Blessings and Curses

Randy Felton
Potter’s Clay Ministries, Inc.
417 NW 42^nd St.
Oklahoma City, OK 73118
Shalom2@cox.net
www.haydid.org/potter.htm

Blessings and Curses

We have looked at blessings in certain contexts. This will attempt to look at blessings in a more general way and also consider the aspect of curses.

Blessing, from the English definition: 1. The act of good wishes 2. An expression of good wishes 3. A special favor granted by God 4. Anything contributing to happiness 5. Approbation (approval or sanction) 6. A short prayer at meal time.

Curse, 1. An appeal to a supernatural power for evil to befall someone or something. 2. A scourge 3. Any profane oath.

It is interesting to note that in the Tanakh or Old Testament, Blessing, or some form of it is used410 times and curse, or some form of it is used 338 times. In the New Testament bless is found 112 times and curse is found 23 times. Blessing is spoken of far more times than is cursing. Perhaps that is why we know more about blessing or at least are more aware of it.

There are 4 words in the OT that are translated bless and 4 words in the NT that are translated bless. In the OT there are 9 words translated curse and 4 words translated curse in the NT. It would serve us well to look at the words being translated and see the meaning behind these words to get the meaning conveyed in a particular passage.

I want to look at Genesis 12:3 and also at Proverbs 26:2

Gen 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Here we find bless us used 3 times and all three times the word comes from the Hebrew, barak. In this we have the word picture of a camel being made to kneel in order to rest and drink while being loaded with goods to distribute at the point of need. There is also the sense of blessing oneself, as God’s blessing His people blesses Himself.

The words for curse, however come from two distinctly different words. The first, curse comes from arar, which means; to abhor, detest, to execrate ( to protest vehemently against), bitterly curse. The second, curseth is from qalal which means to be diminished, to be of little account, to bring a curse upon oneself.

It appears that the promise made to Abram is a solemn one. If one blesses you, he will in turn be blessed in the same manner. This seems to be the gist of the promise in the positive. However the negative could be rendered as; The one who esteems your affliction lightly will be bitterly cursed and protested vehemently against. Blessing for blessing seems to be equal in cause and effect. Cursing, on the other hand seems to be repaid in more severity than is meted out. It causes me to stop and consider the consequences of having ill feelings and expressing them against one of God’s anointed. Cursing seems to set in motion some things that come back with more severity than they were delivered. It brings to mind another passage of scripture:

1 Sam 24:6 And he said unto his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD'S anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.

Cursing someone is a stretching forth of one’s hand toward another. This should be seen as a sobering thing and not to be taken lightly. It even appears that esteeming lightly the calling of God on someone is a serious matter. We should be very cautious in our judgements of such matters. I would take this so far as to bring in our treatment of our children. The concept seems to be that if you curse, esteem lightly or belittle your own children you will reap bitterly. This can play out in your life through rebellion, distrust or apathy toward you. At times we may wonder why our children don’t respond to us in a positive way. It may be because we have cursed them by esteeming them too lightly.

Now in context of the passage in Genesis 12:3, if we extend this to the nation of Israel it could explain some of the problems of the world. There seems to be a modern trend in parts of the world to deny the Holocaust. Is this esteeming the affliction of Israel too lightly? If so, it would seem there would be a terrible expectation of things to come for those people or that nation. The same could be said of the denial of Jerusalem as the eternal capitol of Israel. Is this why it is said in Zec 12:2 "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem."? Is our nation cursing Israel without realizing what it is doing? All too often, I think that is the case. Will we pay a price for it? It appears that we may pay a disproportionate price. This is all the more reason we should adhere to the scriptural admonition of Psa 122:6 "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee."

Prov 26:2 As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come. Just as sure as a bird wanders and a swallow flies, a curse that is undeserved will backfire. Here the word for curse means execration or imprecation ( to invoke evil or denounce). This begs us to ask, what curse is deserved? What curse can we make justly? It seems that God has reserved cursing for Himself. What I mean is that there are penalties when we, as men, curse and the only one who has a right to curse is God. In each instance that I see, when we curse, we reap cursing. I find no place where it is appropriate for us to curse or be a curse, or pronounce a curse on someone else. God has pronounced curses for certain actions and many of them pertain to our cursing someone else. I do not see any positive action coming from cursing. Does it make sense to be very cautious and eliminate the act or urge to curse from our lives?

In 1 Corinthians 11:23-31 we are given instructions about the "Lord’s Supper". Look especially at verses 27-31 which deals with judging the body rightly and what falls to the one who does not do it correctly. What is the body we are judging in verse 29? I believe it is the person sitting next to you, or in the next pew or in the next assembly or congregation. We make up the body of Messiah, you and I. I believe this passage is dealing with our judgement of one another and the curses we utter when we make these judgements. Let us all be very cautious when it comes to our entering into the act of making curses by esteeming too lightly the afflictions of one another. We should be in the business of blessing. I see not penalty for blessing in the Bible, only blessing in return. It costs us nothing to bless. It costs us a great deal to curse.

Shalom, Randy

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