"Woe to You...or Oy'"

We talked about Korazin, one of the towns that Jesus said “woe to you” to, in Matthew chapter 11. As Yoni explained, we generally assume Jesus was cursing these cities for their lack of response to His ministry. I must say I was surprised at my sense of relief at Yoni’s explanation. Almost as if I had been worried about these cities for all my life…I know that sounds strange, but being in Israel healed a lot of things even if small misconceptions.

So it turns out that if Jesus had really cursed these towns they would have dried up quickly almost like the fig tree. When Korazin was excavated in modern times, 10 olive presses were found. Usually one olive press sufficed for 200 people. This seemed to confirm the history that Korazin was a large prosperous farming community that actually thrived for 1800 years in one type of settlement or another. That certainly doesn’t seem like a cursed town.

In Hebrew the term Oy’ was used where we read “woe”, and this is more an exclamation than a curse. The better term would be “beware” along with an exclamation similar to “Oh my goodness”. Woe is a warning and not a curse. It is a warning to repent. Repentance in the Hebrew context means “return to your father”.

Our LORD Jesus never came to curse anything but to break all curses, He never wrote off anything or anybody, but desired to write things back into God’s plan. Capernaum, Bethsaida and Korazin would have gone the way of Sodom and Gomorrah if Jesus cursed them.

It is easy to buy a line from satan that God will write us off after we mess up for the millionth tim;, when God the Father actually says: “return to Me and My ways”. So I tell myself: “Henry it really is that easy, never forget! “. Today is the National Day of Prayer: let’s ALL return to the Father!!!