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In both the Old and New Testaments of the bible, God speaks about blessing His people.  He speaks about giving them the best, and ensuring that they can do the best in any given situation.  From the OT to the NT, God’s desire to do good for His people didn’t change, however there is a distinct difference between how a person got their blessings in the Old Testament, compared to the New Testament.  Read on and be blessed!

“Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God” (Deu 28:1-2 NASB)

This is a marvelous section of scripture, it shows God’s heart towards his people, outside of and far beyond “sin no more”.  He really wants us to be blessed, He even wanted the Children of Israel to be blessed!  Read some snippets of the blessings here, you can read the full-blown account in Deuteronomy Chapter 28. Verse 3. “… blessed in the city, blessed in the country…”, v.9. “…establish you as a holy people to Himself…”, v.11. “The LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground…”  Wow, who doesn’t want to be blessed like that, it even went further and said in v.12 that God would bless all the work of their hands!

Sounds Too Good To Be true?

It’s that good and it’s true, and there is a catch.  The Children of Israel had to obey to get blessed, and we’re not talking partial obedience, it said in v.1, they had to obey “all ” the commandments. Has the idea of being blessed, started to sound far off,and out of reach yet.  If it hasn’t it will soon, and it’s not that I want you to think the blessings were set there only to tantalize them or us, but let the reality set in about God’s expectation of obedience. He wanted them to diligently obey all of the commandments, not just doing what they liked, and no excuses like, “this is just the way I am”, or “the Lord knows my heart”, or “He is still working on me”.  The standard was high, and the punishment was enforced strictly.  Sometimes people look at the stories of the OT and think, they would have lived differently, they say “I would have obeyed”,  it’s just not true.  Those people are the same as me and you, and they had  the same hinderance to obedience,sin, as we do.  The blessings were that good, but to diligently obey all of His commandments, is and was that hard! I see why the Children of Israel didn’t stay blessed long, and went through seasons of revival, and cursing, where enemies came and drug them into slavery and oppression. (Read Judges for ample examples)

Out with Old, In with the New! 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. (EPh 1:3 NASB)

Paul in the Book of Ephesians is speaking to the people of God at Ephesus, and look at what he tells them. You have been blessed!  Look at the tense here, it’s not that God will bless them, Paul says, God has already blessed them!  With how many blessings, with every blessing God could find in the Heavenly places, he lavished it upon them, way before Paul was able to tell them. Praise God, it’s the same for us!

Jesus is That Good, and that True! 

There is a stipulation, or rather a qualifier. Where are the blessings? In Jesus Christ! You will not read anything about obey and you’ll be blessed, or diligently obey all of the His commandments here, no the Gospel wouldn’t be Good News if you had to work for it, plus God went through that in the OT, He knows and we all know how that would end.  But look, our blessings are in Jesus, Jesus is the only stipulation for getting blessed with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places.

He Chose you to Bless you!

“Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love” (Eph 1:4 NASB emphasis added)

God before the foundation of the world was set, chose us to be in Jesus, where He would pour out all the spiritual blessings of heaven upon us.  You don’t have to work for it, it’s not obey today and be blessed, and disobey tomorrow and be cursed.  The life of the OT was a scrutinized life, a legalistic life, where questions like how much work is considered working on the Sabbath. Jesus dealt with that issue when he healed on the Sabbath (Luk 14:5). Our life in Jesus, is to be an exhale and surrender lifestyle, a relax and believe lifestyle!  Jesus took care of the sin issue between God and us, and if we surrender and abide in Him, Jesus takes care of the sin issue in us, enabling us to be blessed, live blessed and to bless others.  That’s some Good News!