Numbers 6:22-27 - The Blessing
CCEA
Wednesday Night
May
28, 2025
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel preached? Does it address the
person who is: Empty, lonely, guilty, or afraid to die? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it
build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision Is the church
loved? Target 3300 words Video = 75 wpm
Pray for the pastors’ retreat
I want to talk tonight about a passage that has words that will seem very
familiar to most of you. My hope is that by the end of our time together, you
will have a new appreciation of these words, and that perhaps I might give you
a tool that will help you in your life. Do you know how to use a “tool”?
Play Video:
“Men and Tools”
Of course, as with all tools, you do need to use them correctly for them to
be helpful.
Stand and Read the passage
(Numbers 6:22–27 NKJV) —22 And the Lord spoke to
Moses, saying: 23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons,
saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them:
24 “The Lord
bless you and keep you;
25 The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious
to you;
26 The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you
peace.” ’
27 “So they shall
put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”
Numbers 6:22-27
The Priestly Blessing
:22 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
:23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless
the children of Israel. Say to them:
:22 the LORD spoke
to Moses
Hebrew/English
translation practices
The Jewish
people have a great and proper reverence for the name of God.
They won’t pronounce it today. You might hear them use the word Hashem, which means “the
name”. You might see them spell it out as G-D.
In my seminary Hebrew classes, when we saw in the text the name of God (יְהוָ֖ה, which is “Yahweh”), we were taught
the rabbinic tradition of saying Adonai, which is translated into English as “Lord”.
Quick side
note: The ancient Hebrew alphabet was
made up of all consonants, no vowels. After the Jews came back from Babylon,
they were concerned that their descendants might forget how to pronounce the
language, so they developed a system of “vowel pointings” (little dots and
dashes usually above or below the letters) that guided the reader on how to
pronounce the words.
When it came to
God’s name, Yahweh, rather than writing the vowels for “Yahweh”, they inserted
the vowels of “Adonai”. What results is something that sounds like
“Ye-hoo-wah”, or as German scholars would pronounce it, “Jehovah”. In other
words, “Jehovah” isn’t God’s name, but a misunderstanding of the Hebrew.
Our English Bibles
will usually follow the same practice that the Jewish rabbis did. Instead of spelling out God’s name
(“Yahweh”), they will
use the translation of “Adonai”, or … “Lord”. But as a way of letting
the English readers know that God’s name is involved, and not the actual word Adonai,
they will use all
capital letters.
This is an Old Testament thing. You won’t see this in the
New Testament unless you are reading a passage that is quoting from an Old
Testament passage which is using God’s name.
All of this was to point out that God’s name, “Yahweh” is used in our passage in verse 22,
24, 25, 26.
Do you see “LORD” in all caps?
Note that the actual blessing (vs.24-26) involves three lines, all starting
with the name Yahweh.
I think there
may be a hint here about the trinity.
The name, Yahweh, translated as “LORD” can refer to all three persons of
the trinity. Let me give you three references.
I’m not going to take time to dive into these, but I just want to give
you the idea…
The Father
is Yahweh (Ps. 110:1)
(Psalm
110:1 NKJV) The Lord said to my
Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I
make Your enemies Your footstool.”
This is a famous
Messianic passage by King David. David is talking about Yahweh (the Father) speaking
to David’s “Lord” (the Son)
The Son
is Yahweh (Rom. 10:9,13; Joel 2:32)
(Romans
10:9 NKJV) that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in
your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Paul will expand
on that thought and in the same breath he adds the capper which is…
(Romans
10:13 NKJV) For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
If you look
carefully at this passage in Romans, you will realize that Paul is drawing from
Joel 2:32 (whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved, vs. 13), and
in Joel, the “LORD” is “Yahweh”
The Spirit
is Yahweh (2Cor. 3:16-17; Ex. 34:34)
(2
Corinthians 3:16–17 NKJV) —16 Nevertheless
when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the
Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Again, Paul is drawing from Old Testament language when
Moses was speaking to Yahweh face to face (Ex. 34:34). But here Paul says that Yahweh is the Spirit.
(Exodus
34:34 NKJV) But
whenever Moses went in before the Lord
to speak with Him, he would take the veil off until he came out; and he would
come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had been commanded.
:23 to Aaron and
his sons
Aaron and his
sons were the priests (cohanim) in Israel.
A priest is a “go-between”, someone who stands between a person and God.
They talk to
God for that person (prayer).
They can also
talk to the person for God.
Yet something happens in the New Testament, after Jesus has fulfilled the
Law of Moses. Peter now writes to the church,
(1 Peter 2:9 NKJV) But you are
a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special
people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness
into His marvelous light;
(Revelation 1:6 NKJV) and has made us kings and
priests to His God and Father…
We believe the
Bible teaches the “priesthood of all believers”.
You no longer need a priest to stand between you and God.
You can go to God directly because of Jesus.
God has now made US priests, priests to those around us
who don’t know God.
We can talk to people about God, and we can talk to God
about people.
Even though our passage is originally aimed at the Levitical
priests, I think you and I can find great value in it.
Now to the blessing…each line has two verbs, two requests.
In the Greek translation (LXX),
each verb is in the “optative”, which is used to express a request from God.
:24 “The LORD
bless you and keep you;
Every time you see “you” in all three lines, it is singular.
Even though this blessing is intended for the entire nation of Israel, it
is spoken over individuals.
It’s not aimed to “all of you…”, but to YOU (singular).
:24 bless you
bless – barak – to bless, praise
A word about “semantic range” –
words can carry a range of meanings, and the job of the student is to figure
out which meanings are appropriate to the text we are studying.
For example, the word “run” can
refer to you moving faster than walking.
It can refer to how a business is managed. It can refer to a nose when
you have a cold.
I’m going to give you several
Hebrew words and phrases tonight and their meanings, and though I will try to
bring out how they differ from one another, you’re going to find that some of
the words overlap quite a bit in their meaning.
“making a face shine” and “lifting
up a countenance” are pretty close in meaning.
“gracious” and “peace” are really
quite similar.
The word “bless” in a sense can
encompass all the words that we’ll look at tonight.
“kneeling” is related because
typically those being blessed are on their knees.
The concept of “blessing” seems to
be about asking that something happen that brings joy and fullness upon
something or someone.
This word is loaded with meaning. You might see it here as an overall word
that includes all the other things in what we’ll study. Here’s my working
definition of “bless”:
A wish,
expression, or gift that brings fullness upon something or someone
Sometimes it’s
just one human giving a gift to another human.
Joshua gave a gift to his pal Caleb…
(Joshua 14:13 NKJV) And Joshua blessed him, and gave
Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance.
It can be a
human giving God praise.
(Psalm 34:1 NKJV) I will bless the Lord
at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
It can be God
independently choosing to bless an individual.
(Genesis 25:11 NKJV) And it came
to pass, after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac…
Often
it’s one human asking God to do something for another human.
Before sending him away, Isaac “blessed” Jacob …
(Genesis 28:3 NKJV) “May God
Almighty bless you, And make you fruitful and multiply you, That you may be
an assembly of peoples;
Our passage focuses on asking God to bless people.
Lesson
1. Ask for good
Sometimes we
can fall into the trap of feeling “hurt”, “offended”, or “treated unfairly”, so
we might ask God to punish someone.
We can tell ourselves that we are simply praying prayers like David prayed,
(Psalm 58:6a NKJV) Break their
teeth in their mouth, O God!
(Psalm
10:15a NKJV) Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man
Illustration
There was a
story about a truck driver who dropped in at an all-night restaurant in Broken Bow,
Nebraska. The waitress had just served him when three swaggering,
leather-jacketed motorcyclists—of the Hell’s Angels type—entered and rushed up to him,
apparently spoiling for a fight. One
grabbed the hamburger
off his plate; another took a handful of his French fries; and the third picked
up his coffee and
began to drink it. The trucker did not
respond as one might expect. Instead, he
calmly rose, picked up his check, walked to the front of the room, put the
check and his money on the cash register, and went out the door. The waitress followed him to
put the money in the till and stood watching out the door as the big truck drove away into
the night. When she returned, one of the
bikers said to her, “Well, he’s not much of a man, is he?” She replied, “I can’t answer as to that, but
he’s not much of a truck driver. He just
ran over three
motorcycles out in the parking lot.”
Sometimes the
people that hurt us the most can be those that we’re closest to. Yet God has something different in mind when
we are hurt. He wants us to bless them
instead of curse them.
God’s desire is that we reflect Him,
and since He seeks the best, the “good” for others, so should we:
(Matthew 5:44–45 NKJV) —44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse
you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you
and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father
in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends
rain on the just and on the unjust.
When we love, bless, do good, and pray for others, we are
acting like God does, like we are His children.
The truth is, God
desires to do good for His people. This is part of His will. So
it’s proper if we learn to bless them in prayer as well.
(Romans 8:28 NKJV) And we know that all things work
together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according
to His purpose.
(Romans 8:32 NKJV) He who did not spare
His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things?
Here’s where it gets tricky. When it comes to what is “good”, we may not
know exactly what that is.
Sometimes
we might be asking for things that “seem” good to us, but that’s not the “good”
God wants.
Sometimes the “good” thing may be a difficulty that a
person needs to endure in order to get closer
to God.
“Good” doesn’t always mean “easy”.
So we learn to ask for “good”.
Eerdman’s Dictionary of the Bible:
Bless, Blessing
The Hebrew root brk bears a number of unrelated
etymological meanings: the verbal and nominal forms of “bless”; the verbal and
nominal forms of “kneel”; and a noun, “pool, pond, basin.” Even within the
semantic range “bless,” brk can mean
to bestow goodness or favor or to greet, congratulate, thank, make peace,
worship, or praise. The qal passive participle bārûḵ, meaning “blessed,” occurs most often in the
formula “blessed be …” In seven occurrences, bāraḵ is used for “curse” (e.g., Ps. 10:3); because such
curses are directed against God, most scholars attribute them to scribal
emendation in spite of the lack of textual evidence.
Brk is most often a
relational marker, signifying the existence of some sacral, legal, or social
relationship. God, angels, and humanity may bless; God, humanity, animals, and
inanimate objects can be blessed. Precisely what is conveyed by the act of
blessing differs depending upon both its grantor and grantee. Foremost,
however, blessing is a performative utterance, or speech act, that brings good
upon someone or something in contrast to cursing, which is maleficent to its
recipient.
God repeatedly blesses individuals
(Job 42:12), groups (cf. Exod. 32:29), and nations (Jer. 4:2), particularly
Israel (Deut. 26:15), in accordance with a divine-human covenantal
relationship. This idea is emphasized in the Deuteronomistic history and the
Prophets through God’s conveying of blessings for covenantal obedience, as
opposed to curses for covenantal breach (Deut. 27–28). Such blessings and
curses would serve to enforce the provision of the law (Josh. 8:34). It is
probable that the Hebrew writers modeled this covenant relationship on ancient
Near Eastern suzerainty treaties. It should be noted that there is wide
disagreement among scholars regarding the extent to which divine blessing has
to do with salvation history rather than nature and creation as established in
the primeval history. The benefactions of God are diverse and include vitality,
health, longevity, fertility, land, prosperity, honor, victory, and power. God
also blesses creatures (Gen. 1:22; Deut. 28:4) and inanimate objects, such as land
(Deut. 26:15), dwellings (Prov. 3:33), crops (Deut. 7:13), bread and water
(Exod. 23:25), work (Deut. 28:8), and the sabbath (Gen. 2:3), usually for the
benefit of humanity.
Humans may also bless. While early
20th-century scholarship suggested that blessings in the ancient world held a
power independent of God, the most recent scholarship concludes that God is the
original source of all human blessings (Num. 6:22–27; 23:20). First, humans may
bless others in their role as intermediaries for God, e.g., family heads (Gen.
9:1), leaders (Exod. 39:43), kings (2 Sam. 6:18 = 1 Chr. 16:2), prophets (Num.
23:11), priests (1 Sam. 2:20), or disciples (Acts 3:26). Such blessings may hold
legal or sacral significance. A deathbed blessing from the family head serves
as an irrevocable bequest of property (Gen. 27–28, 48–49). A blessing may also
hold the legal status of a peace treaty when offered by a king or other in
authority (2 Kgs. 18:31 = Isa. 36:16). Priests are especially important for
their liturgical function (Num. 6:24–26).
Second, a human may seek to invoke
divine blessing upon another, which might be offered by anyone in the more
mundane affairs of life in greeting (Gen. 47:7), in parting (Gen. 24:60),
between host and guest (1 Sam. 25:14), in friendship (2 Sam. 21:3), as
congratulations (1 Chr. 18:10), in gratitude (Neh. 11:2), or in homage (2 Sam.
14:22). One might also bless oneself (Deut. 29:19 [MT 18]). In all such cases,
the blessing denotes the presence of a relationship between the giver and the
receiver that is grounded in the divine-human relationship.
Third, humans sometimes bless
things. This is another aspect of the invocation of God’s favor upon humanity,
which arises upon use of a blessed object. The consecration of articles of
sacrifice is perhaps the most significant example of this category (1 Sam.
9:13).
Finally, humans and angels may
bless God (Ps. 134:1–2; 103:20). Scholars disagree concerning the significance
of this type of blessing: can it signify the bestowal of favor or goodness upon
God? The answer depends not only upon one’s view of ancient Israelite theology,
but also upon one’s anthropological view of the ancient Israelites regarding
the magical power of the speech act itself. Later scholarship suggests that
most likely brk here denotes only the
acts of worship, praise, or thanksgiving (Ps. 115:17–18).
The English word “blessed” may
additionally be used to translate Heb. ʾašrê
(or ʾōšer, Gen. 30:13),
which might also be rendered “happy.” This word is most frequently found in the
blessing formula found in Psalms and Proverbs: “blessed are those …” The NT
equivalent is Gk. makários, found
most notably in the Beatitudes (Matt. 5).
In the NT the blessings of Jesus
take on considerable importance. Jesus blesses (Gk. eulogéō) the elements of the Lord’s Supper (Matt. 26:26–28),
and accordingly Paul calls the communion wine the cup of blessing (1 Cor.
10:16). Jesus also blesses the loaves of the feeding miracles (Matt. 14:19), as
well as the disciples themselves (Luke 24:50–51). The blessing on those who
curse and revile the followers of the Lord is another significant theme (Luke
6:28). In Paul’s writings “blessed” takes on additional meaning in that God is
called blessed in the sense of being holy (Rom. 1:25).
Bibliography. C. W. Mitchell, The
Meaning of BRK “To Bless” in the Old Testament. SBLDS 95 (Atlanta, 1987);
R. Westbrook, “Undivided Inheritance,” in Property
and the Family in Biblical Law. JSOT Sup 113 (Sheffield, 1991), 188–41; C.
Westermann, Blessing in the Bible and the
Life of the Church. OBT (Philadelphia, 1978).
F. Rachel Magdalene[1]
When God created man, He blessed
him.
(Genesis 1:28 NKJV) Then God blessed
them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and
subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air,
and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
When Abram/Abraham returned from a
victorious battle, he met that mysterious king of Salem (Jerusalem)
(Genesis 14:18–20 NKJV) —18
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and
wine; he was the priest of God Most High. 19 And he blessed him and said: “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; 20 And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he gave him a tithe of all.
Melchizedek
blessed Abraham.
Melchizedek
“blessed” God.
Blessing can even
flow back to God.
I think our
praises and thanksgiving bring great joy to God.
(Psalm 67:1 NKJV) God be merciful to us
and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us, Selah
Its major function seems to have
been to confer abundant and effective life upon something (Gen 2:3; I Sam 9:13;
Isa 66:3) or someone (Gen 27:27f.; Gen 49).[2]
(Genesis 2:3 NKJV) Then God blessed the
seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which
God had created and made.
(Genesis 26:12 NKJV) Then Isaac sowed in
that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him.
(Psalm 67:6 NKJV) Then the earth shall yield her increase; God, our own God, shall bless us.
(Genesis 12:3 NKJV) I will bless those who
bless you, And I will curse him
who curses you; And in you all the
families of the earth shall be blessed.”
:24 keep you
keep – shamar – to keep, guard
This word is used a lot to describe how we are to “keep” God’s ways, to
obey them.
But here it carries the idea of protection, of guarding, as when God
guards us.
Lesson
2. Seek His protection
Sometimes this
world can be kind of scary.
Illustration
A number of years ago an old friend of ours asked
us to reach out to a family member who was an alcoholic with mental issues.
Among other things, this fellow had anger and self-control
issues. For awhile the guy
came to our church and our people loved on him. But he
went into one of his drinking binges and became belligerent and threatening to
his brother and myself.
He
would leave scary messages on our home phone in the middle of the night.
He even posted
a death threat towards me on one of the doors to the church.
Because he also knew where we lived, there were a couple
of years where we kept a baseball
bat next to our front door.
I don’t know if he would have bothered me if I had been an ex-cop.
But I’m a scaredy cat. I was also concerned that either my
family or people at church could become collateral damage.
So we had the police involved. We went to court and got restraining orders. The fellow spent a year in jail with two
felonies.
I’m sure my story is pretty tame compared to what
some of you have experienced, but all this to say, I’ve had a small taste of how
scary this world can be.
There is a lot
of evil in this world.
(1 Peter 5:8 NKJV) Be sober, be vigilant; because your
adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may
devour.
We have a great need for God’s protection.
(Psalm 97:10
NKJV) You
who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
“preserves” (shamar)
The Psalms are full
of promises and prayers about God’s “protection.
(Psalm 121:1–8 NKJV) —1 I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From
whence comes my help? 2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven
and earth. 3 He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps
you will not slumber. 4 Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall
neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade at your right
hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, Nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord shall preserve you from all
evil; He shall preserve
your soul. 8 The Lord shall preserve
your going out and your
coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore.
The point is
that we have to learn to ask. We need to seek
His protection.
(Psalm 34:4 NKJV) I sought the
Lord, and He heard me, And delivered
me from all my fears.
We aren’t always going to be
protected from experiencing pain or temptation, but we do seek that God be with
us in the fire.
(Psalm 17:8 NKJV) Keep me as the apple of Your eye; Hide me under the shadow of Your wings,
(Exodus 23:20 NKJV) “Behold, I send an
Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place
which I have prepared.
(1 Samuel 26:15 NKJV) So David said to
Abner, “Are you not a man? And who is like you in Israel? Why
then have you not guarded your lord the king? For one of the people came
in to destroy your lord the king.
(Psalm 16:1 NKJV) Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust.
:25 The LORD make His face shine upon you, And
be gracious to you;
:25 face shine upon
you
face – paw-neh – face, presence, before
In both Hebrew and in Greek, the concept of being before someone, or in
someone’s presence is to be “in their face”.
Having God’s “face” shine on us requires us being in God’s presence, before
Him.
shine – ‘owr – to be or become light
The word is in a form
(Hiphil) that we call “causative”.
You could
translate it this way: “May the LORD cause His face to shine light on
you.”
Lesson
3. Pray for light
It’s a lot easier to see things when you turn on the light.
The other day my wife and I were looking for something that had been
dropped on the floor in the bathroom. Neither of us could see it until I turned
on the flashlight on my phone. Then it
was easy to see.
Illustration
A burglar had been watching a house for a few days and was sure that the
people were away, so one night, he went up to the door, rang the doorbell, and
upon getting no response, he
picked the lock and let himself in. It was dark
inside. As he turned on his flashlight, he was surprised to hear a voice say,
“I see you and
Jesus sees you!”, he turned
instantly toward the voice and then he laughed because his flashlight revealed
a parrot in a cage
who once again said, “I see you and Jesus sees you!”. Now relieved, he turned
on the light in the room and looking back at the bird, he again became alarmed,
because below the
cage was a Doberman pincher. And then, the parrot said, “Sick ‘em, Jesus!”.
You will see the combination
of these two words (“face shining”, or “face & light”) sprinkled throughout
the Scriptures.
I think it’s because the people have heard this blessing from the priests.
Let me give you a taste of a few…
In Psalm 31,
David is crying out to God because of the enemies he’s facing. Some of what
David writes here is prophetic of Jesus on the cross,
(Psalm 31:5 NKJV) Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have
redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.
(Psalm 31:11 NKJV) I am a reproach among all my
enemies, But especially among my neighbors, And am
repulsive to my acquaintances; Those who see me outside flee from me.
The Psalm bounces back and forth from David describing his persecution, and
his trusting God. Then he utters this
prayer,
(Psalm 31:16 NKJV) Make Your
face shine upon Your servant; Save me for Your mercies’ sake.
Where does that idea come from? It comes from the blessing
of Aaron. It’s a rephrasing of the same words.
, but instead of
asking Yahweh to cause His face to shine, it’s a direct prayer, “Make Your face
shine…”
David
is asking God to shine light on his life and rescue him. He’s asking for direction. He’s asking for truth.
Sometimes
the way of escape isn’t so obvious until we have more “light” in our life.
In Psalm 44, the psalmist is
remembering how God had helped Israel conquer the land in the days of Joshua.
(Psalm 44:3 NKJV) For they did not gain
possession of the land by their own sword, Nor did
their own arm save them; But it was
Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance, Because You favored them.
“the light of Your
countenance” is the same phrase as in the blessing.
This was one of
the things God used to bring victory.
Perhaps it’s the
idea of lighting up a dark path and showing the way to victory.
Or it might be a
reference to that “long day” of Joshua (Joshua 10) when the sun stood still for
an entire day.
Psalm 119 is the longest chapter of the Bible, and it’s all about God’s
Word.
(Psalm 119:135 NKJV) Make Your face shine upon Your servant, And
teach me Your statutes.
When God puts His light on us, He enlightens us, teaches
us.
It’s as if God’s ways are written in a book, but we are sitting in a dark
room. It’s hard to understand what we’re reading until someone turns on the light. But turn on the
light, and we can understand.
Illustration
Charles
Spurgeon told a story of a Christian who was debating another man. During the
debate the Christian seemed to be absorbed in writing things down on a paper.
His friends thought he was taking notes on what the other fellow was saying,
but when they looked
at his paper after the debate, they only found these words, “More light, Lord!
More light, Lord!”
Charles Spurgeon
in his lecture entitled “Light. Fire. Faith. Life. Love.” wrote this brief
account of a desperate prayer for greater illumination: “I suggest to you all
the prayer of a Puritan who, during a debate, was observed to be absorbed in
writing. His friends thought he was taking notes of his opponent’s speech; but
when they got hold of his paper, they found nothing but these words, ‘More
light, Lord! More light, Lord!’ Oh, for more light from the great Father of
lights!”
I think that ought to be the prayer of all of us as we
study God’s Word.
It ought to be our prayer as we are walking the path of
life.
(Psalm 36:9 NKJV) For with You is
the fountain of life; In Your
light we see light.
(Genesis 1:3 NKJV) Then God said, “Let
there be light”; and there was light.
(Psalm 67:1 NKJV) God be merciful to us
and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us, Selah
(Psalm 80:3 NKJV) Restore us, O God; Cause Your face to shine, And we
shall be saved!
(Daniel 9:17 NKJV) Now therefore, our
God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s
sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate.
When Moses was
on Mount Sinai, he spent some pretty quality time with God – forty days with
God.
Though Moses wasn’t allowed to see God’s “face”, he was allowed to see
God’s back.
(Exodus 34:29 NKJV) Now it was so, when Moses came down
from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’
hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the
skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.
Moses’
face was shining because God had been shining on him.
Something similar happens to us when we spend time with
God, in His “presence”, before His “face”.
(2 Corinthians
3:18 NKJV) But we all, with unveiled face,
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the
same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
There is a sense in which God’s “light”, which we
sometimes call God’s “glory”, changes us.
This is a work of the Holy Spirit.
(2
Corinthians 4:6 NKJV) For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of
darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
The light that God shines on us is all about Jesus
Christ. It comes from Jesus’ “face”.
I think you could make the case that Peter and John
experienced this. When they stood before the Sanhedrin…
(Acts
4:13 NKJV) Now
when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were
uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had
been with Jesus.
One of the aspects of “light” is that it makes us face the truth.
The Greek word often translated “truth” is aletheia. It comes
from the verb lanthano, which means “hidden”, and the a in front
of it means “not”. Truth is what is “not
hidden”.
Learning to face the truth is how we as believers grow up.
(Ephesians
4:15 NKJV) but,
speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the
head—Christ—
What happens
when we are in God’s presence?
God’s “light”
shines from His face, His presence.
(1 John 1:7 NKJV) But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us
from all sin.
As we are spending time with Jesus every day, God’s light
will light up those “dark” places in our lives.
We might respond to God’s light like Peter did initially
when he met Jesus, “Depart from me for I’m a sinful man!”
But when
something “dark” is exposed, we need to respond by bringing it to God and asking Him to help us,
forgive us, and cleanse
us.
We might call this “walking in truth” – the Greek word for “truth”, Aletheia,
means literally “not hidden” (a-lanthano).
And that’s how we have healthy relationships with one
another, as we are learning to walk in truth, not hypocrisy, in the light and
allowing God to cleanse us.
:25 be gracious
gracious
– chanan – to be gracious, show favor
A working definition (from TWOT) is:
A heartfelt
response by someone who has something to give to one who has a need.
In the Old
Testament, it’s often translated as “mercy”.
(Psalm 41:4 NKJV) I said, “Lord, be merciful to me; Heal my soul, for I have sinned
against You.”
I know that sometimes us pastors try to make a distinction between “grace”
and “mercy”, but the more I study, I see the two terms nearly identical.
In the New Testament, the word most commonly associated
with chanan is charis,
the word for “grace”
Lesson
4. We need grace
Jesus told a parable about two men going to the Temple to pray. The Pharisee was all
puffed up and thanked God he wasn’t like those other “sinners”. But the other
man …
(Luke 18:13–14 NKJV) —13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as
raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be
merciful to me a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to
his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts
himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Be merciful
– (hilaskomai) – can speak of asking for
forgiveness, of making things right with God, but also carries a hint at the
sacrifice needed to make things right.
This man
had a great need, and he’s asking Someone (God) who has much to give. That’s a great picture of chanan.
I know that sometimes us pastors
try to make a distinction between “grace” and “mercy”, but the more I study,
the more I see an overlap between the two.
The more I dug into it, the less
clear it became.
So I will spend a few minutes
camping out on this word “grace” (xaris, xaridzomai)
(John 1:17 NKJV) For the law was given through Moses,
but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
The Bible tells us that each of us has a fundamental need. We are all sinners, and our sin creates a separation between us
and God.
This separation is so great that we are unable to bridge it by ourselves.
God, on the
other hand, has much to give to help us with our need.
God
sent His Son Jesus.
Grace came through Jesus Christ.
(John 3:16 NKJV) For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in
Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Jesus was that sacrifice that we needed to pay for our
sins.
That’s what He was doing when He willingly died on the
cross.
He came to pay a debt He didn’t owe, because we owed a
debt we couldn’t pay.
We are the ones with a “need”, and He is the one with
“much to give”, eternal life.
This isn’t just a message to those who haven’t yet received Christ.
Even us old Christians need grace.
I find that I still sin every once in a
while.
God is kind enough to remind me that He has much to give.
Let me give you a “warning” of
sorts about grace.
When you’ve tasted God’s grace, He
expects you to turn around and be gracious to others.
(Ephesians 4:32 NKJV) And be kind to one
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave
you.
The words
translated “forgiving” and “forgave” are the verb forms of the word for grace (charidzomai)
God has graced
us. We ought to grace others.
:26 The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And
give you peace.” ’
:26 lift up His countenance
countenance
– paw-neh – face, presence, before
This is the same word translated “face” in the previous verse.
In verse 25, the prayer is that God’s face would “shine” or “give light” on
us. Here is a slightly different lesson about God’s “face”
lift
up – nasa’ – to lift,
lift upThe
word can also carry the idea of “to bear”, “carry”, even “forgive”
Here’s how some other translations
handle this phrase:
(Numbers 6:26 NIV) the Lord turn his face toward you…
The “lifting
up” of someone’s countenance is the opposite of someone’s countenance
“falling”, like Cain’s did when God did not accept his offering:
(Genesis 4:5b NKJV) …And Cain was very angry, and his
countenance fell.
In our passage, instead
of God being angry, our phrase
speaks of Him smiling.
I sometimes see this part of the blessing as “may God smile on you”
(Numbers
6:26 NLT) May the Lord show
you his favor…
When Lot was
fleeing Sodom before it was destroyed, he asked God if He would let him flee to
a city named Zoar. God responded…
(Genesis 19:21 NKJV) And he said to him, “See, I have
favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this
city for which you have spoken.
“favored you” is
literally “lifted the face”
God “smiled” at
Lot and said “yes” to his request.
Sometimes the combination of these
two words is translated “show partiality”, like playing favorites with someone.
(Job 13:8; Ps. 82:2)
(Job 13:8 NKJV) Will you show
partiality for Him? Will you
contend for God?
(Psalm 82:2 NKJV) How long will you
judge unjustly, And show partiality to
the wicked? Selah
At the end of the book
of Job, God commands Job’s foolish friends to make a sacrifice and ask Job to
pray for them,
(Job 42:9 NKJV) So Eliphaz the Temanite
and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord commanded them; for the Lord had accepted Job.
God had “lifted up His face” to Job. In a way God had “played favorites”
with Job. God had “smiled” on Job.
In Psalm 42, the psalmist is struggling with difficult things. He writes,
(Psalm 42:3
NKJV) My
tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say
to me, “Where is your
God?”
He keeps forcing himself to remember times of rejoicing, times of being
in God’s presence. Then he says,
(Psalm 42:5
NKJV) Why
are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you
disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall
yet praise Him For the help of His
countenance.
help – Yeshua – help, salvation
Lesson
5. See the smile
Some of the people we pray for need to turn their lives over to Jesus, and
when they do, they will experience God’s “smile”.
But I want to speak for a moment just to those of you who already believe
in Jesus Christ.
My hope is not that you have to think about
“making God smile”, but that you stop for a moment and realize He already is
smiling on you.
Three quick things to help you see that smile…I’m sure you could think of
fifteen more to add to these…
He knows you
Jesus said,
(John 10:14 NKJV) I am the
good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am
known by My own.
As the good shepherd…
(John 10:3 NKJV) …he calls
his own sheep by name and leads them out.
Illustration
A few years ago I was sitting in
my office and struggling with some of the things that go on in church. I was in
a major funk.
My secretary, Laurie, handed me a phone message from some guy named Chris
from Boynton Beach in Florida. A guy I’ve never met. I returned his call.
He said he had been praying and that my name came to his mind, and that God wanted him to be praying for
me. He didn’t ask me for anything. He didn’t ask me to vote for anything. He
didn’t try to sell me something. He just told me that God wanted him to be
praying for me. I can’t tell you how much that hit me to think that God cared
enough about me to put my name on some stranger’s heart. I was speechless.
You might say, “But you’re a famous pastor. Of course he knew your name.” My friend, I am NOT a famous
pastor. Most of you didn’t know who I was before I got up to speak tonight.
I’ve been the pastor of a small unknown church.
God knows my name.
He knows your name.
He remembers you
(Isaiah 49:14–16 NKJV) —14 But Zion said, “The Lord
has forsaken me,
And my Lord has forgotten me.” 15 “Can a woman forget her nursing
child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may
forget, Yet I will
not forget you. 16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are
continually before Me.
He hasn’t forgotten you. Your name is written with a Sharpie on God’s hand.
Or perhaps with nail prints…
He’s on your side
(Romans 8:31–32 NKJV) —31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us,
who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us
all things?
He is for you.
Believer, He is smiling at you.
I think we just need to use a new kind of “facial
recognition” software and realize what His face looks like.
He sees you and He smiles.
If you are a person who has not opened their heart to Jesus, you need this
more than you even know. Let today be that day you say “yes” to Him.
When Jacob was returning home with
his family and flocks, he was worried about meeting his brother Esau. One of
the things Jacob decided to do was to send gifts ahead to Esau in hopes of
getting Esau to be kind to him…
(Genesis 32:20 NKJV) …For he said, “I will
appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his
face; perhaps he will accept me.”
“accept me” = “lift the
countenance”
(Leviticus 19:15 NKJV) ‘You shall do no
injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor
the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.
“partial to the poor” = “lift up
your face to…”
(1 Samuel 25:35 NKJV) So David received from
her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, “Go up in peace to your
house. See, I have heeded your voice and respected your person.”
David to Abigail, “respected your
person” = “lifted up my face to…”
(2 Kings 3:14 NKJV) And Elisha said, “As
the Lord of hosts lives, before
whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of
Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not look at you, nor see you.
“regard the presence” = “lift up my
face towards”
(Job 42:9 NKJV) So Eliphaz the
Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did
as the Lord commanded them; for the
Lord had accepted Job.
(Psalm 4:6 NKJV) There are many who say, “Who will
show us any good?” Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance
upon us.
:26 give you peace
peace – shalom
– completeness, soundness, welfare, peace, salvation
Shalom is one of those words with a large semantic range.
This is a
Jewish greeting (“Shalom!”)
This is
Solomon’s name (or today, “Shlomo”)
This is the
root of the name of the city of Jerusalem (“teaching of peace”)
The Hebrew word
looks like this: שָׁלֽוֹם
The first
letter is shin, which looks like this ש
Some consider the shin is to represent Jerusalem
because it is the shape of the hills and valleys that the ancient city rests
on. (and the letter is in the name Jerusalem)
Play Jerusalem Valleys Video
You
can see the shin in the valleys here.
You can form the letter shin with your hand, and it looks something
like a “w”.
The priests (or,
cohanim) used to hold up the shin with two hands when they
pronounced this blessing over people. It was said to represent Shaddai (which
starts with the letter shin), one of the names for God (“Almighty”).
Leonard Nimoy
was raised in a traditional Jewish home. As a child, saw the rabbis forming the
shin with their hands. He suggested they incorporate it into Star Trek
when they decided they needed a gesture to accompany the Vulcan “Live long and
prosper” greeting.
Warren Wiersbe writes,
Peace (shalom) is one of the
great words in the Hebrew vocabulary, and it means much more than the absence
of storm and trouble around us. It involves quietness of heart within us, spiritual
health and spiritual prosperity, adequacy for the demands of life, and the
kind of spiritual well-being that rises above
circumstances.[3]
I think we all have a grasp on what “peace” is. But one of
the aspects I want to bring out is the concept of “fullness”.
Spiritual fullness.
Lesson
6. Pray for fullness
This word shalom is an important word. It’s found 241 times in the
Old Testament. There are so many aspects to it that we could probably pick five
or six of them and apply them to our lives.
Let me just focus on one concept.
Fullness.
David wrote,
(Psalm 35:27 CSB) Let those who want my vindication
shout for joy and be glad; let them continually say, “The Lord be exalted. He takes pleasure in
his servant’s well-being.”
Other translations have “prosperity” or “peace”, but I
like this concept of “well-being”. It
speaks to the fullness God has for our lives.
(Psalm 69:22 NKJV) Let their table become
a snare before them, And their
well-being a trap.
There is a spiritual fulness that can overflow that hole you have in your
heart and soul.
Paul wrote,
(Ephesians 5:18 NKJV) And do not be drunk with wine, in
which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,
We can try to fill that hole with all kinds of things like
wine, drugs, sex, or just “stuff”. God
wants to fill that hole with the Holy Spirit. That’s where you’ll find shalom.
Keith Green was
one of my heroes as a young Christian. In 1977 he released a song entitled
“He’ll take care of the rest”. It’s
really a song about serving the Lord when you feel tempted to quit. In the middle of the song
are these lyrics,
You just think about all those lonely people you know
They've got everything they want but they've got empty souls
Here’s Keith playing that part of the song live in 1978
Play
Keith Green clip – He’ll Take Care of the Rest
People all
around us have “empty souls”. We need this “shalom”, and we need to
share it with them.
Some of you have an empty soul. There’s a hole that you’ve tried to fill with
all kinds of things, but only Jesus can fill that hole.
Some of you have had a full soul, but you’ve been
“leaking” a bit and the needle is starting move towards “empty”.
Just believe … and you’ll receive…that comfort you need.
We can think of peace as only being the absence of conflict, but sometimes peace is that
thing that overcomes the conflict inside of you.
There is a spiritual fulness that can give you a calm
in the middle of the storm.
Illustration
IN THE 1870s Horatio
Spafford was a successful Chicago lawyer and a close friend of evangelist
Dwight L. Moody. Spafford had invested heavily in real estate, but the Chicago fire of 1871
wiped out his holdings. His son had died shortly before the disaster. Spafford
and his family desperately needed a rest so in 1873 he planned a trip to Europe
with his wife and four daughters. While in Great Britain he also hoped to help
Moody with an evangelistic tour. Last minute business caused Spafford to delay
his departure, but he sent his wife and four daughters on
the S.S. Ville Du Havre as scheduled, promising to follow in a few days. On November 22 the ship
was struck by the English ship Lochearn, and it sank
in twelve minutes. Several days later the survivors landed at Cardiff, Wales.
Only his wife had survived. Mrs. Spafford cabled
her husband the brief message, "Saved alone. What shall I do?"
When Horatio Spafford made the ocean crossing to meet his grieving wife, he
sailed near the place where his four daughters had sunk to the ocean depths. There, in
the midst of his sorrow, he wrote these words that have brought solace
to so many in grief:
When
peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught
me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my
soul.
Spafford found the peace in the storm. He found that Jesus filled that “hole” in his
heart. He found that it was “well” with his soul.
Pray for God’s “fullness”
The Bible speaks of three kinds of
peace (per Billy Graham)
Peace with God.
The Bible teaches that before we
came to believe in Jesus, we were in a state of enmity with God. This was because of our sin.
Yet when we realized that Jesus
died to pay for our sin, peace with God was declared.
(Romans 5:1 NKJV) Therefore, having been
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
When we pray for others who don’t
know Him, our prayer for peace should involve them turning their lives to
Jesus.
Peace with others.
(Romans 12:18 NKJV) If it is possible, as
much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.
To be honest, peace with others
isn’t always possible.
But we should pray
that we all do our part to get along with others.
Peace in our situation
We usually think of peace as the
cessation of hostilities, but sometimes situations aren’t going to change any
time soon.
God wants to give us peace in the
center of the storm.
(John
16:33 NKJV) These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.
In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome
the world.”
Jesus was sleeping when a storm
arose. The disciples panicked and woke
Him up.
(Mark
4:39 NKJV) Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace,
be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
(Isaiah 48:22 NKJV) “There is
no peace,” says the Lord, “for
the wicked.”
(Jeremiah 16:5 NKJV) For thus says the Lord: “Do not enter the house of
mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from
this people,” says the Lord,
“lovingkindness and mercies.
:27 “So they shall
put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”
:27 shall put My
name on …
Let me simply say this, all the qualities we’ve looked at in this blessing are aspects of
the character of God. They are elements
of what His name, Yahweh, is all about.
God wants the world to see these things in His people.
A person’s name in the Bible is often a summary of who they are, their
“character”.
A man named Nabal was a “fool”
Abraham was the “father of a multitude”.
David was “beloved”
Jesus means “Yahweh is salvation”
And what is God’s name???
Yahweh.
When Moses first met God at the burning bush, he asked God what His
name was.
(Exodus 3:14 NKJV) And God said to Moses, “I
AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM
has sent me to you.’ ”
The phrase “I AM” is the first person singular form of an old Hebrew
verb hawah, the verb “to be”.
Hawah is also the root idea behind the name
Yahweh.
Pastor Chuck used to say something like this:
When God says “I AM”, that means that He is what you need Him to be.
Do you need blessing? God says, “I am blessing”
Do you need protection? God says “I am protection”
Do you need light? Grace? Favor? Peace?
God says, “I am”
The world needs to get a glimpse of who God is. They need to see people who reflect the
nature of God.
So when we “bless” people with this blessing, we are asking God to put
these things into their lives and give the world a glimpse of just who God is.
Putting God’s name on His people is asking God to shape them to be more
like Him, just like we saw when we talked about loving, praying for, and
blessing our enemies.
(Matthew 5:45
NKJV) that
you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil
and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Moses wanted to catch a better glimpse of God and asked God to “show me
your glory” (Ex. 33:18)
All Moses got to see was God’s “back” and not His “face”.
But when it happened…
(Exodus 34:5–7 NKJV) —5 Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood
with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 And
the Lord passed before him and
proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for
thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the
guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the
children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
These qualities are who God is. It’s what He’s all about. It’s what “the name” is all about.
Much of the language uses the same words as in our
blessing.
:27 I will bless
them
Now God switches from singular pronouns (“you”), to a plural pronoun
(“them”)
God blesses the nation by blessing individuals.
God blesses your family by blessing individuals.
The words here
are “emphatic”. When the priests pray
this prayer over the people, God
will indeed bless them.
God wants His people to be blessed.
I want to challenge you to memorize these verses. You will see parts of them pop up as you are
reading your Bible. You will find them very useful as you pray for others.
Who will you
pray this over?
I pray this blessing daily.
I pray it over each of my family members.
I pray it for Pastor Bob and his wife Becky (so should you)
I pray it over some of the people I minister to.
I pray it for myself.
Pray for
unbelievers to accept Christ, for the church to be built up.
Have people stand.
If they came with someone, turn to them.
If not, look at me.
We are going to end with blessing each other. Repeat after me…