Deuteronomy 21:23

As soon as the sun went down, Joshua commanded them to take the body of the king of Ai down from the tree. To all human appearance this would be a detail of no importance, but a heart fed by the word of God could not overlook it. To neglect it would have been to lose sight of the holiness of God... In a word, a holy God could not dwell where there is defilement.

Were they man's curses that fell on the blessed Jesus on the cross? No. Deuteronomy says that "a hanged man is cursed by God," for the believer can say, "The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isa. 53:6).

The curse the law pronounced was a perfectly just sentence. It rested on the Jew who had been placed under the law, and it had to be borne in righteousness before it could be lifted off him. In the death of Christ the curse was borne, and so the believing Jew is set free from under it. Many people long ago read Deuteronomy 21:23 and may have wondered why the curse was tied to death on a tree, rather than to death by any other means, such as stoning or the sword. Now we know. At the right time the Redeemer was to bear the curse for others by hanging on a tree, and so honour the law. It is another case of how Scripture sees ahead!

This calls for solemn reflection and deep thankfulness. Man heaped the deepest shame and suffering on Jesus, and in grace God turns it to the purposes of redeeming love. For who does not know that Jesus took this place of the curse on the cross, to bear our judgment in the sight of God?

The hanging on the tree is not itself the curse, as should be obvious, though to some it is not. It only marks the one on whom the curse falls. The curse itself is no external thing, but a deep reality in the soul of the one who bears it. This was the wrath on sin which Christ bore for us, the forsaking of God. If He had not borne it, no blessing could have been for anyone.

Think of the curse as a great sword hanging by a thread over my head. It may fall at any moment and destroy me. Christ came above me, between me and the sword. The sword fell on Him; He received the blow that must have taken us down to hell; He took us out from under the curse.

Only certain crimes called for hanging the body, for this showed a man dying under the curse of God. It was meant as a public disgrace and a warning to others. But that disgrace was not to go on beyond the day of hanging. Galatians 3:13 shows this applies above all to the Lord Jesus, who on Calvary was made a curse for us, put through the most dreadful disgrace for our sakes. But this dreadful course lasted only that one day. When His great work of atonement was finished, those who loved Him took the body of the Lord Jesus and laid it in a grave (John 19:38-42). We will never understand the depths of agony He suffered under the curse of God for our sakes. But we thank God that His work was done so perfectly. God raised Him from the dead, and He is alive forevermore, and this assures believers of their eternal redemption.