WORD
Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. DEU 9:5
God, through Moses, was making it clear to the Israelites that he had a purpose for bringing them into the good land he promised to their forefathers. He was ending the wickedness in those nations and bringing his people in to fulfill his great plan and mission—not just for their nation, but for the entire world. He would fulfill this through his covenant with Abraham and his descendants. Before they entered this Promised Land, Moses charged them to stay focused on this mission. God would pour out his abundant blessing, and he would use it to accomplish his mission. Today, we will look at two truths about the blessing of God.
God blesses us even if we don’t deserve it
5 Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
6 Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. DEU 9:5-6
The Israelites didn’t always obey and trust God. Even after experiencing God’s awesome miracles, they grumbled and complained against Moses, and ultimately, against God. Moses reminded them that they didn’t deserve God’s blessing and that they were a stubborn people. But he also assured them that God would bless them anyway. We, too, will be blessed by God not because of our own merits, but because of his faithfulness. We can never earn his blessing and provision. It is something he chose to give freely to anyone who would put their trust in him. How was God’s ultimate provision demonstrated on the cross? What does Rom 8:32 say about our salvation and God’s grace and provision?
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? ROM 8:32
God blesses us to be a blessing
Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. DEU 9:5
God promised to make Abraham’s name great so that he would be a blessing and that through him, all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Gen 12:1-3). God had a higher purpose for bringing the Israelites into the Promised Land—to bless all families from every tribe and nation. Through Abraham, people would know who God is and what a covenant relationship with him looks like. This was ultimately accomplished through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, as all who put their faith in him become partakers of this promised covenant and its blessings (Gal 3:13-14). In the same way, God’s provision in our lives is not just for our enjoyment. he wants us to be a blessing to people around us—our family, community, nation, and even to other nations—primarily by proclaiming the gospel and using our God-given blessings in obedience to the Great Commission. How is your life a blessing to others? What do you want people to talk about and eventually remember you for?
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
Rashi
Go (literally, go to you)—For your own benefit, for your own good: there I will make of you a great nation whilst here you will not merit the privilege of having children (Rosh Hashanah 16b). Furthermore, I shall make known your character throughout the world (Midrash Tanchuma, Lech Lecha 3).
From your country—Now had he not already gone out of there with his father and come as far as Haran? Rather, thus did he say to him, “Distance yourself more from there and leave your father’s house.”
That I will show you—He did not reveal the land to him immediately, in order to make it dear in his eyes and to give him reward for every command. Similarly (below 22:2): “your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love.” Similarly (ibid.): “on one of the mountains that I shall say to you.” Similarly (Jon 3:2): “and call out against it the message that I will tell you.” from Bereishit Rabbah 39:9
2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
Rashi
And I will make of you a great nation—Since traveling is the cause of three things—it decreases family life, it reduces one’s wealth and lessens one’s renown (lit. name), he therefore needed these three blessings: that God blessed him concerning children, concerning wealth, and concerning fame (Bereishit Rabbah 39:11).
And I will bless you—With wealth (Bereishit Rabbah 39:11).
So that you will be a blessing—Blessings are entrusted to you; hitherto they were in my power—I blessed Adam and Noah—but from now on you shall bless whomsoever you wish (Bereishit Rabbah 39:11). Another explanation: And I will make of you a great nation, this alludes to the fact that we say in our prayer “God of Abraham”; And I will bless you—that we say, “God of Isaac”; And make your name great—that we say, “God of Jacob.” One might think that we should conclude the benediction by mentioning the names of all the patriarchs—the text therefore states “so that you will be a blessing”: with you will they conclude, and not with them (Pesachim 117b).
3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” GEN 12:1-3
Yevamot 63a:6
And Rabbi Elazar said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed [nivrekhu]” (Gen 12:3)? The Holy One, blessed be he, said to Abraham: I have two good shoots to graft [lehavrikh] onto you: Ruth the Moabite, the ancestress of the house of David, and Naamah the Ammonite, whose marriage with Solomon led to the ensuing dynasty of the kings of Judea. “All the families of the earth” means: Even families that live in the earth, i.e., who have land of their own, are blessed only due to the Jewish people. Similarly, when the verse states: “All the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him” (Gen 18:18), it indicates that even ships that come from Galia to Hispania are blessed only due to the Jewish people.
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
John Gill
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law—The Redeemer is Christ, the Son of God; who was appointed and called to this work by his Father, and which he himself agreed to; he was spoken of in prophecy under this character; he came as such, and has obtained eternal redemption, for which he was abundantly qualified; as man, he was a near kinsman, to whom the right of redemption belonged; and as God, he was able to accomplish it. The persons redeemed are “us,” God’s elect, both of Jews and Gentiles; a peculiar people, the people of Christ, whom the Father gave to him; some out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation: the blessing obtained for them is redemption; a buying of them again, as the word signifies; they were his before by the Father’s gift, and now he purchases them with the price of his own blood, and so delivers them “from the curse of the law”; its sentence of condemnation and death, and the execution of it; so that they shall never be hurt by it, he having delivered them from wrath to come, and redeemed from the second death, the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. The manner in which this was done was by
Becoming a curse for us—The sense of which is, not only that he was like an accursed person, looked upon as such by the men of that wicked generation, who hid and turned away their faces from as an abominable execrable person, calling him a sinner, a Samaritan, and a devil; but was even accursed by the law; becoming the surety of his people, he was made under the law, stood in their legal place and stead and having the sins of them all imputed to him, and answerable for them, the law finding them on him, charges him with them, and curses him for them; yea, he was treated as such by the justice of God, even by his Father, who spared him not, awoke the sword of justice against him, and gave him up into his hands; delivered him up to death, even the accursed death of the cross, whereby it appeared that he was becoming a curse: “becoming,” by the will, counsel, and determination of God, and not without his own will and free consent; for he freely laid down his life, and gave himself, and made his soul an offering for sin:
For it is written—Deu 21:23,
Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree—It is in the Hebrew text, “a hanged man”: which is the very name the Jews.
14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. GAL 3:13-14
John Gill
That . . . the blessing of Abraham—The same blessing Abraham enjoyed, even justification by the righteousness of Christ; and what was promised to Abraham, that in him, his seed, that is Christ, the Gentiles should be blessed, or justified; for though this blessing may in general comprise every spiritual blessing, yet it chiefly regards that of justification; or a deliverance from the curse of the law, and which is the end of Christ’s being made a curse, that this blessedness
In Christ Jesus—As the words may be read; meaning either, that this blessing comes upon the Gentiles that were in Christ, chosen in him, in union with him, and represented by him, both in the covenant and on the cross; or else that Christ is the mediator, as from whom, so through whom, this, as every blessing of grace, comes to the children of God:
Might come to the Gentiles—The uncircumcision, as well as the circumcision; see Rom 4:9 that is, upon as many of them as were ordained to eternal life, and in consequence of that believe in Christ; quite contrary to a Jewish notion, that
“no blessing dwells but upon an Israelite”:
now though this blessing, as all other spiritual ones, were laid up in the covenant of grace, put into the hands of Christ, and God’s elect blessed with it, as considered in him, yet the curse of the law for their transgressions stood in the way of their personal enjoyment of it, to their peace and comfort in their own souls; therefore Christ is made a curse for them, to make way for the blessing to take place upon them; which is by an act of God’s grace imputed to them, and is received by faith:
That we might receive the promised Spirit through faith—Beza puts the copulative and to this clause, reading it, “and that we,” as does the Ethiopic version; thereby more clearly pointing out this to be another end of Christ’s being made a curse for us: by “the promised Spirit” may be meant, either by an “hypallage,” the Spirit of promise, who opens and applies the promises; or the Spirit promised, not as a spirit of regeneration, conversion, and faith; for, as such, he cannot be received by faith; Since, antecedent to his being so, there can be no faith; but rather as a spirit of adoption, in respect to which he is said to be received (Rom 8:15), and this blessing of adoption, as in consequence of redemption from under the law, its curse and condemnation (Gal 4:4-6). Or else a spiritual promise, in distinction from the temporal promise of the land of Canaan, made to Abraham and his natural seed, and means the promise of eternal life and happiness in the world to come; which promise is now received by faith, and that in consequence of the sufferings and death of Christ the testator; see Heb 9:15.