THE LORD MAKE HIS FACE TO SHINE UPON YOU
Today we want to look into the second part of the Aaronic Blessing the part that says; “ The LORD make his face to shine upon you.”
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the COME AS A CHILD BIBLE STUDY which we hold on this blog every Thursday. We are slowly walking through the scriptures together and I am giving you laymen’s comments as we go along. Your feedback and comments are always welcomed.
Last week we began studying the Aaronic Blessing which God gave to Moses.
This is the benediction prayer which we read about at the end of Numbers; Chapter 6. The words are straight from God and Moses was instructed to have the priests pronounce this blessing to the people as a regular routine.
If you wish to review last week’s lesson; you may do so here: RECEIVING THE AARONIC BLESSINGS OF GOD.
REMEMBERING THE BEGINNING OF THE BLESSING
We previously covered the beautiful first part of the blessing “May The LORD bless and keep you.”
These words have always been a very popular way of expressing God’s blessings to his people and we want to understand more of why that has come to be.
In addition to what we studied last week about that first opening line of the blessing; I have to bring up the fact that I always tend to think of the popular song from “Fiddler On The Roof” when I hear these comforting first words of the blessing. Have you heard the song? Here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZZj-Od7Ot0&list=RDxZZj-Od7Ot0&start_radio=1#t=11.
A SABBATH PRAYER
In The Sabbath Prayer song Tevye and Golde are praying for God to bless and protect their daughters.
The words that begin their prayer honor the basic concepts from this old benediction which we are studying today. I’m sure Tevye and Golde knew this, and the same prayer was probably prevalent in almost every Jewish home in their little community.
Those words are: “May the Lord protect and defend you. May he always shield you from shame. May you come to be in Israel a shinning name.”
Now that is truly a great prayer to live under!
The last line mentioned above plays into the passage we want to consider today.
The Sabbath Prayer from the movie says: “May you come to be in Israel a shinning name.” The benedictory prayer God gave in Numbers Chapter 6 says: “The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.”
But most of us do not have that simple, yet wonderful, life of Tevye and Golde in the days before their troubles began.
What does that line truly mean to us today?
Let’s stop here for just a moment and ponder a few “what ifs.”
WHAT IF???
How wonderful would it be if all over the land today, couples WERE at their dinner tables saying blessing prayers over their children before they partook of the blessings of a family meal together?
Unfortunately; that rarely happens.
We are all so busy chasing our tails around in circles.
Though many have good intentions to slow down and focus on the things of God first; we get sidetracked with ball practice and dance lessons and practices for the school play and trips to the PTA meetings and homework. These things are all good; don’t get me wrong; but before we honor them; we need to make God-time and family-time the FIRST priority.
Some get to the slowing down part of this reminder; but they forget why – they forget to invite God into their slowing-down process.
A PRAYER FOR THE END OF THE DAY
We should be doing just as the couple in The Fiddler on The Roof – offering prayers of blessings over our children at our own dinner tables where we all sit down together (without any devices) and share the end of our days with one another.
I’ll let you know a little secret. This is a perfect set up for days and days of blessings from God.
I can speak from personal experience on this fact. In my own family as our four children were growing up; we always took our meals in the evenings around our family dinner table and each meal began with a blessing.
Everything else evolved around or came next to this centering focus. It was very rare that we ever made exceptions. These days our children look back on this and remember the importance of how it formed and shaped their childhoods in the right direction. They desire to do the same for their own children.
GETTING PREPARED FOR BLESSINGS (DAILY)
Setting the stage to make this happen is the preparation before the prayer. Your family table is truly the modern-day version of the altar. Don’t forget to use it; and when you DO use it; don’t ever abuse it. We will probably have many more articles in this blog concerning this one important fact of family life.
How can we know one another, love one another, pray for one another, or help one another if we aren’t even aware of what has been happening with each other from day-to-day in our own families?
The evening meal is a sharing/listening/learning experience. It is more than a meal of nourishing food for the body. This meal at the end of the day should also nourish the soul.
We need to bring back the practice of the family dinner and for at least one or two hours every day; tune out the world and rest with God and our families.
I promise you – if this happened everywhere; the world would change!
COMING CLOSER TO GOD
So this line in the Aaronic benediction is inviting God to make his face to shine upon us and inviting him to be gracious to us!
Do you REALLY get that?
Knowing God’s face is something that every Christian should be hoping for.
This was the main dream and desire of Moses.
It should be the number one focus in our worship; to try to manage to see God face-to-face.
Do you understand the significance of this?
A MYSTERY TO EXPLORE FURTHER DURING THE HEBRAIC MONTH OF ELUL
We often speak of being face-to-face in the time-period called Elul.
This year the month of Elul begins on the world’s calendar date of August 30 (Friday) at sunset and lasts through the world’s calendar date of September 9th. It is the last month of the Hebraic calendar and technically it is only 29 days. However; Hassidic teachings explain that unlike the other months when the King (Symbolic of God) is in the palace, in Elul he is out in the field checking on the harvest. He is very close and accessible to the people. The sages remind us to think of Moses during this time after the first set of tablets containing the commandments were broken. Moses then went up to the mountain a second time during the month of Elul in order to receive the second set of the commandments. He returned forty days later on the date of Yom Kippur.
BECOMING A PART OF THE HISTORY OF GOD
During this period of time we are remembering the history of God with his people; and we are participating in our part of this history.
If you are not familiar with the practice of observing the month of Elul we have written many articles about the subject in this blog. Here are a few you may want to review: TESHUVAH – A SERIES OF ELUL MEDITATIONS- MEDITATION 2 – SEASONS WELCOME TO ELUL (Follow the previews at the end of each of these pages and you will find even more articles about Elul – one of our favorite things to write about here!)
Many Christians are not aware of this observance of Elul; but it is a very helpful tool in your daily walk, and it is guaranteed to help you in seeking God’s face.
Isn’t that what Christianity is all about?
HELP WITH FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN
I’ve observed the practice of Elul meditations for years now and find them to be invigorating, eye-opening and reassuring in relation to my faith in God and our ever-deepening relationship.
Remembering and practicing Elul has definitely given me a broader perspective and a more peaceful attitude. I hope to be able to publish a meditation booklet this year which might prove helpful to all of us during the days of Elul.
Elul helps our fear of the unknown to subside and our trust in God to grow ever stronger. What could be more needed in the days through which we are now living?
MORE PREPARING (ANNUALLY)
Also; observing the days of Elul prepares the heart, soul and spirit for the coming Days of Awe and the upcoming holy days of Rosh Hashannah (The Feast of Trumpets), Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) and Sukkot – (The Feast of Tabernacles.)
Don’t you love how creative God was being when he invented time just for us? God put all these special elements into our time so that we could learn how to come closer to him. He actually thought of just what our spirits would need to endure and enjoy time. All of it occurs exactly when it is needed; no sooner or no later. God is perfect in orchestrating the world of time in which we all live and exist. He has given us this special blessing to help us.
God is outside of time and knows our beginnings from our ends; but he is watching; as we noted last week; he is peeking through the lattice work; looking through the cracks in the wall; observing how much we want to come closer to him. He is on the other side; just watching to see how we come to participate in his ways and his purposes for mankind. It is said during Elul that he is walking through his harvest – that would be us; his people. It is time to consider how that crop is growing and to explore what he will be thinking as he comes even closer to where we are. As he comes close to us; he desires that we seek him too.
So we need to be seeking him, and just as the words of the benediction prayer is saying; we want to be seeking for the blessing of God’s face to shine upon us.
FACE TO FACE
This verse in the second part of the blessing; written by God Himself, assures us that he too wishes for that face-to-face relationship with us.
God told the priests to give out this blessing Sabbath after Sabbath so the people would never forget how much he longs to be in relationship with mankind.
The blessing is given for our encouragement. It represents the second part of the trinity – God the Son; Jesus; our Messiah. Without him we have no hopes of meeting God face-to-face; but with him we have every hope imaginable. He makes our relationship with God possible.
I highly recommend observing Elul from a Christian perspective and as a preface for The Feast of Trumpets.
Come closer to God and he will come closer to you.
Not only will he come closer; he will shine his perfect glory down on you and bless you.
What more could one want than this?