Can a Good God Curse?

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Genesis 1:31 (KJV)

For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

Romans 8:19-22 (KJV)

From the scriptures above, we can find the following.

1. God in his business of creation, took time out on the sixth day to give a critical analysis, observation and evaluation on all he has created. His evaluation of very good came from an accumulation of good recorded in these verses of Scripture. Genesis 1:4, Genesis 1:10, Genesis 1:12, Genesis 1:18, Genesis 1:21, Genesis 1:25.
   Note: A thing is not God because is good, but a thing is good because it is God. This is because, good from man’s point of view is different from good from Gods point of view.
2. Creature was made subjected to vanity. The original Hebrew word for creature in this verse is “ktisis”. It means original formation or creation. The word vanity means depravity, it also means depreciate. We can say downgraded. So, the first thing to pick is that, creation was subjected, reduced or downgraded from its original state, worth or value.
   The Passion Translation of Romans 5:20 puts it well. It reads: For against its will, the universe itself has had to endure the empty futility resulting from the consequences of human sin. But now, with eager expectation.
   This then takes us to the very beginning, to the original tale or account where this incidence occurred.
   Genesis chapter 3. From this account, we can glean the following.
3. God gave man an instruction not to eat from a particular tree.
4. The original narrator or writer of this event is Moses. He wrote this event by revelation. We must understand how he was able to time travel into the past to get information about an event which happened at the very cradle of human existence. This we can find in the book of Exodus 33:19 – 23.

And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. And he said, thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.

Exodus 33:19-23 (KJV)

By this experience, he (Moses) was brought into the reality of things as far as his human spirit could contain and he saw things in the creator about creation. But in this there was a limitation. Moses was hidden and covered in a cleft of a rock, he was covered by Gods hand and he saw God’s back part. One of the truths that escaped Moses in this setting was, the spirit realm is a highly legalistic realm, guided by strict laws upon which the defaulting of a law would trigger or mean the activating of another law.

1. Man was deceived into eating the fruit which led to disobedience and outright treason.
2. The repercussion for this act of disobedience was spelt out to the parties involved.
   a. The serpent
   b. The woman
   c. The man.
3. So in not keeping with the law of not eating of the fruit of the tree, triggered a series of event which led to God coming in the cool of the day to look for man. The end result of this series of event is what is captured in a word called “Arar” in Hebrew language and translated to “curse” in English language.

And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

Genesis 3:14 (KJV)

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

Genesis 3:17 (KJV)

The original Hebrew word “Arar” as used in Genesis 3:14,17 above has two shades of meaning, one of which means, to strip, make bare, strip oneself.

What Then is a Curse?

First, we must understand that the word used in Genesis 3:17 is “cursed” not curse.

1. The word “cursed” is an adjective, which is used to express annoyance or irritation.
2. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the word “cursed” is a word used to describe something that is annoying to you in an angry way.
3. A curse is a reversal of the original good order.
   According to Exodus 33:19-33, we saw the very essence of God on display as he passed by Moses and all that could be seen was summed up in Exodus 34:6.

And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

Exodus 34:6 (KJV)

Also in the new testament in John 1:14, it was recorded that the essence of Jesus was seen and all that could be found was full of “grace” and “truth”.
So, God being good according to his nature as seen above will not take back what he has already given. Romans 11:29. But, he will take his glory (face) away from it. This can be fully seen in the experience of Jesus on the cross when the sin of the world rested on him. Mark 15:34. In other words, what happened was, creation was downgraded to a lesser version that the fallen man could fit in. remember when God wanted to create he spoke, so to downgrade there have to be a speaking also. This is what the original Hebrew word “Arar” which was translated to curse mean. To strip or make bare.
At this point, its worthy of note to understand the following.

1. Man is a creature of glory, for he was created in the image and likeness of God.
2. Man and his original environment was sustained by the glory of God.
3. When man disobeyed the instruction that would have kept his environment in constant radiation of Gods glory, the resultant effect was, coming short of Gods glory as seen in Romans 3:23, of which the earth and all that is in it has to be downgraded, stripped off or made bare of Gods glory to accommodate the fallen man.

One other case of this concept of curse in the bible where its seen that the good God cursed man is in Malachi 3:9, but in Malachi 3:10 we see that the original good order is that the window of heaven will be opened and a blessing will be poured out. But this is guided by a spiritual law of tithing and another spiritual law of seed time and harvest time.

According to the spiritual law of seed time and harvest time, it is natural that you get and harvest when you have planted your seed and done all the necessary things to ensure the seed grows to the point of bearing fruit. Tithing here is a seed and the curse stated in verse 9 of chapter 3 connotes a reversal of this spiritual order. In that, instead of a divine idea, which ought to be the normal order, the person might be bereft of divine ideas or inspirations.

One may be quick to say there are many great innovators who are not paying tithes, why haven’t they run out of ideas. Truth is they may not be going to a church to see a pastor but there are many great people who pastors visit and privately preach to, not every pastors are pulpit ministers, many are great leadership coach, financial coaches even spiritual coaches of who these people pay to.

What more? What about the atheist do they pay to any pastor? But these people give 10 percent or more to charity organizations.

He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.

Proverbs 19:17 (KJV)

So when these great organizations take 10 percent or more to give to the poor they have given to God and the blessings of giving to God comes upon them as divine ideas.

Conclusion

The word “Arar” which was translated as curse does not mean curse as we know it to mean which is, to place great evil upon someone by a supernatural means or to invoke great harm. But, it means a reversal or a downgrade of the original good order which was corrupted by human outright treason.