Numbers 6:22-27 How to Be a Blessing to Others

Numbers 6:22-27 How to Be a Blessing to Others

The Lord spoke to Moses: “Tell Aaron and his sons how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: May Yahweh bless you and protect you; may Yahweh make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; may Yahweh look with favor on you and give you peace. In this way they will pronounce My name over the Israelites, and I will bless them.”
(Numbers 6:22-27, HCSB)

When this blessing is given, the priest would raise their hands and form the letter “shin”, which is the first letter of the last word of the blessing – shalom (peace.) When Leonard Nimoy was a boy, he opened his eyes one time to see this blessing and what sign the priest made with his hands. He remembered that later and used that as the greeting for his character on Star Trek, Spock who was from the planet Vulcan. The greeting “Live long and prosper” is a summary of this blessing. Just as this greeting was used to bless others, God wants to bless you and for you to bless others.

He wants to bless you. He also wants you to bless others.

The Lord spoke to Moses: “Tell Aaron and his sons how you are to bless the Israelites…
(Numbers 6:22-23, HCSB)

Most people today think God is angry with them. But, as seen here, it was never God’s intention that His ministers blast people. God’s intent was that His ministers bless people. [1]

SIX WORDS OF BLESSING TO SHARE WITH OTHERS

1. May God bless you.

“May Yahweh bless you…” (Numbers 6:24, HCSB)

The Hebrew word translated “bless” here meant to transfer prosperity primarily in the realm of the financial, physical, and material. The heart of the Father is that you would be blessed physically, financially, and materially. [2] The idea is for God to give you something. He gives us stuff, money, power, position, and ability. He does it because He loves us.

“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” (Matthew 7:11, NKJV)

God will give to people who ask, even if it is for someone else. It is not wrong to ask God to bless myself. However, God uses me better and teaches me more about Himself and how He loves me when I ask God to bless someone else.

2. May God protect you.

“and protect you…” (Numbers 6:24, HCSB)

The priests were not only to say, “The Lord bless you”—but, also, “the Lord keep you.” The Hebrew word translated “keep” means “guard.” Why do we ask God first to bless us and then to keep, or guard us? Because if He does give us material blessings, we need to be protected from the evil prosperity may bring. [3]

I like that. We all know people God has graciously and marvelously blessed—and yet sometimes those very blessings can become dangerous distractions to them. No longer are they studying the Word like they once did. No longer are they engaged in service like they once were. Therefore, it is the wise man who says, “May the Lord keep you lest you get distracted from that which is of eternal significance.”

3. May God shine on you.

“May Yahweh make His face shine on you…” (Numbers 6:25, HCSB)

God doesn’t want to just bless and guard you, He also wants to shine on you. What does it mean for God to shine on you? God wants to reveal more about you. When God makes His face shine, it reveals your sin. It also reveals your need for a Savior. God wants to bless you, protect you, enlighten you, so that He can love you.

4. May God love you.

“and be gracious to you…” (Numbers 6:25, HCSB)

God’s grace is a form of God’s love.

As you look at Jesus, as you learn of Him and focus on Him, you’ll discover what the crowds who gathered around Him discovered. You’ll discover what the woman caught in adultery discovered. You’ll discover what the tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners discovered. You’ll discover His tenderhearted, compassionate grace.

God shares His grace to you. He wants you to share that same grace. It is called being a grace-first people. In the book The Grace Outpouring: Becoming a People Who Bless, the authors Roy Godwin and Dave Roberts share this insight:

Having a heart to bless will challenge the judgmental mind-set that can color how we look at those we live with and among. We can become a “grace first” people. We’re still asking people to turn away from rebellion against God, but we’re seeking to be part of the revelation from the Father that his primary desire is to bless those he created in his image. [4]

5. May God smile on you.

“may Yahweh look with favor on you…” (Numbers 6:26, HCSB)

When the Bible says that a person’s countenance is downcast, it means that one is frowning. When the Bible says that a countenance is lifted up, then it means that a person is smiling. In this case, to “lift up the countenance” simply means to smile. Here the priests were to say to the people, “May the Lord smile upon you and give you peace.”

God wants to smile on you. He wants to bless you. He wants to guard you, and then He wants to smile on you. Just as a parent smiles on their children because it brings them pleasure, God wants to smile you. He really wants to enjoy you. He wants to have a relationship with you that is based on joy, not on fear.

A happy parent who enjoys their children will be gracious to them. God enjoys us and He wants to give us peace.

6. May God give peace to you.

“…and give you peace…” (Numbers 6:26, HCSB)

In the blessing of verses 24–26, we see the name of the Lord repeated three times. In these three blessings most of the fathers and earlier theologians saw an allusion to the mystery of the Trinity. [5]

In this, there is a suggestion of the Trinity—for in verse 24, the reference is to God the Father, in verse 25, to God the Son, and in verse 26, to God the Holy Spirit.

In verse 24, we see God the Father as the Giver.
In verse 25, we see God the Son as the Revealer.
In verse 26, we see God the Holy Spirit as the Soother.

These three characteristics correspond to our needs. God is a Trinity and in a sense, made in His image, we are as well, for while God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are body, soul, and spirit. The body relates to the material—the realm wherein the Father blesses us physically. The soul is the mind and the emotions—that which we think and feel. Sometimes we get confused. Sometimes we have questions. Sometimes we’re disturbed. That’s where God the Son comes in. Any issue with which I’m wrestling, any struggle with which I’m dealing will ultimately find its answer in Jesus Christ. The spirit is the deepest part of my being, the part of me that will live forever. And because the spirit within me can lack peace, it’s the Holy Spirit who inhabits my spirit, who indwells my spirit, who communes with me in the deepest part of my being and gives me peace.

The psalm recalls this blessing. [6]

Psalm 67
1 May God be gracious to us and bless us; look on us with favor
2 so that Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.
3 Let the peoples praise You, God; let all the peoples praise You.
4 Let the nations rejoice and shout for joy, for You judge the peoples with fairness and lead the nations on earth.
5 Let the peoples praise You, God, let all the peoples praise You.
6 The earth has produced its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.
7 God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear Him.

Let’s take a minute to recite this blessing for ourselves. Now I want you to take time and share this priestly blessing with someone around you. The best way to bless someone is to practice it.

Jim Burns, in his book Confident Parenting, shares the following powerful story about blessing the family:

One of my favorite stories of a family blessing and celebration centers around a father-son combination like none I have ever heard of before. In 1962, Dick and Judy Hoyt gave birth to their son Rick. When Rick was born, the umbilical cord was caught around his neck, cutting off the air supply to his brain. The Hoyts were told that Rick would be in a vegetative state for the rest of his life. Fortunately, they disagreed. Rick grew and made amazing progress, eventually using a computer to communicate. Three years later he was admitted into a public school. A few years after that, Rick told his dad that he wanted to participate in a five-kilometer race for a local athlete who had been paralyzed in an accident. Dick agreed to push his wheelchair in the race. Since then, Rick and his dad, known as Team Hoyt, have competed in about nine hundred events, including more than sixty marathons and two hundred triathlons.

So why does this father run, swim, and ride with his disabled son through all these events? Because the day they finished their first 5K, his son said through his computer, ‘‘Dad, when we were running, it felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore.’’ [7]

The blessing Moses taught Aaron and the priests captures the very essence of what it means for Israel to be the people of Yahweh—a source of blessing that makes God’s gracious presence known. [8]

1. Jon Courson, Courson’s Application Commentary of the Old Testament Volume 1 (Genesis-Job), (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2005), 465-466. Accessed on January 2, 2015 at 10:27 PM
2. Courson, 465.
3. Courson, 465.
4. Roy Godwin and Dave Roberts, The Grace Outpouring: Becoming a People Who Bless, (Colorado Springs, Colorado: David C. Cook, 2012). Accessed on January 3, 2015 at 11:37 AM
5. C.F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1996) 1667. Accessed on January 3, 2015 at 11:19 AM
6. Andrew Knowles, The Bible Guide, (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Fortress, 2001), 86. Accessed on January 2, 2015 at 10:12 PM
7. Jim Burns, Confident Parenting, (Bloomington, Minnesota: Bethany House Publishers, 2007), Chapter 7. Accessed on January 2, 2015 at 9:56 PM
8. David S. Dockery, Holman Concise Bible Commentary, (Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1989), 55. Accessed on January 2, 2015 at 10:19 PM
9. The elements of this sermon came from a lectionary simple thought reflection on 1 January 2015 entitled “How to Say a Blessing to Others in the New Year.“