In Genesis 12:2-3, God said to Abraham, the father of Israel, “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
While this promise clearly relates to Israel, through reading the New Testament, we also know that the church is also God’s people. For as Galatians 3:6-9, 14 (NIV) states:
So also Abraham ‘believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’ So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith . . . He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.”
Therefore, we can be sure that just as God promised to curse Israel’s enemies, so too will God curse our enemies as Christians.
While this is true, we also need to remember that Scripture tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:43-48). We are not to hate our enemies, but we are to love them and forgive them as Christ loves us when we were his enemies (Matthew 6:11-14).
And yet, because we are commanded to love our enemies, we often forget that God will still curse our enemies if they do not repent. We are to leave vengeance to the Lord because he knows how to grant grace to those who will receive it and curses to those who won’t receive his grace (2 Peter 2:9, 2 Peter 3:8-10). Never think your enemies are getting away with anything. We don’t need to curse them ourselves. God will do it if they reject Jesus’ substitutionary work that took the curse for them.
Therefore, here are 5 ways God will curse those people who attack God’s people.
1. God Will Curse Them with Shame When They Fail to Destroy You
Psalm 109:29, “May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a cloak!”
Ultimately, if you are a follower of Christ, every enemy that comes against you will always fail every time. Isaiah 54:16-17 says:
And it is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc; no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me,’ declares the Lord.”
As Jesus’ enemies had their moment (Matthew 26:45-46) but then were ultimately put to shame (Acts 2:22-28, so too will God rescue his people and put their enemies to shame:
- Psalm 3:7-8, “Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people!”
- Psalm 6:8-10, “Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping. The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer. All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.
- Psalm 23:5, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”
- Psalm 57:3, “He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me. God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!”
2. God Will Curse Them with the Curses They Tried to Put on You
Psalm 57:6, “They dug a pit in my way, but they have fallen into it themselves.”
God has a way of cursing people with the very thing they tried to do to others. Matthew 7:2 states, “For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.”
When someone is a gossiper, they tend to surround themselves with other gossipers and thus get gossiped about. When someone is a cheater, they tend to gravitate towards other impulsive people, eventually getting betrayed themselves. When someone lives by the sword, they usually die by the sword (Matthew 26:52). Those who refuse to forgive are refused forgiveness (Matthew 6:14).
Thus, while God will spare us the punishment we deserve if we come to him through Jesus, God also promises that those who seek to please the flesh instead of the Spirit will reap exactly what they sow (Galatians 6:8).
3. God Will Curse Them By Using Them to Create a Blessing in Your Life
Psalm 109:28, “Let them curse, but you will bless! They arise and are put to shame, but your servant will be glad!”
There’s nothing that will hurt an enemy more than to see God use them to actually bring a blessing into your life. This is exactly what happened to Mordecai, a faithful follower of God. Through God’s providence, when his enemy, Haman, was trying to destroy him, God actually used Haman to bring him more honor, “So Haman took the robes and the horse, and he dressed Mordecai and led him through the square of the city, proclaiming before him, ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor’” (Esther 6:11).
But God wasn’t done. Not only did God use Haman to bless Mordecai, but he also then brought punishment on Haman in the exact way Haman was planning on punishing Mordecai. Haman had built huge gallows to create an embarrassing execution for Mordecai. God then used this against him. Esther 7:10, “So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.”
Just like Jesus’ attackers who ended up doing the very thing that let to Jesus’ exaltation (Acts 2:23, Hebrews 12:2), God will curse your enemies by forcing them to bring unintended blessings into your life through his providence.
Deuteronomy 23:5, “But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.”
4. God Will Curse Them By Refusing to Show Them Favor
When you are an enemy to God’s people, you are cutting yourself off from God’s loving protection because that’s what all sin does:
- Deuteronomy 23:3-4, “No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.”
- Ezekiel 18:32, “ For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”
- Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
5. God Will Curse Them with His Righteous Revenge
Romans 12:17-21, “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ To the contrary, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
The Scriptures are clear. We do not have to worry about finding revenge on our enemies. If they refuse to repent and turn to Christ, God will curse them:
- Exodus 23:22, “But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.”
- Proverbs 24:17-18, “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him.”
- 1 Peter 2:23, “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”
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