Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 20:9

9 For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.

There has already been some discussion among other commentators as to what sort of “cursing” could warrant a death penalty for an ungrateful child. Tradition maintains that this death penalty only applied to the most severe of oaths against one’s parents, one that employed the name of God, Himself, but so far as I can tell, there is only a matter of tradition, not definitively proven to be true. Honestly, it doesn’t really matter. It still remains a death penalty for words spoken, which ostensibly our laws and culture are against, though recent examples like the murder of Charlie Kirk suggest that many today privately endorse the notion of killing others for their speech.

The fact is, being put death for one’s words has a long history in humanity, and it seems likely that we have only had a brief departure from it. Interestingly, that departure came about by the prevalence of Christian ideals, and now if it is waning, it appears to be due to the abandonment of those same ideals.

Even so, while many forms of death for evil words might be unjust, today’s verse should cause even the Christian to wonder if there are some that are just. The sharing of words is the sharing of ideas, and the sharing of perverse and twisted ideas has killed innocents, as can be seen in just our recent history. Abortion, Canada’s MAID program, and the sterilization of children with gender dysphoria are a few examples of how words, ideas, and movements are vehicles of self-destruction for entire cultures.

And when it comes to self-destructive and suicidal expressions, it is hard to think of one more direct than the abhorrence of one’s own progenitors. While no one has perfect parents, and some have truly awful parents, our very existence in this world is still dependent upon them. Cursing one’s own mortal beginning is an act of ouroboros. It is the tree cutting off its own roots, the fetus severing its umbilical cord, the breaking of one’s own tether to life. And so, there is something symbolic in the death penalty being assigned to such an act.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 19:5-8

5 And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord, ye shall offer it at your own will. 

6 It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow: and if ought remain until the third day, it shall be burnt in the fire. 

7 And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is abominable; it shall not be accepted. 

8 Therefore every one that eateth it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the Lord: and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

We shift from a recounting of some of the ten commandments to now reiterating the importance of eating one’s portion of a peace offering within the day or the day after making that sacrifice, then burning any remainder on the third day. This was something we originally read about back in Leviticus 7.

As we may recall, the peace offering was not performed for restitution from sin or uncleanliness. As verse 5 states, it was an entirely voluntary offering, presumably given when one felt a particular sense of communion with God and wanted to enjoy a meal at His table. But what was a voluntary offering could become a curse if the offeror violated its instructions and ate his portion past the days allotted to him to do so. So long as the offering was in his own possession, he could slaughter and eat of it whenever and however he pleased, but once he offered it to the Lord, it now became subject to the Lord’s stipulations, and if he varied from that then his gift would become a curse.

So it is with us and our sacrifices today. When we say that we give our lives, our passion, our work, our families to the Lord, we cannot simply mean that we want to invite Him into those, and to bless them as we continue to direct them according to our own preferences. If we truly say that we are offering these things to Him, then that means we now accept His direction overwriting our own in each of these domains.

Posted on by Abe Austin

A Blessed Curse

Only those that are most dedicated to evil are destroyed by God. For all the rest of us, even when He curses us, it is a curse designed to teach and even save us. The very tribulation that we think will ruin us, ends up being the vehicle for our salvation. It feels like a death, but it holds the seed of life. Thus, by His grace, even God’s curses are blessings.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 23:25-26

25 And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.

26 There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil.

In return for the Israelite’s faithfulness, God now makes some significant promises. He assures them of the basics, bread and water, and also that He will heal them of their diseases. He says that “the number of thy days I will fulfil,” meaning they will be a people that live full lives without meeting an early demise. Thus, God is ensuring the necessities for a full life. Not only this, but nature itself will be particularly blessed for them, their livestock giving birth to healthy young and the land yielding its fruit.

Notice in these promises that God is removing from the Israelites much of the curses He pronounced to Adam and Eve. He had told Eve that “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.” Obviously the Israelite women would still face the pains of childbirth, but would not suffer the anguishes of infertility or maternal or infant death, given God’s promises that there would not be barrenness or shortened days. God had told Adam that “cursed is the ground for thy sake. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.” Obviously the Israelites would still have to labor for their food, “in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,” but here He describes that the land would no longer be actively working against them.

What we read here is the first step in the Lord reclaiming His people from the fall. Humanity had been in an extremely dejected state, and now God’s people were half-exalted, living blessed lives. God had begun the work of taking the sting out of death and the victory out of the grave (1 Corinthians 15:55).

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 9:27-28

27 And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.

28 Entreat the Lord (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer.

Pharaoh had been more obstinate during the second phase of God’s curses, holding out through more and more of the afflictions, but finally he sounds repentant, more so than at any point thus far. Pharaoh was not merely capitulating to the Lord’s power, he even called himself wicked and admitted that he knew he had sinned.

Of course, Pharaoh will still recant on this repentance, he will break his word yet again. This raises the question whether he was genuine during these verses or not. Did he feel guiltless, and was lying in every word? Or did he truly know that he and the Egyptians were morally in the wrong, and was sincere in his admission of guilt, but wasn’t actually willing to commit to doing what was right?

We aren’t given a clear answer, but in tomorrow’s verses we will see that Moses and the Lord saw straight through Pharaoh’s words and knew that he would ultimately prove faithless.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 9:23-26

23 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt.

24 So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.

25 And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field.

26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail.

It was not only hail that afflicted the Egyptians, but fire as well! The nature of this fire is rather mysterious. It was not mentioned in God’s foretelling of the curse, and we never have explained to us exactly what connection it had to the hail. They are a most strange combination, as they would seem likely to extinguish and melt one other!

Of course, we are not told that the fire was raining down from heaven. The passage says it “ran along upon the ground” and “mingled with the hail.” Perhaps the hail knocked something over which spilled embers or hot coals and spread a fire over the land. Or, the fire might have been lightning which accompanied the same storm that brought the hail. Maybe there was lightning, but it started an actual fire on the ground. Some readers have even posited that the tongues of flame might have literally burst out from the hail in some way!

In any case, and in whatever manner, it seems clear that there was both a severe pummeling of hail and an intense heat as well. A truly devastating wonder this was, and such a terrible fate must have befallen those who still stood out in the fields!

How does this curse represent the ill effects of sin? One way that stands out to me is that this curse was focused on destroying all that was vulnerable and exposed. It is always the weak and defenseless who are first victimized to satisfy the selfish sins of others. Eventually the mighty will fall, too, but they land upon the broken bodies of the small and innocent that went before.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 9:8-12

8 And the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.

9 And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.

10 And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.

11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.

12 And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had spoken unto Moses.

Ever since Aaron and Moses turned the river to blood, there hadn’t been much pageantry for the curses God inflicted upon Egypt. Here, though, Moses was to give another visual performance to illustrate the next punishment that was coming. He was told to take handfuls of ashes and sprinkle them in the air. The ashes, we are told, would become dust, and the dust would fester in the body and form a boil.

There is clearly some special symbolism here. Ashes from the furnace seems emblematic to me of suffering and death, or destruction and ruin. Intense heat and fire breaks down some form—wood, coal, straw, flesh—and reduces it to dead ash. Perhaps the ash represented the Israelites who had toiled under the hot sun, broken underneath their labors, and died in premature deaths. We also know that ash was often associated in the Bible with great mourning. There are several passages that speak of times of great mourning and penitence, where the humbled people abased themselves in “sackcloth and ashes.”

So perhaps the sprinkling of the ashes that fester in the skin and emerge as boils is representative of rebellion. The pattern of many nations has been to persecute and enslave a particular set of people, who suffer and die, who are ground into ash, but who then foment an uprising, an angry boil that violently bursts out against their captors.

And speaking of boils, that is something I am directly familiar with. I served a mission in the West Indies, where boils were a frequent affliction. I understand the incredible swellings that stretch and heat the skin, the great tenderness and pain, the disgust when it finally ruptures, the intense spasms when pulling out the heart of it. It sounds as though the Egyptians may have had multiple boils at the same time, too, something that I personally never experienced, but which I cringe at the thought of. In addition to any larger, political symbolism, I believe this curse also represented the ugly, festering, and searing side of sin. Something corrupt had gone into the Egyptians and their own flesh was revolting against it with excruciating results. It is just the same when we subject our God-given souls to darkness.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 9:5-7

5 And the Lord appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the Lord shall do this thing in the land.

6 And the Lord did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one.

7 And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

Once again we see the pattern of God revealing his intention to Moses, Moses and Aaron delivering that message to Pharaoh, and then the promised effect coming into reality. There are multiple patterns regarding the behavior of God and man that are being reinforced through repetition in this story, showing that these are general rules and not incidental coincidences. As a general rule, God has His plans and He makes them known beforehand through His prophets so that we don’t mistake His work for random chance. This pattern makes it very hard to deny that God was responsible for what occurred, as one would first have to explain how God knew it was going to happen.

In verse 6 we are told that the effect of God’s curse was total. It states that “all the cattle of Egypt died.” It wasn’t just a portion that God took, it was the entire flock. Meanwhile, “of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one.” God’s protection of the Israelites was just as absolute as His destruction of the Egyptians.

This does raise a question, though, for in each of the next two curses (the boils and the hail), we will be told that both the Egyptians were afflicted, and also their “beasts,” including “cattle…in the field.” What cattle were there to be afflicted if all of them had died already from the murrain? Perhaps verse 6 only means “all the cattle of Egypt died”…that had been afflicted with the murrain? Perhaps the disease did not have a 100% infection rate, but did have a 100% mortality rate. Or perhaps literally all of the Egyptian cattle were killed, and they then purchased new flocks from their neighbors, and it was that new purchase that was attacked in the next two curses.

Finally, In verse 7 we hear how Pharaoh sent emissaries to validate the Lord’s claims, to really know whether everything had played out in just the way that the Lord had decreed. “And, behold,” it had. But apparently that had no effect on his behavior. Once more he refused to let the people go, and so yet another curse would follow.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 8:15-17

15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.

16 And the Lord said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

17 And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

No sooner did Pharaoh get what he wanted than he abandoned his promises and went back to being the same as before. This is an excellent example of a false conversion. Many come to God for what they want, but they do not actually love Him or want to be His obedient child. Their journey to God is entirely self-serving, and as soon as they get what they want—or don’t get what they want—they drop all pretenses of devotion.

God can be patient through such acts of betrayal, though. He does not lose any bargaining power by removing the pressure, for He is able to bring it right back in a multitude of ways! And, since the faithless did not respond to the first pressure, the second most often comes back even worse!

And that was certainly the case with Pharaoh. God did not return the same plague of frogs, he escalated it to something worse. The lice would have been a more intimate, invasive, and infuriating affliction. The frogs had been inside the Egyptian’s rooms and kitchenware, but now lice were living directly on their bodies! Wherever they went, the unpleasant, itching, disease-carrying lice would remain right on their person!

Pharaoh had tried to cheat during his wrestling match with the Lord, but God simply put him in a deeper hold.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 8:11-14

11 And the frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy houses, and from thy servants, and from thy people; they shall remain in the river only. 

12 And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh: and Moses cried unto the Lord because of the frogs which he had brought against Pharaoh. 

13 And the Lord did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields. 

14 And they gathered them together upon heaps: and the land stank.

As extensive as the curse had reached in Egypt, so too did the cure. From every place and from every people the frogs ceased to spread and multiply. But it does not seem that the frogs left those places, rather that they died within them. The people still had to do the work of gathering them from every nook and cranny. They placed them in large piles which spread the stench of dead amphibians across the land.

I mentioned earlier that the effects of the curse seem symbolic of how a people will adopt false and harmful philosophies. The lies and deceit spread into every place and affect every person, whether they personally believe the falsehoods or not. They corrupt every home and every public square. And so, too, even after the madness has been dispelled, when society returns back to basic truth and reason, there is still a period of labor where the vestige of the old lie must be eradicated wherever it is found. And, for a time, there is still the lingering stench of old prejudices and wrongs that hang in the air. The curse is gone, but not the memory of it.