lost their mental capacities.

God’s people who had rejected His Law would work ever harder but would reap ever less for their efforts as their enemies would take it from them and consume it in their presence. Their children would be taken from them and sold as slaves to people in other lands. They would be driven mad by what they witnessed. Strangers would invade their countries and consume everything they had worked for. They will become slaves and would be forced to worship and serve the gods of their owners. They would become so worthless that no man would buy them.

In Hosea chapter eight the prophet was warning the people of Israel of what would happen to them if they followed in the footsteps of their fathers who had rejected God’s Law. He tells them that they had sown the wind and would reap the whirlwind. The Lord, through His true messengers, is issuing the same warnings today to their spiritual descendants who, in many cases, are also their biological descendants. Read Who and Where is Israel Today? Key word–Where.

For the past 2000 years God has been cursing mankind, including those who claim to believe in Him while rejecting His Law of love by which He tells us how to live in order to spend eternity with Him, which is His will for all of mankind. The problem is that man has been deceived into believing that there is no connection between their supposedly inevitable sins and the so-called “natural disasters” that have plagued mankind for generations. Such things as tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, droughts, volcanoes, earthquakes, mental and physical diseases have ravaged the human race for centuries, including those who own Bibles that tell them why they are being cursed and by Whom. The problem is that MAN DOES NOT SEE THE CAUSE AND EFFECT CORRELATION BETWEEN THEIR BREAKING OF GOD’S LAW AND THE CURSES HE POURS OUT ON THEM. THEY ARE BEING LIED TO FROM PULPIT AND PODIUM, FROM TELEVISION SCREENS AND RADIO SPEAKERS, FROM STREET CORNERS AND PARK BENCHES. SATAN’S MESSENGERS ARE EVERYWHERE SPREADING HIS “COME AS YOU ARE, STAY AS YOU ARE; JESUS LOVES YOU JUST THE WAY YOU ARE” MANTRA OF DEATH.

For decades I have witnessed people whose homes and possessions have been destroyed by the violence of “nature” as they praised God for sparing their lives. Only one time have I heard anyone admit that God Himself had cursed them because of their sins. This surprisingly honest man was “corrected” on the spot by a famous evangelist who refuted what God makes so clear in His Holy Scriptures–that the people receive what they earn. This famous evangelist, along with billions more whom Satan has deceived, refuse to make the cause and effect connection between sin and curse. To them, what happened was simply an “act of nature.” In their minds, God just needs to sit down and shut up.

As church people die from terrible diseases (pestilences) and their relatives smile and rejoice that “they are in a better place now,” no one will tell the Bible Truth about the situation. Not once have I heard someone say that sin was what caused their suffering and untimely deaths. And yet, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT CAUSES THE CALAMITIES THAT TAKE PLACE IN THEIR LIVES. If, that is, we can take God at His Word. Most Bible owners have no clue as to what God actually says to them in His Holy Scriptures. And when someone shows them what He says it becomes “sit down and shut up” time.

I have suffered numerous curses from God during the years leading up to my conversion. All those years I believed that I was saved, born again, etc. During much of that time I was preaching, healing the sick, casting out demons, etc. The problem was that I had not been justified, not had my past sins forgiven, not been made righteous and had not been converted. I was a transgressor of the Law, just like the hundreds of thousands of church leaders today who are leading the masses into apostasy, EXACTLY AS I DID FOR ALL THOSE YEARS. I thank God for His grace and forgiveness.

Now that I have been truly converted and have, by the power of the Holy Spirit which has turned my life around and has me walking with God in agreement with Him (Amos 3:3), everything has changed. A Scriptural passage that speaks loud and clear to this process is presented in Second Chronicles 7:13-15. Turn there with me now.

Note that it is GOD who would cause the rain to stop and Who would afflict the people with diseases (pestilences). Note what He says about “My people who are called by My name.” He says that they must HUMBLE THEMSELVES (they were proud), and PRAY (they had not been praying). They must SEEK HIS FACE (they had rejected His Lordship over their lives). They must TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS (they had been living in wickedness). Then, and only then, would He hear their prayers, forgive their sins (justify them) and do for them what needed to be done. Then, and only then, would His eyes be open toward them (He had turned away from them because of their sins).

This is the condition of the modern day (Laodicean) church and the nations in which she is located. Read about her in Revelation 3:14-20. I have been telling those people for years that they are not who they believe themselves to be. They are not saved; they are not born again, is not their future home. God treats them the same way He treats all sinners because they are all guilty of breaking His Law. The churched and the unchurched are the same relative to what He does to them. They are afflicted by the same “natural disasters” and the same diseases. They are cured by the same drugs, etc. over the same amount of time. They pay the same price for their medicine, doctor and hospital bills. Church peoples’ homes are destroyed and their lives turned upside-down exactly like the prostitute and thief. Why? BECAUSE SIN IS THE TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW (1 JN. 3:4). SIN IS SIN, WHETHER COMMITTED BY A PILLAR OF THE CHURCH OR A CHURCH BURNER. SIN SEPARATES THE SINNER FROM GOD (ISA. 59:2). ALL LAW-BREAKERS PAY THE SAME PRICE FOR THEIR SINS, FOR GOD IS NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS. ALL WHO SOW THE WIND WILL REAP THE WHIRLWIND. ALL WHO OBEY GOD ARE BLESSED. ALL WHO SIN ARE CURSED. THUS SAYS THE LORD IN HIS HOLY WORD.

Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26 are as relevant today as they were anciently. The message is the same from the unchanging God who spoke it. Both then and now, those who proclaim faith in Jesus Christ called by God “My people who are called by My name.” However, now, as then, only a minutely few are living the way God commands. As the world explodes into chaos, the Words of Jesus Christ are ringing louder and louder. “Not every one who says unto Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My father” (will enter in). Many will remind Him of their religiosity as they stand before Him on Judgment Day. To those who were super-religious (church-defined Christians) He will say: “I NEVER KNEW YOU; DEPART FROM BEFORE ME, YOU WHO WORK INIQUITY” (LAWLESSNESS). L.J.