[Lamech] named him Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands.”
Genesis 5:29
Dear members and friends,
In the Bible, there are many places where we find such expressions as “the Lord has cursed…” Consequently, it seems to be accepted by most Christians as a fact that the Lord God in the Old Testament does the act of cursing, condemning, and punishing. In Genesis 5, Lamech, father of Noah, expressed a reference to “cursed is the ground because of you” from Genesis 3. Interestingly in Genesis 3, the ground was cursed as the consequence of Adam’s action, not by God as punishment. In other words, if we read Genesis 3 carefully, we would notice that God is simply stating the consequences of Adam’s action, which was disobeying God. A similar theme is repeated in Genesis 4 with the story of Cain: “Listen, your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.” (10-11) Cain was cursed from the ground not because of a punishment by God, but because he spilt the innocent blood of Abel onto the ground that he was meant to till.
A good way to read and understand the stories in the Bible, therefore, is to always remember that the stories were written by people to reflect on their existential reality, which was often hard and cruel, and considered the possible causes of such hardships. As it is easy to assume, people were never willing to admit and acknowledge that their own actions could cause their hardships, instead they illustrated their existential challenges as punishments by or curses from God. However, the Bible clearly informs us the truth that God never punishes or curses people, but simply states the unavoidable consequences of their own actions.
My brothers and sisters in God, let us take a moment of prayer this week. Let us pray to God to grant an inner perception to how our mind is truly motivated. Then, let us pray to invite the flow of the Divine Spirit to guide our mind, motivating our hearts to choose to do what is pleasing to God.
Blessings,
Rev. Junchol Lee