Do This and I Will Bless You

 Do This and I Will Bless You

The formula for Old Testament promises is “do this and I will bless you”.  Having read the Bible through hundreds of times, when I noticed this formula advanced by Scofield, I decided to test it out. I remember thinking to myself that since it is so obviously based on works, it cannot be true. But apparently it is. 

This very short article will only cover three major promises from the Old Testament; the rest will depend on your reading and noticing the truth: “do this and I will bless you.”

Of course, the natural place to start is with Abraham, the first covenant made with the Jewish people. Israel was a nation yet unknown, about to be started by divine fiat. What does the Bible say? Genesis 12:
Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

What is the duty given to Abraham? He has to get out of his country, separate himself from his father’s household and go to an unknown country. What is the promise given if Abraham does these things? God promises to make of Abraham a great nation, bless him by making his name great and making Abraham become a blessing to others. He further promised to bless them that bless Abraham, and curse them that curse Abraham.

Does this follow the formula: do this and I will bless you? Yes, it does. Clearly God promises his blessing conditioned on Abraham’s obedience. Is the promise unconditional? Of course it is now that Abraham did as the Father asked. Seldom is pointed out the conditional part of the promise, but I have often speculated about what might have happened if Abraham had not left his country. God would not be able to bless him, as the promise was clearly made on the condition that Abraham left his country, his people and followed God.

Abraham receives many assurances and elaborations of these promises, but they are all part of the same formula: do this and I will bless you. Instead of making this shorter piece all about Abraham, I thought next to move to Isaac. In Genesis 26, God promises to Isaac:
And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.2 And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

Is the formula apparent in the above text? Note the condition: Isaac must sojourn in the land, and then God will bless by: 1) by being with Isaac, 2) by being with his seed (children), 3) being given countries, 4) by blessing all nations of the earth through the Jewish people. Note that God says this because “Abraham obeyed my voice”.  It is a conditional affirmation of Abraham’s promise, with some new elaboration. But it clearly follows the formula, do this and I will bless you.

Even after the great period of slavery for the Israelites, God again follows this formula. Moses, in one of the greatest passages of the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 28, tells us:

28 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.7 The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.8 The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.9 The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways.10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee.11 And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee.12 The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.13 And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:14 And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Note verse one, “if you shall diligently hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, and observe all his commandments”.  Conditional again. The formula is followed yet again. Do this and I will bless you.

How does that differ with the coming of Christ? Now the formula is no longer based on works. It is not a matter of what anyone does; it only is a matter of what Jesus has done. He did it all on the cross. No longer do we have to do this and work on that. We look to the author and finisher of our faith. As Hebrews would teach us, we have entered into a “better” rest.