The Lord Bless You and Keep You

Numbers 6:24–26
"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace."

This is a wonderful benediction. The Living Life writer says "Our God knows that we are prone to discouragement and doubt and that in times of suffering [or sometimes in times of mirth] we tend to forget about His faithfulness in the past. This is an encouragement to trust in a God whose love never fails." The face of God here and elsewhere represents a high level of intimacy with Him: "the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend" (Exod 33:11), and that's why we are called to humble ourselves, pray, and seek His face (II Chron 7:14). God seeks relationship with us because He is loving; this is the reason for creation that in His generosity He may share with us a complete love that exists in Him. And this is also why God endeavoured (and suffered) to restore this broken relationship by sending His beloved Son to die that light may finally pierce through the darkness of our fallenness, that possibility of intimacy has been reinstated in Christ, and we can be friends again with God for God, Who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ (II Cor 4:6)." So friends may I speak unto you the very same benediction to Israel as we think of our Lord Jesus Christ, of His grace, of His peace, and of his blessings and goodness in the past as we look to the future: "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace."

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