Scripture Reading: Gen. 47:7, 10; 48:9, 14-16, 20; Heb. 5:6; 7:7; 11:21; Num. 6:22-27; 2 Cor. 13:14
Ⅰ
To be transformed is to be metabolically changed in our natural life, to be mature is to be filled with the divine life that changes us, and blessing is the overflow of life:
A
As Jacob was about to bless the two sons of Joseph, he spoke of the Triune God in his experience—Gen. 48:9, 15-16:
１
The God before whom Abraham and Isaac walked is the Father.
２
The God who shepherded Jacob “all my life to this day” is the Spirit.
３
The Angel who redeemed him from all evil is the Son.
B
Jacob realized that his destiny and existence were absolutely in the hands of the shepherding God; the experience of the Triune God is so that we may bless others with the Triune God.
Ⅱ
The meaning of blessing is that blessing is the overflow of God as life through someone’s maturity in life:
A
God cannot flow Himself into others without a human channel; the only humanity that God can use as a channel is the one saturated and permeated with God— Phil. 1:23-25.
B
Maturity in life is a matter of being filled with God as life; when we are full of God, we have the overflow of God, and thus we are able to bless everyone we meet— Hymns, #910.
Ⅲ
According to spiritual experience, Jacob and Joseph are one person; Joseph represents the reigning aspect of the mature Israel, the constitution of Christ in Jacob’s mature nature; as a mature saint constituted of Christ, the perfect One, Jacob reigned through Joseph—Gen. 41:39-44; Heb. 6:1a; Gal. 6:8; 5:22-23:
A
The reigning aspect typified by Joseph is Christ constituted into our being—4:19; Rom. 5:17.
B
The reigning aspect of the mature life is a life that always enjoys the presence of the Lord; wherever His presence is, there is authority, the ruling power—Gen. 39:2-5, 21-23.
Ⅳ
The strongest sign of Jacob’s maturity was his blessing of others:
A
The first thing Jacob did after arriving in Egypt was to bless Pharaoh (47:7, 10); according to Hebrews 7:7, “the lesser is blessed by the greater”; this is a proof that in God’s sight Jacob was greater than Pharaoh.
B
In order to bless others, we must be filled to the brim with life so that life overflows to them; Jacob’s mature life was filled with blessings; he blessed Pharaoh, the two sons of Joseph (Gen. 48:8-20), and his own sons (49:1-28); those blessings of his sons were prophecies related to the destiny of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Ⅴ
The principle of blessing is that the greater blesses the lesser—Heb. 7:7:
A
To be greater or lesser is not a matter of age but a matter of the measure of Christ; we are greater or lesser according to our measure of Christ.
B
Although John the Baptist was so close to Christ, he did not have Christ within him; those in the kingdom of the heavens are not only close to Christ but also have Christ within them; for this reason, the least in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than John—Matt. 11:11.
C
If by having more of Christ we are greater than others, then we are qualified to bless them, for the greater always blesses the lesser.
D
To bless others means to minister Christ to them; we bless people with the very Christ in whom we participate and whom we enjoy; if we enjoy Christ more, we have more of Christ to minister to others.
Ⅵ
The first case of blessing in the Bible is Melchizedek’s blessing of Abraham (Gen. 14:18-20); Melchizedek is a type of Christ (Heb. 5:6):
A
Blessing is the overflow of God, and this overflow is brought to people through the priests; we all need to be priests (Rev. 1:6; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9), those who bring people to God.
B
If we would bless others, we must be close to God ourselves; people need God’s blessing, because they are far away from Him.
C
A priest eliminates the distance between God and the people; he brings those who are far off into the presence of God—cf. Exo. 28:9-12, 15-21.
D
Before we are blessed by a priest, there may be a distance between us and God, but after he blesses us, this distance is taken away, and we are brought into the presence of God to share in the enjoyment of God.
Ⅶ
In Numbers 6:22-27 we see a pattern of blessing by the priests; this blessing is neither an Old Testament blessing nor a New Testament blessing; rather, it is the eternal blessing of the Triune God, which is the Triune God dispensing Himself in His Divine Trinity into us for our enjoyment:
A
Jehovah bless you and keep you can be ascribed to the Father—v. 24:
１
The Father blesses us in every way and in every aspect in His love (cf. Eph. 1:3), and He keeps us in every way and in every aspect in His power (cf. John 17:11, 15; 1 Pet. 1:5).
２
The Lord prayed that the Father would keep us in His name (John 17:11); this is to keep us in the dispensing Triune God; the Lord Jesus went on to pray that the Father would keep us out of the hands of the evil one (v. 15).
３
We should pray for the blessing of being kept absolutely in the dispensing of the Triune God and altogether outside of the evil one; what a blessing this is!
B
Jehovah make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you can be ascribed to the Son—Num. 6:25:
１
In Luke 1:78, when the Lord Jesus was about to be born, Zachariah prophesied, “The rising sun will visit us from on high”; the rising sun is the Son in the Divine Trinity; this implies God’s incarnation to show Himself to us in a shining way—Matt. 4:16; John 8:12.
２
The word face in Numbers 6:25 signifies presence; as the One whose face shines upon us, Christ the Son is the visible presence of the invisible God—2 Pet. 1:16-18; Matt. 17:1-2.
３
Numbers 6:25 speaks not only of Jehovah making His face shine upon us but also of Jehovah being gracious to us; these two points added together equal John 1:14, 16-17.
４
God’s incarnation was the shining of His presence, and along with this shining, there was grace; this grace is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is actually Christ Himself—2 Cor. 13:14.
C
Jehovah lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace can be ascribed to the Spirit—Num. 6:26:
１
The face denotes the presence of the person, and the countenance denotes the expression of the person; to lift up our countenance upon a person means that we confirm, assure, promise, and give everything to that person.
２
Jesus came as the face of God, and the Holy Spirit comes as the countenance of God; if we grieve Him, His countenance will drop (Eph. 4:30), but if we obey Him, He will be happy with us, and He will lift up His countenance to confirm us, assure us, guarantee us, promise us, and give us everything.
Ⅷ
The blessing of the apostle Paul is seen in 2 Corinthians 13:14—“the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all”:
A
In the blessing of the apostle Paul, the Triune God comes to people for their enjoyment; Paul not only brought people into the presence of God but also brought God into them.
B
On the one hand, to bless others is to bring them into the presence of God; on the other hand, it is to bring God into them as love, grace, and fellowship so that they may enjoy the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
C
Love, grace, and fellowship are three stages of God for our enjoyment—love is within, grace is love expressed, and fellowship is the transmission of grace into us.
D
The love of God is the source, since God is the origin; the grace of the Lord is the course of the love of God, since the Lord is the expression of God; and the fellowship of the Spirit is the impartation of the grace of the Lord with the love of God, since the Spirit is the transmission of the Lord with God, for our experience and enjoyment of the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, with Their divine virtues.
E
The divine revelation of the Divine Trinity in the holy Word is not for theological study but for the apprehending of how God in His mysterious and marvelous Divine Trinity dispenses Himself into His chosen people, that we as His chosen and redeemed people may, as indicated by the apostle’s blessing to the Corinthian believers, participate in, experience, enjoy, and possess the processed Triune God now and for eternity.
Ⅸ
Jacob’s supplanting hands eventually became blessing hands—Gen. 25:26; 47:7, 10; 48:14-16; Heb. 11:21:
A
In Genesis 25 we see that Jacob began his supplanting even when he was in his mother’s womb, but in Genesis 47 and 48 we see that these two supplanting hands have become blessing hands, bringing people into God’s presence and ministering God into them so that they may enjoy Him.
B
A supplanter, a heel holder, became the greatest person on the earth at that time; he was able to bless Pharaoh because he had become greater than Pharaoh; he became this kind of person by the way of life.
C
We need the growth in life and the maturity in life so that we may be filled with Christ to become those who are able to bless others.
Ⅹ
At the time of Genesis 49, when Jacob prophesied concerning his twelve sons with blessing, he was a God-man, a man filled, constituted, permeated, and even reorganized with God; whatever he thought was God’s thought, and whatever opinion he expressed was God’s opinion—cf. 1 Cor. 7:10, 12, 25, 40:
A
In order to prophesy with blessing, we must know God, the desire of God’s heart, and the purpose of God.
B
In order to prophesy with blessing, we must know people; that is, we must know the actual situation of every person involved.
C
In order to prophesy with blessing, we must be full of the riches of Christ.
D
In order to prophesy with blessing, we must have a strong, active spirit.