Tell Aaron and his sons, `This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:
"The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace."
"So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them." Numbers6:22-27
We call this "the Aaronic Blessing."
There is a story of a group of students who were graduating and as a group they really longed for a sense of God's blessing on them, but the university they were at allowed no expressions of faith in the graduation ceremony. They made a plan: when it came time for the head student to make his valedictory speech he went to the podium and as he got there, the entire class sneezed together. He looked up at them and slowly said "God BLESS you!"
Here's a thought: how often do we ask for, wish for and declare the blessing of God on those around us?
Dig around in the original Hebrew of the Aaronic blessing and you'll find that it is a beautiful poetic prayerful gift:
- It uses the Old Testament Covenant name for God: "Yahweh" (LORD)
- It uses "LORD" three times and each time the blessing is longer.
- "Bless" is common in the OT and conveys God's goodness and provision.
- "Keep" comes from the word used for "be a watchman"
- "Face" or "Countenance" is about God's favour, interest and attention which lights our way and gives us grace and peace.
God gives this blessing to Aaron and all his sons. The New Testament calls us all to be a kingdom of priests (Rev1:6) and so we can ask for God's blessing on those around us!
When I write to people and sometimes when I talk to them, I will often end with "GodBless!" Some consider it old-fashioned, but when we care about people and appreciate them should we not be eager for God to bless them?
Parents especially consider this: How about blessing your children when they go to bed or head off to school? If you think about it, there is nothing more that a parent wants than God's blessing on their kids.
So why be shy? We're invited to ask for God's blessings on people - He even gives us the blessing! Go out and "put God's name on people" and watch Him bless them!
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God bless you as we celebrate the ascension this weekend!
Next week we'll take a break from Moses Meditations and think about Pentecost.
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
