Genesis 1:28. And God blessed them.
Do you struggle to believe that God wants you to be happy?
There are many things that get in the way of our happiness, but God is not one of them. What we see right at the start of creation is that God made us in his image, and he made us to be blessed – happy.
God loves blessing his creation. This Hebrew word, barak, is all over the book of Genesis. God is blessing everything and everyone left and right. From the birds and fish, to the sons of Noah, to Abraham and is descendants, God is dedicated to our good. In fact, the word barak is the word for “to kneel.” For God to bless us is for God to lower himself before us. It should be us blessing God in Genesis 1, not the other way around. But God will do whatever it takes for us to be full and satisfied in him. He will even “kneel” to our level.
Hebrew scholar, Derek Kidner, points out that in the Old Testament, to bless someone was to bestow on them a gift or a function. In Genesis 1, God is doing both for mankind. In what way? Well, we can see clearly that God is graciously gifting man with a beautiful and glorious created space. Light, sky, land, plants, animals, all of which are good. And God is blessing mankind with a function – rule over this good creation (more on this to come).
But God’s greatest blessing to us, the thing that makes us the most happy, the most fulfilled, the most satisfied, is God himself. God is God’s greatest blessing. Imaging him is our greatest function, and his presence is our greatest gift. This is made clear in the “High Priestly Blessing” of Numbers 6:
Numbers 6:24-26. 24The Lord bless you and keep you; 25the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
To be blessed by God is for God to turn full-faced toward us. No hiding his face as he will do when he passed by Moses. No veil of separation as in the Temple. No cloud of smoke and fire, no whirlwind, no angels, just God himself revealing himself to us as our greatest gift and our greatest good.
To be sure, our sin has added God’s curse to his blessing (more on this come too). The curse of separation from God. The curse of broken relationship. The curse of removal from the garden of goodness and grace. The curse of lost direction and meaning in this life that, apart from God, we will never find. And yet, God has never stopped blessing us. He has never stopped pursuing us, making his face to shine upon us, lifting his countenance upon us, giving us his very peace, shalom; we might say his function.
Nowhere is God’s blessing, his giving, his kneeling in humility before us, so clearly demonstrated than in the life of Christ. Jesus Christ IS the blessing of God. God with us. God’s face turned upon us. God’s gracious gift to us, and our function restored to us.
But that’s not all. Not only is Jesus our greatest blessing, but in Christ we share in every one of his blessings. Every spiritual blessing, the gifts of Heaven, our ours in Christ.
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
All of God’s gifts, his love, forgiveness, wisdom, freedom, and adoption, our all ours in Jesus. If this truth doesn’t bring you happiness, then I’m not sure what will.
Questions: What does it take to make you happy (blessed)? Circumstances? The respect and gifts of man? What would change if Christ alone was your blessing? Read Ephesians 1 to see all of your blessings in him.
To Live is Christ 