The Blessing of Abraham: Session 1 – Blessed to be a Blessing

Notes:

Blessed to be a Blessing    See Session Slides Here

  • Gal. 3:6-14. After creation, the first act of God towards man was to bless him (Gen.1:28).
  • Blessed = barak – to empower to prosper in all areas spiritual, physical, social/relational, material, emotional – wholeness in every part. ‘To bless in the Old Testament means to endue with power for success, prosperity, fruitfulness in childbearing, longevity, etc.’
  • Also the blessing of everything God created contains the seeds of more fruit. ‘Be fruitful and multiply’. Blessing is the power to produce and reproduce. We are blessed to be a blessing.
  • The Greek word for bless, eulogia. means ‘to speak well of’.
  • Man was placed in a garden to tend it, i.e. cultivate, serve, work it to bring forth its fruit.
  • The foundation of blessing is a right relationship with God. The curse was a result of a disconnection from God due to sin. It brought death in all areas. Tending was replaced by toiling; the curse of the law means you will toil to get what God gave you.
  • God no longer rested in creation. He promised salvation, i.e. the new creation.
  • In Gen.12:2-3 God’s redemptive program begins. Abraham is blessed to be a blessing.
  • Abraham is declared righteous when he believes Gen. 15:4-6. This is through faith in the Seed.
  • Righteousness deals with sin and the curse and places us in permanent favour with God.
  • The seed of Abraham will be a blessing to the world. God repeated this twice more to Abraham and then to Isaac and then to Jacob. Gen.18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14.
  • This includes Abraham’s physical seed, the Jews.
  • But also his spiritual seed, the Church. Gal.3:8-9,14.

Abraham, the prototype of all believers.

  • Gen. 12:1-3. God would bless Abraham because of righteousness through faith in the Seed.
  • You cannot be blessed and cursed at the same time.
  • Gal. 3:13-14. Crucifixion was the means of Christ taking the curse of the law.
  • So we have been redeemed from the curse, i.e. from shame and guilt, healing from toxic relationships, toiling has been replaced with tending, we are reconciled to God, etc.
  • We are blessed, i.e. empowered to prosper in all areas spiritual, physical, social/relational, material, emotional – wholeness in every part. These are the blessings of righteousness.
  • When an innocent person sins they become guilty because their sin is imputed to them. But when a righteous person sins they remain righteous because their sin is imputed to Christ (2 Cor.5:19).
  • Example #1.  Gen.12:10-20; 13:1-2. Abraham sins; Pharaoh is rebuked and Abraham comes out of Egypt very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold! Because sin is not imputed to the righteous, (Rom.4:7-8; Heb. 8:12).

Summary: Because we have been made righteous, we are blessed. We are empowered to prosper spiritually, physically, socially/relationally, materially and emotionally. We are qualified for wholeness in every part. God doesn’t want us to toil but to tend.

But remember this; we are blessed to be a blessing. If you turn in upon yourself then your blessings will become like rotten fruit.

Hebrew baruch means blessed. It also means to kneel because it is from the root word berech – knee, to bow. So our part is to bow the knee and receive the blessing.

# Answers to this quiz are found in the notes above. Click on quiz to commence. Only correct spelling is recognised. A minimum 70%  correct is required to advance to the next session.