Cursed and Accursed

continued from Sunday Morning Class Articles

A while back in our Wednesday Bible class we went over when Jesus passed through Jericho,and healed some people there as he was making his way to Jerusalem. At the time we also looked at a brief history of Jericho’s past.

Jericho was the first city in the Promised land to be conquered by Joshua and Israel. The land of Canaan and Jericho in particular represented everything that can go wrong with a nation that turns its back on God. Jericho worshipped false gods, and that form of worship enticed the people by incorporating sexual activity in their corrupt worship. They had temple priests and priestesses who were known as temple prostitutes, and both men and women would have to pay their dues by visiting them for their services in order to have them bless their land and their crops and their harvests.

God tells us that the false gods they worshipped were actually demons, and being of Satan, who was called a murderer from the beginning, required the people of Jericho to offer their children by fire, which they willingly did. They were a people in a constant downward spiral of ever-degrading sin, getting worse and worse over time so that they reached a point of no return, they saw no need of repentance and what started out as a prophecy and curse from Noah on his son Ham and his son Canaan after the flood due to their evil heart, their evil attitude that was unrepented of over the span of 1,000+ years turned into an entire nation being so corrupt that God told Israel to devote them to destruction. God told Israel not to even spare anyone. Young and old, men, women and children along with all of their animals were to be put to the edge of the sword. They were punished for unrepented evil behavior, sexual immorality and idolatry to name a few.

That behavior is enough to make God curse. We need to examine our lives to see if we have any unrepented of sin and change.

 — Jim