For this Bible study topic on blessing. I believe so many of us are already familiar with a topic like this. So, I won't waste much time defining what blessing is... For me, it is simply a divine favour.
Before I continue, here are the overview of everything I will be teaching on in this Bible study on Blessing:
1. Blessings can be reversed to curse and vice versa.
Number 23:20 - Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.
There as you read, you will discover Balak hired Balaam to curse the people of God. At the point of hiring him, Balaam revealed to Balak that this people of God were already blessed and the blessings could not be reversed.
Invariably, if Balaam could say that the children of God were blessed by God and he couldn't reverse it. That means blessings can be reversed even though Balaam couldn't do it on the Israelites. This same thing applies to curse. Meaning, In like manner, curse can be reversed too.
How on Earth did I figure out that curse can be reversed?
I got to know that from Deuteronomy 23:5 - Nevertheless the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you.
Can you see what happened in that quoted Bible verse? God reversed the curse laid on the Israelites.
You see whenever the story of Balak hiring Balaam to curse the people of God is told, most people will say Balak hired Balaam. Of course, that's correct.
Then, they will go on to say that Balaam went as instructed by Balak before an Angel of God hindered him from going to the very place the curse was to be laid and gave him the instruction never to curse but to bless if he was to allow him pass.
Without much diversion, we all remember Balaam's encounter with the Angel of God. The Angel would have killed him had he made any attempt to move pass the portion the Angel blocked. Even though he escaped death at that point, he was eventually killed by the Midianites who came to attack the children of Israel, as narrated in the book of Joshua.
Back to what several Bible teachers do say about this story... They would say Balaam went ahead as instructed by the Angel. Thereafter, he asked God if he could embark on the job given to him by Balak. If course, all those details are correct, too.
Then, they would say Balaam blessed the people of God, which is equally true. Mind you, Balaam truly blessed the people of God, but I don't want you to be carried away by that popular part of the Bible until you read Deuteronomy 23:5 - Nevertheless the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but THE LORD YOUR GOD TURNED THE CURSE INTO A BLESSING for you, because the Lord your God loves you.
Can you see the part of the Bible most Bible teachers don't reveal to us during their Bible teaching classes on the story of Balak and Balaam?
The Deuteronomy 23:5 revealed that even after Balaam blessed the people of God, Balak still stood on the neck of Balaam. He insisted, after the blessing, on cursing the children of Israel. As a result of his persistency, he was able to confused and convinced Balaam who later went ahead to curse the people of God.
Of course, you won't see that in the book of Numbers as it was penned down in Deuteronomy 23:5. After the curse, then God reversed it. This confirms blessing can be reversed to curse and vice versa.
For the second overview...
2. You can't be blessed in all things and not be rich.
Let's take note that one can be blessed in one thing and not blessed in other areas of life. As n instance, one can be blessed with peace and not be blessed with riches. However, if one is blessed in all things, there is no way one can be poor. For example, Father Abraham was blessed in all things. In fact, his eldest servant in the house — not referring to Eliezer of Damascus — who got Isaac a wife confessed to the family of Rebekah that his master was blessed in all things, and of course his master, Father Abraham, was rich.
Consequently, you can't be blessed in all things and not be rich. Just as I pointed out few weeks ago in one of my Bible teachings that you can't be righteous and not prosperous. Similarly, you can't be faithful in all things and not be rich.
I know some of us may ask me how, as faithfulness has no connection with riches.
Although you can say that faithfulness has no direct connection with riches, it has an indirect connection with it. To your notice, the direct connection faithfulness has is with blessing.
In other words, you can't be faithful and not be blessed...the Bible agrees to that assertion. And don't forget that when one is blessed in all things, the person is rich.
As a result, a faithful person is indirectly blessed and directly rich because faithfulness is indirectly connected with blessings and blessings is directly connected to riches.
To buttress this point, let's read Proverbs 10:22, a very common verse.
The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.
Can you see that? The blessings of the Lord make one rich and add no sorrow with it.
For my third overview...
3. One can enjoy God's blessings for the sake of some people.
Genesis 39:5;
So it was, from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house and in the field
Genesis 30:27
27 And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.”
Actually, my mum is late, but the person I refer to as my mum has some qualities I always love to share with people. And what is that?
You can't visit her house without meeting children from different homes because she is very accommodating. In addition, she takes care of these children from her purse, so to write. In fact, she has been doing this for years without complaining.
For that act of hers, God has been blessing her so much that she lacks nothing. The grown-up ones among those children are now taking good care of most of her financial needs.
With respect to the sample I just mentioned, I pity Christians who think the only people they are to cater for is their own immediate family.
In fact, as Christians, we can't call our maids by that term as they are brothers or sisters. It's a result of the presence of some of these maids, or other people living with us, that God has been blessing our homes. As soon as these maids leave the house, their blessings return with them.
Now, do not assume that the maids or children or people living with us are the ones doing this: no one can take his or her blessing away when leaving a particular place, it is the Almighty God himself that takes away the blessing upon their departure.
Let me show you what I mean from the Bible. See Genesis 30:27.
27 And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.”
Can you see God blessed house of Laban because of Jacob. Surprisingly, this act was not even hidden from Laban who was very observant, unlike many christians nowadays.
Laban knew since Jacob came that all they touched in the house had been blessed by God. That was why Laban begged Jacob — after 14 years — when it was time for him to leave, and he revealed why he didn't want him to leave.
I could remember when one of my pastors gave birth to his 3rd child and received a dollar gift. Ever since he had been matured, he had been hearing of that currency, but he had never touched one. It was after giving birth to that particular child of his did someone blessed him with the gift.
Some Christian families, upon noticing such blessing can decide to start showing special care for the child out of the other children.
Even in the Bible days, we read of how parents showed favoritism among their children. Don't be surprised... Our Almighty Father does this as well, in fact, openly. Hope you remember Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated?
So, one can enjoy the blessings of God because of the presence of someone living in our house. Another instance is that of Portiphar in Genesis 39:5. Portiphar was blessed because of the presence of Joseph in the house. Just as Laban was observant of this act, so does Portiphar.
So it was, from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house and in the field
Portiphar knew it was all because of Joseph.
For the fourth overview...
4. Angels are capable of blessing people.
Anyone an Angel blesses is blessed. And then... One thing I know is that Angels do not curse. If they do, oh my goodness, things will get out of hand for whoever receives the curse.
That reminds of when Jesus cursed the fig tree. The curse manifested almost immediately.
To reiterate, Spirit beings can bless humans. That we can confirm in Genesis 35:9.
For my last overview...
5. The last thing Jesus did before his departure was to bless his disciples.
He ascended while blessing them.
Going by my overview on blessing, we can deduce some things. But you see my area of focus is not those aforementioned overviews.
Area of Focus
Here is my area of focus for this Bible study on Blessing: Genesis 2:3 - Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made
From that verse of the Bible, we discover anything can be blessed. In 1 Samuel 25:33, there advice was blessed. This is why I often pray for people that God bless their understanding.
In addition, Genesis 1:22 shows animals can be blessed. Then, in Genesis 1:28, man was blessed. Apart from man, a day can be blessed. According to 2 Samuel 7:29... one's house can be blessed. More so, Matthew 14:19; Mark 14:22 confirmed food, too, can be blessed. What of Exodus 23:25? That particular verse in Exodus added water to the items that can be blessed. Conclusively, anything, as I mentioned earlier, can be blessed. Having shown you that anything, including the days of the week, can be blessed. Let's move onto our area of focus, which is blessing of days of the week.
Moving on, the days we have on Earth, as we know, are Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. If you are really paying attention, you will have observed I started listing the days from Sunday and not from the usual Monday because theologically and biblically the first day of the week is Sunday and the last day of the week is Saturday.
Invariably, when God wanted to bless a day, he chose the last day. In other words, it was Saturday that was blessed. Surprisingly, that blessed day is the only day that doesn't come with God's provision. This reminds me of the Bible verse that says the last shall be the first (Matthew 20:16).
You see everything in the Bible is connected. Checking out the Bible thoroughly will always reveal all the connected parts of it. This is why I often say that the Bible is not contradictory. So, if by any chance you come across any contradiction in the Bible, trust me, it will be the error of man and not God. In fact, almost all my students who follow me closely have been doing a lot to get all the contradictions we found in the Bible out of it.
Back to our earlier blessed day, if you check from Genesis to Revelation, you will never see God providing for any man on Saturday even though that was the day he sanctified — as the Sabbath day — and blessed.
In case it sounds unfamiliar, let's read Exodus 16:26 - 26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.”
When God revealed this act to the children of Israel through Moses, they found it difficult to believe because the only day God blessed, Saturday, the Sabbath day, was the only day God said he would not make any food provision — manna — available for them.
How did I even know that the children of Israel did not believe Moses?
The Bible confirmed that some of them (in verse 27) went out on the 7th day — same as Saturday called Sabbath — to gather manna, but they found none.
Then verse 29 revealed to us that a double portion would be provided on the 6th day, Friday so as to compliment the non-provision for the blessed, Sabbath day. In a plain language, God simply told the children of Israel that whatever they need on Saturday will be provided by him on Friday because he cannot provide for anyone on Saturday.
Now, before I conclude, this same day, Saturday, God blessed and refused to make any provision for, is the only day God instructed man not to work.
Of course, this came with a reason: That was the day he rested, and his rest must become a standard of rest for man. Therefore, everyone is expected to work for 6 days and rest on the 7th day.
For business-oriented Christians, they wonder why they can't work on the day God blessed. This is the reason why we still see lots of Christians doing business on Saturdays.
If you ask them why they don't observe that rest on Saturdays, they will tell you they make more money on Saturday than any other day.
Anytime I hear this, I laugh. Truth be told, God does not provide for any man on Saturday because he wants us to rest.
See Exodus 20:8-10 below, the rest includes animals, as well. Nothing must work.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.
God knew if he provided for man on Saturday, people would work on that day and that, of course, would be an excuse for man not to rest.
Amazingly, I found out in the Bible that this sabbath rest is a commandement. Also, I found out that there were basically 3 kinds of law in the Bible.
Out of the 3 kinds of law, Jesus fulfilled the 3rd one, which will refer to as ceremonial laws. This is why we can't worship God again through ceremonial laws like they did in the old testament days.
Mind you, Jesus fulfilled all ceremonial laws, but he didn't fulfil all the other laws. There were laws he left unfulfilled: the civil laws and the 10 commandments.
At this point, don't be confused. The Sabbath day rest has nothing to do with the ceremonial laws Jesus fulfilled. This is the problem we currently have in the christendom. When Christians hear Sabbath, they think of a day meant for worship... THAT'S WRONG.
Biblically, Sabbath has nothing to do with worshipping God. The word, even in Hebrew language, means REST. So, Sabbath day, Saturday, is a day God commanded us to rest.
Intuitively, the day God wants us to rest is the only day he blessed and refused to provide for anyone.
At this juncture, some Christians will still argue. Trust me, I'm okay with that, as it reminds me of well-educated religious leaders in the Bible. Do you know those religious leaders misunderstood the reason and essence of Sabbath, too?
Perhaps, the sanctification of that Sabbath day confused them. Actually, the day was sanctified as holy. Meaning, nothing unholy must be done on that day.
Are we to even do something unholy on any day?
If you check the book of Acts, you will see that in the early church days, people worship God on a daily basis. This is why I wonder why people worship God only on Sundays.
Don't misquote me, I'm not saying that you should stay in church for 7 days. You can be in your bedroom and worship God. You don't have to necessarily visit the church on the daily basis to worship him. This was the notion the woman at the well had. She thought God would be worshipped on that mountain, and Jesus corrected her that God is no longer seeking such worshippers.
John 4:23 - 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him
Consequently, you can be in anywhere and still worship God, although it is good not to forsake the gathering of the saints (Hebrew 10:25). In other words, no particular place is chosen as a place to worship him like the days of Solomon. In like manner, God never chose a day for himself to be worshipped. It was because Saturday was sanctified as holy that was why the Jews chose it as a day of worship. Even we Christians chose Sunday because the church started on that day in Acts 2:1-13 and Jesus resurrected on Sunday.
To your notice, Jesus did not resurrect on Sunday because he wanted man to worship him on that day. For me, as a Bible Enthusiast, I think he did because of who he was. Check Genesis 1:3-5, light was created on day 1, which was Sunday. So, I don't think Jesus would have resurrected on Saturday when the day that perfectly depict who he was was Sunday, the day light came upon the Earth. This is why white garment churches can never hold a Sunday service without putting on a white candle light.
To round off, and reiterate, Sabbath has nothing to do with worship; it is simply a day God set aside for the whole world to rest. Mind you, for the significances that came with Sunday and why we chose it as a day of worship, as Christians, does not in anyway make Sunday better than Saturday.
To buttress this point, let me remind you of the double portion received on Friday when God provided manna for the children of Israel. Out of all the days created by God, only Friday received double portion of food, let me ask you a question... Did that make God to change the blessing already bestowed on Saturday?
Of course, NO.
Even with the double portion of food on Friday, it was still Saturday that was blessed and remained the best day out of the days of the week.
Again and again, don't let the lack of provision for Saturday confuse you. That deficiency act does not diminish its blessing. Most of us theologians understand this....that because of the lack of provision for Saturday, Jesus as a provision for the propitiation of our sins would never had been given by God on a Saturday... remember God can never provide anything for anyone on Saturday. As a result, Jesus died on the cross on Friday.
Notably, I'm not saying we Christians should not do anything on Saturday, as the religious leaders of the Bible days did. To them, to even help someone on a Sabbath day was more or less a sin. Of course, that was wrong because their definition of work was wrong.
From all the Bible verses I've quoted so far, we can deduce from that we are to work for 6 days and rest on the last day. In other words, if a Christian comes back from church on Sunday and opens her shop for business, it is not bad as God expects us to work on that day.
In case you think differently from what I just mentioned in the last paragraph. If you work from Monday to Friday alone, that is just 5 days, but the Bible says in Exodus 34:21 that God expects to work for 6 days and not 5 days.
Thank God for several Christian companies, they don't allow their workers to work on Saturday, not because it's weekend, but because they are operating on the laws of the Bible.
I pray the Lord bless our understanding.
If you have another interpretation different from what you've read or you have any addition or question, do comment it below on the blog.
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