“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. 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 12:2-3)
I have finally re-initiated my study of the promises - after trudging determinedly through the promises of enmity, pain, and toil made to Adam and Eve, drinking in the flood waters of cleansing, destruction, and requirement made to Noah, I took pause for a while but now am ready to enter the story of Abraham and God's promises made to him.
Much of my understanding in my reading of the promises to this point has been informed by Terence E.
Fretheim. I continue to read his thoughts but am also finding the voice of promise in the Psalms (currently our focus for our gathered worship sermons).
This particular promise to Abraham feels difficult to chew on. My first thoughts are: What does it mean to bless? What does it mean to be a blessing? What does it mean for God to curse those who curse? Have all peoples on earth really been blessed through Abraham?
Recently I shared on Psalm 146 with my congregation. In the New Living Translation, the psalmist refers to the God of Israel (Jacob) when he says "He keeps every promise forever." What are these promises? Perhaps a good starting point is to go back a couple of generations to the covenant made with Abraham, Jacob's grandfather.
"I will make you into a great nation." This can also be read "I will make you into a numerous people." Even if we don't take into account the gentile component of God's people - Israel, the descendants of Abraham, are indeed numerous. I find it easy to put a √ here next to this promise. Done!
"I will make you into a great nation." This can also be read "I will make you into a numerous people." Even if we don't take into account the gentile component of God's people - Israel, the descendants of Abraham, are indeed numerous. I find it easy to put a √ here next to this promise. Done!
When God says that he will bless Abraham - he uses the word "barak" which comes from the root word "to kneel". It is used both of God and of men. It is a form of the word used in Psalm 103:1 - often sung in the familiar hymn: "Bless the Lord, O my soul..." How can this be? Does it mean the same thing for us to bless God as it does for God to bless us? It seems blasphemous to imply that God would kneel before His creation. Perhaps it is helpful to think of blessing as an offering of goodness. God, looking at his creation and calling it good, kneels before us - lowers himself to our level - and offers us goodness. Is this not the recurring theme of the story of God's people - especially in the deity humbling himself and taking on human form? This idea prompts in me a feeling of God's true admiration of His own creation. I can attest to the type of admiration a mother feels for her sons when she realizes what amazing young men they are turning out to be. My admiration for them doesn't ignore their shortcomings or my frustrations in the day to day of raising them, but it is a love and a pride that humbles me in knowing that these boys were formed, together, mind you, in my very own womb. As image-bearers of God, we are co-creators, and we can experience similar pride and joy when we create a work of art, prepare a nourishing and tasty meal, write a grant proposal, participate in the programming of technology, grow a garden . . . (fill in your own creative process here).
God offers us goodness. In turn, we kneel before him, recognizing that we have very little to offer in comparison, but offer it anyway - we bless God with our praise, with our obedience, with all that is within us. Our goodness comes from God anyway, and we are really just offering it back to him. It becomes a partnership - one we are invited into. When God tells Abraham "You will be a blessing to others" it is not so much a promise as a mandate. We are to become a source of blessing (berakah), a source of goodness to others. In the same way that God invites His people into partnership with Him as an offering of goodness, all are invited into this partnership of mutual blessing to one another. "I will bless those who bless you." As we become a source of goodness for others, they become a source of goodness for us as well. It's as if God is articulating the intended order of universe - a cycle of blessing, of goodness that flows in both directions from God to us to others to God to others to us to God. (Let us not believe ourselves to be the only source of blessing to the world.) Does anyone else see a parallel to the trinity here?
I won't ignore the uglier part of this promise, "...and whoever curses you I will curse". Without going deeply into the anatomy of a curse - perhaps we can understand this promise of curse as the natural consequence of breaking away from the cycle of blessing. That, at least, is all I am prepared to offer on this point.
As God then speaks of his long term plan to Abraham, "all people on earth will be blessed through you" I find myself wavering on the edge of understanding...is this a promise, or an imperative? Here is where Fretheim's thoughts have been helpful to me in understanding the essence of promise and fulfillment that sometimes seem to be quite distant from our experience. This promise "propels a faithful Abraham and his family into a future which takes shape most fundamentally by living with promises...he lives and dies only with the promises. Abraham did not have the luxury that I have to search God's promises in scriptures and take a long-view of history to see if God has indeed kept his word. Instead, "...living with the promise as promise profoundly shapes (Abraham's) life and thought; the promise constantly generates new possibilities for living short of fulfillment . . . God leaves room for human freedom in response, so that the track from promise to fulfillment cannot be precisely determined in advance." These thought from Fretheim have the flavor of the "open" view of God - but also are a great lead-in to understanding of where our partnership with God comes in.
After reminding us in Psalm 146 that God "keeps every promise forever" the psalmist goes on to proclaim...
7 He gives justice to the oppressed
and food to the hungry.
The Lord frees the prisoners.
8 The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down.
The Lord loves the godly.
9 The Lord protects the foreigners among us.
He cares for the orphans and widows,
but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.
We are to be partners with God in bringing about blessing to all peoples.
We need to be about seeking justice for the oppressed.
We need to be about giving food to the hungry.
We need to be about setting prisoners free.
We need to be about opening the eyes of the blind.
We need to be about lifting up those who are down.
We need to be about loving each other.
We need to be about watching out for the foreigner.
We need to be about caring for those who have lost their primary anchors in life.
We need to be about standing and working against the ways of the wicked and resisting the temptations we face to step out of participation in the cycle of blessing that God has set in motion.
When the psalmist says that God will keep every promise forever, he is reminding us that we are participants in the fulfillment of this promise. That we are to be a blessing to all people. That we are to be participants in seeing the promise of God's kingdom fulfilled. God is keeping His promises and living with those promises is shaping our life and even shaping their fulfillment.
God offers us goodness. In turn, we kneel before him, recognizing that we have very little to offer in comparison, but offer it anyway - we bless God with our praise, with our obedience, with all that is within us. Our goodness comes from God anyway, and we are really just offering it back to him. It becomes a partnership - one we are invited into. When God tells Abraham "You will be a blessing to others" it is not so much a promise as a mandate. We are to become a source of blessing (berakah), a source of goodness to others. In the same way that God invites His people into partnership with Him as an offering of goodness, all are invited into this partnership of mutual blessing to one another. "I will bless those who bless you." As we become a source of goodness for others, they become a source of goodness for us as well. It's as if God is articulating the intended order of universe - a cycle of blessing, of goodness that flows in both directions from God to us to others to God to others to us to God. (Let us not believe ourselves to be the only source of blessing to the world.) Does anyone else see a parallel to the trinity here?
I won't ignore the uglier part of this promise, "...and whoever curses you I will curse". Without going deeply into the anatomy of a curse - perhaps we can understand this promise of curse as the natural consequence of breaking away from the cycle of blessing. That, at least, is all I am prepared to offer on this point.
As God then speaks of his long term plan to Abraham, "all people on earth will be blessed through you" I find myself wavering on the edge of understanding...is this a promise, or an imperative? Here is where Fretheim's thoughts have been helpful to me in understanding the essence of promise and fulfillment that sometimes seem to be quite distant from our experience. This promise "propels a faithful Abraham and his family into a future which takes shape most fundamentally by living with promises...he lives and dies only with the promises. Abraham did not have the luxury that I have to search God's promises in scriptures and take a long-view of history to see if God has indeed kept his word. Instead, "...living with the promise as promise profoundly shapes (Abraham's) life and thought; the promise constantly generates new possibilities for living short of fulfillment . . . God leaves room for human freedom in response, so that the track from promise to fulfillment cannot be precisely determined in advance." These thought from Fretheim have the flavor of the "open" view of God - but also are a great lead-in to understanding of where our partnership with God comes in.
After reminding us in Psalm 146 that God "keeps every promise forever" the psalmist goes on to proclaim...
7 He gives justice to the oppressed
and food to the hungry.
The Lord frees the prisoners.
8 The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down.
The Lord loves the godly.
9 The Lord protects the foreigners among us.
He cares for the orphans and widows,
but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.
We need to be about seeking justice for the oppressed.
We need to be about giving food to the hungry.
We need to be about setting prisoners free.
We need to be about opening the eyes of the blind.
We need to be about lifting up those who are down.
We need to be about loving each other.
We need to be about watching out for the foreigner.
We need to be about caring for those who have lost their primary anchors in life.
We need to be about standing and working against the ways of the wicked and resisting the temptations we face to step out of participation in the cycle of blessing that God has set in motion.
When the psalmist says that God will keep every promise forever, he is reminding us that we are participants in the fulfillment of this promise. That we are to be a blessing to all people. That we are to be participants in seeing the promise of God's kingdom fulfilled. God is keeping His promises and living with those promises is shaping our life and even shaping their fulfillment.
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