Sadly, the blessing that was enjoyed in paradise was lost as a result of the fall. The rest of the Bible tells the unexpected story of how God’s blessing from creation is rediscovered by means of God’s gracious covenant. Hints of how this would be accomplished were given to Adam (Gen. 3:15), Noah (Gen. 9:1), Abraham (Gen. 12:1–3), Moses (Deut. 27–30), David (2 Sam. 7:28–29), and Ezekiel (Ezek. 34:25–26), among others.

The Bible is a blessed book. It begins with blessing. It ends with blessing. It’s about blessing. Even more, it is a blessing. But all of this begs a question: what exactly do we mean by the word blessing?

Count Your Blessings

In everyday parlance, the word blessing reflects a range of meanings. We can count them one by one. So, for example, we might speak of bumping into a long-lost friend as an “unexpected blessing” or (depending on the friend) even as a “mixed blessing.” Here the word more or less conveys the idea of personal gain and good fortune. But the term can also carry with it a sense of granting approval, as when a love-smitten lad asks for the “blessing” of a would-be father-in-law for his daughter’s hand in marriage.

Still further, we often think of blessing as connoting divine favor and protection; hence, nearly every presidential speech ends with those grandiose words: “God bless America.”

I would suggest, however, that none of these uses of the term get to the bottom of blessing. Sure, the Bible likewise speaks of it in a multiplicity of ways. We thus read of blessing as the reward of a birthright (Gen. 27); the goodwill of one person to another (Gen. 33:11); the endowment of fatherly favor (Gen. 49:28); the privilege of serving God (Ex. 32:29); the receiving of an inheritance (Josh. 15:19); the benefit of a healthy crop (Lev. 25:21; Heb. 6:7–8); the bounty of creation (Ps. 65:9–13); and so on.

But even these blessed experiences need to be read against the wider backdrop of the Bible’s teaching on blessing.

From Whom All Blessings Flow

The word for blessing comes from a Hebrew noun (berakah) that is most often used to communicate the conferring of God’s covenant favor and goodness.

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