Blessed to Bless

BBOM 3

Blessed to Bless

[God’s covenant with Israel was to extend to the nations]

What is blessing? 

A. God’s promised blessing, reiterated to Isaac (,) 

B. God’s promised blessing reiterated to Jacob ()  

C. Individual’s stories fit into the greater story. 

1. Example: Joseph - ,

2. Example: Pharaoh -  

3. Example: Conquest - , ,

D. Other nations came with them out of Egypt. () 1. Laws were needed written to provide and protect for the foreigner () 2. The conquest added people from other nations. a. - God dealt with pagans on an individual level. b. chapter 7 God dealing with Israelites on an individual level. 

“Blessing is the way God enables his creation to be fertile and fruitful, to grow and to flourish. It is in the most comprehensive sense God’s purpose for his creation. Wherever human life enjoys the good things of creation and produces the good fruits of human activity, God is pouring out his blessing. Wherever people bless God for his blessings, to that extent God is known as the good Creator who provides for human flourishing. God’s blessing is universal. But it is not the case that blessing is God’s goodness in creation as distinct from his goodness in salvation, as has sometimes been proposed.… 

Salvation too is God’s blessing, since salvation is the fulfillment of God’s good purposes for creation, purposes already expressed in creation. But salvation is the fulfillment of God’s purposes in spite of the damage evil does to God’s creation. The Abrahamic blessing is more than the blessing of creation because it is designed to contend with and to overcome its opposite: God’s curse”.