Being A Blessing

Being a Blessing

Genesis 12:1-3

June 10, 2007

Morning Service

Introduction

A certified public accountant did something that maybe all of us should do. He decided to open a journal with God. He wanted to write everything that God gave him and everything that he gave to God. He started keeping a debit and credit book with God.

If someone did him a favor, he put it down as God’s gift to him. He credited God with the sun, his food, his health, his friends and relatives, and a thousand other benefits he received.

On the other hand, he put down what he did for God. Finally he gave up saying, "It is impossible for me to balance the books. I find that God is indeed my creditor and what I have done for Him is next to nothing."

This leads us to an important question: what does it mean to be blessed?

Our English word bless: means to consecrate or hallow, to confer happiness or prosperity. The understanding that being blessed means that we are made holy or prosperous.

The Hebrew word for bless is barak which appears, with its derivatives, in the Old Testament 415 times. The word means to kneel or to bless.

The deeper Hebrew meaning of blessing is “to endue with power for success, prosperity, fruitfulness, longevity Thus, the implication of having a blessed life is to be given a life that is fruitful and abundant.

If you have your Bibles with you, please open them to Genesis 12:1-3. As we look at the calling of Abram and the blessings that God gave to Him.

1 The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. 2 "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." Genesis 12:1-3

God set specific conditions for His blessings

Before God pronounces his blessings, He issues two major commands.

These seem to be the conditions of the promise that God was about to give. This would have been an act of faith on Abram’s part. It would have been a designation of personal trust in God.

Leave your country

God wanted Abram to leave his country. Not because the people were pagan but because God wanted to separate a people of His own. The issue here is holiness. God separated Abram from the world to make a holy nation, a separated people. The reason for leaving the country was not that God could not use Abram there but that He desired to create a new nation using Abram

Go

God tells Abram to go from the country he was currently in. Abram was going to leave everyone and everything he knew to pursue God’s promises. The command to go was to make the separation complete.

God gives Abram five distinct promises that will bring him divine power to live an abundant life. God is peaking directly to Abram at this point and makes specific personal promises that will not only impact the life of Abram but the whole world.

God chose Abram for His personal blessing

Blessings were pronounced on children by their fathers. This was seen as an incredible gift to the children. Normally, this honor went to the eldest son. We see the value of blessing in Genesis when Jacob went to great lengths to steal his brother Esau’s blessing. Later in life, as Jacob was dying, he pronounced blessings on all of his children and both of Joseph’s sons.

Notice that God pronounces six promises

I will show you

God makes the promise to give Abram direction to find the new land. There is the promise that Abram will not wander alone searching for God’s place of promise.

I will make you into a great nation

God promises to do something new for Abram. The word make implies that there is something more that God wants to do for Abram. Remember Abram has not yet had his name changed. Abram means exalted father. This seems like a strange name for a man who has no children. God will later change his name to Abraham which means father of multitudes. The name change is one of the areas of promise that God gives to Abram.

God plans to take Abram from being the father of none to the father of multitudes.

I will bless you

God promises to give Abram a fruitful and abundant life. He promises that Abram will be empowered for becoming great.

I will make your name great

The promise here is to make the name of Abram known throughout the nations and through the ages