Our scripture reading for this evening's sermon will be taken from Numbers chapter 6. Numbers chapter 6 in the Bible that I have is found on page 102. I'll be reading just a couple of verses from Numbers 6 and then I'd like to read all of Psalm 67, a brief psalm. And I'd like to read that along with number six, because what we find in Psalm 67 is the bringing together into one voice two of the most prominent blessings of all scripture. The blessing that God gives to Abraham in Genesis 12 and 17, and along with the blessing that he gives to Israel in our text, number six. These two blessings we'll find as we read through Psalm 67 are given one voice and a rather wonderful purpose in that prayer. Before we read together, let's pray and ask the Lord to bless his word. Our Father in heaven, we do thank you for revealing to us the truths of your great plan of redemption in scripture. We praise you for revealing to us the Lord Jesus Christ and for recording for us in this written word what we need to know to grow in his grace and knowledge. But we need to live as your people. Open our eyes, we pray. And move within us by your spirit. That we might do just that. Help us to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen. Numbers chapter 6, reading verses 22 through 27. The Lord said to Moses, 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 to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord make his face turn towards you and give you peace. So they will put my name on the Israelites and I will bless them. And then from Psalm 67. Psalm 67 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise you, O God. May all the peoples praise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy for you rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth. May the peoples praise you, O God. May all the peoples praise you. Then the land will yield its harvest and God, our God, will bless us. God will bless us and all the ends of the earth will fear him. The word of God before us this morning may be one of the most familiar of all scripture. Though tucked away in one of the most obscure books for many of us, that book of Numbers, this word of Numbers 6, we hear quite often in the benediction. Our pastor Voss often uses it to give us God's blessing after the morning service. And though it may be very familiar to us, I wonder, if you're anything like me, I wonder maybe we don't understand it as well as we know its words. For example, why is this blessing divided into three parts? And why does each part repeat the Lord? And following the Lord, why does each part have two verbs? You see, this blessing has a clear structure, and it emphasizes rather distinctively the Lord in action. The Lord bless and keep. The Lord make his face to shine and be gracious. The Lord lift up his countenance and give peace. Along with some of the questions that I've raised, we'll also answer why this poem, this blessing, this rather old, Old Testament blessing has become such a prominent part of our New Testament corporate worship. Before we get into it, I'll give you a hint. Though this blessing is often called the high priestly blessing or the Aaronic blessing. We must never forget, as we read in this word, that this is the Lord's blessing. You see, it wasn't the priest's blessing or it wasn't the priest's word any more than prophecy was the word of the prophet. Of course, we find in verse 22 that the priests were responsible to pronounce this blessing. But the blessing itself makes clear that it is God's to give. It is the blessing of God for His people. He takes the initiative. He acts to establish the blessing. And as we'll see in verse 27, He is the one who takes responsibility to fulfill that blessing. And He'll do it through the priesthood. It is through the priesthood that this blessing is to be given. It's not an immediate blessing. It doesn't come like lightning from the sky or it doesn't magically appear, children, like we might see dew in the morning. No, this blessing is given to the people of God through the office and ministry of a priest. It doesn't have the flair we may have expected. Through this ordinary means, God blesses His people. Through the priesthood. Now towards this end, let's notice three things. First of all, the people of the blessing. Second, the content of the blessing. And third, the result of the blessing. In verse 23, the Lord says to Moses, Tell Aaron and his sons, this is how you are to bless the Israelites. Notice, first of all, that this blessing is not given to the nations in general. It's not given to the nations in general, but it's given to the Israelites, the covenant people of God. This blessing is not given to the Egyptians. It's not given to the Moabites or the Canaanites or any of the other many nations that we read Israel interacting with. This blessing is given specifically to the people of Israel, the covenant people of God, because they were a people of promise. They were a people of promise, for they were the descendants of Abraham. You see, God promised to Abraham in Genesis 12. He promised to bless him and his descendants, and through them, the world. But the world's not in view in this blessing, or they're not the immediate objects of this blessing. Israel is. The descendants of Abraham are. In fact, in Exodus 2, we are told, while Israel is still in slavery, that God sees them, and He remembers His promise that He made to Abraham. And so one of these great acts of redemptive history, the exodus from Egypt, and the destruction of Pharaoh and his armies, was in response to God remembering his promise to Abraham. And this promise, this blessing to Abraham, it passed on from father to son, from Abraham to Isaac. And our children may remember that Isaac passed on that blessing to Jacob. Do you remember that story? Jacob the deceiver received the promised blessing of Abraham. And Jacob, in turn, gave it to his sons. You see, the father would pass on the family name and the inheritance to his sons, to his children. It was very common practice in that day. And it was of the greatest significance. In our text, we have this blessing that God promised to Abraham, given to the sons of Israel by their great king. By their Lord and their God, the one who had acted on their behalf to crush the armies of Pharaoh and to make a name for himself among all of the nations. And he takes that name and he places it upon Israel. We might picture it this way as we consider the surrounding context of Numbers 6. Chapter 7, for example, talks about how they were to be a part of tabernacle worship. And much of the book of Numbers talks about the particular kind of worship that Israel was to take part in as the people of God. So we might picture it this way, that Israel comes to Mount Sinai, or assembles before the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai, before the Lord's throne, the tabernacle, and his priests, the sacrifices. Everything is set, it's established, and God speaks through his ministers and proclaims to his people the blessing. and lays upon them his name, the Lord, the Lord, the Lord, and promises to them a great inheritance. In the midst of Sinai's shadow comes this promise of great hope and blessing for Israel. They would carry not only Abraham's name, but the Lord's name. They were the heirs of the covenant. They would enjoy his blessing, a blessing that, as Genesis 12 and Psalm 67 anticipates, would bring great joy for all the peoples. And so while the nations are not the direct objects of this blessing, they are not forgotten. You and I are not forgotten any more than God has forgotten his promise to Abraham. Now, while verse 23 identifies Israel as the people of blessing, verses 24 through 26 describe for us the content of the blessing. As mentioned, we find here a poem with three parts, each beginning with the Lord. Though the priests are responsible to proclaim and carry out this ministry, it is the Lord who will act to bring it about. The power and the efficacy comes from the Lord. Jewish historians believe that this blessing was proclaimed by the priest with hands held high. That might look familiar. After the morning sacrifices. And in doing so, they looked forward to the close of the day when the Messiah would finally come. The long promised Messiah would finally come and usher in the new age of eternal rest and peace. Now, it's difficult to confirm the accuracy of this historic observation, but it really should be true, shouldn't it? For this is exactly where this threefold blessing directs us to look. If we would study it in the Hebrew, what we find is that the first verse has the fewest syllables and the fewest words. The second verse has more syllables and more words. In the third verse, climaxes, and it has more syllables and more words, and more importantly, however, this idea and the content of the blessing develops as it reaches and moves towards a climax and a crescendo that the people of God would rest before his face in peace as he looks down upon them. this blessing begins in verse 24 with the words may the lord bless you and keep you it's a rather simple beginning begins with the lord and is followed by two actions the lord is is at work in this blessing blessing here i think we should understand is introducing the general idea of what's going on it's not a curse simply stated this is a blessing and now remember that the proclamation of this blessing was a ministry of the priest. And as the people stood before the throne of God, that throne enshrined in the tabernacle and through all the shadows and types of Sinai, the priest proclaimed the blessing upon the people. And the blessing, of course, was nothing less than the very word of God. And so this ministry of the priest was a ministry of God's Word. It was more than a prayer. It was more than an offering up of our hopes and our desires. Rather, it was a proclamation of God's own Word by His ordained officers. Thus it proclaimed God's desires as it proclaimed God's Word. God's desires were that his people be blessed. We could think of it this way. As the pastor's preaching, so the priest's ministry of blessing declares the word of God and it will not return void. The first word is the Lord bless you. The second word in this first part is the Lord keep you. And keeping here could also be translated guard, preserve. The Lord keep you. The Lord guard you. The Lord preserve you. You see, the one who had redeemed them from Israel isn't going to leave his people to their own ends. He is going to care for them. He is going to guard them. He's going to preserve them. When they face enemies, God will guard them and he will lead them. When they face hunger and famine, as they often did in the wilderness, God preserved them. When they are tempted and in doubt, it is God's word that will keep them true. There's many ways we could show examples of how God will keep, guard, preserve his people in order to bless them. As a father cares for his children, so the Lord God will keep his people. He will guard them. He will preserve them. He will keep them. The second part of the blessing is in verse 25. It says, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. Again, it begins with the Lord. Again, it has two verbs. And again, the second verb explains what happens to God's people. In response to the first, the thought then is that God's shining face will bring or mean grace for his people. Already the thought is developing, isn't it? The first part is God will bless and keep. Here we have a shining face and grace. Notice how the same metaphor of shining face is used in the Psalter. Psalm 31, verse 16 says, O Lord, make your face shine on your servant. Save me in your steadfast love. Psalm 80, verse 3, Restore us, O God. Let your face shine that we may be saved. And this becomes a refrain in Psalm 80. Repeat it again. Shine on us, O Lord, that we may be saved. In verse 7 and again in verse 19, Restore us, O God. Let your face shine that we may be saved. You see, what we see in these verses is that when God's face shines, that metaphor means to communicate salvation. He will be gracious to his people and they'll be saved. Salvation from their enemies, to be sure. But Psalm 80 points us to more. First and foremost, salvation from their sin and rebellion. In Psalm 80, verses 4, listen to verses 4 through 7. O Lord of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people's prayers? You have fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in full measure. You make us an object of contention for our neighbors and our enemies laugh among themselves. Restore us, O God of hosts. Let your face shine that we may be saved. Our children know rather well, I suppose, what it's like for dad to look at them with a frowning face, a darkened face. It's bad news. Bad news. But you see, this blessing looks for good news. It looks for a shining face. And it looks for God's grace. I think we can see that this blessing anticipates for us the coming of the gospel in Christ. Paul points us to that very truth in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 4, saying the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ has come, who is the image of God. A couple of verses later, he talks about the shining face of Christ. We have an anticipation of the Christ to come. In verse 24, God declares to the priesthood that he will act to keep his people. In verse 25, we see that God will act to graciously save his people. And in verse 26, we have this blessing come to a climax when it says, May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. The crescendo of the building of words and the building of symbols and the building of meaning is peace for God's people. Lifted countenance could literally be translated lifted face. So the people are before the face of God. Corim Deo. In Exodus 33, however, we find that Moses asked God to show him his glory, and yet he didn't see God's face. In Isaiah 6, the seraphim, as they fly about the throne room of the heavenlies, they cry, holy, holy, holy, and with two of their wings they cover their face. For no one can see God's face and live. And yet, this blessing calls for God to lift up His face upon His people. To place His people, as it were, before them. That they would be assembled before Him and they would be before His face. And that rather than death, they would have peace. Peace before their holy, holy, holy God. When the face of God is finally revealed, there will not be death. There will be peace for his people. And isn't that the longing of every man and every woman? To have peace. One of my favorite folk writers and singers said in a song, I've got a restless feeling in my bones, and at times it just won't go away. Do you know anybody like that? Maybe you yourself feel just that. You see, once lost in the garden, that peace, the restless soul of humanity has been left to wander through life, ever seeking but never finding the peace and comfort and security that only God can give to the sinner. And we find that God promises it right here. The people of the blessing are Israel. The content of the blessing was that God would keep her, be gracious to her, and give her peace. And in verse 27, we find that the result of this blessing is that God would bless them. Did you notice that? The fulfillment of this blessing rests upon the promise of God. Verse 27, so shall the priests put my name upon the people of Israel and I will bless them. And what the priests proclaimed, God promised to do. And yet we might wonder how this came about for Israel. They did bear God's name, didn't they? They were known amongst the nations as the people of Yahweh, the God who crushed Pharaoh, the God who cleared Canaan. They did know His blessing. Through their pilgrimage in the wilderness, God brought them great victory. He upheld them in their greatest need. He gave them conquest and victory in the land of Canaan. And the Lord's name was upon them through it all. The nations would tremble before them as they came because of their God and His mighty power. Under Joshua's leadership, they enjoyed a measure of peace. And under David's leadership, they enjoyed even more. And yet, this blessing for Israel never reached a crescendo. The blessing never reached its fulfillment. Rarely did Israel know a day when they could stand before the covenant Lord of Sinai with the good news of grace or the abiding possession of peace. They enjoyed a measure of God's blessing, but not its fulfillment. And their prosperity of their land and their pursuit of temple worship and sacrifices, they certainly knew the temporary and some might say the typological aspects of God's blessing, but not the eternal and the substance of God's blessing. And so while Joshua and David did bring them a measure of peace from their external enemies, the power of sin remained in their hearts and ate them away. In chapter 1 of Isaiah, we find that God describes Israel as, Children I have reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib. But Israel does not know. My people do not understand. And Hebrews chapter 4 explains the same truth this way, that they did not receive the good news with faith. You see, rather than trusting in the Lord God whom they could not see, They looked to what they could see. They trusted in what they could do and what they could touch and what they could immediately experience in their land and their wealth, their armies and even their religious services. And these things, they took comfort. And these things, they took pride. And these things, they found their glory. But as Hebrews 4 goes on to say, Anyone, even the sons of Abraham, anyone who does not receive the good news of the gospel by faith will never enter into the eternal rest and peace of God. Congregation of Christ, the blessing of God, both then and now, must be received by faith. The writer to Hebrews wants us to understand that. The same warning, the same concern exists for the church. You hear the gospel. Do you believe the gospel and receive the grace that God promises you in it? Is it the power of God's gospel that you look to for your salvation? Is your faith fixed upon Christ and Christ alone as the great high priest? You see, it must, the writer to the Hebrews would say. You cannot add anything to Christ. And so we could say to our Jewish neighbors in Philadelphia that the Word of God had not failed. The high priest did not look to the dawn of eternity in vain. For the Messiah has come. The Lord Jesus did come. And that crescendo of number six has reached its crescendo and it continues to ring with sovereign power in the Lord Jesus Christ. The great high priest who now, the resurrected one, ever lives to intercede for his people upon the merits and grounds of a once for all perfect sacrifice. as paul explains in galatians 3 it is those who are of faith all those who believe in jesus christ it is those who are heirs of the promise and blessing that god gave to abraham that god passed on to isaac and jacob and declared to israel simply stated the crescendo of god's blessing came and continues to ring in Christ today for us even right now as his word brings to us the good news at the start of the service we were called to assemble before the Lord and we were reminded by Hebrews 12 that we do not come to the smoke and shadows of Sinai but to Mount Zion to this city of the living God and to Jesus Christ the mediator of a new covenant and it's by Him by faith in Him that we are justified and know an eternal and lasting peace with God you see that's why Paul reads the Galatian church with the words grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, to the Ephesian church, listen. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. And to the Philippian church, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Likewise, to the Colossian, the Thessalonian, the letter to Timothy, Titus, Philemon, the same. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't miss the pattern. Do you hear the good news that Paul labors for the church to understand that all of those who have been baptized and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ have grace and peace in Christ. You see, Paul wants us to turn with believing eyes to the smiling face of our God as it's revealed to us in His Son, our Savior and great High Priest who even now stands in heaven to intercede for us, His people. And it's by faith in Him that we have become the promised result of Psalm 67. We are the answer to that great prayer and hope. May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. You see, just as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob long ago, God has called us out of the nations by the gospel. Out of France, Germany, England, some from the Netherlands. out of Nigeria, Ethiopia, Uganda, the Middle East, and the Gospel continues to go forth with power to call the elect to faith and new life in Christ through the life, death, and resurrection of the great High Priest who brought into fulfillment God's blessing for His people. So therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us never forget that we now are heirs of that blessing. And we too carry the name of our triune God. We carry His name as His heirs. Just as number 6 proclaims the threefold blessing in the name of the Lord, in 2 Corinthians 13, 14, the Apostle proclaims to us a threefold blessing in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, saying, May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. The Lord has placed his name upon us and he has blessed us and he continues to bless us and he continues to proclaim it to us through the ministry of your pastors. Don't miss the blessing. It's part of the ministry of God's word at the end of every service that he proclaims to you your inheritance. and that word is effectual to strengthen faith within you and to remind us that we leave here carrying His name. And so as we labor together as partners in the gospel, let's follow the example of Psalm 67. Let's pray for one another that God would bless us as His people, that He would bless us, His church, Not to extend our boundaries or to make us great, but that his boundaries, the boundaries of Christ's kingdom, would extend to the furthest reaches of the earth for his glory, praise, and honor. Amen. Our God in heaven, we do thank you for your word, for how you have preserved it for us these many, many years. You've kept it for us, dear Lord, that we might hear it and that we would believe and that we would indeed be saved. Work upon our hearts, we pray. If there are any here who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, grant them faith, dear Father. By the power of your word and spirit, all things are possible. We pray for faith. And we pray that you would strengthen our faith. That you would keep us from sin as we go forth carrying your name as your people into a watching and needy world. In the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.