The Meaning
of the Year 2022 - Cursing
The Meaning of the
Year 2022 - Cursing
The Valley of Cursing
Cursing
of Satan
Cursing of the Four Horses of the
Apocalypse
Conclusion
The Meaning of
the Year 2022 - Cursing
January 1, 2022 (Day 1):
The
meaning of the year 2022 is cursing. The types of cursing
are too numerous to count. God curses; Satan curses, and
man curses. There is a Doctrine of Curses. The soothsayers
will have no difficulty giving dire warning of doom this
year. One of my recent New Year's resolutions was to give
up soothsaying. So, I will resist the opportunity, but the
words of Audie Murphy, "To Hell and Back," come to mind.
In general cursing is the opposite of blessing. Blessing
and cursing are in the hands of the Lord. A love
relationship with God is blessing, and opposition to God
cursing. Blessing is the production of Good, and cursing
is the production of evil, or opposition to God. The
ultimate blessing is heaven, and the ultimate cursing is hell.
Blessing is Happiness, and cursing is suffering. Those who
seek a happy new year this year will be disappointed. Only
fools hope for a year of cursing and suffering. However,
soothsayers thrive on the unhappiness, fear, and superstition of
others.
God created man for love and happiness, but He placed him in
perfect environment, like Heaven on Earth. Yet, even in
the best of times man chose to listen to the devil and oppose
God. The result was that man was thrown out of perfect
environment into the cursing of slavery in the devil's
world. God cursed man because man was in league with the
devil in opposition to God. Man became the enemy of
God. Making war with God is not smart.
In his state of cursing, Adam did not even love his wife even
though she was beautiful and brilliant and the perfect match for
him. Bone of his bones became a thorn in his side.
Even the environment went crazy. The pet serpent hissed,
and the animals went wild and attacked. The plants
withered, and the fruit dried up. The demons hated Adam,
and the angels of God shunned him. Satan took over the
world and became Adam's slave master. The blessing of God
turned to cursing, and cursing from God can take many
forms. When Adam realized what had happened, he repented
and accepted the Redemption Solution, but he still had to live
in the devil's world with cursing and suffering that led to a
cold, dark grave.
The
Valley of Cursing
The number 22 symbolizes the
valley of cursing (ref. illustration). From the historical
perspective the number 65 is going down, and 21 is Providential
Preventative Suffering on the slope going into the valley.
The bottom of the valley is a place of cursing, destruction, and
death. Using a military analogy, David called it "the
valley of the shadow of death" (Ps 23:4).
Going up the slope on the other side of the valley is the number
23 for an historical uptrend. This is the road of
blessing. Going up the slope is the military analogy of
taking the high ground (Phil 3:14). The valley is a death
trap but the high ground is a place of victory.
Before going into the Promised Land Joshua divided the tribes
into two groups per the previous command of the Lord to Moses
(Deut 11:26-30; 27:11-13; Josh 8:33). One group stood on
Mt. Gerizim to illustrate blessing, and the other group stood on
Mt. Ebal to illustrate cursing. Now, the right hand
usually illustrates blessing, and the vantage point is usually
facing East or North. In this case facing East puts Mt.
Gerizim on the right and Mt. Ebal on the left.
However, the main point is that this was a significant occasion
for which the people had prepared for 40 years. Success
required conquering the Promised Land, and success could only
come from the Grace of God. With God's blessing Israel
would conquer the land, and with God's cursing Israel would fall
on the field of battle just as it had fallen in the
wilderness. To obey God meant success, but to disobey God
meant defeat and death.
Similarly, going to Spiritual Maturity requires choosing to obey
God while dying in the wilderness results from not obeying
God. The number 22 symbolizes the cursing that results
from disobedience.
Cursing
of Satan
Historical downtrends are
going down into the valley of cursing, and historical uptrends
are coming out of the valley. The Tribulation will be a
time of going down into the valley of cursing, and the
Millennium will be a time of blessing on the high ground of
Jerusalem. At the end of the Tribulation all the armies of
the world will be gathered together in the Valley
of Jezreel at Armageddon to destroy Israel. Then the
Lord will remember His promise and return and destroy all the
enemies of Israel with His Spirit weapon (Rev 1:16; 19:15).
With the destruction of the enemies of Israel and the enemies of
God, Satan and his demons will have no one left to rule.
They will be seized and imprisoned for a thousand years (Rev
20:2). The arrest and incarceration of Satan and his
demons is cursing per the meaning of 22.
So, cursing happens to demons as well as people. The
cursing comes from God, not from angels or people. The
Lord will destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn 3:8). In
2020 and 2021 the COVID-19 pestilence was sent to destroy
Satan's kingdom just as will happen in the Tribulation.
The year 2022 will be the cursing of destruction in the
valley. It is going down to destruction. Satan and
his demons will go down to destruction, but they will not be
completely destroyed because the Rapture and the Tribulation
have not yet occurred.
When the devil loses and he realizes his time is short, he will
become desperate and turn on his subjects, the people of his
kingdom, believers and unbelievers. The mystery of
lawlessness that was hidden before will be revealed (2 Thess
2:7). Man's solutions for living in harmony in a civilized
world will be useless against the power of the devil.
Institutions of the civilized world will be seized by Satan in a
power grab to destroy his enemies, which includes anyone in his
way.
Cursing
of the Four Horses of the Apocalypse
Cursing in the destruction of
a nation (Fifth Cycle of Discipline) is a crisis of doom.
It comes after God has rejected the nation. Therefore,
destruction is inevitable. However, not everyone suffers
the same fate. It is similar today with the COVID-19
pestilence. There is fallout that affects economics,
education, mental and physical health, and threats to peace and
stability. Cursing is going down into destruction.
It is like being devoured by a wild animal or captured and
killed by an enemy (Jer 15:3).
National destruction is symbolized by the Four Horses of the
Apocalypse. The same analogy was applied to the four types
of cursing during the fall of the nation of Judah in 586 BC.
Jeremiah 15:2
And when they ask you, "Where shall we go?" you
shall say to them, "Thus says the LORD:
"Those destined for death (pestilence),
to death;
And those destined for the sword, to the
sword;
And those destined for famine, to
famine;
And those destined for captivity, to
captivity."
What are the options in the
face of the fall of the nation? The Lord had already
decreed the fall and destined everyone to his corresponding
cursing. It was going to happen. What could be done
in the crisis? The answer corresponds to the Four Horses of the Apocalypse.
- Death – Pale Horse –
death (pestilence)
- Sword – White Horse –
Conquest of the Evil King, Antichrist
- Famine – Black Horse –
economic failure, depression
- Captivity - Red Horse –
suffering of the Prostitute of Babylon or people, capture of
criminals or soldiers
Today, in the midst of the
COVID-19 pestilence (the Pale Horse) some are infected and
dying. Russia is making military threats. People are
facing economic hardship (the Black Horse), and others are
suffering along with the Prostitute of Babylon because of
criminality. Not everyone is sick, but everyone has
received cursing.
Conclusion
Blessing and cursing are in the hands of the
Lord. He gives life and provides blessing or cursing.
Rejection of the life that God created for us causes conflict with
God and leads to cursing. Any form of resistance or
opposition to God leads to cursing.
Satan is the great example of a creature who rejected the life
that God created for him. Satan is full of cursing, and
those who listen to him share his fate. They are miserable,
frustrated, and going down to destruction and death.
Rejection of God and the life that He has given us inevitably
leads to cursing. For those who obey Him, God blesses and
promotes. Those who disobey God are doomed to a life of
cursing and Divine Punishment. It's bad enough to live under
the curse of Satan as the ruler of the world, but to have cursing
from God also is something not even a fool would choose. No
one can fight God and win.
Before going into the Promised Land Joshua stood the people on two
mountains to illustrate the blessing and the curse. The only
way to reach Spiritual Maturity and be blessed is to obey
God. Disobedience leads to cursing. No one gets to
maturity without learning to recognize the blessing and the curse.
Historical downtrends are symbolized by going down into the valley
of cursing and destruction. People and nations go down to
cursing when they disobey God. In contrast, historical
uptrends are symbolized by coming out of the valley and advancing
up the hill to the high ground.
This will be a year of cursing. Pestilence will continue,
and the fallout from it will cause more cursing. The Four
Horses of the Apocalypse will continue to spread suffering
throughout the world. These curses foreshadow the final
destruction of Satan's kingdom in the Tribulation. Cursing
cannot be turned to blessing until enough of the slavery to
the devil's world is broken away.
References
1. Larry Wood, "National
Blessing Colors," Colors in Scripture, Nov. 1, 2014.
2. Larry Wood, "National
Cursing Colors," Colors
in Scripture, Nov. 1, 2014.
3. Larry Wood, "Curses," Aug. 21,
2017.
Released January 1, 2022