mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz) (09/07/85)
Hearkening back to Jacob and Esau, I am reminded of long-standing questions. What does a blessing do? Who can perform a blessing? Why and when is a blessing by someone efficacious? What about curses? What is a birthright? Is it just a cultural practice mentioned in the Bible? Or does the Bible support it the way it does Mosaic law? -- Mike Huybensz ...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh
charli@cylixd.UUCP (Charli Phillips) (09/11/85)
In article <734@cybvax0.UUCP> mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz) writes: >Hearkening back to Jacob and Esau, I am reminded of long-standing questions. > >What does a blessing do? > >Who can perform a blessing? > >Why and when is a blessing by someone efficacious? > >What about curses? > >What is a birthright? > >Is it just a cultural practice mentioned in the Bible? Or does the Bible >support it the way it does Mosaic law? >-- > >Mike Huybensz ...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh 1) what does a blessing do? The English word "bless" is related to the idea of consecration. If someone is "blessed", they are set apart in some way for God. (The Sermon on the Mount uses "blessed" in this way.) So if I say "God bless you" in this sense, I am asking God to set you apart for His service or His glory. Of course, some blessings are specific. "God grant you the desires of your heart" is a blessing. In this sense, a blessing is like a prayer on your behalf. It therefore does what a prayer does, makes intercession to God. 2) who can bless? If you mean, who can bestow the blessing, only God. If you mean who can pronounce the blessing, who can intercede with God, then the answer is any believer. 3) why and when is a blessing efficacious? For the same reasons and under the same circumstances that a prayer is efficacious. (This is in some ways avoiding the question. The subject of why and when God answers prayer has been a subject of discussion and debate among Christians for a long time. I believe prayers and blessings are efficacious when said by a believer, and when the prayer or blessing is in God's sovereign will.) 4) what about curses? A curse is essentially a "negative blessing." A general curse, sets the things damned apart for destruction by God, just like a blessing sets the thing (or person) blessed for consecration to God. A specific curse is essentially a prayer that the damned thing suffer what is said in the curse. (I do not believe a Christian can curse another human being. We can curse false doctrine, sins, and things that hurt or destroy.) 5) what is a birthright? Israel at that time practiced a form of inheritance by which everything went to the first-born son. That was his birthright - the rights (to property, status, and the like) that he had by virtue of being born first. Disclaimer: I am not a theologian, and I do not claim infallibility. charli P.S. Thanks for an interesting topic for discussion!