THE BLESSING OF THE GENERATIONS
E.C.Burr
Genesis 22: 17,18; 26: 3-6; 27: 27-29; 32: 26-29; 48: 8,9;
I have read quite a lot of verses of scripture but I would like to say a word about the blessing of the generations. I am sure that would be something as to which we are all concerned. As we grow older we look for further generations for God. Indeed when we are young we should also be thinking of another generation being for God. That is not to say that we are not expecting the Lord to come, but as long as the saints are here there will be a need for a fresh generation that is blessed. All of us who are parents long that the next generation should be blessed. Some indeed are old enough to have grandchildren and they look for them to be blessed.
Genesis is a book of generations. We have lists of generations given to us more than once, but in the history from Abraham down to Joseph the generations are worked out for us, and the scriptures we have read show that God intended to bless every generation. He told Abraham that He would bless him and He told Isaac that He would bless him, and He blessed Jacob, and we can see in the blessing of Moses that He also blessed Joseph. That is the side of blessing on the generations from God. But there is another side of blessing in which, after Abraham, each generation blesses the next. So that it is not just a question of God blessing one generation after the other; what comes out in these scriptures is that in the succeeding generation each father blesses the next. And while each of us would look to God for His blessing on each generation, there is an exercise for us as to our own capacity to bless our children. When I speak about our children I do not just speak about our children according to the flesh but I embrace what I might call the children of the assembly, as to which each of us has some responsibility. The side of responsibility comes out in the history of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and also of Joseph, but the important thing is that, however responsibility was fulfilled, God would not give up or change His intention to bless. I think that we need faith as to this. There are many aspects in Christianity where we need more faith than we have, but we need faith in God's commitment to bless each generation.
We also observe in these scriptures that none of the blessings with which the fathers blessed the next generation were withdrawn. Indeed Isaac says "blessed he shall be" chap 27: 33. That in itself also implies that we bless the next generation in faith. I speak of these things because of the value to us of the younger brethren, so many of whom we see happily among the saints, but as to whom we would also be concerned that they would be retained in the sphere of blessing. Their own responsibility is not left out, but I think that what will hold them is the positive divine disposition to bless. Most of us who are older would have to say that it was the divine disposition to bless which has retained us, and therefore we need faith that God would bless another generation.
I will not go over the history of these men in detail, but they bear some remark because generally there is a reason why they are blessed. Abraham had been promised blessing before chapter 22. When he was called to go out of the land of his fathers God said He would bless him, and although he failed in his life various times before chapter 22, God takes account of his obedience in that chapter as a fresh basis for blessing him. It is therefore a word to what I may speak of as the parental generation, whether our obedience to God is providing Him with a basis for blessing our children. I do not speak of the typical bearing of chapter 22 - how precious it is though - but I refer to Abraham's relations with God as a man with God. It is clear in chapter 22 that it was because of his obedience that God committed Himself again to blessing him. Therefore let us, beloved, fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, examine ourselves as to whether our separation and our obedience is such as will give God a basis to bless the following generation. It is not that God acts only in response to our responsibility, for He is sovereign and will act as He will, but we are responsible to provide Him with a basis for His acting. What characterises Abraham is separation and obedience.
In connection with Isaac God in chapter 22 promises Abraham that He would bless him richly. So when we come to Isaac in chapter 26, again the blessing is put on the ground of obedience; that is, God does not say to Isaac, Leave the land in which you are. He had said that to Abraham. But He says here "Sojourn in this land". God had put him in a sphere of blessing and he was to remain there, and as he remained there God would bless him and his seed. I suggest to the brethren that from the side of our responsibility this relates to our committal to what God has given us; that is to say, as we remain committed to the blessings which God has given to us we again provide Him with a basis on which He would bless another generation. I think it is fairly easy to see this, because none of us would say, I will give everything up and God will look after my children or that we in our generation can surrender the blessings which God has given us; He will carry them over to another generation. It is easy for us to see that we provide God with a basis for blessing another generation by our own committal to the blessings of God.
When we come to the blessings of God to Jacob we come to a man who wanted to be blessed. This is not something that is exactly said of Abraham or Isaac, but it is what Jacob said: "I will not let thee go unless thou bless me". I think that what would be in Jacob's view - of course Jacob thought a lot about himself - would be that the next generation was not to be blessed unless he was blessed. He already had a big family but he is concerned that he should know the blessing of God. I think that the way in which Jacob provided God with a basis to bless him was that Jacob had to learn the kind of man that he himself was. That is a lesson which most of us are very slow to learn, and therefore we sometimes will bring up our children, as you might say, in the flesh, because we have never ourselves learned what we are in the flesh. But Jacob at this point was crippled. That was the sign that he had learned what he was, and God blessed him. One thing to be noticed in this connection is that if a man was crippled everybody can see it, and if any of us has learned what we really are everyone would be able to see what we had so learned. Jacob bore the marks of his wrestling for the rest of his life, and everyone could see that he was different. Indeed people had to learn to call him by a new name. That indicates another basis on which God continues to bless: He blesses on the basis of our commitment to separation, to obedience, to our committal to what He already had given to us; but perhaps, most important, to our having learned what we are ourselves. I think that it requires faith which embraces the fact that God is committed to blessing. It says of those down to Abraham that they all died in faith, not having received the promises, but they went on with one generation after the other knowing that God was disposed to bless them.
Now before I refer to Deuteronomy I refer to the other side of those men, that is to say their readiness to bless their children. In Genesis 27 Isaac was disposed to bless, but he was going to bless the wrong man. It is an indication in one way that there was at least one lesson that Abraham had not taught Isaac because Abraham had made this mistake as well. He said "Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee! " Gen 17: 18. It is like Isaac wanting to bless Esau. God says of Ishmael "I will bless him" (v 20), but He says "my covenant will I establish with Isaac"; that is to say, what I am committed to is the blessing of Isaac. Now when Isaac comes to bless he tells his wife to send Esau so that he may bless him, but this is overruled and it is Jacob who is blessed. Isaac's blessing of Jacob seems to me to look right on to the blessing of Joseph: indeed that blessing in Genesis 27 is very similar in spirit to Jacob's blessing of Joseph and to Moses' blessing of Joseph. That I think raises the question with us as to our understanding of the purpose of God so that we can bless our children in the light of it. We are not really looking for material blessings for the succeeding generation. What we are looking for is blessing according to God, and therefore according to God's own thoughts. Joseph shows that he has not learned all the lessons, because the same thing that marks his father and his grandfather marks him. Joseph brought his sons to Jacob and would have had them blessed in a certain way; that is to say, Joseph had not learned all that he might have done from his grandparents. But Jacob had learned something. He crosses his hands and says "I know"; and he blesses another generation in the light of the divine intention towards them. It is an exercise for us as to our ability to bless the next generation. We might ask what that means, and it might not be easy just to say what it does mean, but one thing which should be clear is that we shall not be able to bless the next generation unless we have a sense of being blessed in our own generation.
At the end of this part of the history of Israel, that is in Deuteronomy 33, we have a man in Moses who is going to bless for the enjoyment of the heavenly possession. He says of Reuben "let his men be few". I think that is the most limited of the blessings of this chapter. Every other tribe has a very full blessing. The blessing of Joseph echoes Jacob's blessing of Joseph, and it also echoes the blessing of Isaac on Jacob. The first thing Moses says in blessing Joseph is, "Blessed of Jehovah be his land!" Moses understands that if a tribe is to be richly blessed the first blessing must come from God. Moses had carried the tribes with affection through the wilderness and he will have them blessed by God, even if in his own spirit he blesses them as well.
At the end of this chapter Moses is not occupying Israel so much with their blessings as with the God from whom the blessings have come. He says "There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun"; that is, the source of the blessing is greater than all the blessings; and this is perhaps the greatest blessing which we can communicate to another generation, that we impress on them that God is greater than any blessing. But Moses also sees Israel resting in blessing. He says "Happy art thou, Israel! Who is like unto thee... ?" I think that Moses is looking a long way ahead to generations to come, where in the sense of the blessing of God there will always be a generation that is happy. It will be noticed that in Isaac's blessing of Jacob he says "God give thee plenty of corn and new wine", and Israel dwells in a land of corn and new wine. That is why I say that Isaac had been able to bless his son in the light of the purpose of God.
I believe that the blessing of the succeeding generation is a concern in the hearts of all of us. God is disposed to bless each generation. There are areas of responsibility on our side which justify God in blessing, although He is sovereign and can bless where He will. That does not give us an escape from our responsibility; but God's disposition is to bless, and our disposition should be to bring blessing on the next generation. We have many of another generation here today. I think we can say that we have a sense that God is blessing them, and the saints in care are blessing them as well; but I draw attention to this, beloved, that the blessing of the succeeding generation is something which must be near our hearts, and also touches our responsibility.
May the Lord help us in understanding these things and working them out from our side, providing God with a basis on which He can give effect to His own disposition, for His Name's sake.
COLOGNE
2 May 1981