Blessed to Bless Others Genesis 12:1-2, 26:1-4, 28:10-15

All of us should recognize the fact that we are who we are, and we are what we are because God is blessing us. Unfortunately, many people do not think of themselves as being blessed. In the minds of many people a blessing is something that we receive that gives us an advantage in life. Usually we do not think of the poor, the disenfranchised, the sick, and those with no political clout as people that are blessed. However, the fact that we have life means that we are blessed to be recipients of God’s love; His grace, mercy and compassion. This leads to the following questions: Who does God bless? What do I need to do to be blessed? What is the purpose of my blessings and how should I use my blessing? In this article we will study the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We will learn that God blesses them so that they can be a blessing to others.

We begin with the life of Abram, later named Abraham by God. God calls Abram and promises to bless him and his descendants. God will bless all the people of the earth through the seed of Abram (Gen.1-3). God promise Abram land and power. God will protect him from any and all foes. “And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed (Gen. 12:2-3, NASB).

Now there is a tendency for us to take notice of the material blessings of land and power, and fame. We often fail to recognize the reason that God is blessing Abram. We may fail to take notice that God will bless Abraham so that he can be a blessing to others. Thus, we think that God blesses us so that we can enjoy creature comforts in life. We may joyfully tell others about how God is blessing us with no thought in mind to use our blessings to bless others. We pray for a new car. God blesses us with a new car, but we do not see that we ought to use the new car to bless others. Why do we do this?

Maybe it is because we think that we have some special standing with God. Maybe it is because of something that we have done to earn our blessings. We may have received a blessing because we earned it. You got a promotion on your job because you worked harder than others. You come to work every day. You are liked by your co workers, and you are a team player. While all of this may be true there are other factors that need to be considered. How did you get the job in the first place? Do you think that you were the only person qualified to do the job? When we look at the call of Abram we see the following factors. God calls Abram out of His grace. Abram did not even know God. God calls Abram and positions him to attain greatness. God provides Abram with everything that he needs to carry out God’s commands. Let me tell you about God’s time and how God positions us to receive His blessing.

I was a candidate to receive a scholarship for nursing school. Two people would be selected to receive the scholarship. After the applications and interviews I was the third person on the list. I would not be receiving a scholarship. Yet, I got a scholarship. There was nothing special that I had done. I did not receive any special favors. I received a scholarship because God had positioned me to be an applicant at the right time; God’s time. The person that was chosen to receive the first scholarship was taking courses in photography. He declined his scholarship so that he could complete his courses in photography. He would reapply the next year. Since he delayed in starting his courses in nursing I was moved up to receive the second scholarship. It was not about my own personal merits; rather it was a matter of what God was doing in my life.

God promise Abram that he will be a blessing to all people though his descendants. Abraham’s wife Sarah gives birth to a son named Isaac. Although Abram has a son by the Egyptian slave Hagar before Isaac is born God chooses Isaac instead of the older son Ishmael to be the son through which God will bless the descendants of Abraham (Gen. 21:9-12). God makes His choice known when there is a conflict between the Egyptian maid Hagar and Sarah. Sarah knows that her son is the recipient of the promise (Gen. 18:9-15), and she refuses to allow the slave woman’s child to replace her son (Gen. 21:9-12). Although there are some that criticize the actions of Abraham and Sarah in how they treat Hagar and Ishmael, and rightly so, when God calls Abram Sarah his wife is also called and she is the recipient of the promise that God makes. Our mess ups cannot alter God’s plans.

In Isaac God continues to keep His promise to Abraham. Isaac is Abraham’s seed and God walks with Isaac and renews the covenant with Isaac. Abraham dies and his sons Ishmael and Isaac buried him with his wife Sarah (25:8-10). “It came about after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac lived by Beer-lahai-roi” (v. 11, NASB)). When there is famine in the land God tells Isaac to stay in the land that He is giving to Isaac and his descendants (26:3). God tells Isaac that He will keep the oath that He made with Abraham. God says, “‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed’” (v. 4, NASB). Again, we see that God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others.

Rebekah, the wife of Isaac gives birth to two sons. Esau is the first born of the twins and Jacob is the second born. While still in the womb the children struggled. God tells Rebekah that the first born will serve the second born (25:22-23). Again, God is not bound by human traditions. God chooses the second son to be the one by which He will keep His promise first made to Abram. Why does God break with the customs of the people? God is establishing that He is not like the other gods that the nations worship. God’s people are not like the other peoples. God calls His people. He sanctifies His people, and God separates His people unto Himself for God’s own purposes.

Esau and Jacob live differently and there is rivalry between the two boys. Jacob takes advantage of Esau’s weakness and convinces him to sell the birth right (25:27-34). When Isaac is on his death bed Jacob and his mother devises a scheme in which Jacob deceives Isaac, and he steals the blessing that Isaac intends for Esau. Jacob is forced to escape for his life. The scriptures tell us about Jacob’s escape: “Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran” (28:10, NASB). Jacob stops to rest for the night, and he has a dream. In the dream God appears and speaks to Jacob. God says, “‘Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all families of the earth be blessed’” (v. 14, NASB). God continues to bless His people so that they will bless others.

God raises up a nation called Israel. Jacob’s named is changed to Israel by God (Gen. 25:9-10). God makes a covenant with His chosen people (Ex. 20:1-17). He will bless them and they are to be a blessing to all the people around them and even to all the people of the earth. They will bless others by keeping covenant with God whose commandments, laws, and statures show the people of the earth two things that they do not know. God is God alone. He, not the gods, is the creator of the universe. The gods are no God at all. God’s ways are different from the ways of the people of the earth. His ways are not their ways, and His thoughts are not their thoughts.

The children of Israel fail to live up to God’s standards. Yet, God maintains His purpose. God intends to make Him known to the world. God intends to bless all people. Though the seed of Abraham, a Son is born. He is Jesus the Son of Mary and Joseph. His name is Jesus because he saves His people from their sins. He is called Emmanuel because He is God with us. Through Him God’s keeps His promise to His people. Israel is God’s chosen people. God blesses Israel and through Israel God blesses others.