I’m very fired up about the whole topic of blessings. Studying It has stirred up something in my heart that I pray grows and continues. I want to be a person who experiences the full blessing of the Lord in my life. I also want to be a person who blesses others in the name of the Lord so they can experience life as God intends it to be.
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This blog post is part 34 of the series Eight Steps to Experiencing His Victory
I’ve said this my whole adult life, God is good. I said it even before I came to know the Lord. I said it to my family and friends who were at the graveside service for Suzette and my son, Zachariah Lee, who was born premature and lived for only one day.
So here I was, an unbeliever, telling all those who would listen that God is good. I told them not to blame God for Zach’s death because God is good. Have I said it enough? Probably not. God is good. God is good. God is good. God is good.
God is in the business of blessing. God is love and so it is natural for Him to want to pour out His blessings on His people. God wants to bless you.
As we saw last week, God is the source of all blessing. Everything good flows from Him.
God wanted to make sure that His people knew His heart toward them. He told Moses to have Aaron bless His children every day of the year. He commanded Aaron and his sons (the priests) to bless them at the close of the daily service.
Let’s look at the passage and then break down the anatomy of God’s blessing to see what it entails. Numbers 6:22-27 says:
22 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:
24 The Lord bless you, and keep you;
25 The Lord make His face shine on you,
And be gracious to you;
26 The Lord lift up His countenance on you,
And give you peace.’
27 So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.”
Notice that it is God who is the one who initiates the blessing. That is awesome because He is the one who created us and knows us the best. If anyone knows how to bless it is God. That is why we want to take this blessing apart piece by piece to see what God is speaking about.
There are six main themes to God’s blessing. Before we look at them I want to share a couple of fun ideas. The first is the word LORD is the personal name of God which was revealed to Moses when God called him to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt.: Yahweh.
The second is Yahweh is used three times in this blessing. Some see the three members of the Trinity in the repetition of the name of God three times. The Father blesses and keeps us, while the Son gives His presence and is gracious toward us, and the Holy Spirit pays attention to us and brings us peace. How exciting.
So let’s take a moment and look at each of the six aspects of blessing that God wants us to experience from Him on a daily basis. Remember, this blessing was to be spoken on a daily basis to the children of Israel for life.
In other words, God wants to bless us with these things each and every new day of our lives.
We covered the concept of blessing last week in What is a Blessing Anyway?, but I want to hit the highlights again this week:
All blessings start with God. He is the one who initiated this blessing, not Moses or Aaron.
Blessings are spoken to people. That is why God was having Aaron and his sons speak this over the people daily.
Blessings are speaking God’s intentions for another. He wants the people to know His intentions toward them.
Blessings are a conduit of God’s grace. God’s mercies are new every morning and He wants us to experience His blessings daily.
Blessings always bring increase. He wants us to experience His presence and abundant life.
Are you sensing that God is for you and He only wants what is best for you? Are you starting to realize that God has already made all His blessings available to you and is waiting to pour them out on you?
The main concept behind this word is God is exercising great care over us. The idea is guarding or keeping in a careful, diligent way. He is always watching over us. This concept brings two passages to my mind that speak of God’s great care for us.
The first passage is Psalm 121:1-8. It reads,
1 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
8 The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever.
The second is Psalm 23:1-6. It says:
1 The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
3 He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You have anointed my head with oil;
My cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Even in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death, God is with us and will protect us with His staff and rod.
This phrase has a lot of meaning to it. Face speaks of God’s presence. Of course, we don't get to see God’s face, but Moses could speak to God as a man speaks face to face. God would descend in a cloud and speak with Moses. The idea is that God wants us to experience His presence on a daily basis.
We always have the promise that God will never leave us or forsake us, but this is more than just His presence in our life. It speaks of His Divine approval and goodwill toward us. God is looking for an intimate relationship with us.
Again this speaks of His favor. This is the same word that Gabriel spoke to Mary when he greeted her. He said, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God” (Luke 1:30). It is also the same word that speaks of Jesus increasing in favor with God and men (Luke 2:52). Isn’t it wonderful that God is pouring out the same blessing upon us as He did on Jesus?
This is a fantastic word in which God describes His desire to show an act of kindness, compassion, or benefice to another. It is God’s heartfelt response to us. He has what we need and He wants us to receive it.
God shows His graciousness out of His giving nature. It’s not something that can be earned. If it was earned it would be our due. What the Lord is clearly saying is that He wants to give us gifts of grace that are sourced out of Him and His abundance.
God is a God of grace. He gives us precious gifts that we could never deserve or earn.
So often I hear people say they don’t deserve anything from God because of the way they have lived their life. They are so used to earning things and know they don’t deserve what God is giving.
Yet God values us so much that He is willing to give us things we don’t deserve. He sees value in us that we don’t see ourselves. He sees us as we really are, not just the actions we have taken. He wants to pour out His grace on us in ever increasing ways.
This phrase has a different focus than the previous one. It deals with God’s presence and His attitude toward us. This phrase focuses on the idea of God paying attention to us. He is looking for us. An interesting point some of the word study experts point out is that this phrase also connotes that God is looking at us and smiling.
Do you ever think that God is pleased with you and when He sees you He smiles? God loves you. You are His child. He looks at you and rejoices.
When Jesus was baptized by John God said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased." (Matthew 3:17). I know, you might be thinking, “Yeah, but that’s Jesus. There is no way God is pleased with me.” Oh yeah.
If you are living in a way that is not pleasing to the Lord, He is there every single day of your life with every spiritual blessing you need for life and godliness. He desires to turn His face to you and help you in your time of need, We are never helpless or hopeless for God is looking and there to help.
The more I study the word Shalom (peace), the more excited I get about it. This word is so much more than the English word peace means. It is used in the Old Testament 250 times.
The basic idea behind it is massive and impacts every part of a person’s life. The very foundation of this word means completion and fulfillment. It means prosperity, well, health, completeness, safety, and satisfaction. Are you getting the breadth of this word?
It is used in the Bible as a greeting and as a way to say goodbye. “To wish someone shalom implies a blessing . . . to withhold shalom implies a curse.” This is an important concept.
Nearly two-thirds of the usages of shalom “describes the state of fulfillment which is the result of God’s presence.”
This is how God wants us to live in the abundance of His provision. This is what He speaks over the people day after day.
God said Aaron and his sons would invoke His name on the people and He would bless them. Invoking the name of God means to call upon Him to do this blessing. He is the only one who has the ability and the resources to bless us.
It seems to be quite a simple thing. If we will invoke His name He will bless. Look around you. Everywhere you go there are people God desires to bless. He even encourages us to bless our enemies and those who do us harm.
Remember, God takes no joy in bringing judgment to anyone in the world. He sent His Son Jesus to pay for the sins of the world. We are to be blessers and not cursers.
Next week we will look at the scope of God’s blessings. Just a forewarning. They are huge!
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