from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Numbers 6:22-27

One of the most familiar blessings in the Bible is also one of the earliest. After God had delivered His people from slavery in Egypt, He spent 40 years leading them through the desert wilderness, testing them, teaching them, and forming them into His own people. During those years He gave this blessing to Moses and asked him to give it his brother, Aaron, and to Aaron’s sons, God’s priests in Israel. God told them to speak this blessing to the people of Israel:

The LORD bless you, and keep you;
The LORD make His face shine on you,
And be gracious to you;
The LORD lift up His countenance on you,
And give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26, NASB)

God delights to bless His people, and He wants us to know that He delights to bless us. But more than that, He wants to put His blessing in our mouths. He gives us chances to speak the Lord’s blessing over the lives of others, and to be blessed by God through the words of others. God wraps His people in the giving and receiving of His blessings.

But here, what specific blessings does God ask to be spoken by and to His people?

• God is keeping us. He is always watching over His people. Read Psalm 121, which is a beautiful picture of God keeping constant watch over those He loves.

• The Lord not only turns His face toward us, but He causes His face to shine on us. His face is the light of His love, and it beams on all of us and each of us. We are the focus of His joyful concern and personal care.

• God is gracious toward us. He works to give us His very best, even though we don’t deserve it.

• The Lord blesses us with His peace – not only with relief from conflict, but with harmony, fruitfulness, and complete well-being in Him.

Look particularly at v.27. This blessing, and all the blessings of God that we speak to each other, are not empty, pious wishes. They are God’s blessings. God has decreed the well-being of His people. We are simply His instruments, His spokespersons, speaking His blessings into the lives of others.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: God Blesses His People
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Printed Music & Lyrics