One time, I tried to make a banana cream pie for my husband because it’s his favorite pie. I looked up a recipe that I knew would be great, assembled the ingredients and carefully followed the directions to the end. My only tweak was that I skipped the meringue because my husband doesn’t like it. I figured I’d do an upgrade to meringue and make homemade whipped cream as a replacement topping. Everything was going really well with my cooking efforts, and I was pretty confident that the pie would be very tasty. For the final touch, the recipe said to toast the meringue under the broiler for about ten seconds. Since I was meticulously following the recipe, I topped the pie with my homemade whipped cream and deftly slid it under the broiler to “toast” the whipped cream.
It was a disaster! The whipped cream melted and turned the whole pie into a soupy mess. I attempted to serve it to my family with some levity, calling it “dessert soup.” Thankfully, my family was gracious with me, and we still laugh about my dessert soup fiasco. I’d like to say that God turned the curse into a blessing, such that we have since discovered the joys of “dessert soup,” and we revel in the special occasions when we get to enjoy this treat. But that’s not accurate. We don’t do dessert soup at my house, even though we can laugh at my absurdity.
I laugh at myself when I think about how silly it was to think that I could “toast” whipped cream—a pretty harmless endeavor. At the opposite end of the scale, there have been many things throughout history and in the Bible where the potential for horrific outcomes was hefty and significant. For example, I’ve been reading in the book of Esther lately, and that’s a pretty amazing story of how the Jewish population was on the cusp of genocide during the reign of King Ahasuerus.
In this book, we read about the deadly scheme that Haman contrived to kill all the Jews upon receiving approval from King Ahasuerus. Haman felt slighted by Mordecai, a Jew, because he wouldn’t bow down to Haman. As a result, Haman built gallows to hang Mordecai. Haman also got King Ahasuerus to sign an edict to eradicate the Jewish population throughout his kingdom.
Interestingly enough, on the same night the gallows were being built to hang Mordecai, the king had insomnia and called for the annals of his kingdom to be read to him. As he listened to the various events, the king learned that Mordecai had spared his life from an assassination attempt, and the king was determined to honor Mordecai for his loyalty and vigilance. That night was the turning point for not only Haman, but also the Jewish nation. Haman was ultimately hung on the gallows that he built for Mordecai, and the edict for killing the Jewish people was undone by an alternative edict that gave the Jews permission to kill all their enemies.
The curse was turned into a blessing. This is a theme that can be seen throughout the Bible to include:
- Joseph talking with his brothers in Genesis 50:20. His brothers were anxious about what Joseph would do to them since their dad was dead. Joseph alleviated their worries by telling them, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”
- Balaam being hired to curse the Israelites, but God only allowing him to bless the Israelites. Consider Deuteronomy 23:5, which says, “Nevertheless, the Lord your God was not willing to listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God loves you.”
- The day of destruction for the Jews in the book of Esther is reversed as we read in Esther 9:22a, “Because on those days the Jews rid themselves of their enemies, and it was a month which was turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday.”
In thinking about some of the potential for bad things in your life, keep in mind that God is well able to turn every curse into a blessing!
