At the end of his life, when he was 130 years old, Jacob went to Egypt together with all his family to be with Joseph; by this time he was a mature person, and he simply blessed everyone.
The strongest sign of Jacob’s maturity in life was his blessing of others. When he met Pharaoh (who was the ruler of the whole country of Egypt), Jacob blessed him. When he met Joseph’s sons, Jacob blessed them.
He didn’t supplant others anymore, neither did he try to get things for himself; he now was not only transformed but matured, and there was an overflow of the divine life that changed him and filled him.
We need to grow in life unto maturity and be filled to the brim with the divine life so that this life would overflow from us to others. No matter at what stage we are in the growth in life, we need to have a deep aspiration within us,
Lord, fill me to the brim with the divine life so that life can overflow from me to others!
Blessing is the overflow of life; the overflow of God through someone’s maturity in life is blessing. The more Christ we have, the more we can bless others.
According to Hebrews 7:7, the lesser is blessed by the greater; this means that Jacob was even higher than Pharaoh, since he blessed Pharaoh. In God’s eyes Jacob was the greatest person on earth at his time, since he was mature in life and blessing just flowed from him.
The more we grow in life and the more Christ increases in us, the more we are qualified to bless others by ministering Christ to them.
“Blessing” is a term very much used among Christians today, but the meaning of this word has been diluted. To be blessed doesn’t primarily mean that God gives you a good material situation, you have money, things go well with you, and you feel happy with your situation.
Blessing is Christ Himself, and to bless others is to minister Christ to them. If we have Christ constituted into us, if Christ is filling us to the brim, we will overflow with Christ to others as blessing.
Jacob was overflowing with blessing, the Lord Jesus showered us with God’s living word and God’s testimony as blessing, and the Apostle Paul overflowed with life. We need to be those who arrive to maturity and bless others by ministering Christ to them.
The Strongest Sign of a Person’s Maturity is His Blessing of Others
The strongest sign of Jacob’s maturity was his blessing of others. When he went to Egypt and met Pharaoh, he blessed him (Gen. 47:7, 10). Since the greater blesses the lesser, in God’s sight Jacob was greater even than Pharaoh, who was the ruler of the world at that time (Heb. 7:7).
Jacob, who started by struggling with his twin brother in their mother’s womb to be first and who was a supplanter cheating others to always gain something from them, became the greatest person on earth at that time through the process of transformation and maturity.
He was not political or polite when he met Pharaoh – he simply blessed him. He blessed Pharaoh, he blessed his own sons and grandsons, and in his blessing he prophesied concerning their descendants (Gen. 48:8-20).
We need to grow in life unto maturity and be filled to the brim with the divine life so that this life would overflow from us to others as blessing. In order to bless others, we must be filled with life and flow this life out to others.
We need to aspire to be filled with Christ as life so that we may overflow with Him to others. We cannot give others what we don’t have, and we cannot minister others what we ourselves do not possess.
We may be at different stages in our growth in the divine life and pursuit of the Lord, but we all need to have this aspiration,
Lord, fill me with Yourself! Fill me to the brim with life so that life may overflow from me into others! I don’t want just a little of Christ – give me more of Yourself! Fill me with the divine life until my whole being overflows with life as blessing to all those around me!
The Greater Blesses the Lesser: the More Christ we Have, the More we can Minister Him to Others
Hebrews 7:7 But without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater.
The principle of blessing is that the greater blesses the lesser (Heb. 7:7). This doesn’t necessarily mean that the older ones can bless the younger ones; rather, being greater or lesser is a matter of the measure of Christ we possess.
We are greater or lesser according to our measure of Christ. All believers in Christ have a measure of Christ in them, and the ones who have a greater measure of Christ can bless the ones who have a lesser measure of Christ.
In Matt. 11:11 the Lord Jesus testified concerning John the Baptist that he is greater than any other prophets who went before him (because he has not only spoken of the coming of Christ but he has seen Christ and has been with Christ), but when compared to even the lesser in the kingdom of the heavens, John the Baptist is less than him (because the lesser in the kingdom of the heavens has Christ within him as his life).
John the Baptist was great, but he is lesser than us, the believers in Christ, because we have Christ in us as our life and as our hope of glory (Col. 1:27), and Christ lives in us (Gal. 2:20).
Wow, in God’s eyes we are greater than John the Baptist because Christ is not merely outside of us but He is in us! We can even say with the Apostle Paul, For me, to live is Christ (Phil. 1:21).
Whether we are greater or lesser depends upon our measure of Christ; the more Christ we have, the greater we are and the more qualified we are to bless others. The larger measure of Christ we have, the more we can minister Him to others.
We all have to admit that we need more Christ; we need to have a larger measure of Christ so that we may be filled with Christ to overflow with Christ to others.
To bless others actually means to minister Christ to them; Christ is the real blessing, and others are blessed when we overflow with Christ to them.
If we enjoy Christ, experience Christ, and partake of Christ in a rich way, we will bless people with the very Christ we have enjoyed and in whom we participate. The more we enjoy Christ, the more we have of Christ to minister to others.
Let’s give ourselves to enjoy Christ more so that we may bless others with the Christ constituted into us! The measure of Christ we have is the measure of Christ we can minister to others, so let us enjoy Christ and cooperate with Him to have an increased measure of Christ!
Our sufficiency is not of us but it is of God; we don’t give others merely “Bible teachings” or “sound doctrines” – the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (see 2 Cor. 3:5-6).
As we enjoy Christ and partake of Him even in the midst of the situations of sufferings, trials, and testing, He makes us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant to minister the Christ we have enjoyed and participated in.
Because Paul was filled with a large measure of Christ as the life-giving Spirit he could minister Christ into others to a great extent. We need to follow his pattern and enjoy Christ, participate in Him, be filled with Him, and be constituted with Him so that we may overflow with Christ to others as blessing!
Lord Jesus, grow in us unto maturity and fill us with the divine life which transforms us. Increase the measure of Christ in us. Grow in us more today. We take You in and participate in You as we enjoy You. Lord, no matter the circumstances outwardly and our mood inwardly, we choose to enjoy You and partake of You. Keep us enjoying You until Your measure in us increases. Lord, fill us, constitute us, and increase in us until You overflow from us as blessing to all those around us!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis (msg. 95), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (3), week 9 / msg 9, Blessing.
- Picture credit for Heb. 7:7 and more quotes on this topic via, Christian Pics Blog.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Take time to receive Him—the blessing’s outpoured, / And we may obtain it by reading His Word; / We bask in the splendour of His healing light, / And light becomes life, as in Him we delight. (Song on being Filled with God)
# Is your life a channel of blessing? / Is the love of God flowing through you? / Are you telling the lost of the Savior? / Are you ready His service to do? / Make me a channel of blessing today, / Make me a channel of blessing, I pray; / My life possessing, my service blessing, / Make me a channel of blessing today. (Hymns #928)
# Lord, today, increase Thyself in me, / Let Thy life grow to maturity; / Just a channel of life, let me be, / A pure vessel glorifying Thee. (Song on Christ Increasing in us)
