TUESDAY
I left off yesterday with the three dimensions of blessing in Scripture:
- God blesses his people
- God’s people bless God
- God’s people bless one another
Today, let’s examine God’s blessing of his people.
Ultimately, all blessing comes from God. We don’t have to read very far in the Bible before we come to the first official blessing. In Genesis 1 God blesses the first humans:
Genesis 1:28 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
From God’s fullness of life he gives humans the blessing to be fruitful and multiply life, as well. From his fullness of authority he gives humans authority to rule over creation as his stewards.
Then in chapter three, we see what happens when the humans seek blessing apart from God, in their own power and their own ways. God curses them and all of creation. God's blessed creation is now covered with a curse.
This is picture of God’s covenant relationship with his people. Sandra Richter in her book, The Epic of Eden, describes this as a typical element of any ancient treaty of this day. The suzerain, the more powerful member of the covenant relationship—God, puts forward stipulations of the covenant relationship. If these stipulations are met, blessing will result. This blessing will be in the form of land, provision, military protection, etc. If the stipulations are violated, the suzerain will bring about the curse as stipulated in the covenant terms. This would mean the removal of land rights, provision, military protection and even perhaps an attack by the military that was meant to protect. The vassal, less powerful member of the treaty—Israel, agrees to uphold those standards or risk the curse.
Deuteronomy 11:26–28 26 “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, 28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.
When Israel as the vassal violated the Law of God, they were ultimately exiled from the land as the greatest element of the curse. Yet, in spite of their constant violation of the covenant stipulations, God was faithful to maintain his suzerain relationship with Israel. Even after punishing them with exile he restores them to the land.
Even prior to the covenant establishment through Moses in the Exodus, God promised to be a bless.
Genesis 12:1–3 1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
God making good on this promise is the story of Genesis. In spite of Abraham’s fallenness (i.e., twice telling foreign rulers that Sarah was his sister so he wouldn’t be killed, attempting to speed up God’s promise by sleeping with Hagar, later sending her away and failing to live up to his duty as her protector and provider in his home, etc.) God was faithful to his promised blessing. God blessed Abraham with great material wealth and success. God, after long years of Abraham waiting, blessed him with a son, Isaac. Isaac would be the one through whom the blessing for the world would come. God blessed Joseph in spite of his terrible situation. God blessed Jacob in spite of his many deceptions. The story of Genesis is the story of God’s faithfulness to his promised blessing in spite of his chosen people’s constant failures.
It must be noted that this covenant blessing that God declares over Abraham is not contingent upon Abraham’s obedience, as the Mosaic covenant is. Abraham failed, even in the sphere in which the promise was made (he attempted to produce an heir on his own instead of waiting on God). Yet, God fulfilled his promise to Abraham. God just makes a covenant with Abraham and chooses to bless him with no strings attached. The Mosaic covenant was contingent on obedience.
The foundation of God’s relationship with his people is that he simply chose them and chose to bless them. God’s people did not earn their blessing. God simply gave it to them. So we do good works from God’s blessing, not for God’s blessing.
Ultimately, this blessing to the whole world was to be revealed in Jesus. This is where we will pick up tomorrow.