The Curse of the Covenant
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. You shall say to them, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man who does not hear the words of this covenant that I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God, that I may confirm the oath that I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day.” Then I answered, “So be it, LORD.” (Jer. 11:1-5)
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” 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”– so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (Gal. 3:10-14)
Curse: “prayer or invocation for harm or injury to come upon one; an imprecation.” Merriam-Webster online dictionary
C. S. Lewis in his mediations on the Psalms recoiled at the so-called “imprecatory psalms” those psalms that called down curses on the enemies of God. Presently I am attempting to memorize that beautiful favorite of Susan’s, Psalm 139. That’s the psalm that talks about the omnipresence of the Lord. “Where can I go from your Spirit, where can I flee from your presence” That one. After David meditates on how the Lord is always with him, even in Sheol, he then launches into four verses of pure imprecation. In speaking of God’s enemies he says, “I hate them with perfect hatred.”
Lewis, I suppose, was repulsed by what appears to be the antithesis of the character of God. After all, “God is love.” How can it be appropriate to hate? Yet here from the mouths of both Jeremiah in the Old Testament, and the Apostle Paul in the New, we see that the downside of the covenant relationship between God and man is that there is a risk of being cursed by God Himself if one does not obey the terms of the covenant.
In Jeremiah’s day we see that full measure of that curse falling upon the people of Israel and Judah because of their gross disobedience of the covenant, even to the point of sacrificing their own children to Molech. That curse resulted ultimately in the total destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of its people to Babylon. The total slaughter of the population of the city: man, woman and child, must have been an incredible and heart-rending sight. Blood ran literally in the streets. The noises, the smells, the look of sheer terror by the victims as the city was overrun must have been unspeakable.
Yet in Paul’s day we get a different take on the curse of the covenant. God’s righteous curse falls upon Himself, the innocent party. The Son of God is cursed by the Father as he bears the consequence of the curse in His own body, forsaken even by Father as he cries out, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
There is much discussion in the media and in evangelical circles about the forthcoming Mel Gibson movie, The Passion of Christ. Some are suggesting Christians shouldn’t see it because they are at risk of breaking the 2nd commandment. (See the article by Gleason on www.pcanews.com). Many more who have seen it in preview say it’s one of the most moving experiences of their lives. Without getting into a debate about the 2nd commandment issues, it seems to this writer that one advantage of viewing the film is the opportunity to understand more deeply what it meant for Christ to “become a curse for us.” Apparently Gibson’s major goal is for his viewers to understand just how painful and awful and miserable was the extent of Christ’s sacrifice, to the degree it can be portrayed on film. I suppose an even deeper suffering of our Lord is even harder to grasp: the internal spiritual suffering as He was cursed by the Person He loved most: His heavenly Father.
My beloved wife was the most loving person I ever knew. Yet, there were times in our marriage when I could do such things to upset her that caused even her to say, “I don’t even like you.” How that hurt! Our oneness was shattered by my bad actions and her response to them. How much more the oneness between God the Father and God the Son shattered not because any unrighteous act on their part, but because of ours. So in the very act of cursing the Son, the Father shows in fact that “God is love.” In some mysterious and incomprehensible way the love between Father and Son is broken in order that God might extend His love to us. No wonder that John 3:16 is such a popular verse.
I don’t know that C. S. Lewis would be satisfied with this argument, but for me as I come to those four imprecatory verses in Psalm 139, I will see them in a different light. It’s not just David cursing the enemies of God, but it is the Son of David being cursed with “perfect hatred” in order that you and I might become the perfect righteousness of God as the righteousness of the Son is imputed to us.