Jesus Christ, Our Blessedness The Biblical Truth about Blessing and Curse

Jesus Christ, Our Blessedness

The Biblical Truth about Blessing and Curse

Jennifer Anne Cox

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2020 by Jennifer Anne Cox

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All Scripture quotations are from ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016)

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Table of Contents

Introduction: Why Write This Book?

Part I: Foundations

Part II: Restoration of Blessing

Part III: Do Blessing and Curse Depend on Human Obedience?—Deuteronomy, Job and Lament Psalms

Part IV: A Different View of Blessing—Psalms and the Prophets

Transition from Old to New Testament

Part V: New Testament Perspectives I—Blessed and Happy

Part VI: New Testament Perspectives II—Blessed by God

Part VII: New Testament Perspectives III—Life and Death; Acting Like God; and Priestly Blessing

Conclusion

Appendix: A Word about the Doctrine of Generational Curses

About the Author

Introduction: Why Write This Book?

Life is full of disappointments, some small and some enormous. We experience sadness because a friend moves away, grief when a close friend or relative dies, bitter heartbreak when we lose a child. Unemployment tears at the framework of meaning we have built up around our lives. Poverty produces desperation and stress. Dreams of greatness die and our hearts are shattered. Long held desires come to nothing. Adultery and divorce, sickness and physical pain, estrangement from loved ones, betrayal and sorrow, all these things happen in life and more. And each of us wishes that this pain and suffering would end.

But in this world, it is impossible to avoid all pain and suffering and grief. No one escapes it, even privileged, wealthy people in developed nations. Jesus did not promise a life without sorrow, but he did promise a life of hope that includes his peace (John 16:33). The truth is that only the resurrection of the dead and the new heavens and new earth will bring an end to grief, pain and sorrows big and small (Rev 21:1–4).

How are Christians meant to understand their lives? People often wonder whether the difficult things we experience in life come as the result of a curse of some sort? Why does God sometimes seem not to bless? The purpose of this book is to expound the truth about blessing and curse in the Bible. A proper perspective on blessing and curse begins with the biblical creation account and works carefully through the Bible. Blessing and curse can only rightly be understood within the framework of God’s creative and redemptive work. You will not find a formula for blessing in these pages.

My goal in writing this is that you may come to grasp God’s desire to bless humanity. We so often think of blessing in terms of material things, perfect health, or finding the right marriage partner. Much of what is taught about blessing involves a series of steps in order to get God to bless you, that is, to take away all suffering and difficulties from your life. This is the wrong perspective. Instead, I hope you will see the plan God has for blessing humanity through the Saviour, Jesus Christ. God’s blessing does not come to us because of what we do but because of what Jesus has done on our behalf. God’s blessing does not look like what we might expect, at least in this present evil age. May we all be able to live in hope of the resurrection of the dead instead of constantly looking for a way to avoid suffering, which the Bible teaches is an ordinary part of the Christian life.

As with every book I have written and will write in the future, my heart’s desire is that as you read this book, you will see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible is a book about him (John 5:39) and every passage points us to our need of him. I strive to make sure that every doctrine I expound is first and foremost an exposition of who Christ is and what he has done for us. The worst curse is being eternally without Christ and our greatest blessing is to be redeemed by him for relationship with the living God. All the blessings of the Old Testament point us toward Jesus. The New Testament explains what it means to be blessed by him. This is the message I most want you to take away from this book. May God bless you as you read it.

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Part I: Foundations

God’s Blessedness: A Foundation for All Blessing

As a general principle, it is useful to begin things at the beginning. For the Christian, the beginning is the creation of the heavens and the earth. This may seem like a good place to begin a discussion of blessing and curse. And in the next chapter I will consider the early chapters of Genesis and how these set the scene for the rest of the Bible’s understanding of blessing and curse. However, before the beginning of the heavens and the earth, before the beginning of time itself, there was God. That is where I want to begin.

When Jesus was on trial, the high priest asked him, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?’ (Mark 14:61). The high priest had the wrong idea about Jesus but was correct in calling the God of Israel the Blessed. God exists in a state of eternal blessedness; he is blessed forever (Rom 1:25; 2 Cor 11:31). Blessed is the natural state of the LORD God of Israel. He cannot be other than blessed.

Throughout the Old Testament there are statements of God’s blessedness (e.g., Neh 9:5) and injunctions to bless the LORD, bless God or bless the name of the LORD. Although there are occasionally examples of humans blessing God with no particular reason given (Gen 9:26; Ps 26:12), in the overwhelming majority of instances in which people say, Blessed be the LORD/God, this is because of something the LORD did for his people. God is blessed because of his capacity as Creator of the world (e.g., 1 Chron 2:12a) and his rule over the created realm (Ps 89:9–13). The themes of God’s power in creation and his majesty are woven together in Ps 104 and give the psalmist a reason to cry, Bless the LORD, O my soul! (Ps 104:1a). The LORD is also blessed because he delivered the Israelites from Egypt and gave them the land he promised (Exod 18:10; 1 Kings 8:36). Many of the Psalms extol the power of God over enemies, his mercy to the weak, his work to deliver his people from Egypt, and his majesty in the heavens (e.g., Ps 68; 72). Even heathen rulers are compelled to bless the LORD because of his acts of deliverance (Dan 3:28; Ch. 4, particularly 4:34).

The New Testament is similar, the difference being that we bless God because of his redemptive acts accomplished by Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ appears three times: twice in Paul’s letters (2 Cor 1:3; Eph 1:3) and once in Peter’s letter (1 Pet 1:3). In addition, Paul hoped that the Roman church would with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 15:6). The epistles provide many reasons for blessing the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. These fall under