Focus: The Real Blessing

Text: Gen.32:26,29

"I will not let thee go, except thou bless me… And he blessed him there."

In Gen.27 Isaac blessed Jacob before he went to live with Laban, his uncle, and by the time he was ready to leave Laban and return to Canaan, he was already swimming in material abundance. He was so rich that Laban's sons became jealous of and bitter against him. On a particular day he could overhear their conversation in which they said, "Jacob hath taken away all that was our father's; and of that which was our father's hath he gotten all this glory" (Gen.31:1). That's called wealth transfer.

In the day he met with his brother Esau, he presented him with an enormous gift that demonstrated the immensity of his wealth. As you go through Gen.32:13-21, you will discover the quality and quantity of what he gave his brother as a gift. Here is the list:

*200 female goats

*20 male goats

*200 ewes

*20 rams

*30 milch camels and their colts

*40 cows

*10 bulls

*20 female asses

*10 foals

It is a total of 550 animals, amounting to $654,960, according to one source, and that is, going by today's market value. Mind you, that was just a one time parting gift. Compared to the greatness of his possessions, that amount of gift was only a paltry sum. He said to Esau, "Take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee; because God hath dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough. And he urged him, and he took it" (Gen.33:11). He was simply saying to Esau, 'I am a blessed man. God has blessed me abundantly in everything spiritual and material. I have enough of everything. I lack nothing that is worth having, and it was only because the grace of God had smiled on me. Favor and labor formed an unbeatable team in bringing about my immense wealth.' His gift to Esau, though huge and phenomenal, was quite infinitesimal compared to his multi-dimensional and generational wealth. This reminds me of Phil.4:19, where Paul's said, "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." 

God meets the needs of His people, not according to the level of their poverty, but according to the level of the riches of His glory.

What is worth noting is that as soon as Esau was gone from his sight, Jacob was found demanding blessing from the angel of the Lord. The question is: since Jacob was so blessed with material abundance, why was he still desperately and earnestly asking for a blessing from God's angel? He had said to Esau, 'I am graciously blessed that I have enough of everything.' What other blessing was he asking for? I believe that Jacob was asking for The Blessing, not just for Blessings. 

The blessings are physical and material, but the blessing is spiritual. The blessing he was asking for is spiritual; it is connected to the Seed - the Messiah Himself. Real blessing is beyond the material. The material is temporal and fleeting; the spiritual is eternally lasting. 

The wealth of the Christless is meaningless. The prosperity of the godless is vanity - vanity that vanishes. It never satisfies. It leaves a void within one's soul. People arrive at the top and discover that there is nothing there. It is empty. The wise preacher of Ecclesiastes says that it is vanity of vanity, which amounts to vanity. Jesus Christ compares the water from Jacob's well and the water of which He is the source. He says to the woman of Samaria, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (Jh.4:13-14). That is the difference between the spiritual and the material, the eternal and the temporal, the lasting and the passing.

In Christ we are blessed with all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. The real blessing is found in Christ. O the joy of knowing and being in Christ! Christ in us is the hope of glory. I pray you experience all the blessings of Christ, both the spiritual and the material. Amen!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter