Next, our text in Numbers
spells out the sacrifices the Nazirite would need to bring after the days of
his vow were completed, so we will skip down to one of the oft-quoted passages
in Scripture, Numbers 6:23-27— 23 "Speak to Aaron
and his sons, saying, 'This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel.
Say to them: 24 "The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 The LORD make His
face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; 26 The LORD lift up His
countenance upon you, and give you peace."' 27 So they shall put My name
on the children of Israel, and I will bless them."
1) The LORD bless you. What does it mean to be blessed by God? Does it refer to material gain? Partially, perhaps. You hear people say of someone who has an abundance of cash, “God has blessed them!” But is it always a blessing to be rich? 1st Timothy 6:9—But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. When you set your face toward becoming rich, the tendency sometimes is to maybe cut a corner or two on your way there. And once you get there, you may not happy staying there, and will want more. Ecclesiastes 5:10-12—10 He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity. 11 When goods increase, they increase who eat them; so what profit have the owners except to see them with their eyes? 12 The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep. If you have investments, you have to watch the markets to see which way they are going. Always got to keep up with the Dow Jones or the S&P or the NASDAQ.
John D Rockefeller, Sr.
was the richest man who ever lived. He was a billionaire—with a ‘B’—by the time
he was 53. You want to know what he feasted on? Crackers and milk. Was all his
stomach could handle. Even his doctors couldn’t help him. Well, he lived until
he was 97 years old. What changed? How could this man who pretty much survived
on crackers and milk live another few decades? He stopped worrying about his
money and started giving it away. And guess what? He was still rich even after
doing that! He is quoted as saying "If your only goal is to become
rich, you will never achieve it."
So what does it mean to be blessed by God? It means this: to live in His goodness, to be led by His Spirit, to be accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6), to live with Him and to be with Him eternally. It may be as a rich man, it may be as a poor man. It may be as a prince or as a pauper, but we cannot think that being blessed is all about what we have in this lifetime. We have to understand that being blessed by God means more than that. Who would you say was more blessed? King Nebuchadnezzar, in all his kingly pomp and apparel? Or the widow in Mark 12:42 and Luke 21:2 who put her last two mites into the collection box? Robert Hawker says about this widow—
How little is understood of the nature of true charity. A man may give thousands, and yet have no real charity towards God. And another may give but little, yea, nothing, and yet in the Lord’s sight be very bountiful. And the reason is plain. Where the love of God in Christ is in the heart, this, like a fountain, will diffuse streams from the same source all around.
2) The LORD… keep you. The word “keep” means “pay
heed to” or “to guard. At this time, Israel was just a baby nation. They did
not even have a home yet. They were still wandering in the wilderness. They
were beset roundabout by enemies—not only enemies of them, but the enemies of
God as well. Yet God held them in the
palm of His hand and said “you are Mine”. If you read in the Book of Joshua,
you read of their many conquests against nations that were much more physically
prepared for battle. You read many times when God tells Israel, “don’t go
into this battle, for I will not be with you”. And sometimes they would go
into that battle anyway, and they would be routed. Or if He would command them
to go into battle because He was with them, they would rout their enemies.
Take David, for example. Here was a ruddy little kid who kept sheep. And he was to go up against this man who was, according to the biblical account, almost 10 feet tall, who was covered in armor and held a spear that weighed somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 pounds. The man had trained for war all his life, while little ol’ David kept watch over his sheep. But we all know what happened. That little ruddy boy slung one rock from his sling that entered deep into the giant’s head and killed him. Do you think it was the stone or even the speed with which David moved his sling that killed Goliath? No. 1st Samuel 17:47—“Then all this assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD's, and He will give you into our hands.” He would go on to write in Psalm 20:7—Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. It is not by physical force that they won their battles. I could even point back to Exodus 14 when He parted the Red Sea for the children of Israel to pass through, then brought the water down on top of Egypt’s chariots and drowned them.
The mighty power of thy right hand,
O Lord, most glorious shows;
Thy right hand, Lord, in pieces dashed
The proud insulting foes.
Excelling greatness those o'erthrow
Against thee who presumed;
Thou sendest forth thy flaming wrath,
Which them, as chaff, consumed.
(“The Song of Moses”, John
Barnard)
In all our trials we can say with David that the battle belongs to the Lord. We can fight with all our strength, we can wrestle with all our might, and we can strive with everything in us. But without the Lord of Hosts on our side, we will not prevail. Whether it is in money or sports or business or whatever endeavour, we need to ask God if it is right to fight whatever battle we are thinking of. And if it isn’t—leave it alone. Let it be. Because if it is not from the Lord for you to fight that battle, He will oppose you every step of the way, no matter how hard you bang your head against that wall.
3) The LORD make His face shine upon you. We know that God is light, and there is no darkness at all in Him (1st John 1:5). And that darkness is simply the absence of light. So when we see this, The LORD make His face shine upon you, this is what we need to remember: this blessing for the people is that they are asking God to always be available to meet their needs. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. They would be asking God for His favor in their lives. That whatever He calls them to, He would be there to guide them through it. That He would be the center of their lives.
Ever have one of those days when it seems like God is a million miles away? That nothing is going right and you feel downtrodden and alone? Sometimes you need to just stop and talk to Him. We call that “prayer”. And I’ll admit, that is not my strong suit. But there are times in the middle of life when you just need to stop and get alone and say to Him something simple like “God help me”. It’s not wrong to do that. Do you always know what you need to pray for? No. Does God? Yes. Matthew 6:8—“For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.” That should be one of the most comforting things you could ever hear. We have a God—a God who created all things and upholds all things simply by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3)—He is a God who, even though He may seem to be a million miles away, is closer to you than even your own skin. And He knows what you need even when you don’t. And when you don’t know what to ask for, the Holy Spirit does. Romans 8:26—For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. The late RC Sproul said this—
We ought to pray only according to God's will—according to what He desires for us—but we cannot do that perfectly. Yet that should not lead us to stop praying or to believe our prayers will be ineffective…Paul says that the Holy Spirit takes our imperfect prayers and makes them perfect. He intercedes alongside us and within us "with groanings too deep for words" (or “groanings which cannot be uttered”—ed.). Invisibly and inaudibly, He takes our prayers and makes them conform to the perfect will of the triune God. His ministry of intercession is effectual …We need not fear that the imperfection of our prayers and the weakness of our flesh will prevent us from persevering to the end or keep us from waiting patiently for the final glory to come.
We know that darkness is the absence of light. May we not only look to find the face of God and to rest in His light, but may He continually make Hos light to shine on us, may He never hide His face from us, and may we always walk in the light of His love.
Part 4 next week
Jesus Christ is Lord.
Amen.
