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Curses in the Bible

Many people will be surprised to discover that the Bible contains curses, and that some of these are by God! Why would God do such a thing? 
  1. In most cases a curse is the removal of a blessing. God blesses us and says, 'But there are conditions to you keeping this blessing! If you disobey me in these things, and break those conditions, then I will remove the blessing (i.e. you will be cursed).' For example, in Gen 4 God warns Cain not to sin, but he goes ahead and sins anyway, by killing his own brother Abel. After that Cain is cursed 'away from the ground' i.e. he won't be able to farm the soil as an agriculturalist any more. That soil has soaked up Abel's blood. He doesn't deserve to live the life of a farmer. He is condemned to a life of travelling about in the land of 'wandering'. "10 The Lord said, ‘What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.’" Gen 4, NIV 
  2. Many of them, in the Old Testament at least, are connected with the land. God's people had the blessing of inhabiting God's land (as Chris Wright would say), and this blessing was one they needed to keep by obedience, following the teaching in the Torah, and keeping close to Yahweh their God. You can read about this in the last chunk of Deuteronomy. "19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." Deu 31, NIV 
  3. Notice that the Bible tends to use the passive voice when talking about curses given out by God. What does that mean? What does it imply? Usually people use the passive voice for things that are difficult to talk about, or where the agent (the person doing the action), needs to be kept out of the picture. We don't like talking about God cursing people, so we say, 'They have been cursed.' Sometimes it's used where the agent is unclear, like when Jesus heals people. The person 'was healed' - by God? By Jesus? Well, Jesus is God in human form, so by both. Why specify? It's better just to say, 'S/he was healed.' 
So, curses in the Bible are strange things. We need to see them as a removal of blessing, rather than something inherently negative that God is doing.
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