Are Curses Real?

Are curses real? Do our words have power? Do we wield them like a sword haphazardly? According to Proverbs 18:21, the tongue has the power of life and death. The power to curse and the power to bless. That’s why it’s so important to watch what we say, especially over our own lives.

In Deuteronomy 11:26-28, the Lord set before the Israelites a blessing and a curse. The blessing, if they listened to the commandments of the Lord their God, and the curse if they didn’t.

In 2^nd Samuel chapter 12, God actually cursed His beloved David. When David was young, his faith was strong. God was with him and referred to him as “a man after my own heart” (1^st Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22). God even helped David defeat the giant, Goliath (1^st Samuel 17:49-51). God loved David and anointed him as king over all Israel to replace Saul, but after many years of faithful service, David sinned.

Romans 3:23 tells us all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Even David, who knew of God’s glory, who had witnessed the power of God and the reward for trusting in Him, even he sinned.

What did David do that was so awful it ended up in the Bible for all the world to remember? According to 2^nd Samuel chapters 11 & 12, David fell in love with another man’s wife, so he ordered the man, Uriah, to be put on the front lines in the war against the Ammonites. Uriah was killed in battle, leaving the door open for David to marry his wife, Bathsheba. 

God’s anger burned against David. After all, God had chosen David, anointed him, delivered him from the hand of Saul, made the lowly shepherd king over all Israel and Judah, and He would have given him even more. But David, being human, ruined it all by allowing temptation to overtake him.

The Lord said to David, “The sword shall never depart from your house…I will raise up evil against you from your own household.” The Lord Himself cursed David. Nevertheless, David was righteous at heart and confessed his sin, and God forgave him and allowed him to live. However, the curse had been established, and the following events of David’s life proved as such.

Because of David’s sin, the child he had with Bathsheba died, his son raped his daughter, and another son, Absalom, avenged his sister by having their brother killed. Absalom then rose up against his father and tried to take the throne sending David fleeing into exile. David’s actions had consequences, and our actions have consequences too.

We may wonder sometimes if we might not be cursed. Life is hard, after all. Or maybe what seems like a curse is just a consequence of our actions. Either way, if we truly repent, God will forgive us.

God sets before us a choice: the blessing if we follow His commandments, or the curse if we don’t. Though God brought punishment and calamity to David for his sin, He loved David and did not abandon him. God also loves us. He created us, and He will not abandon us either. However, we must be careful not to abandon Him.