Imprecatory Prayer

2022-01-19

The prophecy of Obadiah was part of the answer to an imprecatory prayer. An imprecatory prayer is when one prays against someone or something. In one of the harshest imprecatory prayers in the Bible, Psalm 137, we read this:

Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. (Psalms 137:7)

Obadiah preached against this nation of Edom, which were the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob, the progenitor of the Israelites. When the Babylonians destroyed Israel in 586 B.C., Edom was there to cheer them on and cut off those who tried to escape (Obadiah 1:10-14). Their pride was the beginning of their downfall (Proverbs 16:18); though Israel fell, Edom never thought they would also fall because of their geographical situation:

The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? (Obadiah 1:3)

Imprecatory prayer is not something that anyone should use lightly. “As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come” (Proverbs 26:2). It is for the most extreme cases. For most of us, it will likely never be something that we do. We know that martyred saints in heaven do it in the days of the Tribulation: “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:10). Most likely, we would pray prayers that might look more like, “Please do whatever You need to do in so-and-so’s life so that You get their attention and they trust in Christ.”