10 Generational Curses & Animals That Represent Them
Both the Bible and literature use symbolism to give the reader a picture or mental image of a person, place, or thing.
It has been proven that if you can visualize or form a mental picture of something, then you are more likely to remember it.
What do these symbols have to do with the root system of your family tree? They may illuminate to you certain traits of family iniquities. Let me explain. Throughout the Bible, God uses animals as symbols. When God gave dreams to the prophets of old, many times those dreams were a picture “language” to them.
Jesus is depicted throughout the Bible as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Unlike the devil, who walks about “as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8),” Jesus is the real King of the jungle. Scripture refers to Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
My husband, Wally, and I once traveled to Zimbabwe, Africa. We noticed that the people in that part of Africa had what they called “totems.” These totems are symbols of their tribes. For example, there was one tribe that had a totem of a snake. Each snake had its own house and one was kept in the backyard of every family in that tribe. The tribal belief was that at night, their god—the snake—left the totem and returned before daylight.
The snake in the Bible and in America is anything but a god. I’m sure that when many of you think about the nature of a snake, you think of a sneaky, crafty, slimy creature. But in some African countries, they won’t as much as touch a snake because they consider it a deity!
The Lizard
The lizard is a fearful animal. It moves quickly and jumps at the slightest movement or noise; it is afraid of everything. I know people who are like that—they are so filled with fear that they will flee at the drop of a hat.
Some of my family members are like this. I believe there is an “iniquity” of fear upon my family. Many of them are fearful of what could happen or what the future holds. They wonder if something will go wrong and they will lose everything they’ve worked so hard to obtain. I’ve seen this pattern of thinking in my parents, grandparents, myself, and my children.
Do you feel like fear is an iniquity in your family? Would you say that if there were a totem in your backyard, it would be that of a lizard?
The Bat
Have you heard the expression, “They only come out at night”? That is very true of bats, and the reason why is that these nocturnal creatures are blind.
Many families live in spiritual darkness. No matter what you tell them, how hard or often you witness to them, they just cannot see the light of God’s Word. Even in the midst of a crisis that would bring most families to their knees, a family who is blind to spiritual things will be oblivious to what is going on. It’s almost like there is an invisible wall that perpetuates their dwelling in darkness. No wonder Paul said:
Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: for the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them (Acts 28:26, 27).
The word gross in this context means to thicken or render callous. In other words, the spiritual blindness began when someone in the bloodline rejected the Gospel of truth and hardened his heart to the things of God. This led to spiritual blindness and an iniquity which is passed from generation to generation.
I remember the husband of a friend of ours and how blind he was to spiritual things. You could take him to the most anointed church service, and he’d never get anything out of it. It was almost as though the Gospel was beyond his natural comprehension. His father and grandfather were the same way.
Because of the condition of their hearts, this family will remain in darkness until someone in their family tree comes into the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. The devil works in darkness. But when the light comes, the darkness is dispelled and the devil is revealed for who he is—a defeated foe and a liar. Psalm 119:130 says, “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” Once the power of darkness is broken over a family, they can be set free of spiritual blindness.
The Snake
The snake has always been a symbol of lying and deception.
From Genesis to Revelation, Satan is depicted as a liar and deceiver. As a matter of fact, his first appearance in the Bible was in Genesis, when he deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in the form of a snake. In a family tree, the snake is symbolic of the destructive tendencies of lying and deception.
Racial and ethnic prejudice is a deception that has become an iniquity in families and nations. Many wars have been and are being fought along racial and ethnic lines. And it runs deep. I remember when I was just six years old and I overheard my grandparents make a racial comment. I dearly adored them, but when I heard their comment, something inside of me said, This is wrong.
They were being deceived by the devil because of their own racial prejudice. That deception was passed to their children and grandchildren. Thank God it was not passed to me. I chose not to allow that same pattern of family iniquity.
The Owl
The owl has been used as a symbol of wisdom and knowledge. I can remember our local library used to encourage us to read, and the owl was the symbol on the bookmarks they’d give us. The owl in a family tree represents false knowledge.
The first recorded sin in Scripture was that of seeking after knowledge. Eve was tempted to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The serpent told her that if she would eat of the tree, she’d become as a god, knowing good from evil:
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat (Genesis 3:4-6).
I know a young lady who was raised in satanism. She was dedicated to Satan as a child, and her head was filled with false knowledge about him. When her mother and brother became born again, they started bringing her to church. She’d sit in the service as though a dark cloud were over her head. She had the look of death on her.
Even though she’d get headaches each time she attended a service, she continued coming until one night, the light of God’s Word penetrated the darkness that had this woman bound. Today she is one of the most radiant Christians in our church. She was set free from the occult and the false knowledge that Satan is god.
The Vulture
The vulture is an unclean bird. We associate the vulture with dead animals. We know that by nature, it eats creatures that have already died and begun to decay. This bird is shown in the death scenes of many old western films. You see it circling in the air, hovering over its dying victim, waiting to descend so it can eat its flesh.
In a family tree, the vulture is a symbol of tendencies that are associated with death. These tendencies include both suicidal and homicidal predispositions.
Suicide and murder have become common occurrences in today’s society. I’m sure you’ve either heard of or perhaps lived in communities where suicide or violence seemed to run in certain families. I’ve heard of a family in which the mother overdosed on pills, her son committed murder, and the grandson committed a murder/suicide. How tragic! But this is just one of the many iniquities that can be found in a family tree.
The Frog
The frog is symbolic of carnal or sexual sin in a family tree. In nature, frogs are known for their multiplication and jumping. Some people are just like frogs—they jump into situations without thinking, and some even jump from bed to bed.
With the HIV virus and the threat of AIDS being at an all-time high, I’m sure many of you would agree that sexual sin runs rampant throughout the world. Pornography and homosexuality have almost become commonplace. This iniquity has become so entrenched in the fabric of American society that both the American family and the nation as a whole are affected by it.
Sexual iniquity in a family tree is a strong sin to deal with because it literally enslaves the members of each generation:
Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (Romans 6:16)
Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body (1 Corinthians 6:16, 18).
The Egyptians were very much involved in sexual sin. Some of the animals they worshiped had to do with the types of sexual sins they committed. God judged the Egyptians with the plagues he sent to destroy them. Many family trees are completely wiped out because of their sexual sin. This does not have to happen to your family tree, however; God has provided a way of escape through repentance, forgiveness, and the shed blood of Jesus.
The Spider
The spider is known for the webs it spins. No matter how well you clean your house, you’ll find a spider in some remote corner of your home. If you get rid of the web but don’t destroy the spider, it will spin a web in another spot in your home.
Spiders are very territorial. With each web they communicate, “This turf is mine, and I’m not going to share it.”
One of the strongest and most dangerous webs that a person can weave is possessiveness. The spider in the web in a family tree is symbolic of greed, selfishness, and jealousy.
The Bible says that “the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). Greed, selfishness, and jealousy feed off of one another. Greed breeds selfish behavior: “I want it all to myself and refuse to share with anyone else. There’s only enough for me!” Once greed and selfishness team up with one another, then jealousy kicks in. “You have more than me, and I want what you have too.”
America is full of greed. We’re not a team-oriented society; everything is “Me, me, me, me.” Greed is a strong, inherited trait in most family trees because success and material well- being are equated with money. To most people, it doesn’t matter how you make your money, just as long as you have a lot of it.
Many a family has been destroyed because of this iniquity.
And like the spider and her web, this family trait cannot be eradicated by simply destroying the web (the symptom); the spider (the root) must be destroyed as well. Otherwise, it will simply go to another part of your home—the next generation of your family tree—and spin an even bigger, stronger web.
The Scorpion
The scorpion is a creature that inflicts great pain. It is symbolic of a tendency toward pain. This tendency in a family tree could be in the form of self-pity.
There are many people who have a tendency to dwell upon the emotional hurts and pain of their past. They have a “woe is me” attitude and get great satisfaction out of licking their wounds. If you attempt to tell them that Isaiah 53:4 says Jesus has already born their griefs and carried their sorrows, they will become upset with you. After all, you can’t possibly understand how bad they’ve been hurt and are still hurting—they say.
Many Christians are living with emotional pain from their past—some simply through ignorance and some by choice. The good news is that Christ won their freedom over two thousand years ago and by His stripes, they are free!
The Hornet
Hornets also inflict pain, but they are better known for their anger and aggressive attacks. In a family tree, they are symbolic of anger, rage, bitterness, and revenge.
People who have this kind of iniquity in their family tree are likely to become angry at the drop of a hat. They are very negative people who are either always angry with someone or always looking for someone else to hate. They have very few friends. You can see the anger raging from generation to generation.
The Turtle
Are you as slow as a turtle? This animal is considered by many as one of the slowest moving animals God made. It sticks its head in its shell when trouble comes. Some families are like turtles: they get very little accomplished. They often shirk responsibility when they need to assert themselves. The turtle symbolizes both laziness and procrastination in a family tree.
Prayer of Confession
Each of these unclean creatures is representative of a tendency toward sin that you may find in your life or in your family tree. By now I’m sure you’re beginning to understand that we all have inherited certain family iniquities. I’m sure you’re also beginning to realize that you and your future generations can be free to walk in blessings you’ve inherited from Jesus through His death, burial, and resurrection.
Through the finished work of Jesus Christ, you have the authority to declare that the generational curses in your family are broken!
