In one of my earliest posts I mentioned that I love the Islamic greeting because it speaks a blessing on others (“Peace be upon you”, As-Salaamu ‘Alaykoum [السلام عليكم]). Each night when I put my kids to bed I give them a blessing. Blessings should be part of our lives.
In 2007 and 2008 I had the privilege and honor of serving as the Interim Pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN. At the end of each service I delivered the Aaronic blessing from Numbers 6:24-26, “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.” These weren’t just words. They were blessings spoken over God’s people that were (I believe) empowered by God so that his blessing really did fall on them. For my last sermon to this precious church I preached through this great blessing. I thought I would divide the sermon up into a few posts and share it with you. I hope it will encourage you to speak blessings into other people’s lives.
The Lord Bless You
22 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, 24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. 27 “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” – Numbers 6:22-27
The first thing we should see regarding this blessing is that it was God who initiated it. “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying . . .” (v. 22). Moses didn’t come to God and say, “Lord, I think it would be a good idea to bless the people, what do you think?” He didn’t say, “Lord, will you bless the people?” The idea to give a blessing to the people comes from God. This is very significant because it means that God wants to bless his people. He doesn’t bless begrudgingly; he blesses willingly and gladly. “When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go, as at other times, to look for omens, but set his face toward the wilderness” (Num 24:1).
Before we examine the blessing we need to see who was to give this blessing. Aaron and his sons are the ones who give the blessing to the people. Blessing the people was a function of the priests, for Aaron and his sons were the priests. Aaron was the high priest and his sons were also priests who assisted him. We will come back to this later, but for now we note that the priests gave the blessing.
The actual blessing God wanted the priests to speak over the people begins in verse 24:
The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
There are three lines. What do you notice about each line? The Lord is explicitly stated as the subject of each line. The point is that God and God alone, Yahweh, the Creator of the Earth is the one who can do these things. There is no blessing apart from God. You will not be kept apart from the Lord. There is no grace and no peace apart from God and there is no other face that we want to shine on us.
The blessing is a prayer. The priests are asking the Lord to bless, keep, make his face shine, be gracious, lift up his countenance and give peace. But the blessing is spoken to the people. When we pray we don’t have to close our eyes, though we often do. But when I give the blessing at the end of the service I intentionally look at you, in your eyes, because I am speaking to you. I am speaking the blessing to you, not to God. But at the same time it is a form of prayer because my words of blessing to you are implicit requests to God to make them true.
The first line says, “The Lord bless you and keep you.” God blesses us by doing good to us. Blessing is connected to fruitfulness. In the covenant with Israel God promised that if they obeyed him and remained faithful he would bless them with a good land, abundant crops, safety, good livestock and large families. “The Lord bless you” means “the Lord do good to you.”
“And keep you.” This is so crucial. We need God to keep us. We need God to hold us so tight that no one can snatch us out of his hand. We need God to faithfully keep us or we will be lost. This is why Jesus prays, “Holy father, keep them in your name” (John 17:11). God keeps us alive. He keeps us believing. He keeps us trusting. He keeps us obeying. He keeps us in his name so that we do not fall away.
