Deuteronomy 33:24-25
About Asher he said:
“Most blessed of sons is Asher;
let him be favored by his brothers,
and let him bathe his feet in oil.
The bolts of your gates will be iron and bronze,
and your strength will equal your days.”
Original words for blessed in the Old Testament
barak: the state of being blessed, positional
asher (esher): to be straight (used in the widest sense, especially to be level, right, happy); figurative: to go forward, be honest, prosper; (to call or be) blessed, happy; go, guide, lead, receive
Barak: “I am blessed” / Asher: “I feel blessed”
Barak: position, head / Asher: emotion, heart
The doctrine of biblical happiness (asher blessing)
1. What is it? Biblical happiness is the psychological awakening to a work of God.
Like its secular sister, it is indeed circumstantial
Has God blessed (barak-ed) you? React to it!
i. Psalm 32:1-2: Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.
ii. The Magnificat (Luke 1:46ff): “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant…”Note the meaning of rejoices: agallio (Gk): exult, leap for joy, excessive or ecstatic joy and delight, to twirl
iii. Proverbs 14:21: …but blessed [asher] is he who is kind to the needy. Serving others produces asher blessing
Receive asher; do not pursue it
i. Asherah poles in God’s temple2 Kings 21:7: He [Manasseh] took the carved Asherah pole he had made and put it in the temple
ii. The idolatry of happiness; the pursuit of happiness can become an idol; we only receive asher blessing—we do not pursue it except by asking God
Though asher is circumstantial, it not bound by circumstance—God can change any circumstance
The birth of Asher and the desperation of LeahGenesis 29:31-35: from “surely my husband will love me now” to “I am not loved” to “at last my husband will become attached to me” to “this time I will praise the LORD”
God can work in any circumstance
God gives asher; true happiness comes from God alone
i. Genesis 30:13: Then Leah said, “How happy I am! The women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher.Who are “the women” to me?
ii. It is not the job of others to make me happy; nor my job to make others happy (some people are happy being miserable)
iii. Interceding for “Anti” Asher—who is my Aunty Asher?
The Prayer of Asher
This blessing was intended for the tribe of Asher. God is not obligated to bless us with a blessing given to someone else. But we can ask!
“Lord, let us be favored by our brothers and sisters.”
Favor: rasah (Heb.): pleasure, delight, enjoyable, lovable, to be reconcilable, pardoning
Let people like us
Luke 2:52: And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
“Lord, let us bathe our feet in oil.”
Asher received the most fruitful part of Canaan, filled with olive trees
To press oil, we must step forward in the oil of anointing
Don’t stand still—or only your toes will get wet
Security does not equal sameness
Push past fear/freak-out point: “You can’t scare me out of doing what God has called me to do.”
Romans 8:37: No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. We are more than conquerors, more than overcomers, beyond conquest. We go beyond conquest to what comes after it—the promise fulfilled, a piece of the Promised Land
“Lord, let the bolts of our gates me iron and bronze.”
Bolts keep the gate on the wall
Strong bolts hold against a battering ram—the way that Satan works is to attack the same weak points over and over and over again
Repair cracks in the wall—“Don’t cheat your anointing by compromise”Psalm 119:37: Turn my eyes away from worthless things.Ephesians 4:29: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths…Ephesians 5:3: But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity…
Batter back with the Word of God! Note cards, memorization, tell Satan to “Back off!”
“Lord, let us have God-given strength equal to our days.”
Ephesians 1:3: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.Philippians 4:13: I can do everything through him who gives me strength.2 Corinthians 3:4-6: Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant…
We are blessed—act on it
Luke 2:36-38: Anna in the templeYou’re never too old—Anna took the happy back for her tribe—you can too!
The tribe of Asher from Genesis to Revelation
Genesis 29:31-30:13
The birth of Asher
Deuteronomy 33:24-25
Most blessed son of Jacob
Numbers 13:13, 27-33
Spies in Canaan from each tribe; tribe of Asher agreed: “They are too big for us”; unbelief began, anointing begins to crumble
Judges 1:31-32: Nor did Asher drive out those living in Acco or Sidon or Ahlab or Aczib or Helbah or Aphek or Rehob, and because of this the people of Asher lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land.
Asher didn’t fight for their land, they compromised their anointing and lived among the Canaanites
1 Chronicles 27:16-22
No leader for the tribe of Asher listed
2 Chronicles 30:11: Nevertheless, some men of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and went to Jerusalem.
King Hezekiah called the tribes to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover; Asher came
Luke 2:36-38
v. 37: She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.
Anna the prophetess was from the tribe of Asher; despite a hard life, she chose to worship and took the happy back for her tribe
Revelation 7:6,9-10: from the tribe of Asher 12,000…After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
12,000 from the tribe of Asher around the throne of God
About Asher he said:
“Most blessed of sons is Asher;
let him be favored by his brothers,
and let him bathe his feet in oil.
The bolts of your gates will be iron and bronze,
and your strength will equal your days.”
Original words for blessed in the Old Testament
barak: the state of being blessed, positional
asher (esher): to be straight (used in the widest sense, especially to be level, right, happy); figurative: to go forward, be honest, prosper; (to call or be) blessed, happy; go, guide, lead, receive
Barak: “I am blessed” / Asher: “I feel blessed”
Barak: position, head / Asher: emotion, heart
The doctrine of biblical happiness (asher blessing)
1. What is it? Biblical happiness is the psychological awakening to a work of God.
Like its secular sister, it is indeed circumstantial
Has God blessed (barak-ed) you? React to it!
i. Psalm 32:1-2: Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.
ii. The Magnificat (Luke 1:46ff): “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant…”Note the meaning of rejoices: agallio (Gk): exult, leap for joy, excessive or ecstatic joy and delight, to twirl
iii. Proverbs 14:21: …but blessed [asher] is he who is kind to the needy. Serving others produces asher blessing
Receive asher; do not pursue it
i. Asherah poles in God’s temple2 Kings 21:7: He [Manasseh] took the carved Asherah pole he had made and put it in the temple
ii. The idolatry of happiness; the pursuit of happiness can become an idol; we only receive asher blessing—we do not pursue it except by asking God
Though asher is circumstantial, it not bound by circumstance—God can change any circumstance
The birth of Asher and the desperation of LeahGenesis 29:31-35: from “surely my husband will love me now” to “I am not loved” to “at last my husband will become attached to me” to “this time I will praise the LORD”
God can work in any circumstance
God gives asher; true happiness comes from God alone
i. Genesis 30:13: Then Leah said, “How happy I am! The women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher.Who are “the women” to me?
ii. It is not the job of others to make me happy; nor my job to make others happy (some people are happy being miserable)
iii. Interceding for “Anti” Asher—who is my Aunty Asher?
The Prayer of Asher
This blessing was intended for the tribe of Asher. God is not obligated to bless us with a blessing given to someone else. But we can ask!
“Lord, let us be favored by our brothers and sisters.”
Favor: rasah (Heb.): pleasure, delight, enjoyable, lovable, to be reconcilable, pardoning
Let people like us
Luke 2:52: And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
“Lord, let us bathe our feet in oil.”
Asher received the most fruitful part of Canaan, filled with olive trees
To press oil, we must step forward in the oil of anointing
Don’t stand still—or only your toes will get wet
Security does not equal sameness
Push past fear/freak-out point: “You can’t scare me out of doing what God has called me to do.”
Romans 8:37: No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. We are more than conquerors, more than overcomers, beyond conquest. We go beyond conquest to what comes after it—the promise fulfilled, a piece of the Promised Land
“Lord, let the bolts of our gates me iron and bronze.”
Bolts keep the gate on the wall
Strong bolts hold against a battering ram—the way that Satan works is to attack the same weak points over and over and over again
Repair cracks in the wall—“Don’t cheat your anointing by compromise”Psalm 119:37: Turn my eyes away from worthless things.Ephesians 4:29: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths…Ephesians 5:3: But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity…
Batter back with the Word of God! Note cards, memorization, tell Satan to “Back off!”
“Lord, let us have God-given strength equal to our days.”
Ephesians 1:3: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.Philippians 4:13: I can do everything through him who gives me strength.2 Corinthians 3:4-6: Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant…
We are blessed—act on it
Luke 2:36-38: Anna in the templeYou’re never too old—Anna took the happy back for her tribe—you can too!
The tribe of Asher from Genesis to Revelation
Genesis 29:31-30:13
The birth of Asher
Deuteronomy 33:24-25
Most blessed son of Jacob
Numbers 13:13, 27-33
Spies in Canaan from each tribe; tribe of Asher agreed: “They are too big for us”; unbelief began, anointing begins to crumble
Judges 1:31-32: Nor did Asher drive out those living in Acco or Sidon or Ahlab or Aczib or Helbah or Aphek or Rehob, and because of this the people of Asher lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land.
Asher didn’t fight for their land, they compromised their anointing and lived among the Canaanites
1 Chronicles 27:16-22
No leader for the tribe of Asher listed
2 Chronicles 30:11: Nevertheless, some men of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and went to Jerusalem.
King Hezekiah called the tribes to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover; Asher came
Luke 2:36-38
v. 37: She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.
Anna the prophetess was from the tribe of Asher; despite a hard life, she chose to worship and took the happy back for her tribe
Revelation 7:6,9-10: from the tribe of Asher 12,000…After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
12,000 from the tribe of Asher around the throne of God
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