BLESSINGS Larry W Peebles May 28, 2021 21.21
I love the Irish blessings. This is a traditional one- “May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face; the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His Hand.” How beautiful to be blessed in this way.
The culture in the United States is not one where we place a lot of emphasis on blessings. To be clear, we are a culture that places a lot of emphasis on consumerism and material things, but these things are not always blessings. We have lost touch with the biblical basis or true meaning of the blessing.
As an example, my wife and I attended a surprise birthday dinner party for a friend recently. Her husband, who had made all the arrangements at a very nice restaurant, asked me to speak a blessing over his wife, and all the guests in attendance. In the culture they both were from, this would be normal. I know because we have visited his home country. While I was delighted to speak this blessing, I remember thinking it did feel a bit odd to stand in a busy restaurant and make a bold, loud declaration that all in attendance could hear. That odd feeling was the result of a beautiful God-given example we have lost, and is the inspiration for this article.
In the first twelve chapters of the Book of Genesis, we find three significant blessings God spoke. First, following creation,God blessed Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28- “God blessed them, and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over living creature that moves on the ground…I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.” The Hebrew word for bless/blessed/ blessing is barak (Strong’s #1288), which means to speak words of divine favor, or speak of the excellence of someone. The active verb in the definition is speak, which also carries a weightier meaning than we may assume. A blessing is spoken favor or excellence. I will speak more on that later.
Second, God blessed Noah after the flood in Genesis 9:1- “Then God blessed (barak) Noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.” This blessing is similar to the one above, because both were given at the time when there were no other inhabitants of the earth.
Third, God blessed Abram (Abraham) in Genesis 12:2 when He said- “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless (barak) you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” This blessing is powerful in its scope, and remains in the earth extended to the children of Abraham (Jews) and the gentiles (non-Jews), according to Isaiah 56:1-7 and Acts 28:28. We who are followers of Christ today are recipients of this blessing.
This is not only a powerful blessing in its scope, but the word of God when spoken contains its own power. The Hebrew word asa or asah (Strong’s #6213) is translated “made” or “create” in the Genesis account of the creation-In the beginning God created (asah) the heaven and the earth. That word also means “to accomplish, do or perform”. The way He created (asah) was to “speak”- God said “Let there be light.” Any word that God speaks comes with its own creative power to accomplish what was spoken. This is also why God cannot lie- when He says it, it is. Jeremiah 1:12 says “I [God] am watching over My word to perform (asah) it.” Isaiah 56:11 says- “So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, without accomplishing (asah) what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”
His spoken blessing comes with its own power to bless. You and I are created in His image, and our words have a similar effect, whether we realize it or not. James 3:10 says that our tongue has the power to either bless or curse. As followers of Jesus, we want to guard our tongue so that only blessings proceed from our mouth. Proverbs 18:21 says- “The tongue has the power of life and death, those who love it will eat its fruit.”
At the conclusion of the birthday dinner, I spoke the words God gave Moses for the children of Israel. They were making final preparations to enter the land God had promised them following their deliverance from Egyptian captivity. Deuteronomy 28:1-14 is a blessing for obedience- “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessing will come upon you and accompany you if you will obey the Lord your God. You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock– the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your kneading bowl will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.”
“The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven. The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land He is giving you. The Lord will establish you as His holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you.”
“The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of His bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hand. You will lend to many nations, but borrow from none. The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.”
When God blesses, He really blesses. The Hebrew word for “come” (as in “come upon you” above) is bo, Strong’s #935. It means surely come to pass; run down. When His blessings come upon you, there is a certainty they will come, and they will run you down overwhelmingly. The picture of this is given in Amos 9:13 where Amos prophecies the day is coming where the harvest is so plentiful that the one plowing overtakes the one reaping. Leviticus 26:10 speaks of a time when we are still eating last year’s grain, but have to move it out for this year’s harvest. Both of these scriptures deal with a blessed harvest.
What is the exchange for this blessing from God? Moses mentions it four times in the passage above–obedience. Submit to His word, and obey His word. Obedience is better than sacrifice, according to 1 Samuel 15:22. Obedience shows honor to God more than our worship. We obey Him because He is God. Obedience puts Him on the throne of our lives to rule as Lord over us. Of course, in order to obey His word, we must know His word, which is rich in truth and wisdom.
God’s word not only gives life, it is life and spirit (John 6:63), containing the key to a full and rewarding life now, but also into eternity. It is not a mere book to study, but unlike any other book, is living and active, holding the answers to each day’s questions. Why would we ignore such a book? Why would we not obey the word of God? When we do, we gain the favor of His blessings, as only He can pour out. When we are blessed, we are then able to bless others, giving generously to the hungry, the widow, and the orphan.
