Nehemiah 13:2 Because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, that he should curse them… This was just like God, whose name and nature are love. 1. The devil turns the blessing into a curse. When God created man He endowed him with the power of choice, made his will free, so that he might choose good and evil. The creature was thus endowed with an inestimable blessing. The devil, by the subtlety and force of temptation, turned man's dignity against himself and effected his ruin, and through successive generations he has sought to turn the blessing into a curse. 2. Man often turns the blessing into a curse. Physical strength, intellectual endowments, social position, wealth, opportunities for usefulness — things good in themselves — are often transformed by man's depraved nature into instruments and occasions of evil. Of all the plots and assaults of the devil, all the mischievous purposes of wicked men, all the disasters of life, all the forms of evil we may have to encounter we may say, "Howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing." I. GOD HAS TURNED THE CURSE OF SIN INTO A BLESSING. The existence of sin is an awful and mysterious fact, permitted by God for wise and gracious issues. We can conceive of no greater curse. It separated man from God. It destroyed his original righteousness. It cut him off from happiness. It brought upon him condemnation and death. God comes to man in this state with the blessings of His grace. 1. The fall of man furnished an occasion for the exercise of the restoring grace of God. Sin prepared the way for salvation. "Paradise Regained" is more than "Paradise Lost." 2. The curse of sin has supplied an opportunity for such an exhibition of the character and glory of God as we nowhere else behold. God's brightest glory shines in the method of man's salvation. God in Christ is more glorious far than God in creation. In the Saviour of the world we have the most perfect manifestation of God. 3. Throughout the earth, following in the track of the destroyer, God bestows the blessings of His great salvation. God is still "in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." II. God turns sorrow into a blessing. 1. Sorrow is a teacher. Sorrow seems sent for our instruction as we darken the cages of birds when we would teach them to sing. As the night brings out the stars, so trouble reveals to us many truths that would otherwise remain unseen. It clears our visions, so that we get new views of God and ourselves, of truths and duty, of this world and the next. 2. It awakens thoughtfulness. 3. Under this gracious ministry and discipline the noblest characters have been perfected. Poets, it is said, "learn in suffering what they teach in song." Sorrow is one of the best nurses of godliness. Some plants thrive better in a poor than in a rich soil; so some virtues come to speedier and fuller perfection in grief than in gladness. When spices are crushed, then they emit their odours. After the diamond is ground and polished On the wheel, its facets flash with lustre. It is said that when growers of roses want to develop the bloom of a favourite tree in special richness and beauty they sometimes deprive it for a season of light and moisture. In this condition its leaves fall off. But while this process is going on, and the tree is almost leafless, a new life is springing, from which come in due season a tenderer foliage and a choicer and more abundant bloom. This suggests some of the sweet uses of sorrow, 4. In the gracious arrangements of God sorrow is often succeeded by joy, 5. God is preparing the way for the extinction of sorrow on the earth. III. GOD TURNS THE CURSE OF DEATH INTO A BLESSING. To the Christian man death ceases to be the king of terrors, and becomes a friend to call him home, He delivers him from the infirmities of the flesh, the corruptions of sin, the temptations of Satan, and the sufferings and troubles of life. Death is the gate of life. In conclusion — 1. The subject teaches us the benevolence of God. 2. Learn the loving confidence you may cherish in God. Let us learn to imitate God. Let us endeavour through life to turn the curse into a blessing. (William Walters.) Parallel Verses KJV: Because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, that he should curse them: howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing. |
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