Teachinghearts	The Blessings and the Curses The Gospel in a Promise "Explore the Word. Change the World"	Statistics: Time: 60 minutes Print: 12 pages

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The Covenant Agreement
The covenant is a legal document, where God made a promise to the people and they promised to obey the agreement. The commandments are the basis of this agreement. Every commandment has always come with certain conditions. There are blessings if we obey and curses for disobedience. Because of the mercy of God, He gives us many chances before He reluctantly applies the curses. And the curse is simply the removal of His care and protection so that we are conquered by our enemies.
Who are these enemies who can turn against us?

• Our Bodies. Sickness, disease, infertility and mental fear.
• Nature. The land and the skies do not produce for us, causing constant work.
• The animal kingdom attacks us.
• Other Nations. They rob, steal and abuse us. Our enemies conquer us.
• Satan tries to rule us by corrupting the worship of God.
• God finally becomes our enemy after we declare war and hostilities against Him.

The Covenant with the Land
God also made a covenant with the land. This agreement became part of the covenant with the people because their cooperation was needed to help God keep this covenant.

• Sabbath. The land was also given Sabbath rest. If this was violated, God could give the stolen time back to the land in the form of a consecutive length of time. (Leviticus 26: 34-35).
• Wickedness Removed. The land can be punished if it is defiled or polluted. (Leviticus 18: 25, 27-28 and Numbers 35: 33). The land can remove the inhabitants who cause it to be defiled. With this agreement, the land and sea give up the dead at the second resurrection. (Revelation 20: 13)
• Seed Time and Harvest. (Genesis 8: 22)
• Seasons.
  ... While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease. (Genesis 8: 22)

The Blessings of The Good Shepherd
Ezekiel 34, Psalm 23 and John 10 shows that the duty of a Good Shepherd is to apply the blessings of the covenant to the sheep. The Lord's prayer is an appeal to the promises of the blessings of God made in the covenant.
The life of Christ shows that He is not just a good shepherd because He provides the blessings promised in the covenant. He is a good shepherd because He goes beyond this to give His life for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. (John 10: 11)

1. Eden Found (Good Pasture Land). The shepherd provides pasture land.
   I will feed them in good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. (Ezekiel 34: 14)
   The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures ... (Psalm 23: 1-2)

   Daily Bread Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts ... (Matthew 6: 11-12)

2. Food and Water and Rest. The shepherd gives good food and clean water. There is no famine or want or hunger or thirst.
   "I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest", declares the Lord God. (Ezekiel 34: 15)
   You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You have anointed my head with oil, my cup overflows. (Psalm 23: 5)
   
   Rest. There is also spiritual restoration. The Sabbath rest is an important part of giving this spiritual food and water. So the prayer to forgive our debt is a prayer for rest. We do not have to work to repay this debt. It is a debt that our forefathers owed and which will be required of our children. It is a generational debt bondage which we cannot repay.
   ... He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul ... (Psalm 23: 2-3)

   Deliver us From Evil And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (Matthew 6: 13)

3. Population Gathered by a Guide. While the wild beasts kill and scatter, the shepherd searches for and gathers the lost and brings them into one fold. He delivers us from evil.
   They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered. For thus says the Lord God, "Look, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out". (Ezekiel 34: 5, 11)
   There is also spiritual guidance. We are in danger from sin. Satan is the roaring lion who is the wild beast who devours us.
   ... He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Even though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death I fear no evil, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff they comfort me. (Psalm 23: 3-4)
   
   The Rod and Staff. Many have used this to support beating children as a way to guide them to good behavior. But here, this is a comforting element. The rod and staff are used for comforting guidance, not punishment. It was not an object they feared. When they see the rod and staff it reassured them about where they are to go. It was a sign of safety or danger.
   The law of God is His rod and staff. They give us guidance about what is wrong. Therefore, when Jesus rules the nations with a rod of iron it is not a terrifying, brutal or dominant statement for the righteous. He gives them iron clad rules that reassure them by guiding them about what is right and wrong. However, for the wicked this rule by the rod is like an iron yoke around their necks. The broken laws and the rejection of guidance become a stumbling block in the judgment.
4. Peace and Health. The shepherd feeds and takes care of the sick and broken.
   I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick ... (Ezekiel 34: 16)

   Kingdom of God Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. (Matthew 6: 10)

5. Sanctuary in the House of God. The shepherd fulfills the terms of the covenant. This promises abundance.
   Peace and Safety. I will make a covenant of peace with them and eliminate harmful beasts from the land so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.
   Water. I will make them and the places around My hill a blessing. And I will cause showers to come down in their season. They will be showers of blessings.
   Food. Also the tree of the field will yield its fruit and the earth will yield its increase, and they will be secure in their land.
   Deliverance. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bars of their yoke and have delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. (Ezekiel 34: 25-27)
   And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23: 6)

The Covenant Curses
After God called the nation of Israel. He gave them His laws, a covenant, a promise and the terms of the covenant.
The covenant promises and blessings of inheriting a Promised Land with God at the center, also includes curses for disobedience. These curses come with five levels of escalation for disobedience and hostility to God.
This is the summary of the terms of the covenant in Leviticus 26: 1-3. It essentially emphasizes the first four commandments before adding our duties to all of God's laws. Disobedience to the first four commandments shows hatred for God. Hostility towards God means that the covenant can be legally broken.

1. Do not worship the idols or images.
2. Do not make idols or images to idols.
3. Reverence the sanctuary.
4. Keep the Sabbaths.
5. Obey the commandments.

The ten commandments were called the Covenant. This is why the box that they were placed in is called the Ark of the Covenant.
And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. (Deuteronomy 4: 13)

Historically, the curses have been applied to the two nations called by God. The Jews saw the wrath of God in their final plagues in 70 AD. when the sanctuary was destroyed. The Christians (global Israel) will experience this during the seven last plagues.

Leviticus 26		People	God	Focus	Curse	Blessings Leviticus 26: 1-13	Blessings Revelation 21-22
1	14-5, 16-17	Disobedient	Punish	Personal safety	Sudden terror, fever, disease, God against us, ruled by enemies, theft of crops by enemies. Earthquake and volcanoes. (No peace in the land)	Peace, safety, no fear	No tears or pain or crying. No night. Peace. The gates of the city never close.
2	18, 19-20	Disobedient	Punished seven times	Land	Remove power, no rain, no crops, trees have no fruit. (No produce from the land)	Rain in season, abundance	Tree of life, river of life, everything is free, no thirst
3	21, 22	Disobedient and hostile	Punished seven times	Children Population	Beasts take away children and cattle and reduce our numbers so that the roads are desolate. Infertility. (Families removed from the land)	No wild beasts, many children	12 tribes
4	23-24, 25-26	Ignored God and hostile	Punished seven times with hostility	War Covenant	Sword, war, pestilence, enemies capture us and rule over us because we are weakened, famine. (Taken to a hostile foreign land)	No sword, conquer enemies	No plague, peace, no hunger
5	27-28, 29-39	Disobedient and hostile	Punished seven times with wrathful hostility	God and the Sanctuary	Cannibalism, hated by God, not hear prayers, destruction of false idols, incense altars, sanctuaries and cities destroyed, exiled and scattered. Land will be desolate so that the Sabbaths may be kept. Fear and death. (Exiled from the promised land with no place to go. )	Not rejected. Loved. God lives with us. Children of God.	No death, white robes, throne of God, son of God, New Jerusalem. God Lives with us.

The language used in the terms of the covenant lists five chances before there is total rejection, exile and destruction of the sanctuary. This is a departure from the pattern of seven used by God. Normally six is given to resolve human issues and God assumes complete control in the seventh. Let us look at this more closely.

In the structure of the portable sanctuary, each side was made from individual boards which were held together by five bars. The removal of all bars would mean the collapse of the entire sanctuary structure.
Each chance was therefore a bar removed from the sanctuary. When the fifth cycle of disobedience occurred, the sanctuary was destroyed!

What about the sixth and seventh in the series?
The fifth cycle was not a total destruction. It was exile from the Promised Land and destruction of the corrupt sanctuary. In the application of the covenant to the world we will see the following:

5. The Seven Last Plagues. The earth receives the fifth set of curses and the wicked are killed and are exiled from heaven for a thousand years.
6. Judgment. The wicked face judgment and final destruction after the Millennium. In this period, the world will be exposed to God and Satan in person. They will acknowledge that God was merciful and fair. Yet, they will commit the ultimate act of hostility. They will start a war, the battle of Armageddon. They will attack God physically. This is what causes God to destroy them. Even though they acknowledge their guilt. Even though God shows mercy by leaving the gates of the city open, they do not take hold of faith and see that this may be an invitation to trust in the mercy of God. They are given some time to exist after the judgment. They are not immediately thrown into the lake of fire. They use this time to plan a war against God.
7. Heaven. God and the faithful live in peace.

So Leviticus 26 shows the application of the curses while the earth remains.

The Curse in the Garden of Eden
The same curse existed in the Garden of Eden.

• Covenant. Hosea confirms that a covenant was made with Adam.
  For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in knowledge of God rather than burnt offering. But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant. (Hosea 6: 6-7).
• Law. We know of at least one commandment in the Garden of Eden.
  But from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, "You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die". (Genesis 3: 3).
• Curse. Adam, Eve and the serpent were cursed (Genesis 3: 14-24).
  Serpent. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed ... (Genesis 3: 14).
  Eve. I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth ... (Genesis 3: 16).
  Adam. Cursed is the ground because of you ... (Genesis 3: 17).

After they sinned, the curse was applied and we notice the following changes in Genesis 3. The same set of curses that were applied to Adam and the human race, were applied to the Jews.

Evidence of Laws Many try to minimize the importance of the laws by calling them "Jewish". But all the laws existed at creation, 2000 years before the Jewish nation was called. While we do not have evidence of a formal presentation of a list of laws, we have evidence that laws existed because sin occurred. Some laws were named with the entrance of sin after they had been violated. If sin occurred, then there must have been a law. Commandments. Existed at creation. One God. (Genesis) Sabbath. (Genesis 2: 3) Marriage of Two. (Genesis 2: 24) Do not covet. (Genesis 2: 16-17) Lying. (Genesis 3: 4) Murder. (Genesis 4: 10) It is obvious that the other laws existed. Covenant. Enforced after sin. Curses. (Genesis 3: 14-24) Death Penalty. (Genesis 2: 17)

• Naked. They noticed that they were naked. God had to make clothes from animal skins. (Verses 7,10-11)
• Hostility. There was no longer any peace. They blamed each other and God for the problem. (Verses 12-13)
• Children. Eve was cursed through her children. She would have pain as a mother because of her children. (Verse 16)
• Land. The land was cursed for Adam. He would have to work hard to make it produce food. (Verse 17)
• Sweat. He would work by the sweat of his face. (Verse 19) This curse is a reminder that the wicked will not have rest.
• Thorns and Thistles. They would grow out of the earth because of the curse (Verse 18). Christ would wear a crown of thorns.
• Exile. They were exiled from the sanctuary of the Garden of Eden. (Verse 23)
• Sword. Two angels with swords guarded the garden so that they could no longer go in. (Verse 24)
• Death. They would eventually die, and the clothes that they wore was available because of the death of an animal. (Verses 21-24). It is possible that daily sleep was introduced at this time. This is why sleep represents death.
• Serpent. The snake lost power. It would have to crawl in the dust. The assumption is that it used to fly. (Verse 14).
  A promise is also made that a Child of the woman would conquer the snake. (Verse 15)
• Wild Animals Attack. There was also enmity with the serpent.
• Ruled. The woman will be ruled by her husband. (Verse 16) The curse is to be ruled by others. In the worst case, you will be ruled by your enemies.
• God. He was no longer visible to humans. God was no longer physically with us. (Verse 8)
• Cannibalism. By the time of the flood, the curse had caused so much damage that they had to start eating animals for food. This is not the original plan.

Sleep and Work
While the curses represent less than the ideal situations, they also protected us from ourselves. If humans did not have sleep and work they would be committing sin twenty four hours each day. God arranged our physical and biological environments to reduce the amount of evil we would create by reducing the amount of time and opportunity to sin.
The average person sleeps eight hours and works for eight hours. We spend another hour in transportation. One hour of grooming and two hours of eating. That is twenty hours of tasks that we must do. Therefore, it leaves four hours of unoccupied time to sin.

The Final Curse

The Abomination of Desolation The final curse brings the abomination of desolation. Or more accurately, the abomination that will be desolated. As the people reject God, He rejects them and gives them over to a persecuting power that will fulfill the terms of the curse. This power destroys them and their sanctuary. Abomination. This is the sin that leads to total rejection by God. One characteristic of all abominations is their entrance into the sanctuary. A place where they do not belong. Desolation. This is the destruction. It can be done by the enemy or by God. The desolation comes because we have defiled the sanctuary and worship with an abomination.

We should concentrate on the fifth set of curses in Leviticus 26: 27-46. These are the final curses when God rejects all the people and their worship. We see in this punishment, a pattern of the Sanctuary structure. Since God rejects the false worship, each section of the true sanctuary sends its own curse on the rebellious people and their false religion and their false sanctuary.
The people were hostile and disobedient. God now reacts with wrath and hostility seven times (Verse 27-28).

• Hated by God. (Verse 30). This curse is a rejection by God.
• Prayers not heard. (Verse 30). God no longer comes to their rescue. Therefore, they are left to suffer at the hands of those whom they have chosen to replace God. God gives them what they want and He does not rescue them.
  I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars. ... and I will not smell your soothing aromas. (Leviticus 26: 30-31).
• Cannibalism. (Verse 29). This curse makes the people unclean and unworthy to enter the true sanctuary.
  All five curses involve the results of famine that is caused by a different source.
  1. Theft. Nature allows you to produce food but your enemies raid the land and steal the crops.
  2. Nature. The sky is bronze and earth is iron. Nothing grows. There is neither rain nor soft earth.
  3. Population. The lack of people to help and the dangers of wild beasts reduce the opportunity to successfully produce food.
  4. War. The dangers and devastation of war prevents the production of food.
  5. Siege. Famine in the cities results the lack of food and in cannibalism.
• Yoke of Slavery (Bear Burdens). (Verse 13). The curse places the bars of an iron yoke on your shoulders so that you cannot walk upright. Any burdensome oppression is the curse.
• Land desolate. (Verse 32). The land is destroyed.
• Sanctuary destroyed. (Verse 31). This curse destroys the false worship that the people have substituted for the worship given by God.
  • Idols. (Verse 30). The false gods are destroyed.
  • Incense altars. (Verse 30). The false gods cannot answer their prayers.
• City destroyed. (Verse 31). The Promised Land is taken away.
• Fear and Death. (Verse 30, 36-38). Their lives are taken away.
• Sword. (Verse 33). War. Christ comes at the end of the world with an army from heaven to fight the wicked with the sword in His mouth. (Revelation 19: 14-16 )
• Exile. (Verse 33). The remnant are removed from the Promised Land and given to their enemies.
• Ruled by Enemies. (Verse 39). Satan will be king of the dead bodies. Later he will be the ruler of the resurrected wicked.
  Israel was ruled by the Assyrians after they captured the ten northern tribes.
  The last two tribes and the priests were captured and ruled by Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome.
• Land Keeps its Sabbaths. (Verse 34-35). The Land keeps all the Sabbaths that the people did not allow it to keep.
  Then the land will enjoy its Sabbaths all the days of the desolation while you are in your enemies' land; Then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your Sabbaths, while you were living on it. (Leviticus 26: 34-35).
  The millennium is the fulfillment of this promise. It is a legal, binding covenant that shows that the world will last six thousand years. Therefore, if God gives back one thousand years of broken Sabbaths to the earth, then the earth should last six thousand years after the start of sin. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that the six thousand years probably started from one of these three events.
  • Creation. From the first week of creation.
  • Sin. When Adam and Eve sinned. This was within the first 130 years, before the birth of Seth.
  • Sabbath Breaking. When the world broke the first Sabbath. Then this covenant curse would legally apply.

  No Sin	Six Thousand Years			1000 Years
  	Start of Sin	Human History	Second Coming	Millennium

"Look, the Lord makes the earth empty, and makes it waste, and turns it upside down, and scatters the inhabitants in it abroad ... Because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and they that dwell in it are desolate. (Isaiah 24: 1-8).

Look at what Isaiah says are God's accusations against the people of the earth after the destruction.

• The people broke the law.
• The people changed the laws.
• The people broke the everlasting covenant.

The Final Generation
Look at what the beast power of Babylon the Great does in Revelation 13.

The Reward for Sin Covenant Righteous Wicked Blessings Forgiven. They share the reward of Christ Suffer the curses Rest Rest Work, no rest Curses Nailed to the cross. Christ suffered the curses for us at the cross Will be cursed with the wrath of God at the seven last plagues and hell fire. Death The gift of God is eternal life The wages of sin is death

• The people broke the law. Specifically, they broke the first four commandments.
  1. No other God. They worshipped the beast. (verses 4, 12)
  2. No Idols. They made an image to the beast. (verse 14)
  3. The Name of God. They take the name of the beast. (verse 17 and Revelation 14: 11)
  4. Sabbath. They forced the world to accept their mark, the sign of their covenant. (verse 16-17)
• The people changed the laws. They changed the Sabbath day from Saturday to Sunday.
• The people broke the everlasting covenant by enforcing the mark of the beast. They changed the sign of the everlasting covenant. This is Sunday worship.

Does God's laws matter? Can we change His laws?
Therefore, the covenant and the laws were not made with Israel for Israel only. The covenant was made with the whole earth. Israel was given the privilege of keeping the memory of the covenant and its sign alive among the nations of the earth.

The Curse is Doubled
We find one more principle in the wrath of God.
I will first doubly replay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations. (Jeremiah 16: 18).
And Jeremiah prays the following. ... bring on them a day of disaster and crush them with twofold destruction. (Jeremiah 17: 18)

We find that God applies this principle in the punishment of Babylon.
Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her. (Revelation 18: 6).
This is not just a punishment in severity or number. The Papacy falls twice in history. The world falls twice. Satan falls twice.

The Curse is Applied
The cycle of curses had been applied many times in history. We are generally left with a historical record of the events of the fifth and final set of curses because the events were so devastating.

1. Adam and Eve were exiled from the garden of Eden.
2. Noah was saved and the rest of the world was exiled from the earth in the flood.
3. The tower of Babel was destroyed. It was built because of disobedience and hostility to God. When God confused the languages, He was able to scatter the people.
4. Egypt was destroyed as God rescued Israel from slavery.
5. Israel would experience two destructions and exiles from Jerusalem by Babylon and Rome.
6. The earth will be destroyed and experience a one thousand year exile at the Second Coming.

History: Israel and the Curses
The nation of Israel experienced two sets of this cycle. Each ended with the destruction of their temple.

1. The Destruction of the First Sanctuary by Babylon in 586 BC.
   Jeremiah prophesied that the exile would last for seventy years. This is the amount of Sabbaths for a period of 490 years. This is the exact amount of time that they had existed in the Promised Land since the exodus.
2. The Destruction of the Second Sanctuary by Rome in 70 AD.
   Because of a series of revolts, the Jews were exiled and killed until Antoninus Pius repealed many of the harsh policies towards Jews (138-161). Again, this is approximately seventy years of exile.
   • One million Jews are killed in 70 AD and the second temple is destroyed.
   • Bar kokhba Revolt (132-135) - Half a million killed. Hadrian builds a pagan temple over the site of the second temple. He renames Jerusalem Aelia Capatolina and forbids Jews to live in Jerusalem.
   
   In His final week on earth, Christ prophesied about the rejection of Jerusalem in many ways.
   • Jesus cursed the fig tree and it withered. This demonstrated that the nation was no longer connected to God, the source of life.
     Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, "No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you." And at once the fig tree withered. (Matthew 21: 19)
   • Their house was desolate. Look, your house is being left to you desolate. (Matthew 23: 38).
     
     Therefore, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to and given to a people producing the fruit of it. (Matthew 21: 43).
     With these words, all people who obey God become the new Israel.

The Wrath in the Exodus

42 Camp Sites in the Wilderness (Numbers 33)
Camp Site		Comment	Wrath
11	Rephidim	No water to drink	1	Thirst
	Massah	Moses strikes rock		Amalek
12	Wilderness of Sinai	Ten Commandments. Worshipped a Calf	2	Eat the gold calf
-	Taberah	Fire from God	3	Heat
13	Kibroth-Hattaavah	Ate quail meat.	4	Plague
17	Libnah	Punished for forty years.
33	Kadesh-Barnea (Wilderness of Zin) (Meribah)	They rebelled. Moses sins. Strikes rock twice. Water from the rock.	5	Exile

The exodus from Egypt to Israel should have taken about seventy days. Instead it took forty years. They left Egypt on the Passover and arrived at Mount Sinai (Horeb) two months later on Pentecost. From there they were supposed to take the Promised Land, which was only eleven days away.
It is eleven days journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-Barnea. (Deuteronomy 1: 2)
See a map of the exodus.

Israel sinned many times, but Moses chose to point out five specific cases. They sinned four times and complained about God, amidst all of the overwhelming evidence of miracles and His care. They even sinned while God was visibly on top of Sinai with Moses. After the first four sins, they were condemned to wander for forty years. At the end of that period, they sinned for the last time and they were barred from entering the Promised Land.
I took your sinful thing, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it. ... Again at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth-Hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. When the Lord sent you from Kadesh-Barnea, saying, "Go up and possess the land which I have given you", then you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You neither believed Him nor listened to His voice. (Deuteronomy 9: 21-23)

• Outer Court. God led them from Egypt and through a baptism in the Red Sea so that they could meet him in the Holy Place. There, they had His constant presence.
• Holy Place. But they rebelled during the first seventy days that they spent with God.
  1. Sinai : Bread (Food Offering). They worshipped a golden calf at Sinai and Moses crushed it to a powder and made them drink their idol. They cannibalized their false god. 3000 were killed by the sword. (Exodus 32: 20, 28)
  2. Massah : Drink Offering (Thirst). They complained about water. God fed them from a Rock. Amalek attacked them.
  3. Taberah : Menorah. God sent fire and heat when they complained.
  4. Kibroth : Altar of Incense (Plague). They complained about food. They did not want manna. They wanted meat. God gave them the meat and a plague in a cloud of quails from the sky.
• Kadesh-Barnea : Most Holy Place. The fifth and final punishment was their exile from the Most Holy Place. This was the Promised Land. Kadesh-Barnea was the door to this place.

Nation	1		2	3	4	Time Out	5
Israel	Thirst	Water from a Rock	Gold Calf	Heat	Plague	40 Years	Water from a Rock	Exile
Church	Crucifixion	Early Rain	Apostasy	Persecution	Plague	1260 Years	Latter Rain	7 Last Plagues

Water is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Water from a supernatural Rock is a symbol of the Holy Spirit sent by Christ. We have two stories of water coming from a Rock during the first and the fifth apostasy.
The Holy Spirit came after they rejected Christ and He will come just before the Second Coming.

History: The Church and the Curses
After God called the church, the church itself turned against God. This time, the idolatry would be centered around a man. The Antichrist would place Himself in the temple of God and act like God. According to Paul, the Antichrist was present in his day but he was being restrained by the Roman government. Just as Israel experienced two separate cycles of destruction, the church will experience two major judgments.

1. The Papacy fell. It would later be healed and form Babylon, the last empire on earth. We can see the five sets of curses applied to the church.
   1. Fear. The repeated attacks by the Barbarian nations caused the breakup of Rome and the relocation of the capital to Constantinople.
   2. Famine. The Bible says that there would be a famine for the word of God.
      Look, days are coming says the Lord God; when I will send a famine on the land. Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the Lord. (Amos 8: 11)
      According to Daniel 8: 12, the church was given to the "little horn" because of apostasy. During the papal rule, the Bible would be forbidden and many superstitious practices would enter the church.
   3. Population reduced. The schism of the Orthodox church in 1054 and the Protestant revolt in the sixteenth century decimated the church.
   4. War and disease. During this period, the plague killed 30% of the European population. The crusades were fought against the Muslims, but were largely unsuccessful in recapturing the Holy Land. In the following years, the wars of Religion and the Inquisition would kill many people.
   5. Destruction of the Sanctuary. Finally, in 1798, as a result of the French Revolution the pope was imprisoned by General Berthier of France. This effectively ended the papal domination of that period.
2. The Papacy falls again. (The seven last plagues). This second judgment of the church coincides with the judgment of the world. The church now reaches a global audience and the world becomes aware of the covenant.

The Wicked Suffer the Curses
... Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God. (Revelation 16: 1).
At the end of the world, a global religion will be enforced on the world. God will make an effort to warn the earth about disobedience and apostasy. After the earth is warned, the global curse is applied to the world. The seven last plagues are the wrath of God against the entire world. There is a separate lesson on this topic here.

The Wicked Are Made Unclean
The wicked symbolically go through this process because they are being separated from the righteous. In the earthly sanctuary, only priests could go into the sanctuary. Therefore, God makes the righteous His priests. At His crucifixion, the High Priest tore the veil between the Holy Place and the Most Holy place so that all priests could have access.

You shall keep the sons of Israel separated from their uncleanness, so that they will not die in their uncleanness by their defiling my tabernacle that is among them. (Leviticus 15: 31).
In the earthly Sanctuary, there were rules which made the worshippers unclean and could keep them out of the sanctuary.

Unclean The true concept of being unclean is not simply objects or people to avoid on this earth. Everything that is unclean represents realities that will not be in heaven. On the spiritual basis, the unclean is anything that cannot represent Christ. Therefore, the righteous separate themselves from uncleanliness to remind themselves that in the end, God will establish a world where these things do not exist.

• Gentile. Only Israel could enter the sanctuary.
• Blood. Being associated with any blood other than the blood of the sacrifice.
  • Eating Blood. Any man from the house of Israel, or from the aliens who live among them, who eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people. (Leviticus 17: 10).
  • Discharge of Blood. (Leviticus 15: 19-28).
  • Birth of a Child. (Leviticus 12: 4).
• Eats Fat. It is a perpetual statute ... You shall not eat any fat or any blood. (Leviticus 3: 17)
• Forbidden Food. Forbidden food makes a person unclean (Leviticus 11). Cannibalism is the worst case of eating forbidden foods. In Deuteronomy 14: 23 God has a meal in a place where He chooses to establish His name.
  You shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God at the place where He chooses to establish His name.
• Seed. Being associated with any spilled seed other than the Seed of God which would be cut off. (Leviticus 15: 16-18)
• Dead Body. Christ was resurrected, the righteous have no association with the dead.
  Command the sons of Israel that they send away from the camp ever leper and everyone having a discharge everyone who is unclean because of a dead person (Numbers 5: 2; Leviticus 21: 1)
• Sores. Any signs of defect or impurity. (Numbers 5: 2)
• Sweat. The clothes of the priest should not make them sweat. (Ezekiel 44: 18). Sweat indicates work. In the sanctuary there is no righteousness by the works of the priest. God gives us rest from sin through His own works.
• Naked. The priests should not be naked or exposed. (Exodus 20: 26)
• Imperfection. The offerings must be perfect.
  Those who are blind or fractured or maimed or having a running sore or eczema or scabs, you shall not offer to the Lord, nor make of them an offering by fire on the altar to the Lord. (Leviticus 22: 22)
• Spiritualism. The person who consults mediums and spirits ... I will cut off. (Leviticus 20: 6)
• Harlot. They shall not take a woman who is defiled by prostitution. (Leviticus 21: 7)
• Curses God (Blasphemy). If anyone curses His God, He shall bear His sin. The one who blasphemes the name of God shall be put to death. The congregation shall stone him. (Leviticus 24: 15-16)
• Curses Parents. Anyone who curses his father or mother shall surely be put to death. (Leviticus 20: 9)

Christ Suffers the Curse for the Righteous
Christ suffered the penalty of the righteous. He suffered for our death and on the day of the crucifixion He experienced the wrath of God. This wrath ended with the destruction of His temple. This is His body. There is a separate lesson on this topic here.

The curses come directly from the sanctuary or the part of the environment that is represented. As a result, when Christ suffered the curses, He did not defile Himself. He still remained as the pure offering because He experienced the alternate curse.

#	Sanctuary		Environment	Righteous	Christ	Wicked
1	Worshippers		People	Clean	Clean	Unclean
	Altar		Earth	Pure	Beaten and wounded	Full of sores
	Laver		Sea	Robes washed white in the blood of the lamb.	Naked, covered in blood and water	Naked, bathed in the blood of the dead.
2	Food offerings Bread and wine		Rivers, Springs, Trees	Drink the water of life. Eat the bread of life.	Drinks vinegar. Broken bread (body)	Drink blood. Famine
	Menorah		Heavens. Sun, moon, stars	Guided by the light in the word of God	Keeps law. Dark day. Sweats blood	Lawless. Heat produces sweat
	Incense		Air, Sky, coals	God hears them	Ignored by God	Ignored by God
3	Ark of the covenant Throne	Two Angels	People	God (Father and Son)	Two cursing thieves	Abandoned
		River of Life	Rivers, Springs	Life	Resurrection	Death
		Commandment	Light, fire	Rest	Rest. Sabbath death	No rest
		Word of God is a two edged sword	Light to our path	Word of God is life	Sword in His side	Sword from the mouth of God
		God	Air, Heaven	Name of God in their forehead	He is God Earthquake	Name of the beast in their forehead

As God responds with the curse, He sends destruction from the four environments or containers He made on creation. He sends it against the last three systems that He made.

1. Earth. The earth is as hard as iron. It does not produce food. It tries to go back to its early state where it is an abyss. Earthquakes destroy. God uses the dust to cause disease in humans. From the earth comes disease, famine and sores.
2. Sea. The sea is roaring and wild. It is not a source of good water for humans. It is not the place that is hospitable to humans. When the sea takes over, humans are removed.
3. Rivers and Springs. They dry up because the sky dries up. There is no fresh water or water to keep the trees alive. Therefore, famine and drought occur. In addition, a sudden downpour of rain can cause flooding which destroys trees and does not provide clean water.
4. Sky. Sky is like bronze. It is hard. It does not give rain to water the earth and it does not let prayers get to God. Therefore, God does not hear prayers. He cannot. When he does send rain in response it rains hail, fire and brimstone. They all destroy.
   
   Heavens. The heavens do not give light. In the destruction they roll up like a scroll and vanish. There is heat and darkness and the protective covering is removed from the earth.

In contrast, God gives us righteousness, peace, security, food, water, shelter and light. He becomes the direct source of all these things. He does not provide it through secondary created sources. Under the shelter of His wings, He builds a booth for us, here He will hide us until the destruction is over. Then He builds a new city in which He Himself lives with us.

Satan Suffers the Curse

• Babylon falls. The religion he tried to set up was destroyed.
• Exile. He is banished to a destroyed earth for a thousand years.
• The sea becomes dry (Population reduced). All the people are dead. He cannot tempt anyone.
• Darkness. The sun, moon and stars no longer shine. It is extremely dark. Hopefully, he will suffer from a case of poor eye sight.
• The serpent crawls in the dust and eats dust (Genesis 3: 14). This is perfectly fulfilled during the millennium when Satan is confined to a devastated earth. It will be dark, smelly and dusty. Because there is no life, the surface will become dust. Because he is confined to the earth he will walk, crawl and sleep in the dust. He has no raw materials to make himself comfortable.
• Incense. The earth is filled with the smell of the dead bodies of the unburied wicked. The one who walked among the stones of fire under the altar of God now walks among corpses.
• War and Hostility. He starts a war with God and is defeated instantly. How could he have been so utterly ungrateful and stupid?
• Earthquake. The earth is split in two and it will be trembling during the millennium. (Jeremiah 4: 23-27 )
• Death. He will be thrown alive into the lake of fire. Revelation 20: 10.

The Curse is Removed
There will no longer be any curse. (Revelation 22: 3).
After sin and sinners are destroyed, the Bible says that the curse will be removed. Chapter 21-22 simply describes all the blessings that the church will receive. God Himself will be the temple. We go to Him for worship. The Throne of God will be relocated in the New Jerusalem. Our new city becomes the permanent home of God. And we will be His beloved sons and daughters.

The Law, the Sanctuary and the Curses
There is a connection between the law, the sanctuary, the creation and the curses. This relationship becomes obvious as you examine the prophetic symbols. It is the sanctuary that ties all these systems together. In the eyes of God, the difference between the righteous and the wicked is related to their correct participation in the sanctuary. The plan of salvation is the sanctuary.

• The Creation is the order in which God produced the universe. On each day of creation, something was created or was available that was used to construct the sanctuary or send a curse.
• The Commandments are the rules by which the creation lives.
• The Sanctuary is the structure that shows the order in which God will recreate sinners. The order of the furniture in the sanctuary is the same as the creation because both are creative actions of God.
  Each actually represents a part of creation that was available at that time.
  
  Each element of the sanctuary also represents some aspect of the first four commandments. Because God is trying to reconcile us to Him, the focus of the sanctuary are the commandments that show respect for God. As we conform to these commandments, we will naturally obey the commandments that describe our relationship to other people.
• The Curses are the automatic consequences of breaking the law which leads to a separation from God. They are the stale, old, left over, garbage from a part of the sanctuary.
  They are also an attack from a part of creation. As God removes His protection, a part of creation acts destructively against people who are lawless.

In the end, the wicked are owned by Satan and the judgments from the sanctuary make them ineligible to be with God. The judgments reflect how God sees them.

Summary

Group		Hostility	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
			Fear	Drought, Famine	Population reduced	War, disease	Sanctuary Destroyed	Exile	Resolution
1	Israel	Idolatry	Phillistines and others	Famine	Ten tribes lost to Assyria	1260 days of drought by Elijah	First Temple 605 BC	70 years	Another chance
2	Israel	Idolatry	No peace during rebuilding	Famine	Persian and Greek dispersion	Roman occupation	Second Temple 70 AD	~70 years	Christians called
1	Papacy / Rome	Replaces God	Barbarians. Church given to the little horn.	Famine for the word of God. Bibles denied.	Schisms and reformation	Bubonic Plague. Crusades. Inquisition.	Papacy falls in 1798	~130 years	Wound healed
2	Church/ World	Secularism, Communism, idolatry	Colonial era wars, disease, slavery	French Revolution closed churches	Communism	AIDS, famines, two world wars, terrorism. USA control.	Babylon falls at the Second Coming	1000 years Millennium and Armageddon	Heaven or hell
1	World	Adam and Eve sinned	Eden Lost	Flood	Tower of Babel	Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, Europe, Papacy, United States	The Seven Last Plagues
2	Satan	Replaces God	Heaven Lost	No access to the throne he covets	Christ wins with His blood	War in heaven. He was expelled	Babylon falls		Hell Earth lost

Every rebellious group appears to get two chances before destruction and exile.

• Israel. Babylon and Rome.
• Church. Papal Rome and Babylon the Great.
• World. Flood and the Second Coming.
• Satan. Expelled from heaven and then he tempts Adam and Eve. Expelled from earth.

Although the global record is lost, we can guess at some Biblical events that point to a global application of the curses.

1. Eden lost. Although the world was more perfect than it is today, it was inferior by the standards of the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve suddenly knew fear. They could no longer talk to God. Trees and flowers were now dying. This was a time of fear for them.
2. Flood. The blessings promise rain in their season. Therefore, the curse could be drought as well as rain "out of season". This is the flood.
3. Population reduced and scattered. At the tower of Babel, the changing of the languages allowed the people to be scattered.
4. War, disease. AIDS, the plague, a succession of global empires prophesied by Daniel, two world wars, the atomic bomb, terrorism and the constant threat of global annihilation because of weapons of mass destruction.
5. Sanctuary Destroyed. In the future, the false global religion set up by Babylon will be destroyed. Then the wicked will be exiled and the land and the people will keep all the Sabbaths that they did not. The millennium is this extended Sabbath of a seven thousand year period. That is six thousand years on earth then one thousand years in heaven.
   • 1000 years of weekly Sabbaths that were not kept by the people for 6000 years (360,000 Sabbath days).
   • 1000 annual Sabbaths that were not kept by the land for 6000 years.