Blessing

Spiritual and material benefits given by God to be enjoyed. Blessing the name of God is also the appropriate response of believers to all that God has done for them.

God is the source of all blessing

1 Chronicles 29:11–12 See also Psalm 89:11

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in heaven and on earth belongs to You. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom, and You are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You are the ruler over all. In Your hands are power and might to exalt and give strength to all.

At creation he blessed humans with fertility and authority over the earth

Genesis 1:28–30

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.” Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit contains seed. They will be yours for food. And to every beast of the earth and every bird of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth — everything that has the breath of life in it — I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

The disobedience of Adam and Eve caused God to remove his blessing

Genesis 3:16–19 See also Genesis 6:5–7

To the woman He said: “I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth; in pain you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground — because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

After the flood God renewed his promise of blessing to Noah

Genesis 9:1–3 See also Genesis 8:22; Job 5:10; Psalm 65:9–13

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on every living creature on the earth, every bird of the air, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are delivered into your hand. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you all things.

The blessings promised to Abraham

The blessings included descendants and nationhood

Genesis 12:2–3 See also Genesis 17:1–8, Genesis 18:18, Genesis 26:4, Genesis 35:11; Exodus 1:6–7; Deuteronomy 1:10–11, Deuteronomy 7:13; 1 Kings 3:8; Nehemiah 9:23; Isaiah 51:2

I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

The blessings included land

Genesis 17:8 See also Genesis 12:7, Genesis 26:3; Deuteronomy 1:8, Deuteronomy 4:40, Deuteronomy 11:8–12

And to you and your descendants I will give the land where you are residing— all the land of Canaan— as an eternal possession; and I will be their God.”

The promises of blessing to Abraham were fulfilled in Jesus Christ

Galatians 3:16 See also Acts 3:25–26; Galatians 3:29

The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say, “and to seeds,” meaning many, but “and to your seed,” meaning One, who is Christ.

Blessings promised to Israel

Blessings of fruitfulness and prosperity

Deuteronomy 7:13–14 See also Genesis 49:25; Leviticus 26:10; Deuteronomy 15:4, Deuteronomy 28:8, Deuteronomy 28:12

He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your land— your grain, new wine, and oil, the young of your herds and the lambs of your flocks— in the land that He swore to your fathers to give you. You will be blessed above all peoples; among you there will be no barren man or woman or livestock.

Blessings of good health and long life

Exodus 23:25–26 See also Exodus 15:26; Deuteronomy 7:15

So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take away sickness from among you. No woman in your land will miscarry or be barren; I will fulfill the number of your days.

Blessings of peace and victory over enemies

Deuteronomy 28:7 See also Exodus 23:22; Leviticus 26:6–8; Deuteronomy 7:24; Psalm 29:11

The LORD will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They will march out against you in one direction but flee from you in seven.

The promise of being blessed by future restoration

Jeremiah 31:23 See also Isaiah 61:9, Isaiah 65:17–25; Ezekiel 34:25–31

This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “When I restore them from captivity, they will once again speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities: ‘May the LORD bless you, O righteous dwelling place, O holy mountain.’

The conditions of God's blessings

Fear of the Lord brings blessing

Jeremiah 32:40 See also Deuteronomy 6:1–3, Deuteronomy 10:12–20; Ecclesiastes 12:13; Isaiah 50:10

I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put My fear in their hearts, so that they will never turn away from Me.

Obedience to the Lord brings blessing

Deuteronomy 11:26–28 See also Deuteronomy 28:1–14, Deuteronomy 30:15–20

See, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse — a blessing if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, but a curse if you disobey the commandments of the LORD your God and turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.

To bless God is to worship and adore him

Nehemiah 9:5 See also Genesis 9:26, Genesis 14:20

Then the Levites— Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah— said, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting: Blessed be Your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise.

People may bless one another in the name of the Lord

Numbers 6:24–26 There is a close link between blessing and prayer. See also Genesis 27:27–29, Genesis 49:1–28; Ruth 1:8–9; 1 Samuel 2:20; 1 Chronicles 4:10; Matthew 23:39

‘May the LORD bless you and keep you; may the LORD cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; may the LORD lift up His countenance toward you and give you peace.’