Imprecations

Imprecations. I'm mostly writing this because I want to use the word imprecations. I learned about imprecations before I knew there was a word for it. I was an innocent middle schooler reading through the Bible when I came across the following text:

"Oh Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us--he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks" (Psalms 137:8).

Gulp. That was in the Bible? Infant dashing? I asked my dad about it. He said that just because someone prayed something it didn't mean that God approved of the prayer. He said, "they used human language."

I never really had a desire to pray an imprecatory prayer (a prayer to curse) until just a couple of years ago. The cyclone had just come through Myanmar and the junta did not initially let in any aid workers for fear of political instability. I was furious. And so I prayed my first imprecatory prayer. "Lord," my prayer went, "let the political leaders die. If it takes their death for help to come to their people then let them die."

This week I wanted to pray an imprecactory prayer once more. It happened like this: my co-worker's 83 year old father, who lives in Puerto Rico, was asked to help a couple. He obliged and as he was helping them they turned on him and told him 1) how much money he had in the bank 2) if he refused to give them all that was in the bank they would kill his family. He believed them. So he went into the bank and took out 20,000 dollars and gave it to them. There. What was left of his life savings--gone. (He was fortunate to have just bought a house in cash.)

I was furious when I heard this. I thought of the years he spent saving his money. I thought about how he doesn't have a job to bring in more income (though he does have a good family and a small stipend) and I thought about people who would be so heartless as to steal from an 83 year old man.

While I didn't have the courage to pray for their deaths, I did pray that justice would find them swiftly and painfully! Imprecations!

There is a time to curse in prayer. There is a time to pray for God's wrath to come. The Old Testament prophets were often impatient with how long justice took to come. I hope for the same impatience.

Imprecations. For all that is evil, for all that dulls the heart, for all the breaks the human spirit--let there be curses!