Peace to Bless

We are a people that are very good at tearing each other down. It does not take us long to see what other people do that we don’t like or agree with.

Often in our jobs, we hear more about what we do wrong or what we should have done than we hear about the good things that we have accomplished.

What if we were to spend more time blessing people with the blessings that come for God? What if instead of tearing people down, we lifted them up by calling down godly blessings upon them?

The people of Israel did not always deserve God's blessing. As we read through the OT alone we are able to see quickly and clearly what the people had done wrong. Even so God gave the priests a command to bless the people.

In our passage today, we will see three ways the priests were to bless the people and as we see these three ways, we will see that today we need these blessings to be called down upon us.

I. We are blessed by the Protection of God (22-24)

Numbers 6:22–24 NKJV

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them: “The Lord bless you and keep you;

The LORD Spoke

The command that comes to Aaron and his sons is not something that Moses made up. It was not something to make the priests look good for the people.

This was a command from God to Moses to tell Aaron and his sons how they were to bless the people of Israel

The people of Israel were God’s chosen nation. They were special in His eyes and He set them apart to be holy.

God wants to bless His people.

This shows us the love and care that God has for His people.

He commands the priests to do just that

We can see just how blessed the people of Israel were. God was with them each step of the way

When the people would disobey God, He would punish them, then they would repent and return to Him and He would once again bless them.

On Sunday nights we are going through Isaiah. The first half of the book deals with the judgments from God that are coming upon the people of Israel and the other nations for their disobedience to God. The second half of the book shows us the promise of blessings that are coming their way from God. Promises like these one:

Isaiah 40:31 CSB

but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not faint.

Isaiah 41:10 CSB

Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 42:1 CSB

“This is my servant; I strengthen him, this is my chosen one; I delight in him. I have put my Spirit on him; he will bring justice to the nations.

I will keep you

God would bless His people with protection

The verb “to keep” concerns the divine protection of the people; its basic meaning is “to exercise great care over,” “to guard,” or “to give attention to

Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2005).

When it says the LORD bless you and keep you, it is to protect, watch over, guard, preserve.

God watches over us. He sees us. God protects us each step of the way.

God did look out for and protect His people

God protected His people by bringing them out of Egypt with His mighty hand.

God protected His people as they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.

Deuteronomy 29:5 CSB

I led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes and the sandals on your feet did not wear out;

God protected His people as they went into the Promised Land and drove out the people who lived there.

They crossed the river on dry land (the 12 stones)

The walls of Jericho would fall down

God protected His people and provided for their needs each and every step of the way

Application: May God keep us

Notice in each of these blessings that the subject is always the LORD. The LORD bless and keep, the LORD make His face, The LORD lift up.

We need these blessings in our lives to come from God.

We need to ask God to be with us and provide for us our needs

May the LORD bless and protect us

The people needed this and so do we.

This should be our prayer for His church here.

We should pray that God will bless us and protect us

Ephesians 1:3 CSB

Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.

II. We are blessed with the Presence of God (25)

Numbers 6:25 NKJV

The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you;

Shine on us

Once again, we see one of my favorite Hebrew words. It is the word for face that is oftentimes translated as presence.

When we think of the face of God shining upon us we think of the closeness of God to us. His presence is with us.

Wherever the people went, the presence of God was with them.

Exodus 13:22 CSB

The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night never left its place in front of the people.

God blessed the people with His presence. What could be better than having the face of God shine up you?

It truly is a blessing to have the presence of God among us.

Knowing that God is with us should grant us great peace.

God does not leave us alone. God does not forsake us or abandon us

Hebrews 13:5 CSB

Keep your life free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you or abandon you.

Matthew 28:20 CSB

teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

God is with His people

God was with His people in Egypt. He sent Moses to bring them out

God was with His people in the wilderness

God was with His people in the Promised Land

God was with His people in the time of the Judges (He would raise up people to rescue them)

God was with His people in the exile (He sent prophets to tell them about the restoration to come).

God was with His people in Jesus. (God became a man and dwelt among us)

God is with His people in the power of the Holy Spirit (God living in us)

Application: May the LORD’s face shine on us

May the LORD face shine on us

We need the presence of God in our lives in a mighty and powerful way.

We can do nothing apart from Him. We need Him to shine upon us.

Isaiah 64:1 CSB

If only you would tear the heavens open and come down, so that mountains would quake at your presence—

III. We are blessed in the Peace of God (26-27)

Numbers 6:26–27 NKJV

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” ’ “So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”

Lift up His countenance

The presence of God in our lives, should give us peace.

Again, in this verse, we see the word for face. Countenance is the same word used in verse 25 for face.

Lift up - carry, lift up

His countenance - His face

Literal translation from Hebrew - may He lift up, Yahweh, his face on/towards you

Smoothed out - May God lift up His face on/towards you

For God to lift up His face towards us means to look at us with favor. God sees our situation, He sees our struggle. He knows what we are going through and He loves us.

As we look at this list of blessings, God keeps us, is with us, and looks at us. What beauty and peace we can get from this blessing.

Ultimate peace and blessing comes from knowing Jesus Christ.

God knew we would need a Savior

God looked upon us with Love and sent Jesus

Jesus gives us peace  

All the blessings that the priest was to say upon the people we still need today. We need the protection of God, the presence of God and the peace of God

We have His name

Numbers 6:27 GW

“So whenever they use my name to bless the Israelites, I will bless them.”

The name of God gives a great blessing. The people of Israel were blessed because they were known by the Name of God.

When we give our lives to Christ, we have the name of God upon us

It truly is a blessing to have the name of God upon us. To be know as His

Application: May the LORD give you peace

May the LORD look with favor and give you peace.

What could be better than the favor of God being upon us as His church.

We need His peace with each other and with the community so that we can serve Him well in the way that He has called us to serve Him.

We all want to be blessed and God wants to bless us. We simply need to allow His peace to take over and seek to follow Him with all that we are and let Him bless us

Be Counted 3. A Blessed People (Num. 6:22–27)

We need the blessings that God lists here: to be cared for by the Lord who watches over us; to have the smile of His face upon us and the riches of His grace given to us; to have Him pay attention to us when we call; and, as the result of these things, to enjoy His peace in our hearts.

IV. Conclusion

This text was given to the priests so that they could call down the blessings of God upon the people of God.

This is a beautiful prayer that we should use in our lives as we pray for each other, our families, and the church.

Blessing does not come from us. Blessing comes from God and it is good for us to seek the blessing that comes from God and not try to work for it on our own

As the people of God we should seek to call down God's blessing upon each other.

These blessings come in the form of prayer. We should pray this upon each other and the church.

We should cry out to God to be a people blessed, protected, with the presence of God lifting up His face to us giving us peace

This prayer would be a blessing over the people of Israel and today I want to pray this prayer over each of you.

Take time to pray this prayer over Hopewell and each person. “I pray that each will be blessed, that God will protect you, that His face will shine upon you, that He will look at you with favor and give you peace.”

What is God saying to you today?

Maybe you need to be blessed today. It seems nothing is going right for you. Come and be blessed by God.

Maybe you want to be a blessing today. Find someone who needs to be blessed and allow God to use you to bless them

Maybe you need peace today. Over the past few weeks we have been looking at the topic of peace and we got one more sermon on peace next week. Maybe you don’t feel any peace in your life. Will you come and let His presence give you peace.

Maybe you are here and you have never given your life to Christ. Will you come?

May we come together and Cry out this text to each other and this community and watch God move.

Be blessed today by the protection of God, the presence of God, and the peace of God.