A curse can be defined as:
- a prayer or appeal for evil to befall someone
- evil or misfortune that comes as if a result of such an appeal
- a source of evil; a scourge
- to invoke evil upon; to damn
- to bring evil upon; to afflict
- to put under a ban; to excommunicate
- all other definitions pertain to swear words
A curse can mean many things, and can have many nuances. A curse can mean that you - and you alone - are directly affected by evil; as in you suffer the consequences of your own actions.
It can also mean that you - and everyone else - are generally affected by evil; as in a curse on a nation.
It can also mean that you are affected by the evil that has happened to those close to you; as in the children suffering from the evil of the parents.
I think those nuances are of primary importance when it comes to what we refer to as generational curses.
A generational curse is essentially an inheritance of sinfulness and evil, and all the consequences that go along with those things. It’s being raised in a bad way, whether it is in a toxic or abusive household, or just being abandoned to fend for yourself in a cold, cruel world.
When people defy and rebel against God they separate themselves from the One who gives life and blessings. They, in effect, take themselves away from the source of good things - and in the absence of all that is good, they can only suffer the bad. The default state of everything is darkness, so when you remove yourself from the light of God’s presence, the only possible thing you are left with is darkness.
And it is that metaphor which I want to use to explore this topic.
When you walk away from God’s light, you willfully walk into darkness. And when you walk into darkness you take your family, and everyone else who will follow you, into darkness with you. So it is not you alone that goes into the darkness, but everyone you bring with you as well.
And nations, by-and-large, can all walk away from God collectively, so that the whole nation walks together into darkness.
This walking into darkness is the journey into all that is cursed.
And remember that Satan is the absolute form of the one that has completely rejected God, and lives completely in absolute darkness. He is the deceiver, and destroyer, and doer of all evil.
He has no power or influence in the presence of the light of God’s glory, but when you walk away from God you walk toward Satan - because they are the two opposite ends of the spectrum on which we operate.
I say that to point out that God does not have to actively enforce evil things to happen to you. All He has to do is allow you to walk into the realm of the one who will gladly impose evil upon you. That alone is curse enough.
So what is a generational curse? It is the result of our parents, and perhaps their parents, having walked away from God and into the darkness. As their children we were born into, and brought into, the darkness with them.
The worst part is that as their children, all we know is to keep walking into the darkness. Nobody taught us to walk towards God’s light. Maybe nobody even told us that God’s light exists as an option, or direction. Or maybe everyone tells us that we can’t possibly go towards God’s light because we are already so far into the darkness - why even try.
And in the darkness we suffer the effects of evil. And God allows it to happen.
God allowing it to happen means that it is within His control, but that doesn’t mean that it is Him who is doing it. When God allowed Satan to torment Job He did not come to Job at the end and blame it all on Job or Satan - but He expressed to Job that He is the one in charge, and asked Job who can question Him! So when the Bible says that God will visit the iniquities of the fathers on their children, He could be saying that He will allow them to walk their family into darkness. But in other places He says that He will not visit the iniquities of the fathers on their children, which I think means He will not stop the children from walking into His light if they choose to. But it’s a journey they will have to be determined to make.
We can turn around and start walking out of the darkness and toward the light of God’s glory, but it is a journey that we must purposefully take. It’s not as if we were born or brought into the realm of God’s light. We have to be determined to go there, and take everyone we can with us. And that is what it means to be a generational curse breaker.
You do not have to stay in the curse, but you were brought into it. You have to want the blessing. The blessing doesn’t just come to you, you have to go to it.
Thankfully, Jesus tells us to take His yoke upon us for His burden is light and easy. So, even though we have to want to make the journey into God’s light, He is not going to resist us from coming to Him out of the darkness. In fact, He will welcome us and help us to come to Him. He wants us to come to Him, and He never wanted our parents to turn away from Him.
My parents grew up in the generation of “free love” and “sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll.” They were rebellious by nature - rebelling against the Vietnam War, and racial oppression, and government corruption. But their rebellion did not stop there. It spread into tearing down the moral structure that our society was built on by banning God from public school, and legalizing abortion, and focusing on feminism instead of traditional marriage and family structures. And out of that was bred all manner of selfishness, corruption, and moral and societal decay.
It led us into a curse which we are feeling the consequences of more and more with each passing day. And it is not a curse that can be immediately reversed. It is a curse that results from a long, intentional journey into darkness. The only way out of it is for us, in our generation, to embark on a long, purposeful journey into God’s light.
Our parents walked us into the darkness because they were only focusing on themselves. They were willing to sacrifice their children’s future for their own comfort, convenience, and pleasure.
If we are going to break that curse we need to turn our attention away from ourselves, and focus on our children’s future, and their children’s future. But it can’t just be us that has this mindset. We must teach our children to focus on their children, and to teach their children to focus on their next generation… We must instill a legacy of growth - not economic, or political growth, but growth in faith in God, and growth in building God’s kingdom, and growth in justice, and mercy, and love - true sacrificial love.
We must focus on building a legacy with our children. We must intentionally build an inheritance for them - not just of property and wealth, but of eternal treasure - treasure in heaven, and kingdom land - God’s kingdom.
But we are the ones who must turn from the darkness toward the light. We are the ones who must break the curse, and turn towards the blessing. And we did not have anyone to teach us how to do that, so we must figure it out - with God’s help - and teach our kids everything we’ve learned so that they will have a better foundation to build on, and can take things farther than we could ever hope to.
Numbers 14:18 - ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.’
Exodus 20:4-6 - (2nd Commandment) “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
Exodus 34:6-7 - Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
Deuteronomy 5:9 - repeat of 2nd Commandment from Exodus 20:4-6
2Chronicles 25:4 - However, he did not put their children to death, but did as it is written in the law in the book of Moses, which the LORD commanded, saying, “Fathers shall not be put to death for sons, nor sons be put to death for fathers, but each shall be put to death for his own sin.”
Galatians 3:13 - But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”