Law and Life

The Curse

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Law

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 22 of 39

Track: 133

Dictation Name: RR156L22

Date: 1960s-1970s

[Rushdoony] Our Scripture this morning is Genesis 4, verses 6 and 7, and our subject The Curse. Genesis 4:6 and 7. “And the LORD said unto Cain, ‘Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.’”

Last week we studied vows and oaths, and we saw that where anyone breaks his vow or oath, the curse becomes operative against him. We saw, moreover, that the vow and the oath both are not unconditional. Only God’s Word is unconditional. We cannot say that we have given our word and therefore our word must bind us unconditionally, because only the Word of God is unconditional. But where the conditions of the Word of God apply, when we violate a vow or an oath, the curse then is operative.

Now to define a curse, essentially and primarily a curse is God’s act against sin and His judgment concerning it. When a man curses, if it is a valid curse, it is man’s invocation of God’s written and declared judgment against sin, uttered either against the enemies of God or against one’s own person if he departs from the Word of God. God’s curse can be analyzed a little more specifically. First of all, God’s curse is His denunciation of all sin. Deuteronomy 29, verses 19 and 20, and Numbers 5:21 and 23 make this clear. Sin is enmity against God. It is separation from God and His law. It is rebelliousness against God. It is a misuse of His law, and in any and every form it incurs God’s enmity and anger. Second, God’s curse is not only His denunciation of sin but His judgment on sin; His active condemnation of the person of the sinner. This again appears in numerous Scriptures such as Numbers 5:22, 24, and 27, in Isaiah 24, verse 6. Then third, we can further define God’s curse thus; the man under judgment is himself called a curse. Turning again to Numbers 5:21 and 27 make this clear, and again Jeremiah 29, verse 18, but the supreme example of that is Galatians 3:10 and 3:13, where Jesus Christ as the one who hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, so that Christ is Himself spoken of as the curse, or the cursed one, because Jesus Christ became our sin-bearer, and on Him was laid the iniquity of us all. Therefore, He is emphatically declared to be the accursed, or the cursed one in His role as sin-bearer.

Now behind God’s curse stands the power of God. God’s curse is not merely words but it is the power of God’s law and judgment at work. God’s law is declared in Scripture to be life to the faithful, as in Ezekiel 20:11. If a man do, he shall even live in them. But it is also declared that it is separation from life to judgment where men are ungodly and disobey His law. The Scripture thus calls the law life, but it also calls the law a curse, as in Zechariah 5:3 and elsewhere, and in Galatians to which we just referred; for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them. Thus to violate God’s law is to be under the curse, to use the law for justification is again to be under the curse. How then shall we think of the curse? When a man crosses the border and goes into Mexico, he is immediately under Mexican law, so that he cannot think of himself as any longer under American law because if he violates a traffic regulation that is particular to Mexico, he is immediately ticketed. California law does not apply, as many Californians have found out. Californians are, for example, targets when they go into the east, because a right turn on a red light is forbidden in most of the Eastern states, and so a California license plate is a moneymaker, because every Californian is used to making a right turn on a red light when there is no traffic coming, and he’s immediately ticketed. The fact that California law gives him the right to do that has no meaning because he is now under say Indiana or New York or Pennsylvania law, or when he crosses the border south, under Mexican law. Now, when we cross the border of faith and obedience to any degree, we are now under the curse. It applies to us immediately and our own words condemn us, our own acts judge us. Over and over again God in Scripture shows, sometimes in dramatic ways, how when a man by word or act goes beyond a certain point, the curse strikes him.

A couple of the dramatic examples of this are, for example, Ahab and David. With regard to Ahab in 1 Kings 20, a nameless prophet comes to him after he had freed the king of Syria, who was a man of great evil and deserved death. But Ahab, being himself evil, wanted to see evil dealt lightly with, and so he freed him, gave him his life. And so this nameless prophet, disguised as a soldier, came to him and said your majesty, I beg for mercy. In the heat of the battle a prisoner was taken who was regarded as important and put into my custody. And the officer said guard him with your life, your life for his. But in the turmoil of the battle he escaped from me. And so the nameless prophet asked reverse the judgment, free me. And Ahab pronounced him worthy of death, and the prophet said thus saith the Lord, because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life and thy people for his people.

Again when David committed adultery with Bathsheba, Nathan the prophet came to him and told him the parable of the men who were neighbors, one who was very who had flocks and folds of sheep, and his neighbor had only one, and yet he stole the neighbor’s one lamb and slaughtered it for his own purposes. And David blazed up in anger and said that man should die. And Nathan said thou hast said it and therefore the Lord will judge thee. But not with death, with more fearful things that you shall see fall upon your son and upon your household.

Again we have another picture of sin, the curse, the judgment upon sin when God speaks to Cain. Cain was angry and his countenance fell when God rejected his offering, because Cain came not in faith, but out of a spirit of works. And the Lord said unto Cain, why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well sin lieth at the door and unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him. That last sentence is not our concern but very briefly since it is a puzzle to many people to comment on it, it is indeed a puzzle. Because it can be read two ways; it can mean sin’s desire is for you, to master you, but you must master sin, or if you obey Me, then his, in that case the reference is to Abel your brother, desire and regard will be to you and you shall recover your right of primogenitor and rule over him, Abel. Now it can be read either way and Hebrew scholars are undecided as to which is the meaning. That part does not concern us but the first sentence; if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well sin lieth at the door. Now the picture there of sin is as a beast, lying or more literally crouching at the door, ready to leap, ready to pounce on him.

Now the framework of reference is something like the {?} cry, which we dealt when we studied Biblical law. The {?} cry was once a technical and legal term and still is in some areas of the English speaking world for the necessity of any man assisting in the pursuit of a criminal. When the {?} cry was raised, then every man within earshot of the summons became constituted as a posse and had to go after the criminal. But the difference is that in the {?} cry, men act after the fact. In the curse, it is not men but the end result of sin, the judgment that is implicit and is in sin that before the commission of the fact, like a crouched beast at the door, waits to pounce on the man who transgresses by word, thought, or act, to bring forth upon him the curse. They have crossed the boundary from faith and obedience into disobedience, into sin, into rebellion, into ungodliness, and the curse is there to pounce on them. This is why of course so often in Scripture as in Deuteronomy 28, with which we dealt a few years ago, Scripture speaks of curses and blessings as irresistible.

They are also spoken of as man’s wages or hire. We are familiar with the fact that the wages of sin is death. But we are not familiar by and large with the fact that there is a wage for obedience. Scripture is emphatic over and over again from beginning to end that we are saved by grace; that all is of grace, but it still speaks in the parable of judgment, Matthew 25:31 following, of inheriting the kingdom of God prepared for you. Why? I was naked, hungry, in prison, sick, you clothed me, fed me, visited me, even as ye have done unto the least of these, ye have done unto me. Inherit the kingdom. Those who are saved by grace are given an inheritance. But even more, the word translated as reward in much of Scripture is very literally sakar; S-A-K-A-R, as are other words translated variously; wage or hire. For example, in Genesis 15:1, as the very despondent Abram comes to God, God says fear not Abram, I am thy shield and thine exceeding great reward; your wage, your hire, that’s the literal reading. We meet with this again; Numbers 18:31. In Psalm 127, verse 3, children the fruit of the womb, is spoken of as one form of hire or reward. In Isaiah 40:10, behold the Lord God will come with strong hand and His arm will rule for Him. Behold His reward, His wages, His hire is with Him, and His work before Him, so that God brings wages to the redeemed and the unregenerate; blessings and curses. In Isaiah 62:11, behold the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, say ye to the daughter of Zion, behold thy salvation cometh, behold His reward, His hire, His wage is with Him, and His work before him. Again, in Ruth 2, verse 12 we have a similar statement, only this time another word, which again means hire or wage, but is translated as reward; maskoreth. Boaz says to Ruth the Lord recompense thee, still another word, pay thee, for thy work, and a full reward, a full wage be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under Whose wings thou hast come to trust.

The wage, however, is not man’s right but God’s grace, just as a parent can command his child to do thus and so, and yet the parent out of his grace says I will give you a dollar if you do this and that. I will pay you well, just go out there and do this chore and that. Out of love for his child, to encourage his child, gives him a wage. And we are told to remember that even as we receive wages we are to say: “When ye shall have done all those things that are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants. We have done that which was our duty to do.” Luke 17:10. The curse is at all times the just and due wage for sin. God’s blessings are His wages for obedience. They are also a gift; all of grace.

The curse also means God gives His people up to evil ways and evil laws. In Ezekiel 10, verse 25, we read “wherefore I gave them also statues that were not good and judgments whereby they should not live.” God here declares that because they are reprobate He has put it into their hearts to be ruled by humanistic laws, by evil laws that will judge them, that will destroy them. Whereas His laws, Ezekiel says a few verses earlier, verse 13 of chapter 20, if a man do he shall even live in them. So that when men cross the boundary into the curse, automatically they move into a different world, and the very laws they themselves create become their own curse because now they are in a different realm. The earth was cursed because of man’s sin, and so we are surrounded by our world in which the wages of sin are death; where men and nations reap a harvest for their sin.

The curse is a fearful fact, but it is also a very, very strengthening fact, because it tells us of the certainty of God’s victory; that sin has written in it its own judgment, that every word that goes out of our mouth is judged, that everything done; a cup of cold water given in His name has its wage. It’s a world of consequence and therefore the curse itself is a means of deliverance because it says emphatically the plan of Satan whereby man shall be his own god and create paradise on earth can never succeed. It tells us that every false political order, every false religious order, every false economic order is destined to destroy itself because by its own inner logic, its own working it fulfills God’s declaration. It takes those statues, those judgments, those laws whereby they shall not live, so that they must turn to God and to His Word. They must believe and obey because apart from that the curse overwhelms them. When men stop talking about the seriousness of God’s curse, they also think less and less of His blessings. When they are forgetful of the seriousness of every word, then they are less mindful of the blessings that even a cup of cold water bring for obedience. The curse thus reveals to us a total world; God’s total world, where everything has its significance, its implication, its connotation, its hire, its reward. We are summoned to walk in terms of God’s Word. If a man do, he shall even live in them. Let us pray.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we give thanks unto Thee for Thy Word. Thy Word is truth, and Thy Word blesses and heals. Give us, O Lord, the spirit of faith and obedience that we might delight ourselves in Thy Word, that we might be mindful, O Lord, that we are called upon to be obedient in word, thought, and deed, to rejoice in Thee, to be ever mindful of Thy grace, to delight in Thy wages, knowing O Lord that Thy ways are greater than our ways and Thy wisdom greater than our wisdom. Teach us therefore Father to take hands off our lives and to commit them into Thy care and into Thy keeping, knowing the greatness of Thy wisdom, the certainty of Thy government, and the reaches of Thy love. In Jesus name, Amen.

Are there any questions now, first of all on our lesson? Yes?

[Audience member] Are there like two categories to curses, the one being a natural out coming of what you do and the other type like a disaster, like earthquakes or something that isn’t necessarily connected to the act?

[Rushdoony] Well, yes I understand. The question is are there two kinds of curses, those which are a natural consequence of what you do; cause and effect, or others that are unrelated to what one does, such as an earthquake. Well the answer to that is, first of all, since the world is under the curse and is only brought out from under the curse as men are redeemed and to the extent that we grow in grace the extent of our sanctification is also the extent to which we move out from under the curse towards the totality of blessing which we have in heaven and the new creation. And the extent to which we as Christians bring the world under God’s dominion means to that extent it is moved out from under the curse. Thus, a state school is an area of the curse. A Christian school is an area where learning is being removed from the world of the curse.

Now, since the world is a fallen world, it is full of natural disasters; storms, earthquakes, a variety of catastrophes. There is, according to Scripture, a relationship between these and the judgment of God; that God does send various disasters and in my Biblical Philosophy of History I point out the correlation between them and times of disobedience. They increase at certain times in history. So, there is a causality to all things. The cause behind them is the curse. Sometimes the curse as it smites us is personal entirely; I did this and therefore I am paying for it. But, very often, the curse is more general. It strikes us because it is on all the earth or upon all of a generation or all of a nation or all of a group. Any other questions? Yes?

[Audience member] In case of {?} in the Old Testament of Balak and Balaam, what power or what real power of Balaam had {?} and Balak asked him to curse the Israelites, so how do you explain that?

[Rushdoony] Yes. Balaam was a man who very definitely God had spoken too, the question is what kind of what kind of power did he have? Very definitely God had made known to him that Israel was going to be blessed mightily, and he knew the extent roughly to which it was. He also knew that to go contrary to God’s Word was to be very definitely under the judgment and the curse of God. Because Balak believed Balaam to be a man of spiritual powers; a man who had contact with the God of Israel, he wanted Balaam, as someone who believed in and knew the God of Israel to invoke the curse of their own God upon them, and God prevented him from so doing and used him as a witness against Balak and his people and a means of pronouncing a blessing; a very powerful and prophetic one, upon Israel. Any other questions? Yes?

[Audience member] Would you define what a vow is? Is there a difference from just a promise?

[Rushdoony] A vow is a promise made to God to do certain things above and beyond what His Word requires. As I said last week, we cannot vow to give God a tithe because that is already His due. It has to be above and beyond what is already God’s property and right. There is no virtue in vowing a vow, nor any virtue in not vowing a vow, but if a person wants to do something extra or beyond and above his normal tithes and offerings for God and he vows a vow, he is bound to keep it unless in terms of God’s Word it can be disallowed by someone in superior authority.

[Audience member] You don’t need to use any special form?

[Rushdoony] No, you don’t.

[Audience member] Like an oath?

[Rushdoony] No. Yes?

[Audience member] How much power does a ruler have Biblically to mitigate a {?} when it comes to the penalty of God’s curse? How much power does he have?

[Rushdoony] Yes. The question is how much power, executive clemency or pardon does a ruler have. Well, in terms of Scripture the ruler is the Supreme Court. In other words, all appeals ended with the ruler, and he did have the right to extend clemency but it had to be in terms of the situation and a judgment of it. After it went through the courts or came to him he had the power of executive clemency or setting aside a verdict, as the Supreme Court. However, it’s become a very loose thing in the modern world and totally unrelated to Scripture; it’s become totally political. But the roots of it are very deep in the ancient world and in the Bible as well.

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes. Just a couple of things, since we dealt recently with the theology of the state, and we’re going to come back to it in a couple of weeks, that I think are very interesting in relationship to it and as a kind of preparation for the subject. In the Herald Examiner for Thursday, September the 12th, there was a very interesting editorial on some of the things happening to our money when the federal government gets ahold of it. One hundred and twenty-one thousand was spent for a study to find out why people say “ain’t”. Sixty-eight thousand on England’s Queen Elizabeth the Second for not planting cotton on her Mississippi plantation. Two hundred and fifty thousand a year for the thirteen member inter-departmental screw thread committee, studying screw threads. Seventy thousand to study the smell of sweat from Australian Aborigines. One hundred and seventeen thousand, two-hundred and fifty dollars for the federal Board of Tea Tasters. I’m just skipping around. Eighty-four thousand above the cost of ordinary milk to maintain a herd of dairy cows at the U.S. Naval Academy in case of a cholera epidemic. Now there might be some justification of that. Fifty-nine thousand a year to store fifteen tons of feathers as a critical material in case of a national emergency. Seventy thousand to classify Indo-Australian ants. Two hundred ninety-eight thousand for a study of summer camp safety, later branded as worthless. Nineteen thousand three hundred to find out why kids fall off bicycles, and so on.

Then, at the same time, on Friday, September the 13th, John Chamberlain had a very interesting article on the measure in Congress for federal control over all U.S. zoos. Now that seems like a far out thing but there is a very definite purpose in it that is frightening, the curators of these zoos. The whole point of it is that the ecology people want to gain control of the zoos and thereby agitate against the cruelty of keeping these animals confined. Now of course one of the things that will happen is that it will accelerate precisely what these people are claiming they want; protection of wildlife. Because more than a few endangered species have survived precisely because the zoos of this country have enough specimens of them and have bred them and are able to restock areas of Africa and Asia so that the belief is of these various experts that it will lead to massive elimination of endangered species all over the world. But of course this is what they are aiming at in the name of conservation, they want control of the zoos and they will kill off the possibility of reclaiming various endangered species. But this measure is being very seriously considered.

Let us bow our heads now for the benediction and then remain seated for an announcement thereafter. And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always. Amen.

[End of tape]