April 24, 2026

Jesus Has No 'Black Sheep'
Theme:
"That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving
health among all nations." Psalm67,2 KJ

"Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
about which I commanded you, 'you must not eat of it'
cursed is the ground because of you: through painful toil
you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce
thorns and thistles for you, and you eat the plants of the
fields. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your
food until you return to the ground.." [ie die]
Genesis6, 17-19 NJB   

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, 
out of the land of slavery. 7 “You shall have no other
gods before me. 8 “You shall not make for yourself an
image in the form of anything in heaven above or on
the earth beneath or in the waters below. 9 You shall
not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the  Lord your
God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of
the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who
hate me, 10 but showing love to a thousand generations of
those who love me and keep my commandments."
Deuteronomy5,6-10 NIV

'Black Sheep" Bible Source:
He had a taste for cursing; let it recoil on him! No taste for
blessing; let it never come his way! Cursing has been the
uniform he wore; let it soak into him like water, like the oil
right into his bones. Let it be as a robe which envelopes
him completely, a sash which he always wears. 20 Let this
be the salary Yahweh pays the accusers who blacken my
name, Yahweh, treat them as your name demands; as your
faithful love is generous, deliver me." 
Psalms109,17-21 NJB 

"Therefore let us leave the preliminary stage of Christ's 
message and press on to perfection. Let us not lay
the foundationall over again- the foundation of repentance 
from dead works and faith in God..."
Hebrews6,1 FF Bruce Hebrews NICNT Eerdmans 1990

"The ground which drinks up the rain which frequently
falls on it, and produces plants serviceable for those on
whose acount it is cultivated, has a share in God's
blessing; but that which brings forth thorns and thistles
is worthless; it is on the point of being cursed, and will
at last be burned." 
Hebrews6,7-8 FF Bruce op cit

"how much more will be the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal Spirit offered himself to God as an unblemished
sacrifice cleanse our conscience from dead works so as to
worship the living God?"
Hebrews9,14 Bruce  

"Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity
and to ever increasing wickedness, so now you offer
yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.
20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the
control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap
at that time from the things you are now ashamed of?
Those things result in death! 22 But now you have
been set free from sin and  have becomes slaves of God,
the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is
eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death [the
curse of eternal death], but the gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
Romans6,19-23 NIV   

"The Didiche begins its account of the way of death [ie
section 5,1 (that which "is evil and fraught with a
curse") with a catalog of the sins which belong to it:
'murders, adulteries, lusts, fornications, thefts, idolatries,
magic arts, sorceries, robberies, false depositions,
hypocrisies, a double heart, fraud, arrogance, malice,
obstinacy, covetousness, filthy language, envy,
audacity, haughtiness, boastfulness..."
FF Bruce Hebrews NICNT Eerdmans 1990 140  

Therefore this I say, and testify in the Lord, that
you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk,
in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their
mind, alienated from the life of God because of the
ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness
of their heart. And they, having become callous,
have given themselves over to sensuality for the
practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
Ephesians4,17 LSB

"...knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things like silver and gold from your futile conduct, 
handed down by your forefathers but with precious
blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the 
blood of Christ." 
1Peter1,18-19 LSB

"And there shall be no more curse [death and way of
death] but the throne of God and the lamb shall be in it,
and His servants shall serve him." Revelation22,3 NKJ 

'Black Sheep' No Joke And Often A Curse 
Jesus' flock may go astray, or as John1,5 puts it "fall short
of the glory of God."

But the prevalent and pretty much accepted culturally
accepted idea of some folks being 'black sheep' is no
joke and is often a curse. 

This sorry and worldly epithet "curse" cements and expands
the "futile conduct" (1Peter1,18) of generational curses,
also known as "familial spirits," or family idols, and the sins
and often demons attached to them.

The King James 1Peter1,18 speaks of "vain conversation
received by tradition from your fathers."    

Perhaps you have experienced being black sheeped or
seen  someone trying to "black sheep" someone else
(cf Psalm109, 18 above). This can and does happen to
many- if not all of us Christians- by friends, by enemies,
loved ones, perhaps with malice but way more often
with just plain old ignorance and carelessness regarding
the life and death power of  the tongue according to 
Proverbs18,21: "The tongue has the power of life and
death, and those who love it will eat its [evil] fruit."  

Xavier Leo Dufour Biblically Defines "Curse"
"The vocabulary of cursing is rich in Hebrew. It expresses
the  violent reactions of a fiery temperment. Men curse in
anger (z'm), and in humiliating ('rr), in contempt (qll), in
execration (qbb), in oaths ('lh). The Greek bible is
especially inspired by the root ara, which describes a
prayer, vow, or imprecation, and which really suggests
recourse to a stronger power against the thing cursed.
[ie God of satan and his team]  A curse brings into
play profound forces which are beyond man. Through
the power of the spoken word which seems to
develop its deadly effects automatically, the curse calls
forth  the dreaded power of evil and sin, the inexorable
logic which leads from evil to misfortune. Also in its full
form a curse implies two closely linked terms, the cause or
condition invol- ving the effect: "Because you have done
this (if you do this)...such a misfortune will come upon
you." 
   One cannot curse thoughtlessly without the danger of
letting loose upon oneself the evil one calls on another
(cfPs109,17). ..."  
Dictionary Of Biblical Theology HarperSanFrancisco
1995 106

Now I am not judging anybody. Folks everywhere may
not even be conscious of what goes on in the
supernatural realm, and also not aware of the Word of
God, or that satan prowls about for the ruin of any and
all souls and thus he loves cursing. And many folks are
not even aware of what they say- or even mumble-
even in a bad mood- still carries great blessing or
cursing harm!

But know this dear readers- it is in this spirit realm where
beautiful souls made in the Spiritual image and likeness of
God can be- and are- very seriously marked and
wounded- not just by generational curses in families, but by
being black sheeped anywhere, in or out of the family, or the
church or wherever.

This whole area of spiritual woundedness of personal
and generational sin and cursing, often stems from family
idols, literally weaknesses in Hebrew, that invade a family
and turn it weak in faith and without repentance toward
recurring sin- and thus begins the woundedness and
the deathly effects of cursing.

Such sin and cursing and its deadly effects run in the
individual lives of unrepentant people and in families in
great need of applying the blood of Jesus by their saving
personal faith on all their individual sins and all the
demonic spiritual bondages that run in their families.

The Hebrew scriptures reveal that open or hidden sins in
families sometimes also brings curses on the land-nation.

All this harm can begin with somebody being black
sheeped in the family, or church, or out of it, anywhere and
as such cursings are no joke!

It has personal consequences for the lives and salvation of
individuals and as well as to the blessedness and
cursedness of nations and leaders and churches and
religious entities and businesses, and all the rest.

Now I have taught this subject matter of generational curses
from the beginning of gospel ministry in terms of "healing
the family tree" based on 1Peter1,18-19. This was a
scripture that was on my spirit in the seminary and it gave
me an insight into the fact that  there are often hidden
idols- and thus weaknesses and cursedness that run
through families and these rear their ugly demonic heads
not just in one generation, but in further generations too
(see Deuteronomy5,6-10 above).

And I learned from 1Peter1,18-19 and from pastoral
necessity that we can and must apply the everflowing
Spiritual blood of Jesus, the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world, to these embedded familial sins
as part of the personal repentance of our gospel faith in
Jesus as our healer, our great physician and thereby
we get delivered of them.    

And I had planned to just teach on this healing aspect in
families again in this sermon, but the Lord Jesus kept after
me to talk not only about what brings idols and curses into
individual families but to also study a bit what brings the
curses of sin into the land, societies, anywhere, even into
religious spaces.

We will see this later in the sermon when  the curses of the
familial sins of King David's family very likely contributed to
the loss of the kingship in 586BC- over 400 years later- a
kingship  that only Jesus- king of kings and Lord of Lords-
could- and did- revive. 

So I want to integrate these two subjects- how idolatry and
sinful disobedience in the family- spreads to other families
and into society- not just cursing individuals in the families,
but also the nation, whereby and curse of the individual(s)
pass or passes to others in the family and then into society
and the larger community and its many units.

Cursing Begins With Adam And Eve And Wilful and
Knowing Disobedience
When we talk about sin in families and cursing we begin
with Adam and Eve- who lived in the gated community
protected by the flaming fiery sword of a Holy angel in
the garden of Eden. This was God's exclusive Spiritual
jurisdiction.

He was there as the 'tree of life." Adam and Eve were
given just one rule- you can't eat of the other tree of good
and evil. He spoke up and made this perfectly clear.
Genesis2,16-17

And well Eve got curious about everything in the garden-
so she started talking to other tree- in the form of a talking
snake- ie satan, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Satan confused the matter for her and intimated that he
knew God and put doubt into her about God's Word: "Did
God really say you couldn't eat of that tree?" Genesis3,1

Cursing begins when God says something really simple
and direct like "don't eat of that tree." 

And when we then like mischievious children- do the exact
opposite of what we know and were just told! When we
are wicked and disobedient in the face of God's simple
instructions.

This is the story of humankind all the way back to the the
garden. In it they had everything they needed. Without any
sin yet- meaning they even had no inclination to sin at all,
and yet Eve got curious- this snake was apparently offering
some sort evil coversation different from both the tree of
life and Adam. 

And as many married folks might testify-  the antiword
curiosity in one partner can be a green light for curiosity in
the other partner.

And by this disobedient and wicked curiosity of both of
them,  cursing entered their lives. Note that the cursing
didn't kick in until Adam also sinned- in that he was God's
chief steward, of the garden. So sin and death and the
way of death entered humanity.

And not just into us in so far that it causes death- death is
just the first curse. But right from the start we also see that it
entered into the land too in that the very ground was cursed,
made less productive, less easy to work: 
"Because you listened to your wife and ate from the
tree about  which I commanded you, 'you must not eat
of it' cursed is the ground because of you: through
painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18
It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you eat
the plants of the fields. 19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food until you return to the ground.."
[ie die]  Genesis 6,17-19 NJB  

This pattern of God's leaders knowing yet betraying again
and again God's simple and direct commands continued- such
as the first commandment recounted at Deuteronomy5,6-10:

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, 
out of the land of slavery. 7 “You shall have no other
gods before me. 8 “You shall not make for yourself an
image in the form of anything in heaven above or on
the earth beneath or in the waters below. 9 You shall
not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your
God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the
sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of
those who hate me, 10 but showing love to a thousand 
generations of those who love me and keep my
commandments." Deuteronomy5,6-10 NIV

Personal Saving Faith and The Blood Of Jesus Means
He Has No Black Sheep And We Are Free From The
Curse Of Sin and Eternal Death  

Dufour Precisely Tells How Jesus Conquers The "Curse"
of Death And 'The Way Of Death:' 
"[Section] V Jesus Christ, Conqueror Of The Curse" 
"There is no more condemnation for those who are in union
with Christ Jesus" (R8,1) nor is there any curse. Having
become "sin" (2Co5,21) and "curse" for us, by allowing
Himself to be identified with sin and with the curse incurred
by sin, Christ "has bought us back from the Law's curse
(G3,13) and put us in possession of the blessing and
of the Spirit of God. The Word can then inaugerate
the new times, when there will be no more curses
properly so called (Gr. katara) uttered by Jesus but the
declaration of a [temporary] state of unhappiness (gr.
ouai earthly suffering of Jesus on the cross] which is
now coupled with the beatitude (Lk6,20-26) [of kingdom
of God and justice and reversals of status for the
unrighteous rich and righteous poor] It [the cross of
Jesus] does not reject but attracts ["if I am  lifted up I will
draw all.." John12,32], it does not scatter [God's usual
biblical judgement like at Babel on sin and the curses of
it] but brings together (E 2,16) [blood of salvation joins 
Jews and Gentiles in one body, one new covenant]. The
Word frees man from the accursed chains-Satan
[accuser],sin, anger, death- and enables him to love.
The Father who has forgiven everyone in his Son, can
teach His children how to conquer the curse by pardon
(R12,14) ["Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do
not curse."]; (1Co13,5) [about supernatural love "It does
not dishonor others, it is not self- seeking, it is not easily
angered, it keeps no record of wrongs."] and by love
(Mt5,44  Col3,13) ["But I tell you, love your enemies and
pray foor those who persecute you."] the Christian can
no longer curse (1P3,9) ["Do not repay evil with evil or
insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with
blessing, because to this you were called so that you may
inherit a blessing."] ...
   Though conquered by Christ the curse remains a reality,
no longer a deadly fate as it was without Him, but still a
possibility. The supreme manifestation of blessing [Christ
in us], even in its most intense emotion, brings the rancor
of the curse, which follows in its footsteps from the
beginning. The curse, taking advantage of the final days
which are numbered for it (Ap12,12), lets loose all its
poison at the time when salvation is  consummated
(8,13). Therefore, the NT contains a number of formulas
of cursing. The Apocalypse can at the same time proclaim,
"There will be no longer be any curse (22,3) and still
hurl the definitive curse, "Out... with all who love evil!
(22,15), out with the dragon (12), the beast and the false
prophet (13), the nations,Gog and Magog (20,7), the
prostitute (17), Babel (18), death and Sheol (20,14), the
darkness (22,5), the world (John16,33), and the powers
of this world (1Co2,6). This total curse, "Out!" without
recourse, is uttered by Jesus Christ. What makes it
dreadful is that it is not for him a passionate vengeance,
nor a reasonable demand for retailiation. It is more pure
and more terrifying; it leaves to their choice those who
have cut themselves off from love." ... [b added]
   A curse in the proper sense of the word [final judgement]
does not come to the lips of the Son of Man except at the
final coming, "Depart from me, you cursed!" (Mt25,41). Yet
even at that hour, He warns us that there will be no
change in His attitude [ie no hate, no black sheep cursing].
"If anyone hears my words and disregards them, it is not I
who shall condemn him. The message I have given will
judge him on the last day."
John12,47f Dufour106ff 

The Wicked Bad Example Of Ahab And Jezebel
Brought Sin, Death And Cursing To The Land
One of the most famous black sheep examples of wicked
disobedience was King Ahab of Israel in the 9th century
BCE. He marries Jezebel to make political hay and peace
with the Phoenician city-state (Canaanite) of Sidon.

Jezabel is a worshipper of Baal and Asherah- the native
fertility god and goddess of the Phoenicians.

And the first thing Ahab does after he marries her- is start
worshipping a false God Baal, a pagan fertility god 1Kings
16,31.

She also tried to silence the true prophets by murder- and
Obadiah had to hide a faithful hundred of them. 1Kings
18,4 

Finally, one prophet Elijah stood up to her and Ahab. Inspired
to cleanse the land of Jezabel's and Ahab's blatant idolatry,
Elijah pronounced a drought on behalf of the Lord.

Drought in the bible is the essential marker of the Lord's
cursing a land: "As the Lord, the God of Isreal, lives, whom
I serve, there will be neither dew or rain in the next few
years except by my word."  1Kings17,1 NIV

Then the Lord ordered Elijah into hiding- which he did for
about three years- then he entered into a sacrificial contest
at Mount Carmel to prove whose God was real- between the
Lord God of Israel and his prophets represented by Elijah-
and the 450 prophets of Baal under the thumb of Jezebel.

Elijah wins for the home team and executes the Lord's
justice on her prophets and then she threatens to kill him-
and she invokes the wrath of her own false gods on herself,
if she fails to kill him by the next day! 1Kings19,2 

(Hold this thought- sinful people not only curse others- they
also curse themselves- as Jezebel  does here- as she failed
to kill Elijah the next day! Well get back to this aspect of self
cursing a bit later in the sermom.)
  
Now let's zoom out to the land cursing context of having a
wimpy Baal worshipping Israelite King and a vengeful
idolato queen who was a hateful foreign usurper of Israel's
religion.

King Ahab wasn't a dummy- he knew this worship and
promotion of Baal was wrong. He knew that his wife was an
idolator and had no right to rule the religious roost in Israel.
He  knew she had usurped his role as protector of the people
and the faith. He also knew he had messed up his kingly
service covenant with God.

And in effect he also knew that he had cursed his family and
his nation with drought for three years after Elijah won the
prophetic showdown with he prophets of Baal.
1Kings18,20ff

And then Elijah confronted Ahab and cursed him and his
family at 1Kings21,20-29. It was this deadly curse that the
future king Jehu (841-814) carried out on Jezebel and all
the rest of Ahab's family.

Can you imagine some of the familial curses Ahab and
Jezebel's children must have suffered? 

Well we know for sure that one of those familial curses
passed down was- lust for power and influence- and
murder- the latter in the person of her daughter Athaliah
who married King Jehoram of Judah (ruled849-841BCE)
to whom Elijah pronounced:

"This is what the Lord, the God of your father David says:
'You have not followed the ways of your father David,
"You have not followed the way of your father Jehosephat
or of Asa king of Judah. 13 But you have followed the
ways of the kings of Isreal [like Ahab your father in
law and Jezabel your mother in law], and you have led
Judah and the people of Jersualem to prostitute
themselves, just as the house of Ahab did [to the
feritlity god Baal and goddess Asherah]. You have also
murdered your own brothers, members of your own
family, men who were better than you." 2Chronicles
21,12-14 NIV

King Jehoram and Athaliah had a son Ahaziah who reigned
for one year in Judah in 841 BCE "His mother's name was
Athaliah; she was grandaughter of Omri king of Israel. He
also walked in the way of Ahab [his maternal grandfather,
idolator, Baal worship] and did what was evil in the sight of
the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done..." 2Kings8,26-27 

Jehu executed Ahaziah [fulfilling Elijah's-God's curse on
Ahab's family] when the latter went to visit his ailing father
injured in war against Hazazel king of Syria at Ramoth-
gilead. See 2Chronicles22:5-9   

So we trust our God is just- and we Christians can go right
to our faith and the everflowing healing blood of Jesus
(John19,34). But God the Father in the Hebrew scriptures
has a long memory regarding unrepentant black sheep
who wickedly disobey his direct and clear words- this
brings cursing on the families that persist in the same
sins generation after generation- and it also curses the
land.

From history and many bible texts we can conclude that this
poor leadership and refusal to heed the corrections of the
prophets led to the specific destruction of the Jerusalem
Temple in 586BC which was a temporary curse on the land:
"The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the
movable stands and the bronze Sea that were at the
temple of the LORD and they carried the bronze to
Babylon." 2Kings25,13 Jeremiah52,17;

Ezra 5:12: “But because our fathers angered the God of
heaven, He handed them over to Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house and
carried the people away to Babylon.” BSB

"From Sinai onward, Israel’s national relationship with
Yahweh was contractual. Deuteronomy 28:15–68 and 
Leviticus 26:14–46  spell out escalating judgments—
famine, foreign domination, siege, exile—if the nation
persisted in idolatry. The temple’s destruction in 586 BC
(Ussher’s chronology: 588 BC) was the terminal stage
of those covenant curses. God had emphatically
forewarned: “The LORD will bring a nation against you
from afar… They will besiege all the cities throughout
your land” (Deuteronomy 28:49, 52). 
Ezra 5:12  simply testifies that God keeps His word
precisely."  Why did God permit the temple's fall?" https:
//biblehub.com/q/Why_ did_God_permit_the_temple_s
_fall.html

Blessings Descend From Faithful Obedience And
Curses From Wicked Disobedience
"I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I
promised David your father when I said, ‘You shall never
fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’ 6 “But if
you or your descendants turn away from me and do not
observe the commands and decrees I have given you
and go off to serve other gods and worship them, 7 then
I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them
and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my
Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of
ridicule among all peoples. 8 This temple will become aheap
of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and will
scoff and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this
land and to this temple?’ 9 People will answer, ‘Because
they have forsaken  the Lord their God, who brought their
ancestors out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods,
worshiping and serving them—that is why the Lord 
brought all this disaster on them.’” 1Kings9,5-10 NIV

As for the loss of the priesthood after 586BCE, which
was another type of temporary curse- of which the
Jewish messiah Jesus is the blessing and antidote-
Psalm132,12 states the logic why the Judahite kingly
dynasty from 2Samuel 7,14 was lost- "If your sons 
guard [stay posted at the faithful and prophetic
watchtower] my covenant and my witnesses [laws,
decrees, revelations] that I teach them, their sons shall
sit upon my throne forever."  

So the Hebrew biblical principle from the garden onward is
that wickedness in the face of His direct and simple laws
and commands of God ruined the garden of Eden, cursed
some families, led to the Babylonian exile, the loss of the
temple and messed up the governance of the kingdoms
of Judah and Israel.

But even up to the present day the God of Israel has never
wavered in his eternal covenantal love and protection of
Israel: "If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand
forget its skill." Psalm137,5 NIV

The 'Didiche'- Gr. for Teaching- First Line Is Also The
Revealing Title: 
"The Lord's Teaching Through The Twelve Apostles To
The Gentiles" (JB Lightfoot Translation)
This title reveals that us gentiles- "pagans"- of that day and
age- without any biblical revelation- needed a handy primer
on what God expects from His people!    

Have you ever searched a ministry website to try and figure
out what they teach from the bible? 

Some of them are so scant and vague you get the sense
they are trying not to offend anyone- just come to our
church- it's a fun and happy place. And did we mention we
have music too? I like fun and happy, but I also want more
Word and Spirit rather than less. Forgive me that and join
me that if you will.

Well in the second half of the first century- the primarily
Jewish followers of Jesus- and Jesus' handpicked twelve
Jewish Apostles were not trying to be too brief or easy
pleasy about doctrine in the Didiche. 

As a fledgling small band of sectarian Jews- mostly from
humble Galillee- they knew they themselves had a several
thousand year's head start with knowing God compared 
with us ignorant gentiles who hadn't been introduced to the
Word or the God of Israel. So here these law abiding
Hebrew Apostles were gobsmacked and chagrined by our
sinful gentile customs. And yet praine the Lord Jesus sent
them to help us gentiles with our futile manner of sinful life
passed down from our ancestors despite the fact that we 
didn't know anything about the one Holy God of Israel 
through whom salvation had come.

But- very thankfully- the Apostles had the gospel Word on
their lips even if it hadn't been written down yet as bible.

As to the saving blood- 1Peter1,18-19 speaks of some of
the gospel they very likely had on their lips to
immediatly tell the gentiles "...knowing that you were
not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and
gold from your futile conduct, passed down by your
ancestors, but with precious blood, as of a lamb
unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ." NJB  

This blood not only washed gentile sins away but freed
them all from the curses of sin and death and familial idols
and all the pagan sins that especially defined the vain and
futile manner of life of the gentiles.

But pity the Hebrew Apostles - trying to teach us gentiles
without any NT bible compiled yet. So the Apostles
desperately needed a short and handy- down to earth
gospel primer- like the "Didiche:" the teaching in greek, to
focus us the completely untaught gentiles hearing the
gospel and a whole lot of new and fancy Hebrew bible
words and ideas but who urgently needed to quickly
leave the way of death of their former lives, their futile
manner of living, and get up to speed with the new way
of eternal life, the way of life itself, in Christ, king of the
Jews:   

"The Didiche begins its account of the way of death
[ie section 5,1] (which way "is evil and fraught with a
curse") with a catalog of the sins which belong to it:
'murders, adulteries, lusts, fornications, thefts, 
idolatries, magic arts, sorceries, robberies, false
depositions, hypocrisies, a double heart, fraud,
arrogance, malice, obstinacy, covetousness, filthy
language, envy, audacity, haughtiness, 
boastfulness..." Bruce Translation from
"The Epistle To The Hebrews." NICNT Eerdmans 1990
140
In other words, the gentiles were leaving (but still living in)
the cursed gentile world- which had no prior knowledge of
biblical revelation and entering into a new life whereby both
Jew and Greek, Jew and gentile would become one new
gospel people to announce his miracles (1Peter2,9). But
the gentiles would have to go from being 'black sheep'
sinners to Jesus' one 'little flock,' with one faith, one
baptism, one new body in Christ- dressed in white standing
in victory ready worship him for eternity with all their brother
and sister Jewish folks at their sides:
"After this I looked, and there before me was a great
multitude that no one could count, from every nation,
tribe, people and language, standing before the throne
and before the Lamb.They were wearing white robes
and were holding palm branches in their hands."
Revelation7,9 NIV

To get to this point both Jew and gentile would have
come to the washings of adult water baptism and Spirit
baptism (Hebrews6,1)- and deliverance from demons
and from the generational curses that ran in their families
and the curses of 'the way of death' that especially defined 
the gentile, non Jewish, world.     

Black Sheep And Generational Curses Happen To All
As Christians and non Christians we as human beings have
all experienced this- mayby in middle school, mayby when
we tried out for a team or a job and didn't make it, mayby
when we ran out of love or money, or found ourselves
opposed by insincere folks who want want to black sheep
us- but the everflowing blood and mercy and salvation of
Jesus kicks and won't let it happen.

'Old So and So' Talks With 'Fulano'
Are you a bible believer? Well then you have been called a
"Crazy Christian." Are you filled with the Spirit- the greatest
gift of all? Well then- let me guess- you have been called a
"Holy Roller!"

To tell the truth- bring it on- I accept "Holy Roller." This is a
blessing not a curse! In my bible all Christians are by
definition anointed-holy ones- set apart ones- which is what
"Christ" and "Christian" means. To be anointed is to be holy
and separate from all that is ugly, and sinful and profane.
Praise God!

So I will wear the "Holy Roller" gladly but I do not accept
"Black Sheep"- which is a curse.

"Old so and so" is "fulano de tal" or just "fulano" in Spanish,
always has something to say- often not very edifying- about
the faithful, and our faith, and or what we hold dear.

And watch out "sister" or "brother" Christian might also play
'Old So and so' or fulano or fulana- play at being insincere,
or ignorant, and what they say may be an attempt-
conscious or not- to make you, or us, or somebody a
"black sheep" in an attempt to make themselves look good
and you cursed. 

When the fact is- by the blood of the lamb and the word of
our testimony we overcome this type of black sheeping-
because by faith we were made a worthy son or daughter of
our king- and Jesus has no doormats and no black sheep!

And 'the pure of heart shall see God!' (Mt5,8) And Glory-
by our victorious faith we already have! 

I am preaching today that Jesus has no black sheep
anywhere, inside or outside the church. Moreover, he
never messes up innocent kids with generational
hangups, and hatreds and the weaknesses of family
idols that enslave and curse and demonize- and then
cause chaos and misery. He never runs his mouth and
stigmatizes or "others" anybody.

Jesus' Enemies Tried To Black Sheep Him!
I am thinking Jesus knows just how this feels because
his religious enemies tried to black sheep him. First-
they said "no prophet ever comes from Galillee."John7,
52 Then- after they saw his ministry power at work-
"he casts out demons with the power of Beezelbub."
(MT9,34 and 12,24; Luke11,15)

The Apostle Paul turned around the curse of Jesus
dying on a tree (Deuteronomy21,23). His opponents 
did not know in faith that Jesus was only temporarily 
cursed- in exchange for the blessing of his own
resurrection and the blessing of our salvation of all who
faith on Him.  (Galatians3,13) 

To make someone the black sheep, (to "other them"
is the PC way to say it) is often to curse them- and
then when things get a little more heated- accuse
them of being 'the problem': "you the problem! You
the black sheep! You the one getting ranked out of
our little social circle, nuestro rincon social."

This is what sorry gaslighters and bullies and people
who don't have the Spirit of God try to do. It's all a worldly
thing- the world the devil and his minions, and the
concupiscent power of the flesh trying to control and
bring folks down to all that is base and worldly and
humanly degrading- unto living an ongoing sinful life,
the futile 'way of death,' rather our blessed new gospel
way of life in Christ Jesus. 

Even Jesus' Mother and Brothers Thought He was
Overdoing It
Though it's hard to believe- all three of the narrative
gospels- Matthew12,46-48, Mark3,31  and Luke8,19-21 
show a time when Jesus has been out teaching the
common folks for a long time. He was likewise doing
intense healing and deliverance ministry and talking about
"this wicked generation" ie the one that has so much evil
and demons, and accursed and deathly witchcraft annd
magic and astrology like in the gentile Greco Roman world
not to mention the sensual Greek mythology figures with
people and gods carrying on sexually, and all that
nonsense.  

Imagine all this cursing and black sheeping and witchcraft
and what not, and all the gentile magic- that tried to corrupt
and curse our Lord Jesus and his early followers- and it's a
wonder- the way of death worldly folks even let our savior
and prophet Jesus live for 33 years.  

(You might know the famous Nathanial Hawthorne short
story "Young Goodman Brown" (1835) wherein Goodman 
envisions the dark side night worship of his pastor in Salem
and Satan tempts him (and His "Faith", his wife) to join their
vain, futile and sinful worship and manner of living. I
preached sermon about it like 10-15 years ago on the 'The
Preaching Hour': don't let anyone lead you into the dark 
night of witchcraft was the message.

And in scripture we even have Jesus' own family
wanting to slow him down- they apprently thought he was
getting nutty, going overboard. Why would his family (or
your family or friends or church) want to slow down your
ministry, especially intense prophetic kingdom ministry?

They worry that he is becoming "the crazy," the off the wall
zealot, the guy or gal willing to minister for hours upon end
when folks are getting healed and delivered of their
demons, and satan is being pushed back and out of a
region.

Even folks in church sometimes get worried and controlling
when great miracles are happening- worried somebody
might miss a regularly scheduled meeting or something on
the schedule! No, sometimes regular meetings and the
finger sandwiches and punch can be postponed while 
folks are being saved and healed and delivered, and all
the rest. 

But why this incredible and sometimes hostile need of so
many to slow the man or woman of God down? This in
effect is an attempt to black sheep folks who are doing 
the right thing at the right time- it's about the fear of losing
control and influence over him or her. 

Why are even Jesus' family so insistant in apparent concern
for him? Because they think- by his liberating preaching and
ministry- he is sort of becoming the 'black sheep' of their
family (or church, or a circle of friends, or club or wherever),
that has its own traditions- regardless of what the WORD
and SPIRIT regardless of his demonstration of so many
gospel blessings! 

"46 While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His
mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with
Him.  47 Then one said to Him, “Look, Your mother and
Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with
You." 48 But He answered and said to the one who told
Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” 49 
And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and
said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! 50 For 
whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My
brother and sister and mother.” MT12,46-50  (NIV)

Are You Willing To Put Service To God Even Above
Nosy Relatives?
Jesus was perfectly willing to lose his family- and be the
alleged 'black sheep' of it- so long as he could continue to
get the gospel message out- of healing and deliverance
and freedom from sin- and freedom from demonic curses
and pagan idols and all "futile conduct" passed down from 
one generation to the next.

The Grace Of Holiness Liberates Us From Familial
Curses 
The bible says at 2Corinthians6,17 "be ye separate [Jews
and Gentiles], come out from among them" ie the folks who
have not the Spirit and the Word, out from the profane
world, from among the those living the accursed way of sin
and death .

God also says this right from the near beginning of the
bible. "Be ye Holy [be ye seprated] for I am holy."  
Leviticus11,44-45.

1Peter1,16 says the same thing in the New Testament for
us "Christians": "Be Holy for I am holy."

Well 'people of God'- who do you want to be like? Your
loving God, who is Holy Spirit, or "old so and so", or
fulano and fulana who tries to black sheep and control
you? 

Practice Saying "I Don't Accept That!"
The bible also says "Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their
story"- those he redeemed from the hand of the foe [Satan,
Babylon, the nations] those he gathered from the lands [the
pagan lands], from east and west, north and south."
(Psalm107,2-3 NIV)

So when someone black sheeps me I have learned to say
"I don't accept that!" "Or, "I am God's child, and his
messenger", or Iike "wake up dude- tune into Jesus'
salvation- for-all-message. Jesus has no black sheep!" 

There's an influencer named Sadie Rob Huff and on a
meditation minute on K-Love radio she says her dad taught
her right- right from the start. From a young age, before she
even fully understood what he meant, he would call her
"the original."

That's good theology sister Sadie- in keeping with 
Jeremiah1,5: "Before I formed you in the womb, before
you were born, I set you apart."

By Faith And God's Choice All Of Us Are Holy Originals 
Oh glory, you and I- from our mom's womb- were set apart 
like Jeremiah! To Speak Up- no matter what!

(I came out of my mom's womb two months early- set apart
like Jeremiah- and I have not stopped piping up since.)

Speak up for God's particular purpose in your life- not just
against being made a black sheep, or becoming
somebody's whipping boy or girl, or against anyone ever
cursing you- but to be God's original- his original servant.
An original in relation to all the other people of faith, and in
relation to every other person in the whole world- while
still sharing one fellowship with all Christians. 

Listen For Original Voices  
I was standing in line at one of the dollar stores- because if
you go somewhere else it might cost you like 2-4 times as
much. But there's sometimes very long lines.

And while so much of our modernm culture is being
well-trained to avoid speaking or interacting with anyone-
anywhere- live and in person- (and thus save corporations
from having to pay people to interact with humans), I like
to watch out for moments to share a blessing or a kind
word, or hear an original voice and thereby have God tell
me something.

And of course God told me something, just for this sermon.
So at the back of this line there was a child of about two
years- and she spotted a little dog- like 30 yards away- on
the sidewalk in front of the store. 

And being the exact original that God made her- and
with her very own and very new voice she let out a joyous
sound unto the Lord. It was part squeal, part scream and
part announcement to all the world of something very
very important.

I thought at first that perhaps she saw Jesus in midair to
rapture us, but as I walked into the cold air of the vast
Hamden Mart parking lot the Holy Ghost said "you see
Tobin everybody's got a particular and original and
blessed sound and voice."

And that voice is very important to its owner-user and also
to God its maker! We all need to find our 'God voice' and
or gifting- if we have never known them- for our true voice
is totally original, a blessed gift from him- and such gifts
ring true.

You and I have both heard fake God voices, (how annoying
is that "special" religious voice?) and seen fake gifts but the
Spirit wants to perfect each one of the original voices he
intended all along. Better than any AI ever will be! 

And we all can have our own very original, simple, holy
voice like the| prophet Jeremiah.

And here's the point- if we learn to use our own voice, we
can learn to be both articulate and kind, and also never let
"old so and so" on his or her meanest day curse us, hate
on us and black sheep us. So instead we will keep speaking
up- for sure- for the glory of the of our Lord Jesus! 

I am brother Tobin and I am preaching "Jesus Has No Black
Sheep" today. We God's property!

Oops... To Curse Ourselves Is A Huge Mistake 
Now all what I just taught so far is bible true- and bible
beautiful- but oops some folks not only have no idea about
the power of the tongue and blessings and curses in
families- or that the 'wages of sin are death.'

Some folks go even a step further, into rebellion, and start
hating on Christians for even mentioning the scriptures
which describe the laws of the spirit realm since the garden
of Eden- that define all the blessings of salvation and of
wisdom or the danger and harm of cursing.

And then they rebel at the whole Spiritual system of God
and perhaps at us too- God's mere messengers- and end
up- oops- black sheeping themselves. Selling themselves
short.

How's that? By agreeing with satan and all the fallen
demons and angels and powers and principlalities- by
agreeing with the wrong team and getting fascinated with
the "mysterious" after hours circus and carnival of sin and
cursing actions- in our modern world- fascinated with their
sly and sinful self, their bad self, come what may.

In pride and ignorance- humanity can easily get fascinated
with the false bright lights, the false city, that is and offers
no eternal home, fascinated by the counterfeit lights and
counterfeit realties, and counterfeit spirits instead of the
light and real glorious and saving love of Jesus and His
Holy Spirit! 

So- anybody who consistantly goes against the Word
and the Spirit- that define the rules and laws of the
supernatural realm- can end up reaping the whirlwind
of pride and ignorance and and in effect cursing
themselves.

Beloved of Jesus- we don't let anyone black sheep us,
curse us, and we don't do that to ourselves either.

The life Jesus saves is our very own! One life- so don't
curse yourself!

Don't ever agree with what the devil and his demons and his
enemies and your enemies say about you. Instead, put on
the whole armor of God every day. Ephesians6,10-18 

Don't Give Up- Don't Give In- Run To Jesus ASAP And
Always
And it also happens that kindhearted folk, people who so
want to fit in- and are often living with a huge deficit of love
in their lives- have so suffered the repeated and nasty
words of cursing at them, they give up and agree with some
or all the cursing they have suffered- and they end up in a
devilish loop- of self cursing.

Or, let's be even more clear, there are even people who
simply like to be evil and sinful- and knowingly choose a
vain and futile manner of a life surrendered to sin, even
though it curses them and people around them, and they 
know it, and they are happy in sick way to spread it
around.

Think about it- you have probably heard and experienced
the many ways that various people to various degrees
make the huge mistake of cursing themselves.

When we Christians hear this type self reproach, even
sometimes self hatred, and condemnation, selling
oneself short, and minging- it's time for us to help them
find somebody who can deliver them from all the demons
related to being black sheeped by others and themselves. 

Time also for us at least to correct them of their self cursing-
of agreeing with the devil and his team. And when we hear
this self cursing and self loathing tell them to run to Jesus,
praising, and praying, asking him to fill up their holy Spirit 
temple and seal it up with supernatural faith, and trust and
alll His love.   

God Cannot Be Mocked 
And there are even people who will go out of their way
and take an evil pride and express a self righteousness in
being  'black sheep.' This does not escape God's notice.

This borders on mocking God and his Word:

"Do not be deceived- God cannot be mocked. A man
reaps what he sows. 8 The one who sows to please his
sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the 
one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will
reap everlasting life."  Galatians6,7-8 NIV

I am here to tell you today again and again- based on the
scriptures we read at the beginning of this sermon- Jesus
has no black sheep. If you say in faith you are his, Jesus',
the sinless lamb, slain from the foundation of the world,
who  still bears the marks of your sin on him in heaven,
you and I have no right to live like black sheep, or accept
being black sheeped, or to black sheep others.

Instead, we remember- we are one of his own, 'bought at a
great price' and by our loyal faith- are one of his 'little flock.' 

Too many folks identifying with their "bad boy" or "bad girl"
image! For the sake of fitting in with the crowd.

Though none go with us- we still will follow like the Apostle
Paul: "At my first defense, no one came to my support, but
everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. But
the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that
through me the message might be fully proclaimed and
all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the
lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack
and will| bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be
glory for ever and ever. Amen." 2Timothy4,16-18

As faithful brothers and sisters of Jesus we will still follow
our Lord and brother- because by doing so- the shiny silvery
wings of the Holy Ghost DOVE- are always with us, keeping
us close to our Lord, mind and soul and spirit stayed on the
Lord and thus peaceful and on track. cf Psalm68,13  

The Bible Has No Black Sheep Antiheroes
I was an English major and I learned that since the 1950's
say- modern American literature often celebrates the anti-
hero as the new modern hero.

But watch out- we shouldn't be praising antiheroes, because
this is sort of like training to praise the future antichrist who
we know from 2Thessalonians2,4 will stand up in the
temple, the church, and claim to be God. 

Be that as it is, we now have a good number of folks in all
forms of modern artistic expression- especially in literature,
film and television, music - who are treated like heroes- but
they are really anti heroes, even though Jesus has no black
sheep. For us Christians there is no such thing as a black
sheep antihero.

This doesn't mean that all secular artistic expression is
tainted, or that we we don't love sinners- or we are really
just 'haters'- or we lack mercy- it's just we Christians don't
call folks "heroes" in relation to their sins.

Antiheroes in our way of bible thinking are sort the
lukewarm folks comfortable with a black sheep image
with a little cultural and artistic holy water sympathetically
sprinkled on them. This make them appear 'good
enough'- for good copy, for box office- but not for
representing the Spiritual image and likeness of God!
This represemntation is a vital and essentialpart of our
upward human calling. 

Careful About The Roles And Images Put On You
And we need to be careful of the roles and images folks
might try to put on us, or on our kids, or on our friends kids,
or the roles and unbiblical images we put on ourselves,
because they often carry demons who will lead us to sin and
come right on us and into us, and curse us, and cement
those generational curses that run down the generations in
families.

Then you will need to repent, perhaps again, and again,
until you put your total faith in Jesus again and let his blood
wash you again and apply his blood on you- and your family 
again and again- to wash away your futile conduct and
family curses away. 

We the faithful, who live by faith, put on the mind of Jesus
and resist all stinking thinking, all vain manner of life, all
'black sheep' antiheroe lifestyles- by the Holy instruction
and wisdom of the Word, and with the power of grace and
faith- it can be done-from knowing and following Jesus 
and His Word. Amen!

Ahab And Jezabel Try And Black Sheep Naboth- The
Man of God
I preached a good bit already about Ahab and Jezabel- how
they cursed the land with drought- messed up the faith and
generational kingship of Israel, and their sins carried into
the further generations even down to Judah.

But the worst thing, the most wicked and accursed thing
they did concerned a holy man named Naboth. Naboth
purchased a beautiful field for his family that represented
both His family's Spiritual and faith inheritance- and his
land inheritance for his descendents. His land was- and
still is for Isreali's today- an expression of the loving
provison of the God of Israel for his faithful people who
are attached to it- not to mention all us Christian folks
who by faith are planning on reign with Jesus and "all his
holy ones" (Zechariah14,9) in the millennial Zion
Kingdom! 

You and I may never have been to Israel, but we're going
there for his millennial kingdom praise Jesus.

Naboth Has A Sacred Sense That His Vineyard Was
Blessed 

Naboth had a sacred sense of place in Jezreel which 
revealingly means "God will sow." (1Kings21).

Jezreel is in Northern Israel, where he had his
vineyard. This vineyard is also the image of his family's
and his people's faith covenant with God- and the
particular land that God gave them and Israel forever-
from the time of father Abraham. Genesis12. 

In an article entitled "What Naboth Teaches Us Today
Part 1" from January 22, 2021 Bible Scholar Dr. 
Walter Brueggermann (1933-2025) describes Naboth's
sense of place being both sacred and important: 

"The plot of the story is quite clear and simple. It concerns
Naboth who owned and cared for a vineyard in the area of
Samaria, of Northern Israel (we may refer to Isaiah 5:2 for
evidence for how a vineyard was attentively cared for).
Naboth was a smalltime property owner who belonged
to his land as much as his land belonged to him. He
identifies his vineyard as “my ancestral inheritance.”
The phrase suggests that Naboth’s economic horizon was
that of tribal Israel, a system of property that antedated
the monarchy (the same notion of ancestral inheritance
is operative in the narrative of Jeremiah 32  bold added)." 
https://churchanew.org/ brueggemann/what-naboth-
teaches-us-today-part-i

Now I don't subscribe to the notion that loud and or syrapy
USA patriotism is a salvation substitute for Jesus, but I
totally agee Naboth's and Brueggeman's (and as we will
soon see Roger Williams', cf Salena Zito Butler: "The
Untold Story Of The Near Assasination of Donald
Trump") understanding of the importance of place and
belonging that is the focus of their writing, faith and
teaching.

And there's also a secularly sacred- if I could use this
phrase- a covenantal aspect to place and nation in the
USA. The Great Seal of our nation declares the building
of a new order of the ages: "Novus Ordo Seclorum." 

The Great Seal (1782) also declares "Annuit Coeptis:"
"He [God] has favored  our understaking." Also translated
as "Providence favors our undertaking." That is, God
favors our understaking of this new providential place
that has no state church. 

So even though this America- as a new order of the ages-
is no longer tied to any church-state union (I thank God
every day for this) there still is a sacred and Providential
aspect to our land for all of us here. And with this
Providential aspect arises a shared responsibility of all
of us here to our part to bring and sustain the providential 
blessings of God upon this land.

This will help our nation- the good old USA to continue
to be and receive the great blessings God had in mind for
us, and our world, when he providentially gave us this
land and this new secular order of the ages, praise God,
where religious and political freedom and free speech are
guaranteed for all. 

The state Motto of Connecticut- "Qui Transtulit Sustinet."
"He who transplanted us sustains us." God
transplanted us here. God sustains us here. 
This captures and builds upon the sacred and Providential
aspect of the Good Old USA. The Puritan colonists in
Connecticut- by the will and provision of God- were
transplanted from Europe- where they were presecuted
and unfree- to Connecticut where they could in time
freely practice and sustain their Christian faith and 
political freedom in this new and particular place.   

President John Kennedy in the early 1960's also tapped
into the noble and redeeming ethos of the Great Seal
and the providential founding and gift that the USA has
been to its citizenry and to the world.

And though it sounds quaint- his unfiying famous social
and cultural ethos "ask not what your country can do for
you, but for what you can do for your country" still makes
perfect sense- according the same providential new
blessing that is still ours, still gifted and entrusted to all
people in this place- where we all share the responsibility
to cooperate with the Providence of God and the
sustenance of his ongoing gifts. Or, if we are without faith
in God, we at least must agree to treat others as we
would want to be treated and make some humane and
rational contribution to the commonweal of our land.
 
But take note John Kennedy's wise ethos of giving back for
the good of the land and nation betrays his realization that
the very real possibility exists that our nation might just
devolve into 'gimme all this and all that.'

Yes indeed Kennedy's challenging ethos hints at the
inherent weakness and potential flaw of all democracies-
what if a nation arrives at a tipping point where everyone
in the land is mightily and even viciously struggling to get
ahead- and get all they can- and we may be left with very
little altruism- and a lot of pointing fingers and black
sheeping and cursing.

What if there grows an ever greater pervasive sense of
outsized entitlement and outsized aggrievement by
such a large portion of us that neighborly responsibility
in our shared space- that the rule of law falls by the
wayside? Or, worse yet, is thrown out the window like
fast food litter from a speeding car.

What if we all- for some apparently just reason or
grievance or pereceived right or injustice just start
stamping our entitled  "democratic" feet and demand
"more" "more" and "more?"

Strange times! We live in a nation that sometimes appears
capitalistic based. And other times welfare based, and 
and also crony bailout captialism based- where nobody
who has a politically powerful lobby ever loses a dime,
or fraction of any political power at all. 

So what I sort of see an false social ethos spreading- and
perhaps taking root- that is telling all of us to demand
and get- that first and last dollar one way or another, any
way you can.

What will happen to a nation when hundreds of millions of
people are all demanding more and more and more for
themselves and their political cliques and allies and power
groups when such political largesse can be no longer
sustained? 

And the career pols of both parties oblige- as they have
in the relatively recent past- to the tune of a $38 plus
trillion deficit and we end up with only a very few poliitcal
misfits who care a whit about the Kennedyesque value
add to our providential sacred land, the only vineyard
we have, and presently known as the United States of
America?

Perhaps John Kennedy saw a glimpse of a future whereby
350 million inhabitants of the USA are all clamoring
around a modern Tower of Babel, whereby the nation we
knowingly or unknowingly scrap our traditional national
motto "E Pluribus Unum," Out of Many Nations One
Nation! 

And then everbody with ever greater and aggrievement
and lawless rhetoric- just demands, all they want- now!

By the way, have some powerful folks in our land already
silently scrapped the blessing and providence and orderly
and providential notion of 'E Pluribus Unum' that has served
us? As if it's a too lofty notion?

But if 'E Pluribus Unum' is passe, or going to be passe in
the near future, hundreds of millions of other folks 
here in the USA will want to hear some sober discussion
of what might replace it?

Consider our mercantile- and marketing focus here- it seems
less and less tied to a sense of a unified place, or one nation,
or one culture. What matters is everybody buying and selling
and making a name for themselves (and if not- you are a
'dead beat,' an economic black sheep)- that reaches the
heavens as at the original tower of Babel (Genesis11,1-9 cf
Revelation18). 

And around our commercial tower of Babel the only thing we
might agree upon in the future- is that we all want more more
more- ASAP, for me and mine, whereby nothing much in our
civic and cultural or political life needs be providential or
sustainable or about asking about what we or anybody else
can do for our nation. It just has to be more, more, more, for
everybody, any which way it can.

And what concern is it of ours as a nation if everything in our
country is bought and sold or rented to the highest bidder?

Because we here in the USA- we are hands down the best
consumers in the world, all paying the same high prices if we
still can- and anything and everything is for sale in our
culture, in our politics, in our historical and cultural and
religious narrative unto the potential selling of our souls. 
Revelation 18,13.

And since all of us in our consumer crazed culture have been
promised everything for everybody for about seven or eight
decades now. And to a certain extent many have prospered
thanks be to God- but what happens when promising
everything to everyone no longer convinces everyone 
around babel's tower- and we end up with tens of millions
of consumers young and old and in between who haven't
been so blessed?

Will such greed around the tower lead to abandoning the 
normative laws and cohesive social, cultural, ethical, and
religious and political creeds that have heretofore held
us together.

Will increasing economic pressure and ever speeded up
social change lead to the scattering of our blessed one
nation theme to the wind?

The Greedy Selfish Placeless Example Of Ahab And Jezabel
In the 9th century BC Israel was ruled by King Ahab and his
manipulative unfaithful foreign wife Jezabel. Jezabel totally
identified with her bad self. 

She totally identified with her corrupt black ops and black
sheep image, and she and her wimpy king husband were
in fact cursing rather than blessing the land of Israel by
corrupting the scripturally protected right for an Israelite to
keep his land in the family.

Deuteronomy27,26: "Cursed be anyone who doesn't
make the words of this law effective by putting it in
practice."

And Proverbs3,33 "Cursed is the house of the wicked."  

So when Naboth would not sell his coveted field to the
king- Jezabel made it happen. 

King Ahab- in his got-to-have-it-all-now-greed lost his respect
for the importance and covenantal value of a familial plot of
land, which was part of Naboth's and Israel's faith, and the
Word of God.

This faith preceded kingship in Israel and thereby precedes
the importantance of the King' spolitical power
(per Bruegermann)  which is meant to serve and protect God's
people, and is based on the providential gift of the land of
Israel to all its people.

We too in the good old USA have a providential gift of the
land in the USA. And the city of Providence in Rhode Island
is an honored place and best name sake for our nation, as
given by Roger Williams who very early recognized the
ongoing gift of America is that it must include freedom of
conscience and religion, and speech ie no more state
religions, no more being forced to go to church, like in
Europe- like the one that banished him fron the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. 

Williams refused play along with the politcs and privileges
of state and church as one. In so doing he risked and
spurned his privileged life as a powerful Puritan church
leader in order to free American Christianity from the
customary church state politics as it was practiced in
Europe, a union whereby the church in one age was
master of the poltical class and then slave in another.

No! Thank God we are not political puppets of church state
religions! And praise Jesus- we have no plan to be so in the
future, come what may! 

Ahab (and his wife) had no church state separation in their
politics- and having no need for conscience but to be
conscious of his religious and political power Ahab spurned
his human and kingly responsibility to protect the freedom
and ownership rights guaranteed in the tribal and familial
inheritance rules of the Hebrew bible.

Back to Professor Brueggemann on the perennial and
important issue of the rights of Israelis or any people to
their own land: "It is clear here, as everywhere, that the
covenantal practice of property is extremely vulnerable
to the force of commercial interest and has few ways to
effectively resist it. This clash between systems is crucial
to the perspective of biblical faith. This pervasive clash 
between systems serves to make the Bible immediately
and relentlessly contemporary, for this clash of
covenantal and commercial is everywhere evident among
us. Indeed, one can see that much of Israel’s Torah is
designed for resistance to the commoditization of the land.
This is unmistakable not least in the tenth commandment of
Sinai:

Neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife. Neither shall you
covet your neighbor’s house, or field, or male or female
slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your
neighbor. (Deuteronomy 5:21)"

I bring up this larger point up about the importance of those of
us in America being good neighbors, and us Christians being
good Christians, not hypocrite black sheep, because for too
long our modern free for all political and economic system has
led to the ready and transactional commodification of almost 
every square inch of real estate in our providential homeland.

And does anyone doubt there is a whole lot of simmering 
covetousness in the USA- especially when it comes to 
housing and the great difficulty for vast parts of our citizenry 
to be able to afford private property, or even a modest, cost
effective rent.  

And we can't say that the mortgage derivative market binge
and crash and great recession of 2007- and the resulting
hyper commodification of residential real estate market-
which  is still happening- has not given us fair warning of
starter homes now averaging above $400,000.

The derivatives crisis, and the ongoing hyper commodification
of residential real estate is partly the result of our own
undervalued shared sense of place, of land of nation and
neighborhood and a disregard for fairness and opportunity for
all. Not just opportunities and fairness for residential real estate
syndicators, investors and speculators, with money
from anywhere in the world. These latter are in direct
competition with the shift  manager at Walmart who someday
wants to buy a house and start a family. 

Now yes the sinful greed of Ahab and Jezabel stealing Naboth's
patrimonial land seems more grave, than the derivatives crisis
and the hyper investor craze- amidst the ever increasing
population and fixed amounts of precious land.

But tell that to the younger American citizens and home buyers
in the USA,  who still expect the American Dream to work for
them too.

Tell this to the millennial and Gen z folks who now compete
tooth and nail with he investor class from anywhere in the world
and facing 400K starter homes, and that's an average, try
buying a house in a nice city neighborhood and it more likely
be twice that.

And some of these younger generations here in America are
perhaps still laboring under the expectation of endless
consumerist ease- and when that doesn't work- will be
tempted by a 'side hustle' just to keep their hotly contested
place around our one economic tower of Babel.

As you might know- occasionally "side hustles" are
connected our subject matter today- fallen and unfree yoked
up sinners and generational curses and idols and sins and
addictive behaviors of our vast and fallen humankind, Again,
what happens to a nation when 350 million souls compete
to possess exactly what we all want, any which they can.

Ahab and Jezabel acted regardless of who gets stepped on,
of whom sells his or her soul, or gets killed, and now we in the
USA are seemingly more and more unbound by any covenant
of even being relatively good neighbors or even relatively more
or less connected to a place, with a shared history and a
shared culture, and shared values with similar lofty goals and
aspirations.

Yet regardless of the diversity of our cultural, racial, ethnic, and
political and religious backgrounds- we must resist the
temptation to lawlerssness and to black sheeping and cursing
each other- and otherwise sin against each other- unto the
destruction and cursing of our beloved land.

Examples Of Black Sheep In The Hebrew Scriptures
The Hebrew bible is full of black sheep- made that way by their
own sins- and bad choices, in bad situations, and by the
weakness and susceptibility of family curses- and all brought by
the ignorant worship idols and not following the commands of
God. 

There's Samson who wouldn't love and marry a Hebrew
woman, like a good son, and insisted on wasting his own
strength on a Philistine woman named Delilah, unto much
death and destruction, all to the benefit of the Philistines, the
now dissapeared enemies of Israel in the days of taking the
promised land.

Cain killed his brother Abel, out of the vain hatred, and the
narcissism and egoism of comparing himself to his more shiny 
countenanced Abel. His envious hatred sapped his love and
honor for God, and left him to murder his brother. This made
him by his own bad choice a black sheep, cursed by God to
wander (Genesis4,11-12)

Esau, the compromiser, father of land of Edom sold out his
land and title and inheritance- for a plate of beans and some 
bread- as oldest son of Issac. He sold out, became a black
sheep, and married local and handy Canaanite women 
(Genesis36), and his sins and weaknesses passed down into
future generations.  

He thus became the of the spiritual and physical father of the
Indumaen Herods, the local political muscle sell  outs for
Roman empire governed Judaea, who harrassed baby
Jesus, and Mary and Joseph. 

The Most Famous Black Sheep Of The Entire Hebrew
Scripture 
But the most famous black sheep of the Hebrew scriptures is
Absalom, King David's third son.The Harper Collins Bible
Dictionary (1997) entry calls him the most "conspicuous" of
David's sons.

Conspicuous for his full on 'all in' Black Sheep 'way of death'
nature. This is so for several mostly negative traits that ran and
heaped up in his family. He clearly was the most vicious, lustful,
and ambitious son of David- and the most intent to sow his wild
oats.

This- in a family headed by King David- that suffered the
inordinate idolatrous weaknesses of the flesh (Bathesheba!)
and the curses that attach to the aforesaid traits. Absalom
also was the most vain as suggested by his death- when his
'big hair' got caught in the branches of a tree in a war against
his own King and father:

"Now Absalom happened to meet David’s men. He was riding
his mule, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a
large oak, Absalom’s hair got caught in the tree. He was
left hanging in midair, while the mule he was riding kept on
going." 2Samuel18,19 

"While the mule kept going"- Absalom was hung by his big hair-
by the vain conversation of his life, by the futile and rebellious
conduct passed down from one generation to the next! 

2Samuel14,25 also depicts him as conspicuously handsome: 
"In all Israel there was not a man so highly praised for his
handsome appearance as Absalom. From the top of his head to
the sole of his foot there was no blemish in him."

Let me back up a bit about King David and His rebellious third
son Absalom- and preach some compassion on parents. Parents
often have a real tough time between properly correcting their 
children- and the temptation to look the other way- especially
when it comes to the task and responsiblity of correcting them.

This is not an easy task for parents especially when the lives
of the parents too are wrapped up in the wages of their own
present sins and in the effects and consequences of prior sins,
and when they are too busy- or too important- and too into
their jobs or too whatever- to manage their families well
and to plan their spiritual and "patrimonial" family inheritance.

So get this- David the master of war and conquest- the
expander of the kingdom of Judah and Israel- to its greatest
limits- the 'action Jackson' of his day- the man with all the
political juice- and all God's favor- his life got paralyzed- and
he was unable to make proper and timely decisions for
about ten years.

Ten years is too long time to be morally, spiritually paralyzed as
to the ability to make good decisions! Ten years in a man's life! 

Too long a time for anyone- let alone for a king! But it happens-
and happens to even good men- even a man after God's heart
like David. This ten years began after his son Absalom
murdered his first son Ammon for raping Abasalom's full
sister Tamar- about which David did nothing.

David could have saved face and declared his son Ammon unfit
for the kingship, and this likely would have satisfied the wrath
and ambition of his son Absalom.

But this type of public correction went against the law of
primogenture- that a man's first born son- the son of his
strength- is to succeed him in his offfice of King. Such public
correction goes against the law of royal custom- seen even
today- to  keep silent about disciplining one's own. 

After his murder of Ammon- which David daily mourned-
Absalom exiles himself in Geshur for three years- where
he could safely nurse his ambition and also be protected by
the King Talmei who was his grandfather. Grandparenst
always welcome their grand children! 2Samuel13,37-38.

At being allowed to return to Jerusalem by his distracted father,
Absalom plotted further rebellion for four years. He began by
currying favor- and gained a following- with travellers seeking
justice |in disputes as they entered the city at the gate by
chatting them up.  2Samuel15,2-4 

Then he bragged and cajoled his father about fulfilling a vow he
made to the Lord about worshipping the Lord in Hebron to which
his father David gave his blessing: "Go in peace" he said to
Absalom. 2Samuel15,9 

But Absalom's devious and angry and futile conduct
retribution plot against his father David continues- 
2Samuel15,10-12: 
"10 Then Absalom sent secret messengers throughout the tribes
of Israel to say, “As soon as you hear the sound of the
trumpets, then say, ‘Absalom is king in Hebron.’” 11 Two
hundred men from Jerusalem had accompanied Absalom.
They had been invited as guests and went quite innocently,
knowing nothing about the matter. 12 While Absalom was
offering sacrifices, he also sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite,
David’s counselor, to come from Giloh, his hometown. 
And so the conspiracy gained strength, and Absalom’s
following kept on increasing."  2Samuel15,10-12

All the while David- the father with a guilty conscience- is still
paralyzed and so flees when a dreaded messenger says
"The hearts of the people are with Absalom." v.13.

How could this this expander of the kingdom to its biggest
dimensions- this man after God's heart- be so paralyzed
and morally neglectful that he never even disciplined his
first born son? How could he be so obtuse to ignore the
familial curses beeing passed down right before his
eyes?

Like too many of us men today- David was morally and
spiritually paralyzed by his own sins. And mayby he suffered a
bit by the prideful presumptuous false idea that God
will allow important or "special" folks to skate by and avoid
the wages of sin. Not going to happen!

Psalm99,8: "Lord our God, you answered them; you were to
Israel a forgiving God, though you punished their misdeeds." 

Great leaders- great charisma, great preachers, great
anybody- God loves them unto death and salvation- but
punishes their misdeeds! 

We need as young kids and as parents to not take our sins or 
our children's sins so personally- if that is even possible- and
it sounds strange to say- but the fact is we all have to accept 
that all sin leads to consequences- that's the way God
set up the supernatural realm. Sin always has punishing
consequences and deathly consequences, unto curses
being passed down in genarations. So parents you must
deal with sin amongst yourselves and your kids- the
sooner the better. 

More Monogamy Less Black Sheep Children
David was spiritually paralyzed for taking a married woman
named Bathsheba- for himself- while sending her loyal
mercenary Hittite husband Uriah to die on the front line!

That's a murderous selfishness- that's what a black sheep
would do- not a man after the heart of God!

It's also the denial state of any sort of human good sense let
alone kingly conduct and religious example of a man with a
heart after God.

And this sin led to the punishing confrontation with the
prophet Nathan and his prophecy of two calamities in store: 

2Samuel12,11-12: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own
household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very
eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is
close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad
daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad
daylight  before all Israel.’”

This prophecy was firstly fulfilled in that Absalom by his war
against his father- and secondly by the fact that he had sex with
his father's concubines in public (2Samuel16,21-22) after
chasing his father out of town. And the revealing thing is- a valid
prophet- Ahithophel- advised Absalom to do this to embarrass
his father, to correct his father!

This is how debilitating and divisive it is when fathers and
husbands create family chaos and end up morally and
spiritually paralyzed- and thus can't quickly repent and
make a decision that will begin to knit a family back together.

All men want to help their families. We want to be a
real asset at work too, but when we live in serious sin we
men are as weak as timorous boys and as immature as
old so and so and fulano and fulana. We need to grow up-
sooner or later- the sooner the better- be the man! Be the
mensch! That Jesus and the Word and the holy Spirit
teaches us all to be. 

So now we perhaps can understand how Absalom is the
poster boy-man for the utter dysfunction and mess that gripped
King David's family and as to how He was to govern his family
and his kingdom.

As many gifted and talented men have found out- war and
business and sports and "winning" at life here and there 
and in general- is often way easier than the very particular
challenge of shepherding one's own family.

Here's how all this craziness developed.

King David's Marries A Lot To Expand The Kingdom 
King David was expanding the Kingdom of Israel by two things:
through war and by marrying influential woman with fathers and
families and wealth that could help fund him and his campaigns
and expand his United Kingdom of Judah and Israel.

So as to his first wife Michal- she was King Saul's daughter- so 
Saul sees David as his up and coming rival- and wants to kill
him off somehow in battle against the Philistines. Saul doesn't
like him so he's not going to provide a dowry for this loving
couple. But it turns out his second daughter Michal loved David-
so Saul figures I will set the bride price of one hundred
Philistine foreskins- and thereby kill off David in the battle.
1Samuel18,25

But David comes back with twice that number- so the
gimlet eyed lobster father of the bride King Saul had little
choice than to let the marriage happen rather than lose
face with David.

And David is a passionate guy, and its his first wife Michal-
she must have been very attractive to him if he is willing to
risk death and pay double the brideprice. It can also be
safely said that marrying a king's daughter displays David's
own outsized ambition- that his first son Ammon and
third son Absalom- and his eigth son Solomon- all inherited
in spades.

But in the course of Israel's earlier history and formation non
monogamy, or multiple wives, plural marriages, even in Israel
did not ruin ones covenant with God. This was because God
patiently showed his male leaders mercy- when they only
realized later in the nation's formation that monogamy was the
perfect will of God.

Exceptional Issac Had Only One Wife
Issac, through whom the blessing of the Israelite lineage would
pass, was the exceptional monogamist among the patriarchs.

He got married later at 40 and had only one wife. Good for him.
He knew the book of Genesis about one Adam and one Eve! I 
am not being flippant here- monogamy is one of the least taught 
and most difficult of biblical truths, and God knew how difficult it
was going to be- so his teaching in it was more gradual and
hidden. 

Too many wives makes 'black sheep' children in
need of parenting! 
 
David And His Son Solomon Had Too Many Wives
But David was no Issac! He had eight wives and 
ten concubines. His son Solomon, a chip offf the old block, I
mean the block not washed by the blood of Jesus, had seven
hundred wives and three hundred concubines- for political
as well as selfish reasons.

In fact monogamy didn't even become the norm until after the
return from 70 years of Babylonian exile- in 520 BC-
the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. (There are also cautions
against intermarriage in Exodus 34,10 and at Deuteronomy
7,3-4)

In the time of Ezra and Nehemiah Isreal the nation
especially needed to maintan the purity and identity of
religious Judaism  so this meant Jews were told to
marry in the faith- so their nation and the faith of
"Judaism" would survive.

It wasn't until 1000 of the Common Era (AD) that  Rabbi
Gershom Ben Judah laid down the decree from Mainz
Germany that  Askenazi (ie European) Jews could
not have more than one wife. https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/
article/halakhic-decisions-on-family- matters-in-medieval-
jewish-society

This topic of monogamy is fascinating- it didn't become the
secular criminal law- against bigamy- in Israel until 1977-
up till then you could still get permission from a rabbi to
have two wives.

But I mention it here only to say again that the more wives one
has the more potential for neglected 'black" sheep- and
problems like which wife does the husband love most? And
who inherits what, and who leads the family or the nation? 

We love all families- and today we say "blended" families.
What a supreme challenge it is to to parent and even more so
in "blended" families. Count it all joy! There need not ever be 
a black sheep in any family- as there is none in Jesus's flock!  

Abraham had multiple wives, so did Jacob, two Israelite and
two slave wives. 

As the sons and daughters of the multiple marriages grow
the risk of disobedient "black" sheep, or the whole lot of
them going to seed and becoming disloyal, increases- due
to lack of  fatherly guidance since dad is too busy
with all his other children, wives, and work responsibilities.

But one of the ways David used with great skill to be and
remain king was to marry many women from strategic places
and into powerful political familes to both expand and then
make his kingdom- if not his family- easier to govern. 

For example, his third wife Maachah was a foreign princess of
King Talmai of Geshur, an Aramaen King. The marriage
secured peace and expanded the kingdom east of the sea of
Galillee.

But David had already sowed the seed of a bad and murderous
example to his son Absalom when he killed Uriah the Hittite.

Compassion For Absalom
Absalom is the son whom the father David never rebuked. 
David played the chill and absent dad, what a mistake! 

Perhaps we might have some compassion for all Absalom's
rebellions and violences if we knew how neglectful his father
was?

And that raises another issue in marriages with too absent
and chill dads- how many women are left with the thankless
jobs of correcting their sons and daughters because their
husbands don't do it!

(This is not always the husband and father's fault. In some
cultures- mothers may covet and seize this disciplinary turf and
quieran mandar- they want to boss- when they are young and
feisty and think this is the way to do family. But wait dear sir
there will come a time when she tires off being the disciplnarian
and you will have your chance to be the man of the house!) 

Absalom had an absent father- David was awol running the
streets to expand the kingdom- and more wives was part of that
strategy. More than one wife at a time means more sins more
generational issues and curses.  

And young sons should not have to play the adult roles of
fathering as Absalom had to do when David did not even step
in and care for his daughter Tamar after she was raped- that
role was wrongly left to Absalom.

And Absalom may have resented having to sort out and
pick up the pieces of his desolate sister Tamar's life 
(2Sam13,20) when that job should have been done by his
daddy King David!

It is not hard to predict that his personal and political rebellion
would be triggered there too- given that son Absalom was
forced into playing a fatherly role to his sister, that his father
abandoned.    

First Bible Passage That Addresses A Son Like Absalom 
Deuteronomy21,10-21 attempts to clean up a situation
like that of King David and the Aramaen princess Maacah of
Geshur east of lake Galillee who David takes as his third wife-
pursuant kingdom expansion:

This passage wants to do three things:
1) protect Israelite women and the nation and the people of
Israel by discouraging foreign wives taken in war;
2) protect the inheritance right of the first born son
(In David's case that would be Ammon his first son by his
first wife not Absalom. Ammon would inherit the kingdom
to the extent of the reign); and
3) address a rebellious son, a black sheep son, like Absalom. 

The NIV bible has three headings
1. "Marrying a Captive Woman";
2. "The Right Of The First Born" and;
3. "A Rebellious Son."

10 When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your
God delivers them into your hands and you take captives, 11 if
you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are
attracted to her, you may take her as your wife. 12 Bring her
into your home and have her shave her head, trim her nails 
13 and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured.
After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and
mother for a full month, then you may go to her and be her 
husband and she shall be your wife. 14 If you are not pleased
with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her 
or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.

15 If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the
other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of
the wife he does not love, 16 when he wills his property to
his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the
son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn,
the son of the wife he does not love. 17 He must acknowledge
the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a
double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his
father’s strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him. 

18 If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son 
who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to
them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall
take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his
town.  20 They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is
stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton
and a drunkard.”  21 Then all the men of his town are to
stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you.
All Israel will hear of it and be afraid." [I cite the passage in full
not because vv18-21 are still operative, but to remind that
discipline is required of parents for rebellious offspring]     
Deuteronomy21,10-21

Absalom needed the blood of Jesus- but it had not been provided
yet!

But there is A New Testament Scriptural Remedy For
Absalom! 
1Peter3,19-20: "After being made alive, he went and made
proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— 20 to those who
were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in
the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a
few people, eight in all, were saved through water..."

1Peter4,5: "But they will have to give account to him who is
ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is the
reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now
dead, so that they might be judged according to human
standards in regard to the body, but live according to God
in regard to the spirit."

Matthew27,51-53: "At that moment [of his death] the curtain
of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth
shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The
bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to
life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection
and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

Romans11,25-26: 'I do not want you to be ignorant of this
mystery,  brothers and sisters, so that you may not be
conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until
the full number of the Gentiles has come in, 26 and in this
way all Israel will be saved.  As it is written: “The deliverer
will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from
Jacob.' 

False Prophets Return God's Servants To 'The Way
Of Death' And Make Black Sheep Out Of Them  
Revelation2,19-23:
"I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and
perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you
did at first. 20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You
tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a
prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into
sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to
idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality,
but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of
suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with
her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I
will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will
know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I
will repay each of you according to your deeds." NIV

How prophets are treated in the Hebrew bible and the New
Testament is worthy of whole study itself but what we have in
this passage is the risen prophet Jesus- through the
pastoral and prophetic ministry of John the Revelator- trying
to win the fledgling church at Thyatira back to his solid
prophetic doctrine from "Jezebel" who has revealed herself to
both Jesus and John as a false prophetess. (cf JBC 63:25
describes her as a "rival" of the Revelator. 1990 PH p. 1003) 
 
First off, let's not let modern gender huffiness enter into the
discussion here. The "Jezebel" type of controlling power
monger and narcissist seducer can also effect the male
gender as well. (The NIV Study Bible 1995 at Rv2,6
interestingly notes at 2,6 that Jezebel and her followers
were Nicolaitan (those who dominate the laity with their
religious power) libertines. p1926.)

Nor should we get too upset that John has more likely chosen
to give her the name "Jezebel" in that this name both ramps up
the controversy that John has been forced to confront- and
also depersonalizes it a bit.

Thus, though she is definately on the way out, she is also 
getting a bit of a reprieve, if one could call it that, a time of
bed ridden suffering, bed being a likely a referance referal
to her sexual immorality that corrupted Christian servants.

She claims to know the 'dark secrets of Satan' as if this were
somehow laudable or necessary for a proper Christian faith.
It clearly isn't! The same NIV Study Bible notes at 2,24:
"Later Gnosticism taught that in order to defeat satan one had
to enter his stronghold."   

Just as Adam and Eve had no enlightenment command by God
to eat of the Tree of Good and evil, or to talk to satan in snake
form in their curious search of secrets, this "Jezebel" in
Thyatira- who still calls herself a prophetess- has  taught
Christ's servants "her" ways of idolatry and immorality.

This sounds like sex immorality perhaps with some
"adulterous"- idolatrous pagan fertility worship aspects of
Cannanite Baal and Asherah spirituality thrown in- all done
under the non Christian cover of gnostical "dark secrets of
satan." This phrase has apparently impressed those in 
her spiritual thrall who are described as 'her children' 
Revelation2,22.

Unless these "children" repent of their pagan feritlity
practices (which Jesus and the bible always describes as
"adultery" against his sovereign and covenantal love as
at  Verse 22)- Jesus will strike them dead according to
verse 23. This is surely one of the most vehement and
pointed passages of the New Testament. 

This false prophet is leading gullible and immature
Christians (likely gentiles) back into the corrupting lust 
of  their deathly sin nature rather than leading them
into the fullness of their new creation Holy Ghost 
nature (2Peter1,4).

This is making heretical Gnostic libertines out of the
flock. This suggests moral laxity and spiritual corruption-
as in King Ahab's and the prior Jezabel's day- has pretty
well set in this faction of the church of Thyatira.  

The upshot of Jezebel's false prophesy is these
servants of the Lord have been led back to "the way of
death' and the curse of death and the unfreedom of sin
that characterized gentiles prior to the advent of Jesus
and the spread of his gospel to Thyatira.

So these poor souls are once again shackled to the sin of 
the world, the devil and the flesh- and all wrapped up in
the specific Satanic mendacity of gnostic-religious sexual
libertinism. This libertnism would dovetail with any related
familial idols and weakness and curses that the false
prophet's "children" were also laboring under.

So for them, who have been misled from salvation back to
the way of death and cursing their only remedy now is a
personally repentant and mature faith as written in the
WORD of God. We trust John the Revelator would or
could personally counsel this to them- and make the
application of the saving and healing blood of Jesus
(1Peter1,18-19)- and perhaps minister deliverance
to them- to once again liberate them from the curse
and way of death.

Conclusion:
Yes our deliveror, our risen Jesus- is not too proud to
save all his people, Jew and gentile, to free all those cursed
by the epithet "black sheep" in the family or wherever.

But watch out deraly beloved of God- time to take stock of
our eternal lives! And where we will spend eternity.

Time to realize that sin and the way of death and our sinful
nature prior to faith and redemption accumulates in the lives
of individuals, and is passed down in the lives of families
and into churches like in Thyatira, and heaps up and gets
passed down in the world's nations, and religions and cultures-
thus doing great harm- and variously cursing the very humanity
who God gave his life to redeem and thereby offer us fellowship
with Him forever. 

Oh glory Lord Jesus we take a moment to realize all you
have done for us gentiles- may we like Naboth- never
turn from your way of life, the way of your Word, the way of
sowing what God sows, like he did in his field in Jezreel.

Jesus sowed all that brings us and everyone the kingdom
of God- where we all reap the vintage of Jesus' life and
death and all His blessings. Glory and much Holy Ghost
love to our King Jesus!

Jesus' gospel vineyard is a sacred place, a gift of God,
and bears a rich harvest oh glory from Abraham to
Jesus, to the apostles and prophets of the bible and 
those walking the earth today. 

May we sing in joy with the prophet Isaiah and Naboth, of
our love for our One God, of our love for his vineyard and
all his people! 

Isaiah5,1-6:
I will sing for the one I love
     a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
     on a fertile hillside.
2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones
      and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
       and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes.."

We are your crop of good grapes Lord!

https://www.zionpentecostmission.com/deliverance-now.html

https://www.zionpentecostmission.com/wait-wait...-dont-gossip.html