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Generational Blessings: Are They Still a Thing Today?
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In this episode, Dan Sanchez sits down with Pastors Ridley Barron, Jon Ballard, and Kyle Hess to dive into the stories of Genesis 12-29 and unpack the rich context surrounding Abraham's story and the Abrahamic blessing. The discussion explores the generational passing of blessings, God's sovereign plan through broken people, and how the themes of faith and promise still resonate today. They also examine how genealogies, oral traditions, and God's unexpected choices demonstrate His intentionality in fulfilling His redemptive plan. This conversation encourages listeners to look deeper into scripture, tracing God's faithfulness through every twist and turn of biblical history.
Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction to the episode and Genesis 12-29 overview
01:22 - The context of Abraham’s story and the oral tradition
07:17 - God's sovereignty and intentional plan despite human brokenness
09:38 - The Abrahamic blessing: birthright vs. blessing
12:31 - Why God chose Abraham and His unexpected ways
17:49 - The blessing through Jacob, Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel
22:29 - Modern-day blessings, generational impact, and scriptural grounding
27:24 - The difference between a prayer and a blessing
Looking forward to the next episode as the team dives deeper into Joseph’s story!
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Transcript
00:00:00
Dan Sanchez
Welcome back to the Grove Hill Church podcast. I'm Dan Sanchez and I'm joined by Ridley, Kyle and John today. And it's going to be a fun ride. We have been reading through the chronological Bible and we've been reading this, this past week, we're covering Genesis 12 all the way through 29.
00:00:17
Dan Sanchez
And a lot of stuff happens. Genesis is a very condensed book. it's packed with stuff. And I always try to pull out, I'm trying to pull out things for this podcast that I don't think are going to be the most likely topics people ask about in Two Men and the Bible, or that gets covered in the sermon.
00:00:22
Ridley
Yeah.
00:00:29
Ridley
Hmm.
00:00:32
Dan Sanchez
I'm trying to hit around to the the other topics to fill in. So today, I want to talk about the first thing is Abraham. and the context he was in. Because as I was reading the Bible, it struck me as like a time where we move on from the the Tower of Babel, and then we go through some genealogies real quick, and then it's like so and so, we got so and so, we got so and so, we got so and so, we got Abraham, and then we launch into Abraham's story.
00:00:58
Dan Sanchez
But I find that there's a lot of context. A lot has happened. By the time we get into Abraham's story, 350 years has passed. and We get the Tower of Babel in that time. But what else is going on to kind of set the scene for Abraham? The Bible doesn't give too many more details. What else do you think was going on at Abraham's time so we can have a better understanding of the story Abraham's caught in?
00:01:21
Ridley
Well, I'm always cautious to fill in gaps where the Bible doesn't tell us much because we can make some wrong assumptions, which can lead us astray. But I do think it's safe to say that what happened immediately after Noah getting off of the Ark is that Shemham and Japheth and their wives began that process of be fruitful, multiply, subdue the earth again.
00:01:45
Ridley
So the command was still the same. In fact, if you read the story, that's what God says to him, go do this. he The command he issues to them is the same one he gave to Adam and Eve.
00:01:50
Jon
No.
00:01:54
Ridley
And so that process begins of, okay, now let's repopulate the earth. Let's let's get things rolling again. you made this point of the book of Genesis literally is thousands of years that are covered in history that are condensed into 50 chapters for us. I, unless you pick up a timeline and if you ever want to look at one, uh, John's got one in his office. I've got one in my office. Uh, unless you look at a timeline, you don't realize how close these guys really were to each other in their stories. We, we imagine that between Noah and Abraham, there's, you know, hundreds and hundreds of years.
00:02:29
Ridley
Well, there were, but these guys lived hundreds and hundreds of years.
00:02:32
Dan Sanchez
Yeah, it's a long time.
00:02:33
Ridley
So when we talk about the oral tradition of how they pass these stories along, we picture in our heads, you know, six generations of telling stories, but Noah's sons were still alive when Abraham was born.
00:02:45
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:02:45
Ridley
And so guys who actually lived through the flood, and you you made this point before we came online, who actually lived before the flood and knew what the earth was like, were there to tell the story to people and We don't know that they actually met Abraham, but they might have met people who met Abraham and were able to share, okay, this is what it was like.
00:03:03
Ridley
So, right, firsthand accounts of exactly what's going on.
00:03:03
Dan Sanchez
First hand accounts, it's a big deal.
00:03:06
Ridley
So it wasn't like they were having to carry this out hundreds of years with the storytelling. It was it was right there, people who had actually lived through it.
00:03:13
Dan Sanchez
I actually have one of those long timelines. It's like a 26 foot thing.
00:03:17
Ridley
Yes. yeah
00:03:18
Dan Sanchez
It's like three feet by 26 feet.
00:03:20
Jon
Probably the same thing that I've got, Dan.
00:03:20
Dan Sanchez
It is massive. A massive, you got the same one? Yeah, it's like that.
00:03:23
Jon
I think it probably is.
00:03:24
Dan Sanchez
It was like made in the 19, 1800s. So it's all well illustrated.
00:03:27
Jon
Yeah, I think, yeah, somehow related to President Adams, one of his family members, I think, yeah, something like that.
00:03:28
Dan Sanchez
It's really beautiful.
00:03:33
Dan Sanchez
Oh really? I didn't know that.
00:03:35
Jon
Anyways, yeah.
00:03:36
Ridley
Interesting.
00:03:36
Dan Sanchez
That timeline shows like the overlap of people. And when you're living a thousand years or close to it, I noticed there's really only a few generations between like when people overlap.
00:03:47
Dan Sanchez
So it's like Adam has a few hundred years overlap with Methuselah who has a few hundred years overlap with Noah. So Noah's account of Adam only came through one extra person.
00:03:59
Ridley
Yeah.
00:03:59
Dan Sanchez
It's just crazy to think about because you see a lot of begots a lot of genealogy in between the people and you're like Oh, that's so many generations but be like yeah, but they had hundreds of years together and they all live together in the same house often
00:04:08
Ridley
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
00:04:12
Jon
Another thing that I was just thinking of as you were talking, Ridley, So many people question the validity of Scripture and they they question you know what ground it stands on. And you look at the genealogies and understandably some people will you know get heavy eyes as they read through the genealogies.
00:04:32
Jon
but I just got to thinking it's almost the links in the chain as these people lived so long we see longevity in their life and the allowance that it gave them to pass that royal tradition down to have solid tracks of evidence traced hundreds and hundreds into thousands of years where they knew for a fact because, hey, you know, this is, this person's been telling it for five generations. And I know for a fact that it's true. And again, continually speaking, the the Torah stands upon some of those genealogical things. Obviously it stands on, you know, God and God alone, but God gave this as an extra resource, I feel like, as just another stance of strength.
00:05:20
Kyle
yeah Yeah, just looking at the genealogy and what you're talking about between the Tower of Babel and and Abraham or Abram.
00:05:26
Kyle
Looking at the genealogy of Shem to Abram and all the people involved in that and we miss out on the story on all those people. And so, I mean, God was doing things in their lives. They were struggling.
00:05:36
Kyle
They were failing. But we see it hone in on Abram because the Bible is all about the redemption story and that's where the Savior was going to come from.
00:05:43
Ridley
Right.
00:05:45
Kyle
That's where the Lord's chosen people were going to come from. That's where the nation was going to be built. And so whereas all these things are going on, it's not it's not like they don't matter. But the whole point of scripture was to bring people back to this redemption story.
00:05:59
Kyle
And it was through Abram. So I think that's where that's why the Bible is like, all these people and Abram. Now we're going to talk about Abram. you know
00:06:06
Jon
Yeah.
00:06:06
Ridley
Yeah. I've heard it described this way and I think it makes it makes sense that Genesis 1 through 11 is like looking at the tapestry. Genesis 12 is finding the thread that runs through the tapestry that is the story of redemption.
00:06:20
Ridley
So it's like you're really zoomed out 30,000 foot view of everything that's going on in humanity at that point. But Genesis 12 is like God says, okay, enough of all that. Let me talk about what my promise was going to be from the very beginning and who we're going to go through.
00:06:32
Kyle
Yeah.
00:06:34
Dan Sanchez
I've heard it said too that like God's doing a work, a systematic work, like he's got a plan to protect the certain seed or line that comes all the way to Jesus, right? Like that's kind of what the test, like the old Testament is essentially like a story of God finding his way and working a systematic plan to get to the overall redemption of humanity.
00:06:44
Ridley
Yeah.
00:06:50
Jon
Yeah.
00:06:53
Ridley
yeah Yeah. I mean, that's what this is all about, this whole book from beginning to end, even the stories of things like the Tower of Babel, where it looks like God's plans getting knocked off course. I think God included that to say, no, even the worst of times didn't derail what I was up to.
00:07:12
Ridley
And to me, that's an assurance to us, even as we live here in this day and age, you know, we, we see things happen around us and we think this has got to be the worst thing ever.
00:07:12
Jon
yeah
00:07:21
Ridley
And I'm sure God chuckles us and goes, no, you should have been there days before. No. But yeah, it's just a ah ah constant reminder that he's always had this intentional plan that he wanted to hit his people for himself and that he would do whatever he needed to, to make sure that plan was successful.
00:07:27
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:07:38
Kyle
Yeah, it looks crazy too because he's dealing with broken people in a broken world. And so like, you know, it's not like he messed up and changed plans or messed up and changed plans. It's his sovereignty overall while we are broken people. And so you look at Noah and Noah is this righteous man, right? That's why God chose him to to get on the Ark. First thing he does is is plants a vineyard when he gets off, gets hammered, lays down his tent naked.
00:08:02
Kyle
you know It's like, this is the righteous man that God chose.
00:08:03
Ridley
yeah
00:08:05
Kyle
And so we see that with everybody.
00:08:05
Ridley
This is the best you can find.
00:08:07
Kyle
Abram lies about his wife. Abram you know sleeps with another woman to get to to try to pass his lineage on. And it's like God's dealing with broken people, but he has this sovereign plan throughout it all to get to that redemption savior.
00:08:23
Dan Sanchez
fun fact that I learned after working for a missions organization is that oftentimes missionaries will use the flood story as a way to build a bridge to the gospel because everybody knew that the flood had happened because all the Noah and all his sons had been through it.
00:08:36
Jon
Mm-hmm.
00:08:38
Dan Sanchez
And of course the Tower of Babel happens and then they they start dispersing throughout the earth. But with them, they they took that flood story with. So you can find the flood story all over the world as an ancient tale of something that happened long ago.
00:08:45
Ridley
Yeah.
00:08:46
Jon
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
00:08:50
Ridley
Yep.
00:08:50
Dan Sanchez
And now we find it all over the place.
00:08:52
Ridley
Right.
00:08:52
Dan Sanchez
of the major flood that happened and how they survived on some kind of boat. that Of course the tails turned and turned into all kinds of different things apart from what's in the Bible but that can be expected after the retelling.
00:09:00
Jon
the
00:09:02
Ridley
which is and kind of That kind of speaks to what we're talking about here because with every generation it passes, that story gets more fanciful and it gets twisted and all that kind of stuff with all these people who weren't there. But in the Hebrew people and the tradition of Abraham, you have, again, that connection to people who literally walked off the boat, who were part of that experience, and then preserve that by writing it down so we would have it for generations to come.
00:09:30
Ridley
so
00:09:31
Dan Sanchez
A big part of Abraham's story that was a part of the reading this week was this idea of the Abrahamic blessing. And it's a really inspiring thing. You're like, oh my gosh. i think and I think reading it as a kid, you're like, I want a blessing. And in fact, I actually had ah a generational blessing passed down to me. It was a little little weird, but like my grandpa actually left me a letter after he died, said not to be opened until after like my personal like high school graduation.
00:09:57
Ridley
Very cool.
00:09:57
Dan Sanchez
and And I found it and I read it and he's like, I don't know. He says it kind of in a cryptic way, but it was kind of like, I have this, I've always had this thing with me through my life, this like, I don't know whether to call it a guardian angel or a karma or a blessing.
00:10:11
Dan Sanchez
You know, he was Catholic and there was some syncretism there, a little blending of things going on so as as often as, but I don't know what it is, but I want to pass it to you.
00:10:16
Kyle
Sure.
00:10:21
Dan Sanchez
And so I have this letter and it's like this blessing that was passed on. So every time I read this, I reminded of like, there's these blessings going around. But I want to actually talk about like this specific, this this kind of started with Abraham gets passed down the line. And I want to know like, what's the importance of the blessing? Why did it start with Abraham and not further down? Why is Abraham the first place where we actually find out about this blessing as he passes it to Isaac?
00:10:46
Ridley
Well, first of all, I think it's important we separate the idea of birthright from blessing. People like to use those two terms interchangeably and they're not the same thing.
00:10:58
Ridley
That's why when you get to the story of Esau and Jacob, he gives away his birthright when he does the Esau swap for soup there or stew. And then the blessing is something later on that he's cheated out of by Jacob.
00:11:11
Ridley
The birthright was the tradition that the eldest son got two thirds of everything. This was more of the physical material stuff that was passed on.
00:11:19
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:11:20
Ridley
It also was a passing of leadership from the the patriarch of the family to the eldest son to say, okay, now you're about to be in charge of this family. So it was a huge responsibility, of course, a huge honor. And of course, a big material blessing. The the blessing itself is more in reference to what you're talking about. It was the spiritual side of things. It might involve saying things like, I hope your cattle increases and your babies increase and all those kinds of things. But it was more the spiritual side of it. And it was a connection back to this idea of the covenant that was made truly
00:11:52
Ridley
with Adam first at Genesis 3.15 when God says there will be somebody who's going to come along. But then it became more specific, more more zoned in, if you will, zoomed in on one particular group of people, and that was Abram. The question of why Abram? The only thing I can figure is that God knew that Abram would listen. Again, we're a couple hundred years past the ark at this point, several hundred years past the ark at this point, God's ready to move forward with his plan.
00:12:22
Ridley
just like he did with Noah, he looked and found somebody who would listen to him, may not be perfect, but to use terminology from the scriptures, he would be somebody who was blameless and ready to follow God. So that's the only answer I can get. I don't know if there's any other description of why Abram was chosen.
00:12:40
Dan Sanchez
It's kind of a funny thing that happens with it.
00:12:40
Jon
Thank you.
00:12:41
Dan Sanchez
It's like God gave it away. And then it goes to Isaac.
00:12:45
Ridley
Yep.
00:12:46
Dan Sanchez
But then what happens is Isaac wants to give it to his oldest son. But God's like in his sovereignty, puts it in Rebecca's heart to trick him.
00:12:55
Ridley
Yeah.
00:12:55
Dan Sanchez
He's like, nah, I know you want to give it to your oldest son, but I'm going to put it in your heart's your wife's heart to give it to your youngest son, right?
00:12:59
Ridley
Yeah. yeah
00:13:03
Dan Sanchez
we're just kind of funny that there's this, there's things passing and God's working behind the scenes with people in order to get it going in the right place. But there's, there is something passing. There's, there's a something special and it has, it can only be released from the person that appears.
00:13:17
Jon
I think there's a thought you know that we could throw that same thing towards Noah. and the willingness that he used in Noah, you know, the ability to say, hey, this guy is going to be used. He's going to listen to me. So you can throw that same comparison there. But at the end of the day, to Ridley's point about the birthright, there are some things that just don't seem to make sense in our human brains. And we won't be able to fathom that till
00:13:46
Jon
we get up there till glorification sets in and we we understand a little bit better. But I think you have to look at that willingness of humanity. I believe God seeks, he wants to use, wants to utilize somebody who is going to be blameless and open to obedience. He's not gonna use and shows proven throughout scripture.
00:14:13
Jon
He will not use people constantly that vehemently disobey Him. So that's definitely, that's non-negotiable. But beyond that, that's probably my guess. A little bit of man's submission and God's sovereignty.
00:14:31
Ridley
You know, something else that we kind of miss in the scriptures that comes along with these stories, we hear them talk about firstborn all the way through these stories, my firstborn son. And it's a subtle change along the way, but you'll start to notice that sometimes these men refer to their, the child through which the promise will pass as the firstborn, even though there are older brothers.
00:14:55
Ridley
And the reason that's the case is because when they're speaking about first born, they're not necessarily talking about birth order. They're talking about preeminence in the family history.
00:15:02
Jon
yeah
00:15:02
Dan Sanchez
Yep.
00:15:03
Ridley
That's why Jesus will say my first, I mean, Jesus would be described by God as my first born. Well, Jesus wasn't born. He wasn't even created. What he was saying is this is the primary, the preeminent source by which my blessing is going to come.
00:15:19
Ridley
So if you look at it, you have Abraham, of course, who has Isaac.
00:15:22
Jon
All right.
00:15:23
Ridley
Isaac is not the first born. The firstborn is Ishmael. Technically, he should have been the one who received the birthright. So Isaac gets it. Well, then Isaac gives it to his secondborn, Jacob, even though it was cheated out of him.
00:15:34
Ridley
That's the way it goes. Well, then when you get to Jacob, it's Judah who receives that blessing passing on down through the lineage.
00:15:38
Jon
no
00:15:40
Ridley
It's not Reuben. It's Reuben. Reuben's, I think, the oldest in that family.
00:15:43
Jon
and
00:15:44
Dan Sanchez
Yep.
00:15:44
Ridley
So, I mean, all along the way, God's just constantly surprising us going, I know who you think needs to get this, but I know who gets it. It even shows up, of course, in the story of David when he's anointed as king of Israel.
00:15:56
Ridley
They go all the way through the line and they get to the runt and go, okay, here it is. And later, David is described as my firstborn child.
00:16:00
Jon
Yep. Yeah.
00:16:04
Ridley
He's not the firstborn of Jesse. He is indeed the last, but he's preeminent in the line.
00:16:12
Dan Sanchez
I know that's always like a thing that makes me feel better because especially today when you're scrolling through Facebook or Instagram, you're like, man, I don't got much going on. You're like, well, God likes to work through the least of the least of the least.
00:16:26
Dan Sanchez
And he's proven that over and over and over again.
00:16:26
Ridley
He really does.
00:16:28
Dan Sanchez
He takes the least qualified person almost every time in order to do his will.
00:16:30
Ridley
Yep.
00:16:34
Ridley
Yeah, I mean, if you're reading these stories closely, and you're being honest with yourself, just about every story, God picks the person you would not have. You know, I mean, you look at the story of Isaac with his two sons, you got Esau, who's this warrior, this hunter, he's a man's man, hairy chest, you know, he's the dude, right? God goes, nope.
00:16:56
Ridley
I'm gonna pick the one who basically was a mama's boy, and we're gonna we're gonna use him. So it's it's a fun story to watch all along the way, because God is constantly surprising us, and he's not doing it just to surprise us. He's doing it to show, you know what? This is always gonna be about me and my power and my strength, and that's why I'm not gonna work according to the ways you think we should.
00:17:16
Dan Sanchez
So another thing is this blessing, and I'm kind of getting ahead of here, but I'm going to try to cover all the topic all on this podcast around the blessing is it goes to Jacob, who becomes Israel.
00:17:27
Dan Sanchez
And then the blessing is passed to Ephraim, which is Joseph's younger son.
00:17:29
Ridley
Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
00:17:33
Dan Sanchez
And the thing happens again there where Joseph wants, you know, wants it to go to Manasseh. No, did I say that right? He tries to give it to Manasseh, but ends up going to Ephraim and Jacob crosses his hands over and gives it to the younger son.
00:17:40
Ridley
Right.
00:17:44
Ridley
Yep.
00:17:45
Jon
No.
00:17:46
Ridley
Correct.
00:17:46
Dan Sanchez
I think they both get a blessing, but like Ephraim gets like the major blessing.
00:17:50
Ridley
Right.
00:17:52
Dan Sanchez
And then yeah as as far as I know in scripture, you really don't hear about that again. So what happens to that blessing? It looks like it was intentionally passed down to part part of it and you end up you end up with an interesting thing where Joseph does not become a tribe.
00:18:08
Dan Sanchez
His sons do and maybe that I've heard read that that may be like considered well that's the double portion he got. He got two tribes rather than just one, two territories.
00:18:15
Ridley
Right.
00:18:21
Dan Sanchez
How do you think that plays out as the blessing kind of that that storyline in Genesis isn't really mentioned again through Scripture?
00:18:31
Kyle
i don't know that i could speak to that
00:18:32
Jon
Mhm. Mhm.
00:18:33
Ridley
hi I would say, and this is just a guess at this point, that at this point, the story becomes less about the blessing and more about the actual covenant itself. Because the covenant, the line of the seed of ah ah Jesus is going to go through Judah. Ephraim and Manasseh will get that blessing, and they obviously will be blessed, but they kind of disappear along the way.
00:19:02
Ridley
behind behind the story of Judah and Benjamin, those two tribes.
00:19:04
Jon
Mm hmm.
00:19:05
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:19:05
Ridley
Of course, the Levites make a comeback after being very, very embarrassing right off the bat.
00:19:07
Jon
Yeah.
00:19:11
Ridley
You know, they make that stand with Moses at the at Mount Sinai, and they become the tribe through which the priests pass. But, you know, Ephraim, I mean, Ephraim's still a big tribe, obviously, and all the way through the Old Testament prophets, they refer to Israel as Ephraim a lot.
00:19:26
Ridley
there's this connection there, but I think it becomes less about the blessing and more about the covenant and the lineage of the seed that will lead to the Messiah. i don't That's the only reason I can guess.
00:19:38
Dan Sanchez
maybe the blessing just holds through to a few individuals and then becomes more about the the bless the blessing of Israel right as a whole.
00:19:45
Ridley
nice
00:19:47
Dan Sanchez
have read a little bit that Ephraim and NASA kind of became a major chunk of the northern tribes actually were more prosperous than the others and had a larger military as a result becoming some of the stronger the stronger arm of Israel.
00:19:51
Ridley
Right, yeah.
00:19:59
Ridley
Yeah, if you read later on, with especially with David and and Solomon and some of the battles, they'll theyll count you know what tribes sent what, and Ephraim's usually one of the biggest suppliers of men for those battles. So,
00:20:10
Dan Sanchez
which in order to have a big army means things things are probably going pretty well. So there's some blessing going on somewhere up there for the sake of the whole.
00:20:15
Ridley
Yeah, Yeah.
00:20:18
Dan Sanchez
I always wonder that if God bring broaden that in for a specific time, and then it got spread out and became less of the focus.
00:20:27
Ridley
Yeah, yeah.
00:20:30
Dan Sanchez
And my
00:20:30
Ridley
I mean, it's an interesting, you know, thing to trace and that I'm glad we're actually talking about it on the front end of all this Bible reading. I hope people who are listening to this and reading along with us will begin to take more note of that and the language that she was there and those conversations.
00:20:43
Ridley
And again, the twists and turns of how God always consistently still working out his plan, but never doing it the way we think.
00:20:53
Jon
Oh, yeah.
00:20:54
Ridley
mean, to me, one of the shocking most shocking stories in all of scripture, especially in the Old Testament, is God going to Abraham and saying, okay, that one son that everything's supposed to pass, then I want you to go sacrifice him to me.
00:21:06
Ridley
I mean, if you're if it's your first time reading through scripture and you're just beginning to get into the rhythm of this story, you have to be shocked at that moment and go, okay, what in the world is this all about?
00:21:16
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:21:17
Ridley
But it's, a again, a test of Abraham's faith. It's a reminder that God's in charge of this. So many great lessons from that story about about how God works.
00:21:29
Dan Sanchez
applying this to today, do you think there are blessings and curses that can travel through through families? Is it something that can be given? Hence, so I have this letter that I have, and I've always looked at it being like, I don't know if this is still a thing. If it is, I can certainly see evidence of it. But at the same time, it's like,
00:21:48
Dan Sanchez
I don't know. It could just be me looking, looking for something that's there and, you know, there's selective focus when you're looking, looking for evidence as something you're looking for, whatever you're looking for.
00:21:59
Kyle
I would to speak to personally to you as far as the letter, it's going to end up in the rest of my answer. if it's based around scriptural truths, because there are plenty of times where you could pray a blessing over someone or read scriptural over someone, but it's so it's always solidified in things that have already come through scripture.
00:22:20
Kyle
It's not like there's new prophecy happening or you're giving something that God doesn't know about.
00:22:21
Jon
All right.
00:22:26
Kyle
It's things that have already been revealed to us. And so a lot of blessings today are typically a prayer of scripture over someone's life that they're being called to something in the Lord that he's already revealed to us.
00:22:38
Kyle
And so as you look at your letter, I would see, hey, is this is this biblically based or is it out of like left field where he's just drawing things in from something I hope that helps you, but in in general, for for churches, if you see someone giving a blessing, typically it's just reading scripture over someone's life.
00:22:56
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:22:58
Ridley
I'm not recalling exactly the setting, but Jesus himself said to his disciples, whom you bless, I will bless and who you curse, I will curse. you know I think there was an anticipation there even from Jesus that this would be a practice that would continue.
00:23:11
Ridley
I personally, for all four of my kids, when they turned 18, gave them a letter to just spoke blessing over their lives. It's not a magical thing. If I, I would, I would argue that a blessing given by a parent to a child is just like the gift of salvation given from God to someone. He can give it, but until you receive it, it doesn't make a difference in your life. And that goes back to what Kyle say, and if it's based on scripture, they have to understand the principles of scripture in order to receive that blessing and to know how that applies to their lives.
00:23:43
Kyle
So, since you brought that up about your kids, blessed them at 18, I did that for both my kids at birth. My son, my first born son with the birth, right? Just kidding. My first born son and then with my daughter, just blessed them and read scripture over their life. But at that time, I'm like, you know, I'm proclaiming this to a baby who is not necessarily understanding. And so it reflected back back on me on how I was going to raise my kids.
00:24:08
Kyle
And so it was kind of just like a commitment time between me and my kids that I was committing to raise them in a godly home with godly values based on scripture. Now they're older and I could speak those truths into their life and know pray that they attach to the truths of scriptures.
00:24:24
Ridley
Did you give your son all the cattle as part of his birthright?
00:24:29
Kyle
No, but I did hold them up in the hospital room like like Mufasa did with Simba. offered a
00:24:33
Ridley
Did you sleep?
00:24:34
Kyle
i did know that so I actually prayed like that, offering up to the Lord, like, this is not mine, this is yours, but I want to take care of it for you.
00:24:38
Ridley
That's great.
00:24:41
Jon
I think to both of your points,
00:24:43
Ridley
Go ahead.
00:24:46
Jon
Yeah, there's a ah ah scriptural emphasis that you can have and that, you know, speaking blessing over your children or, you know, family trees. Cause I think about it on the alternative side of things.
00:24:59
Jon
There's maybe some generational things that have plagued your family. And I believe it's by the way that we either speak life or death over our family, by the way that we live our lives, by the way that
00:25:10
Ridley
hu
00:25:13
Jon
We're either pouring onto them unscriptural lifestyles that they will end up imitating and regurgitating to their kids or the opposite.
00:25:18
Ridley
yeah
00:25:23
Jon
So it really, it falls in our are opportunity, a ah ah window of opportunity as we look to generations beyond. Do we speak?
00:25:32
Ridley
I would encourage people to have kids.
00:25:34
Jon
Yeah.
00:25:36
Ridley
today with modern technology being what it is, what a cool opportunity to just film a blessing to your kids so that at stages in their life, they watch a video when they turn 12, which was, of course, the time of manhood for for the that generation, that that culture. are At age 18, they pull out another video and this is your your blessing over them. but Man,
00:25:58
Ridley
there's There's lots of times, even now, as a 57-year-old guy, I would love to be able to pull out a video of my dad or my grandfather speaking blessings over me and to be reminded of the kind of men they were and what I attained to be, if that makes sense.
00:26:05
Jon
Yeah. Yeah.
00:26:13
Ridley
And and to John's point, to even talk about, hey, here's where I drop the ball, learn from me, and don't don't make these mistakes.
00:26:20
Dan Sanchez
So a couple different things. One, there's certainly something to just how you're raised because how you're raised and how you model things ends up impacting your children for good and certainly for bad. And we all know that and see the evidence of that. And when it comes to blessing, what's the difference between a a blessing and a prayer?
00:26:40
Jon
Good one Dan.
00:26:43
Ridley
I mean, I think the obvious right off the top, the biggest difference is that a prayer can do a whole lot of things. A prayer can be petition, a prayer can be intercession, a prayer can be thanksgiving. So it can have a whole lot of different things to it, but the purpose of a blessing is to specifically provide a spiritual anointing of someone in a particular way using scripture to guide those those kinds of places of favor that God puts on them.
00:27:09
Ridley
So the blessing has one particular aim, whereas the prayer can do all kinds of things, cover all kinds of parts.
00:27:16
Dan Sanchez
So you're saying a blessing is a more specific type of prayer.
00:27:19
Ridley
And that's what I would and interpret it to be. I don't know, y'all might think differently, but that's kind of where I would would land.
00:27:25
Jon
i would I would say the same thing. I think the authority obviously as believers comes from the same place, you know, as we call ourselves Christians, whether that, you know, blessing imitation or the prayer that we do, it's all under the umbrella of God, but blessing being more specific for sure.
00:27:44
Ridley
I can't have this conversation without thinking about Christmas vacation at the table where she's just not laughing, waiting for that to come out.
00:27:50
Kyle
The blessing.
00:27:56
Dan Sanchez
Well, gentlemen, thank you so much for this conversation. It has been fantastic working through this chronological Bible with the congregation, with my life group, and in this podcast. So looking forward to next week's session as we dive more into Joseph's story.
00:28:08
Ridley
Yeah.