I will bless you. This is the first of the 10 things God wants me to remember—at least according to the magnet I found on Bob’s gun cabinet.

The first occurrence of the words I will bless you is recorded in Genesis. God’s main promise (covenant) to Abraham began with those words. “I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.” [22:17 NIV]

This promise of blessing was given to Abraham despite Abraham’s sins and failings. God kept His promise and Isaac was born. Some of God’s promises are contingent upon our response. Those are the “if/then” promises; if you do this/then I will do that. However, many of God’s promises do not depend on our character but on His faithfulness, and this promise to Abraham was absolutely dependent on God’s faithfulness.

The promise of blessing to Abraham is also referenced in Hebrews. The writer of Hebrews tells us that God did not promise this blessing only to Abraham but also gave His promise and oath to “the heirs of promise.” While Isaac and his descendants are the first of these heirs, all believers are included in the promise as “Abraham’s [spiritual] seed.” [Hebrews 6:14-20, 11:9, Galatians. 3:29]

God even confirmed His promise with an oath. In an oath the greater always witnesses for the lesser, and in this instance, there is no greater one than God, who cannot lie, and who always keeps His promises. God has promised to bless us as spiritual descendants of Abraham.

Too often we trivialize blessing, God blessed me with a good parking space. We need to remember the depth, width and length of the blessing that is the foundation of all blessing, that blessing which flows through the greatest descendant of Abraham, Jesus Christ.

I [we] have been blessed in Christ, that’s God’s promise, that’s God’s oath…I will bless you.