The Blessings of God
2/19 Reading Portions: Exodus 2; Luke 5; Job 19; 1 Corinthians 6
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2/19 Reading Portions: Exodus 2; Luke 5; Job 19; 1 Corinthians 6
Genesis 1:28-30
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
BLESSED
When Adam fell through His rebellious disobedience to the triune God, he removed himself from the blessings of God. In the middle of the sixth day creation event, the Scriptures reveal, “And God blessed them.” ויברך אתם אלהים (vay-BA-rekh ō-TAWM el-ō-HEEYM). The Holy Spirit uses the exact phrase earlier in the middle of the fifth day of creation (Gen 1:22). What were these blessings? Our triune God tells us in these three verses. Mankind was not created to be a lifeless, do-nothing lump. First, mankind was created to be productive, to work (be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth). It contained within it the blessings of intimate relationship with one another, viz., marriage and progeny to fill the earth, but also to see the resources God had already provided in His creation to be used prosperously, profitably, and pleasurably in its multiplication. Second, mankind was created to subdue the earth, to conquer it or tread it under foot—the Hebrew כָּבַשׁ (khaw-BASH). Not that there was any enemy on earth to conquer, but that mankind was to take responsibility for that which was graciously given him by the triune Creator. Man and woman were created to have stewardship in the blessings of God. Third, this stewardship was more than a rudimentary responsibility as an obligation. It was a blessing because God blessed mankind with a real ownership of the earth and all the creatures therein because man and woman must take on the comprehensive, compassionate, and culpable role of authority in their dominion over the earth and its creatures. Fourth, God blessed by further providing for mankind’s nutrition by seed-bearing trees and vegetation, as well as providing for the animals He had created on both the fifth and sixth days. Fifth, like the five books of the Hebrew Torah, God blessed the animals He created on the fifth and sixth days by making them subjects to mankind’s dominion. Initially, there was no curse to overcome, so the blessing in the work, responsibility, and authority was a trifold privilege and pleasure.
Through His incarnation and sinless life lived, the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled every good and righteous work, every responsible stewardship, and every kingdom care all the way to the cross; and upon the cross, by His perfect sacrificial punishment, parting death, and precious blood spilled, Jesus fulfilled the kingdom’s culpability for what Adam would fail to do in the Garden of Eden. Those former blessings are restored to us in part through our faith in Jesus Christ. They will be fully restored when the Lord Jesus returns. Therefore, Jesus Himself, is the sixth, seventh, and eighth blessings of the triune God, bringing us to a glorious new beginning in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). Hallelujah! What a Savior!