Blessings and Being Blessed

And it's more of a lesson on what not to do, so save that for another time. But I was reading not that long ago about some of the lessons of the religion of Judaism and customs of the Old Testament and how they can relate to Christians. And I learned that in the religion of Judaism there is a specific blessing for just about everything. There are blessings to say for times of praise, blessings for thanksgiving, blessings for times of enjoyment. Now, each of these blessings begins with an affirmation of God's sovereignty. See, people looking at me, is the sound going in and out? No, it's not sounding loud. Because I can just talk loud. I just don't want to shout you all down.

Oh, that's why it sounds so loud to me. Do I need to go back over and start over again? Are you with me so far? Okay, good, because you didn't want to hear all that again. I'll just mention, each one of these particular blessings starts with an affirmation of God's sovereignty. The written line is, blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, and then it is followed by a specific acknowledgement. For instance, I wrote down one. There are lots of them I could have written down. But on hearing thunder in the sky, the prescribed blessing is, blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, whose might and power fill the world. There are formal blessings like this to say over food and drink, blessings to say for enjoying freedom, for new clothes, and so on and so on. And I didn't look this up, but I'll take that book's word for it. It says, the Talmud says that anything which is enjoyed requires a blessing. As I said, I haven't studied the Talmud a lot, but I have seen Fiddler on the Roof, which is a great source to go to for understanding Jewish religion and custom. And there is a part of that. Oh, I'm serious! There's a section in the movie, you remember, there's a young couple that gets married, and he's the local tailor. And I remember in the movie, I've seen the stage production also, everybody's excited, there's a new arrival, and the camera follows, they're all excited, and they build it up so you're sure there's a baby. And then they come in, and there's a tailor with his brand new sewing machine. And someone asked the rabbi, Rabbi, is there a blessing for a sewing machine? Because sewing machines are a brand new thing, and he says, of course, there is a blessing for everything. And another one more time before he leaves Fiddler on the Roof. Because remember, that story takes place in pre-communist Russia, when the royal family led by the Czar was on the throne, and they weren't overly friendly towards the Jewish people. So there's one point where someone asked the rabbi, is there even a blessing for the Czar? And the answer is yes. May God bless and keep the Czar far away from us. Now, I'm leading into this, talking about the words, bless and blessing. Are religious words that people use very often. You know, in our society, people tend to want to shy away from religious things, but not necessarily from that. And people use them sometimes without even thinking. Now, it's common when someone sneezes for someone nearby to say, oh, bless you. I think it's interesting, many years ago, when I was younger, I had a friend who thought that was a good source for humor. He heard someone say, bless you. And he said, oh, can you do that? Meaning, can you confer a blessing? Now, he was just trying to be funny, and obviously it worked, because you're still laughing today. But there's a legitimate question there. Can you or I actually bless someone? What exactly is a blessing? Are there big blessings and small blessings? Can a person be a blessing? Could you be a blessing for someone else?

And you see, I've got a lot of questions here, and I started off with questions and then searched in the Bible to try to find some answers. So, today I want to look into this idea of blessing. It seemed like an appropriate subject today, because we've asked a blessing on some of our little children, and almost all of us here have had blessings of some kind asked on us. So, let's talk about blessing and being blessed. Now, a good place to start is since I said these words are used freely and sometimes cavalierly.

Let's look into some definitions first. Let's nail down what do we mean. So, first of all, I went to Webster's dictionary. I've got a couple of them in my office. They provide some insight, some of these definitions, but they also show how vague the term has become in modern society. First, let's talk about the noun. It says, of blessing. There are a couple of definitions that it gives.

One is that it could be either the act or the words of one that blesses. So, for instance, blessed are you, or Lord our God, King of the universe, who might empower or fill the world, those words could be considered a blessing, or if there's a special action in doing it. Or, alternative definition, and I think this is the one that's most common with people, is a thing conducive to happiness or welfare.

Anything that's conducive to happiness or welfare can be called a blessing. If you're a farmer, in June, maybe late June or July, rain is a great blessing. It makes you happy and it helps promote your welfare. You know, if, what? I saw a commercial recently saying McRib was back. For a lot of people, that's a great blessing. Not so much to us, since... I didn't plan that one ahead of time. I say, since we don't eat pork, that's...

Anyways. Let's go to the verb, to bless. In Webster's, it says, to hallow or consecrate by religious right to invoke divine care. So, to bless someone is to invoke divine care, to hallow in a religious right. What we did here today is we laid hands on and said a prayer. That was a form of to bless someone. Or, if it's not in a religious ceremony, relating to that second definition of something that brings happiness or prosperity, it says, to confer prosperity or happiness is to bless. So, in that sense, if I walk up and hand you a five dollar bill, you could say, I'm blessing you.

If that makes you happy, it certainly makes you a little more prosperous, but only a little. So, I'd say, when I looked at this, I thought, well, the common English definitions, they do retain some religiosity to them. But they've become so generic, those definitions I read could apply to any relief. Any belief. I was going to say religious belief, it came out relief.

So, it could be if you're Christian, Buddhist, if you're worshipping the rock in your backyard, all these definitions apply. So, I thought, well, let's get a little more specific. I pulled out my Unger's Bible dictionary. And it gave some definitions that I think are a little more useful to us as believing, practicing Christian. And he defined three different acts of blessing. He says, the first one is an act of blessing when God blesses men, granting prosperity or happiness.

Let's look at an example in Genesis chapter 22. Genesis 22 and verse 17. So, when God blesses men, and here's an example of God promising to bless Abraham, we're going to come back and look at some in more specifics, but I wanted to cover examples of all three of the definitions Unger's provides. And we're breaking into a thought here, but this is God's personal word speaking to Abraham. And he says, blessing, I will bless you. And multiplying, I'll multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, as the sand which is on the seashore, and your descendants shall possess the gates of their enemy.

So, God promises to give Abraham something that Abraham really wanted very badly. So, God was conferring a blessing on man.

Now, another way to look at to blessing, or the second way to confer a blessing is for men to bless God. And you might say, how can men bless God? God has all the advantages and there's nothing we can give them. But the definition of for men to bless God is to ascribe to God the supreme sovereignty that he already has, and thank him for such. To express that gratitude, let's turn to Psalm 103 to see an example of this.

Psalm 103, beginning in verse 1.

Psalm 103, verse 1 says, Bless the Lord eternal, or I'm quoting from the songbook, Bless the eternal, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. And it continues to list several of those benefits. Forgiveness of sin, healing of diseases. So when we ascribe to God the greatness he already has and express gratitude, we're blessing him. That's not actually giving him something he doesn't already have, except we're giving him our appreciation and understanding that he is that great. The third definition of the way to bless is for men to bless other men. And that could be by expressing good wishes and asking God's benefits on them. Let's look at an example in 2 Samuel chapter 6.

2 Samuel chapter 6.

This example just stood out to me just because of the particular phrasing. And this is actually breaking once again into a story. 2 Samuel chapter 6 and verse 20. I'm sorry, I didn't give you the verse. This is after David had the priest bring the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. And there's a big celebration and sacrifice. And then in verse 20 it says, David returned to bless his household. And if you continue with the thought he had to run in with one of his wives. I think part of the problem he's having run in is that there was more than one wife to have a run in with. But he returned to bless his household. He was coming back to express good wishes for them and ask God's benefits on them. So all of these are alternate meanings for men for blessing. Alternate meanings for blessing. I will mention another one from Men Blessing Men. And we're going to see several examples of it, so we'll come to that. But it could be also when one is inspired by God's Spirit and prophesies future blessings that God will confer. So when someone in the spirit of prophecy, meaning God's Spirit, is revealing something they didn't already know, starts speaking blessings. If you want to make note, the specific examples happen in Genesis 49. When Jacob blessed his twelve sons and gave prophecies of what would happen to their descendants, the twelve tribes of Israel. Another time is in Deuteronomy 33, where Moses, under inspiration from God, pronounced blessings on the twelve tribes of Israel and prophesied things for many years to come. As I said, we're going to look at some examples later on. But there's a couple other terms I wanted to address, so I can get all the definitions out of the way and move on to the stories. But there's a term you hear sometimes, benediction. Benediction is a very religious-sounding word from the Latin, if I remember correctly. It's a formal statement of blessing as part of ritual worship, a formal statement, such as some of the ones I read earlier. Let's turn to the book of Numbers 6. And we'll begin in verse 23. As you might wonder, is there a particular place in Scripture where it tells us if you want to ask a blessing, this is the way to do it? And the answer, in a sense, is yes. It doesn't say this is the only way, but God gave formal instruction to the priests who would serve in the temple. And I like to use these words even during the blessing of little children, and I don't think I remembered them exactly, but God is merciful. When I was saying the prayer over all of them, I like to mention these words. Numbers 6, beginning in verse 23, says, It's very brief, but I think it's poetic and beautiful. And it brings out the point that we're asking God, the Eternal, which is what the word Lord in all caps can be translated as, May the Eternal bless you and keep you. May He lift up His countenance on you, give you peace, be gracious to you, and keep you.

This blessing was pronounced, we believe, by the priest after every evening and morning sacrifice. Every day when the temple was established, they had a morning sacrifice and an evening sacrifice, and at the close of that ritual, the high priest would say these words. And we believe, and from what we know from history, later on in the years when the temple wasn't there, but the synagogues were established, it was common at the end of Sabbath services, as we would call them, or services in the synagogue, for the rabbi to read this as a close of the service. It does make me wonder, at that time, the account that we read, when they brought the little children to Jesus, perhaps He said those words, or some variation of them. We don't know, but it's certainly appropriate, and as I said, I like to use them and add many other words in prayer. One other term I want to add before we move on. I didn't mean to make this a vocabulary lesson, so there are other things to it, but sometimes hear the word, be attitude. Be attitude is another Latin word, not found in the Bible, but it refers specifically to one section of Scripture, and we don't need to turn there, but we could. It's Matthew 5, verses 3 through 12. Boy, that could be in the tongue twister list. 3 through 12, in Matthew 5, is part of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus Christ said, Blessed are you who hunger and thirst for righteousness, you will be filled. Blessed are the meek, they will inherit the earth. Blessed are you when you are persecuted. And I'm going from memory, and I know I didn't start at the beginning. The term, be attitude, is sometimes used interchangeably with blessing. Actually, in the Latin, it means a state of bliss, which you could say, if you're blessed from God, then you would be in a state of bliss.

I thought it was interesting, because in looking up the definitions, I found that there's nothing that says it means beautiful attitudes, which I remember in the past a minister in the church at one time liked to say that. These do reflect wonderful attitudes that could bring blessings, but the term itself means the state of bliss and these blessings that are brought on.

So all this tells us a lot about the meaning of the words, bless and blessing. Still leaves a lot of those questions unanswered.

What ways can we be blessed? Can we give blessings to others? Should we seek to be blessed? Is it selfish to do so? And if it's not, if we can seek to be blessed, how should we do it? And what blessings are the best? Is there a greatest blessing, one that's the best of all?

And again, I still think one of the most important that we've got to focus on is, how can we be blessed? If it's okay, if we should seek to be blessed, how do we do it?

Now, I mentioned earlier my friend saw a source of humor. We used to joke when people would say, bless you when someone sneezed and say, well, can you do that? Can a human being confer a blessing on another person? And the answer, in short, could be, well, yes!

If you're thinking of that generic term where you grant something that makes someone happy or gives them prosperity, certainly you can grant a blessing.

But I like to think of it in a more particular way. Remember, we say, after you sneeze, you might hear someone say, bless you. But it seems when I was younger, more often there were three words in that phrase. People would say, God bless you, asking God to provide that blessing.

And I kind of like that. To me, you know, you can use the generic terms, but I think if it's really a blessing, I like to think that God would be involved in some way or another. So, and we certainly, it's not wrong for us to ask God to provide blessing for someone.

Now, I've addressed this thing of sneezing a couple times. I put it aside in my notes. It's worth mentioning because in the church, we traditionally haven't followed that practice. There's nothing in the Bible that says, you should never do that. But if you've ever wondered, how come, I know a lot of church people don't say that. Some people do. And it's traditionally been because we've looked at the origin of that practice and found things that we're not as comfortable with. Now, I've heard two explanations of where, you know, saying, bless you or God bless you after someone sneezes comes from. The first, as an old superstition, I'm not sure where it goes back to that apparently in olden days, people thought that when someone sneezed, their spirit came out of their body. And they were vulnerable. Perhaps evil spirits could come in. And so they were invoking God's blessing. Oh, you're in danger. I've got to ask God to bless you. Well, certainly in the church, we're not in the habit of continuing practices based on a superstition like that. Now, another common belief of where this term came from, where this practice is, the simple idea that if a person is sneezing, there's a chance they could be sick or coming down sick.

And so you would ask God to bless them with good health. Or use the term gesundheit. And that's German for health. I see Joanne nodding. I don't know if you know the German. Well, you're familiar with health. I know that. I think, of course, an alternate generation might be to say good health to you. Certainly there wouldn't be anything wrong if we see someone sneezing to wish them good health or ask God to bless them. But, as I said, all my life in the church, I sort of stayed away from that because that was a general practice. I don't think anyone's sinning if they would ask God to bless someone or say gesundheit or good health if someone sneezes. But, you know, I also don't like the idea of being too cavalier and asking God to call a blessing. I'm a little more formal in a lot of things. You wouldn't know it from seeing me up here, but... You know, I like to think of doing things a little more formally and perhaps in prayer and asking God's blessing. But that is leading up to that subject of, how should we seek God's blessings? And how does the Bible describe blessings being conferred? And I use that term conferred meaning putting them on someone or placing specifically. There are a lot of incidents in the Bible in which people are specifically blessed in receiving a blessing. So let's look at some of them. Now, it's not just a random list. I had a way of going... reason I put these together. But let's turn to the book of Genesis. We're going to go to chapter 14. I want to begin with looking at part of the story of Abraham. Abraham is the father of the faithful. Certainly we're told in other scriptures to look to Abraham. In the book of Isaiah at one point it says, Look to the hole from which you were dug, or the rock from which you were hewn. Look to Abraham your father. So it's certainly good for us to look to him in his example. And we're going to see an interesting case of him being blessed. And it will teach us a little bit about how blessings are done or should be. Now I'm not going to read all of Genesis 14, but I'll summarize the first part. Because what happens here is it's giving a little bit of history. And there were two alliances of what were called city-states. At that point a small city would have the person they didn't call a mayor, he'd be the king. And apparently there were six of these cities allied together, and they went to war against another five who were allied together. And one of those alliances included Sodom and Gomorrah. And to sum up, Abraham's nephew Lot at that time was living in Sodom, naturally before Sodom was overthrown with fire and brimstone. So Abraham hears that this war has happened, and these other groups have defeated Sodom and Gomorrah and their allies, whose names are hard to pronounce and I don't remember them. But they've taken some captives, including Lot and his family. Now that's upsetting to Abraham. He wants to defend his nephew Lot. So if we break in in chapter 14 verse 16, No, I'm ahead of myself. Oh, well, I guess I was going to sum up. Let me summarize before I start reading there. Abraham hears this. He arms his servants, which is impressive. He's got 320 servants. He puts weapons in their hands and says, let's go get them. He goes after the attackers. God grants him the victory. And then he's coming back. He rescues Lot, brings back all the booty.

All the stuff. I'm careful how I use the term booty because it has other connotations these days. So now in verse 16, I shouldn't have even said that. He brought back all the goods. That's the word I wanted, goods. And also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people. The kingdom of Sodom went out to meet him in the valley of Sheva, that is the king's valley, after his return from the defeat of Ketolaiomer and the kings that were with him.

So the king of Sodom comes out and greets him and says, then Melchizedek, the king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was not only the king of Salem, but he was also the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him. Now he, the he who blessed is Melchizedek, blessed Abraham. And he said, blessed be Abraham of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And he, that is Abraham, gave him, Melchizedek, a tithe of all. And it goes on, of course, in Abraham, the king of Sodom says, you can just keep all the goods as long as you give us the people. And Abraham doesn't want to do that. He says, I don't want anybody thinking that Abraham was made rich by someone other than God. You take the stuff.

Now that's interesting. Now let's turn to Hebrews chapter 7 to get a little description of some of what happened. In Hebrews chapter 7, although it doesn't specifically say so in the beginning, we believe Hebrews was written by the Apostle Paul. And he spends much of Hebrews 7 making an explanation and a case basically proving that this Melchizedek was actually the one who became Jesus Christ in the flesh. So he wasn't Jesus Christ yet because he hadn't been born of Mary, but in the Old Testament he appeared as Melchizedek.

It was the same person, the one who was known as the Word before he was born of Mary.

Now if we see Hebrews chapter 7 and verse 4, speaking of Melchizedek, he says, Now consider how great this man was to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. Remember, Abraham was the father of the faithful. He was the patriarch. But Abraham tithed to Melchizedek.

And indeed, those who are of the sons of Levi who received their priesthood have a commandment to receive tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham. So he's saying normally people give tithes to the Levites who are descended from Abraham. And he makes the case why Abraham was giving tithes to someone else who wasn't a Levite, and since the Levites came from Abraham, it's like the Levites were tithing to the greater priesthood of Melchizedek.

And I want to skip to...

Oh yeah, keep reading. But he whose genealogy has not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. So Melchizedek blessed Abraham, and now beyond all contradiction, the lesser is blessed by the greater... or blessed by the better in this translation. The lesser is blessed by the better. Now, that's an interesting principle. So, now we could say, in this case, it does apply to moral quality. Abraham was being blessed by the one that we know was actually God. But it doesn't always have to be that case. But it's a tradition, it's normal, he says, and Paul says, without all contradiction, the lesser in rank or stature is blessed by the one who's higher in rank or stature. Or you would say the person who's elder might bless the younger. The person who has some authority of position would bless the person in a lesser position. Scripture shows us several examples of this. Let's go to Genesis chapter 27. Genesis 27 is one of the most famous stories about a blessing, and showing sort of a way a blessing should not be sought, and we're going to learn some lessons from that. But there's where, when we were going to ask the blessing on the little children here, Mr. Call and I, as elders of the church, were fulfilling a role when it was the position that was important, not that us as people, per se. Although, of course, all the elders in the church strive to be of the moral quality to live up to that position. So this is the story of Isaac and desiring to confer a blessing on his son Esau. Remember, Isaac had two sons, they were twins, Esau and Jacob. Esau was born probably a few minutes before Jacob, but he was the first born. Now, we get the feeling as we read through this, it wasn't a matter of Isaac just wanted to do what we did here where he would say, you know, decide for himself a prayer and ask it. He was expecting God to reveal through prophecy a blessing that would be conferred on Esau as the first born. So we begin in the first verse. Now it came to pass when Esau was old and his eyes were dimmed, he couldn't see. He called Esau his older son. They said to him, my son? And he answered, here I am. I'm hoping Connor will do that sometime. Son, here I am, Dad. What are you... And he said, behold, now I am old. I don't know the day of my death. I don't know. I might die soon. Therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow and go out to the field and hunt game for me. Make me savory food such as I love and bring it to me that I may eat and my soul may bless you before I die. So Esau's wanting to set the stage, saying, let's get ready and then I'm going to bless you.

And I'm pretty certain, although it doesn't say in so many words, he's saying, let's set the stage and God will inspire a blessing of... you know, prophesy a blessing that I'll confer on you. Similar, there's a story later when Balak and Balaam... when Balaam came and the king wanted him to curse Israel and he said, well, I've just got to do what God says and they make the sacrifices. And there he said, I'll go up and meet God and what God tells me, that's what I'll say.

I think that was the case here. Esau or Isaac was going to eat and expected God to grant him what to say. Now, when he told him this, though, others were listening. In verse 6, Rebecca spoke to Jacob her son, saying, indeed, I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying, bring thee game and savory food that I may eat it and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death. So he says, now, son, go to the flock and bring me two choice kids of the goats and I'll make savory food for you from your father, such as he loves.

And you will take it to your father that he may eat it and he may bless you before his death.

I just have to say on the side, it's interesting, because Isaac lived like another 50 or 60 years after this. It's funny. Well, it's not funny, but it's interesting. He's so worried about doing this before he dies that he had a lot of time. But anyways, Rebecca and Jacob conspire. We're going to get this blessing. And of course, we know what they do. Rebecca fixed the food just the right way. Jacob put the skins of the goats on his hands and on his neck so that he would seem hairy. And Esau was very hairy and Jacob wasn't. And that's very important in the days before Bic Raisers. So, let's move ahead in the story to verse 27. I really wasn't expecting planning on making this all funny, but it's hard to resist some comments on some of these stories. Verse 27. Okay, so now Isaac eats the food. He came near, he kissed him and smelled the smell of his clothing. And the spirit of prophecy does come on Isaac. He blessed him and said, and in my Bible, the type font is different. It's spelled out as poetry, showing that the translators believe this is a special segment. It says, Surely the smell of my son is like the smell of a field, which the eternal is blessed.

Therefore may God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let people serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren. Let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you.

And that's a pretty special blessing. Have the fatness of the earth. And he specifically says, your mother's sons... His mother only had one other son, and that was Jacob. But he was calling for his mother's son to bow down, and for him to be the servant. Isaac is still thinking this is Esau. He doesn't know. Of course, Jacob receives this blessing and leaves, and not all that long later, Esau comes along. Not at all knowing that any of this has happened.

He prepares the food and goes in to meet his father and asks for that. So, yeah, let's continue. Now it happened, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac, his father, that Esau's brother came in from his hunting.

And he had made savory food and brought it to his father, and said to his father, Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that your soul may bless me. And as father Isaac said to him, Who are you? And he said, I'm your first-born Esau. And Isaac trembled exceedingly. He said, Who? Where is the one that hunted game and brought it to me?

And I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him. And indeed he shall be blessed. This is something that shows it wasn't just a matter of Isaac expressing good wishes. He believed God was speaking through him, because he said, The things that I said are going to happen. Which implies it wasn't just of me, Isaac. These were God's words. Now, Esau was pretty upset about this. We skip down to verse 33. It'd help if I look in my notes.

I'm trying not to read every verse, but in verse 35, he said, Your brother came with deceit and has taken away your blessing. And Esau said, Is he not rightly called Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and now he's taken away my blessing.

And he said, Have you not reserved a blessing for me? And Esau said, Indeed, I've made him your master. All of his brethren, I've given him his servants. And with grain and wine, I've sustained him. What do I do for you now, my son? And Esau said, Have you only got one blessing, my father? Bless me. Me also my father. Esau lifted up his voice and wept. That's a sad thing. I mean, Esau wanted that blessing of the firstborn. Now, we haven't told the whole story, and we're going to back up and look at some of what happened beforehand to show that Esau wasn't as wrong as he might have thought. And we'll see if we go forward.

Isaac would confer a blessing on Esau. And I'm thankful. I think God moved through him in prophecy here to confer this blessing, which wasn't exactly the same blessing, and it shouldn't have been the same. Verse 39, Isaac, his father answered and said, Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above. By your sword you shall live, and you will serve your brother.

And it shall come to pass. When you become restless, you'll break his yoke from your neck. So he had a blessing, but it wasn't the primary blessing that would have been expected for the firstborn. As I said, if we look into it, though, we'll see that perhaps what happened here wasn't so much because of Jacob and Rebekah's trickery and deceit, as much as it was because God intended it to go that way. He just didn't necessarily intend it to go the way it did.

God intended certain things and brought them about. Let's back up to Genesis chapter 25. We'll see, in getting to the beginning of these two fellas' story, Genesis 25, beginning in verse 21, we'll see the beginning of when Rebekah became pregnant with them.

Isaac pleaded with the eternal for his wife because she was barren, and the eternal granted his plea and Rebekah his wife conceived, but the children struggled together within her, and she said, if I'm well, why am I like this? So she went to inquire of the eternal, and the eternal said to her, and I wonder, I don't know if he spoke to her by a voice or sent a prophet, but he gave her this answer.

He said, two nations are in your womb. Two peoples shall be separated from your body. One people shall be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger. He said, you're going to have twins, and they're not necessarily going to get along, and the younger is going to be the master over the elder.

This is before the thing with the goat skin and serving the food. God had said, I'm going to bless the younger in a certain way. Now, and this wasn't because they'd done anything to deserve it, and later in Scripture it shows this.

God made a choice, and he doesn't tell us exactly why. I'm sure God was able to know the DNA of the two babies and perhaps knew that they had different characteristics, and he would work through one in a way that he wouldn't work through the other.

But God made that choice. And of course Esau fell in... Well, I'm not going to say fell into that, but Esau didn't help his case any. If we read ahead there in chapter, verse 29, the two boys are grown up. And we'll see, Jacob cooked a stew, and Esau came from the field, and he was weary. And Esau said to Jacob, Well, please feed me with some of that same red stew, for I'm weary.

And that's why his name was Edom, which means red. So he saw this red stew, and he said, Boy, I've got to have some of that. I'm so weak, I'm going to fall over. Jacob, being a little crafty, and maybe not... I don't know if he knew about the prophecy that was made when they were in the womb, but he said, Sell me your birthright as of this day.

Your birthright. Esau was the elder. The elder in those societies had a greater inheritance and a greater blessing, and Jacob wanted that. So he said, Sell it to me.

Now, you've got to say, Would you sell your birthright for a bowl of stew? I would hope most of us wouldn't, but Esau... He said, Look, I'm about to die. So what good is his birthright going to do me if I die? So Jacob said, Swear to me, and he swore to him, and he sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils, and he ate and rose and went his way, and thus Esau despised his birthright.

So this was part of God bringing about what he'd prophesied from the beginning. And I wanted to back up and read this, because we know Esau later regretted this. He wanted to have what he'd sold away. Now, I think it's probable that the deceit and trickery that Rebecca and Jacob practiced to get that blessing weren't necessary. God was going to fulfill his prophecy. I wonder, maybe because of the wrongdoing, is why Jacob later suffered in ways he wouldn't have had to. And I'm speculating here. The Bible doesn't say this, but remember, Jacob went off, and he was separated from his mother and father and his brother and the rest of their family for years. He was cheated by his father-in-law, Laban. He lived in fear of his brother. Maybe he wouldn't have had to go through all that if he had just exercised faith and trusted God to give him the blessings that God wanted to give him. We can see some of that if we turn to the book of Hebrews, chapter 12. Hebrews 12 and verse 17 shows what a scholar Paul was, because his writings in the New Testament often give us a lot of insight into things in the Old Testament. Actually, I'm going to begin in verse 16, the last part, because it says, lest there be a fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for a morsel of food sold his birthright. He's saying, don't be like that. For you know that afterwards, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. He found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. We read a little bit ago that Esau cried to his father, saying, have you only got one blessing? Bless me also. He was really sorry for what he'd done.

Now, there's always a room God will let us repent of sin, but God won't let us go back and undo something like this. God said, the deal's been done. You can't have it back.

Now, this is a lesson for us about how not to get a blessing, and how we don't want to be as Esau where you treat God's blessings as trivial, or trade them away for something less important.

But what about Jacob? Did he learn some lessons through all of this? I want to look at something I think he did. Jacob learns that that's not the way to receive God's blessings. There's a better way. If we go back to Genesis—I'm sorry, I should have told you to keep a finger there— but I want to look in Genesis 32.

After Jacob went through some of the suffering that I said I think he brought on himself and learned some lessons the hard way, and Jacob would have a chance to seek a blessing from God and realize that it wouldn't come through trickery.

He needed to humble himself and ask God to give him a blessing. Now, the course of the story is when, after Jacob had gone back to his mother's brother, Laban, so his uncle, he married his cousin, which was okay back in those days, not so much now, but married, had many children, gained flocks and herds, and then decided, and God told him, it's time to go back to the land of your father. I wanted you people to dwell on the land of Canaan. I'm going to give it to you. And as Jacob's on his way back towards the land of Canaan, he's thinking, uh-oh, last time I was there Esau wanted to kill me.

And Esau's big and strong, and he was afraid of Esau. He was really worried. So he sent messages ahead to tell Esau, I'm coming, and God has blessed me, and he wanted to give a lot of his stuff to Esau. And when he got in the word back, he said, yeah, Esau got the news, and he's coming with 400 armed men. Jacob starts shaking in his shoes. Okay, Esau is coming with an army. Last time I saw him, he wanted to kill me. So he, I'm not sure if I'd say he panics, but he thinks, okay, I've got to make plans.

You know, he separates people so that if one group is attacked, the others can get away, and you know, it sends them across the river. And at last, in the very end, Jacob is left alone, down to Jacob and his thoughts. And I'll bet he was thinking, boy, why did I bargain that bowl of soup for the birthright? And if not that, why did I go in and put that goat skin on my hand and fool my brother?

I didn't have to go through all this. And we'll pick up in Genesis 32, beginning in verse 24. Jacob was left alone, as I said, who knows what thoughts are going through his head, but then a man wrestled with him. And my translation, man is capitalized, because we'll find out later, this was no man. He was a spirit being, and perhaps the same one that appeared to Abraham as Melchizedek. wrestled with him until the breaking of day. It doesn't say how they started. I'm curious. I don't know if they showed up, and he said, okay, best two out of three falls, or just a man grabbed him.

But Jacob realized something special was going on. He said, I can't let go of this. Jacob had learned a lot of lessons, and I think he began to realize that this wasn't just some man. This was either God or someone attached to God, and I'm not going to let him go. So he wrestled, and I don't know if any of you have done wrestling like in high school or such.

I dabbled with a little. And a traditional friend in college, is it three two-minute rounds, or are they three three-minute rounds? No, I know I did two-minute rounds in high school, and boy, you get through the end of one of those two-minute rounds, and you just feel like you're made out of jelly.

Can you imagine wrestling all night? And in verse 25, when he saw that he did not prevail against him, that is this man, this spirit being, he touched him in the socket of his hip, and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as he wrestled. So Jacob's got his hip out of joint. He still is wrestling. And so this man, the unnamed, says, let me go for the daybreak. And he says, I'm not going to let you go unless you bless me. Now, no deceit here, but Jacob is saying, I need God's blessing, and I'm not going to let go.

He's willing to sacrifice and give everything he's got to get that blessing. And he said, so what is your name? He said, Jacob. And he says, your name will no longer be called Jacob but Israel, which means one who prevails with God. For you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed. Jacob asked, tell me your name. He said, why do you ask about my name? And he blessed him. So Jacob got the blessing, not by deceit but by perseverance.

And then he limped away. And later he realized, because he said he called the name of the place Peniel. For he says, I've seen God face to face and my life is preserved. He realized who he was wrestling with. Now, I thought that was pretty exciting when I read that. I said, wow, Jacob has learned some lessons, learned in perseverance and about struggling to get those blessings. And then I thought, well, wait a minute, how much of the story have I missed?

Because I wanted to go read the part about wrestling. Because I said I wrestled in high school. I was really excited about the wrestling. Let's back up in this chapter to verse 9. And we'll see another lesson that Jacob learned about how to seek blessing. He was willing to diligently hold on to it, but he also learned a lesson in humility that I think is very important. Genesis 32, verse 9, Jacob is praying and he says, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the eternal who said to me, return to your country and to your family and I will deal well with you.

I'm not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which you've shown your servant. I'm not worthy of any of your mercy. But he's saying I'm calling on you anyways. I crossed over this Jordan with just my staff. Now I'm coming back two bands, meaning his children and his wives. He's acknowledging God has blessed him and he's saying, I'm not worthy of it. I didn't deserve it. So Jacob adopted a humility that he hadn't had before.

And if you turn to the next chapter, chapter 33, in verse 10, Jacob tried to settle the score a little bit or make up a little bit with his brother Esau. He sent gifts of livestock and herds and Esau said, What in the world is all this stuff? And Jacob said, I wanted to give a present to you since I've seen you and we're at peace.

Verse 9 says, No, brother, I have enough. Keep it for yourself. But Jacob said, No, please, if I've found favor in your sight, then receive my present from my hand. And as much as I've seen your face as though I'd seen the face of God and you were pleased with me, please take my blessing that is brought to you because God has dealt graciously with me and because I have enough.

So he urged him and he took it. That's interesting. Jacob, earlier in his life, had schemed to trick his father and his brother to get the blessing from his brother. He's learned enough now that with perseverance, he seeks a blessing from God but seeks it humbly. And now he's trying to give a blessing to his brother. What a turnaround for Jacob.

He still wants to be blessed by God, but he understands that it has to be in humility. And he wants to give a blessing to his brother instead of take one from him. I think there's important lessons for us in how we should seek blessings. And of course, there's much more. That's a famous example. Let's go back to Mark 10. We were there before the sermon. I want to go back there again and I'll briefly read through that section because I want to go through the blessing of little children but then see a different lesson that's attached to that that it's easy for us to overlook.

I know if you're like me, I've said before, I like to do checklists. I like to have something check it off when I'm done and move on to the next thing. And often I've forgotten the first thing by the time the pen reaches the end of the check.

And it could be like that. We read the blessing of little children, but there's something that happens next. I want to spend some time on. So let's begin in verse 13. We read this earlier. They brought little children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked those who brought them.

When Jesus saw it, he was greatly displeased. And he said to them, Let the little children come to me. Don't forbid them. Of such is the kingdom of God. Of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it. And he took them up in his arms, he laid hands on them and blessed them. Now, it was common in that time, historically, people would usually bring little children to synagogue and the rabbi would ask a blessing on them.

Which surprised me when I read that. It's like, oh, that's what we do here. Well, makes sense, of course. We ask God's blessing on our little children. In this case, Jesus Christ was God in the flesh conferring that blessing. And he used it as an occasion to show how we should seek God's blessing. As a little child, with that humility and meekness, that's how you receive the kingdom of God. Now, I'll ask this, is there a greater blessing than receiving the kingdom of God?

Personally, I don't think so. That's gotta be, I asked earlier, is there the greatest blessing? I think entering God's kingdom has to be the greatest blessing. But let's continue, because we've talked about humility and seeking that blessing. But what happens next? In verse 17, as he was going out down the road, let's not forget what we just read. But now he's going out from this, and one came running and knelt before him. So a man comes running up, we see in other accounts that it's a young man, and he gets down on his knees before Jesus.

And he says, good teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? Interesting. He knelt before Jesus, and he asked, what do I have to do to receive eternal life? I just said that, you know, to enter the kingdom of God, we have to be his little children, and that entering the kingdom of God is the greatest blessing. That's what this young man was asking. The only way we can have eternal life is entering God's kingdom. So he was coming to Jesus wanting the greatest blessing there is. Jesus didn't reprimand him for wanting that blessing.

I think Jesus expects us to want that blessing. But we'll come back a little bit to know how he asked for it. Well, matter of fact, let's go heal. Or, before I continue, let's notice, because there are three different references of this story. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell the story, and it's all connected with the blessing of little children. That's what made me confident that those two are linked. Because you know, those Gospel accounts, they tell the same stories, but sometimes the order is moved around. Now, the Hebrew word for blessing is barak, B-A-R-A-K.

Nothing to do with our current president, although I found that interesting coincidence. The Hebrew word for knee is barak, B-E-R-E-K. They're very similar, and they're derived from the same root word, because they're interlinked. In Hebrew, blessing and kneeling go together. They're meant to convey a picture of how one is blessed by kneeling. It's an act of humility. I was reading a book by a Jewish scholar who explained that this symbolizes a picture of a subject coming before his king, or before God, on your knees, asking for a blessing.

And in this picture, the king or God is the one in authority and has the sole discretion whether or not to grant that blessing. He has all the power. The one on his knees has none. And here in this story, this young man kneels before Jesus, and he asks for the blessing of eternal life. And as I said, Jesus didn't criticize him or say, who do you think you are asking for that? He acknowledged that he was humbly coming and seeking that. So that humility, we saw it with Jacob, how he had to learn the lesson of humility, is very important.

That barak, the kneeling, is a key to blessing. But humility alone is not enough. Because the story doesn't end. Of course, Jesus said, well, why do you call me good? He didn't criticize him for asking the blessing, but he wanted to point out that at that point, only the Father, who was God in heaven, had fit that category. But we'll see, there's a way to choose that blessing. And Jesus told him, you know the commandments.

Don't commit adultery, don't murder, don't steal. He listed several, basically listing the Ten Commandments, the law of God. That's what you have to do if you want to inherit eternal life. And the young man said, well, I've been doing that. What do I have to do more? Well, Jesus said, okay, well, if you want to go further, one thing you're lacking. The only thing you lack then, you're doing all this. You've got the humility coming to me. You're obeying the commands. You're lacking one thing. He didn't say everyone was lacking one thing. But he said, go sell what you have and give it to the poor.

You'll have treasure in heaven, and then come follow me. Or it says, take up the cross and follow me. I think the version in Luke is where it says, Jesus looked on him and he loved him. He was offering a position to join him as one of his disciples. He said, yeah, I'm willing to have you come follow me. Just sell the stuff you've got, because Jesus saw that that would be a hindrance to him.

The fellow was lacking one thing. Matter of fact, let's turn to the version in Matthew, Matthew 19.

Matthew 19, verse 16.

Here's where he said, one came to the center, good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I have eternal life? He said, why are you calling me good? No one's good but the Father. But if you want to enter life, keep the commandments. Which ones? Well, don't commit adultery, don't murder, don't steal, don't bear false witness, honor your Father and Mother, love your neighbor as yourself. He says, I've been doing all these things for my youth, what do I lack? And Jesus said to him, if you want to be perfect, go sell what you have. That going on to perfection is an important point.

Let's go beyond the letter of the law and start adopting the Spirit, going on to perfection. I'll make a note here, if you want, in Hebrews 6 and verse 1, without turning there, because I want to get to some other points, is where the Apostle Paul talks about going on to perfection, not laying again the basic principles of repentance from dead works, of baptism, laying on of hands, judgment. He says there are basics, and then there's going on to perfection. Jesus said, this fellow's got the basics, he's ready to go on to perfection.

But you have to obey the commandments. And there's where we have some choice. I've been taking a roundabout way of getting there, and I should look at the clock and say, we've got to get to this next point. God has all the power to confer blessings on us. He wants us to humbly ask him to do so, and then he gives us a choice on if we're going to do the actions that it requires.

Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 28. Deuteronomy 28. I thought I couldn't give a sermon on blessings without coming here, and I think there's an important lesson besides the fact that it talks an awful lot about blessings. It talks about making a choice. God gives us some choice on whether or not we're going to receive the blessings that he offers us. Now, here, he's speaking to the nation of Israel about that.

And this is, of course, Deuteronomy means the second reading. Moses was reading to the children of Israel the law for a second time. Actually, for a lot of them it was the first time because it was their fathers that had heard it, and they all died in the wilderness. But now, before they're going to cross the Jordan, Moses reiterates all that's happened. And he makes a special statement here that God inspired. So in chapter 28, beginning in verse 1, Now it will come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the Eternal your God, to observe carefully all his commandments, which I command you today, that the Eternal your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth, and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you.

Why? Because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city. Blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground, and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle, and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in and when you go out.

That's blessings! And he said, how do you get them? He said, if you'll diligently hear me and obey the commandments, you can be blessed. You can make a choice. But of course, there's the alternative. If you skip down to verse 15, it shall come to pass, and here's that big word again, if you do not obey the voice of the Eternal your God, to observe carefully all his commandments and his statutes, which I command you this day, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.

Cursed shall you be in the city and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Cursed shall you be when you come in and cursed shall you be when you go out. All hinging on that big word, if. I've seen the commercials for one of the insurance companies with Snoopy, and the word, if, a lot. Now, they're using it for something else, but here it's, if.

If you obey me, blessings. If you won't obey, cursings. Let's go to chapter 30, Deuteronomy 30, and verse 19. It makes it very clear. We've made a very good point about seeking God's blessings and humility. Remember, the kneeling before God, the barrack to seek the barrack. The kneeling, the humility to receive the blessings. And there's also the other thing, are you willing to obey? Which choice will you make? And verse 19, I call heaven and earth as witness today against you, that I've set before you life and death, life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, that both you and your descendants may live, that you may love the Lord your God, and that you may obey His voice, and you may cling to Him.

For He is your life in length of days, and that you may dwell in the land which the eternal swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I like this. You've got a choice. Choose the blessing! But of course, it's not just saying, I pick that. The way you choose it is by obeying God. And nobody looks real surprised. I'm sure you all knew that. Let's look at some other scriptures. There's some things I think... It's built in like the natural law, sort of like the law of gravity and inertia.

God built all these laws. There are certain blessings that will come automatically if we do certain things. Let's go through to some of them briefly. Psalms 34. Psalms 34 and verse 8.

I had a long list of these. I'm just going to go to a few of them.

Psalm 34 and verse 8, I'll read the second half. Blessed is the man who trusts in him, speaking of God. Blessed is the man who trusts in him. Trusting in God is another way of saying, have faith. Have faith in God, get blessed. It's automatic. Psalm 41. Psalm 41 and verse 1.

Psalm 41 and verse 1. Blessed is he who considers the poor. The Lord will deliver him out of trouble. Consider the poor. Help provide for those who are less fortunate than you. And you'll be blessed. It's automatic. The person who considers the poor will be blessed. Psalm 112. Notice it doesn't necessarily say what the blessing will be, but God has lots of ways of giving blessings. Psalm 112, verse 1.

Praise the eternal. Blessed is the man who fears the eternal, who delights greatly in his commandments.

Fear the eternal, that respect and honor God, love his ways, and you'll be blessed. One more. Keep going in the same direction, but we'll go to Isaiah 56. Isaiah 56. We'll read verses 1 and 2.

Thus says the eternal, Keep justice and do righteousness. For my salvation is about to come and my righteousness is to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the Son of man who lays hold on it, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and keeps his hands from doing any evil.

Keep justice, do righteousness. Love God's way. Keep the Sabbath, and it says, blessed will be the man who does that. So we see, along with obedience to the law, blessings come from delighting in the law, from having faith, from caring for the poor. I couldn't help but make a note. I thought, boy, that sounds an awful lot like what some people call a New Testament Christianity. And yet, here it is all in the Old Testament. Of course, the two go together as one, and it's the same God.

Living a life of true Christianity brings blessings from God, including that greatest blessing of all, inheriting the kingdom.

I want to make a note of something else, though, fairly quickly. And that's, you know, we've looked at a lot of these lists of blessings, and we looked at Jacob and Esau, and a lot of these are on a national scale. And we talk about the prophecies, and the nation will, your enemies will flee from you, and you'll have abundance and all that.

But of course, we're not...we are God's people, but we look on a more individual basis these days.

So let's think about some of the blessings God gives to us as individuals.

And if you'll turn to 1 Corinthians 12, I think, although Paul didn't call these blessings, he speaks about the gifts of the Spirit.

And I think those are blessings that are very important.

And as this comes down to us as individuals, and I want to...let me say that again more slowly.

I want to make the point that God gives a variety of blessings.

There's not just one way to be blessed, and we can all be blessed differently.

I can be blessed in a way that's different than the way you're blessed, and so you shouldn't look at a person and say, Boy, he's blessed, but I'm not. You're blessed in different ways.

1 Corinthians 12 and verse 1, Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that you are Gentiles carried away to these dumb idols, however you are led. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accused. No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. There are diversities of gifts, but with the same Spirit. He could have said there's a variety of blessings through the same Spirit. Look in verse 7. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. So your manifestation, your gift of the Spirit is given to each one, but for the profit of all. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit.

Is that a tornado siren?

Fire? Oh. Okay.

I was going to say, I don't think there's a tornado out there. If any of you are volunteer firemen, I'll understand if you have to leave, but let me carry on.

Where was I? Yes. In verse 8, So there are all these different types of blessings that can come on us through God's Spirit. But if we look back at verse 7, it points out that whatever the gift or blessing you have, it's best if it's given to you for the profit of all.

That's a way that we can and should be a blessing to others. We're blessed in different ways. God gives us each unique traits and varying blessings, but He intends them to be for the benefit of all, and He still holds out the ultimate blessing equally to all of us. That ultimate blessing isn't different for different people. We have smaller blessings that might vary. Matter of fact, let's go back to Genesis. One more time to Genesis 12.

Because I love the way God said this to Abraham, and I'm going to draw three different points out of it, if I don't get confused and lose track of all of them. Genesis 12 and verse 1. This is when God first calls Abraham and speaks to him and makes him some promises that are very important. Genesis 12 and verse 1. Now the Eternal had said to Abram, Get out of your country and from your family and from your Father's house to a land that I'll show you, and I'll make you a great nation. I will bless you. Boy, I'd love to have God just say those words directly to me. But then again, in a sense, he has. So I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you and curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Now Abraham was promised... I'll start off here, I talk about the varieties. He was promised a blessing that none of us will ever have, to become a father of many nations and be the father of the faithful. We don't have to be jealous. God gives us blessings that maybe Abraham doesn't. I know Abraham's never got to play Donkey Kong, and I have. I don't know how many other blessings... And that one just popped into my head. It's been a long time since I played Donkey Kong. But you understand different blessings from the same God. Abraham would be a blessing. To me, that hearkens back to 1 Corinthians 12, verse 7, where it says, The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the prophet of all. That sounds like the way to be a blessing. And there's certainly not time to go into it, and I didn't plan to do more than that. But how much in our lives should we strive to be a blessing? As much as we strive to get blessed. We want God to bless us, but when he does, we should strive to be a blessing by making sure our blessings are for the prophet of all. And then we see here that Abraham... I've got that. Abraham was promised that through him all families of the earth would be blessed. As I read through the account, God repeated that again to Abraham. Later he said it to Isaac and he said it to Jacob. Biblical scholars all agree that this is a prophecy that the Messiah would be descended from Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. So this, all families of the earth shall be blessed through you, means because Jesus Christ would arise through him. And of course, Jesus would be the Messiah that would give his life as a sacrifice, so that we could be redeemed, so that we could have eternal life, which once again is the greatest blessing of all. Let's go to Psalms 32. Psalms 32, we'll read verses 1 and 2. Because, as I said, if the Messiah, who would be a sacrifice for sin, came from Abraham, I'd call that a blessing on all nations, and it is. What a blessing it is to be able to have your sins forgiven. And that's why I wanted to read this. King David understood that. Psalm 32, verse 1.

What a great blessing when we're not imputed iniquity, when God doesn't count our sin. Not that we don't sin, and God knows it, but when we repent, God can apply Christ's sacrifice and cover that sin. That, of course, leads to eternal life, and of course, that's the greatest blessing of all. That's a blessing that came through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. While we're in Psalm, let's go to Psalm 115. Because I want to come back to that one point I'm talking about us, but that's the blessing for all nations. All could have that blessing through Abraham, and although we have a variety of blessings, I might have some blessings that you don't, you have ones I don't, where all can be different, but the greatest blessing can be applied equally to all of us, to everyone. Psalm 115, verse 12.

He will bless those who fear the eternal, both small and great. Now, we like to focus on the, He'll bless us, and He'll bless the house of Israel. Now, most of us here are descended from Israel, whether we know it or not, and that's a subject for another time. And some of us may be at the house of Aaron, we may not, but it's interesting, this last part is good for us to focus on. He will bless those who fear the Lord. In ancient Israel, the term they used for anyone who worshipped God that wasn't an Israelite, would be, they called them God-fearers, meaning they fear God, they're worshipping God even though they're not descended from Israel. It says here, He'll bless those who are God-fearers, both small and great. Small and great. Israelites, non-Israelites, if they humbly come to God, as in kneeling to ask for the blessing, if they choose to obey Him, all can have that greatest blessing. Everyone, both small and great. That's what the last great day, the great white throne judgment pictures. And you remember sermons you heard on that, things you've read about it? It's good for us to, even though it's only been, what, a couple weeks? It seems way longer than that. But of course, the lesson sticks with us. God promised Abraham that all nations would be blessed through him, that is, through Abraham's descendant Jesus Christ, to receive that blessing the nations, as I said, only have to humble themselves and choose to be blessed. It's a lot to this blessing business. I wasn't sure when I got into it. I thought, I wonder, can I do a whole sermon talking about blessings? Obviously I could, because there's a lot more than we've discussed here today. People use the word bless and blessing pretty casually these days. You know, and maybe that's because they've lost sight of the words, but I think it's also, we use the word casually, because we are so blessed. God's blessings are plentiful all around us. I don't think it's necessarily evil that we sometimes take it for granted. When God is just throwing so many blessings at us, we can hardly keep track of him. That's not so bad. But as I said, these true blessings, the greatest blessings we know in life, are gifts of God to those who humble themselves, to those who strive to obey him. It's not wrong to seek those blessings, so long as we do so meekly like a little child. And I think at the same time, it's good for us to keep in mind to try to be a blessing by sharing the benefits of those gifts that God gives us. All the while realizing the greatest blessing is the one that God planned all along when he created the universe. From the very beginning, he planned that one blessing for everyone, for children to be born into the God family as part of the family of God. So what a blessing it is for us today.