Bible Commentaries

Malachi 2:2

As we think upon this text, we can discern two different shades of sense in which we may understand it. We see two ways in which a blessing may be cursed.

I. Blessings may be said to be cursed, if God deprives us of the power of enjoying them. You know that when a blind man looks at the most beautiful scene, he sees nothing of it. The blue of the sky and the green of the earth to him are one great blank. Worldly blessings have a natural and great power to make a man cheerful and happy. It does tend to make any one pleased and cheerful when his circumstances are prosperous, his friends kind, his home comfortable, and his character respected. But in one moment God can make an end of all this. In one moment, without changing in the least our outward aspect, or our outward circumstances, God can make our souls as incapable of feeling happiness in the possession of our outward blessings as the blind man's eyes are of discerning the light of day.

II. Blessings may be said to be cursed if God suffers them to have an evil tendency upon our souls. All the blessings which God bestows upon us are sent with a specific purpose. They have all a natural tendency, and this tendency, generally expressed, is to lead men to think seriously about their souls, and earnestly to turn to Christ. But it is possible they may have quite an opposite effect; they may do us harm spiritually. They may make it more and more unlikely—they may even make it impossible—that we should find our home in heaven at last. And whenever this comes to be their tendency and result, then we say that God has cursed these blessings. This is true, (1) of such earthly blessings as wealth, comfort, friends, (2) of spiritual blessings, such as (a) the means of grace, (b) the regenerating, comforting, sanctifying, Holy Spirit of God.

A. K. H. B., Sunday Afternoons in the Parish Church, p. 109.

References: Malachi 2:5.—J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 361. Malachi 2:6.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 99. Malachi 2:17.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv., No. 1415. Malachi 3:1.—Ibid.,vol. viii., No. 470; H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2611; Clergyman's Magazine, vol. xii., p. 332; vol. xvi., p. 24; A. J. Griffith, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 299; Expositor, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 183.