Divine Blessing and the Fullness of Life in the Presence of God E-Book

William R. Osborne

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Short Studies in Biblical Theology
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

The concept of blessing pervades the everyday life of Christians—from testimonies recounting God's provision, to praise songs, to wishing someone well. In fact, the term has been so integrated into Christian language that it is rarely considered thoughtfully. In the pages of Scripture, blessing seems to be either physical or spiritual, but a fuller biblical-theological approach reveals that God's blessing has always been both spiritual and physical.  In Divine Blessing and the Fullness of Life in the Presence of God, William Osborne traces the theme of blessing throughout Scripture as he guides readers into a deeper understanding of how God's gracious benevolence impacts the everyday lives of Christians.

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“Osborne takes up the word blessing, which is often misunderstood and applied in shallow ways, and sets it in its biblical-theological context. Through his study we are treated to a broad understanding of blessing so that we comprehend the richness and fullness of the term in its biblical context. I am delighted with this fresh and accessible contribution to biblical theology.”

Thomas R. Schreiner, James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament Interpretation, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

“There can be no greater experience than to be blessed by God. Yet Christians often have little appreciation of what this means in practice. Thankfully, Osborne brings clarity to this subject by providing an excellent overview of the biblical teaching on blessing. He skillfully and accessibly navigates the topic, avoiding pitfalls and helpfully highlighting pastoral implications.”

T. Desmond Alexander, Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies and Director of Postgraduate Studies, Union Theological College, Belfast; author, The City of God and the Goal of Creation

“What does it mean to be ‘blessed’? Does blessing look different in the Old and New Testaments? Osborne masterfully addresses these questions, yet most of all summons us to delight in living in the presence of the one from whom all blessings flow.”

Andrew T. Abernethy, Associate Professor of Old Testament, Wheaton College

“For those looking for a biblical map of blessing, I commend this thoughtful volume. As an even-handed guide, William Osborne journeys through Genesis to Revelation, drawing the reader’s attention to many high points. Believers should rejoice over every spiritual blessing they now enjoy in the exalted Christ.”

Benjamin Gladd, Associate Professor of New Testament, Reformed Theological Seminary

“Divine Blessing and the Fullness of Life in the Presence of God is an accessible reminder of how the Bible—not this cultural moment—defines being ‘blessed.’ Osborne nicely unpacks this idea and demonstrates its prominence in the unfolding narrative of both Testaments. Readers will come away encouraged and enlightened, with a better grasp on the good life that God desires for his people.”

Michelle Knight, Assistant Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

“For too many Christians, ‘being blessed’ translates to personal gain and prosperity. In Divine Blessing and the Fullness of Life in the Presence of God, William Osborne gently disabuses readers of such shallow thinking by making the biblical theology of blessing clear and comprehensible. Even more valuable, he explains why we are prone to process blessing so poorly: we define the concept in terms of what we want, not in terms of the everlasting inheritance God wants for us. Being blessed is about having our minds and lives transformed by the realization that the eye truly has not seen, nor the ear heard, what God has prepared for those who love him.”

Michael S. Heiser, Executive Director and Professor, The Awakening School of Theology and Ministry; Host, The Naked Bible Podcast; author, The Unseen Realm

“From Genesis to Revelation, William Osborne faithfully traces a biblical theology of blessing. Well-researched and scholarly, the study is accessible to anyone wanting to carefully read and learn about God’s plan to bless his people. This is a must-read for a great understanding of the already-not-yet nature of God’s present and promised future blessing for his people.”

Scott R. Andrews, Senior Pastor, Alliance Bible Fellowship, Boone, North Carolina

“Blessing is a concept that Christians bandy about, but what actually is it and how does it work? Osborne does the detective work and demystifies it for us. He takes us on a journey through the Scriptures, noting the major evidence and picking up the more subtle clues. Unsurprisingly, blessing has God’s fingerprints all over it. Perhaps surprisingly, though, it is more pervasive than we might imagine.”

George Athas, Director of Research, Moore College

“We live in an age when the church is being threatened by the destructive teachings of the prosperity gospel, which emphasizes health, wealth, and might in the present. We can be tempted to swing the pendulum to the other extreme by completely rejecting any material blessing as divine. There are some who even bemoan the biblical term blessing because they now associate it with the prosperity gospel. Osborne guards us from this extreme by serving us a rich biblical-theological meal. He traces the theme of blessing throughout Scripture and he rightly argues that God’s blessings are relational, spiritual, material, present, and future. Enlarge your understanding of the infinitely vast blessings God has lavished on his people by reading this short treasure.”

Dieudonné Tamfu, Executive Director of Cameroon Extension Site and Assistant Professor of Bible and Theology, Bethlehem College & Seminary; author, 2 Peter and Jude (Africa Bible Commentary Series)

Divine Blessing and the Fullness of Life in the Presence of God

Short Studies in Biblical Theology

Edited by Dane C. Ortlund and Miles V. Van Pelt

The City of God and the Goal of Creation, T. Desmond Alexander (2018)

Covenant and God’s Purpose for the World, Thomas R. Schreiner (2017)

Divine Blessing and the Fullness of Life in the Presence of God, William R. Osborne (2020)

From Chaos to Cosmos: Creation to New Creation, Sidney Greidanus (2018)

The Kingdom of God and the Glory of the Cross, Patrick Schreiner (2018)

The Lord’s Supper as the Sign and Meal of the New Covenant, Guy Prentiss Waters (2019)

Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel, Ray Ortlund (2016)

Redemptive Reversals and the Ironic Overturning of Human Wisdom, G. K. Beale (2019)

The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer, Andrew David Naselli (2020)

The Son of God and the New Creation, Graeme Goldsworthy (2015)

Work and Our Labor in the Lord, James M. Hamilton Jr. (2017)

Divine Blessing and the Fullness of Life in the Presence of God

William R. Osborne

Divine Blessing and the Fullness of Life in the Presence of God

Copyright © 2020 by William R. Osborne

Published by Crossway1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Jordan Singer

First printing 2020

Printed in the United States of America

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-6621-9 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-6624-0 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-6622-6 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-6623-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Osborne, William R., author.

Title: Divine blessing and the fullness of life in the presence of God / William R. Osborne.

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2020. | Series: Short studies in biblical theology | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020013765 (print) | LCCN 2020013766 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433566219 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433566226 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433566233 (mobi) | ISBN 9781433566240 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Wealth—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Benediction. | Blessing and cursing.

Classification: LCC BR115.W4 O83 2020 (print) | LCC BR115.W4 (ebook) | DC 234/.13—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020013765

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020013766

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2020-10-08 02:35:51 PM

To Sophia, Eleanor, Moses, and Henry

Contents

Series Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

 1  Blessing and Curse, Life and Death

 2  Blessing the World through Abraham’s Family

 3  Covenant Blessing for God’s People

 4  Every Spiritual Blessing

 5  Eternal Blessings

Bibliography

General Index

Scripture Index

Series Preface

Most of us tend to approach the Bible early on in our Christian lives as a vast, cavernous, and largely impenetrable book. We read the text piecemeal, finding golden nuggets of inspiration here and there, but remain unable to plug any given text meaningfully into the overarching storyline. Yet one of the great advances in evangelical biblical scholarship over the past few generations has been the recovery of biblical theology—that is, a renewed appreciation for the Bible as a theologically unified, historically rooted, progressively unfolding, and ultimately Christ-centered narrative of God’s covenantal work in our world to redeem sinful humanity.

This renaissance of biblical theology is a blessing, yet little of it has been made available to the general Christian population. The purpose of Short Studies in Biblical Theology is to connect the resurgence of biblical theology at the academic level with everyday believers. Each volume is written by a capable scholar or churchman who is consciously writing in a way that requires no prerequisite theological training of the reader. Instead, any thoughtful Christian disciple can track with and benefit from these books.

Each volume in this series takes a whole-Bible theme and traces it through Scripture. In this way readers not only learn about a given theme but also are given a model for how to read the Bible as a coherent whole.

We have launched this series because we love the Bible, we love the church, and we long for the renewal of biblical theology in the academy to enliven the hearts and minds of Christ’s disciples all around the world. As editors, we have found few discoveries more thrilling in life than that of seeing the whole Bible as a unified story of God’s gracious acts of redemption, and indeed of seeing the whole Bible as ultimately about Jesus, as he himself testified (Luke 24:27; John 5:39).

The ultimate goal of Short Studies in Biblical Theology is to magnify the Savior and to build up his church—magnifying the Savior through showing how the whole Bible points to him and his gracious rescue of helpless sinners; and building up the church by strengthening believers in their grasp of these life-giving truths.

Dane C. Ortlund and Miles V. Van Pelt

Acknowledgments

I am extremely grateful for the many people who worked to make the publication of this book possible. First, I would like to express my gratitude to my many teachers, both in person and in print, who have shaped my reading of the Scriptures and helped me to grow in recognizing the theological storyline of the Bible. I would also like to thank Drs. Miles Van Pelt and Dane Ortlund for their editorial support of this project; their careful reading no doubt improved this book. Others also read over the volume, and I am especially thankful for my friends and colleagues Jay Todd and Russell Meek, who provided several helpful comments.

I truly appreciate Dr. Eric Bolger, Dean of the College, at College of the Ozarks for his support of this project and many others during my time at the college. The sabbatical provided by College of the Ozarks offered time and energy to devote to finishing this project. I am also grateful for Tyndale Theological Seminary providing me with office space and library access, and for their joyful support of my writing efforts while serving there as a visiting professor.

None of my ideas or projects would ever see completion were it not for the enduring support, patience, and encouragement of my dear wife, Sara. I am also grateful for our four children, who continually prove Psalm 127:3–5 to be true; they indeed are a reward! Finally, I am eternally thankful to the Lord for his unfailing kindness and tender mercies that have followed me throughout my life. What a joy it has been to reflect on the blessings of God offered to us in the gospel! May he use this book to motivate us to respond with the psalmist: “Blessed be his glorious name forever; / may the whole earth be filled with his glory! / Amen and Amen!” (Ps. 72:19).

Soli Deo Gloria

Introduction

Everyday Blessings

The concept of blessing pervades everyday life in our culture. In 2014, Jessica Bennett provided a comical commentary on social media’s obsession with the notion of “being blessed.” She quips, “There’s nothing quite like invoking holiness as a way to brag about your life. But calling something ‘blessed’ has become the go-to term for those who want to boast about an accomplishment while pretending to be humble, fish for a compliment, acknowledge a success (without sounding too conceited), or purposely elicit envy. Blessed, ‘divine or supremely favored,’ is now used to explain that coveted Ted talk invite as well as to celebrate your grandmother’s 91st birthday.”1 In many sectors of society, the idea of blessing has been co-opted as a spiritual-but-not-religious key term that aligns all too easily with our country’s love affair with moralistic therapeutic deism.2 As Bennett says, for many people, the term has become simply a way of letting the world know our good fortune while alluding to some far-off divine force at work.

While blessing has climbed the pop charts of Christian terms used outside the church in recent years, it seems that few within the Christian community pause to wonder whether or not this popular notion of blessing is biblically accurate. Sadly, this lack of reflection has left the church vulnerable to those eager to define the concept in ways that are problematic and unreflective of the Bible’s presentation. The purpose of this book is to establish a biblical-theological foundation of blessing by presenting a concise biblical theology that leans into how we view ourselves as living blessed lives as citizens of God’s kingdom.

For many people, the word blessing—or blessed—has become inseparable from the Christian movement often referred to as the prosperity gospel. In her book Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel,Kate Bowler cites a Pew Study indicating “that 43 percent of all Christian respondents agreed that the faithful receive health and wealth.”3It is difficult to draw doctrinal lines around this movement, which sometimes is referred to with phrases such as “the Word of Faith movement” or “name-it-and-claim-it theology.”4 However, regardless of the label, the impact of prosperity teaching on the American church cannot be denied. This impact has expanded well beyond the borders of the United States; through international telecasts and satellite radio stations, the message that God materially blesses the faithful can be heard around the clock on almost every continent.5

Unsurprisingly, the prosperity movement is not without its appeals to the authoritative witness of Scripture. Many of these prosperity messages quote the Bible, and books are lined with verse references for “biblical support.” Is this, in fact, the Bible’s message regarding what it means to be blessed? Does the Bible teach that faithful Christians will experience divine blessing through health and wealth? In order to answer these questions, we must develop a sound biblical theology of blessing. Instead of grabbing one quick verse and claiming that this verse promises prosperity and health, we want to understand the idea of blessing as it is presented within the whole scope of God’s word. Just like themes such as law, sacrifice, and covenant, the theme of blessing must be understood within the full biblical story, if it is to be understood biblically at all.

Any serious reader of the Bible quickly realizes that there appears to be a difference in the way the Old Testament speaks about blessing and the way the New Testament presents the idea. Even if we don’t hold to a prosperity-like overemphasis on the physical manifestation of old covenant blessings, we can easily engage in overspiritual explanations of how old covenant physicality is replaced by new covenant spirituality. How do we navigate this transition from divine blessing looking like more cattle and crops to what Paul calls “every spiritual blessing” in Ephesians 1? While there is certainly a transition that takes place within the Bible’s presentation of blessing, a biblical-theological approach recognizes that God’s blessings have always been both spiritual and physical. In both God’s initial plan for creation and the eagerly anticipated new heavens and new earth, we see these two aspects of God’s benevolence toward his creatures. Divine blessing in the Bible is always physical and spiritual because it is fixed upon the reality of the fullness of life in the presence of God.

The message of this book is that divine blessing in the Bible looks like God’s creatures experiencing the fullness of life—both physically and spiritually—in his presence. The way human beings experience God’s blessing changes with the redemptive storyline that traverses the major peaks of creation, fall, redemption, and final restoration. However, blessing always flows out of God’s benevolent creative design for his creatures and coincides with obedience to his will.

The goal of this book is to provide a biblical theology of blessing by examining those references to blessing in the Old and New Testaments, recognizing not only their literary context but also their setting in God’s plan of redemption. Brian Rosner has helpfully defined biblical theology as “theological interpretation of Scripture in and for the church. It proceeds with historical and literary sensitivity and seeks to analyze and synthesize the Bible’s teaching about God and his relations to the world on its own terms, maintaining sight of the Bible’s overarching narrative and Christocentric focus.”6 This book seeks to arrive at the “theological heart”7 of the Bible’s view of divine blessing and listen to that same message that has pulsed through the ages, giving life to the people of God.

In the pages that follow, we will explore in more depth the nuanced meaning of the words used to talk about blessing in the Old Testament and New Testament and fix our eyes on God’s design of blessing integrally woven in the creation story (chap. 1). Chapter 2 takes us to the heart of the Old Testament’s theology of blessing by examining God’s plan to bless the world through one man—Abraham. Chapter 3 will walk through God’s covenant relationship with Israel, highlighting the covenant realities of those blessings. Moving across the Bible to the New Testament, we will discuss the nature of blessing and our access to divine blessings as new covenant Christians (chap. 4) and close our biblical theology in chapter 5 glorying in the future promises of God’s eternal blessings for his people. As Christians, we have graciously been given all things (Rom 8:31–32), and in that moment that we enter God’s presence, we will understand like never before that to know God’s blessing is not just to have “all things” but also to have the one who made them.

Can One Word Do All That?

All languages are strange—to the outsider at least. I had a Greek professor many years ago who had a stock answer to the perennial moaning of young Greek students complaining, “Why did they do it like that? It’s so confusing!” My professor would calmly reply, “Long ago Greek mommies taught little Greek babies to say it like that.” At the time, his response produced nothing from me but an eye roll, but I have come to see the truth in his reply. Languages work where they are.

I say this because it seems a bit strange to us to use one word to communicate the ideas of God blessing people, people blessing God, and people blessing people. This is seen in a passage like 2 Chronicles 31:8: “When Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps [that is, tithes the king encouraged the people to bring], they blessed the Lord and his people Israel.” We find only one verb in this passage (Heb. wayebaraku), and it is clear that this one word is capable of expressing both the idea of blessing God and blessing people without an apparent problem for the author. This fluidity is seen in the broader Semitic culture of the ancient Near East. The Akkadian word for blessing and praise is karābu (reversed consonants from brk), which also denotes a two-way stream of blessing from god to worshiper and worshiper to god. “The same Hebrew (brk) or Akkadian (karābu) verb expresses both the divine act of blessing and the human reaction of praise. Blessing and praise are among the forms of theological expression and thought that tie Israel firmly to the Ancient Near East.”8 Other comparable verb roots appear in Ugaritic, Phoenician-Punic, and Aramaic, all linking blessing to various deities in similar fashion.9 It is quite common for different languages to not have a one-to-one correspondence when it comes to words and concepts. This fluidity can be seen in the following chart that summarizes the basic meanings of the different forms of the Hebrew root brk and the Greek word eulogeō:

1. To Bless as an Action

barak: 256 times in the Old Testament; eulogeō: thirty times in the New Testament; eneulogeō: two times in the New Testament; kateulogeō: one time in the New Testament10

God blesses creation and humanityGod blesses people through other peoplePeople bless God

2. A Blessing as a Thing

berakah: seventy-one times in the Old Testament; eulogia: fifteen times in the New Testament

That which is conferred by the action of blessing: “to bless a blessing”A gift that is given

3. Being Blessed as a State of Being

baruk: seventy-one times in the Old Testament; eulogeō middle/passive: eleven times in the New Testament; eulogētos:eight times in the New Testament

Formula-like expression ascribed to God: “Blessed be the Lord.”Formula-like expression ascribed to people: “Blessed is the person who . . .”Formula-like greeting or kind gesture

Identifying these three general patterns associated with the forms of blessing in the Old Testament will prove helpful as we move forward in our discussion of blessing.11 Focusing on the three uses of blessing as an action (number 1 in the chart), we will see the interconnectedness of these ideas as well as their distinct nuances. To be clear, there are other words that occur in parallel statements with brk-words in the Old Testament, such as “favor” (Heb. ratson) and “multiply” (Heb. ravah), but there is no doubt that brk is the most significant word group used to describe blessing in the Bible.12 Consequently, once we begin to understand the unique functions of blessing in the Old Testament, then we can see how those categories and ideas are carried into the New Testament with the use of Greek words like eulogeō and makarios, the former being the most common word used to translate brk in the Greek translation of the Old Testament.13

God Blesses Creation and Humanity

The first actor in Scripture is God. He acts to create, form, divide, and bless (Gen. 1:22, 28; 2:3). In fact, his blessing reveals a continuous aspect of his first creative energies. His blessing ensures that what was formed and fashioned continues in accordance with his design, will, and creative power. “Blessing is the center of life; it is life itself and includes all phases of life,” states Claus Westermann.14 Therefore, in the Bible, God is the fountainhead and source of all blessings. But God’s act of blessing does not just entail the giving of things; it necessitates a right relationship between the two parties—God and his creation. To be blessed by God is to be in right standing with him. God’s blessing is experienced by his creatures in two primary categories: creation and covenant. It is in both of these divinely established contexts that God’s creatures come to know him as the God who blesses.

However, to say that blessing denotes a relationship is not to downplay the reality of the blessing itself. Blessing often communicates the idea of tangible benefits on the part of the recipient, and this is because “the Old Testament does not relegate divine activity to some ‘spiritual’ realm, discontinuous with the physical world.”15 As stated earlier, God’s involvement in blessing humanity has always been both physical and spiritual. His desire to bless encompasses all that we are as creatures—whole beings, body and soul—created for his glory.

God’s blessing is expressed in his people experiencing the fullness of life in his presence, a notion that is frequently communicated by the idea of fertility in the Old Testament. For example, as the source of life, God provided generational longevity in the form of children, abundant harvests in new growth and consistent rain, and multiplication of livestock (the basic meaning of number 2 in the chart). This wholeness, or shalom, is characteristic of the blessed state. God’s people, by being in right relationship with him, come to know the physical realities of shalom, which testify to their unique status as those who are blessed (the basic meaning of number 3 in the chart). The following chapters will explore God’s activity in blessing his creation and his people.

God Blesses People through Other People

In other places in the Bible, we encounter another portrait of divine blessing, namely God blessing people through other people. In the Old Testament this form of blessing was mainly carried out by priests or prophets. Deuteronomy 21:5 reads, “Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the Lord.” And we certainly cannot overlook the fascinating chain of events in Balak’s spoiled attempt at cursing the people of Israel by the mouth of the prophet Balaam in Numbers 22–24. In numerous places in the Old Testament, God chooses to speak words of blessing through the lips of others and to take up human agency as a means for accomplishing his blessings.

Once we begin to think about people blessing other people, some important questions arise that deserve our attention. If someone is verbally blessed by another person, is God obligated to do something? Is there a latent power in the words of the blessing that are being harnessed by a superspiritual person? Does speaking something make it real? Some scholars have argued that this view of blessings and curses is rooted in an ancient worldview of magic and incantations, where spoken words were believed to become an operative force in the world.16 However, while there is no denying the ancient, magic-filled worldview revealed in numerous ancient sources, there is no reason to assume that the Old Testament operates in the same fashion. While both ancient Israel and its neighbors lived and thought in a world dominated by what we call “supernatural” activity, one primary difference is the source of authority and power of divine blessing. The narrative account of Balaam and Balak reinforces the idea that all human blessings had their source in God, not some human-initiated incantation or self-fulfilled prophecy.17 The blessing in Israel was a theological phenomenon, but it was also a cultural one, governed by societal norms and ways of life. This is not to diminish the theological power behind the blessing, but it is important to understand that—like covenants—blessings had cultural currency as well.

As with sacrifice (which also existed outside ancient Israel), blessings and sacrifices were Israel’s proper response to God’s revelation and were always to function in accordance with that revelation. They were not intended to please the emotionally volatile gods or convince them to make their will known or to act, as with other cultures. One of the unique characteristics of Israel’s religion in the ancient world was the fact that Israel was called to imitate and coidentify with the person and character of its God.18 Israel’s God was a blessing God, and we should not be surprised that the God who said, “Be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev. 19:2), calls his people to bless the world he created.

The contemporary Word of Faith position promoted by many prosperity teachers also holds that there is a latent divine power in