Seated in my fictitious church with the rest of the Saturday morning Bible Study group, Charle’s widow Martha whispered to the others; “I wonder why the preacher is standing in the pulpit and hasn’t started yet?” Unheard by her and everyone else; at the exact same moment her late husband asked the angel: “When do we get to go back and hear that guest preacher, Pal?” And the angel answered, “At this precise moment, Charlie.” And then all of a sudden Poof, Charlie and the Angel were in the church just in time to hear the man begin.

By now I’m sure you folks know that one of the desires of my heart in preaching the current series of sermons addressing the issue of the imprecatory prayers has been to please the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and to better equip and encourage each of us to, first clothe ourselves with a Christ-like spirit of humility, and then do our utmost in an attempt to persuade non-Christians to accept His love for them. At first glance, these prayers may seem to be oozing with vindictive hatred and revenge. After all, it’s obvious that unless the person is severely mentally impaired or demon demon-possessed, the passionate prayers invoked by our spiritual forefathers such as David and Asaph are sure to elicit very disturbing feelings such as shock, revulsion, horror and disbelief. Here’s a sampling of the kind of biblical curses I’m referring to.

Psalm 55:20-23 (ESV) ²⁰ My companion stretched out his hand against his friends; he violated his covenant.
²¹ His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. ²² Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. ²³ But you, O God, will cast them down into the pit of destruction; men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their days. But I will trust in you.

Psalm 59:11-13 (ESV) ¹¹ Kill them not, lest my people forget; make them totter by your power and bring them down, O Lord, our shield! ¹² For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride. For the cursing and lies that they utter,
¹³ consume them in wrath; consume them till they are no more, that they may know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth. Selah

Psalm 69:22-28 (ESV) ²² Let their own table before them become a snare; and when they are at peace, let it become a trap. ²³ Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually. ²⁴ Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them. ²⁵ May their camp be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents. ²⁶ For they persecute him whom you have struck down, and they recount the pain of those you have wounded. ²⁷ Add to them punishment upon punishment; may they have no acquittal from you. ²⁸ Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; let them not be enrolled among the righteous.

Psalm 79:1-13 (ESV) ¹ O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
² They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the heavens for food, the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.
³ They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.
⁴ We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those around us.
⁵ How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?
⁶ Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you, and on the kingdoms that do not call upon your name!
⁷ For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation.
⁸ Do not remember against us our former iniquities; let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low.
⁹ Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name’s sake!
¹⁰ Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes!
¹¹ Let the groans of the prisoners come before you; according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die!
¹² Return sevenfold into the lap of our neighbors the taunts with which they have taunted you, O Lord!
¹³ But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.

Psalm 137:1-9 (ESV) ⁸ O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us! ⁹ Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!

Do you remember your reaction the first time you became aware of these kinds of prayers?” During a recent Worship Service our friend Doris shared her thoughts about coming across them the previous week and I promised her that, Lord willing, I would address her concerns soon. How about you folks? Are you comfortable speaking about these kinds of prayers with non-Christians who are sincerely searching the Bible looking for truth, and are you prepared to offer them well researched biblical explanations of these admittedly difficult questions about the Bible, or are you embarrassed by them and hope you are never asked? Do you prefer to treat them as though they were some kind of family secret, or even worse by saying that you don’t believe them to be part of the divinely inspired Word of God? As I pointed out in the last two sermons, these prayers are pleasing to God because the person praying them is expressing a desire for what God desires.

“The words of the Psalter ought to be understood…not as an expression of an angry author or fulminations of a firebrand, but as the sentiments of God Himself, the thoughts of the Psalmist being raised by that powerful Spirit of prophecy, above mere human vendetta and cursing. The expressions of the Psalmist against sinners are God’s expressions. They are the thoughts of His heart.” (1)

2 Psalm 139:19-22 (ESV)
¹⁹ Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me! ²⁰ They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain! ²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? ²² I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.

Then he prays:

Psalm 139:23-24 (ESV)
²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! ²⁴ And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

“To pray the imprecatory prayers is to pray for the overthrow of Satan and his minions.” “Here is perfect hatred expressed against the enemies of God. It is the hatred each of us should have to properly honor our holy God. You (and I) need to ask ourselves right now, “Are Christ’s enemies my enemies?” If they are not, we do not love the Lord as we should.”  (2) It’s obvious David was a man after God’s own heart, (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22). Can the same be said of you and me?

But, are you and I expected to pray these kinds of prayers in our own day and time? Who of us has the right to pray curses on another person? Is there any legitimate justification for uttering imprecatory prayers, and are there any proper occasions to pray in this manner? Now allow me to ask you folks how you would react if you were living in Bagdad today and you received the following letter addressed:

“TO THE FAMILY OF INFIDELS”.

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, AND OF HIS FINAL PROPHET, MUHAMMAD (PEACE BE UPON HIM);

The true religion of Islam WILL ARISE in your area; you cannot stop Allah’s will. We have been watching your family; we have seen you go to church and see you pray to your false God. We know that you are infidels, and we will deal with you as our holy Quran declares: In Sura 9 verse 5, it says TO SLAY the idolaters wherever you find them; take them captive and besiege them. It also says in Sura 9 verse 29 to FIGHT those who have been given the scripture and believe not in Allah or the Last Day or follow not the religion of truth. If you and your entire family do not leave your false religion and follow Islam, you will be killed. Your sons will be slaughtered and your daughters will become Muslim wives, bearing sons who will fight for Allah in this region. Your only option is to FLEE TONIGHT. Leave your home and everything behind. ALLAHU AKBAR!”

“What would you do if you received a letter like this, a letter saying that living for Christ could mean dying a violent death? What if the letter also included a real bullet? Would you tell your children? Would you leave your home?, or would you stay and face the consequences? Letters like this are being sent to Christians living in a Muslim nation. These death-threat letters to Christians are often accompanied by real bullets. The message is clear: convert to Islam, leave or die. Millions of Christians have already fled hostile Muslim nations for safety in neighboring countries or the west. Others have fled their homes in major cities for refuge in surrounding villages. But some have chosen to stay, asking God for His protection.” (3)

Some little boys from Christian families have had their lives spared so that they could be placed and raised alongside the children in radical Muslim ones. Allow me to give you some idea what one young Muslim boy was subjected to. “Kamal Saleem (a pseudonym) was born into a large Sunni Muslim family in Lebanon. As a boy of seven fleeing a beating from teenage thugs in Beirut, Kamal took refuge in a Mosque where he met Muslim Brotherhood radicals. Playing on the jihadist dreams instilled in Kamal by his mother, these imams enlisted him in a terror training camp run by Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction.” The back of the dust jacket of this recently published insightful thought-provoking book: “THE BLOOD OF LAMBS,” A Former Terrorist’s Memoir of Death and Redemption asks: “How does an innocent boy grow into a hate-filled terrorist?” At the age of 4, Kamal Saleem, learned at his mother’s table that his highest calling was to be martyred while killing infidels-particularly Americans and Jews. When he was only 7, he went on his first mission, smuggling weapons into Israel as a child soldier for Yasser Arafat. Writing years later about his experience before his second childhood mission, Kamal wrote”

“… disquiet bit at my insides. I could not define it because my child’s mind did not have words for what my belly knew. Later, though, I understood. Later, I saw that the adult fedayeen taught us a theory they themselves were not willing to practice. They wanted to liberate Palestine, but they did not want to die doing it, even for paradise, even for the seventy-two. They had jobs and children. Abu Yousef and his men poured their hate into our hearts in hopes we would do the work they could not fulfill.” (4)

Among those children soldiers when Kamal embarked on his second mission was a boy named Mohammed whom he had befriended. When they arrived at their rendezvous he explained: “I could see a small flock of sheep about 50 meters away, all of them laying down at rest. But I did not see any of the fedayeen “shepherds” we were to meet. As we advanced, the buzzing grew louder, like a thousand electrical voices. And now I smelled a peculiar smell, one I knew but could not name. At about 25 meters away, a flood of images came into focus at once: Ahmed lying on the ground, the dirt under his head dark with blood. Beyond him, the sheep. Not resting but slaughtered. Blood from gaping round holes in their bellies drenched their wool. Among the sheep, dead men torn nearly in half. Bleeding from wounds made with large-caliber weapons. And green flies. Clouds and clouds of them, gorging on a feast of blood. Qaffin whirled to face us, his face a mask of panic. “Retreat!” he screamed. “Go back! Go back!” But it was too late. From behind us came a high screaming whistle. Instantly, my brain turned to ice. My air passage shut down, and I stood rooted in place. A rocket slammed into the upslope of the gulley and my world erupted into a grey storm of earth, smoke, and shrapnel. The blast wave blew my mouth open. Gravel flew at shrapnel velocity, embedding in my face and hands. My legs dissolved into jelly and my knees knocked together. My bladder let go. Now I was seeing in slow motion, frame by frame. A squadron of spinning shrapnel, black steel coils with teeth like a saw, screamed past my head and-Phhhht! Phhhht! Phhhht!-sliced into three boys behind me. They fell dead. Terror tore through my chest. “Mamma! Mamma! Mamma!” I cried, and my bowls let loose. Behind me, children screamed and ran in wild circles like fleeing lambs. Concussive booms split the air as shells thundered down on our position. More shrapnel spun through the air like bedsprings. Smoke swirled around me. “Mama! Mama!” I screamed. I could not run. I could not even move. All around me, the lambs fled and I realized many were also crying for their mothers. In the stampede, Mohammed and I locked eyes. “Kama1” he cried, running to me, his face twisted in fear. “Here, Mohammed! Come here!” I stretched out my arms to my friend, and he ran to me and stopped. Then his shirt exploded. Some great force lifted him up and back, nearly folding him in half. His eyes snapped back and his mouth flew open, but he did not scream. Mohammed fell backward at the speed of the shrapnel and bounced once off the dirt.” (5)

We can be certain that a blow by blow description of what those ancient evil people experienced when God finally answered the imprecatory prayers of judgment I’ve been speaking about in this series was infinitely greater that the horror young Kamell endured. Now allow me to repeat those questions I mentioned earlier. Are you and I expected to pray these kinds of prayers? Who of us has the right to pray curses on another person? Is there any legitimate justification for uttering imprecatory prayers, and are there any proper occasions to pray in this manner?

What would be a Christ honoring response from a Christian whose son, grandson, or brother was subjected to such evil as Kamell? Before you answer let me ask you another question. Suppose you were one of the many victims of a particular terrorist and, after pleading with God to give the man a new heart and put Hid Holy Spirit in the man and strongly incline him to want to follow Jesus, but the terrorist refused to believe and follow Jesus, but if the man defiantly refuses, then take him to his eternal home-SOON. How do you think you would react if, during our time of offering praise’s to God, a visitor from the Democratic Republic of the Congo sitting next to you shared one of his own and said: “I did bad things.” “I murdered people and raped women… and I enjoyed it. My past still haunts me, but now I know the Savior who forgives and forgets.” (6)

And, how about the innocent people who were Kamal’s victims who had been pleading with God and begging Him to kill this evil man? Here’s a little more information about him which is from the dust jacket of Kamal’s book where we learn that: “By age 15, already an explosives expert, he trained international terrorists in the desert camps of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.”

“As a young man, Kamal’s reputation for ruthless violence grew, and he pursued the cause of jihad in Paris, London, Afghanistan, and the opulent palaces of Saudi sheikhs, raising millions to fund the Palestine Liberation Organization’s exploits in global terror. Finally, he was sent to infiltrate the United States to convert the week, the poor, and the needy to radical Islam.”

“But then, a life-changing crisis caused him to question the worldview he had spent his entire life pursuing. Through the kindness of strangers, his heart was changed, and he came to know the unconditional love of God.” (And I might add, Kamal became a new creature in Christ) “His book reveals the true inside story of the making and mind set of a Muslim terrorist. Though his ties with terrorism were severed more than twenty years ago, it was not until 9/11, when radical Muslims rained terror on American shores, that Kamal Saleem stepped out of the shadows and revealed his true identity. Today, he is a different kind of warrior. He now stands on the wall and shouts to America, “Open your eyes and fight the danger that lives among you.” “As the terrible fruit of Kamal’s early life in jihad screams from today’s headlines, he courageously puts his life on the line to defend America, the country he now calls home.” (7)

How do you think you would feel today if, after first pleading for the man’s salvation, you had begged God to kill him a long time ago? Before he was converted, Kamal clearly was an enemy of God. Would it have been proper and honoring to God for you and me to pray imprecatory prayers against that man who once hated Christ and His followers with such an intense passion? The preacher concluded by saying: “Of course, it would!”

Unheard by any of the folks leaving the service, the angel said: “May I ask you your opinion of that sermon, Charlie?” “That preacher gave me a lot to think about, Pal. A whole bunch of stuff!” And, just before getting into the car, Martha thought to herself, “I wish my Charlie could have been with me today to hear that preacher.”

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ENDNOTES

(1)    The Ethical Problem of the Imprecatory Psalms, by Johannes G. Voss, Westminster Theological Journal 4 (1942). PDF file (3.00): http://www.wts.edu/resources/wtj.html

(2)    War Psalms of the Prince of Peace, © 1991 Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., P. O. Box 817, Phillipsburg, N. J. 08865 by James E. Adams, p. 111.

(3)    The Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, August 2010, www.persecution.com

(4)   The Blood of Lambs, by Kamal Saleem, with Lynn Vincent, © 2009 Arise Enterprises, LLC. Published by Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. 1230 Avenue of the Americas, N. Y. 10020. www.alivecommunications.com, p.111.

(5)   Ibid, p, 112-113.

(6)   Living Letters, stories from the Great Commission, August 2010, Free subscription: www.imbresources.org. (800) 999-3113.

(7)   The Blood of Lambs, Dust Jacket.