Then the angel of the Lord called again to
Abraham from heaven. "This is what the Lord
says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only
son, I swear by my own name that I will
certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the
stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer
the cities of their enemies. And through your
descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed--all because you have
obeyed me." -- Genesis 22: 15-18 (NLT)
It has become in vogue in Christianity to pursue blessings. We hear it preached in contortions of the Gospel designed to make men rich and turn Christ into an ATM. We see it on all the "church" channels as we are taught that sowing seed (money) will produce a harvest (more money) because some modern day charlatan has figured our how to twist Scripture to fit their schemes. They will shout out to you that God has made you the head and not the tail! On top and not beneath! A lender and not a borrower! That all sounds fantastic but of course it is completely ignorant of context. Those snippets are taken from a section of Deuteronomy 28 where God is speaking of the blessings for obeying the law. Here are the actual full verses:
"If you obey the commands of the Lord your God and walk in
his ways, the Lord will establish you
as his holy people as he swore he would do. Then all the nations of the world will see
that you are a people claimed by the Lord ,
and they will stand in awe of you. "The
Lord will give you prosperity in the land he swore to your
ancestors to give you, blessing you with many children, numerous livestock, and
abundant crops. The Lord will send rain at the proper time from his rich treasury
in the heavens and will bless all the work you do. You will lend to many
nations, but you will never need to borrow from them. If you listen to these commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully
obey them, the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will
always be on top and never at the bottom. You
must not turn away from any of the commands I am giving you today, nor follow
after other gods and worship them. -- Deuteronomy 28: 9-14 (NLT)
Looks like there were a couple of conditions left
out of those blessings! IF you obey the commands of God! IF you walk in ALL of
His ways! IF you listen to all of His commands! IF you do not follow after
other Gods and worship them! And what were the commands God is referring to
here? The Mosaic Law, which contained over 600 different rules for
"The Lord will afflict you
with the boils of
That wouldn't sell well at a Praise-athon! The real damage of the bless me theology is that it skews our view of everything God has already done for us! That is what blessings are! Are you healthy? Is your marriage prospering? Do you know where your kids are? Do you have a Bible believing church and a nurturing Pastor? These are blessings. But we overlook them seeking for what we think we are somehow lacking or searching for what the devil shows us we don't yet possess. And the greatest of all the blessings is the true blessing of Abraham!
Despite what the song might falsely teach us the actual blessing of Abraham is the salvation we almost consciously dismiss every day. The fact that our name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. The fact that we enjoy eternal life right now and that through Jesus Christ death no longer holds any power over us! Here is the blessing of Abraham in Scripture:
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse
for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a
tree" ), that the
blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might
receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brethren,
I speak in the manner of men: Though it
is only a man's covenant, yet if
it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. Now to Abraham and his
Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but
as of one, "And
to your Seed," who is Christ. And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later,
cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it
should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God
gave it to Abraham by promise.
-- Galatians 3: 13-18 (NKJV)
Our inheritance is already obtained
beloved. It is the salvation through Christ. Passed down from Abraham to Isaac
to Jacob, who would then become
The Lord had said to Abram,
"Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, and go to
the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great
nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to
others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat
you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you." --
Genesis 12: 1-3 (NLT)
All families on earth are blessed
through Abraham because salvation came through his lineage in the form of Jesus
Christ. This was God's redemptive plan for humanity. But the part that is often
overlooked is what Abraham had to do. He had to display a blind obedience to
God. Verse one here says that God essentially told Abraham to pick up and leave
everything he knew behind and go to a foreign land. No details are provided to
him whatsoever. Just pick up and leave your comfort zone, your extended family,
your lifelong friends, and everything familiar. No reason is provided either.
