Numbers 6:24-26
“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.”
It was my 24th wedding anniversary earlier this week so I made sure to drop by the store to get a card for April.* Greeting card companies stay in business because sometimes you just need the right words for a special occasion. Saying just what you want to say when you can’t string together the words on your own helps justify paying $6 for a folded piece of cardstock.
Sometimes, “gosh, you’re pretty” will suffice. But sometimes the moment calls for more of a, “But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”**I think the wording of my card lay somewhere between those two sentiments.
God wanted to relate His love to the Israelites in a way that would impress upon them all that it entailed. And He wanted to make sure it was said just right, so he didn’t just leave it up to the priests to shoot from the hip (Aaron had already proved that he wasn’t very good at that). God gave Moses a script for Aaron and his sons to repeat verbatim as a special blessing every time they finished leading the people in worship. And I’ve got to say, He nailed it.
The blessing was not only a prayer to say over the congregants, but a reminder to them of
- God’s PROVISION (manifested in the manna and quail)
- His PROTECTION (manifested through His covenant with them and claims on them as His chosen people), and
- His PRESENCE (manifested by the pillar of smoke by day and fire by night).
This beautiful blessing is used in many churches today as a benediction, just as it was in Moses’s time. So if I may, let me leave this devotional thought with just the right words.
“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.”
While using the HEAR method (see below) consider the following questions:
- What portion of this blessing speaks most to you at this moment? Which element do you need most right now?
- How might this blessing parallel the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6?
Highlight – what words or phrases jump out at you?
Explain – what does the passage mean?
Apply – how does the passage intersect with your life today?
Respond – how is God leading you to respond?
*my plans did include more than a card
**Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Jon Price, Associate Pastor
