Malachai 3:8-12 and the curse

[Guest]

Malachai 3:8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, 'In what way have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings. 9 You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation. 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this," Says the Lord of hosts, "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it. 11 "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field," Says the Lord of hosts; 12 "And all nations will call you blessed, For you will be a delightful land," Says the Lord of hosts.

Can someone please tell me what the curse is? This verse is one that is frequently appealed to by the pastors at my church, and I would like to know, for my own cognizance, what this curse is.

[Guest]

could the curse be that you wont be blessed? my pastor quotes this passage when he preaches about giving-- he never stresses the curse part but stresses that if we give joyfully we will be blessed-- of course the implication is that if we don't, we won't.

TK

[Guest]

That is one way to look at it TK. I'm just trying to make sense out of it in light of Eph. 1:3. The blessings one may have recieved from the Lord for bringing tithes and offerings into the storehouse probably comes no where near every spiritual blessings we have in Christ as a consequence of the completed work of the Son.

Ephesians 1:3 (NIV)
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

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Galatians 3:1-14 (NIV)
1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? 4 Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? 5 Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard? 6 Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." 7 Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. 8 The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you." 9 So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. 10 All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." 11 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them." 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

In light of Galatians 3:1-14, it appears that if one relies on anything other than faith in the finished work of our Lord Jesus and His Spirit for rightstanding with God, progress towards maturity, or anything that He freely gives us because of Christ's completed work and us being sons and daughters, then it that one who is under a curse. Such a person is foolish (Paul says ones then asks again if they are so foolish) and bewitched. It's as if they've came under the demonic spells of an evil magician, witch, or sorcerer.