”The LORD bless you, and keep you. The LORD make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The LORD lift up his countenance toward you, and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26).
To bless means to pronounce God’s goodness over something or someone. In Numbers 6 God instructs Moses to teach the priests of Israel to pronounce the Lord’s blessings upon the believers. This blessing is not a magic spell that people can use to get something done to their own advantage. This blessing shows God’s desire that His presence will be upon them and give them peace. The priests were to give this blessing to the people of Israel in their gatherings before God. In Jewish meetings and family gatherings, and also in Christian assemblies, this blessing from Numbers 6 is still used to wish each other ‘the goodness of God’. God has the welfare of His children in mind here. And it gives them the awareness of dependence on God’s blessing. He Himself gave these words to Moses. That shows how important it was to Him. Individually and as His church, we are dependent on God’s blessing.
In what ways are we as believers unified by God’s blessing?