The Blessing
“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.” Numbers 6:24-26
As a child in church, when my pastor got done preaching, he would go to the back of the church and pray this blessing on us before we were dismissed. I don’t think I ever thought much about what it meant other than the church service was over.
This was a blessing that the Lord instructed Aaron (through Moses) to speak over the children of Israel. The blessing is still powerful, but we need to understand the difference between the old covenant blessing and the new covenant blessing.
Obviously, the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant is Jesus. Notice that in this blessing, it says that the Lord make His face shine UPON you. It also says that the Lord lift up His countenance UPON you. Before Jesus died, rose again, and sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, the blessing was upon the people. Because of Jesus, we now have the Holy Spirit IN us – not just upon us.
The kingdom of God – the blessing of the Lord, is IN us. We access that blessing which is God’s favor, by faith. The amplified version says it this way, “the Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favor) to you; The Lord lift up His [approving] countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquility of heart and life continually). I love how it says, “approving countenance. We have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. This means that we have right standing with God – we have His approval.
We are blessed because of Jesus. On the Resurrection Sunday, realize the blessing and favor upon your life and IN your life. Because He lives, we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 1:3) Amen!
Dear Lord, thank you for the cross and Ressurection. Thank you for the blessing In my life of favor and approval from God. Amen.
