The Messiah Simeon Waited For

Day 55, The Cursed Tree

Deuteronomy 21:22-23 “If anyone is found guilty of an offense deserving the death penalty and is executed, and you hang his body on a tree, 23 you are not to leave his corpse on the tree overnight but are to bury him that day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.” (HCSB)

Today is the last post about trees. (Plus you’ll probably see a couple more posts since I’m trying to catch up from sick days and finish the 60th on Christmas Day.)

I couldn’t neglect this prophecy as the final one. During the days of Moses and the giving of the law, God made certain points clear. One here was that hanging on a tree was a sign of God’s curse and that a body on a tree bore God’s judgment.

Years before the Romans even thought of crucifixion, God knew how his son would die. The two large beams of wood that made up this torturous method of death were even called the ‘tree’ in the slang of the day.

Before Jesus could be the new tree that beckoned the nations, before he could grow from the cedar of Abraham, before he could grow out of the root of Jesse, before he could become the long-awaited branch of David, he needed to satisfy the payment for God’s curse upon the tree of man.

As Simeon said, Jesus will be a sign. That sign, like the snake Moses lifted in the desert, will be something that people can look to if they want healing. They aren’t forced to. They must choose to. If they look and accept, the sign of the cross will be a blessing to them. If they oppose it, becoming swords to pierce the souls of believers, their hearts will be revealed by the same God they revile.

The apostle Paul said it best when he quoted from Deuteronomy. (Galatians 3:11-14, HCSB) Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith. But the law is not based on faith; instead, the one who does these things will live by them. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written: Everyone who is hung on a tree is cursed. The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith.

A Sixty-Day Countdown to Christmas


More Days

Introduction to The Messiah Simeon Waited For

Holding Jesus

Day 3, A Sketch of Simeon

Simeon Was a Godly Man

Day 5, Simeon's Testimony

Day 6, Prophecies for the Gentiles

Day 7, Blessing to Nations

Day 8, A Holy People

Day 9, Welcoming God's Firstborn

Day 10, The Name of Simeon

Day 11, Staying Alive

Day 12, Following the Spirit

Day 13, Taking Up Jesus

Day 14, God's Slave

Day 15, True Peace

Day 16, Seeing Reality

Day 17, The Intent of the Law

Day 18, For All Peoples

Day 19, Making Mary and Joseph Marvel

Day 20, A Blessing

Day 21, Hinting at the Rest of the Story

Day 22, Mary Will Grieve

Day 23, Making Simeon into Simeon

Day 24, Prophet to the Prophets

Day 25, A Priest Like Melchizedek

Day 26, Destined for Sacrifice

Day 27, Jesus and the Passover Lamb, part 1

Day 28, Jesus and the Passover Lamb, part 2

Day 29, Jesus and the Passover Lamb, Part 3

Day 30, Jesus as the Lamb (con.)

Day 31, Simeon as a Man of Gratitude

Day 32, Sacrificing Lambs in the Old Testament

Day 33, The Silent Lamb

Day 34, The Messiah as Light

Day 35, Jesus the Stumbling Block

Day 36, Jesus as the Rock

Day 37, The Precious Cornerstone

Day 38, The Stone in Zion

Day 39, The Cornerstone and the Gate

Day 40, The Stone of Judgment

Day 41, Into Zion First

Day 42, Restoring the Booth of David

Day 43, Forgotten Stones

Day 44, Blessed to Receive

Day 45, Crown Him with Many Crowns

Day 46, Identifying the Son of God

Day 47, The Best Storyteller Ever

Day 48, In Bethlehem, the City of David

Day 49, Born a King

Day 50, The Living Jesus

Day 51, The Mountain Tree (Part 1)

Day 52, The Mountain Tree (Part 2)

Day 53, The Root of Jesse

Day 54, David's Branch

Day 55, The Cursed Tree

Day 56, Time Fulfilled

Day 58 through 60

Day 57, Born David's King