Text: Numbers 6:22-27
The Lord told Moses 23 to speak to Aaron and to his sons and to tell them to bless the Israelites with these words: 24 The Lord bless you and keep you. 25 The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. 26 The Lord look on you with favor and give you peace. 27 In this way they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.
Sermon
Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1). Amen.
8.5 seconds is not a lot of time. Yet, a lot can happen in those 8.5 seconds.
A lot of bad things can happen in 8.5 seconds. Your child can let go of your hand and run into the road in 8.5 seconds. You can pull into traffic and be hit by an oncoming vehicle in 8.5 seconds. Your house can be leveled by a tornado in less than 8.5 seconds.
A lot of good things can happen in 8.5 seconds. It takes a high schooler about 8.5 seconds to set a state record for the long jump. A man can get down on one knee to propose to his girlfriend and she can say “yes” in about 8.5 seconds. If you ran the 100 meters in 8.5 seconds you would shatter Usain Bolt’s world record. That’s really fast.
A Ford Fiesta can go from 0 to 60 in about 8.5 seconds. That’s really slow!
8.5 seconds is about the time it takes a pastor to speak the benediction at the end of worship. “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look on you with favor and give you peace.”
Actually, I say the Benediction faster than 8.5 seconds … but I had to create an average with the slow talkers.
There is a lot that happens in these 8.5 seconds. But most of us miss these things because we’ve heard them so often. Familiarity breeds contempt. The more familiar we are with something the more we take it for granted.
A faithful Christian will hear these words about 50 Sundays a year. By the time you are 80 years old, that’s 4000 times. I figured that I’ve spoken the Benediction just on Sundays at least 2200 times in my ministry.
We may not realize what these words mean. Or we’ve forgotten their meaning. Or we imagine these words mean it’s finally the end of the service.
We will hear these words again at the end of worship today. And you’ll all respond by saying “Amen – I believe it’s true.”
God first gave these words to Moses to give to his brother, Aaron. The Israelites were still at the campground at the base of Mt. Sinai. Before Moses could come down the mountain with the Ten Commandments containing the words, “Thou shalt not have any other gods,” the people were making sacrifices to a statue of a cow they made from the Egyptian jewelry. They were shouting, “This is the god who brought us out of Egypt!” Aaron was the one who led them in cattle worship.
These are the people God wanted to bless? This is the priest who will have God’s name on his lips?
Yes! The Lord takes his name they dragged through the mud, wipes it off, and puts it into the mouth of the ringleader of their former shenanigans. He gives these directions, “The Lord told Moses to speak to Aaron and to his sons and to tell them to bless the Israelites with these words: The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look on you with favor and give you peace. In this way they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Doesn’t God know who he’s talking to when we gather for worship? Doesn’t he know the kinds of men he has as pastors speaking his words every Sunday?
The people in the pews aren’t consistent. They aren’t faithful. They are often forgetful and neglectful. They have all kinds of hidden and unspoken sins.
The pastors who are speaking to the people in the pews are just as bad. They can be wasteful of their time. They can be too busy with unimportant things and not busy enough with the really important things. They have their own hidden and unspoken sins, too.
If God knew who he was dealing with he wouldn’t bless us, would he?
God certainly knows who he is and who he’s dealing with. As we prayed this morning, he is our three-in-one God dwelling in majesty and mystery. The Father desires to preserve our physical well-being as he gives his grace through his Son and renews our faith through the Spirit.
The three-in-one God gives us these words as a benediction as we leave our house of worship to go to our houses. You’ve heard these words hundreds of times. You hear them so much because you need them so much.
The Lord’s name is mentioned three times in the Benediction. The Lord in all capital letters in our English Bibles is the unique name of our God. The Lord is the name of the God of the covenant, the God of the promise of the Savior. The God who is gracious and loving, slow to anger and abounding in love and mercy. He is the great “I AM” who spoke to Moses from the burning bush. He is not the “I was” or the “I will be.” He is “I AM.” He is the eternal, unchangeable, present God.
Notice that the “Lord” is mentioned three times, but “you” are motioned six times in the benediction. Not “you” plural as if God is speaking to a faceless crowd. But “you” singular as if you are the only person in the room.
The Lord bless you and keep you. To bless means “to shower upon.” The Lord certainly showers you with plenty of material blessings. More importantly, the Lord showers you with many spiritual blessings. St. Paul writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3). The Lord showers you with grace in his Son’s blood and showers you with forgiveness through his Spirit’s baptismal waters. God isn’t like a parent who throws a lot of toys and games at his children to keep them quiet and out of his hair. No, he takes great interest in their lives. He blesses you with so many physical and spiritual blessings to demonstrate his rich kindness and love to his people.
The Lord keeps you by defending you from physical danger and protecting you from spiritual evil. The Lord may allow difficulty and even tragedy to enter your life. But he does that so through your suffering he can produce patient endurance in you. That patient endurance produces tested character in you. That tested Christian character produces hope. You don’t have a strong, confident hope in the Lord if the Lord doesn’t first put you through challenging times first. But through it all, the Lord keeps you.
The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. You’ve probably been to enough sporting events where you saw a young person get severely injured. The trainer goes out. Then the coach. When it’s really bad, then the parents are called onto the field. The student athlete is frightened and crying because of the pain of the injury. But a calm sweeps over the face of the child when he or she sees Dad’s face. Now everything will be all right – Dad is here.
When your marriage is falling apart or you’ve lost your job or the economy stinks or you’re scared to receive the doctor’s prognosis, you know the Lord’s face is shining on you to give you the Father’s underserved love through the grace won for you on Christ’s cross. Everything will be all right. Dad is here.
The Lord look on you with favor and give you peace. You can look at our culture and see what happens when people turn their backs to God. It would be far worse if God ever turned his face on us. He is the worst enemy we could ever have. Because of our sin, we deserve to have the Lord turn his back on us and want nothing to do with us. But that’s not what happens. God turned his back on his Son Jesus, who didn’t deserve it at all. That’s why Jesus cried out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” (Matthew 27:46)? Because the Son endured his Father turning his back on him, now we as God’s sons and daughters get to have our Father turn his face toward us and look with favor on us.
The results of the Father turning his back to Jesus and his face toward us gives us peace. It’s a peace not as the world gives (John 14:27). It is a peace beyond human understanding (Philippians 4:7). Peace for a troubled conscience knowing your past sins are forgiven. Peace before surgery knowing God is with you whether the surgery is successful or not. Peace when your mom is slipping away from you with dementia. Though she doesn’t know you anymore, she knows the Lord … and even better, the Lord knows your mom. Peace that your grandfather is now with the rest of the saints in glory everlasting.
There is a lot happening in the 8.5 seconds at the end of worship. Don’t become jaded to these words. Don’t take them for granted. Don’t rush through them so you can get home to other things. Appreciate these words. Be grateful for these words. Have these words in your ears, in your mouth, and on your heart. Whether you are hearing them for the first time or you’re on your deathbed hearing them for the last time, cherish what the Lord is giving you (singular) in these 8.5 seconds. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look on you with favor and give you peace. Amen.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:14) Amen.