The Theme of Blessing

Blessing

Introduction:

This is our question and answer Sunday, and I love these. This is an opportunity for me to HEAR from you about the things on your heart as we are studying a book of the Bible together.

The purpose of this sunday is to try and address one or multiple things brought up to me over the past few weeks about the sermon series so that you don’t walk away from our series into another one with lagging and plaguing questions.

This morning I am addressing a few of you who reached out to me about a single topic. A topic which emerged last week in Psalm 134. The idea of “blessing.”

It’s a tricky topic and we will address it as a topic, rather than as a marching through a particular passage. We will address a few texts this morning in answer the question.

As a text to meditate on today though, I have chosen the first text we will be working through.

Genesis 12:1-3.

So will you please read this with me, then we will pray.

As you pray through this text with me, try and think about HOW the people of the earth could be “blessed” by Abraham.

Story:

There is a story from Southern India, which I love, and recaps you have heard it before

6 blind men are standing next to an elephant. They are trying to describe what type of animal an elephant was.

One man says, “please, an elephant is nothing more than a large cow.” As he felt the ground and noticed the four large legs of the animal .

No the second man shouted. “An elephant is sharp like a spear” as he carefully slid his hand accross the tusk.

“Less of a spear an more of a snake the third man said taking hold of the elephants trunk.

The fourth man smirks and says, “None of these are true, an elephant is like a wall” as he stands rubbing his hands back and forth on the animal’s thick skin on its side.

The fifth man was sitting on top of the elephant feeling the wiry hairs saying. “No my friends, this animal is like a magic carpet.”

Finally, the sixth blind man yells, “Don’t you know that they used a rope to trick us taking hold of the elephant’s tail.

After argueing for some time, “cow,” “spear,” “snake,” “wall,” “carpet,” “rope.”

Someone comes in and says, how do you know? This animal is so big do you think only one of you feels the whole thing?

Perhaps if you put the parts together you get a better picture of the way an elephant looks.

Today as we look at the idea of “blessing” or “blessedness” we must be very careful not to stop at the trunk of the elephant, or the tusk of the elephant and make any sort of claim that it is the entirety of the beast.

There are literally hundreds of occupancies of the word “bless” in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. It would take us months to go through each one of them, so we wont be doing that. Unless, you want to. Yeah? No?

I’m just kidding, we won’t do that. Everyone has to work tomorrow.

But the fact emails, it is all over the place. And the fact also is present that the texts containing the word use it in various ways. These are the 6 blind men at the elephant.

Our job set before us today will be to observe the parts, and try to assemble them into a single animal pointing to the person of Christ, as all the Bible certainly does.

We will be looking at a few passages today. So you can jot these down.

Genesis 2:3

Genesis 12:1-3

Numbers 6: 24-26

Job 2:9

Matthew 5:3-10

And 1 Corinthians 10:16

I know that 6 passages of Scripture is a lot, and we will move through them rather swiftly, but these are key passages for different uses of the concept of blessedness.

So let’s quick lok at the two most prominent words used for “bless” in the Bible.

In Hebrew the word is “BARUCH” which is also a name. As we looked at last week. The term BARUCH means “bless” or “one who is blessed.” But more specifically it means “to serve” or “to kneel down”

This is the root word for te hundreds of occupancies in the Old Testament

Moving into the New Testament we see the word MAKARIOS

It literally means “to be happy” or “to be blessed.” Or “blessedness.” In some kind of ethereal sense.

These two words have a common thread between them, and they denote a bigger picture than what the individual usages of the word communicate.

So here it is: If you are writing this down looking for a single sentence to state how the IBLE IN GENERAL DEFINES THE IDEA OF “BLESSING.” This is my definition, built on the reading of dozens of biblical theologies summarized into a single statement

Blessing is: THE CHRISTOLOGICALLY FOUNDED, POSITIVELY MANIFEST RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.

THE CHRISTOLOGICALLY FOUNDED, POSITIVELY MANIFEST RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.

These 6 texts we will swiftly work through highlight and underscore this reality.

So let’s begin:

Genesis 2:3

“God BLESSED the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it he rested from all his work of creation.”

This is the end of the week of creation.

It’s after the trees, the fruit, the ocean, the animals, and mankind. After the image of God had been endowed to those first people.

After that 6th night of creation God did a thing on the seventh day. He rested. But he also BLESSED IT.

This is element 1 of the elephant of blessing.

In this passage the phrase “HE BLESSED” is then restated in the phrase “DECLARED IT HOLY.” It is a a restating. This is a hebrew writing feature called “parallelism” where the same thing is expressed in two different ways. We see it all the time in the book of Proverbs.

This is a representation of the relationship God has to his work of creation. He has a reationship withhis creation that is HOLY. It is sacred. It is set apart. It is different than the relationship between elementals of creation.

When you look at the world view of Budhism there is a sacred relationship between all pieces of creation. Not is a respectful sense, but in a holy sense. As if each pieces of creation is a piece fo divinity itself.

This text brings to light that that is NOT TRUE. God is God and trees are not. Rivers are not We do not interact with creation in the same way we interact with God himself. Because of the relationship btween God and his creation.

O “blessed” in his text is a set apart reality, it is a differentiation, a distinction between other things.

So throughout the Bible, when we read of the people of God being “aide holy” in a Genesis 2:3 sense, this is fundamentally an act of blessing.

Moving forward in Genesis we see a bit of specificity towards a particular individual.

Genesis 12:1-3

The Lord said to Abram “Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation, i will BLESS YOU, and I will make your name great, and you will BE A BLESSING, I will BLESS those who BLESS YOU, I will CURSE those wo treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will BE BLESSED through you.

SO here we have five usages of the word BARUCH. “Bless” in just a few verses. And guess what.

It’s used in 3 different ways. And interpretively this is where we begin to see the Christological foundation in the definition.

So, context. Abram (later to be Abraham) lived in a placed called HARAN in the Chaldeans. The Fertile Crescent. Around the Iraqi area in Mesopotamia. His grew up in his fathers house, his father named TERAH. Abram grew up in a VERY PAGAN household The worshiped all sorts of gods and divine-type things.

The GOD OF THE BIBLE then spoke to Abram and said “GO” “BE SEPARATE” Just liek the “blessing” in Genesis 2:3 with the seventh day, we see God blessing Abram with a separatness from his upbringing.

LEAVE your home and you family. I WILL BLESS YOU.

GOD SAYs, I WILL DO THIS> I WILL BLESS YOU

This is the second use of the term “And you will be a blessing.” You will be a particular individual that will be the father of a nation that will be separated for the sake of the LORD> YOU WILL BE A BLESSING in this same way.

Now usage 2. “I will BLESS those who BLESS you and I will Curse those who treat you with contempt.”

Here we see a bit of a dichotomy. Blessing is juxtaposed to cursing.

This is the relational element.

In other words, God will manifest positivly (Bess) or manifest the relationship negatively (curse)

He will act favorably, or he will act unfavorably.

So, element 1, a holy separation.

Element 2, favorable action towards.

Ten finally, “and all the peoples on earth will be blessed by you.”

This is a passive verb.

In the beginning of this text Abram was told he would BE A BLESSING. That is active. Abram is doing a thing.

This is a passive verb. The people will BE BLESSED. Abram is not active. The people are not active. It’s passive.

What God is active.

Later in genesi 17 we se the Covenant God makes with Abraham he splits the animals in half which we know fro Jeremiah indicates that if the covenant is broken you can split the guilty party as you did with the animals.

Ten something amazing happens. ABRAHAM TAKES A NAP!

Then the blazing torch, God the Father, and the smoking fire pot. THAT IS JESUS CHRIST. The image of the Father in a man made vessel pass through the covenant aisle.

ABRAHAM IS ASLEEP.

But God makes a covenant with himself in CHrist and APPLIES IT TO ABRAHAM! Which ultimately changes the reality of humanity and flips the world on itself head.

This is element 3. A passive benefit of Christ.

Next, Numbers 6:23-27

“Tell Aaron and his sons, “this is how you are to bless the Israelites. You should say, “May the LORD bless you and protect you, may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you, may the Lord lok with favor on you and give you peace. In this way they will pronounce my name over the Israelites and I WILL BLESS THEM.”

When I was in high school we did a things kind of like Boy Scouts called “venture Crew.”

It’s the co-ed equivalent of Boy Scouts still under the banner of te Boy Scouts Of America.

Every week when we would get together in our troop meetings we would recite this together. At that point I thought it was just a thing they did.

Now I realize that it is a proclamation of something deeply crucial to the person of God.

Aaron was te first high priest. His sons the first priests of the nation of Israel. The beginning of the book of numbers is a detailed account of how to decide the land among the 12 tribes, and the responsibilities of the Levites and the Preistly order.

This is the benediction the priest were to speak over the Israelites to accomplish something in them.

They were to constantly speak this refrain to the people of israel to always keep in the forefront’s of their minds the character of their God. We know from Exodus 32, that when this type of speaking over them didn’t exist very swiftly they reverted to idol worship.

Im sure, some of you get annoyed with me for preaching the same types of things all the time. I have always said, I preach the same sermon every week I just use different scripture to preach it.

But it is important. I take very seriously my role for you to always be placing in front of your eyes, into your ears, and into your hands the character of God lest you be swept away by the whims of the world and your own heart.

This is Numbers 6.

The priests were to BLESS the Israelites. That is “to speak over them the CHARACTER and QUALITY of the most high God.”

And we se three characteristics of God in this passage.

he manifests positive relationships and defends.

He turns towards you and presents his gifts to you

He looks to you as one who is loved and provides a refuge from the storm.

It is through the rest of the Old Testament and intothe New Testament that we see story after story, narrative after narrative, life after life, of this being true for the people of God.

And the Lord says, in verse 27, “In this way hey will pronounce MY NAME (God’s name) over Israel, and I WILL BLESS THEM.

To have a relationship with someone you must know them. A very real piece of the blessing elephant is the reality that God is a KNOWN GOD. And he desires his people to know him, so he reveals himself. He reveals himself through his word. He reveals himself through his son. He reveals himself through his prophets and pastors. He reveals himself through this priestly word spoken over his people.

The remainder of the Old Testament, the word Baruch is used many times and it is essentially a playing out of these particular definitions, or elements.

So Element

a separation

Action of favor

Passive benefit of Christ

A revelation of the character of God

This is an Old Testament biblical theology of the word BLESS

Moving into the New Testament we see these things play out dramatically and specifically concerning the person of Jesus where it all funnels towards and finds its crux.

Matthew 5: 3-10

Blessed are the poor in spirit

For the Kingdo of heaven is theirs.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the humble, for they wil inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

For the will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful

For they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in hear

For the will see God

Blessed are the peacemakers

For they will be called sons fo God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness

For the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

Here we have the word “Makarios” or “blessed” used 8 times. 8 times.

People have interpreted this word in many different ways. Though the most common and linguistically viable in “to be happy” or “to be blessed.”

But here is what we see here in Matthew 5. Very single one of these statements is essentially “blessed is the person who . . . .XYZ” and them “this is will happen to them.”

So to interpret the definition of the word “blessed” in this context I think it reasonable to begin by understanding the second line of each one.

The Kingdo of heaven in theirs, they will be comforted, they will inherit the earth, they wil be filled, they will be shown mercy, they will see God, they will be called sons of God, the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

No, we could spend a lot of time just on the beautitudes here, and we may sometime in the future, but right now we will stick to what we are doing.

Th 8 benefits are provided to you DUE TO the characteristics you embody.

We observe throughout the NEw estate the, that Jesus himself is a beneficiary of these 8 things. We see that CHrist inherits the kingdom. Is comforted. Inherits the earth. Filed. Shon mercy. Sees god. Called a son of God.

Therefore if there is a single person who received the benefits of the beautitudes then it would follow that that same single person also embodies the characteristics necessary.

Jesus Christ. Was

Poor in spirit, that is he was aware of his dependance of God.

Jesus was

Mourning, as is typical of the gospel of Matthew This is referring to a spiritual mourning. John Scott once wrote on this verse, “this is a single greatest human factor of the feeling of desperation, a sense of people at the end of their spiritual resources one we se Christ himself demonstrate in gethsemane.”

Jesus was

Humble, that is he did not lift himself above God.

Jesus was

Hungry and thirsty for rightouesness, he calls himself the living water and the bread of life.

Jesus was

Merciful, mercy is grace in action. Mecy is love reaching out to help those who are helpless and who need saving. Mercy identifies with the miserable in their misery.

Jesus was

Pure in heart. Christ himself is the only thing truly pure 1 John 3:3 write.

Jesus was

A peacemaker. When people become married it is like planets orbiting the sun at different speeds then all of a sudden needing to match pace. This is peacemaking. It is unifying all those moving towards god together towards god.

And Jesus was

Persecuted because of Righteousness. The cross of CHrist was a persecution beause of Rightousness.

All of these characteristics, as New Testament Scholar James Boice as said, “o be truly blessed, is to be, totally, body and soul, like Christ in his body and soul.”

Last passage this morning. 1 Corinthians 10:16

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?

The cup of blessing was the technical term for the cup after the meal of Passover. This statement from Paul here highlights for us though a key element of what it means to to define the word “bless.”

The term blessing here is linked in separable to the blood of Christ. The break is not. It is the bread of affliction in the Passover, it is not a sign of the New Covenant. The shedding of blood is required for the forgivness of sins. Therefore the blessing comes, not only from the breaking of the body, but from the shedding of the blood.

Calvin made the stamens when speaking of the sacrament of the cup and the bread, “the soul has true communion with the blood as we drink wine with the mouth.”

He communion with each other and with God through this cup is only because of the pouring out of Christs blood. Therefore to refer to the cup as “the cup of blessing” is to link that blessedness to the pouring out of Christ on the cross. With the initiation of the New Covenant.

This is exactly what Jesus himself says “This is my blood of the new covenant poured out for you.”

To say it is blessed, this piece of the elephant, is that it is linked to the sacrifice of Christ to make right the relationship with his people.

So, there we have it.

I KNOW THAT WAS A LOT.

But here are the 6 pieces of the elephant.

a separation

Action of favor

Passive benefit of Christ

A revelation of the character of God

An embodiment of the character of Christ.

A proclamation of the sacrifice of Christ.

IS this what you wan when you use te term “blessed?”

Is this how it is framed in your mind?

Taking all of this into onsideration, it follows then that only people who are believers in Christ can actually be BLESSED. Which is exactly what God speaks to Abraham in Genesis 12. That through him all the people of earth will “be blessed.” Due to Christ’s death and resurrection.

This is charge to you. I’m not going to go though all this information about the word and then not present to you the conviction of these texts and challenge to your life.

If Christ is your LORD. You are fundamentally blessed due to the cross of Christ. SO LIVE LIKE IT.

BE SEPARATE. Embody the character of Christ revealed in the Scriptures and reclaim with thanksgiving the sacrifice of your KING!

You have received by God the greatest act of favor. The blessing of the most high by ending his son. Other things may comes. Other things may not come. But you have already, in your faith, received a passive benefit of an act of favor due to the revelation of the character of God.

Truly in CHrist you are blessed.

But Friends, hear this. I know that this sermon this morning may have been swift. It may have seemed a bit high and lofty or over your head. That’s ok.

This is where the rubber meets the road. If you, in your death in sin, have not professed faith in Christ. You cannot actually be blessed, I don’t care what kind of hashtag you put on social media, you cannot and will not be truly blessed without faith in the saving work of Christ on the cross.

So do it now.

I going to lead a prayer, or have people close their eyes. But I am telling you. The Word of God calls you to himself by faith to reap the blessing of the cross. Do it now.

As we can see, blessing in the Bible is a massive animal everyone tries to describe.

But like God, he is bigger and more glorious than any single book can capture.

Let us pray and bless the Lord together.