Blessings

This weekend... I'm going to want my Bible for this. I was doing some studying and some different things, some lessons that we can learn from the Old Testament Jewish practices and how they apply to the New Testament. A lot of the lessons I read in that book didn't surprise me because we're very familiar with them. But one of the things I learned is that in the religion of Judaism, there is a formal blessing for just about everything. A blessing that they say. There are blessings for times of praise. Blessing for thanksgiving. Blessings for times of enjoyment. Each blessing begins with the same wording as a particular affirmation of God's sovereignty.

It says, blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe. Then it goes on with whatever that particular occasion is. For example, if someone hears thunder, the proper blessing to say is, blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, whose might and power fill the world.

Now, there are formal blessings that begin with that saying that you can say over food and drink, over new clothes, and so on. And reading this, they say that the Talmud specifies that anything that you enjoy should have a blessing asked over it.

Now, I made a note there because I'm not really a Talmud scholar, but I have watched Fiddler on the Roof more than one time. I don't know if you're familiar with the musical, with Tevye, and... Okay, I was hoping, because if you guys haven't seen Fiddler on the Roof, I'm in trouble on this one. But remember, there's a scene. Remember, they're set in old Russia in the 1800s when the Czar was still on the throne, and there's a small Jewish village, and they get persecuted at times, and modernization is coming. So there's one point where this young couple has a new arrival, and everyone's excited about it. Have you heard there's a new arrival, and they show the camera rushing through the village, and they come, and they show the young husband, and he's so proud, and they step aside, and there's a brand new sewing machine. Because he's a village tailor, and that's the new arrival. And one of the young ladies asks the rabbi, says, Rabbi, is there a blessing for a sewing machine? And he says, My young lady, there is a blessing for everything. Nothing excluded.

And someone tried to stump him, and they said, well, is there even a blessing for the Czar? And he says, Of course. May God bless and keep the Czar far away from us.

So let's talk a little bit about these words. Bless and blessing just roll off the tongue in our nation. Sometimes without us really thinking about what they mean. It's real common if someone sneezes, it's rare you don't hear someone say, Bless you.

Now, when I was younger, a friend of mine started making a joke of that, because he heard someone say, Bless you. And he said, Oh, can you do that now? You know, so do you have the power to confer a blessing? Now, he was trying to be funny, but it's worth asking the question. Can you or I bless another person? What exactly then is a blessing? And are there big blessings and small blessings?

You know, can a person be a blessing?

Let's look into this, because I want to understand some about blessings and if and how we should seek God's blessing.

So I want to start off with some definitions. You know, I've been using the word a whole lot. I thought, let's look into what the dictionary says.

Now, I started off with Webster's to get just the definition of the common English usage, because we're here in America. And as I said, the words just roll out. So of the word blessing, my Webster's dictionary says that it's either the act or words of a person who blesses.

So if you say something or do something that's making a blessing, you can call that action or those words a blessing.

Or the alternative they give for that is a thing, something that's conducive to happiness or welfare. So if there's something that makes you happy or makes you better off, you could say whatever that thing is is a blessing.

Now, I think the latter definition is what most people have in mind when they say blessing.

You know, say in August, a farmer might say, oh, we got some rain, what a blessing. He's not necessarily being religious about it.

Now, I also look in Webster's for the verb to bless. And it says, to bless is to hallow or consecrate by religious right.

So doing something religious to consecrate something or hallow it is to bless.

And then the alternative is to confer prosperity or happiness.

As I said, it's a very generic definition. If I do something that makes someone happy, then I'm giving them a blessing.

Now, as I said, I think these common definitions, you know, they're okay. They match with what people usually mean, but they're vaguely religious.

They really don't seem to match with what we see in the Bible. You know, it's just from that, those definitions could fit Buddhism, Shintoism, many religions.

So I said, well, I want some better definitions than that. Let's go to... So I pulled out my Unger's Bible dictionary.

I don't know why the words aren't coming out very well this morning. Bear with me.

Okay, so Unger's gave me some more specific definitions that are usable, and it gave three or it described three acts of blessing.

Okay, so it says, an act of blessing could be when God blesses men. When God blesses men, He's granting prosperity or happiness. And let's look at some scriptures to show examples of these. If you go to Genesis 22, Genesis 22 and verse 17, we'll see one example of God giving a blessing.

And when God, of course, promises a blessing, it's usually, it's not a small, minor thing. Genesis 22 and verse 17.

Now, in this case, God is speaking to Abraham, the father of the faithful, and He's promising them a blessing.

So, He says, blessing, I will bless you, and multiplying, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is on the seashore, and your descendants will possess the gate of their enemies. So God there is promising to give Abraham the thing that Abraham wanted the most. He wanted to have children in descendants.

Okay, so that's the first case where God blesses men. Ungers also talks about when men bless God. And that's where we mean, can men bless God? And the definition is when men ascribe to God His supreme sovereignty. When we tell God how great He is and express gratitude for His mercy, we're saying a blessing on God. Let's turn to Psalms 103. Psalms 103, and we'll begin at the first verse.

As I said when I first read that, I thought, how could I bless God? I want God to bless me. And then I realized in this particular definition, it's appropriate, and it comes from the Bible. Psalms 103, beginning in verse 1, says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. So it's me blessing God by acknowledging His greatness. Bless the eternal, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases and redeems your life from destruction. So again, it's basically a way of praising God and acknowledging how great He is and what He gives to us.

And then there's the third way of doing blessing. We described God blessing men, men blessing God, and then for men to bless other men is to express good wishes for them and ask God's benefit on them. And we'll see an example of that in 2 Samuel 6, 2 Samuel 6 and verse 20. And I'm breaking into it the middle of the story because I wanted to get that exact wording. And this is the case where after the Ark of the Covenant had been lost from Israel and taken away, then it was restored. And it was kept at a person's house for many years because they weren't sure what to do with it. And when King David became king of all Israel, he said, I want to bring the Ark up to Jerusalem so we can worship God properly and do it there. And there was some trouble and they had to work out the proper way to move the Ark. And when they did, you know, they had a huge celebration. And I'm going to actually refer to this next week in my sermon when David was dancing before the Lord and making great sacrifice and playing music to celebrate. And then when all that was done in Samuel 6 and verse 20, it says, David returned to bless his household. So David had praised God and worshipped him. Then he came back and said to bless his household, to express good will and ask God's benefit on them. So that's a person blessing another. Now, I will mention there's another alternative method, alternative definition for men blessing other men. And this is a particular one that will be important to us, and we're going to look at some of these, is when someone is inspired by God's Spirit to prophesy the future benefits that God will give them. Examples of that would be when Jacob, you know, who later his name was changed to Israel, he pronounced blessings on each of his twelve sons. And that's recorded in Genesis 49. We're not going to go there and read all those today. Also, Moses, near the end of his life, pronounced blessings on the twelve tribes of Israel in Deuteronomy 33. Now, these were not just someone expressing good will, but they were being inspired by God to prophesy what would happen to them. And they specifically would say, in the latter days, in the end times, these things are going to happen. Okay, a couple other terms. We're going to go beyond definitions, but I wanted to clear up some of these. I wanted to mention another word that's not in the Bible, but we hear occasionally, and that's the word benediction. Benediction, I believe, has a Latin root, and it's a formal statement of blessing as part of a ritual or part of worship. So, if you have specific wording, remember at the beginning I said, Blessed are you, O Lord, our God, King of the universe. That was part of what we would call a benediction. It's set wording. Now, you might wonder, does God ever tell us to use something like that? The answer is yes. Let's go to the book of Numbers, chapter 6. Numbers 6, and we'll begin in verse 23. God did give the Aaronic priesthood specific wording to use to bless the children of Israel. As I said, the term benediction just applies to that type of thing. We don't say it very often, but that's what that is. I think this is something that's just a very nice phraseology. It's the type of thing I like to use when we have the blessing of little children, and partly because I've heard other ministers use it, and partly because of what it says here. Numbers 6, in verse 23, this is instruction that God was giving to Moses to give to Aaron.

It says, speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them, The Eternal bless you and keep you. The Eternal make a space shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Eternal lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. It's not long, but it's very poetic and beautiful. In my study, I learned they say that when ancient Israel had the temple, and they had a morning sacrifice and an evening sacrifice every day, and at the close of the evening sacrifice, the high priest would say those words out over the nation of Israel, conferring God's blessing. And they also say that after the temple was gone, when various people, groups, and villages would have their synagogues, like when in Christ's period they have synagogues in each village, at the end of their Sabbath services, they would end with saying that blessing. The rabbi would say, The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make a space to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Nice way to end a service. Of course, we end with prayer that's more impromptu. We don't have a set wording. I think if that's all we ever said, it would seem empty, but it's nice to add that to it. One other term I wanted to add. As I said, benediction has a Latin root, and it means this formal blessing. There's also the word beatitude. You're familiar with that? The term beatitude applies specifically to the book of Matthew 5, when Jesus was giving the Sermon on the Mount. And he said these words, I'm trying to say it from memory. I can just go there. I wasn't planning on it, but it's worth me saying properly. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. The most famous one is blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They will be filled. So these are particular, specific blessings that Jesus Christ said. And in Latin, they assign the word beatitude, which its root word means bliss. Bliss utter happiness. And it's saying basically, when you know Jesus Christ and he confers these blessings on you, you have this absolute happiness. I wanted to add that in, because nowhere in my searching for a definition did I find that it means beautiful attitudes. And I remember there was a time in the past where a minister in the church got in the habit of teaching that. Now, these are beautiful attitudes to have, but that's not the definition of the word. So all this tells us something about the meanings of the words, bless and blessing. But I haven't answered a lot of other questions that I raised. What ways can we be blessed? Okay, we know these things about blessings. We probably want to be blessed. Can we give blessings to others? Is it right for us to seek to be blessed? Is that selfish or is it okay? And if so, how do we do it? And what blessings are best? Is there a greatest blessing of all? Well, I mentioned earlier that years ago, and this is when we were about 18 or 19 years old and made jokes out of everything, it seemed. One of my friends used to joke about if a person said, bless you when someone sneezed, and he would say, well, can you do that? Well, can a human being confer a blessing on another person? And according to some of the definitions we read, the answer is yes. Certainly, you can do something that's beneficial for someone else. But I think usually we're using the term blessing in a generic form there. The old-fashioned way that people would respond to someone sneeze wouldn't be to say just bless you, but they would say, God bless you.

Which I don't think, well, matter of fact, I'm going to discuss that in a moment. It's not necessarily bad, but it's showing that to be a blessing the way we think of, usually we want God to be involved. We're asking God to do the blessing, not just relying on ourselves. And I will mention, it brings up that question. Do you say that when someone sneezes? Is there something pagan involved with that?

It hasn't been our tradition in the Church of God to say that, at least for me ever since I was a child growing up. We sort of shied away from that. And the reason is looking into where the practice came from. And I've done some research, and I found two explanations. Why do people say that when someone sneezes? The first one is that in ancient times, even going back to the Middle Ages or earlier, a lot of people thought when someone sneezed, their spirit was going out of their body. And that they were vulnerable to being possessed by demons. And so they would say, bless you, basically asking God's protection on them. Now in the Church, even though we know that that's not true, and we try not to follow practices that are based on superstition or had any type of pagan basis. Now, the second reason, and this might be just as valid, and as I said, you go back to things very far in the past, and they just are widespread, you don't know for sure the real answer of why it happened. But the other explanation is that when someone sneezes, there's a chance that that person is sick, or coming down sick. And so you might say, bless you, because you want God to protect their health. And that's the other word that people say is gesundheit. This is when I specifically got out my dictionary because I said, is that some type of, you know, pagan evil word? And I learned it's basically German for health or good health to you. So it's similar. If you hear someone sneeze, you might think, oh, they could be getting sick, so you wish them good health.

It's not, you know, it's not a bad thing to do. As I said, it hasn't been my habit. Usually in my practice, it's been more that the person who sneezes will often say, excuse me, and you just, you know, let it pass.

You know, one of the reasons I've shied away from saying, God bless you, is I try not to be cavalier about asking God's blessing. You know, it's pretty serious to call on the great God, and I like to be in formal prayer to ask that.

But anyway, I wanted to bring that up. That's not the main point of the sermon, but some people wonder how that happens. Why do some people say certain things and other people don't? As far as I know, the United Church of God doesn't have a formal teaching on the subject. I think if we go far enough back in worldwide, there was, but I never heard it presented in a formal way.

But talking about being cavalier about, you know, giving blessings or asking God's blessing, it leads us to the subject, how should we seek God's blessings?

How should we try to get those? And how does the Bible describe blessings being conferred? There are a number of incidents in the Bible showing this happening, and we can learn a lot from examining some of them. So I want to go back to the first time to look into the life of Abraham. Abraham was blessed by God in a great way. Let's go to Chapter 14 of Genesis.

And we'll learn not only about Abraham himself, but some principles of how blessings can be conferred, and is there a protocol? Meaning, is there a proper procedure for a blessing? And I would say that we see some evidence that there is. Now, I'm going to break in partway through this story, but I'll give you the background without reading it all. But Genesis 14 is a time when there was a war in the Middle East.

Now, this is when Abraham was still living on his own, and he'd separated from his nephew Lot. Sorry, I was going to say half-brother. That's not right. His nephew Lot, they separated because they had so much cattle, they couldn't live together. And if you remember the story, Lot went and lived eventually in the town of Sodom, which later caused a problem, but at this point hadn't yet. So Sodom allied with some other city-states, and they went to war with another grouping of cities.

And the Sodomites lost. Their side lost, and the winning side plundered the cities and took a lot of the people captive. Well, Abraham got worried. Somebody's got my nephew Lot and his family, so he arms his servants, over 300 of them, and goes after what we would call the bad guys in this story. You can tell I'm summarizing quite a bit. Abraham and his men, they go after, and they fight a battle and defeat that alliance of kings. And then Abraham is coming back. He's bringing back all the stolen loot and bringing back the people who were captive. And let's break into the story in Genesis 14 and verse 16. We'll see, as I was just saying. So he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shever, that is the king's valley, after his return from the defeat of Kedolaiomer and the kings who were with them. Then Melchizedek, the king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of God Most High. Now, we know if we go to the book of Hebrews, the Apostle Paul explains by delving into this that Melchizedek wasn't just any priest. He was God in the flesh, the one who would become Jesus Christ. But let's see what happens here. In verse 19. And he blessed him, that is, Melchizedek blessed Abraham. And he said, blessed be... it's Abram. Abraham hadn't had his name changed yet, but he said, Blessed be Abram 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 Abram, gave him, Melchizedek, a tithe of all. Now, I want to break off there rather than talk about Abraham's dealings with the King of Sodom. And let's turn to the book of Hebrews, chapter 7.

In Hebrews 7, as I mentioned, the Apostle Paul goes to great lengths to explain that this one known as Melchizedek was more than just an ordinary man. That he was the one who became known as Jesus Christ. That's not the main thing I want to focus on. What I want to show is the perspective of the relationship between them, because Abraham, and later Abraham, was a great man. But we'll show that there was one there greater than him.

So, Hebrews 7 and verse 4. Now, consider how great this man was, that is Melchizedek, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. And indeed, those who are the sons of Levi who received the priesthood have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham. What he's saying is the Levites received tithes from the rest of Israel. So, they are set in a position of authority, in some sense, over the rest of Israel.

But they're saying Abraham was higher than the Levites, and he wasn't receiving tithes here, he was paying them. And verse 6 says, 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 in verse 7 he says, now beyond all contradiction, the lesser is blessed by the better. The lesser person. Now, that doesn't always mean morally lesser or morally better. Now, in this case it was, because one was God and one was man. But generally, if we talk about who's giving blessings to who, it's the person that's of greater rank and stature gives blessings to the person who's of lower rank.

Or often it's a person who's older granting blessings to a person who's younger. That's what we see going on. And as I said, Paul wrote here that there's no contradiction. The lesser is blessed by the better. And it doesn't mean that you have a contest to see who's better by who can give blessings. But the person that's in that higher status, it could be because of their age, because of their position in the family, organization, or whatever, is in a position to grant blessing to those who are younger.

Now, there are some other examples, and I want to look at one of the most famous examples of a blessing being conferred officially. If we go back to Genesis, we're going to go to chapter 27. In Genesis 27, I'll say, I thought I couldn't really talk about granting blessings without coming to this chapter, because it's so famous of a case where it looks like someone is stealing a blessing they weren't supposed to get.

We'll find out it's not exactly like that. But Genesis 27 will be the story of Isaac, Abraham's son, wanting to grant a blessing to his son. And we know that God gave these great blessings to Abraham, and then passed them on down first to Isaac, and then to Jacob. But Isaac had in mind to grant the blessings to his firstborn son, to Esau. So we'll begin reading in verse 1, Genesis 27. Now, it came to pass when Isaac was old, and his eyes were so dim that he could not see.

He called Esau his older son. And it's funny, they talk about that a lot. He was older by a few minutes, because they were twins. But still, he was the firstborn. And Esau came, and he said to him, My son, and he answered, Here I am. He said, Behold now, I am old. I don't know the day of my death. Therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me. And make me savory food such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, and that my soul may bless you before I die.

This is following that protocol. The father was going to bless the son. We don't know if he, perhaps he was going to do a particular ritual, or maybe he just wanted to set the mood by having a good meal, but that's what he asked to do. Now, if we go to verse 6, we'll see that the mother in the episode, or the wife, Isaac's wife, Rebecca, spoke to Jacob, her son, and said, Indeed, I heard your father speak to Esau, your brother, saying, Bring me game and savory food, that I may eat it, and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death.

No, so she gives him advice, starting in verse 9. Go to the flock and bring me from there two-choice kids of the goats. I'll make savory food from them for your father, such as he loves. So she knew the right recipe. Even if it was goat, she could make a taste the way he wanted. And he said, You'll take it to your father, that he may eat it, and that he may bless you before his death. And so it was. If you know the story, Esau's out hunting, Jacob shows up with the food made just the way Isaac liked it.

Isaac was a little suspicious. It came so fast. Let's skip down to verse 27. And Jacob convinces him, though. And then Isaac will confer this blessing. So starting in verse 27. He came near and kissed him. And he, that is Isaac, smelled the smell of his, Jacob's clothing, because he borrowed from Esau's closet. And he blessed him. And he said, and in my Bible, this translation puts it in poetic form to show that this is a formal thing he was saying.

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 the heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let people serve you, and nations bow down to you. That's something to say. We're going to have nations bow down before you. And of course he meant, by implication, his descendants.

And be master over your brethren. Let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you. Now that's quite a blessing. And apparently, as they said, we understand that God was inspiring this, and that it would go to one of Isaac's sons to be passed on. Now later Esau came and figured out what had happened. You know, Jacob left, he has this blessing. Esau shows up with the food and said, Father, I'm here, I've got it. Bless me. And let's see. And we find Isaac gets very upset.

In verse 33, Isaac trembled exceedingly, and he said, Who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? And I ate all of it before you. Before you came, and I have blessed him. And indeed, he shall be blessed. That's interesting. So he didn't say, well, it was a fraud, so it doesn't count. He says, I ask these blessings, he's going to be blessed. I think this is because he knew that it was by inspiration of God.

That God led him to say the things he said, and that blessing was being conferred. Let's go in verse 35. He said, Your brother came with deceit and has taken away your blessing. And Esau got upset. He said, Isn't he rightly called Jacob? He supplanted me two times.

He took away my birthright. Now he's taken away my blessing. He says, Don't you have a blessing for me? You know, Esau wanted to be blessed, and not just, hope you have a nice day blessing. He wanted him to say a formal blessing inspired by God. And then Isaac answered and said, I've made him your master. All his brother and I have given to him his servants, and with grain and wine sustained him.

What do I do now for you, my son? And I think it's an interesting question. Esau said, Well, do you only have one blessing? Is there only one? Bless me also, Father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. He cried because he realized he'd missed out on the premier blessing. Now we're going to see that Isaac did have another blessing, but there was only one blessing that could be the birthright promise, the premier blessing.

And Esau, as a firstborn, would normally have had it. Isaac continues in verse 39. He says, Behold, and here's the formal blessing, Your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth and of the dew of the heaven from above. Now, there are some translations that say this could be interpreted as far from the fatness of the earth and dew of the heaven. We're not sure about that because it turns out Esau didn't have such a bad life, but it does say, he continues, By your sword you will live, and you'll serve your brother, and it shall come to pass that when you become restless you'll break his yoke from your neck.

So, Esau did receive a blessing, but it wasn't as great.

One of the questions we might have is, how can someone just steal something from someone else? You know, if God's involved, it shouldn't have been that way. And we're going to see if we look into this story, of course. There's more to it than that.

This happened less because of Jacob and Rebecca's trickery than the fact that God wanted it that way in the first place. We want to go back and remember that Esau had previously sold his birthright. Let's go back to see that God intended this even earlier. If we go back a couple chapters to chapter 25.

Chapter 25, and we'll start in verse 21.

Isaac and Rebecca had been married for quite a while and not had children. So finally, Isaac appeals to God that he would have children. So in verse 21 it says, Isaac pleaded with the eternal for his wife because she was barren. The eternal granted his plea and Rebecca's wife conceived. But the children, notice children more than one, struggled together within her. And she said, well, if all is well, why am I like this? So she went to inquire of the eternal. She prayed. And he answered her. I wonder, sometimes, was it with a voice or did he send a prophet? It doesn't say, but God sent her this message. In one way or another, he says, two nations are in your womb. Two peoples shall be separated from your body. I don't know if she knew she was having twins before then. Matter of fact, I wonder, sometimes you see things on the news or stories where, you know, Father finds out he's going to have twins and almost faints. How do you like to have God send you the message? Oh, by the way, you're having twins. But he says the two would be separated and one will be stronger than the other. So there's going to be two nations, one stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger. Before they were ever born, God had determined that Jacob would get the premier blessing. This is long before he fooled his father, and long before he convinced Esau to sell the birthright. Although Esau did, if we go a little further, we'll see that Esau brought some of this on himself. In verse 29, this is, of course, once they'd grown mature, Jacob cooked a stew, and Esau came from the field, and he was weary. And Esau said to Jacob, Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary. Therefore his name was called Edom, which means red. And Jacob said, Okay, you want some of this? You're really hungry? Sell me your birthright, as of this day. Esau said, Well, look, I'm about to die, so what's a birthright going to do me if I'm dead? So Jacob said, Well, swear to me this day. So he swore to him and sold his birthright. So Esau formally, without being forced into it, although you could say he was pretty hungry, that soup must have smelled really good, he sold his birthright. He traded places with Jacob and gave him the premier spot. And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. And Esau despised his birthright.

Now, if you put these two together, it shows us something. Jacob and Rebecca did wrong in deceiving Isaac. So Jacob would eventually get that primary birthright, that greater blessing, but they didn't have to result the trickery for that. That's not why he got the greater blessing. It was because God determined it be that way. And he showed that they should have known it in advance. Perhaps they were lacking faith, or perhaps Rebecca was.

I don't know, but it seems probable that Jacob might have suffered some of the things he did because he tried to get the birthright early by other means. Remember, later he traveled far away from his home to Sojourn with Laban. And he stayed there for 14 years, separated from his mother and his father and his brother and whatever cousins and nephews and nieces he had. And he lived in fear all that time of retaliation by Esau. And part of the reason he left was because Esau said, I'm going to kill him for that. Esau was willing to take matters into his own hands. So what I'm saying is Jacob did suffer because he did the wrong thing. And perhaps he wouldn't have had to if he'd just had some faith.

There's a passage in the New Testament. Now, we're going to come back here to Genesis if you want to put a marker, but let's go to Hebrews 12 to show that although Jacob had the wrong attitude about seeking God's blessing, Esau also had a wrong attitude about how to value that blessing. You know, if God wants to give you a special blessing and gives you an opportunity, it's something you should take very seriously, not treat it cavalierly. In Hebrews 12 and verse 17, looking back at the incident we were just describing, as a matter of fact, we're going to begin with the last part of verse 16, because it's referring to sinners, basically. And it says, Like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. So basically, Esau, just for some food, sold a birthright. And he says, For you know that afterwards, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. Later, he wanted to change his mind, but he couldn't. He found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. This is referring to after Rebecca and Jacob had fooled Isaac and got that blessing, Esau came back and he was crying. He was with tears, basically seeking repentance. He wanted to be sorry for what he had done. This isn't saying that he could never repent of sin and have salvation. That's a different type of repentance. Here's repentance for that particular act, is that it was too late. So Esau did not treat the blessing properly. We know that Jacob didn't treat the blessing properly. Now, the question is, did Jacob learn some lessons later on? Because he was going to receive the blessings and pass them on. Did Jacob learn a better way to think of getting blessings from God? I think there is an answer coming back in Genesis. We'll see that he did in Genesis 32. Genesis 32 will begin in verse 24. As I said, I wanted to examine this story to see. There's a number of lessons about how to consider being blessed. What attitude to have in seeking blessings and in sharing with others, for that matter. We'll come to that momentarily. Jacob had sought to get God's blessing by fooling someone else. Here we'll see that he realizes the real source. In Genesis 32, and let me set the stage in this story, of course. This is after Jacob had gone to live with his uncle Laban and worked for Laban 20 years. Served 14 years for the two daughters. Then served six more years to get paid in livestock. Then, the whole time, of course, Laban changed his wages and tried to swindle him. Finally, Jacob says, let's get out of here. They pick up and head back towards where his father Isaac lives. Then, in the back of his mind, he's thinking, okay, last time I was over there, my brother wanted to kill me. My brother is bigger and stronger. What if he still wants to kill me?

As he approaches, he sends a messenger on to Esau, saying, okay, I've been living with my uncle all these years, and now I'm prosperous. He sent him presents. We'll come to that in a moment. Before that happens, Jacob separates his wives and his children. Did I get the wrong place? Oh, okay. Sorry. Sometimes I'll say the wrong scripture, and people are looking for it. We'll look up in Genesis 32 and verse 24. Here, he set it all up ready to meet Esau, and it says, Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Now, we don't get a lot of explanation, but from what we read later, we'll find out this is no mere man, and that's why it's capitalized here. This is some spirit being incarnated in the flesh. It says, they wrestled all night. I don't know if any of you have wrestled. I did some in high school. It's exhausting. You get in a wrestling match, I mean, real wrestling, three or four minutes of it, and I was drained. I can't imagine wrestling all night, but Jacob started to realize he was dealing with a person that had the power to give blessings. Now, when he saw that he did not prevail against him, that is, this spirit, this person, this man, he touched the socket of his hip, and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as he wrestled with him. So now Jacob's got a dislocated hip, but he still won't let go of this guy. And he says, let me go. The day breaks. But he says, I'll not let go of you unless you bless me. Or I'll not let you go unless you bless me. So he realized there's a blessing here, and I'm going to seek it the right way from... He later perceived that this is God. As a matter of fact, further down in verse 30, Jacob called the name of the place Penuel, for I've seen God face to face and my life is preserved. At some point, Jacob realized he was dealing with God incarnated in the flesh. So instead of trying trickery or to swindle and get his father to give him the blessing, he was dealing with God and said, I'm not going to give up. I'm going to wrestle with you. I'm not going to let go. I'm asking you for this blessing. Maybe not in the most humble of attitudes, but still, he'd made some progress.

And he said, what is your name? Back in verse 27, he said, Jacob. He said, your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, which means, prevailer with God. For you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed. And then he changed his name. So we saw that Jacob now had a different attitude towards blessing. And if we go on a little further... Let's go to the next chapter, chapter 33, verse 11.

Actually, let's go to verse 8. Finally, he does see Esau. And Esau comes up to him, and they have a reunion. And fortunately, I wonder what Jacob thought, because Esau comes running up to him, and Jacob was probably afraid he was going to draw a sword and run him through. Instead, he throws his arms around him and gives him a big hug. And then they cry because their two brothers finally back together. But in verse 8, Esau said, what do you mean by all this company which I'm in? And basically, he'd been running into flocks of different animals that Jacob had sent ahead as a gift to Esau. And he said, well, these are to find favor in the sight of my Lord. So Jacob referred to his older brother as his Lord, showing respect. I'm giving these to find favor. And Esau said, well, I've got enough. Keep what you have. By this time, both of them had become quite wealthy. And Jacob said, no, please. If I have found favor in your sight, then receive my present from my hand. And as much as I've seen your face as though I had seen the face of God and you were pleased with me. And here, notice this, Jacob says, 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.

Here, we just saw that Jacob learned to deal directly with God seeking blessings. And then he wanted to give a blessing to Esau. When he was a young man, he swindled Esau to try to take the blessing from him. Now he'd grown more mature spiritually and wanted to share his blessing with Esau. And it turned out that Esau was already doing pretty well. So by wanting to give, both of them were so much better off. So there's a lot of difference there in how we could go about that. Now, let's go to the New Testament to look more at the attitude that we want to have in seeking blessings.

We'll go to the book of Mark. Mark in chapter 10 will go to a story that we often think of when we think about blessings and being blessed because it's the account of Jesus blessing the little children. Because as we look back at the story of Jacob, it's easy for us to see, okay, the attitude Jacob had later in life is the attitude that God wants us to have in seeking blessings rather than the attitude Jacob had earlier in life.

And we'll see a good example, a little more instruction, I think, of the attitude we should have in seeking blessing from God. Mark chapter 10, we've all seen this recently because just after the feast we had the blessing of little children. Beginning in verse 13, I'm going to connect another part to it that we didn't discuss then.

But here in Mark 10 verse 13, Then they brought little children to him, that is to Jesus, 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, for 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. Now, one of the things I learned in my research is that at that period in time it was common when children were little for people to bring them to the synagogue and for the rabbi to say a special blessing on them.

So what we do in the United Church of God, formerly in the World Wide Church of God, is a custom that had been carried on for perhaps thousands of years. In this case, of course, the blessing was given by God himself in the flesh. But he also gave a lesson to talk about how we should seek a blessing. He said we should seek the blessings as a little child. And he says, that is how to receive the kingdom of God.

He said, assuredly whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it. And that made me think, okay, seeking the kingdom of God as a little child is how to do it. Is there a greater blessing than entering the kingdom of God? I had the question earlier, what's the greatest blessing? And my thought is, that's got to be the greatest blessing there is. Entering the kingdom of God means inheriting eternal life. Being born in the spirit, no longer having the aches and pains and suffering we have.

That's the blessing we want. And part of how to get that is to seek it as a little child. But what's interesting is the story that happens afterwards, I think, also bears light on this. And this is something I learned from my research into the practice of Judaism. And I'll mention this because in all three Gospel accounts that give this story, they all follow with what happens next.

So in verse 17, this is right after the blessing of the little children. So Jesus stops on the way He does this, and then they continue. It says, as He was going out on the road, one came running up and knelt before Him. We now know that this was a young man who was fairly wealthy. But He ran up and knelt before Him. He got down on His knees. And He said, good teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?

Now, we just said, inheriting eternal life, entering the Kingdom of God, is the greatest blessing of all. So I wonder if this young man, perhaps he saw what Jesus did and heard what He said and said, I want to inherit the Kingdom of God. What do I do to have that blessing? Now, He did something interesting to start off. And this was brought out in my research when it says the young man knelt before Him. The Hebrew word for kneel is bearek. B-E-R-E-K. And it's based on the word for knee. The Hebrew word for blessing is bearek. B-A-R-A-K. Based on the word for kneel. So the two words are interrelated and it shows that humility, humbly bowing before God, is the way to seek a blessing.

And the research I was doing showed that for Hebrew scholars, that the similarity of those words envisions a picture of, say, the king conferring a blessing on a subject. The king is on his throne. The subject is on his knees. In this picture, the king has all the power and the subject has none. The king can decide to give the blessing or withhold it. And so the person seeking the blessing is coming in utter humility, asking for that blessing. Now, we go on. Humility is a vital part of seeking a blessing, humbly.

As a little child. But Jesus then answered the young man. He could have just said, okay, I'll give you eternal life, but that's not the way God works. So the young man knelt, showing humility, and then he said, what do I have to do to inherit the kingdom of God? Jesus, well, first of all, he corrects him. He said, why are you calling me good? No one is good but God. He said, you know the commandments. Don't commit adultery. Don't murder. Don't steal. Don't bear false witness. Don't defraud. Honor your father and mother.

So he gives these instructions, basically saying, follow God's commandments. And the man said, well, I've been doing all this for my youth. What am I lacking? And Jesus, looking on him, loved him. Jesus maybe saw him in a different way. And he said, okay, one thing you're lacking. Go sell what you have and give it to the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven. Then take up the cross and follow me. Now, this is where the young man fell short. He was able to humble himself there at that point, but he quit in part with all of his possessions to seek the greatest blessing. I thought as an entry, matter of fact, I wanted to...

Well, we're going to go to Hebrews 6. I want to say I want to go to another account of this. But in Hebrews 6, what this reminds me, because Jesus said, if you'll be perfect... Or he says it in the other account. But this... You can obey the commandments. All that's good, but it shows there's something else. And the Apostle Paul in Hebrews showed that there's something else. Hebrews 6 in verse 1, he said, Therefore leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection. Not laying again the foundation of repentance and from dead works and faith towards God. And I don't want to belittle those. Those are very important. That foundation is the fundamental belief. But he says, once you've got that, you've got to go on to perfection. Hebrews 6 verse 1, let us go on to perfection. And if you go back to Matthew, to another account of that same story, Matthew chapter 19, we'll see that Jesus was basically saying the same thing to that young man who knelt before him. Matthew 19 in verse 16. I know it's easy for me to jump back and forth because I know where I'm going in advance, but here's a different account, but I wanted to bring out the wording on this one. Behold, one came and said, Good Teacher, what good things shall I do that I may have eternal life? He said, Why do you call me good? No one is good. That one is good, God. But if you want to enter life, keep the commandments.

And he said, Which ones? And he listed several. And in verse 20, the young man said, I've kept these for my youth. What do I lack? And in verse 21, Jesus said, If you want to be perfect, if you want to go on to perfection, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven, and follow me.

Now, and I think I've commented on this on a sermon before. I don't think, if we all had to sell all that we had and give to the poor, that would be one of the Ten Commandments, it'd be in the Old Testament. Jesus wasn't pointing out that everybody has to give up all that they have. I think some have misinterpreted this way. He was saying, For this fellow to become perfect, he had to let go of the physical things that were coming between he and God. He had to be willing to part with those things because it was too hard for him. And of course, we see the evidence. The young man couldn't do it. He was rich. He said, I can't give up all this stuff. If it had been somebody else, it might have been a different thing that Jesus perceived he needed to do. But all of us need to go beyond just obedience and go on to perfection. But the obedience to God's law is still important. If we want to receive the greatest blessing of all, we have to humble ourselves, as pictured by that kneeling, seek the kingdom as a little child. But we do have to obey. While we're here in Matthew, let's skip ahead a couple chapters to chapter 22. Matthew 22 and verse 36. Here's someone asking, Teacher, what is the great commandment of the law? And Jesus said, well, this is it. You love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. The second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. On these two, commandments hang all the law and the prophets. So God says, if you want my blessings, you need to obey me. You need to obey these great commandments, which includes, you know, if you're obeying those, you're doing all the other ten. Let's go back to Deuteronomy chapter 28. If I'm not making it clear, one of the things I want to show is that seeking God's blessing requires that humility, but then He gives us a choice of certain things, whether we want to obey Him and receive blessings or not. God has all the power to confer a blessing on us. He can give it to us. But He lets us make a choice on whether or not we're going to receive those blessings. Now, the power is up to Him. He could do it, but He puts some of that power back in our hands. Deuteronomy chapter 28. Now, this is Moses talking to the children of Israel not long before they crossed over the Jordan River to inherit the Promised Land. He says, "...Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments, which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth." And all these blessings, remember we're talking about blessings, all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you 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, and 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, and blessed shall you be when you go out." That's great! He's saying, and all this is hinged on that if. If you obey me and do what I command. And then he gives the alternative, beginning in verse 15, let's go down.

"...But it shall come to pass, if..." Once again, the big if. "...You do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes, which I command you today, 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." And it goes on and on. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. So, God puts these choices out. And then, let's move to Deuteronomy 30, in verse 19.

A couple pages over.

As I said, it seems that we want to seek blessings. We certainly don't want curses. And God makes it fairly clear, if you want the blessings, there are some places where you'll have a choice to make.

Deuteronomy 30, in verse 19, I call heaven and earth, as witnesses today against you, that I've set before you life and death, or life and death.

Blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, that both you and your descendants may live. You know, choose the blessing, He's saying. You can make a choice. There's no particularly complicated secret formula. And later on, Moses would say, Hey, the law of God is before you. You don't have to say, Oh, it's over the ocean. Who's going to go get it for us? Or, it's all the way down in the depth of the ocean. Who can bring it up? He says, No, it's right here. I'm making it plain. Make your choice.

Now, what I'd like to do is look at some other scriptures where God tells us. As the law of cause and effect works, He said, If you do certain things, certain blessings come from them. Let's turn to the book of Psalms. Several of them are in Psalms. So, Psalm beginning in verse 34.

With all the other things in mind, let's see some of the results. God says, If you do this, you'll get these blessings. Psalm 34, did I say 1? I meant verse 8.

It says, O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him. Blessed is the man who trusts in God. So, basically, He's saying, If you have faith in God, you're going to get blessings. It just happens that way. Skip ahead to Psalms 41.

Psalms 41 in verse 1.

Blessed is he who considers the poor. The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. So, you consider the poor. Help take care of those who are less fortunate than you, and you'll be blessed. They would just throw the... Whoever considers the poor is blessed. Cause and effect, it happens. Psalm 112 in verse 1.

Psalm 112. Praise the eternal. Bless it is the man who fears the eternal, who delights greatly in his commandments. So, fear God, which we usually interpret to mean respect and honor God. If you do that, if you love God, you love his commandments, and you fear and respect God, you'll be blessed. It says, Blessed is the man who fears the Lord.

One more in this line. Let's go to the book of Isaiah, chapter 56. Psalms has quite a few, but I like this one in Isaiah I wanted to add. Isaiah 56. Isaiah 56 in verse 1. Thus says the eternal, Keep justice, do righteousness, for my salvation is about to come and my righteousness 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 hand from doing any evil. So here, if we back up, he says, Blessed is the man who does this. What is the this? It's keeping justice, doing righteousness. And then he adds, not defiling my Sabbath, not doing evil. So he's saying, in essence, Be righteous, and you'll be blessed. So along with obedience to the law, we see blessings come from delighting in the law, from having faith, from caring for the poor. It struck me as I was laying all these eyes. That sounds just like New Testament Christianity, the way some people preach it. But here, it's all in the Old Testament. But of course, that's not a surprise, because we know the New Testament and Old Testament don't contradict. They're all, you know, they support each other. So living a life of true Christianity is the way to be blessed by God. And that'll include what I'm sure is the greatest blessing of all, inheriting God's kingdom in eternal life. Now, I want to turn to another point, and that's the fact that sometimes we, and we might have noticed this in the list of blessings and cursings in Deuteronomy 28, that there's different types of blessings. And of course, Esau and Jacob, they both did get blessings eventually, but they weren't the exact same. There are varieties of blessings. There's not just, you know, as Esau was crying to his father, Isaac, and saying, do you only have one blessing? Well, we could say the same to God, and the answer is no. God has different blessings, and He'll share them with us. Now, we've been looking in the Old Testament primarily, and we've been talking about national blessings, of, you know, the people inheriting, you know, great riches and control of the earth and possessing the gates of their enemies. But we can look at individual blessings and see some of the variety. Let's go to 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians, and we're going to go to chapter 12.

Because here, the way... I think when we say gifts, that could be interpreted as blessing. And God gives us a gift. He's giving us a blessing in that gift. And the Apostle Paul went out of his way to show that there's varieties of gifts that God gives us. He blesses us all in different ways for the good of everyone. And that's going to address some of the questions that I had earlier about blessings. 1 Corinthians 12. So when I say gifts, you can think blessings. I think it's not wrong to associate the two. But in verse 1, he says, Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I don't want you to be ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed. So if you've got God's Spirit, you're not saying bad things about Jesus. And no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. So you can't call Jesus Lord, meaning actually do what he says. You can't...it's not just calling him Lord, but submitting yourself to him. That comes with the Holy Spirit. And then in verse 4, he says, There are diversities of gifts, different types of gifts, different types of blessings, they come from that one Spirit. Let's skip over to verse 7. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit. To another, the word of knowledge through the same Spirit. It's interesting, there's a distinction between wisdom and knowledge. And I always think of wisdom as applying more to having...being able to use that knowledge. Or making smart decisions, even in lack of knowledge. But the Spirit can give one wisdom, another knowledge, to another faith by the same Spirit. To another gifts of healing by the same Spirit. To another the working of miracles. To another prophecy. To another discerning of spirits. To another different kinds of tongues. To another interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as he will. Now Paul goes on to make some other points, but I wanted to focus on the fact that God can bless us all in different ways. And of course we should be happy with whatever blessings we have, not... You know, Paul would say, don't say, well because I don't have that one, I'm no good. But I also want to look back at what he said in verse 7. Because I think it points out that whatever our blessing is should be for the good of everyone, not just for ourselves. And verse 7 he said, but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. So we're blessed in different ways, but when we share our blessings for the profit of everyone, then I think that's the point where in some ways we become a blessing. You know, God has given me this gift, if I share it, then I'm being a blessing to you in a certain sense. Matter of fact, if you want to turn to Genesis 12, I think God says that in a particular way. Sorry, I should have told you to keep a finger in Genesis. We've been going back and forth there a lot. Coming back to one of the first times when God pronounced the blessings he would give to Abraham. But I wanted to pick up on this particular wording. Genesis 12, verse 1, That's where I wanted to get to. He said, not only am I going to bless you, but you will be a blessing.

Abraham, you're going to be a blessing on others, and I'll bless those who bless you, and curse him who curses you. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. Now, there are several points illustrated here in this one section of Scripture that I wanted to back up and just point out that relate to God's blessing. One, Abraham was promised a blessing that none of us are promised. I was talking about how we have different blessings. Abraham got a blessing that none of us will ever have. He is the father of the faithful. I can never be the father of the faithful that Job has taken. But it occurred to me when I gave this, I've had some blessings that Abraham didn't enjoy. I think I'll bet Abraham's never been able to go water skiing. I've done that. Now, that's not that big a deal, but it was a blessing. I guess in the world tomorrow, Abraham can water ski if he wants. But we each have different blessings. And the second point, Abraham would become a blessing. I think that relates back to what we read in 1 Corinthians 12-7 when it says, The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one, but for the profit of all. That sounds to me what it means to be a blessing. Now, we could probably go on a long time and explore that subject, but I think it's worth just saying that as much as we're able, we should strive to be a blessing to others, meaning whatever blessings God has given us, we should share and make sure they're for the benefit of other people. And of course, then, the last part. Abraham was promised that through him all families on earth would be blessed. Now, probably most of you are already thinking in your mind where I'm going there. This is known to be a prophecy of the Messiah coming from Abraham's descendants. That Jesus Christ would be born from the descendants of Abraham, and because of Christ's sacrifice, a blessing would be made available to everyone. And that's a blessing. As I said, we can have different blessings, but that one, the greatest blessing of all, is one that's made available to us all equally. You know, all of us, if you have eternal life, you have it. If you're born in God's family, that's a blessing that's available to everyone equally. And that's wonderful because we can enjoy those diversities and different blessings knowing that the ultimate blessing is...we're not going to be slighted on that. We're all going to share in it equally. Let's turn to Psalms 32 to look at an interesting point about that, about who it's available to. Psalms 32, beginning in verse 1.

And I'm talking about Christ's sacrifice making that blessing available. I wanted to bring that out the way it says it here. It says, Blessed is He whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. It is a blessing to be able to be forgiven. And that's a blessing that came through Jesus Christ's sacrifice. That blessing is available to all of us the same. So it's a...my notes here says it's a blessing to be forgiven of sin. I just said that. Let's while we're in Psalms go to Psalm 115. Psalm 115, and we'll begin reading in verse 12.

Here's what I wanted to get to who the blessing is available to. Psalm 115, verse 12 says, Now I want to back up and explain that last line, which says, Those who fear the eternal and ancient...the times of ancient Israel, you know, there were the Israelites and then there were the Gentiles. So you were either of the nation or of all the other nations. And you could...a non-Israelite could become an Israelite by circumcision. You know, so a physical thing to say, I want to join the Israelites and all that. And then there was another category they created.

For those who wanted to worship God but not actually become physical Israelites, and those people who did, they obeyed the commandments, they made sacrifice, but without circumcision, and they called them God-fearers. So you are one who feared God if you were obeying Him. And that's where this comes in. They said, bless the house of Israel, bless us, bless those who fear the eternal. Small and great. So basically anybody who obeys God can share in this blessing.

So it's there, both small and great. That's where I was saying the greatest blessing of all is available to everyone equally, despite the diversity in our physical blessings here in this life, and even the spiritual blessings here in this life.

And of course, what that gets at, boils down to, is the message that we discuss at the last great day following the Feast of Tabernacles, when the resurrection comes and every single person who's ever lived has the opportunity to accept Christ's sacrifice and join in that blessing.

To receive that blessing, those people at that time will simply have to humble themselves as in kneeling before God, and then choose to receive the blessing by obeying God, where He says, choose life, choose blessing, or choose death. God will give them the choice, and it will be a choice they can make then.

So there's a lot to this blessing business.

When I started researching this, and I was putting a lot of facts together, I said, boy, there's more to it than I thought.

And there's probably much more than we've discussed today.

People use the terms bless and blessing so casually and so often that we lose sight of what they really mean.

Of course, I think also we lose sight of what they mean because we are so blessed in this land. Of course, we've just had our Thanksgiving holiday, and it's too bad so many people in the world around us think that it's a time for watching football, which I like to watch football on Thanksgiving, but that it's only that and for going shopping, Friday night or Thursday night or Friday.

But the fact is, we are so blessed in this land, we tend to forget that they're blessings, because we just have so much.

Maybe I'll talk about this some other time, but I remember as a college student, the first time I was able to travel overseas, and I was astounded because I looked at the way people in Europe who were fairly well-off lived, and it wasn't as good as I was living.

As a student who worked part-time, I just had a part-time job, and I lived so well that I was rich compared to people in Europe, let alone Africa and Asia.

So we're blessed in this land. It's wonderful.

But still, we want to look to the true blessings from God. The greatest blessings we know in this life are the gifts that God gives us through His Spirit. And it's not wrong for us to purposely seek those blessings, so long as we do so meekly, meekly as a little child.

And then I would add at the same time, we want to strive to be a blessing by sharing, making sure that blessing is for the profit of all.

And then still realizing that the greatest blessing is the one that God gives us. He's planned for everyone to be able to share equally. That is, to be born as children in the family of God.