¶ Blessing and Cursing
Blessing and Cursing are the two ways Scripture speaks of life under God’s word.
He blesses, and no one can revoke it. He curses the serpent, the ground, and a people who will not hear.
Abraham was told that in him all families of the earth would be blessed, and that God would bless those who blessed him and curse those who dishonored him.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, so that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles.
From the first chapters God blesses the man and the woman and the seventh day.
After the fall He curses the serpent and the ground;
- the woman’s pain and the man’s toil follow,
- but the word curse is aimed first at the enemy and the soil.
- Babel is scattered.
- Abram is called, and blessing becomes a river meant for the nations.
- Isaac and Jacob speak blessings that shape tribes.
- Balaam is hired to curse Israel and finds he cannot.
- Moses sets blessing and curse before the nation on the mountains of Gerizim and Ebal: life and good, death and evil.
- The prophets announce covenant curse when the people break faith, and they promise a remnant and a new heart.
- Jesus pronounces beatitudes and woes.
- He tells the disciples to bless those who curse them.
- James will not let a mouth bless the Lord and curse a person made in God’s likeness.
- Paul takes Deuteronomy’s hanging tree and sets it at the cross: cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.
- The curse falls on the Son.
- The blessing runs out to the nations by faith.
Words still matter.
So does the finished work that broke the curse’s claim on those who are in Christ.
- Blessing is God’s favor spoken and given. Cursing is His judgment spoken and given.
- Human beings may bless or curse with the mouth; they cannot overturn what God has decreed.
- The Abrahamic promise holds both: blessing for the nations, curse for those who treat the promise with contempt.
- The law’s curse is real. Christ bore it. Faith receives the blessing.
- The tongue is not a small member when it blesses God and curses His image.
- Beatitude and woe still stand in the mouth of Jesus.
- Life and death are set before a people. Choose life.
¶ Key Aspects of Blessing and Cursing
- God’s Word First – He blesses creation; He curses the serpent and the ground.
- Promise to Abraham – Blessing for the families of the earth.
- Covenant Sanctions – Deuteronomy’s two mountains and two ways.
- Unrevoked Blessing – Balaam could not curse whom God had blessed.
- The Cross – Christ became a curse so that blessing might come.
- The Tongue – Bless the Lord; do not curse those made in His likeness.
- Enemies – Bless those who curse you; overcome evil with good.
- Genesis 1:28 – “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it…’”
- Genesis 3:14, 17 – “The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you…’ And to Adam he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife… cursed is the ground because of you.’”
- Genesis 12:2-3 – “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.”
- Numbers 23:8, 20 – “How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?… Behold, I received a command to bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.”
- Deuteronomy 11:26-28 – “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God… and the curse, if you do not obey…”
- Deuteronomy 27:12-13 – Six tribes stand on Gerizim to bless; six on Ebal for the curse.
- Deuteronomy 30:19-20 – “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life… loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him.”
- Galatians 3:13-14 – “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”
- Deuteronomy 21:23 – “…his body shall not remain all night on the tree… for a hanged man is cursed by God.”
- Psalm 1:1-2 – “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked… but his delight is in the law of the Lord.”
- Jeremiah 17:5, 7 – “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength… Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.”
- Matthew 5:3-12, 44 – The Beatitudes; “Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”
- Luke 6:28 – “Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”
- Romans 12:14 – “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.”
- James 3:9-10 – “With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.”
- Proverbs 26:2 – “Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, a curse that is causeless does not alight.”
- Malachi 3:9-10 – The nation is cursed for robbing God; the Lord invites the test of the tithe and the opening of the windows of heaven.
- Genesis 27:27-29 – Isaac blesses Jacob; the smell of the field that the Lord has blessed.
- 1 Peter 3:9 – “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”
- Revelation 22:3 – “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it.”
I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life.
God has blessed, and Balaam cannot revoke it.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, so that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles.
Bless the Lord. Do not curse people made in His likeness.
Bless those who persecute you. A causeless curse does not alight.
No longer will there be anything accursed.
In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. That word holds. Stand under the blessing that was bought at the tree.
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