This one involved a lot of teamwork, across many centuries, and was refreshed by another team of musicians several millennia later. The scene was the Desert of Sinai (see satellite image here), and the one who initiated “The Blessing” was God, of course. He is the source of all blessings, is He not? He wanted to lift His people into a trust relationship with Himself, as they were preparing to enter a land some 3,500 years ago, underscoring His deliverance of this people from bondage and into a covenant that He had already extended to them. Blessing, His presence, His favor, and a peace that He was set to guarantee them. And so, Moses was directed to convey the message to his brother Aaron and Aaron’s sons, who had the blessed task of reporting this happy news to the masses. Corollaries to this covenant would be narrated orally unto generation-upon-generation in the succeeding 1,500 years, with one overarching message: God and the blessings of His presence are still with you. What four 21st Century musical artists did in 2020 was to repeat this, with a musical style that emphasizes this message’s recurring nature. Imagine singing with all those generations who’ve already been blessed by Him, and spur on all those generations who will be blessed by Him in the future!
Yes, that’s right. If you notice, when you hear or sing ‘The Blessing’, that there is an awful lot of repetition in its words, you’re right. It’s just a phenomenon that speaks of the history of the words that Chris Brown, Cody Carnes, Kari Jobe, and Steven Furtick drew upon during the song’s development session. It was during a Thursday when the four were trying to hear what God was saying to them, and from what you and I can see in the lyrics, they heard Him over and over again through their bibles. God communicated something unique in the initial Sinai Desert blessing (Numbers 6:24-26). This benediction’s promise for the people of a thousand generations (Exodus 20:6 [God] and Deuteronomy 7:9 [Moses]) – that’s at least 20,000 years, approximately, wow! – and its transmission to this people’s descendants via so many other testifiers (like David, Solomon, Paul, and other anonymous writers in numerous books of the bible), really makes credible another emphasized point in the lyrics: the omnipresence of the great I AM and His indwelling Spirit (indicated in various scriptures – see link below to discussion of the song’s lyrics), in people and therefore in the writings they’ve contributed to the holy scriptures. From what Chris, Cody, Kari, and Steven have said, the Thursday writing session and the premier of the song a mere three days later in a church in Ballantyne, North Carolina just showed how much people in our world are thirsting for encouragement, direct from God Himself through their own bibles. Chris calls the song ‘relentless’ in its delivery of the message. It’s as if the four writers captured a vision of something in their North Carolina studio, and tried to imagine God’s voice carrying the tune throughout the 175 generations (3,500 years) since it was first hummed in His great heart. Do you think He’ll ever tire of telling us ‘I love you’?
God’s pledge was for ‘1,000 generations’, so it’s fair to say that you and I will be gone a pretty long time when that pledge is fully matured, assuming He meant literally 20,000 years when He first spoke those words. Will He allow you and me to someday appreciate His love nature completely, as He continues to draw people to Himself across the years yet to come? Only He can answer that, though He’s promised us we will see Him in all His glory. How many believers will His forbearance in all that projected time allow Him to receive unto Himself? Another unknown, at least to us here and now. No covenant ever made has come close to the one He’s pledged. I’m not a math major, but it would be eye-popping to discover what the final numbers are at the end of all this. Ready to meet the One who’s counting up the data?! Make sure you are in His Excel sheet.
Song story is here: https://www.thechristianbeat.org/kari-jobe-cody-carnes-and-elevation-worship-release-the-blessing-live/
See here for discussion of the song’s lyrics: https://www.thebereantest.com/elevation-worship-feat-cody-carnes-kari-jobe-the-blessing
See here for information on the Sinai Desert-Peninsula: Sinai Peninsula - Wikipedia
See here for information on Mount Sinai: Mount Sinai (Bible) - Wikipedia
Public Domain status of the satellite view of Sinai Peninsula: The image is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)
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