Jesus, in the Gospels, opened His conversation with us by offering BLESSINGS.
How many people have pulled open a hotel drawer, so to speak, and flipped open the New Testament, looking for the red letters that mark Christ's words? They have always seen this:
Mat 5:1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:
Mat 5:2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
Mat 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 5:4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Mat 5:5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Mat 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Mat 5:7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Mat 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Mat 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
"Blessed" is not a word we use in the 21st century. When I was a kid, people said "23 Skidoo." I had no idea what it meant. What's a blessing?
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=== A Command and Empowerment To Prosper ===
The table of blessings has four legs: there are four ideas implied in the word. Let's start with the simple:
Gen 1:21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
What exactly does that mean ... that God created fish, and birds, and commanded a blessing on them? Without God, these lifeforms would have withered and dwindled, burned out like a smoking candle.
In Gen. 1:21, God commands that they prosper. If you watch a campfire untended, no matter how beautifully it is built, its direction is still toward extinction. It will blow out, or simply burn out, if somebody doesn't tend it.
Gen. 1:21 introduces us to a very interesting idea: that when God blesses a thing, He begins tending it as a campfire. He ensures its prosperity and forward growth.
Armed with this definition, you can see how each time God uses the word in the Bible towards animal, vegetable or mineral, He is including the campfire concept. Profound spiritual people sought blessings because they valued the Creator's sponsorship of their endeavors. Sensible lads!
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=== Endorsement ===
But another dimension to the word is seen in Gen. 2:3:
Gen 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
Gen 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
The Sabbath was also tended by God, but here we see the idea of praise. God commended a particular day of the week, endorsing it -- He gave it a special name and a special honor. This is another aspect to the jewel of Blessedness.
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I very well remember my amazement when I heard that Nike gave an 18-year-old, in high school, an $80,000,000 contract to endorse their shoes. LeBron James had not played a single college basketball game, much less a single NBA game. How in the world did Nike know that James would certainly star in the NBA? Is Nike better at forecasting sports than Mel Kiper Jr. or John Madden?
Anyway, what Nike wanted was James' endorsement. They wanted every teenager to know that LeBron James APPROVES of Nike tennis shoes.
Why should James' approval matter so much? Because if 13-year-old Archie Thompson likes LeBron, he'll automatically like Nike.
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This is included in the idea of God's blessing of the Sabbath: everyone who loved God in the Old Testament, transferred that friendliness toward the Sabbath.
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If Jim marries Sue, then everybody who loves Jim must now accept Sue. Jim has blessed Sue: he has endorsed her. The same is true with God: when He endorses a human being, He says "Anyone who is a friend of Mine, will now accept this human being."
That is what is behind Jesus' teachings on brotherhood.
Gen 12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee:
Gen 12:2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
Gen 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
So we begin to realize why men, such as Abraham and his grandson Jacob, went to such great lengths "to obtain a blessing." With that blessing, so they believed, came prosperity and the endorsement of the Creator Himself.
The prosperity might be sought in many different areas -- prosperity in meeting the right girl, prosperity in having a tumor diagnosis turn out to be benign, prosperity in peace of mind. But all men have goals. All men want something.
Moving towards those goals is what we call prosperity. The spiritual man hopes for God's cooperation in this prosperity.
Whether or not we have come to accept the Bible as inspired, all spiritual men (consciously or unconsciously) seek the same thing. They seek God's endorsement, and His promise of prosperity.
Kind regards,
Jeff
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