God’s Blessings For His People - [Numbers 6:22-27]

The Lord’s Blessing in Numbers 6

If you can open your Bibles to Numbers 6, I also don't need that, which I'm not used to. Numbers chapter 6. Now, a few weeks ago we had a preaching refresher class and Pastor Cooley jokingly said, if you have the opportunity to pick your passage, pick a well-known passage or a passage that preaches itself, but just don't pick something from the book of Numbers.

I had already chosen my passage. This is not outright rebellion, but I'm excited for this passage. I'm excited because this passage is a passage I think you'll find that shows the love of God and it's a passage that we're going to be able to take home and remind ourselves of to comfort us.

Even though it was given to the Israelites, it directly applies to us in ways that some other passages may be harder to see how they apply. This passage applies to us as Christ's people directly. So this is Numbers chapter 6.

We're starting in verse 22, 22 through 27. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to Aaron and his sons saying, thus you shall bless the people of Israel. You shall say to them, the Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So they shall put my name upon the people of Israel and I will bless them.

Well, this is often heard as a benediction at the end of a sermon or at the end of a worship service. I attended one church and this is the only benediction they would ever use. So I would hear it Sunday after Sunday, year after year, the Lord bless you and keep you.

And I really didn't know what all of this meant. So today, what I'd like us to do is I'd like us to examine this passage. We're going to examine this passage by way of questions. We're going to ask three main questions of this text.

Number one, who gives the blessing? Number two, how is the blessing given or through whom is the blessing given? And then number three, what is the blessing? So number one, who gives the blessing? This is almost the easiest question you'll ever be asked.

It's one of those, it's just a reading comprehension question, right? The Lord spoke to Moses saying, see, the Lord is the one who gives the blessing. Look all the way through verse 24, the Lord bless you.

Verse 25, the Lord make his face shine upon you. Verse 26, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you. And in case you didn't quite get it yet, it ends with, and I will bless them. And the Hebrew there is emphatic.

It could almost be translated. I myself will bless them. The emphasis is on the person who's doing the blessing. The emphasis is on the Lord. Now that may seem like an obvious thing to say, but it carries with it several implications, things that we can know because God is giving the blessing.

So because God is the one who blesses, number one, we know that God loves us. This isn't a blessing that the Israelites come to God and ask of for themselves. This isn't a blessing that the high priest is trying to finagle his way.

All right. If I offer these sacrifices, then will you bless the people like this? This is a blessing that God himself comes to give. We see the love of God for his people in this chapter, not only for the Israelites, but also for ourselves.

This is something we often struggle with. I think the love of the father for us. Sinclair Ferguson has a wonderful book, The Whole Christ, and he mentions in it that sometimes we think that the father loves us because of what Christ has done for us.

And that's actually the reverse. Just as in this passage, the father or the God is not giving the people a blessing because the priest has earned it or because the people have earned it. So for us, God doesn't love us because of what Christ has done.

Rather, Christ came because God loved us. Do you see how that works? The father, what does John 3 16 say? God so loved the world that he sent his son. So in this text, and it's true for us today, just as it was true for the Israelites, we see the love of God for his people.

He is the one who institutes the blessing. He is the one who gives the blessing. But because God is the one who gives the blessing, we also see another thing. We see that the blessings are what we actually need.

I was playing with my kids today and they kept asking me questions. And my answer as a good father was, no. Dad, can I have some more candy? Which they didn't ask today, but dad, can I have some more candy?

No. Don't we often tell our kids no as as fathers, as parents? No, you can't have that. Why? Not because I don't love you, but because it's not good for you. And I'm your father and I know what's best for you.

How much more our heavenly father knows what's best for us. He's not just our heavenly father, but he's our creator. So when the creator, the person who made humanity, he's the one who knows what we need the most.

Does he not? Do we not often come to God asking for things that we really don't need? Maybe we think we need them. Even Paul did this. He has that thorn in the flesh, right? And he asks God, take it away.

And God's answer is no. But these blessings, you can pray, you can meditate on because you know that these blessings are blessings that you actually need because it is God who decided to give them to you.

It's the Lord who is blessing you, the Lord who creates this blessing. It's not us asking. It's not a mere person deciding this is what I think I need. So often I end up praying for the wrong thing. If God said yes to all my prayers, I'd probably be married to someone else.

And I'm very glad he said no to that prayer. But this is a blessing from God and God is the one who knows what he needs. Just think of the knowledge of God. Psalm 139. Oh Lord, you have searched me and you know me.

You know, when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my paths and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, oh Lord, you know it all together.

So the blessings are what we truly need. We can be confident that God gives us what we need. And because this blessing is from the Lord, finally, we can have certainty. This isn't a blessing that is dependent on anyone.

Now, I've mentioned the Lord several times and you'll notice this in all capitals. What's important here is that this is Yahweh. This is the covenant-keeping God. You'll remember the name Yahweh indicates I am who I am.

It has this idea of God's everlasting power. In Exodus 3, God, not his everlasting power, his eternality. It's the God who covenants with his people, but the God who remains the same. Day after day, he never changes.

So his promises are sure. The Lord isn't going to promise you a blessing and then tomorrow wake up and decide not to give it to you. And this comes out very clearly further on in Numbers. So if you've read through Numbers recently, I think maybe some of you probably have because if you're working through a read through the Bible thing like me, you're somewhere in Numbers, unless you're behind, also like me.

But if you're familiar with this, you can remember. We just have a list of all of the bad things that the people are doing. If this blessing is contingent on the people, how do you think it's going to go?

So here's where we're going to end up. We're going to end up looking at Balaam and Balak for just a second because the word bless here and the word bless there are the only times we see the word blessed in all of Numbers.

So we're connecting those. But before we get there, let's just see how the people do if they're trying to earn this blessing. Numbers 11, people complain because they don't have meat. Twelve, Miriam and Aaron set themselves as equal to Moses.

Thirteen and fourteen, the spies bring a bad report of the land and the people are too afraid of the men and they don't trust in God. Fifteen, you have a Sabbath breaker. Sixteen, Korah's rebellion claims everyone.

God judges them. And the next day, what do the people do? Complain. Chapter 20, Miriam dies. The people grumble. Even Moses disobeys God and Aaron dies. Chapter 21, the people complain again and God sends fiery serpents.

So if these blessings are contingent upon the people, they probably don't have them. Just a few chapters later in chapter 23, Balak, the king of Moab, tries to get Balaam to come and curse the people, curse the Israelites.

And he's really trying to bribe God, right? He tries it three times. He goes to three separate places so that they can see some of the camp. And he offers the seven bulls, seven goats each time for sacrifices.

Let's see if we can get God to curse this people, this rebellious people. And what is Balaam? Here's just one of the prophecies that Balaam then gives from Aram. Balak has brought me, this is numbers 23 -7, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains, come curse Jacob for me and come denounce Israel.

How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced? For from the top of the crags I see him, from the hills I behold him. Behold a people dwelling alone and not counting itself among the nations.

Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright and let my end be like his. And of course Balak, he goes, what have you done to me? I told you to curse my enemies and behold you have blessed them.

And Balaam replies, must I not take care to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth? So you see, based upon God as the one giving the blessing, we can have confidence, certainty that we have the blessing.

It's not dependent upon us. So we've seen the love of God. We've seen that this blessing is what we need. And we have seen that it's certain all based on the fact that these are the blessings that come from the Lord, from the covenant keeper.

So that's question number one, who gives the blessing? Question number two, how is the blessing given or through whom? And this is just in verse 23. Well, back up to verse 22, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to Aaron and his sons.

I'm in number six again. I realized I've jumped around a bit. Speak to Aaron and his sons. The blessing comes through the priesthood. Now you'll remember the priesthood. I like to think of it like this.

And Spurgeon said something like this when he preached this sermon, you have the priest without stretched hands giving these blessing, but these are the hands that are very familiar with the warmth of a freshly slain animal, because these are the hands that are constantly dipped in blood to bring atonement for the people.

Day and night, they offer the sin offerings, the guilt offerings before the Lord. That one day of the year they have the priest enters the holy place on the day of atonement to bring atonement for his people.

The priests ordained by God have made atonement for the Israelites. And so it is through the priesthood that this blessing comes. Without the priesthood, you have no blessing. And this blessing doesn't just stay with Aaron, but it's to Aaron and his sons.

Aaron dies. Did we say chapter 21? He dies in numbers. Aaron dies, but his sons continue to to give this blessing to the people. It's a perpetual blessing given because the priesthood remains. And Christian, I'm sure having heard Pastor Mike, Pastor Steve preach that you can draw a line straight to Christ here, can't you?

This is Christ is our high priest. When Christ appeared, Hebrews seven as a high priest of the good things that that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands that is not of this creation.

He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing eternal redemption. So for us to the blessings of God come, but they come only through the priest.

I found it interesting while studying this. What's one of the first things that Christ does when he when he preaches the first words out of his mouth and the first sermon he recorded in Matthew five? Well, in Matthew, it is in chapter five.

What does he say? Blessed. He's being the priest. He's blessing the people. Blessed are the poor. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. He's blessing. What's the very last thing or one of the last things that he does?

Luke 24. He led them out as far as Bethany. This is after the resurrection, lifting up his hands. He blessed them. So we're blessed by our high priest, Christ, just like the Israelites back then didn't get any of the blessing except through the priesthood.

So today we are not blessed except through Christ. What we have to recognize here is that it is Christ who earns the blessing, not us. It is not how hard we try. So being a very studious person, I googled how to be blessed by God while prepping for this.

Now, I came up with a few lists. List number one with seven things you can do to be blessed by God, 12 things that you can do to earn God's blessing. Some of those things were very good. Some of the things were a little bit weird.

But the whole point is, what can you do to be blessed by God? Here in these verses, we see that it is not what I do to earn the blessing, but it is what Christ has done. It's what the priest does that earns the blessing.

It's Christ's gift, not ours. Christian, are you looking to your own gifts or your own work for salvation? I know I can go to heaven because I have not sinned very much, or I'm living a holy life, or in general, the scales are balanced more in my favor because of what I've done.

No, it's all based on Christ. And another thing I should say here, it's based on Christ, and Christ is the priest. It's not through Mary. It's not through the saints. But the blessing comes through Christ.

Now, oftentimes, you'll hear people say, this is common in Christian circles, to talk about speaking a blessing on yourself or speaking the words of the blessing into existence. And we have to be very careful against that because this is not how the blessing is received.

Listen to what one person says. This is wrong. Don't write it down. You must start declaring God's goodness in your life. Start boldly declaring God's face is smiling towards me, and he longs to be good to me.

This person says, that's not bragging. That is how God says we're going to be blessed when we start declaring his goodness. That's not at all how God says we're going to be blessed. By the way, that's Joel Osteen.

So I told her it was bad. That's not at all how God says we're going to be blessed. No, we're not blessed based on what we say. I'm not blessed by declaring God's blessings. That doesn't somehow materialize them.

I'm blessed because Christ has earned my blessings, and Christ applies those blessings to me. The blessings of God come through the priesthood, and today in the new covenant, that is Christ. So we've seen, first of all, that it's God who gives the blessing.

Second of all, that the blessings come through Christ. Now we're going to look at the blessing. Question number three, what are the blessings? Now, it probably would make the most sense to just go through each one of these.

There's six blessings, six points, but I'm new to preaching, and I don't always make the most sense. We're dividing these blessings into two categories, basically because if you just look at them, the first blessing of each stanza roughly says the same thing, and then the second blessing of each stanza are provisions of the main blessing.

So here's the main blessing. I'm going to give it to you, and then I'm going to prove it from the text. The main blessing we have here is that God will dwell with us, and the Lord bless you. That's the Lord make his face shine upon you, and that's the Lord lift up his countenance.

So blessing number one, the main blessing we have here is that the Lord blesses us with his presence. Now the word bless doesn't specify what type of blessing we'll receive. It just speaks of divine favor.

It means that God has favor upon us. It's also used of us. So Abraham would bless God. We're called to bless the Lord. The difference being, as Matthew Henry said, when we bless someone or when we bless the Lord, we just say good things about him.

But when God blesses us, he does good things for us. And like I said, the word in this context doesn't necessarily say what those good things are. That's why you have to keep reading. So blessing we have here, now next, make his face shine upon us and lift up his countenance.

These two blessings we're dealing with together because they basically say the same thing, that God dwells with us, looking on us in favor. Now I say they say the same thing. The word face and countenance is the same word in the Hebrew, and this is a very common word in Hebrew.

It's often translated before or in the presence of. That's why I say that it's about dwelling with God, because when you see someone's face, you stand before them. So Noah was a righteous man before God.

Adam hid from the presence of God. That's the same word in each case. The concept is there, you're dwelling with someone. You see their face because you're in their presence. Numbers was written before COVID, so you could see their face when you were in the presence.

And it's the language of dwelling. Now I want to pause here because this is what I said is the main blessing. And I want to back up, and you can turn your Bibles here, I want to back up to Exodus chapter 33, Exodus 33.

Now we're backing up here. It seems like we're going way far out of context, doesn't it? Because we're skipping like Leviticus, going all the way to Exodus, but we're still at Mount Sinai. Exodus, starting around Exodus 19, all the way through to Numbers 10, the people of God are still at Mount Sinai.

And so we're not too far out of context here. And what I want to show you from this passage is that dwelling with God, seeing his face, is the great hope of Israel. And then we'll see later that it is also our great hope as well.

So Moses, what distinguishes Moses from the people? It's that he dwells, he speaks with God face to face, as man speaks to a man. Yet despite his closeness with God, he wants to be closer still. So in Exodus 33, he begs God, show me your glory.

And what does God say? No one can see my face and live. There's still an aspect of that closeness that Moses, being human, being finite, cannot attain to. But that's his great hope. I want to see God's glory.

Now also in Exodus 33, and this is why I had you turn there, this is the great hope to dwell with God. Exodus 33, one through four. Some context, this is right after the golden calf incident. Israel has committed what might be the worst sin they've ever committed.

One commentator has likened this to committing adultery on your wedding night. It's so heinous, right? God has made a covenant with them. He's given them their law, his law, and they turn around. And what do they do?

They immediately make golden calves and worship them. This is a gross and heinous sin and God judged them for it. Now in Exodus 33, here's what the Lord says to Moses. Starting in verse one, the Lord said to Moses, depart, go up from here.

You and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt to the land, which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob saying to your offspring, I will give it. I will send an angel before you and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up among you lest I consume you on the way for you are a stiff necked people. That doesn't sound too bad, right? I'll give you the promises of the covenant, the promises I made I will fulfill.

You want the land? You've got the land. I'll even guard you. I'll send an angel to guard you. I'll drive the nations out from before you. And this is a great land flowing with milk and honey. You'll be a great nation.

I'm not going with you because you're a stiff necked people. Let's sort of Christianize this or turn it into new Testament language. You tell me if this sounds good. What if God said, gives you the same offer.

I'll forgive your sins. I will give you heaven. I will create for you a new heavens and a new earth. No sickness, no pain, no sadness. Here are the streets of gold. Here are the pearly gates. Here's the tree of life, but I will not dwell with you.

You like it deal or no deal. I think sometimes we, we, we focus too much on the blessings or the gifts of God and not the giver himself. What do the people of Israel say to this, this offer verse four of Exodus 33, when the people heard this reasonable compromise.

Nope. When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned and no one put on his ornaments. Later on, Moses says this in verse 15, Moses says to God, if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.

Yes, God, we want the land. We want this land flowing with milk and honey, rich in abundance. But if you do not come with us, we would rather stay here at Mount Sinai in the desert and live with you than get all the external benefits you have given.

So you see beholding God's face to dwell in God's presence. That is the hope of Israel. And that is what we're promised here. That his face will shine upon us. He'll lift up his countenance upon us. And this hope is not only for Israel, but it's also what Christ has bought us.

I'm just going to rapid fire, hit you with a few verses from the New Testament to show you that this is also the hope of us. Those of us who live under Christ's reign, Ephesians two for through Christ, we'd have both access in one spirit to the father.

There's our dwelling with God. And notice, by the way, just a side note. And I've tried to include some of these references as we go through the other blessings as well. The blessings are not just given by Christ.

These are Trinitarian blessings. The father gives us access to himself through Christ by the spirit. So if occasionally you might think, why did he choose that verse? It's because I want to show you the Trinitarian nature of this.

Ephesians two again, verse 22, in him that is in Christ, you are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit. Paul, do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you?

So we see that even now, God dwells with us. We dwell with God. And that's the great thing that Christ has purchased for us. So a question, is that the great thing that you're longing for? If this is the heart of the blessing, is this where your heart is as well?

Oftentimes, I think I long for the gifts more than I long for the giver, as I said before. Some things you can maybe think about as you're trying to apply this or test your heart here. Do you earnestly desire the times of communion with God?

Do you look forward to Sunday or does your alarm go off? And like this morning, it went off an hour earlier than it should have. And your alarm goes off and you think, oh, now I have to get up and go to church.

Or do you think, I get to get up and I get to commune with God. I get to join the saints in a dialogue with God where I hear God speak to me and I respond to him again. Do you long for those times of prayer?

Can you say, as the one hymn does, sweet hour of prayer? Or do you more often say, very long hour of prayer? Because we just can't imagine spending so much time on our knees. Is this the love that you have for God?

Is this the love you have to dwell with God? And if not, pray that God would awaken that. That's been my prayer as I've been studying this. Lord, help me to love you more and more. Help me to love you more than the external gifts that you've given me.

So we've seen first that the first blessing, the main blessing, is that God will dwell with his people. And then there's another category of blessing. This is the second point. The other three blessings all fall under what you could call the fruits of the main blessing or you could call them the provisions of that main blessing too.

Because think of it, dwelling with God sounds good until maybe you read Genesis and Adam is hiding from the presence of the Lord. Remember, that's the same word as face here. Or you read Leviticus chapter 10 and you see that Nadab and Abihu, they come before God.

Again, the same word for face is used here. And God kills them. And we have that story even more in our memories because of Numbers chapter 3. They've offered strange fire to God. Numbers 3 reminds us again, these are the people whom God killed.

They came before God with strange fire and he killed them. If you're going to come before God, if you're going to dwell with God, how do you know that you're not going to be destroyed by God? Because we know we're sinful and we know we're weak.

So we've seen the priesthood. That's part of the answer. But these three blessings give us the provisions for dwelling with God. Since this is a Baptist church and since I saw someone do this because I can't alliterate very well, but these three points are going to be alliterated.

Number one, protection. Number two, pardon. And number two, peace. These are the number three piece. These are the three provisions God gives for the main blessing of dwelling with him. The Lord keep you.

That's the protection. It's language of keeping, of guarding or watching, preserving, protecting over something. In Numbers, this is primarily used for the Levites. They protect, they guard, they keep the sanctuary, they keep the unholy from the holy.

But this is also used of God. He's the one who will keep his people. Now, sometimes while you're meditating on these blessings, read through starting at Psalm 120 and just sort of read through a few psalms.

The psalms of ascent, the psalms that are designed to be sung as you're coming towards worship, that's how they would be used. The people would sing these psalms as they head up to the mountain, up to Zion to sing God's praises.

These set of psalms, starting in 120, take the provisions of the blessing and they just sing them, reminding yourself of them. So I'm just going to read one quickly here. Psalm 121, I lift my eyes to the hill.

From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

Now, I need to connect this to what we said before, because remember, who is the one giving the blessing? It's the Lord. And here we have the promise of the Lord. I will keep you. It's the same promise Jesus gives his followers.

John 10, he says, my sheep, hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. And listen, no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them from my father's hand.

There's the language of keeping again. God will keep his people. And notice again, this is a Trinitarian blessing. Ephesians one in Christ. You also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

We talked about the spirit dwelling in us already. Now the spirit is a seal. It's a guarantee of our inheritance, the text says. So we have this promise that God will keep us. And it's because the Holy Spirit dwells in us that we're kept for him.

So that's the first provision protection. God keeps us. Second is pardon. And this is in verse twenty five. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. Gracious, it means favor to have compassion, especially to forgive wrongdoing.

Now, the word pops up a lot in the Old Testament, except strangely enough in numbers, this is the one instance of it in numbers. But it's in Isaiah 30, especially. Just listen to Isaiah 30. If you start off reading Isaiah 30, it looks pretty bleak.

The people of Israel have gone of all people, they've gone back to Egypt, their former captors to try to get help. And God says, look, you've said the seers stop seeing to the prophets, stop prophesying, only prophesy smooth things.

Don't tell us anymore about the holy one of Israel. We don't want to learn. So God brings punishment. He promises punishment. But what does he say in verse 18 of chapter 30 of Isaiah? Therefore, the Lord waits to be gracious to you and he exalts himself to show mercy to you, for the Lord is a God of justice.

Blessed are all those who wait for him, for a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. Listen to this language. I love it.

As soon as he hears it, he answers you. It's as if he was waiting, just come and I'll pardon you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teacher will not hide himself anymore.

But your eyes shall see your teacher. It's the same language of graciousness we see throughout the New Testament as well. Come to me, Christ said, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Ephesians, for by grace you have been saved through faith, not of your own doing. It's the gift of God. First John, the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin. And if we're talking about the triune gift here, Romans eight, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Why? For the law of the spirit of life has set us free in Christ Jesus. So God is not only keeping us, but he's gracious to us. Christian, I could say something here. If the Lord waits, is waiting for you, if he'll, if he promises to pardon you as soon as you ask for it, why wait to ask for forgiveness?

Sometimes do you not sin and feel like you need to put a bit of distance between yourself and that sin before you come to God? Almost as if time heals that wound a little bit. Maybe he'll forgive me tomorrow.

I'll ask for it. Or maybe you feel like, yes, I've sinned. I've fallen. I'll repent. But first let me do some good work. Let me show God that I'm not completely useless. And then I'll come and ask for forgiveness.

But the Lord is a gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Just come to him. This is especially helpful for, for those of us with a habitual sin. If you have a habitual sin, maybe, maybe you were trying to stop gossiping and you just fall into it again and again, or the sin of anger, or even like the sin you might think is more heinous, like pornography.

And you said, I've done this again and again and again. Surely God is tired of me. Surely God has said enough, we're done. I'm not going to forgive you anymore. No, he's a gracious God. He's promised to forgive you.

Come to him. Don't delay. Just turn to God, repent, and ask him for the strength to, to go on. I almost said go on sinning. That's not what I meant to say. Ask him for the strength to, to continue to, to stand, to continue to fight against your sin.