RUSSELL SANDERS
11-9-2020
ABRAHAM PART 27
SEEDS OF GENERATIONAL CURSE
I love to garden. I have the “green thumb” for it. My forebears on both sides had farmland. I know what kind of fruit, vegetable, or flower to expect according to what kind of seed I have sowed. The type of harvest is determined by that planted seed.
Jesus spoke of seed sowing in Matthew 13:3-23 and Mark 4:3-8. Galatians 6:7 says, “…whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
Sometimes that “reaping” comes to generations of your seed that follow after you. We often refer to it as a “generational curse”, but it comes as a result of someone’s bad behavior. We shall see an example of this in Genesis chapter 20 about Abraham’s deceitfulness.
Not long after Sodom’s destruction, Abraham moved from the Plain of Mamre (Hebron) south to Gerar in the land of the Philistines where Abimelech was king. There he committed the same sin of deceit that he had done in Egypt with Pharaoh claiming only that Sarah was his sister. He concealed the fact that she was also his wife. It was a deliberate scheme to save his own skin. Abimelech took the beautiful Sarah to become his wife just as Pharaoh had done.
Immediately judgement fell as the wombs of the Philistine women closed up along with other
untold consequences. Then God came to Abimelech in a dream and rebuked him for taking another man’s wife, saying “you are a dead man” for doing this.” Abimelech pleaded innocence based on ignorance of that fact. God told him that her husband was His prophet Abraham. That morning the King told his servants of it and they were all filled with fear.
Abimelech called in Abraham and rebuked him for the lie. He also called in Sarah and rebuked her. He ordered them away from his place but told them they could settle anywhere else in his land that pleased them. In sending them away, he gave to Abraham (like a peace offering to God) herds of sheep and oxen, as well as numerous men and women servants, and a thousand pieces of silver. Abraham, already very wealthy, left richer than when he came despite his ill behavior. God continued to bless him despite his faults.
However, as I said earlier, sins’ consequences can afflict your family for generations downline. Nearly a thousand years later, these same Philistines were constant enemies of Israel. They are the same ones who sent Goliath to challenge the armies of Israel’s King Saul. This was the “fruit” of the bad “seed” that Abraham, and Isaac also later, sowed in the land of the Philistines.
We must be careful not to sow bad seed and must confess and repent of any already sown. Also, if there are inexplicable problems that often occur in your family (relatives included), ask God if there was a cause for it among your forebears; it could be a generational issue. Ask him to “show” you so that you can repent on behalf of that deceased forebear and lift that curse (consequence) off your family line.
