The Aaronic Blessing

Friends, it has been a long time. I was going to kick out of that. Hi, stranger, when I come in, but you're stuck with us a little more often coming up. We're actually going to be in Chicago this coming weekend, but after that probably more weekends than not we're going to be here for the foreseeable future. So that's a very nice thing. It has been a very hectic summer, but a blessing in all the different areas. So people ask me, will I do the same next year? And I say, I don't know. I just one year at a time will figure this thing out as we go, but it's great to see everyone's smiling faces. I don't know if you've noticed, but the Bible is full of a lot of patterns, and they are things that we can gloss right over, things we could take for granted. For example, have you ever noticed how the Apostle Paul opened every one of his letters by wishing his readers grace and peace? And it wasn't just the Apostle Paul. In both of Peter's letters, we find it, one of John's epistles in the book of Revelation. So you don't need to turn there. Let me just share a couple quick examples, and I'll give you the verses if you'd like to write them in your notes. Romans 1-7. To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1-2 and 3. To the Church of God, which is at Corinth. To those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours, grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Galatians 1-2. And all the brethren who are with me to the Church of Galatia, grace to you, and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. And I could keep going, but you get the point. When these famous apostles said grace and peace, these writers weren't merely just giving some colloquial phrase of the time, some common greeting, that is what they decided to use to start all these letters. In fact, the words they used were very, very special words. And to wish someone grace and peace is desire for them really something that's truly wonderful. It's to pray that they will be as close as possible to the heart of God. When Peter, John, and Paul said grace and peace, what they were doing is carrying on a tradition that had been in place and dated back 1500 years.

A tradition that started during the time of Israel's wilderness wanderings between the Exodus and them entering the Promised Land.

God used this time with the children of Israel to prepare them for life just, or to life as His people, I should say, in His land, just like He's preparing us for a similar type journey. In our Exodus. And one of the important things God did was to establish the role of the priests to offer sacrifices and to lead the people in worship. If you'll please turn to Numbers 6. Numbers 6 verses 22 through 27. We will spend the majority of our of this message of our time over the next hour in this particular area. An important part of the priest's ministry was to bless the people. And instead of asking for personal blessings, which we oftentimes do in our prayers, don't we? The priests were supposed to bless the people as a whole. And in Numbers 6 we read of God's instructions for how this was to be done. Numbers 6 verse 22. 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 make his face 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 on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.

Now, it's not coincidental where we find this. What we just read concluded the section of what's primarily legal material that stretches all the way from Leviticus 1 through number 6.

And these blessings conclude the section dealing with priestly legislations that promise this cause-and-effect expectation, right? This area that if God's word is kept, then God's blessings will follow. Cause and effect. Immediately following this, number 7-1 begins to record the day Moses first set up the tabernacle, a special home for God to dwell visually with a chosen group of people. So the Aaronic blessing is what we will focus on today. It will be the topic of today's message. And it presents this beautiful picture of what we can count on from God and how deeply he loves us. What I'd first like you to notice, though, is that it's the Lord who commanded Aaron and his sons to pronounce this blessing. Notice that let's start in verse 22. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to Aaron and his son, saying, this is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them, this is a direct command from God. Now the Bible's full of all sorts of commandments and commands of what are supposed to happen. Samuel commanded Saul to completely wipe out the Amalekites, including the women and the children and the donkeys and the cattle. And when he didn't do this, God ripped the kingdom from him. You know what? Sometimes what God commands from us are not easy. They're hard for us to comprehend, like why such bloodshed would take place. Commands are tests of obedience and reliance on God. And so there are times like this when obedience is hard. Sometimes we just have to put our human reasoning in a drawer. I know the friend Vane was talking about, and he should have put his reasoning in the drawer a long time ago, but that's what he's chosen to do. Sometimes we have to just say, human reasoning, you just stay there. Well, I do what God says to do, and you can come out when I'm done. But the key thing we need to keep in mind with any command of God is to remember that God loves us deeply, and he has our best interest at heart. And you see this clearly in the Aaronic blessing, because unlike killing all the Amalekites, this blessing here, that wasn't difficult to do at all. Or even a hard thing to comprehend, but instead it helps us to see why we come to God in prayer and in submission.

So why did God command Aaron and his sons to bless the Israelites? I'm going to answer that with a contrasting analogy. When we as parents make our kids do their chores or eat their vegetables, is it because we love to torture them? Of course not.

We love them and we want what's best for them. But do our kids always get the big picture? Sadly, no. They have to be reminded and helped with perspective. And that's exactly the same with God. God commanded this blessing because deep down he wants to bless his children.

Deep thought, right? Whoo! Dan, you're a rocket scientist.

But it bears repeating, because our God gets a bad rap. As being a Lord who demands too much, or only wants to work us to death, or takes away our pleasures. Let me share a few phrases that you've likely heard, and if you want to be honest to yourself, you've likely said, Do I really have to go to church this afternoon?

I know I should pray, but I'm just so tired and I can't spare the time. Can't spare the time? What? I have to learn another Bible passage or study Scripture? I've read the Bible before and I've already heard that verse.

I don't want to give my first fruits. It's just too much. Or I can't spare that much in an offering.

I want God's will to show me the person to share my life with, but God, I like that person. We could play those lines all day long, couldn't we? We act like God is asking us to put a nation to death, which, interesting with the Amalekites, was actually a blessing. But that's a different story. God's command in the Aaronic blessing shows us the simple concept that our God is a loving God who wants to bless his children. And he wanted the best for Israel, and he wants the best for us.

So when he commanded us as kids to obey our parents, he does it for good. And when he commands us to pray to him, it's for the same purpose. And unless we live with this belief deeply founded within us, what happens is we constantly question everything that happens to us. And I know you've done it and you've seen others do it. It's that, why did God allow me to be sick? Why did God allow me to get into that car accident?

Why away? You will fear the future because you don't believe that God wants the best for you. But he deeply, deeply does. But when you believe that God wants what's best for you, you will live at ease. And that's what this blessing in many ways is asking for us to be able to experience. The Aaronic blessing identifies the Eternal as the author of all that's good and shows us first of all that the Lord wants deeply and foremost to bless us with.

Because God always has wanted a blessed people. A blessing is God's way of saying he wants his divine favor to rest upon us. And he's the one who's able to do that. So let's begin looking into the details of this blessing. And you'll find that it's a formula. It's a formula for pronouncing God's favor upon his people at the close of the Israelite worship services is what they tended to do. And it may have originally been intended as a model for blessing, just like some people look and not that you're supposed to pray the Lord's Prayer all the time, but use that as a model.

What are the things you need to think of in prayer? Similar type situation. The ancient blessing evoked in these three verses helps us to understand what a blessing is supposed to look at.

So let's read again, verse 22 and 23. It says, 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. First of all, notice that Moses here acted as a mediator between God and man.

And that's a message you've probably heard before, but he delivered God's message to the people and often foreshadowed Christ, who was the ultimate mediator between God and man. Verse 23 indicates that Aaron was to be the first discharger of this solemn blessing. And we can tell that he didn't stop there, because the common practice of the apostles and blessing the people in a similar way leads us to infer that the act of blessing is appropriate to be continued in church today.

That's a correct thing to do. And happily, this blessing isn't restricted in usage or potency, if you want, to God's ancient people in Israel. It's a beautiful thing that God can bring joy, grace, and peace to Christians today. Keep your fingers here. I'd like you to go back one book and look at Leviticus 9 and verse 22. And for every scripture I give you going forward, you probably want to keep your place at number 6, because we'll keep coming back to it, but look at Leviticus 9 and verse 22. And I want you to notice how a blessing was delivered. Then Aaron lifted his hands toward the people, blessed them, and came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and peace offerings.

So what we learned from Leviticus is that the priests were to say these words while they lifted their arms toward the sky. And you'll see that multiple times in scriptures, even with Christ, and we'll look at the end of this message. But that was the way a blessing was delivered.

When the people gathered for worship, the priest would offer the sacrifice to establish them in a type of fellowship with God. And then he would raise his arms, and he would pronounce the blessings to signify that he wasn't the one uttering the words. They were coming from God himself. If you want to look at it that way, you could say the priest was delivering the message he wasn't the initiator of the blessing. And if you want to call it a prayer, then it's an intercessory prayer. That's, in essence, what he was doing. And the blessing was more of a way of sharing a feeling of what God was trying to communicate to the people at that time. This, like I said, became the conclusion of most Israelite worship services and has become a tradition in a lot of Christian churches these days of how they end their services. Again, but realize the minister is the one that has no power or authority of their own to convey their steward when this is done.

So, priests then, Christ and apostles in his days, we've read and I'll show you later, and even pastors today continue to act as this intercessor when this blessing is given. So, let's continue and look at how this is structured. We all know the story of Aladdin, right? Great story, classic, where God, oh, no, God, where Aladdin finds this lamp and rubs the side and the genie comes out and he has three wishes. Imagine today if God was to walk up to you, kind of like he did to Solomon, and give you three wishes. What would you ask for? I mean, we all intellectually get that there's a difference between needs and wants, right? And we know asking God for riches would be foolish. God commended Solomon for asking for wisdom. Well, the Aaronic blessing is designed to reflect what we really need. God hears our every needs, as the song blessing says, and that's very true. There are basically three blessings that we can't go without in this world, and they're the ones covered in this Aaronic blessing. The form of the blessing God ordered was made up of three separate lines.

In each of these lines, I want you to also notice that the divine name of God was repeated, to make it emphatic that it's God who's the divine author of this. And again, we lose some of this stuff. Unlike today, where we don't speak the original language, we look at this and they're just English words on a page. At that time, the God-inspired word name of God was treated with great holiness. It was one of those things which is referred to as the tetragrammaton, or the four consonants. They were left blank on pages. It's his name that's from what the blessings fell. And so it's important to realize and recognize that this name is repeated in every line of this blessing. That's intended for significance, so that we would acknowledge that he is the giver and responsible for praise, for thanksgiving, for all that he's doing. Now, in each of these three poetic lines, their length extends. So verse 24 contains three Hebrew words. 25 contains five Hebrew words. Verse 26 contains seven, the number of perfection. So interesting characteristic of it. So with that as the background, so you know the blesser, you know the elements of the blessing. Let's start looking over what it actually says. In verse 24 is blessing one.

And this first blessing, made up of three words, says, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord bless you and keep you. In other words, it's asking it that the Lord would care for us and would watch over us. Now, again, what I want you to notice is how the blessing shows that our our God desires to bless us individually. Notice a subtle change in wording. It started by saying, say to them, to Aaron and his sons, right? Third person plural. Then transition in verse 24 to the singular you, second person singular. He's now talking to individuals. The blessing is personal. It's upon every faithful person in their individual life and whatever duties they have. So what are you facing today? What are you struggling with? Whatever it is, God knows it thoroughly. And God's love and blessing comes to each of us singularly. And that's a beautiful, beautiful thought. God blesses us individually so that we might be a blessing to others. That's why it goes from the large group to the individual. And you'll see it ends by going back to the large group. So what does it mean to say the Lord bless you? When God blesses, it means to give abundance, to give increase in the multitude of good things, whether earthly or physical, whether temporary or spiritual. All of them. And if you look over scripture, the different blessings that are given out by God are referenced in scripture. There's things like material needs being met so that you will have sufficient to live and to be generous to others. A happy family life. A good reputation in the community where you live and work. Good health and a long life. The defeat and scattering of your enemies. Fruitful labor that our daily work would go well and be rewarded. You could go on, but those are common areas that blessings cover. So in short, it's what we call all the blessings imaginable in this day and age, right? Life, health, safety. Both the power to work and the leisure to not work. Combination. And they're great things, not only to be thankful for, but to pray for others about, which is a powerful lesson in this blessing. But of course, the Bible also teaches us the greatest blessing is that of a beautiful, faithful relationship to God. It's beyond the physical. And it's one that leads to obedience to Him, which is what we heard in the sermonette. Uronic blessing goes much deeper than the blessings in this life, but it goes on to the greater spiritual blessings of grace and peace for eternity. The second part of the phrase says, or calls upon, I guess is a better way to put it, calls upon God to keep His people. What does that mean? To keep His people. I mentioned a year or two ago in a message, something related to this. The word for keep is used to describe the way shepherds would use thorn bushes to build a protective enclosure around the sheep that was called a keep, to keep them safe from predators. And so to keep literally means to build a hedge around. So the key idea being referenced is that of protection from harm.

It's about God putting around you and your life a sort of fence that keeps enemies, physical or spiritual, out from snatching the blessings that He's intended for you. Or that keeps you from wandering off. The word basically asks that God exercise great care over us.

Now, that has a lot of different looks. It may be something like you picture with a caribbean guarding the way to the tree of life. And God uses the same injunction to Satan not to touch Job's life. So similar type wording that's referenced in multiple places in the Bible. But the key thought is that we desperately need our Lord to keep us, right? To keep us safe. Otherwise, it doesn't matter how much money you have. It doesn't matter how many toys you have if you're drew. It doesn't matter how many whatever you have along the way. It doesn't matter along the way how great your insurance portfolio is or how many friends you have.

At the end of the day, if God doesn't bless us with His protection, every day, nothing really matters. And this keeping is usually associated with God the Father. But again, staggering, isn't it? The tetragrammaton, the supreme and almighty God who dwells in eternity, who created and is ruler of everything, would individually bless sinful and rebellious people like me, like you. And then He's willing to take the trouble to build a protective hedge around us to keep us safe.

Yet, that's what the Bible says God instructed the people, or the priests, I should say, to call on Him to do, over and over. It's a beautiful blessing. And most people don't think of God like this. Yet, true Christians, more than the Israelites of the day, should really understand and see that's how God has revealed Himself throughout the Bible. And that blessing is obviously most clearly seen in Jesus Christ. And Him coming and giving His sacrifice on our behalf, Him being resurrected, and all that that fulfills. Now, this beautiful blessing reveals that for eternity, God has shown Himself to be a God who has a heart to bless His people. I want you to keep your fingers here again in number six. Turn to 1 Peter 1, verses 3 through 6. 1 Peter 1, verses 3 through 6. The Lord bless and keep you is asking that He would kindly guard and preserve your life and your blessings and give you their enjoyment. And God is the one who asked the power to guard and to preserve His servants and to help them. So you'll see Peter referring to this. 1 Peter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last day. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials. Doesn't mean that protection isn't going to keep away those trials, but He's still protecting us. He's still keeping us for that ultimate destiny. The second blessing, if we go back to number 6, that the priest commanded shares a blessing of acceptance and favor, and it says, the Lord makes His face shine upon you. That's the way the second blessing starts. The Lord makes His face shine upon you.

God's face is His presence, if you want to look at it that way. And so this petition from God is to bring the radiance, the splendor, the light of His presence upon you personally.

And it was to remind the Israelites of what blessings really mattered. And so when He talked about shining upon them, people in the Old Testament got that. You can talk about the time where this was written, and they would have remembered Moses going to the top of Mount Sinai, right? And His request that He could see the Lord, and they would see His face when He came down, and how it just overwhelmed them. They had to put a lamp on His head. He wanted to see the glory of God's face. Or when Jacob or Gideon saw the Lord's face, and they realized what a privilege it was. Or when Peter, James, and John were able to see the glory of God. All these different unique examples, and how thankful they were. So I guess the question is, how can God convey His glory to us?

Wouldn't it be neat if our Lord would show us this miraculous vision, and we could see His face shining on us? Well, consider the fact of what happens when the Israelites had that same opportunity. When they were at the foot of Mount Sinai, and they heard God's voice giving the Ten Commandments, and the cloud, and the lightning, and the thunder, how did they respond? They were terrified.

So, interesting contrast. Instead, what the Israelites said is, speak to us yourself, and we will listen, but do not have God speak to us, or we will die. That's not the relationship God has wanted with us. And so, God is saying, I want to shine my face upon you. You shine your face on somebody when you're happy, when you smile at them. That's what it means to shine your face upon somebody. And it works the same today. You can look at the emotions on somebody's face, and you can tell if they're happy, or if they're downcast. Right?

It's a beautiful picture that God lives up his face and smiles at you, is what it's being referred to here with the second blessing. Now, a simple way that I can give you an analogy to share that, maybe what happens today. I don't know. I haven't been outside when we came and I hadn't started raining it. But contrast the difference between a rainy day and a sunny day. You know those unpleasant times where it's just yucky. Rainy and windy and gloomy and everything is just gray.

And then afterwards the sun comes out, and everything is brighter. The grass seems greener, the water sparkles, flowers are wide open, colors are brighter. Right? Everything is warmer.

Everything seems pleasant, and our whole body is cheered up. And there's much more life. There's much more activities. People are out. They're doing things involved in all these range of activities they weren't doing before. They don't do in nasty weather. Things are alive. And whether this is requesting the Shekinah glory of God or not, what it's saying and what we're asking is, it may God cause you and I to know how much he loves us like the sun shines upon the earth to renew after rain. It's kind of like the sun shines upon the earth to renew after rain. It's kind of what it's giving you a feel of. Let's continue with the phrase, and it says, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. Be gracious to you.

Now, picture the times in your life when your spirit's dampened. Yours is down. Got the blues. With all the sadness in the world, and there's enough of it these days, how good is it in comparison to have God's face shine upon us? And part of shine refers to light, right? And that light is about knowledge. It's about understanding and helping us see clearly to brighten the understanding of what's going on in the world and how he's ultimately in control, working out his purpose, despite some of the stuff we see going on today. And that's the perspective of his grace and love that warms us, and it helps us overcome the fears that we'd otherwise have. We know others who struggle a lot with that. So the word grace depicts this heartfelt response by someone to give to another in need, and it's always important to realize that grace involves that. Grace describes one in a superior position doing kind actions to one in an inferior position. It's the nature of the word. It's a request for God to extend undeserved kindness to you and I. And way more than good health, we need the blessing of God's grace because we all have sinned, right? What the friend being mentioned in the sermon, the sermonette was thinking, oh, love will just cover that. Well, love and obedience and Christ's sacrifice and a lot of other things that our friend has decided to move past.

But we all have sinned. We've all fallen short of the glory of God, and we need our Lord to graciously forgive us. And when we're weighed down because of our own inadequacies, right? And the contributions that we make to the sadness of the world, it's not just out there. We're part of this. It's wonderful to know that our God is gracious. And that's the work that the Son was all about, Jesus Christ. When Jesus came and he lived and he died in our place, he graciously provided us with God's forgiveness. And now, every day, we have the opportunity to take advantage of that. When we know the one we prayer, when we're struggling, he's pleading for us with his blood, with his righteousness. He's pleading to the Father on our behalf. Every day that God listens to our prayers, he's being gracious.

And we don't deserve it, but he's on our side. I mean, that's where all these different verses start falling into place. Nothing can separate us from the God's grace and his love. It's just, you know, blah, blah, blah. You can keep going down the list of these amazing things that Paul wrote. But that's what this Spirit is reflecting. And this shouldn't be viewed selfishly. Remember, the Arionic blessing was a prayer being described to be given toward others.

It's a great thing to pray for someone else, that they will know the grace of God in their lives. And if you want to know what that feels like, imagine someone praying personally for you and saying, may the Lord make his face shine upon you, Anna or Rhonda. Fill in your name. And may he be gracious to you, Mr. Canalco. I mean, what an amazing thought. But that's what this is. It's supposed to be personal. That's what this is asking. The next thing we read in number six is that the Lord lifts up or turns his face toward you.

We've all been, the easiest thing for me on that one is to think of airports, but you've all been in one of those crowded areas where you're going to meet a person where you're going to meet somebody, right? And so you're going through, looking around to see a face you haven't seen in a long time. And all of a sudden, the two eyes connect and the face just lights up. And any doubt that they may not recognize you or they may not remember you goes away. You give this big bear hug. That's the context of what's happening here. It reminds me of the annual get-together we have with our friends that we just came back from. And, you know, these friends for 30 years, we've been getting together and you just, it's just this light when you see each other after a year. But it's much more because this is from God.

The Aaronic blessing asks for this between us and God.

And when God turns his face toward you in that moment of recognition, it means that you matter to him, that you're special to him.

Again, think about it, because all these things is just hard enough to imagine, but to think that God told the priest to tell the people, this is what I want them to think about. You are receiving God's full attention directly and clearly.

The one who turns his face toward you also opens his arm and embraces you, even though he knows all the bad things that you've done and thought and been, and have yet to do, going along the way because he knows we're growing.

Our relationship with God is real and it can't be shaken. If you'll turn to John 10, verses 27 through 30. John 10, 27 through 30. This is a beautiful thought, friends, but it's not just a thought. It's our reality as Christians. So John 10, verses 27 through 30. It's Jesus speaking and he says, My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone 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 out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. It's beautiful, but it's telling us that God is for us. And like the other verses say, you know, neither life or death or calamity, or people from the past or anything of the future, can separate us from God and his love for us. It's a beautiful principle that's taught throughout the Bible.

The third blessing in number six is a result of these first two blessings. And it asks that the Lord would give us peace.

The Lord would give us peace.

So this third phrase in the Aaronic blessing asks for the reality of God's peace in the lives of his people. The word peace that's used here is shalom, which you know is a common greeting in Israel. Shalom isn't merely the absence of conflict, though that's part of it.

It means peace, prosperity, completeness, health, safety, general well-being in every way possible.

Definition I like is it's a spiritual well-being that involves a quietness of heart that rises above the circumstances in life. I'll repeat that. It's a spiritual well-being that involves a quietness of heart that rises above the circumstances in life.

To have that peace like Christ talked about when he was being persecuted and killed, that's the only way you can define it. That's true peace.

And so in essence, it means fullness, wholeness, or completeness in all areas of life, whether that's material or physical or spiritual or emotional.

And it can only come from God. How often is it that those who are granted riches in this age end up worrying about them? Isn't that true? You don't need to turn there. And Ecclesiastes 5, 12 says, The abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep. And it's very true.

What a blessing it is when the Holy Spirit enables us to believe that our Lord is going to take care of us. And that's all that really matters. That gives us real peace when we are assured that our sins are forgiven and that God loves us. How many millions of people are there in this world that are driven by either hatred or fear or guilt?

You see a lot of the terrible things that happen, and that's what's the driving motivations. They don't know how to cope with guilt, so they abuse themselves. And they don't know how to have peace or to understand that they're truly forgiven. Or to understand that they're truly forgiven. So they try and do all they can to personally get to heaven.

Instead, God, through His Spirit, assures us of our status with Him through this blessing. And that's a beautiful thing. Every time we hear this blessing, God wants us to catch this concept. And it is that God deeply wants— I guess He wanted to give to Israel these blessings of peace and security and forgiveness. And He wants to do the same for you and for me. He wants to give us the peace of knowing that He loves us.

He wants to give us His grace through the forgiveness of sins in Christ. He wants to protect and keep us through all things. He wants to take you and I up on a figurative Mount Sinai type of relationship for eternity, where He will lift up His face and give this special happiness and recognition of His glory.

So we now get to the beautiful outcome of the blessing, verse 27 and number 6. The close of the Aaronic blessing reveals that another reason why God would bring His presence, and it says, And they shall put My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them. And they shall put My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them. Now, instead of blessing them with a vision or some other thing that we'd probably come up with in a Hollywood movie about, this is what God wanted to close this thought with. The results of this blessing would be that the Lord would put His name on you and on me.

He would take ownership of His children, if that helps.

So this is this beautiful combination. It also knows the wording change. It went from individual, talking second person, now it's gone back to blessing them, returning to this third person plural.

And that's what God wants us to do overall for all of His people. Now, again, think of the concepts that are being captured in these couple small verses. God doesn't usually choose to directly display His glory to us, like He did to Moses on Mount Sinai. He has done it through a lot of ways. He cleansed Naaman, what, by bathing in a dirty river, or a dirty stream was the way He referred to it. He healed people through the handkerchief of Paul. What people blow their nose on, God used to heal. Or you look at Jesus spitting. You know, there's interesting things that are just repugnant to some people, if they want to think of how they would want to picture God.

This blessing, the simple words, say that God not only hears us, but He wants us, Him and us, to be connected with the same name. That we reflect His name and His identity, which is the ultimate way of telling somebody they're honored. It's like, you know, you talk about your family legacy and the like. You're caring not just a name, you're caring a reputation. That's what God is wanting here, and what He's speaking about. So, this blessing ends by communicating the desire of God to identify His people with His name. That we are equated to Him.

And, just like He's taken ownership at that time, the Bible shows the same thing in various parts throughout the Bible. You need to turn there, but you can think of Acts 2, right? Verses 38 through 40, where God's people were identified through having His Holy Spirit. It says, Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to separate, to identify you.

And that's one way, through the means of baptism that comes out. And then, through that, we can understand the messages that are being heard, to understand the Word of God. There's so many things that then separate God's people that He tries to do throughout time.

As we wrap up this message, I'd like you to just think about our calling, because in some ways, our calling is simple. It's basic, right? It's just listen and obey what the Word says, and then God will bless you and work faith in you. It's only that easy to do. But, I mean, that's basically what it's all about.

We don't have to climb Mount Sinai for God's blessings. We don't have to have a special vision. We don't need to search for some heroic act.

God wants us to realize that this is what He wants to realize is His desire for us.

It's not the security system we set on our house, or the flattery that people show to us along the way, or someone buying us the perfect thing so we just feel loved.

We don't have to live punishing ourselves for our sins. We have every blessing that's necessary to survive in this world, and it all comes through the good news that's in the Bible.

And that's what God says when He says, do this. Tell people, this is why you're supposed to do what I ask. Listen to the words, get baptized, follow what I tell you to do.

It's a beautiful way of realizing what our purpose is all about. And when we do these things, our Lord blesses us.

Now, the blessing here, again, three simple sentences, each using the divine name of God, capture the things that really are needed by us. They're what's most important. And God gave this prayer to the priests of ancient times, because He wants to bring out His full storehouse of treasures upon us. He wants to shine His face on us. He wants to build a protective hedge around us. He wants that nothing would deprive us of His grace and His peace.

I'd like you to turn as we start closing to the final Scripture, which is Luke 24 and verse 50. Luke 24 and verse 50.

When Jesus hung on that cross, God came to give us far more than we could ever imagine or even deserve, because He gave us Himself.

And there can be no greater blessing than that. And after His resurrection, He said and did some very special things. Luke 24 and verse 50. And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands, and He blessed them.

At the end of this, we see that just before returning to heaven, Jesus gave a blessing. And I strongly believe this was the blessing that they were used to hearing, but had a new meaning to them. When Jesus blessed as some of His final statements to His followers, His disciples, and used these words, He was ultimately the great High Priest who gave Himself as the ultimate sacrifice. It's a very powerful imagery.

And now it's our role to pass on God's blessings to others.

We can so easily look at the Bible of what it does for us, but remember again, Aaron was commanded to tell this to others. Peter, in chapter 2 of his first letter, said that those who believe in Christ are part of His royal priesthood. Right? So He speaks of us declaring God's praises, which include praying and working for the spiritual well-being of others.

As others have put it, we are blessed to be a blessing. That's what we should strive for. If you want to summarize your goal in life, be a blessing to God, be a blessing to others. And so the Apostle Paul knew this, and that's why every one of his letters commenced with this short phrase, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he blessed them by sharing God's word and traveling through these risky parts of his life to help them know the gospel and pray for them in their spiritual well-being.

And when you're asking God to bless others, what you're doing is you're asking Him to do the things outlined in the Aaronic blessing.

These blessings will not only bring God's favor to them, but what it shows is it shows us demonstrating that we're growing in godly love, in godly encouragement, in modeling a caring concern for the wellness of others. I challenge you. I did this a couple times today, and it's been fascinating the responses I've gotten. Personalize this and send it to somebody struggling.

Say, may the Lord bless you, fill in their name, and keep you, and put your own spin into the words so you don't have to use the word keep, a protective hedge to keep you safe and protected. Send it to a couple people, and you will touch lives. It'll be fascinating. Because we are called to be instruments of God's blessings in this world, to minister grace and peace to our neighbors and our co-workers and our classmates and our family and our friends. And we do this by how we treat them and what we say to them and what we inspire. And so, this communicates the greatest desire. So we can be a light to them like we want God to be a light to us. He sent us out in the highways and byways of this age to do that. And God, who is our blessing, wants us to be a blessing to others. So friends here in Central Illinois and anybody else, I guess, who listens to this. In closing, may the all-powerful creator God bless each of you personally and build a hedge around you to keep you safe and protected.

May he make his face shine upon you, each of you, with happiness as he sees you and fill your life with grace. May he lift up his countenance and pleasure to see you and give you shalom, a spiritual well-being that involves a quietness of heart that rises above all the circumstances in your life. And may he personally make you his name-bearer and deeply blessed.