Despite what the song might say, we already have the true blessing of Abraham. But a closer look at the life of Abraham reveals what we really should be pursuing in our walk...

::::::::

 

Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven. "This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed--all because you have obeyed me." -- Genesis 22: 15-18 (NLT) 

It has become in vogue in Christianity to pursue blessings. We hear it preached in contortions of the Gospel designed to make men rich and turn Christ into an ATM. We see it on all the "church" channels as we are taught that sowing seed (money) will produce a harvest (more money) because some modern day charlatan has figured our how to twist Scripture to fit their schemes. They will shout out to you that God has made you the head and not the tail! On top and not beneath! A lender and not a borrower! That all sounds fantastic but of course it is completely ignorant of context. Those snippets are taken from a section of Deuteronomy 28 where God is speaking of the blessings for obeying the law. Here are the actual full verses:

"If you obey the commands of the Lord your God and walk in his ways, the Lord will establish you as his holy people as he swore he would do. Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the Lord , and they will stand in awe of you. "The Lord will give you prosperity in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, blessing you with many children, numerous livestock, and abundant crops. The Lord will send rain at the proper time from his rich treasury in the heavens and will bless all the work you do. You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them. If you listen to these commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom. You must not turn away from any of the commands I am giving you today, nor follow after other gods and worship them. -- Deuteronomy 28: 9-14 (NLT)

Looks like there were a couple of conditions left out of those blessings! IF you obey the commands of God! IF you walk in ALL of His ways! IF you listen to all of His commands! IF you do not follow after other Gods and worship them! And what were the commands God is referring to here? The Mosaic Law, which contained over 600 different rules for Israel to follow. And how successful were they at keeping the law? How many people were able to? NONE. No one could keep the law, which was why God had to send Jesus to earth to die for our sins! And while the first 15 verses of the 28 ^th chapter of Deuteronomy does indeed spell out the blessings for obedience to God's laws, the remaining 54 verses deal with the curses for disobedience!     And they are not as user friendly as the blessings. Imagine trying to sell financial prosperity on these verses:

"The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, scurvy, and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. The Lord will strike you with madness, blindness, and panic. You will grope around in broad daylight like a blind person groping in the darkness, but you will not find your way. You will be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will come to save you. -- Deuteronomy 28: 27-29 (NLT)

That wouldn't sell well at a Praise-athon! The real damage of the bless me theology is that it skews our view of everything God has already done for us! That is what blessings are! Are you healthy? Is your marriage prospering? Do you know where your kids are? Do you have a Bible believing church and a nurturing Pastor? These are blessings. But we overlook them seeking for what we think we are somehow lacking or searching for what the devil shows us we don't yet possess. And the greatest of all the blessings is the true blessing of Abraham!

Despite what the song might falsely teach us the actual blessing of Abraham is the salvation we almost consciously dismiss every day. The fact that our name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. The fact that we enjoy eternal life right now and that through Jesus Christ death no longer holds any power over us! Here is the blessing of Abraham in Scripture:

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree" ), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: Though it is only a man's covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of one, "And to your Seed," who is Christ. And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise. -- Galatians 3: 13-18 (NKJV)

Our inheritance is already obtained beloved. It is the salvation through Christ. Passed down from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob, who would then become Israel. From Israel to the Gentiles, who then would become the church. You don't have to chase the blessing of Abraham because if you are saved you already inherited it when you gave your life to Christ. Instead of looking at the blessing however, let's look at two defining moments in the life of Abraham which highlight what we should be chasing as believers. For the first, we need to look at the inception of the blessing:

The Lord had said to Abram, "Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you." -- Genesis 12: 1-3 (NLT)

All families on earth are blessed through Abraham because salvation came through his lineage in the form of Jesus Christ. This was God's redemptive plan for humanity. But the part that is often overlooked is what Abraham had to do. He had to display a blind obedience to God. Verse one here says that God essentially told Abraham to pick up and leave everything he knew behind and go to a foreign land. No details are provided to him whatsoever. Just pick up and leave your comfort zone, your extended family, your lifelong friends, and everything familiar. No reason is provided either.

Can you imagine the scene in your life? Remember, it's not like Abraham was unsuccessful at the time he was called. God says "Bob, I have great plans for you. I am going to bless you abundantly. But first you have to pack up your life and move to Idaho." I am sure the super-Christian spirit we all have is saying that if God said so, we would go but if we were truly honest with ourselves we would realize that God tells us every day to do things which we promptly ignore! Or we seek advice from friends first. Or we call for a forty day fast first. The first lesson about blind obedience is that it does not require anything above the fact that God has said it. You do not need to fast about what is already clear in Scripture. You do not need to question it, ponder it, or worry about it. You do not need advice about it. It is by nature definitive:

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. -- 2Timothy 3: 16-17 (NLT)

God will never contradict His Word. He is not a man that He would change His mind. If He said it, He meant it. The Bible is very clear --He wants and expects obedience. That is what Abraham first showed God when he obeyed him and left everything behind with nothing more than a Word from God.

The second lesson here is that sometimes we need to leave our current situation in order to find the next level God has for us. Could God have blessed Abraham where he was? Of course! He is God. But He wanted the obedience first. Sometimes we can get too comfortable in our walk. Our service unto God can become mundane or routine. We can feel like we are working for the Kingdom but God may have a whole new level of blessing for us waiting in another land. A foreign land to us. A land where we will need to rely upon Him even more. Complacency is a slow poison to progress. It is like acid eating away at our desire and drive to seek God. We can settle into doing church instead of living for Christ. Heaven forbid.

The other definitive moment in the life of Abraham came decades later. The child of promise Isaac had been given as promised to Abraham and Sarah in their old age. And like blind obedience was expected before, this time God was looking for provisional faith:

"Take your son, your only son--yes, Isaac, whom you love so much--and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you." -- Genesis 22: 2 (NLT)

What? Let's be honest here. If this was us the first thing out of our mouths would have been, "huh?" You make me wait until I am 100 years old to even have Isaac, then watch as he grows up (Isaac was probably in his 20's at this point) and now you want me to kill him? But Scripture says that the next morning Abraham got up and headed with Isaac to Mount Moriah. When Isaac asked where the offering was Abraham showed the definition of provisional faith, which God is seeking from us all:

"God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son," Abraham answered. And they both walked on together. -- Genesis 22: 8 (NLT)

Abraham had faith that God would provide. Provisional faith. Too often in our walks we practice conditional faith. We say we will believe if this happens. We will have faith if that happens. God does not want that type of faithlessness. He wants a faith that is based on a total reliance upon who God is not who we think we are. The kind of faith that allowed a teenage shepherd boy to believe he could defeat a nine foot giant with a slingshot. The type of faith that allowed three Hebrew boys to believe they could survive the fiery furnace. Did David think he was better than the giant? No! He knew that God would provide just as he had provided for him when he faced the lion and the bear. Did Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego believe that they would be able to bear the heat of the furnace because of their own strength? No! They knew they served a God who would provide for them. Provisional faith. Demonstrated first by father Abraham.  

This is what we should be pursuing in our walks beloved. We should be pursuing the blind obedience of Abraham. The kind of obedience that recognizes the sovereign authority of Scripture and does not compromise it with the logic of this world or the shifting sands of our feelings. The kind of obedience that understands if God said it, that is good enough for me. It doesn't matter what the world says. It doesn't matter what my friends say. It doesn't matter what traditions say. I am going to obey what God says! We should be pursuing the provisional faith of Abraham. The kind of faith that does not look at the things of God through the lenses of the world. The kind of faith that is willing to sacrifice that which we hold most dear because we know God is going to provide exactly what we need in this life. The kind of faith that does not care how big the giant is that we are facing or how hot the fires of testing appear to be -- God will provide.

Finally realize that these are intimately connected. The more obedient we are to Scripture the more we will see God move in our lives and thus the more our faith will be strengthened. That is the inheritance we can expect. Forget chasing after the blessing of Abraham -- you already have eternal life! Instead, chase after the blind obedience and provisional faith of Abraham and see where God will take you!

Reverend Anthony Wade -- April 2, 2012

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.