If blessing belongs to God, can blessing be taken from a human? Can a person bless another person? What is the biblical evidence of this?
Yes, a blessing can be taken from a human and in this case it will be a blessing from God Himself. There are many examples for this in the Holy Bible such as:
The blessing given by Isaac to Jacob.
Isaac blessed his son Jacob (Gen 27) and Jacob became blessed from God and became favoured than Esau. He took the rights of the firstborn and priesthood and from his offspring Christ came and all the families of the earth are blessed in him and in his offspring (Gen 28:14). Esau wept for losing this right of the firstborn (Gen 27:38).
It is written also, “By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.” (Heb 11:20).
Jacob, likewise, blessed his sons.
His blessing came true with respect to each one of his sons as if every word from him was coming from the mouth of God Himself. And when Jacob blessed Ephraim and Manasseh putting his right hand on Ephraim the younger and his left on Manasseh the elder, Ephraim became greater than Manasseh (Gen 48:13-20). “So he blessed them that day, saying, ‘By you Israel will invoke blessings, saying God make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh’, So he put Ephraim before Manasseh.” And the blessing came true. Jacob blessed also Joseph his son (Gen 48:15, 49:22-26).
Preceding these, our father Noah blessed his sons and cursed Canaan.
The sons of our father Noah whom he blessed became blessed and on the other hand Canaan whom Noah cursed (Gen 9:26, 27) became cursed even from the mouth of the Lord Christ in His talk with the Canaanite Woman (Matt 15:22, 26).
From all this, many blessings came: The blessing of the parents:
Whoever honours his parents is blessed,
How much rather if those parents are holy people. An example of the blessing of the parents is that in (Gen 31:55), “And early in the morning Laban arose, and kissed his sons and daughters and blessed them.”
The blessing of the righteous.
The Holy Bible mentions this clearly as in: (Prov 11:11), “By the blessing of the upright a city is exalted.” (Prov 28:20) “A faithful man will abound with blessings.”
The men of God also blessed people as when Simon the elderly blessed the holy Virgin and Joseph the Carpenter (Luke 2:34).
The righteous person does not only bless others but he himself becomes a blessing.
The Lord said to our father Abraham, “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.” (Gen 12:2). And to the house of Judah the Lord said, “I will save you, and you shall be a blessing.” (Zech 8:13).
Likewise, Elijah was a blessing to the house of the widow of Zarephath and Joseph the righteous to the house of Potiphar and to Egypt.
There is also the blessing of priesthood:
There is the blessing of Moses the prophet & priest (Psa 99:6) to the people as it is written, “Then Moses looked over all the work, and indeed they had done it; as the LORD had commanded, just so they had done it. And Moses blessed them.” (Ex 39:43). The Lord even explained the way by which Aaron’s sons should bless people, He said to Moses, ” Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them: “The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace”. (Num 6:22-26).
Another example of the blessing of priesthood is when Melchizedek the priest of God Most High blessed Abraham the Patriarch (Gen 14:19,Heb 7:1). St. Paul the Apostle explained that the inferior is blessed by the superior (Heb 7:7).
There is also the blessing of the prophets as men of God.
We read about King Saul that he went out to seek the blessing of Samuel the Prophet (1 Sam 13:10).
Likewise, some leaders sent messengers to David seeking his blessing (1 Chr 18:10).
Solomon the Wise as well – having divine inspiration blessed all the people (1 Kin 8:14), “Then the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel”. (2 Chr 6:3), “Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of the all assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.” (2 Chr 6:12).
And Jehu the king blessed Jehonadab son of Rechab (2 Kin 10:15).
Another blessing is the blessing of the needy to those who give them charity.
It is the blessing which a benevolent obtains from a person whom he offered help or saved from perdition. Job the Righteous said in this respect, “The blessing of a perishing man came upon me.” (Job 29:13). It means that he took the blessing of the person whom he saved.
There is a blessing which stands for prayer by anybody.
The apostle says, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.” (Rom 12:4). And the Lord Christ says in the Sermon on the Mount, “Pray (bless) for those who persecute you.” (Matt 5:44).
St. Peter as well says, “not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.” (1 Pet 3:9).
So, blessing can be given by one person to another to sum up all the above, we mention the following blessings given by humans:
1. Blessing of our forefathers.
2. Blessing of the parents.
3. Blessing of the righteous.
4. Blessing of the clergy.
5. Blessing of the prophets and anointed persons.
6. Blessing of the needy to those who give them charity.
7. Blessing by anybody as a prayer.
The blessing of those might be a prayer to which God responds and blesses. They are vessels in which blessing of God is conveyed. God entrusted them with His stores to
give from them to others…
