Saturday, April 9, 2011

Numbers 6:22-27 NASB

"Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:  '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.' So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless then will I bless them."


"Rain, rain, go away.  Come again some other day."  That's what we used to chant as kids when it was raining on "our party".  We really gave no thought to what that rain might mean to a dry and thirsty land. Then it was all about self.  Are we any different now?  A favorite church hymn over the years was,  "There Shall Be Showers of Blessing,"  sung with hope and delight by many who longed for the blessings of His presence.  And, the truth of the matter is, God's blessings are not without God's presence.  In fact , God's blessing is His Presence!  Sadly, many of us shy away from this Presence because we're not sure we want this kind of interaction and influence on "our party".  Certainly, it would change the atmosphere of the "party".  For one, we might have to think what this might mean to "a dry and thirsty land" rather than just "our party".  So the question is, "do we really want showers of blessing?" If you do, get ready for the Presence of God in every aspect of your life, and through your life.  Harry Jessop wrote a book entitled, I Met a Man with A shining Face, indicating that someone living in the holy presence of God, was visibly affected by that Presence.  As a result, his countenance touched Jessop's life. As a people who were raised up to bless the nations, surely this is what the LORD was wanting in the blessing Aaron was to give to Israel: "Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:  '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.'  So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them."  The only way God's face can shine on anyone is for their face to be turned fully toward Him. This  is reversing what happened in the Garden of Eden, "when Adam and Eve," as Dr. Dennis Kinlaw describes, "who had full face toward God, turned their face fully toward self."  "This," Kinlaw states, "is the essence of sin--full face toward self." The blessing God is talking about is one of full face toward God again, which is the beauty of the language in Aaron's blessing to the people:  "The LORD make His face shine on you... the LORD lift up His countenance on you."  What a wonderful possibility!  Could this be what Stephen's persecutors saw when they "saw his face like the face of an angel"? (Acts 6:15). His Presence should change our countenance because He changes our character! Think of what this would mean to the world! There is no greater blessing!

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