The Bible is full of promises. Most of them boil down to something terribly simple. God says to us, “Obey Me and be blessed. Disobey Me and be cursed.” This is God’s one covenant with man. Of course, praise God He has added a crucial addendum- it is possible to receive the blessings for the obedience of Another, and for that same Other to receive the curse due to us for our sin. Given that reality, however, we still see, especially in the Psalms, an expectation of comparative blessing for sinners who trust in the coming Savior and the comparative cursing on those outside God’s grace. The wicked will not stand. They shall soon be cut off. But the righteous shall be like a tree planted by the waters. While we recognize that proverbial promises are not designed to be math- that is, when God says those who do x will receive y, He is expressing the pattern by which He works, still there is weight here. We should expect greater blessing the more we are able to submit to His Word.
Then we hear the promises of Jesus. We should not be surprised when we are persecuted. We are promised trouble in this life. We are told to expect hatred from the world. In the old covenant we are tempted to expect the believing family to move from blessing to blessing, to enjoy prosperity, health, friendship, even admiration. In the new covenant it looks like we should expect to pick up our cross daily, that we will move from trouble to trouble, from heartache to heartache. What gives?
Our confusion flows out of a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of blessing. Consider for a moment the children of Israel as they march toward the Promised Land. Certainly their lives began with hardship, as they suffered under Pharaoh’s yoke. But then they behold the miracles of God. He hears their prayers and delivers them in a spectacular display of both His power and His favor. But they grumbled. They complained. Our Father sent them water from a rock. He sent them first bread, and then meat. He, in a word, prospered them. But we are told in turn that because they grumbled He sent them “leanness in their souls.” Their bellies were full, but their joy was emaciated.
The blessings of God are not, typically, prosperity, health and honor. They are instead things like love, joy, peace, patience. Indeed these fruits find their most fertile soil in the context of hardship. The man who meditates on the law of God day and night may not grow a thriving business. He may not be much beloved in his community. But he will mourn his own sins. He will be poor in spirit. He will not enjoy great power, but will be mindful of God’s power, resting in his own meekness. He will hunger and thirst for righteousness. Meditating on the law of God, he will know his sin, his need for mercy, and so will show mercy, making peace even as he suffers under the sins of his enemies.
Such a man, of course, can look forward to pleasures at His right hand forevermore. But he need not wait for blessing. God will draw near. He is the reality of which all other blessings are but shadows. Such a man will walk through this world carrying his cross, and rejoicing in the very fatness of his soul. May He be pleased to make of us such men.