We have already seen the grace of God making provision that His people, who had lost the privilege of priestly service, might draw near to Him by Nazarite separation and consecration. And not as the offence was the free gift: those who had forfeited the privilege of priestly service were the males only, but women and even children might be Nazarites; whosoever desired was free to come, and thus draw near to God. We now come to the concluding verses of Numb. vi, and see in them one of the fullest forms of benediction WHY IS IT FOUND HERE?And the reply is twofold. There is the Divine side. Flowing from God's heart of love first came the privilege of Nazarite consecration; and then, by the act of consecration, His loving heart is so gladdened that it further overflows in these rich benedictions. Looking, on the other hand, at the human side, we may learn that the soul which is fully consecrated always receives the blessing of God. Where that blessing is not enjoyed, there is always something unreal or defective in the consecration. It may be that we have separated ourselves to carry out our own will, or thought, or plan of service, instead of surrendering our The prodigal was a son of the father all the time; but when he preferred his will to the will of his father, his way to the way of his father, his management of his share in the property to his father's management, it issued but in ruin and misery—in hunger and nakedness and shame. The fact that he was a son was of no avail to him in the "far country," in the place of self-will and self-management. But as soon as he arose, and with true repentance and submission came back to the father's house, willing to serve, and to do his father's will, he found himself restored to his father's heart, and to all the privileges of sonship: the fatted calf How many Christians there are who, in their self-will and attempted self-management, find themselves day by day full of sorrow, or full of care. Trying to keep themselves they are not kept; trying to be happy they are often unhappy; trying to succeed they fail; and they can but confess that their life is very different from that ideal life described in Ps. lxxxix. 15-18:
Instead of this many practically know very little of peace "which passeth all understanding," of joy that is literally "unspeakable"; adjectives far more moderate would be found strong enough to express all they know of oft-troubled peace and intermittent satisfaction and happiness. Many there are who fail to see that there can be but one lord, and that those who do not make God Lord of all do not make Him Lord at all. The slightest reservation in our consecration shows that we hold ourselves as our own, and consequently at liberty to give Him as much or as little as we think fit. If we recognize Him as Lord and Master, we have nothing to withhold, and nothing of our own, for we, and all we have, are already His. But then, in "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel ... And they shall put My Name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them." Here we have the blessing that God delights to give to those who have dedicated themselves and their all to Him. Before considering it in detail, let us notice, first, how spontaneous and unsought is this blessing from God—the Lord commanded Aaron and his THE REAL MEANING OF BLESSING?We frequently use the word so vaguely as to lose much of its preciousness, and to overlook the primary meaning in some of its secondary significations. For instance, we use it frequently as a synonym of praise, and in speaking of blessing God, we think of praising Him. But blessing does not merely mean praise, for God blesses us. Again, sometimes we use it for some gracious gift, as when we speak of the blessing of peace or of plenty. But blessing does not only signify gift, for when we bless God we do not give to Him peace Again, blessing is always accompanied with joy; it is a joy, and it gives joy, both to the giver and the receiver. A little child playing with his toys may be both happy and satisfied. But it hears the mother's footsteps, it sees the mother open the door, and instantly the toys are dropped and forgotten; the little arms are stretched But whose heart is the more glad? The little one's heart is full; and the mother's heart is also full; but her capacity is greater, and so her joy is deeper. And is not this true of our Heavenly Father? When His heart blesses ours, and ours blesses Him, we are full of joy; but His heart is infinitely greater than ours, and His joy in His people as far exceeds all their joy in Him, as the infinite exceeds the finite. Let us always remember in connection with blessing that the deep heart-feeling is the primary thought. THE THREE-FOLD BENEDICTION: verses 24-26."The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: "The LORD make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: "The LORD lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." We have dwelt upon the meaning of blessing—the moving of the heart towards an object of affection and complacency, and noticed that this is naturally accompanied by gift or ascription, as the case may be. When love overflows, loving words, loving embraces, or loving gifts instinctively follow. "Jehovah, the Father, bless thee, and keep thee: "Jehovah, the Son, the Bridegroom, make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: "Jehovah, the Spirit, lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." So read, we see in these words fuller beauty and appropriateness. Let us now notice the first clause in particular. THE BLESSING OF THE FATHER.Considered as a father's blessing could anything be more appropriate than "The Lord bless thee, and keep It was one of the objects of our Saviour's mission to reveal to us that, in Christ Jesus, God is also our Father. How He delighted in bringing out this precious truth the Sermon on the Mount bears witness: "Glorify your Father." "Love ... bless ... do good, that ye may be the children of your Father." Be "perfect, even as your Father." "Thy Father ... seeth." "Your Father knoweth," etc., etc. And well may our hearts rest in the thought which so satisfied His heart, that God is indeed our Father. And what a glorious Father He is! the source of all true fatherhood and How safe too! "There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in His excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." Ofttimes where the love of earthly parents has not failed, yet have they been powerless to bless and to keep. The cruel tyrant has tortured the parent in torturing the child; while there has been no power to deliver. And in the presence of human want or suffering how impotent has the strongest human love oft proved to be! Not so the love of our heavenly Father: His resources and His power are as inexhaustible as His love; and they are blest and kept indeed whom He deigns to bless and keep. May we not add "they only"? The "Jehovah, the Father, bless thee, and keep thee." It is an individual blessing: and it includes every form of blessing, temporal as well as spiritual
THE SECOND PERSON OF THE TRINITY.The second clause of the blessing is the blessing of the Son, which is not less full and appropriate. Through eternal ages the Son of God, He became, in the fulness of time, the Son of Man. The Brightness of His Father's glory, the Sun of Righteousness, He came to manifest, as well as to speak of, the Father's love. He became the Light of the world, as well as the Lamb of God; but in each aspect doing the will, as well as the work of God, He thus revealed the wondrous love and grace of the Father, and His own perfect Sonship. The Father's will included Christ's glad reception of all who come to Him, His meeting all their need—saving, sanctifying, satisfying, keeping, raising up at the last day—His giving He is indeed a wonderful Saviour! What light the incarnate Word of God (Who is Light) has thrown on the written Word of God! The law in its legal requirements He has fulfilled, bringing in everlasting righteousness, which is imputed to all those who are indeed in Him. He has also fulfilled the Law in its manifold typical aspects—Himself the Temple, the Priest, and the Sacrifice; Himself the Altar, the Offerer, and the Victim; Himself the Lamp, and the Priestly Trimmer of the lamps (as He is also the whole Vine, and yet the Life of each individual branch of the Vine). Time would fail us to enumerate the various objects and acts of typical service which were all fulfilled in Him. He too is the Bridegroom, from whose
May the Holy Spirit give us more and more to realize the practical bearing of all that is thus revealed of the glory of the Person, and the fulness of the work of our Saviour and King! THE BLESSING OF THE SON AND BRIDEGROOM.Jehovah, the Son, make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto Thee. The first clause of the three-fold blessing told of the going out of the heart of the invisible Father; now, when we come to the blessing of the Son, we read, "The Lord make his face shine upon thee," or, in other words, make visibly manifest His favour towards thee. The Son of God is the Kinsman who has the right to redeem, the Friend who sticketh closer than a brother, the One who has come, not only to be the Light of the world, but in an especial sense to be the Light of His own redeemed ones. There was no need in Israel of a kinsman-redeemer in times of pros "Make His face shine upon thee." The face is perhaps the most wonderful part of the wonderful human body. Of all the faces that God has made no two are exactly alike, even when quiescent; and though we do occasionally meet with those that bear a very close resemblance, intimate friends, who know the play of the countenance, never mistake. And why is this? Because God has so ordered it, that the face shall reveal the character and feelings of the individual. And it is the purpose of God that the heart of Christ shall be revealed to His people. That heart might have been full of love, and we might never have known it; but it is the will of God that "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God" should be How well we know in actual life what the light of the countenance means! How the mother's smile brings light and gladness into the heart of the child! How the welcoming look of a friend is at once understood! In Daniel ix. 16, 17, the prophet prays, "O Lord ... I beseech Thee, let Thine anger and Thy fury be turned away from Thy city, Jerusalem; ... and cause Thy face to shine upon Thy sanctuary that is desolate." Where there is the shining of the face we know there is more than forgiveness; there is favour and complacence. In the thrice-offered prayer of Psalm lxxx, "Cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved," the salvation of Israel is counted upon as the result; and in Psalm lxvii, we find that the shining It is, however, when we consider Him in the relationship of Bridegroom and King that the tenderness and preciousness of this blessing are most fully seen. A truly royal Bridegroom: "in His favour is life," and to Him we can approach at all times, without any fear that He will hide His countenance, or that He will not hold out to us the golden sceptre. Queen Esther might tremble for the result of her boldness, but our King ever welcomes the approach of His Bride. When her heart cries out, "Let him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth," He is ever ready to bring her into His chambers; indeed it is often the Bridegroom What a wonderful view of the light of His countenance the favoured disciples must have had, who were witnesses of His transfiguration: we are told that His face did shine as the sun. To the proto-martyr Stephen the THE LORD, THE SPIRIT.We have considered the bountiful overflow of the Father's love; and our hearts have burned within us as we dwelt upon and felt the glow of the love of the Son. Now, as we think of the blessing of the Lord, the Spirit, may He reveal Himself to us through these holy Words, which were written by His inspiration and which can never be fully understood and enjoyed save by His own illumination. The Bible is a supernatural book, a divine revelation: the Holy Spirit is the supernatural, the divine Guide to its meaning. From the "wise and prudent" its teachings are hidden;—hence the questionings of some of the It is very important to have clear thoughts about the third person of the Trinity. Many Christians fail in this respect, and lose much in consequence. He has as distinct personality as has the Son of God; and we must not think or speak of Him vaguely, as though He were an influence merely and not a person. Our Saviour teaches us that we should know Him, "for He abideth with you, and shall be in you." But are there not many of the Lord's people to whom He is not yet "a living, bright Reality"? So important are the presence and THE BLESSING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT."Jehovah, the Spirit, lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." The blessing of the Spirit is essential to the completeness of the benediction. We are struck, however, with the similarity of this blessing to that which precedes it; nor is the similarity surprising. For, as the Son came to reveal the Father, so the Spirit has come to reveal the Son. Christ was a true Comforter; but His personal work on earth being finished, He ascended on high to minister for His people as their High Priest in the presence of God. The Holy Spirit is the other Comforter, sent by the Father in Christ's name, that He might abide with the Church for ever. Christ is the indwelling Saviour: HIS COUNTENANCE."Lift up His countenance upon thee." We have already dwelt on the significance of the face or countenance (the same original word) as revealing the emotions of the heart. We see from these words that it is the purpose of God that the presence and the love of the Spirit should be made known to those in whom He dwells. When He lifts up His countenance upon us, we walk in conscious security and freedom; but if the Spirit be grieved, the light of His countenance is hidden from us, and we walk in darkness. And, oh, how dangerous is THE PEACE OF THE SPIRIT.The Lord Jesus, when on earth, said, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let Are we practically enjoying this blessing, and experiencing this peace which passes all understanding? Are we finding that when He makes quietness, none can make trouble? And if As the Spirit reveals Christ, so does Christ bestow the Spirit; and by faith in Christ and in His Word we appropriate the gift. We shall never forget the blessing we received through the words, in John iv. 14, "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him SHALL NEVER THIRST," nearly thirty years ago. As we realized that Christ literally meant what He said—that "shall" meant shall, and "never" meant never, and "thirst" meant thirst—our heart overflowed Is it not sad that so free a gift should be so little esteemed, so often neither enjoyed nor sought after? It SEALING WITH THE NAME OF GOD: verse 27."And they shall put My Name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them." With these words this wonderful chapter closes, and the great object of God in bestowing His blessing upon His people is revealed: "They shall put My Name upon the children of Israel," or, in other words, shall cause them not only to become the people of God, but also to become manifestly such. In olden time names were not meaningless, but were descriptive of In the preceding benediction the thrice repeated Name of Jehovah has revealed to us the triune God in His gracious relations with His redeemed people, and has also reminded us that in these relationships He is the unchanging One, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; for all this is contained in the Name Jehovah. And thus the expression, "They shall put There is an interesting parallelism between the passage we are considering and the commission given by our Lord to His people to disciple all nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. True Christians are kept by the power of God ("the Lord bless thee and keep thee"), in the grace which is in Christ Jesus ("the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee"), and receive the illumination of the Holy Ghost ("the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee"), in order that they may shine as lights in the world, and become living epistles, known and read of all men. It is deeply interesting also to connect the sealing of this passage with In Rev. xiii we find the great tribulation in progress, and those still left on the earth persecuted sorely, many of them to the death, by the beast. But the hundred forty and four thousand of Rev. xiv are not among them; they were caught up before the tribulation commenced, having been accounted worthy (Luke xxi. 34-36), to escape the things coming on the earth, and to stand before the Son of Man. Such are not only virgins, undefiled by spiritual adultery with the world, but also wise ones, filled with the Spirit: they are not only waiting for the coming of the Bridegroom, but ready for that coming; whereas the unwise have to go and buy oil, and so miss their opportunity. In Rev. xiv we see that God's Name is "And I will bless them." A word of encouragement to Aaron and his sons in pronouncing the blessing, as well as to the people who received it. The blessing was preceded by God's command ("Speak unto Aaron ... On this wise ye shall bless"), and followed by the promise quoted above; even as our Saviour in giving His last commission to disciple all nations, preceded it by, "All power is given unto Me...: Go ye therefore;" and followed it by the assurance and promise, "Lo, I am with you alway." In the word of a King there is power; and when His servants carry out His commands, our King is present to authenticate them, and to ensure the result. |