Today’s Bible Study, Authored by Arthur
Cincotti. 10/15/2023
Listen to our Bible
Study Discussion at: Blessings and Curses Podcast
Or watch the Video Zoom Session of our Study on YouTube:
Blessings and Curses
“I call heaven and earth
as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death,
blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants
may live… Deut. 30:19
In our last time together I aimed to make a case that Israel
– and therefore Christians as well – could not be cursed because of God’s
promise. We looked at Num. 22-24 and the account of Balak, the king of Moab,
asking Balaam the prophet to curse Israel. Num.
23:20 gives the divine response, “He
has blessed, and I can not reverse it.” However, Scripture depicts how
Israel and Christians frequently find themselves in calamity. When I find
myself in hurtful circumstances I don’t much care what the source is, I just
want to make it stop. When we can’t figure it out and feel as though we have
done everything right – a dangerous premise – we begin to look for transcendent
aspects to unlock the puzzle. This can be dangerous without a mature understanding of Scripture.
Let’s look at some benchmarks
together.
1) God is good. He created a
perfect universe and placed man, as the object of His affections, in it to
flourish. Gen. 1&2 tell us that everything God created He declared was
good. Jn 3:16 tells us that God “loved the world.” and Rm. 8:31 assures
that, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
2) We’re not so good. Rm. 3:23, “for
all have sinned”, Ps. 14:3, “There is none who does good, No, not one.”, Mat. 7:11, “If
you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much
more will your Gather who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”
3) We live in a fallen world.
Gen. 3:17 say, “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of
it all the days of your life.” We walk on cursed ground. If a tree falls on
you it’s not because God hates you, it’s because of corruption. We are
surrounded by it.
4) Since we are not so good,
and we live in a fallen world, we often invite calamity upon ourselves. Further
in the Numbers account (Ch. 25) Israel invites calamity upon themselves by
practicing harlotry and worshiping foreign gods. Such is often the case with
us. Our own disobedience invites calamity. In our opening verse from Deut. 30:19 we
see how God gives us a choice in the matter. There is power in personal choice,
both positive and negative.
5) There are transcendent
forces battling over our choices. Satan uses temptation. God uses love.
Blessing is opening up the resources of heaven and making them available.
Notice Ex. 3:5, “Then He said, ‘Do not draw near this place. Take
your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.’”
God won’t curse what He has blessed, but He can bless what He has cursed. The
separation from God what we once experienced because of sin, which was made
know by the law, was taken away in Christ. Thus Paul writes, “Nevertheless
when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken way.” II Cor. 3:16
Rob Reimer writes in Soul
Care:
“The
central message of Jesus is about the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the reversal of
everything that went wrong when sin
entered the world. It is the restoration of everything back to the way God intended it to be.”
Often we get bogged down with
the wrong questions; can a Christian be cursed, or can a Christian have a
demon? How about asking, is there healing, restoration and freedom in Christ?
Do we have access to the Father? “For all the promises of God in Him are
Yes, and in Him Amen. To the glory of God through us.” II Cor. 1:20
—–Join
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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
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