Part IV — The End of the Curse

The curse that fell — the law's sentence on a covenant-breaking people:

• Gal. 3:10. "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." — the covenant-breaker is under the curse, the very curse Lev. 26 / Deut. 28 pronounced on a disobedient people. This is the curse that fell, and the 2520 measured its length.
  • made a curse = Christ bearing the covenant curse in our place on the tree (Gal. 3:13, "made a curse for us"; the law pronounced it on the disobedient, Gal. 3:10; Deut. 21:23 declares the hanged man "accursed of God," Deut. 21:22-23; the substitution Isaiah and Peter define as bearing our iniquity in His own body, Isa. 53:5-6; 1 Pet. 2:24; and Paul as being made sin that we be made righteousness, 2 Cor. 5:21; purposed that the blessing of Abraham come on all, Gal. 3:14).

The gospel turn — the curse transferred to a Sin-bearer:

• Gal. 3:13. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:" — the curse that fell on a covenant-breaking people Christ took on Himself. "Made a curse for us" — He bore in our place the very sentence the law pronounced.
• Deut. 21:22-23. "if a man have committed a sin worthy of death... and thou hang him on a tree:... (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;)" — Paul's proof-text. The one hanged on a tree is "accursed of God," so Christ on the cross visibly became the curse, the open sign that the covenant penalty had been borne.
• Isa. 53:5-6. "he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities... and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." — the substitution defined in advance: the LORD laid on Him the iniquity of all, the curse transferred to the Sin-bearer, healing flowing to the cursed.
• 2 Cor. 5:21. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." — the exchange behind "made a curse": He was made sin, we are made righteousness. The curse spent on Him becomes blessing on us.
• 1 Pet. 2:24. "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." — echoes Deut. 21 and Isa. 53 together: "on the tree" He bare our sins. The cross is where the curse is borne and life unto righteousness begins.

Why He was made a curse — that the blessing might come:

• Gal. 3:14. "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." — the curse is borne precisely to open the door to blessing and the Spirit — the gathering of all nations into Abraham's promise.

The scattering named — and never the last word:

• Lev. 26:33. "And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste." — the covenant curse named as scattering. The same chapter that decrees the scatter will, verses later, promise the remembering.
  • the gathering = the regathering of God's people promised within the same covenant that pronounced the scattering, realized as the scattering ends (Lev. 26:40-45, "then will I remember my covenant"; Deut. 30:1-5, "the LORD thy God will... gather thee from all the nations"; read as one scatter-then-gather word, Neh. 1:8-9; Jer. 31:10; the second-time recovery, Isa. 11:11-12; the call at "the times of refreshing," Acts 3:19-21; drawing all to the lifted-up Christ, John 12:32; into Abraham's one heir-people, Gal. 3:29).

The covenant's confessional exit — the hand that scattered binds itself to regather:

• Lev. 26:40-45. "If they shall confess their iniquity... Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob... and I will remember the land... I will not cast them away... but I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors." — the hinge of the covenant: on confession, "then will I remember my covenant." The same hand that scattered binds itself to regather. The curse has a confessional exit and a covenant end.
• Deut. 30:1-5. "when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse... And shalt return unto the LORD thy God... That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee." — the covenant promise that defines the gathering: after blessing and curse, on return, the LORD gathers from all the nations. The scattering ends in a gathering by covenant terms.
• Deut. 30:6-7. "And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart... And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee." — the gathering is more than geography: a circumcised heart to love God, and the curses transferred away from the gathered people. The gospel shape of the regathering.

Scripture reads itself as one scatter-then-gather word:

• Neh. 1:8-9. "If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: But if ye turn unto me... yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there." — Nehemiah pleads the covenant back to God in its own words — scatter-if-transgress, gather-if-turn. Scripture itself reads Lev. 26 / Deut. 30 as a single scatter-then-gather promise.
• Jer. 31:10. "He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock." — the terminus stated plainly: "He that scattered Israel will gather him." The same God, same people — the scattering's whole purpose was a gathering.

The second-time recovery — the gathering message at the curse's end:

• Isa. 11:11-12. "the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people... And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." — a second-time recovery, an ensign for the nations, the dispersed gathered from the four corners — the gathering message at the curse's end.
  • WitnessEW 74.1. White — confirmation, placed after Scripture has carried the point: "the Lord showed me that He had stretched out His hand the second time to recover the remnant of His people, and that efforts must be redoubled in this gathering time. In the scattering, Israel was smitten and torn, but now in the gathering time God will heal and bind up His people." — the 1844 movement understood itself as the second-time recovery of Isa. 11:11: the scattering ending in the gathering time, where God heals and binds up His people.

The terminus — refreshing, not wrath:

• Acts 3:19-21. "when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord... Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things." — the 2520 ends not in wrath but at "the times of refreshing": blotting out of sins, the gathering call going forth toward the restitution of all things. The curse fully spent opens onto refreshing.
• John 12:32. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." — the made-a-curse and the gathering meet at one point: the One lifted up on the tree draws all unto Himself. The cross is the magnet of the gathering.
• Gal. 3:29. "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." — the gathering's full scope: in Christ, Jew and Gentile become Abraham's seed and heirs. The curse borne, the scattering over, the gathering is now — into the one promised people.