Speaking Blessing

This morning, we are looking at something that I have to acknowledge that I am just beginning to understand better.

It is the practice of verbally blessing someone, and it is one I haven’t practiced directly much in my life.

We have seen it often in Genesis, and we notice it other places throughout Scripture, but blessing others isn’t something I have studied often.

This isn’t just being a blessing by being helpful; we are specifically talking about times when someone verbally speaks a blessing over someone.

We don’t really do that much in our culture, and there may be reasons for that.

However, as we see Jacob blessing his sons and grandsons this morning, let’s wrestle with the question, “What would it look like for me to bless people in my life?”

This topic is especially pertinent this morning as we celebrate both our graduates and our mothers.

How do we bless these students as they enter their next phase of life? How do we bless our moms for the sacrifices they have made, or how do moms bless their children?

As we dive in this morning, I want to be up front with you and let you know that I am relying heavily on others for the material in this message.

Some of this content is my own, but much of it comes from conversations with Bret Johnson at Valley Bible Church and from a book called Given: The Forgotten Meaning and Practice of Blessing by Tina Boesch. [2]

I have not read the book in its entirety, but I have learned a lot from it so far, especially in her chapter that deals with the passages we will look over this morning.

Speaking of passages, if you haven’t already, I would invite you to open your Bible to Genesis 48-49.

We are going to look at selected verses in these chapters.

Before we dive into the text, though, let’s take a minute to talk about what blessing isn’t.

Some of you may have heard the idea that we have the ability to create things with our words.

Sometimes you will hear people talk about “manifesting.” This became popular with the book The Secret in 2006 and is popular with teachers like Deepak Chopra and Oprah.

It’s the idea that if you clearly visualize and speak your goals, the universe will work with you to co-create that thing. [1]

I am afraid that is what people think of when they think of speaking a blessing over someone.

I am going to say good things over you and then the universe is going to kick in and make them happen.

You may hear Christians from different traditions say things like, “I speak prosperity and blessing and health and this or that over you in the name of Jesus”—is that what blessing is?

I don’t think so.

While it’s great to have goals and it isn’t wrong to think about and work toward them, the Bible doesn’t indicate that we have any power to create, or manifest, those things in our lives.

The Bible makes it clear that words matter to God, but the emphasis is usually on whether we are using words to build or tear up, whether we are being truthful and loving with our communication, and things like that.

God doesn’t tell us that if we speak prosperity over someone that they are going to become wealthy.

The biblical picture of blessing someone isn’t about creating something by the power of positive thinking.

As I am working through this, I realize I have made the opposite mistake. The Bible often talks about someone blessing another person verbally, often as they are dying.

Maybe it is because we don’t want to be “those people,” but we don’t often do this in our world.

I am still working through this myself, but my hope together is that as we look briefly at Jacob’s example, we will learn what it can look like for us to speak blessings in a God-honoring way.

We are going to make several observations as we look at the way Jacob blessed his grandsons and sons in these passages.

First, we want to note that we...

1) Bless based off your encounters with God.

Start reading with me in 48:1-4.

Joseph finds out that his father’s health is failing, so he takes his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, to see their grandfather, potentially for the last time.

Before Jacob blesses them, he recounts what God has already done in his life.

This isn’t just the ramblings of a senile old man revisiting the glory days; he is recounting the way that God blessed him.

He was the heir to the promise that God made to his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac, so anything he is going to say in blessing his grandsons is rooted in what God has done.

If you have been with us in our time of looking through Genesis, think about how different this situation is than when Jacob stole his father Isaac’s blessing from Esau.

If you remember, God had promised that Esau would serve Jacob, even though Jacob was the younger brother.

Isaac refused to acknowledge what God said and tried to bless Esau instead of Jacob, but Jacob deceived his father and stole the blessing.

Instead of blessing off what God was doing, Isaac tried to bless his own way.

These actions caused a rift in the family that lasted for years and was never fully repaired.

When we turn back to Jacob, though, we see that he is blessing his grandsons (and later his sons) through his encounter with God.

That’s clear with how he begins his blessing in verses 15-17.

Look at some of the titles he uses for God in these verses.

They all reflect the character of God that Jacob has seen demonstrated as God has been with him through every difficulty in his life.

As we think about blessing others, we need to start at this same place.

How has God worked uniquely in you or your family? What parts of his word are especially dear to you?

Are there attributes of God that stand out when you think about the stage of life this person is in?

Working through those thoughts leads naturally into the next step, which is...

2) Bless based off what you see in and for the person.

We have probably all heard standard blessings—things like the “May the road rise up to meet you” Irish blessing that you may have seen at some time.

Those blessings express general sentiments, and they aren’t all bad.

However, the blessings we find in Scripture are often tailored to the specific individuals.

We see this some in chapter 48. Go back to verses 13-14.

Before Jacob blessed Ephraim and Manasseh, he switched his hands around and put his right hand on Ephraim instead of Manasseh.

Joseph thought his father was confused since his eyesight was poor.

In reality, Jacob knew exactly what he was doing. Pick back up in verse 19.

He may have been losing his physical sight, but God had given Jacob spiritual insight to see that Ephraim would grow into the stronger tribe than Manasseh.

That is even clearer when we get to chapter 49.

Here, Jacob blesses each of his twelve sons. Some of the things he says don’t sound very much like a blessing, but he spoke individually about what he saw God doing in each of his sons.

He blesses some sons by calling them out for their error, helping them see what they are doing that is causing their problems.

He blesses other sons by highlighting the ways that God can use their strengths.

With each of them, his words are based off what he sees in them now and also what he sees they can become.

Like we said initially, his words aren’t creating these realities.

In a real way, though, he is verbally acknowledging his hope and understanding of what these men and their families will become by God’s grace.

As we think about the women in our lives or these graduates or our own children, we need to think about blessings that highlight their strengths and challenge their own unique weaknesses.

We need to think toward the future and who we believe God is shaping them to become and express those things in our blessings.

Sometimes, that will be hard and uncomfortable. Other times, it will fill with joy and hope for the future.

Either way, though, we need to be sure that we also...

3) Bless with truth.

As we mentioned, the blessings Jacob gives his sons are not always warm and fuzzy.

However, everything he says in blessing his grandsons and sons is true.

Read 49:3-7 to see some of these harsh ones.

These all seem harsh, but why can we call them blessings? Because they were the hard truths that everyone needed to hear.

As the oldest son, Reuben would have typically been the leader. However, his sinful actions displayed a weak character that wasn’t fit to lead the family.

By confronting Reuben with his own character flaws, Jacob is lovingly correcting him and warning the rest of the family not to follow his lead.

The statements to Simeon and Levi seem to have some of the same intent.

Jacob didn’t want his sons to think that unbridled anger was the right way to respond to things, so he rebukes and warns Simeon and Levi.

Although they were painful words, they were the truth.

Let’s pause here for a minute.

We have the benefit of knowing more of the story than Jacob did, so let’s talk about what happened to Levi’s family.

Keep in mind where we first saw Levi’s temper.

When their brother was assaulted, Simeon and Levi murdered all the men in the town of Shechem.

By the time God delivers his people from Egypt, over 400 years later, God selects the tribe of Levi to be his priests that represent him to the people and the people to him.

Does that mean Jacob missed what God was doing? Not at all.

Those words may have been the very thing Levi needed to change the way he was raising his family.

Somewhere along the way, they changed.

God also fulfilled Jacob’s statement about scattering Levi throughout the nation.

Instead of it being a punishment, however, it was a blessing as God placed his representatives throughout the country.

Not only that, six of their cities became cities of refuge where people could run and be protected in cases of manslaughter.

Isn’t it interesting how God redeemed murdering Levi by scatting his family around the nation so they could spare the lives of those who shed innocent blood?

The difficult words that Jacob speaks are not curses on his sons; instead, they are blessings.

Here is how Tina Boesch states it,

Given: The Forgotten Meaning and Practice of Blessing (Chapter 3: Blessing a Child)

“Since words of blessing always have our children’s thriving in view, it’s impossible to affirm behaviors that we know will devastate their bodies and spirits. Careful correction born of love is never a curse —it’s a blessing, because it seeks the restoration and wholeness of a soul.”

[3]

The blessings Jacob gave offered loving correction and prepared his sons for the joys and sorrows they would face.

They weren’t all about peace and prosperity and health; they were more centered around the kind of people they would become.

Our blessings should do the same. They should acknowledge that there will be times of pain and uncertainty. They should address areas where that person may need the Lord to work.

They should encourage them to become all they can be in the Lord.

As we look at one last aspect of blessing, let’s look at what Jacob said to Judah.

Remember, Judah is the one who decided to sell Joseph into slavery.

He’s also the one whose sexual immorality was recorded in chapter 38.

God had worked in him, though, as we saw when Joseph and his brothers reconciled.

Judah went from selling one brother to being willing to exchange his own life for the life of his brother.

Pick up in verse 10.

When Jacob blessed Judah, he acknowledged that he would father a line of kings.

God kept that promise, bringing David, Solomon, and other great kings from his line.

However, Jacob could hardly have known who the greatest king would be that would come from Judah.

His promise would be fulfilled ultimately in Jesus, the Son of God who came to earth and took sin upon himself, died in our place, and rose from the dead.

Jesus is the king over every king, the ruler over every ruler, the lord over every lord, and that scepter will never depart.

As we bless our graduates, our mothers, our children, the greatest blessings we can hope for on their behalf is eternal life—a relationship with Jesus that is based on his work and his alone.

We cannot save anyone, and we cannot create their future.

However, we can verbally express a blessing over them, pointing them to Jesus, basing the blessing off what God has done and who the person is and what truth they need to know.

The greatest truth we can pray for them is that God draw them into a vibrant relationship with himself.

To our graduates: May the Lord bless you with an awareness for all he has done in you during this time at school, and may he bless you with a lifelong desire to learn and grow as you move into the next chapter of life. May this next chapter be filled with the blessing of being able to do good work for God’s glory. May he bless you with friends to support you and, if you are leaving here, may he bless you with a church family that can encourage you to walk closely with him. May he make you continually aware of his presence and bring your heart back to the gospel daily.

To our mothers: May God give you the ability to bless your children with the example of a godly mother from today on. May you know God’s nearness and draw from his strength when moments are hard and may he fill you with joy during the mundane moments that come often in raising children. May you have the ability to speak about Christ freely with your children whatever age they may be, and may you rest in God’s grace instead of carrying “mom-guilt” when you don’t do everything you would like. May you be uniquely aware of God’s love for you today and always.

Endnotes:

[1] https://www.oprahdaily.com/life/a30244004/how-to-manifest-anything/

[2] Boesch, Tina. Given: The Forgotten Meaning and Practice of Blessing. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2019.

[3] Tina Boesch, Given, Chapter 3: Blessing a Child: