Numbers 6 contains the blessing that is to blessings what the Lord’s Prayer is to prayers. We might even call it the Lord’s Blessing, for God told his priests to bless his people with these words:
The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace. (vv. 24-26)
Like the Lord’s Prayer, this blessing is short – and boundless. Poetic – and profound. Easy to remember – and impossible to fully grasp.
Both the Lord’s Prayer and the Lord’s Blessing are intended for his covenant people. Both are overarching and all-encompassing. Every prayer our Lord calls forth is included within the one, and every blessing he gives is encompassed by the other.
One more thing: We may read, or hear, or quote either of them, count it lovely, sense its importance. And we may completely miss the depth and breadth that English translations struggle to capture and familiarity can mask.
Oh Lord, our Lord, you commanded this blessing to be spoken, because you want to give it. How we need it! Breathe your blessing into us in a new and deeper way.
Fullness of blessing
Three phrases in the Lord’s Blessing sum up a multitude of blessings that he stands ready to pour out. Within each phrase lies a key Hebrew word, so filled with meaning that no one English word can fully convey it.
As we look at these key words and phrases, could we seek to do so spirit first? Instead of working to mentally grasp their fullness, would you pause and ask, “Lord, help me inhale what you are breathing out on me.”
Fullness of protection
The Lord … keep you
The Hebrew word translated “keep” is shamar. It appears 469 times in the Old Testament. Its basic meaning is “to hedge about (as with thorns).”
This phrase in the Lord’s Blessing looks to him who protects, preserves and watches over his people. It calls on him to keep us from sin, deliver us from evil and defend us from harm. It speaks over us the many-layered blessings of his protection.
Psalm 121 celebrates the fullness of this blessing. In its eight verses, shamar appears six times. With the psalmist, we too can look to and rest in the Lord our Keeper.
My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip – he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord watches over you – the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm – he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. (vv. 2-8)
Fullness of grace
The Lord … be gracious to you
The Hebrew word translated “be gracious” is chanan. It calls on the God of all grace to do two things he delights to do: bestow his favor, release his grace.
Repeatedly, Scripture shows us how high and wide and deep God’s favor and grace are. They more than superabound!
This phrase in the Lord’s Blessing calls for them to superabound to us.
For years, the Lord has been teaching me how it can look to receive this blessing, to live in the flow of his grace. All that living and learning has found its way into my book, The Esther Blessing: Grace to Reign in Life. Here’s a taste of the wonder of grace:
When life discourages or distresses us, God offers grace. Whether we’ve lived boldly and honorably or we’ve gotten ourselves into a royal mess, God offers grace. (p. 51)
Grace is what continually flows from the Father in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit, empowering everything of eternal value that anyone ever becomes and does. (p. 58)
Those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. (Rom. 5:17 NKJV)
Fullness of peace
The Lord … give you peace
Shalom is the Hebrew word translated “peace.” This key word offers a safe haven from anxiety, strife, war. But there’s more.
In place of the brokenness and devastation that such conflicts cause, shalom calls forth soundness, safety, wellness, wellbeing, friendship and harmony, flourishing and fulfillment.
Implicit in shalom is the idea of unimpaired relationships with others and fulfillment in one’s undertakings.1
Shalom ushers in wholeness.
In the New Testament, Paul spoke of this blessing when he wrote:
Don’t worry about anything; on the contrary, make your requests known to God by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving. Then God’s shalom, passing all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with the Messiah Yeshua. (Phil. 4:6-7 CJB)
Shalom speaks of a rich mosaic of blessings that spring from and culminate in peace. This phrase in the Lord’s Blessing looks to the God of peace, from whom all these priceless gifts come.
Fountainhead of blessing
This may seem to go without saying. Yet God didn’t go without saying it. Rather, he emphasized it:
The Blessing of the Lord originates in HIM.
Originally, the priests were supposed to speak this blessing. As a result, it has been called the Aaronic blessing. Yet it’s more than that.
God commanded the blessing. He dictated the wording of it. And the blessing itself makes clear: This is the Lord’s Blessing. It is from him and through him and to him.
What springs from him reflects him.
The more we recognize, and receive, and faithfully steward, the fullness of his blessings, the more fully we know him. The more fully we become who he created us to be. The more abundantly we live. And also: The more our abundance and life reflect the holy, gracious, merciful, just, loving, life-giving God he is.
In a very few words, the Lord’s Blessing offers us a myriad of blessings. But it does not give us permission to try to twist God’s arm or force his hand, to get what we want from him. It does not teach us to demand that he bless us at the times and in the ways we may expect.
In an all-encompassing sweep, the Lord’s Blessing offers us profound blessings that truly, deeply bless. And yet, God’s protection, grace and peace may not look at all as we have thought. At times, we may even think our Lord is withholding his blessings when, in fact, he is pouring them into our lives.
God is spirit. His kingdom is not of this world. And yet, he has created this world and placed us in it. He has created us, spirit, soul and body. And he has put eternity in our hearts.
God is working in time and in eternity to carry out his good purpose. Living in him while we live on this earth, we are living in two worlds.
We need his blessings to do it. And we need his wisdom to see what is blessing and what is not. For when we look with human eyes, we may get the two reversed.
Repeatedly, the Lord’s Blessing points us to the two aspects of God that we most associate with identity – his name, and his face.
Repeatedly, it prompts us to look to HIM – seeking boldly, yet humbly and patiently – to recognize and receive every blessing that is flowing to us, from him.
His Face
The Lord make his face shine on you …
The Lord turn his face toward you
The face says it all. That is: The one feature that most readily reveals who a person is, can also vividly show the state of their relationship with someone else.
When God is deeply distressed with someone, he does not hide that fact. Rather, he shows it – sometimes by getting in our face, sometimes by hiding his.
[The Lord] said, “I will hide my face from them and see what will become of them; for they are a perverse generation, untrustworthy children.” (Deut. 32:20 CJB)
Then they will cry out to the Lord, but he will not answer them. At that time he will hide his face from them because of the evil they have done.” (Mic. 3:4)
The Lord may turn his face away when he is running out of options to get our attention, when words have not worked to call us back from the brink. He may turn his face away to make very clear: The path you are choosing is deadly and wrong.
Yet he has no desire to hide his face from his own. Quite the opposite!
He has poured himself out for us, in order to be able to turn his face toward us. He has called us to himself, in order to make his face shine on us. He continually urges us, “Seek my face.”
If my people, who bear my name, will humble themselves, pray, seek my face and turn from their evil ways, I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chron. 7:14 CJB)
Notice! A wellspring of blessings flows from the Lord to those who seek his face – and who bear his name. Their heartcry is to know their Lord – and their lives can be seen to be his.
As we press in to know him, we may sometimes think he is hiding his face from us, when instead he is right there with us, guiding us through a very dark place. As we continue on with him – questioning, crying out, honestly expressing how we feel, yet still pressing in to him by faith – we will emerge to find him beaming with delight.
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” is the one who shined in our hearts to give us the light of the glorious knowledge of God in the face of Christ. (2 Cor. 4:6)
His Name
The LORD bless you
Twice, the Lord’s Blessing speaks of his face.
Three times, the Lord’s Blessing speaks his Name. Three times, what is usually translated “the LORD” (in all caps) is actually the Name:
- The Name God used when entering covenant with his people.
- The Name the Jews counted so sacred they would not say it aloud or write it in full. Instead, they wrote only the four Hebrew consonants transliterated YHVH.
- The Name God calls himself throughout the Old Testament when he is most intent on revealing different facets of himself to his people.
- The Name that appears again in the New Testament, given by the Father to the Son. The name we know as Jesus is “YHVH saves.”
Again and again in Scripture, God makes known some aspect of his character or his ways, and links it to the Name. In so doing, he says:
If you believe this of me – if you truly, deeply embrace it and live in light of it – you know a little more fully my identity, my ways, me.
Repeatedly, emphatically, the Lord’s Blessing shows all his blessings flowing from this Name.
All God’s names reflect some aspect of his nature. This Name reflects the whole, including his profound commitment to his people, and the profound mystery of his threefold Being.
The LORD bless you
and keep you;
the LORD make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace.
When God first called for this blessing to be spoken, he said only one thing in explanation:
[So] they will place my name on the People of Israel – I will confirm it by blessing them. (Num. 6:27 MSG)
This, then, is the fountainhead of the Lord’s Blessing, and of every blessing God gives his people:
He imparts his Name, his identity, himself, to us.
And as we receive him, he smiles on us.
In fact, he beams with delight.
Out of this greatest blessing, all his other good gifts flow.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
See also
- Blessings are not sweet little things
- God of the covenant Name
- I AM the one you seek (currently under renovation)
- Praying for God
- The forgotten prayer
- The blessing of mourning
- The blessing of rest
Footnotes
- Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, by R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, Jr., Bruce K. Waltke (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1980), p. 931. ↩︎
I’ve returned to read this many times. Each time a different truth seeps into a part of my heart hungry for God’s blessing. Thank you Deborah, for sharing out of your experience and wisdom❤️
♥️
Thank you, Deborah, for writing The Esther Blessing. I have been truly blessed by your words and the Spirit’s presence in my life as I read and pondered and cried and prayed. Thank you for the outpouring of grace into the lives of all who read your books.