Acts 23:12-15 :
When it was day, some of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. There were more than forty people who had made this conspiracy. They came to the chief priests and the elders, and said, “We have bound ourselves under a great curse, to taste nothing until we have killed Paul. Now therefore, you with the council inform the commanding officer that he should bring him down to you tomorrow, as though you were going to judge his case more exactly. We are ready to kill him before he comes near.”
Paul’s persecution was severe at this point. You could say that he now had men so dedicated to his destruction that they were willing to kill themselves to destroy him. This is not unlike many of the enemies of Christianity today.
We also see a little bit about how sin works. Many people blame God for the suffering that we face here on earth. Notice, however, that we bring suffering on ourselves by dedicating ourselves to our own destruction. These men who came against Paul dedicated themselves to a task that God told Paul would not happen. Paul was going to Rome because God had already predestined it. These men took an oath against their own lives in order to oppose the will of God. They now had no choice but to be cursed. The details of how were yet to be worked out but we will see how that plays out next.
The point that we should see is that God is not to blame for our rebellion against Him. All of us have rebelled against the Law of God at some point in our lives. Jesus lived a live in which none of the 10 Commandments were broken. He made us look bad because that is what we are. None of us have an excuse before God and His Laws. Jesus, however, loves us and has provided a way that we can be forgiven because He chose to die in our place. All we have to do, now, is accept this gift. We are the reason we are cursed. All that God has done is to show us the truth and provide a way to be saved from the judgment to come when we face Him.