GOD’s penalty for the sin of idolatry is that the children of parents found guilty will bear the brunt to the third and fourth generation.
He says for this sin, He will send curses as punishment for His children and their children’s children.
Deuteronomy 28:15. “However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you.”
God warned the Israelites against idolatry which is the practice of occult as described in Deuteronomy 18:10-13 involving;
- Human sacrifice
- Divination
- Sorcery and magic arts
- Interpreting omens
- Witchcraft
- Casting spells
- Spiritism and Fortune telling
- Necromancy
Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.
Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD; because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.
You must be blameless before the LORD your God.”
We are blessed when we obey but in a cursed position if we disobey and choose to live in rebellion.
Deuteronomy 28:15. However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you.
Idolatry is a sin of rebellion. God hates rebellion and puts it on the same scale as witchcraft.
1 Samuel 15 :23. For rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king.
Witchcraft seeks to control people through manipulation, seduction, charms and sorcery against the will and purposes of God.
It is an affront to God’s unchallengeable sovereignty, power and supreme authority. It is a spat on the face of God.
Idolatry is the only sin that enters the spirit-man(Holy of Holies) to compete against and attempts to remove God from His throne of worship. It exults itself above the sovereignty of God. 
Exodus 20:2-6.“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before.
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.
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, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
Idolatry manipulates the mind
Idolatry attempts to ”upstage” God by manipulating the mind and remote- controlling people against the will of the Father.
Ezekiel 13: 20. “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against your magic charms with which you ensnare people like birds and I will tear them from your arms; I will set free the people that you ensnare like birds.”
God hates idolatry because it attempts to usurp His supreme power by alluding to other powers elsewhere that can be relied on, other than God.
Anytime we seek supernatural experience outside God and not through Jesus Christ His only begotten son, we are practicing idolatry.
Click on the link below to watch a video on pastor Nellie’s teaching on idolatry and curses.
Idolatry is a form of rebellion which is a work of the flesh (Satan).
Galatians 5:19. “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God”
All rebellion starts with the devil. Ezekiel 28:13-17.
You were in Eden,
the garden of God;
every precious stone adorned you:
carnelian, chrysolite and emerald,
topaz, onyx and jasper,
lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl.
Your settings and mountings were made of gold;
on the day you were created they were prepared.
You were anointed as a guardian cherub,
for so I ordained you.
You were on the holy mount of God;
you walked among the fiery stones.
You were blameless in your ways
from the day you were created
till wickedness was found in you.
Through your widespread trade
you were filled with violence,
and you sinned.
So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God,
and I expelled you, guardian cherub,
from among the fiery stones.
Your heart became proud
on account of your beauty,
and you corrupted your wisdom
because of your splendour.
So I threw you to the earth;
I made a spectacle of you before kings.
Idolatry attracts God’s wrath
Rebellion then came down through Adam and Eve.
Genesis 3:1-3. “Now the snake was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God really say : You must not eat from any tree in the garden?
The woman said to the snake, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. ’
‘You will not certainly die,’ the snake said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Rebellion, witchcraft or idolatry in this case, like any other Spirit you allow, will consume you by attracting God’s wrath and His punishment through curses.
Consequences of Idolatry
The nation of Israel rebelled many times and God warned them of the consequences of Idolatry. He says in Numbers 14:33, “Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.”
The curses from disobedience that God promised His people in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 28 from verse 15-61, include humiliation, failure to reproduce, mental and physical illness, family breakdown, alienation of children, poverty, defeat, oppression and failure at the edge of breakthrough and God’s disfavour.
“You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it.
You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit,” Deuteronomy 28:30.
When such things are happening , God is angry and is punishing His children with curses for not obeying His commandments.
God said for disobedience, His children would be defeated before their enemies, the enemies who initially He promised to rout in seven directions!
There are 65 curses both personal and generational that the Lord promises to send on His children for disobeying his commandments.
Worship of other gods
A personal curse will affect an individual, while a generational curse follows a lineage.
God equally promises to bless us for obedience. Exodus 23:25-28. “You shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you.
None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.
And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.”
It is right then to say, if in rebellion we worship another god, there will be a curse upon our lives and the lives of our descendants and if we obey He blesses us to a “thousand generations.”
There will be sickness, death amongst us, barrenness and poverty.
Family members are going to die early, we are going to live in defeat because a curse from God is affecting our bloodline.
Rebellion can be very costly while obedience can be extremely rewarding.
Modern day Idolatry
King Saul died after he disobeyed God and visited mediums. 1 Samuel 28 :4. And when Saul enquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.
Then said Saul unto his servants, seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her.
And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor.
1 Chronicles 10:13 says, Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord; he did not keep the word of the Lord and even consulted a medium for guidance, and did not inquire of the Lord. So the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.
Modern day idolatry includes everything that supersedes and upstages the position of God is an individual’s life.
Today it goes beyond the worship of carved images and false heathen gods.
It may be your career, business, addictions, technology, fashion trends, education, intellectualism and literally anything that takes the number one position away from God.
Anything you love more than God, anything you give more time and attention than God is an idol in your life and may also include self worship, self centeredness and pride as well.
When we seek to know the future through fortune tellers or star gazers, through palm readers, mediums, horoscopes in magazines we are participating in Idolatry because we are listening to a voice which is not of God (Spirit) but of the flesh (Satan).
It is rebellion which is like witchcraft.
People are heavily involved in interpreting omens that some will not report to work on certain calendar days or when a black cat crossed the road.
An omen is anything perceived or a happening believed to portend a good or evil effect in the future.
There was a bird in a certain community which if spotted, was a sign that there would be visitors. Others are associated with calamities and if seen portend death in the community. What are some of the things considered bad omen in your culture?
Some are interpreted to be good, for example, if your hands are itching it is a sign that you will receive money.
A believer does not interpret omens, good or bad, but believes in the Almighty God the maker of heaven and earth and who controls all circumstances and events. Interpretation of omens is something God does not like.
For the sin of idolatry, punishment befalls even those who did not participate! When you warn somebody of danger and consequences but they go on and do it they have themselves to blame for the punishment.
Isaiah 8:19-20. When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God?
Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. 1 John 5:21.
Breaking curses from idolatry
A curse has supernatural power and can affect both the saved and unsaved, until it is broken!
Disciplines of Christian life- prayer, fasting, Bible reading, meditation and fellowship do not break a curse.
Click this link How do I know am under a curse? to read a related post on how to identify curses.
Curses come from God because He is angry with His children and is punishing them for disobedience and that is why the only way to break loose is through repentance as it is God who has issued the decree, like a judge.
We therefore return to Him to lift the sentence. We do not fight Satan when it is a curse because He is not the one who brought it in the first place. Satan like a parasite, only takes advantage of the presence of the curse.
We turn to God. Joel 2: 12-13. Even now, declares the Lord, Return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.
Rend your heart and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity.”
We repent and ask for forgiveness for our own idolatry and the idolatry of our forefathers back to Adam and ask God to remove the consequences of the curse.
