God's Desire to Bless the Earth

In the 12th chapter of Genesis the Lord spoke to Abraham, the forefather of the Jews. He told him that He was going to make a great nation out of him. He said, "I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you will be a blessing." A little later the Lord says, "And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."

That stood out to me. Many people think of God as a grouchy scowling old man, poised to send bad things on mankind, the object of His scorn. There is no biblical doubt that God DOES send bad things on mankind, but there in Genesis, it tells us why. He says to Abraham, "I will curse those who curse you".

But here in Genesis I see God's primary desire is to "bless the families of the earth". It is not His primary desire to bring evil. That belongs to the devil.

A striking thought occurred to me while reading... A lot of people think of Israel as the fulfillment of the prophecy. Israel is part of it...they WERE to be a blessing, but it was primarily looking forward to one person who was destined to arise out of Abraham's lineage. He would bless all the families of the earth by coming to die for their sins. You know His name.

The thought that struck me was that we Christians are also part of the fulfillment of that prophecy.
The blessings that Jesus brought to all the families of the earth are continuing through those who are indwelt by Him, who continue to proclaim him.

So, here we are, living testaments of the prophecy, thousands of years after it was given to a wandering nomad. So, that is our purpose for being here, to be a blessing, in every sense of the word. We bless primarily by representing Jesus on earth as His ambassadors, helping our families, friends, and neighbors consider Him. But, as His ambassadors, we are called to bless in many other ways as well. The ways we can bless are probably as numerous as there are Christians.

As Israel has often failed to bless as they have wandered from God, so we can fail to bless if WE wander.  Jesus called Himself the Vine, and He called us branches in the vine. He said the branches will only bear fruit if they stay plugged in and close to the vine.