God created the great
sea creatures and every living and moving thing with which the water swarmed,
according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. God saw
that it was good. God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and multiply and
fill the water in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth."
(Bereshit / Genesis 1:21-22; NET)
The concept
of blessing is one of the most important ones in all of Scripture. It speaks of
God endowing his creation with life. Not just life itself, but life resulting
in more life, in other words, to reproduce. The verses I just read are the
first occurrence of this concept in the Bible.
I recently
happened upon a relatively new English translation, called the NET Bible (http://net.bible.org). "NET" is a
play on words, because while the letters stand for "New English
Translation," it is the first translation designed for the Internet. While
also available in print, one of the most intriguing features of the online
version is that it supports a virtual infinite amount of translation and study
notes.
One of the
study notes for verse 22 above caught my attention (Note #45 at time of
writing). It claims that the similarity of sounds between "barakh,"
"to bless," and "bara," "to create" is
intentional. I don't know if we can know that for sure, but it is possible. As
I thought about it though, intentionality aside, I realized that there is more
to the connection between these two concepts than simply that creating has to
with the generating of life; while blessing with the impartation of life. It's
that the origin and source of both creating and blessing is always God.
This first
chapter of the Torah tells us that God created the universe from nothing. This
sets God apart from the universe as its originator, designer, developer and
owner. Life could not exist without him. We also learn here that the ability
for his creatures to be channels of life to others, the ability to reproduce,
also comes from God. Blessing, therefore, is not a natural consequence of
created life; it is a special impartation of life from the creator God.
I have come
to see that implied in the Bible's creation account is that just as the origins
of life emanated directly from God alone out of nothing else, so do his
blessings. God's blessings, small or large, are ongoing expressions of his
being creator. He, who imparted life out of nothing at the beginning, continues
to impart life out of nothing today.
This should
change how we look at the challenges we face. If blessing is an act of the
creator God, then his provision is never based on what we have. In fact, we
have to stop thinking of God's provision being based on existing resources at
all, because our God not only creates out of nothing, he also blesses out of
nothing.
Around the
time I first gave the relationship of bara to barakh serious thought, I went to
a well-known big-box hardware store in the hope of finding a replacement hinge
for a very old kitchen cabinet. I wasn't surprised when the customer service
representative said he had never seen one like it or after searching diligently
couldn't find anything close.
So, the next
day, without much hope, I went to the other well-known big-box hardware store.
Same reaction. The rep had never seen one and couldn't find one. But then, to
my surprise and his, there it was, hanging on the wall along with the others.
Half-jokingly I said (thinking of bara and barakh), "Maybe it wasn't there
a couple of minutes ago!"
Whether or
not this will go down in history as the "Miracle of the Door Hinge,"
it illustrates the point. God's blessings are not enhancements of existing
things; they are expressions of creation, dependent on nothing but the Creator.
It's time we are no longer put off by statements such as "They don't make
those any more" or "It can't be done" or "That's never
happened before." When you are in right relationship with the Creator, anything
is possible.
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