Love, Bless, Multiply

Deuteronomy 7:13 gives a succinct summary of Yahweh’s promise to Israel. When Israel goes into the land, He will “love you and bless you and multiply you.” This triad appears to be a sequence: Yahweh loves, and therefore blesses; and blessing, as in the creation account, brings increase - He blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply.

The blessing is filled out with a seven-item list that is organized in a 2 + 3 + 2 pattern:

1a) Fruit of womb

1b) Fruit of ground

The parallel of womb and ground is significant. Adam was born from the womb of the earth, and children are often described as “seed.” The fruit of the ground includes all the good necessary for festivity, and especially for sacramental festivity in the presence of Yahweh:

2a) Grain

2b) New wine

2c) Oil

And then there is a promise of “increase”:

3a) Increase of herd

3b) [Increase] of flock

The blessing is sevenfold reinforcing the link to the creation account, and that suggests a wider application. God loves Abraham, blesses Him, multiplies Him; loves Israel, blesses Israel, multiplies Israel; loves Jesus, blesses Jesus, multiplies Jesus. And human creativity runs through the same sequence. Marriage moves from love to blessing to multiplying; parents love children, bless them, and look to see them increase; a craftsman loves his material, blesses it and then repeats. Perhaps there is a trace of Trinity here: The Father loves, the Son blesses, the Spirit multiplies. A trace of the Trinity traced in the smallest of human actions.