Is there something in your family which you feel is a “curse,” something you wish had never happened? God can change curses into blessings. We find a reference to this in the last chapter of Nehemiah. Born and raised a Jew in Iran, Nehemiah traveled to Jerusalem 420 years before Jesus was born. Israel was a province of Iran and was ruled by Jordanians (Amonites and Moabites as they were known then – the capital of Jordan is still “Amman”). The Hebrew men were not raising godly children; Nehemiah took three steps to rectify the situation.
First, he threw out Tobiah’s belongings. Tobiah was a Moabite, not a follower of God, yet the high priest had prepared him a room in the temple for when he visited Jerusalem. Nehemiah threw Tobiah’s bed, clothes, and other belongings out on the street, cleaned the room, and furnished it with items used for worship. Tobiah still stores his goods in other people’s homes; does he have items in yours? Do they hinder you from following God? Follow Nehemiah’s example and throw them out.
Second, Nehemiah demanded a day be set aside for God. In Jerusalem, merchants were selling goods on the Sabbath, first fruits and grains, then fish, then all sorts of paraphernalia. People became too busy with their own family activities to take time for God; in essence they were teaching their children that they were more important than God. So Nehemiah ordered the gates of the city to be closed and barred prior to the Sabbath and not opened until it passed; merchants were refused entrance. We live in a day when there are multitudes of activities seeking to push you away from God. Do you need to, one day a week, shut and bar the gate to keep others from taking the place of worship?
Finally, Nehemiah found some of the Hebrew men married foreign wives or vice-versa, and consequently half of the children couldn’t speak Hebrew, the language of the scriptures. Distressed and upset, Nehemiah yanked out the beards of some of the guilty men. He demanded that they teach their children the word of God. Would your beard be in danger if Nehemiah arrived at your door? Are you teaching your children the word of God?
Back to the curse and blessing. Nehemiah insisted the Hebrew people (called “Jews” today after the tribe of Judah) separate from the Amonites and Moabites because when the Hebrews had traveled from Egypt to Canaan to begin their country, these others hired a local prophet to curse the Hebrews. When he began to do so, however, God spoke to him (through a donkey of all things) warning him not to curse the Hebrews, but to bless them, which he did. God delights in turning curses into blessings. When Joseph’s brother’s sold him as a slave to travelling merchants (Genesis 37), through God’s blessing Joseph was later able to tell them “you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20).
The greatest “curse” of all time was when Jesus was nailed to a cross. As the Bible says, “cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” (Galatians 3:10). Yet God turned the curse into a blessing as it was through the cross that Jesus “became a curse for us” that all who personally ask forgiveness and become followers of Jesus might find life.
Whatever the curse in your life or your family, ask God to turn it into a blessing. He specializes in turning curses into blessings.