In the church tradition I grew up in, we finished our worship services with a “closing prayer.” In other churches, they called it a “benediction.” We didn’t do that stuff. And THEY didn’t realize what was happening as they heard the words week after week. It’s too bad that none of us seemed to grasp the power of what I have come to know as a “blessing.” A closing prayer typically would be used to summarize the sermon topic, to disguise a last-minute announcement, or to remind or even chide a congregation. It was delivered as most prayers were delivered (more on prayer posture elsewhere)—with every head bowed and every eye closed. It was sincere if it was extemporaneous.
When we thought of a “blessing,” we associated it with food and health. “Ask the blessing” or “Say the blessing” for the food, which means thank God and ask Him to strengthen us to do His work. And, of course, there is the ubiquitous “God bless you” when someone sneezes or we are greeting a Christian person. We also say “Bless her heart” when we are about to criticize someone behind their back. All of these are pretty shallow uses of the concept of a blessing.
If we had learned from the other traditions, we would have known that a blessing is best delivered with eyes open and hands extended, as the one doing the blessing speaks God’s words to the people, who look up and receive the blessing.
This is how God instructed for Aaron to speak to the people of Israel a “blessing.”
The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them. Numbers 6:23-27
Another translation words it this way (New Living):
May the LORD bless you and protect you. May the LORD smile on you and be gracious to you. May the LORD show you his favor and give you his peace.
Technically, a blessing is spoken in third person imperative. But that verb form is not possible in English, so it’s difficult to word it in the active voice that it deserves. Third person imperative is like a command, “Cease and desist!” “Come here!” I can say it in second person. But English can’t convey it. We are left to say, “May this happen” or “That will happen,” “Let this occur” or “Light, become!” Notice in the verbiage of the two translations above, the first was declaring “God bless you” while the second was worded in passive voice, “May the Lord bless you”.
We tend to pray in passive voice, asking God for a request. “Lord, would you please do this.” But blessing is more prophetic and declarative. Not fortune telling, but sensing the present and projecting into the future and proclaiming what we are confident that God will do in the future.
Moses blesses each of the tribes of Israel. We can learn about the nature of a blessing from the way that he says these blessings in Deuteronomy 33:
Let the tribe of Reuben live and not die out
O LORD, hear the cry of Judah and bring them again to their people. Give them strength to defend their cause
O LORD, you have given the sacred lots to your faithful servants the Levites....Now let them teach your regulations to Jacob...Bless the Levites, O LORD, and accept all their work.
The people of Benjamin are loved by the LORD and live in safety beside him.
May their land be blessed by the LORD with the choice gift of rain from the heavens...Joseph has the strength and majesty of a young bull...
May the people of Zebulun prosper in their expeditions abroad. May the people of Issachar prosper at home in their tents.
Blessed is the one who enlarges Gad’s territory! Gad is poised there like a lion to tear off an arm or a head.
Dan is a lion’s cub, leaping out from Bashan.
O Naphtali, you are rich in favor and full of the LORD’s blessings; may you possess the west and the south.
May Asher be blessed above other sons; may he be esteemed by his brothers; may he bathe his feet in olive oil....may your strength match the length of your days! There is no one like the God of Israel. He rides across the heavens to help you, across the skies in majestic splendor.
As another example: Joshua blesses the eastern tribes, in Joshua 22:5,6:
Things you must do to receive God’s promise to you
Be careful to obey all
Love the LORD
Walk in all his ways
Obey his commands
Be faithful to him
Serve him with all your heart and all your soul.
In summary: When you bless a child, you are doing more than “just” praying for that child, or doing wishful thinking. You are declaring things that are not as if they were, confident that they will come to pass.
You say it out loud, with eyes open, addressing the person directly, but speaking on behalf of God (not just to God). It is not just wishful thinking, a wish, a prayer or a request. It is, rather, spoken “as if” you had power in your words. You speak in second person imperative, if you are able, with a certain prophetic authority in Jesus’ name. Your words are positive—for it is called a “blessing,” not a “curse!”
YOUR ENCOUNTER
Solomon claims that the tongue has the power of life and death. In other words, what we say has so much power, it’s as if they declared what will become, and it must come. We in the modern Western Hemisphere have been slow to pick up on such things. We have superstitions (knock on wood, cross fingers, don’t step on cracks) and make wishes (before you blow out the candles on your birthday cake, or wish on the first star at night). Those are the rare occasions when we as a culture step over into the mysterious world of metaphysics and spiritual beings.
The ancients so believed in the power of words, that when they blessed someone, it was the future ready to happen. My favorite example is when Isaac blessed Jacob, thinking that he was blessing Esau. Isaac gave him the abundance of the land and the dew, and then accidentally gave Jacob rulership over his family: “Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!" Genesis 27:29
Then Jacob left and Esau entered, and cried and pled, “bless me, too, my father!” But Isaac’s reply was, Isaac answered and said to Esau, "Behold, I have made him lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?" Genesis 27:37
And in spite of Esau’s tears and pleading, Isaac was not able to say, “And also on you,” as you or I might do. He had literally already given it away, and it was sure to come to pass.
So, what was left to give Esau? He could bless him with the land and the dew, using the same words as he had used for Jacob. But this is the best that he could do about a brother who now had the blessing of the firstborn on him: “By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you grow restless you shall break his yoke from your neck." Genesis 27:40
One last addendum: What, then, does it mean when Jesus says to bless you enemies? Pray for those who persecute you? It means we bless them in our minds and with our words, and with our hands and feet we do good to them. It begins with forgiveness, as Jesus asked His Father on the cross. But it continues with promising “this day you will be with me in paradise,” and doing what it takes to make that person right with God.
May you bless children today. May you bless your enemies. Try it, and tell someone about your experience and write it in your journal.