Blessings Given Before Abraham

Genesis is filled with curses and blessings, and those curses and blessings carried weight that we in the Western culture know little about today.  As much as curses held power in the world of Genesis, blessings were every bit as powerful.

In Genesis there are 64 times the word "blessing" (barak) is used.

BLESSINGS IN CREATION

God set the standard for blessings when he created the world, blessing birds and sea creatures on the fifth day of creation, with this blessing (Genesis 1:22):
God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.”
On the surface it looks like a command, but on closer examination, we can see that it is called a blessing.  The verse does not say, "God commanded and spoke," the verse says, "God blessed them...."

On the sixth day, God again gave a blessing; only this time it was to humanity (Genesis 1:28):
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Again, what looks like a command is actually a blessing.  This verse is repeated in Genesis 5:1-2.

Finally, God blessed the seventh day in Genesis 2:3:
And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.


GOD'S BLESSINGS BEFORE ABRAHAM

As Noah left the ark, he was blessed very much like the fish and birds were in creation in Genesis 9:1&7:
Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. ...As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it."


Between the blessings in verses 1&7, which are quoted here, there were two rules God gave to humanity through Noah.  In the first rule, God gave humans permission to kill animals and to eat their meat (for the first time), with the qualification that the animal must be drained of its blood first.  The second rule forbade killing humans, at the cost of capital punishment.  Both of these emphasize the importance of blood and life.

In the middle of this blessing, related to attacking and killing animals, God placed the fear of humans in the animals.  In other words, because they were to be hunted, they began to fear us for their own protection.

THE FIRST BLESSING A HUMAN SPOKE

Noah was the first human to speak a blessing.  He had been passed out drunk the night before, but was aware enough to remember (or somehow else concluded) what his second born son did during his inebriation.  Ham (the father of Canaan) saw his father drunk and naked in his tent and went out to tell his brothers.  On the surface one would wonder why Noah got so upset, but this will be better explained in the section about the curses in Genesis.  For now, let's just leave it with this:  For some reason, Noah felt violated by what Ham did.

After being violated by Ham, Noah blessed his other two sons because they respected him by covering up his nudity and protecting him from his own shame.  While cursing Ham and his descendants to servitude, he blessed the other two and their descendants with blessings that foretold prosperity.