Blessings
Turning inward, deep, deep, peel back the layers. More profound than the superficial fear and despair that we might not actually find it, we find desire. Desire--our motivational core in today's words, idols in the call of the Hebrew prophets, and desires in the insightful lingo of the New Testament. (1) While hearts are never so simple, Tim Keller points to four basic ways we seek meaning, four basic ruling desires: comfort/freedom, approval, control/certainty, and power. (2)
"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 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." (Numbers 6:22-27, ESV).
A blessing--the Lord himself shows us favor. In his face shining upon us, we have his approval. In a right relationship with him, we find comfort, a security and freedom. To "lift up his countenance" is a manifestation of power--but it is his power (see Ps. 31; 44:3; 80:3, 7, 15 for how he manifests his power when the light of his face shines on us), and we can rest in that. We find certainty/control in his keeping of us, a keeping from the One who governs heaven and earth in complete sovereignty. The blessing of the Lord--the Lord himself, the light of his face, his presence--is what we most long for, if we dare to trust it.
Dare we trust it? We long for the blessing, desire it to be true... But sometimes we doubt. We feel strained and pressured and beaten down instead of comfort. We feel more shame and loneliness than approval. Even God seems so distant at times. Instead of control, life seems uncertain and fragile--a friend died of cancer this week, there are so many on the prayer list who unexpectedly ended up in the hospital, awaiting news. People call the church asking for help with rent all the time. Life is so vulnerable. We feel weak, forgotten, losers, and in the corner instead of power.
Dare we trust it? We are tempted to seek our own ways of comfort, approval, control, and power. Our desires for these are strong; we don't see what we look for. We are tempted to seek the gifts instead of the Giver; or we let one of these unconsciously reign in our hearts.
Dare we trust it? Christ gives a resounding yes, a yes which resounded with every hammer of the nails of the cross. But God demonstrated his love for us in this, that Christ died for us while we were still his enemies (Rom. 5:8). How will he not graciously give us all things? (Rom. 8:31-32). And in Christ, we find the blessing fulfilled:
(1) See David Powlison, "Idols of the Heart and Vanity Fair," Journal of Biblical Counseling, available from www.ccef.org
(2) Tim Keller, Galatians: Leaders' Guide, p. 77.
"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 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." (Numbers 6:22-27, ESV).
A blessing--the Lord himself shows us favor. In his face shining upon us, we have his approval. In a right relationship with him, we find comfort, a security and freedom. To "lift up his countenance" is a manifestation of power--but it is his power (see Ps. 31; 44:3; 80:3, 7, 15 for how he manifests his power when the light of his face shines on us), and we can rest in that. We find certainty/control in his keeping of us, a keeping from the One who governs heaven and earth in complete sovereignty. The blessing of the Lord--the Lord himself, the light of his face, his presence--is what we most long for, if we dare to trust it.
Dare we trust it? We long for the blessing, desire it to be true... But sometimes we doubt. We feel strained and pressured and beaten down instead of comfort. We feel more shame and loneliness than approval. Even God seems so distant at times. Instead of control, life seems uncertain and fragile--a friend died of cancer this week, there are so many on the prayer list who unexpectedly ended up in the hospital, awaiting news. People call the church asking for help with rent all the time. Life is so vulnerable. We feel weak, forgotten, losers, and in the corner instead of power.
Dare we trust it? We are tempted to seek our own ways of comfort, approval, control, and power. Our desires for these are strong; we don't see what we look for. We are tempted to seek the gifts instead of the Giver; or we let one of these unconsciously reign in our hearts.
Dare we trust it? Christ gives a resounding yes, a yes which resounded with every hammer of the nails of the cross. But God demonstrated his love for us in this, that Christ died for us while we were still his enemies (Rom. 5:8). How will he not graciously give us all things? (Rom. 8:31-32). And in Christ, we find the blessing fulfilled:
The Lord bless you and keep you--We are kept in
Christ (2 Thes. 3:3; Jude 24-25; John 17:11-12, 15)
The Lord make his face shine upon
you--His
face shines on us because we are in Christ, in his beloved (John 17; Eph. 1:6).
And be gracious to you--Christ came to us,
full of grace and truth (John 1:14), and manifested the fullness of God’s grace
to us, giving us grace.
The Lord lift up his countenance
upon you--It is in Christ that the power of God was
manifested in weakness, conquering Satan, in miracles and healing and countering the forces of sin and destruction,
his resurrection, and his return in power and glory. As Paul says, "Christ, the power of God" (1
Cor. 1:24) (Mat. 14:2; Mark 5:30; Mark 13:25-26; Mark 9:1).
And give you peace--We have peace with
God in Christ and peace with others; indeed, he himself is our peace (Rom. 5:1, 5; Eph. 2:14;
John 14:27).
So shall they put my name upon
the people of Israel, and I will bless them--We are the people of God, to be radically manifested when he comes again (Luke
1:68; 2 Cor. 6:16; Heb. 8:10; 1 Pet 2:10; Rev. 21:3).
Truly, in Christ we have every spiritual blessing and all the promises of God are "yes" in him (Eph. 1; 2 Cor. 1:20-21). When we see the love of God demonstrated in Christ, we know we are blessed. We see him who gave up all comfort to become man and to obedience unto death; who was stripped of all approval, both by man and God as the Father turned his face away from him on the cross and poured out his wrath; who rendered up all control, led like a sheep to the slaughter, without trying to manipulate or even defend himself in words; who surrendered all power, in his weakness as a man, but in the shame of a cross as well. He gave up all the blessings and desires we look for, so that we could have them all. In Christ, we have the Father and his blessing. In that love, we can surrender our own self-driven ways to seek our own ways of finding comfort, approval, control, and power. We know HIM, who is our blessing sufficiently.
The Lord has made his face shine upon you in Christ, with all the blessings--we are in the beloved.
(1) See David Powlison, "Idols of the Heart and Vanity Fair," Journal of Biblical Counseling, available from www.ccef.org
(2) Tim Keller, Galatians: Leaders' Guide, p. 77.
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