The Secret about Abraham’s Blessing

Abraham’s blessing has been a hot preaching topic because it is so captivating and almost too good to be true: God appeared to Abraham and delivered a promise without Abraham having to do anything – that is grace! (So they say). However, in my careful observation, most of them did not receive what Abraham obtained. Why? It is because Abraham’s blessing is not a straightforward promise; it requires a certain mindset to obtain them. God spoke Abraham:

“1 Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; 2 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; 3 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.” Genesis 12:1-3

Abraham’s blessing can be categorized in the following:

1. I will bless you (v.2) – The favor of God, personal wellbeing and prosperity.
2. I will make you a great nation (v.2) – A dignified and blessed community and nation.
3. I will make your name great (v.2) – Glory and honor.
4. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed (v.3) – The calling and the anointing to bless the poor.

God said to Abram, “I will bless you…” Why does God say, “I will bless you”? Isn’t it obvious since Abram is promised a great nation, a great name and a great anointing to bless the families of the earth? Of the four blessings, only the first is directed at Abram as a person, the rest is an outward ministry of being a blessing to others. Why is the first blessing unique to the rest? It is required that Abram himself must first be blessed before he could go on to bless others. In other words, the first blessing functions as a conduit through which the rest of the blessings are fulfilled. It follows that God must create in Abram the mindset to receive the blessings. The below details the mindset necessary to receive Abraham’s blessing:

1.  Understanding that God is jealously protecting and providing for our wellbeing and will not flinch at destroying our enemies.

God is determined to show Abram that He will protect and provide for him at all cost. Genesis 12:10 records a famine in the land and Abram made a decision to go to Egypt to take refuge. He knew the dangers of such a move, as that would certainly put him and his wife in danger. And Abram for fear of losing his life had selfishly lied about his relationship with Sarai. Sarai, being beautiful in appearance attracted the attention of the Pharaoh who took her to his house. That day,

“The Lord struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, “ What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister, ’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife, take her and go.” Genesis 12:17-19

God struck Pharaoh because Abram and his family belong to God and no one is allowed to harm them. Despite Abram’s mistakes on two counts: making the unwise decision to go to Egypt and lying about his relationship with Sarai. God intervened to protect Abram and Sarai; He struck the Pharaoh and his family with plagues even though it was no fault of theirs.

Perhaps, you have made a bad decision and you think that you have missed out on the blessing. The truth is: God is fiercely protecting you and safeguarding your interests. He is working hard to bless you despite your bad decisions. Therefore, in the face of challenges, we must never descend into self-pity in doubting the goodness of God. We must repent of our foolishness and unbelief and restore our complete trust towards His guidance. In the same vein, we must never take advantage of God by sinning against Him supposing He will still bless us.

2.  God’s blessing will come in a form that astounds you, and its magnificence you cannot imagine.

We must give God the full prerogative to bless us as He wills, and not dictate the form or timing in which the blessing should come. When Sarah died, Abraham has yet to own even a square foot of land and has to purchase land from the locals to bury his wife (see Genesis 23). What happened to God’s promised of land? Abraham has to recognize that God’s promise is so magnificent that the mind could never conceive its true grandeur. What Abraham could fathom is only a piece of land that he has walked through (see Genesis 13:17). But God is really thinking of land covering the whole of creation. Hence, the author of Hebrews wrote:

All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. Hebrews 11:13

The men and women of faith died without realizing their promises, but they continue to believe that they will receive them in heaven. They were not disappointed because they deferred it to God trusting Him to bless. If we demand that God bless us on our terms, we would be limiting God and marginalizing ourselves from His perfect blessing.

Therefore, don’t go looking out for the blessing in the form that you’ve always wanted. Defer it to God and let Him bring it to pass in His own way and time. Instead, we must keep our focus on the tasks given to us in all diligence and honesty. Man is inherently impatient and childish in the way we demand of God to bless us. If our earthly bosses do not reward us, God certainly will in His way and time.

3.  Faith and patience is the foundation of all blessings.

We have heard of the phrases: easy come, easy go or meteoric rise and meteoric fall. We have seen people rise up very quickly only to fall, broken beyond recognition. Without faith and patience, no blessing can endure. Hence, blessings do take time to accumulate even as our faith and patience takes time to grow. Blessings in order to endure must rest upon the foundation of truth and the approval of God. Many choose to accumulate material blessings and fame by their own means. The result is wealth and glamour that is temporal and with it much sorrow. The Chinese has an expression, “It’s rare that the wealth of a family can last beyond 3 generations.” It can also be said that the values system of a family never survives three generations. Hence, we could appreciate the longevity of Abraham’s legacy of faith; it survived 42 generations until the birth of Christ.

Therefore, to receive Abraham’s blessing, we must be patient and allow God to do His work of molding us into people of great faith. Do not hope for immediate gains as we have seen so many who have risen so rapidly, but their fortunes could not endure because they lack foundation. Do not envy those who rise up because of their unrighteous works. It will be a matter of time that they will fail and lose even their very lives. Eternal wealth must rest on the foundation of truth, patience and faith.