{"id":1544,"date":"2021-11-14T20:43:55","date_gmt":"2021-11-14T19:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1544"},"modified":"2021-11-14T20:43:56","modified_gmt":"2021-11-14T19:43:56","slug":"the-priestly-blessing-numbers-622-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1544","title":{"rendered":"The Priestly Blessing Numbers 6:22-27"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two small silver scrolls about one inch long were found near Jerusalem. They were on amulets in a burial cave in the Valley of Hinnom and they date from the sixth or seventh century BC. Currently they are the oldest example of any text of Scripture and they contain this benediction in Hebrew.
\n24 \u2018 \u201c \u2018The LORD bless you and keep you;
\n25 the LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
\n26 the LORD turn his face towards you and give you peace.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

These were the words of the blessing God gave to Moses for Aaron and his descendants to declare in order to bless the Israelites forevermore. This is known as the Aaronic blessing or the Priestly blessing.
\n22 The LORD said to Moses, 23 \u2018Tell Aaron and his sons, \u201cThis is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start by thinking about
\nThe Power of Blessings
\nThe word BLESS \/ blessing is a very biblical word \u2013 more than 400 times in the Bible. A blessing is a \u201cbestowal of some good\u201d which can be any form of material or spiritual well-being. Most of the time it is God who gives the blessing. So just in Genesis alone we read 65 times about the LORD blessing Adam and Eve, and the whole creation, and Noah, and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and a few other people as well. Throughout Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy we read another 64 promises of God blessing His chosen people Israel. And Psalms and Proverbs especially speak another 81 times of the blessings God has for those who seek and trust and obey Him.
\nWhen God speaks words of blessing and when God makes a promise that someone will be blessed, things happen! Because God\u2019s words are an expression, and even an extension of His personality and His authority. When God speaks, things happen. God said let there be light \u2013 and there was light. When God speaks words of blessing, the person receives that blessing every time. Here in Numbers 6 God delegated to the priests, to Aaron and to his descendants, the authority to declare his blessing on his people.
\nWe know the power of prayer. But let\u2019s be clear, in the Bible pronouncing a blessing on someone is distinctly different to praying for them. It is not asking that God might bless somebody \u2013 but declaring the promise that God will bless them. Remember how Jesus blessed the little children when they came to Him. Those mothers who brought their children to Jesus knew that Jesus saying a blessing on them would make a difference to their lives, And when Jesus sent out his disciples to preach the gospel and teach and hear and minister deliverance in Luke 10:5-6, 9-12 he instructed his disciples to proclaim a blessing wherever they stayed.
\nLuke 10:6 \u201cWhen you enter a house, first say, `Peace to this house.\u2019 If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. Jesus was teaching that the words His disciples spoke would convey God\u2019s blessing and God\u2019s peace to the people they spoke to.
\nThe priests in Israel had God\u2019s authority to pronounce his blessing on the people. As Christians we are all priests in God\u2019s eyes and so we also all have the same authority to pronounce God\u2019s blessing \u2013 to declare how God will bless. When we do this, it will not just be empty words, nor even optimistic prayers. Our words of blessing will be authoritative. Because we speak on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessings we declare in Jesus\u2019s name WILL come to pass. So let\u2019s look at this Priestly Blessing in Numbers 6 and see the blessings which it brought to the Israelites and which it can bring to us as well.
\nWe can see these phrases either as six separate blessings, or read them in pairs as three blessings where the first half speaks of what God does and the second on the effect which that divine action has in the lives of believers.
\nThe Lord Bless You
\nIt is the LORD, Yahweh, the God who is the great I AM, who will bless the Israelites
\nGod had first promised his blessing to Abraham in Genesis 12
\n2\t\u201cI will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;
\nI will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
\n3\tI will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
\nand all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.\u201d<\/p>\n

This blessing was repeated when Isaac gave his blessing to Jacob in Genesis 28 3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. 4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien, the land God gave to Abraham.
\nGod\u2019s blessings promised to the Patriarchs were not just family and descendants and a land of their own but included many other material blessings.<\/p>\n

Moses told the nation of Israel
\nDeuteronomy 28 3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
\n4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock\u2014the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
\n5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.
\n6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
\nSo many rich physical and material blessings! But of course the greatest blessing for the Israelites did not lie in material prosperity but in knowing God and being his chosen people!<\/p>\n

Leviticus 26 9 \u201c \u2018I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. 10 You will still be eating last year\u2019s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. 11 I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. 12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.<\/p>\n

In the Priestly Blessing Aaron and his descendants will proclaim all these material and spiritual blessings to the Israelites, forever. And the result of God blessing his people follows on. The Lord bless you,
\nAnd keep you
\nOther translations say, \u201cAnd protect you\u201d, \u201cwatch over you,\u201d \u201ctake care of you,\u201d \u201cguard you.\u201d
\nIn Psalms 121 in the old Authorised King James Version the Lord is referred to as \u2018Israel\u2019s keeper\u2019
\nPsalm 121 3\tHe will not let your foot slip\u2014 he who watches over you will not slumber;
\n4\tindeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
\n5\tThe LORD watches over you\u2014 the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
\n6\tthe sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
\n7\tThe LORD will keep you from all harm\u2014 he will watch over your life;
\n8\tthe LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.<\/p>\n

God\u2019s blessings will rest on the Israelites, and keep them safe and guard them and preserve them from harm. In the same way God\u2019s blessings come to us as Christians. Most important of all is the blessing of a personal relationship with Almighty God \u2013 He is our Heavenly Father and we are his beloved children. And he will watch over us and protect us and keep us safe and preserve us too.
\nAnd there\u2019s more.
\nThe Lord make his face shine on you
\nGod spoke into the darkness and said, \u201clet there be light\u201d and brought the whole of Creation into existence. Wherever the light of God\u2019s presence shines it brings life. For this reason a number of times in the Psalms the writers pray that God\u2019s face will shine on them.<\/p>\n

Psalm 31 16 Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love.
\nPsalm 67:1 begins May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us.
\nPsalm 31:16 prays, Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love.
\nPsalm 80 echoes the same phrase no less than THREE times.
\nRestore us, O God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.<\/p>\n

The Priestly Blessing declares that God\u2019s face will indeed shine on his people, and here will be the result. The Lord make his face shine upon you,
\nAnd be gracious to you
\nOther translations read, \u201cBe merciful to you,\u201d \u201csurround you with loving-kindness,\u201d
\nThe word has many shades of meaning \u2013 showing mercy, being gracious, showing favour. As we saw last week God poured his love out to Israel not because of any merits in themselves, but because of his own divine nature of loving-kindness.
\nDeuteronomy 7 7 The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.
\nThe Priestly Blessing declares that God will always show his mercy to Israel because that is an essential element in his character of unfailing love. God is love! And for us as believers, God will shine his glorious light into our lives as well. He will keep us in his steadfast love and his infinite mercy too.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s more.<\/p>\n

The Lord turn his face towards you
\nIn the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms, when God turns his face away from somebody or hides his face from them that is an expression of anger or judgment. On the other hand when God turns his face towards somebody that is an expression of divine pleasure.
\nThe result of God turning his face towards his people is this.
\nAnd give you peace
\nLeviticus 26 3 \u201c \u2018If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, 4 I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit. 5 Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.
\n6 \u201c \u2018I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove savage beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country.<\/p>\n

In the Bible, peace is not just the absence of conflict. It embraces prosperity, children, security, land, happiness, health. But shalom also has a much broader sense of completeness, wholeness, well-being, tranquility. It means peace in relationships between human beings. And peace means reconciliation between people and their God. Peace was at the heart of the wonderful salvation God gave to the Israelites and peace is at the heart of the even more marvellous salvation we have received through the Lord Jesus Christ.
\nPsalm 29:11 The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace.
\nGod promised peace to Israel. And even more God promises his peace to us as believers today. But as with all of God\u2019s blessings we need to actively receive his peace.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 26 3 You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
\n4 Trust in the LORD for ever, for the LORD, the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal.<\/p>\n

NLT You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
\nYou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is fixed on you.<\/p>\n

God promises us his peace, but we need to receive that peace for ourselves. And we can do that by praying.<\/p>\n

Philippians 4 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.<\/p>\n

So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them
\nThrough this blessing, God put his name on his chosen people. God putting his name on a person is in a sense a symbol of ownership \u2013he is our God and we belong to God. God put his name on the Israelites \u2013 they were known to belong to Him.
\nDeuteronomy 27:9 The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. 10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will fear you. 11 The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity
\nThe Israelites belonged to God. Now as believers and followers of Jesus, we are God\u2019s chosen people, his royal priesthood, his holy nation, his special possession. God has put his name on us \u2013 we are known as Christians. Here at the very beginning of the story of Israel we find an anticipation of all the blessings which are waiting for us in glory at the end of our salvation.
\nRevelation 22 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.<\/p>\n

God has put his name on us. But we do not need to wait for heaven. The Priestly Blessing declares God\u2019s love and protection and light and mercy and peace on his chosen people. These blessings are available to us right here, right now. We can receive all these blessings for ourselves, when we put our own names where it reads \u201cyou\u201d. And we can pass these blessings on to other people when we address them and use their names in place of \u201cyou\u201d.<\/p>\n

24 \u2018 \u201c \u2018The LORD bless you and keep you;
\n25 the LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
\n26 the LORD turn his face towards you and give you peace.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two small silver scrolls about one inch long were found near Jerusalem. They were on amulets in a burial cave in the Valley of…<\/span><\/p>\n

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