The Curses of Jesus
Since becoming a Christian in 1991, I have spent a lot of time in the Bible. I have read it several times and one time even front to back. I have spent many hours in Bible study with others. But I just learned something that blew me away! I must admit that in all of the Bible reading I have done, I have never been very found of the Psalms. They seemed repetitious to me, with David asking God to crush his enemies. As you know, David wrote most of the Psalms.
So, what is it I just learned? I learned that while David was the instrument to get the Psalms down on paper, what he was recording was not his own thoughts. David was recording prayers of our Lord, Jesus. Armed with that revelation, the Psalms took on a new meaning for me and became very interesting.
In many of the Psalms the psalmist seems to desire destruction, shame, judgment, fear, defeat, scattering, persecution, confusion and even death of his enemies. The Psalms containing such reflected desires are known as “imprecatory” or curse Psalms. The curse itself is called an imprecation.
So, now understanding that these imprecations are prayers of Jesus, then we now understand that these are curses from Jesus. It is Jesus calling down curses, from God, on His enemies. It is interesting to note that only Jesus can do that. We cannot, and David could not. Jesus teaches us to love our enemies and that we cannot seek revenge on out enemies as vengeance belongs only to God.
How then do we reconcile Jesus’ teaching of love your enemies with His curse prayers? That is not as difficult as you might think. The Lord Jesus Christ is praying these prayers of vengeance. They had to be of Christ for them to make any sense at all. These prayers signal an alarm to all that continue to be an enemy of Jesus. And, His prayers will be answered! God’s wrath will be revealed upon all that oppose Christ. Anyone who refuses to acknowledge the work Jesus did on the cross and rejects Him will bear the dreadful curses of God.
We must accept Jesus fully if we are to truly know who he is. There is perfect harmony in the Person of Christ. We must know Him as the loving and merciful Savior who forgives sin. We must also know him as the one who is coming in judgment of all who disobey His gospel.
2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 says “God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with His powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power on the day He comes to be glorified in His holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed.”
If you are still have some trouble accepting the imprecations as being from Jesus, the epitome of love and forgiveness, then consider the imprecations of Jesus contained in the New Testament. A good place to start is with Matthew chapter 23; Known as Seven Woes. Verses 13, 15, 16, 23, 24, 27 and 29 all condemn and call forth the judgment of God to fall on them. Clearly these are curses very similar to the imprecations of the Psalms. Then in verse 33, Jesus says “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?” This is quite a strong curse. You can see another in Matthew 26:23-24. I think I have made my point but you can find other curses in the New Testament.
To say Jesus is love is indeed a correct statement, but He is clearly much, much more than just love.
Wayne is a freelance writer, published author and blogger. He is also a lay minister who has been operating an interned ministry for more than ten years.
www.Capstone-Ministries.org
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