Blessings for sale! Part 1

  

"Blessings", The one word loved and adored by all of us. However, we fail to notice how God used it for His purpose that impacted His divine mission. Today, as Christians we exploit this word 'blessing' more than any people who belong to other faiths. We are constantly bombarded through preachings which says, that God would  grant all the desires, make us heads, and we would reach the top. People throng Churches to see if the promises come true or not. What they really expect is blessing of wealth, name, fame and a life without difficulties or hindrances. Eventually, they come to know that this is a surreal life they are longing for.

In present times, we ridiculously equate luxury and riches to blessing. We quote Genesis 13:2 “Abraham was very rich in livestock, silver and gold.”.  Our deep longing for riches mars our interpretation of Biblical verses. As Christians we heavily lean towards the life of riches and wealth rather being content with a life of just our needs being met. The Theology of work project comments, ‘The writer of Genesis states early on the story about the creation of humans, “God blessed them” (Genesis 1:28). The word “blessings” or “blessed” is a central feature of the biblical story. Part of the blessing of relationship with God is very definitely tangible, in-the-hand stuff. And these material blessings are thoroughly integrated with the other benefits of knowing and loving the creator.’.

Dealing with this subject in Christendom is like walking on egg shells. No one wants to decipher the real meaning of the word from God's perspective because we are shaking the foundation of their age old beliefs. Money can be earned in various forms both good or bad. Let us analyze few instances in the Bible, to understand the perspective:

1. Joseph's brothers hate for him ended in trading him for twenty pieces of silver (Genesis 37:28).

2. Achan's greediness forced him to conceal the rich spoil, i.e. silver and gold for his future settlement (Joshua 7:21). 

3. Samuel, one of the greatest prophets, sons Joel and Abijah were corrupt dishonest judges in Beersheba. They profited by taking bribes to pervert justice (1 Samuel 8:1-3).

4. Judas traded Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. He meets the Chief Priest to know what he would get in return if he hands over Jesus to them. The ransom satisfied Judas and he starts working on a successful plot (Matthew 26:15-16).

5. The Chief Priests with no shame or remorse bribed the Roman soldiers with a large sum of money to tell a lie about the resurrection of Jesus (Matthew 28:12).  

Well, if money is a blessing from God then the above incidents from the Bible do paint a sordid picture indeed. Money that we so desperately long for was used to kill our Savior and also tarnish the very fact He rose again. Let's ponder over our misrepresented thought process on 'blessing' before we delve deeper into this series in my upcoming blogs.

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