Sour Grapes.

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This is one of the saddest verses in the Old Testament.  But that’s the way it was under the Old Covenant.  Your sins not only put you under the curse, they were visited upon future generations!  This is describing the dreaded generational curse. 😢  

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Not Our Heritage.

How terrible it must have been to know that something you did could cause trouble for your children and generations afterward.  Today, those outside of Christ are affected by this curse, but as for us, Church, it was defeated at the cross! 🙌🏻

However, even though this curse is not our heritage, it is all too often spoken of as if it were.  This dishonors the finished work of Jesus.  It is NOT TRUE.  It is Old Covenant, and we don’t live under it anymore.

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 As a grandparent myself, I shudder to think that my precious children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and beyond could suffer deadly diseases because of something I did.  But that’s the way it was. 😓

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Below is the passage in Exodus where the generational curse was first pronounced:

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Exodus 34:6-7 

“And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, VISITING THE INIQUITY OF THE FATHERS UPON THE CHILDREN and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.’”

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YIKES! 😲

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God Found Fault With The Law.

God said He would, “By no means clear the guilty,” AND He would “visit,” in other words, pass down punishment on your offspring.

The problem is, God loves His people!  He only wants to bless them, not visit curses on them and their children. That is why He “Found fault” with the Ten Commandments.  He wrote the passage below in Hebrews 8-7-12, instituting a New Covenant, signed and sealed by the precious blood of JESUS!

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The New Covenant.

Hebrews 10:7-12

“7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, {the Ten Commandments} then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them {the Ten Commandments}, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 9 NOT ACCORDING TO THE COVENANT THAT I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; {the Ten Commandments} because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord.

“10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I WILL PUT MY LAWS IN THEIR MIND AND WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

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The blood of JESUS speaks better things, and it is eternal.  It is not like the blood of bulls and goats.  That means NO MORE VISITING PUNISHMENT.  NO MORE GENERATIONAL CURSE!

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To believe anything less brings the blood of Jesus down to be of LESSER VALUE than the blood of bulls and goats.  YIKES!!!  😲

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Sour Grapes.

So why the reference in Ezekiel to “Sour grapes?” To demonstrate to us that we have Jesus’ signed, sealed guarantee of the above statement.

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Q. What do sour grapes produce?
A. Sour wine.

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Q. What did Jesus drink on a sponge on the cross?
A. Sour wine.

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