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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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Proverbs 26:2
Comments
The only curse that will come to pass is the curse of God. If a curse is not aligned with his will it will fail. God has cursed this world following the fall as a constant visible sign to man that he has rebelled against his Creator and is under condemnation for his sin. The beautiful and benevolent creation around him has turned in part against him, so that it no longer yields its strength to him, and its curse is a token of its final destruction. The curse of God is his working against us by the providences which he allows to affect us. It is a most terrible thing to be under the curse of the Almighty God for we can do nothing to turn aside his hand against us. Our only hope is to come straight to him and acknowledge that his curse is just and that we have offended him. We must repent and seek the pardon which his gracious mercy holds out to sinners. It is with the greatest relief that we read in the book of Revelation about the new Jerusalem that ‘there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him’ (Revelation 22:3). Furthermore, when Balak tried to get Balaam to curse the children of Israel, God three times turned Balaam’s curse into a blessing (Numbers 22-24). God will not allow the causeless curse to come to pass, for no one whom God has not cursed will be cursed, and no one whom God has cursed can escape. Only God has power to curse and only God has power to bless, therefore a curse or a blessing is a prayer to him. But his will is that we pray for our enemies and consistent with this is the instruction to ‘bless them which persecute you: bless and curse not’ (Romans 12:14) while the day of grace continues. We can think of this proverb from the side of the one uttering the causeless curse and the one receiving it. The one who utters a mere human curse, a curse originating in his person and not in the will of God will find that his curse does not alight on the object of his hatred. It flutters around maybe, and swoops towards its target, but frustratingly for him, it does not alight, for God will not allow an unjust curse to alight. If it alights anywhere it will alight on the one who spoke it. On the other hand, the one who receives such a curse need not fear it. No mere man can turn the Lord against one of his own children, for they are safe in his love. It is foolishness for any to think that they can subvert the providence of God to their own ends.
Application
Let not Christians be fearful timid people, always worrying about the outcome of this or that. Some people’s minds are like this, always jumping from one thing to another. It may be a sign of prayerlessness and lack of trust. We are supposed to be those who trust God, not those who are constantly worrying about the harm that puny human beings are going to do us. Sometimes it is a sign of wrong priorities, where we think too much of earthly circumstances instead of spiritual things. Worry can also be a form of self-pity, in which I put myself at the centre of my life.
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