Blessing the People God Has Blessed
"I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you." — Genesis 12:3
A Promise That Has Never Been Withdrawn
When God called Abram, He attached a promise to him that reached far beyond one man's life:
"I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:2–3)
Read the middle clause carefully. It is not a statement about Abram's personal popularity. It is a standing decree about how God will respond to the treatment of the people He chose.
And nowhere in Scripture is that decree revoked.
The Weight of History
The history of the Jewish people is, among other things, a long record of persecution — expulsions, forced conversions, ghettos, pogroms, blood libels, and industrialized murder within living memory. Much of it was carried out by people who called themselves Christians, using the name of Christ as justification.
That is a stain on the church that no amount of distance will wash out by itself.
Genesis 12:3 says something sobering about all of it: "I will curse him who curses you." Those who brought suffering on the people God chose placed themselves under a curse from God — and consequences of that kind do not confine themselves to individuals. They run through families and nations.
The Questions to Ask
These are direct questions, and they deserve honest answers.
Has anyone in your family line participated in persecuting Jewish people? In violence, in expropriation, in denunciation, in official policy?
Has your family been guilty of looking the other way while others did it — of quiet approval, of comfortable silence, of benefiting from what happened?
Have you personally carried contempt — jokes told, stereotypes repeated, resentments nursed, conspiracy theories entertained?
If so, this is not a matter for embarrassment and avoidance. It is a matter for repentance.
What Repentance Looks Like Here
Confess it plainly to God as sin — your own, and your family's. Ask Him to forgive and to remove any curse that came upon your line through it. Renounce every attitude of contempt.
And then do the positive thing the verse actually calls for. "I will bless those who bless you." Bless. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6). Speak well. Refuse to laugh at the joke. Contradict the slander when you hear it.
The same principle extends to every people group. God's heart is that "in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" — and contempt for any people made in His image is sin, whoever holds it. In Christ "there is neither Greek nor Jew… but Christ is all and in all" (Colossians 3:11).
But the specific promise of Genesis 12:3 stands, and it is worth taking seriously.
Point to Ponder
God attached a standing decree to how His chosen people are treated, and He has never withdrawn it.
Verse to Remember
"I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you." — Genesis 12:3
Question to Consider
Is there contempt for any people in my heart or in my family's history that I have never confessed as sin?
Today's Practice
Search your own speech first. What jokes have you laughed at? What generalizations have you repeated? What resentments do you carry toward a whole category of people?
Confess each one specifically, by name, as sin.
Then ask about your family history. What did your grandparents say at the dinner table? What did your nation do, and did your family participate or profit?
Confess what you find. Ask God to remove any curse that came on your family line through it.
Then pray a blessing out loud — for the Jewish people, and for every group your family has despised.
Prayer
Father, You said that You would bless those who bless Your people and curse those who curse them. I take that seriously.
I confess the contempt that has lived in my heart and in my family. I confess the jokes, the generalizations, the silences, and the comfortable looking away. I confess whatever my nation and my family did that I have never acknowledged.
Forgive me. Forgive my family line. Remove any curse that came upon us through the mistreatment of the people You chose, or of any people made in Your image.
I bless the Jewish people today. I pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And I ask You to give me a heart that blesses instead of despises, wherever I go.
In the name of Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah and Savior of the world. Amen.
God attached a blessing and a curse to how His people are treated. Choose which side of that promise your family stands on.