And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
God speaks to Moses again at the close of the chapter. What follows is not another rule for the Nazirite — the man who offered himself to God under a vow of separation — but words of blessing for the whole nation. Why does a chapter about separation end in blessing, and why does God hand the words to Aaron?
By the end of Numbers 6 the camp is in order. One thing is left for God to do.
The camp is properly arranged. Every warrior stands in his proper place (Numbers 1, 2). Every workman has his proper work (Numbers 3, 4). The congregation is cleansed from defilement (Numbers 5). There is provision for the highest character of separation to God (Numbers 6). All this is very marked. The order is strikingly beautiful… Having reached this high point, nothing remains but for the Lord to pronounce His blessing upon the whole congregation.
The move from the Nazirite's vow to a blessing can look abrupt. The order itself teaches something.
The blessing in these verses forms a fitting conclusion and the high point of this chapter. It is as if God wished to point out that the way of consecration is always a pathway of blessing for us.
The words are God's own, yet He does not speak them Himself. The message travels one step further than Moses.
It is remarkable that God does not simply pronounce this blessing over His people. Nor does He leave it to His servant Moses. Instead, Moses has to pass these instructions on to Aaron and his sons. This shows that God wishes to use the priesthood to give this blessing to His people.
That pattern did not end with Aaron. The same picture appears when Jesus left the earth.
It is Christ through whom all blessing comes to us. When He ascended from the earth to go "to the Father" and "into heaven," we read: "He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven" (Luke 24:50–51). Aaron also raised his hands to bless (Leviticus 9:22), but his hands had not been pierced. Those of the Lord Jesus had indeed been pierced.
The word works in two directions.
The original meaning of the Hebrew word for blessing ("barak") is "kneel." It is used in two different senses: "to bless" (when God acts) and "to praise" (when a person "blesses" God). In the New Testament the link between these two acts becomes clearer. The Greek word ("eulogeo") joins "good" ("eu") and "speak" ("logeo"). When we praise God, we are saying good things about Him. When He says good things about us, He is blessing us.
The vow moved one way; the blessing moves back the other.
The Nazarite offered himself to God, and God put His name upon Israel, only it was as separated to God that He did so.
What God promises here holds a surprise.
Some of these blessings have a spiritual character. That is surprising, since the people of Israel, unlike Christians, had mainly enjoyed earthly blessings… But it appears that God wishes to show that His response to dedication to Himself is to grant more than merely material things.
What God offered here, the nation did not hold on to.
What a provision! Oh, that Israel had entered into it and lived in the power of it! But they did not. They quickly turned aside… They exchanged the light of God's countenance for the darkness of Mount Sinai. They abandoned the ground of grace and placed themselves under law.
Commentators read the closing promise — God's name on the people — as still future. One traces it from Israel's ruin to their restoration:
This has not been properly fulfilled in all their history so far. For centuries Israel has suffered because of rebellion against God. Instead of having God's name upon them, God said of the child of Hosea, "Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people" (Hosea 1:9). But when at last in faith they turn to the Lord Jesus in genuine repentance, then "in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'sons of the living God'" (Romans 9:26).
Another ties the timing to the end of the Nazirite's term:
This will really and literally be the fact when the Nazarite's term has come in every sense. It will end in the unlimited joy and gladness of the millennial reign.
- Order first. God arranges, cleanses and consecrates the camp. Only then does He speak the blessing.
- Consecration then blessing. The path of separation to God is never a dead end; it is the road along which blessing arrives.
- Through the priest. God refuses to bypass Aaron, and today the hands lifted to bless are pierced hands.
- God speaks good. To bless is God saying good things about us; to praise is us saying good things about Him.
- The name still to come. Israel traded the light of His face for Sinai, but the name will yet rest on them, and the blessing will be fact.
Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel saying unto them,
God speaks to Moses, but the words are for Aaron and his sons: this is how you are to bless Israel. The verse settles three things at once — who blesses, who pronounces it, and whose words they must use.
This chapter sets out the Nazirite vow — a life of devotion to God, separated from earthly joys. It can look hard and narrow. One writer points to where the chapter ends.
Paul showed wholehearted devotion and separation from earthly joys. Watching that, an unspiritual believer might say, What a cramped and gloomy life! Nothing would be more mistaken. It is a life of joy and blessing. Why, this very chapter in Numbers, which gives us the Nazirite vow, ends with the special blessing of the Lord. The blessing is not limited to the Nazirite, though he is included. It rests on the children of Israel, seen as a people on whom the Lord would put His name.
One writer draws attention to the route God chose for this blessing.
It is remarkable that God does not simply pronounce this blessing over His people. Nor does He leave it to His servant Moses. Instead, Moses has to pass these instructions on to Aaron and his sons. This shows that God wishes to use the priesthood to give this blessing to His people.
The same arrangement is read as a picture of the assembly of God's people living permanently under His care.
This generous blessing flows through the channel of priesthood. Aaron and his sons are commissioned to pronounce this wonderful benediction. God's assembly is to be blessed and kept by Him, continually; it is always to bask in the sunlight of His gracious face; its peace is to flow like a river; the Lord's name is to be called on it; He is always there to bless.
The priests do not choose their own words. God gives them the form, and one writer sees His warm heart in it.
How the Lord here freely pours out His blessing on the people, His heart flowing out towards them! He calls Moses before Him to set up this special ordinance and to give him this new and honoured task. Moses must show Aaron and his sons the style and character of the blessing. God would have it pronounced on the people of His love, in all its fullness and richness, in all its depth and breadth.
The verb itself carries a meaning worth pausing on, and it runs in two directions.
The Hebrew word for blessing ("barak") first meant "kneel". It is used in two different senses: "to bless" (when God acts) and "to praise" (about man when he "blesses" God). In the New Testament the link between these two acts becomes clearer. The Greek word ("eulogeo") joins "good" ("eu") and "speak" ("logeo"). When we praise God, we are saying good things about Him. When He says good things about us, He is blessing us.
Blessing reached Israel through the priest's raised hands. One writer follows that line forward.
This principle has held good to the present day: it is Christ through whom all blessing comes to us. When He went up from the earth to go "to the Father" and "into heaven", we read: "lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven" (Luke 24:50, 51). Aaron also raised his hands to bless (Lev. 9:22), but his hands had not been pierced. Those of the Lord Jesus had indeed been pierced, and that is how the disciples saw Him ascend.
What the priests were told to say is not a list of crops and cattle.
In that day, blessing was mostly tied to earthly and material things. What strikes us here is that this blessing is so bound up with spiritual things. The shining of the Lord's face and the lifting up of His countenance surely means this: God would keep Israel in the light of the revelation of Himself, as they knew Him among them. Then they would experience His grace, though they were under the law, and they would enjoy His peace. Such blessings may be ours today, but in a far larger and richer way, since God is now revealed in Christ.
Commentators hold both applications together rather than choosing between them.
We fully believe that the children of Israel will yet enjoy the full tide of blessing set out at the close of Numbers 6. Until then, God calls the Church to share in blessings that belong to her alone. She has the privilege of knowing God's presence with her and among her, always. She lives in the light of His face. She drinks of the river of peace. Day by day He blesses her and keeps her — He who never slumbers nor sleeps.
- Source — blessing begins with God alone; the priests are told what to say, and the words are His.
- Channel — God does not bypass the priesthood. Moses hands the words to Aaron and his sons, and blessing reaches the people through them.
- Christ — Aaron's raised hands had no wounds. The Lord Jesus went up to heaven blessing His disciples with pierced hands.
- Content — the blessing is spiritual, not just material. It is God's face turned toward His people, His grace, His peace.
- Result — separation is not a gloomy life. The chapter of the Nazirite ends with God putting His name on the whole nation and blessing them.
Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Jehovah make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee;
God gave Moses the exact words Aaron and his sons were to speak over Israel. The middle line asks for two things: a shining face and grace. What does it mean for God to turn His face toward people?
The words are not a private wish. God assigns one family to speak them over the whole nation.
This generous blessing flows through the channel of priesthood. Aaron and his sons are commissioned to pronounce this wonderful blessing. God's assembly is to be blessed and kept by Him, always. It is always to bask in the sunlight of His gracious face. Its peace is to flow like a river. The LORD's name is to be called on it. He is always there to bless.
The first half of the verse is about light. God makes Himself known in the place you live and the road you walk.
If it says that God (here again "the LORD") was to let His face shine on them, it has to do with light. It is the light, or revelation, of a God known to us in our dwelling place, our pathway and our circumstances. When Israel left Egypt for the promised land, God used the cloud of His presence and the pillar of fire to show them the way (Ex. 13:21, 22). In our verse it is more personal: it is His face that is to shine upon us and them respectively.
Asking God to shine on you could be frightening. Where does that light rest now?
The practical side of the pathway is in the foreground here. Even so, this sentence reminds us that we as Christians can know and enjoy the radiance of Christ's face. We can look back to the cross and also look up to a glorified Christ. Then we see nothing less than the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). And we see it without fear or worry, for it is in the face of Him who suffered for us that we see God's glory. Glory on its own causes fear, but glory in the face of Christ is glory in grace.
Israel's own history shows what that grace looked like in practice.
When it continues "and be gracious to you," we remember how God kept showing grace to Israel even when they were under the law. Think, for example, of the incident with the bronze serpent (Num. 21) or in connection with Balaam (Num. 22–24). Their failure called for judgment in the way God governed them. Even so, He was gracious towards Israel again and again. Several times God had threatened to destroy that nation, and they fully deserved it. But He relented when Moses pleaded for them, and He brought the people into the promised land of Canaan.
Israel learned to pray these words back to God. What they asked for was God Himself, not only His gifts.
This shining of the face of the LORD appears often in the Psalms. Clearly it was a familiar thought in Israel. The most remarkable instance is in Psalm 80: "Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved!" To us, this means nothing less than the direct enjoyment of Himself. It expresses a character of blessing that no hearts like ours could ever appreciate enough. He never blesses us so supremely as when He makes Himself the object of our hearts, today and for eternity.
This verse is the middle line of three. Read in order, they climb.
The blessing places them under the keeping and the grace of the LORD, and in His peace. In fact, the LORD first blessed them in a general way. Then, by making His face shine on them, He caused them to enjoy His grace. Last, by lifting up His countenance on them, He gave them the assurance of peace.
Another writer sees more in this threefold shape: the name of the LORD spoken three times.
The blessing with which this chapter ends gives a precious revelation of the triune God. Three times the Name of the LORD was put upon the children of Israel: the Father-God, who keeps; the LORD the Son, who is gracious; the LORD the Holy Spirit, who gives peace.
Commentators tie the full weight of these words to a day still coming for Israel.
This will really and literally be the fact when the Nazirite's term has come in every sense; and it will end in joy and gladness without limit in the millennial reign.
- Spoken. God dictates the words. Aaron's family only carries them to the people.
- Shining. A shining face means light: God making Himself known in your home, your path, your circumstances.
- Gracious. Grace is the second half. Israel failed again and again, and God still brought them into the land.
- Christ. The light rests at last in the face of Jesus Christ — glory that does not frighten, because it is glory in grace.
- Climbing. Kept, then given grace, then assured of peace — three lines that rise, each one carrying the LORD's own name.
Jehovah lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
This is the last line of the blessing God gave for Israel, and it ends with one word: peace. What does it mean for God to lift up His face toward someone, and why does peace follow?
The picture behind the words is a face turned toward a person.
In our verse the wish for the blessing is directed towards God's side. When He lifts His countenance upon someone, it is a sign of His favour towards that person. Psalm 67:1 confirms this: "May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face to shine upon us."
The same writer points to the opposite case in David's family:
We have a particularly interesting, though negative, example with David. Absalom was not allowed to see his father's face (2 Samuel 14:24). In this way it became clear that Absalom no longer enjoyed his father's favour.
The two halves of the verse are not separate gifts.
Then our verse continues "and give you peace". These two aspects are connected. If we enjoy an undisturbed relationship with God, then peace will follow, because we are doing God's will. The Lord called this peace "my peace" (John 14:27). He had known it perfectly. So He could go to meet His enemies in perfect peace, saying, "If you seek me, let these men go" (John 18:8). After His resurrection, too, He gives the foundational peace with God, based on His work — great as that is (John 20:19). But He gives more: peace to be lived out day by day on our pathway and in our mission (John 20:21).
Read as a whole, the blessing climbs, and this verse is its summit.
God ends by putting His blessing and His name on the people. The blessing places them under the keeping, the grace, and the peace of the Lord. First the Lord blessed them in a general way. Then, in making His face shine upon them, He caused them to enjoy His grace. Last of all, in lifting up His countenance upon them, He gave them the assurance of peace.
Writers trace each part of the blessing to a different Person of God.
The three parts of the blessing are often linked with the three Persons of the triune God, and the connection is easy to trace. The first blessing here is preservation, as from the Creator-Father. The second is grace in God as He reveals Himself, as He has done in Christ. The third speaks of inner experience and enlightenment, with the deep rest that flows from it — the work of the Spirit of God. In this way all that God is stands engaged for us; and His name upon His people makes them His representatives on earth. He identifies Himself with them, as One not ashamed to be called their God.
Having God's face turned toward you is not only comforting. It changes how a person walks.
With what assured confidence can the saint of God go forward when he has the Lord's countenance! This is what makes "the path of the righteous like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day." His countenance lights up the path... Nothing God gives us is deeper, steadier, or more reassuring to the heart than "the peace of God." As the apostle says, it "surpasses all understanding."
This blessing came to a people who expected material things.
In that day, blessing was mostly tied to earthly and material things. What strikes us here is that this blessing is so bound up with spiritual things. The shining of the Lord's face and the lifting up of His countenance surely mean that Israel could be kept in the light of God's revelation of Himself among them. Then they would experience His grace, even though they lived under the law, and they would enjoy His peace. Such blessings may be ours today, but in a far larger and richer way, since God is now revealed in Christ.
- Face — A lifted face is a face turned toward you with nothing in the way. Absalom is the opposite: shut out from his father's presence, and so from his favour.
- Favour — The lifted face signals God's pleasure in the person He looks at, the very thing Psalm 67 asks for.
- Peace — Peace is not a separate gift. It follows the open relationship, and Christ called it "my peace" and kept it in front of His enemies.
- Progression — The three lines climb: kept, then given grace, then given the assurance of peace. All that God is stands engaged for His people.
- Name — God ends by putting His name on His people, not ashamed to be called their God. The blessing is richer still now that God is revealed in Christ.
And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them.
The priestly blessing ends with God explaining what it does. Aaron and his sons put His name on Israel, and God Himself does the blessing.
One writer points out who "they" are, and how this line differs from the three before it:
Verse 27 brings the blessing to its conclusion. Verses 24–26 speak directly to the one who receives the blessing. Verse 27 goes back to the form of an instruction: "So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel." Those called "they" are once again Aaron and his sons.
So the line is not a further item added to the list. It is the meaning of the whole list:
This sentence is not so much a separate seventh blessing. It is a summary, or explanation, of the six blessings just given: the Name of Jehovah was put upon the children of Israel. In this way God identified Himself with them, and they became, so to speak, His representatives on earth.
God could have spoken the blessing over the people directly. The route He chose is deliberate:
It is remarkable that God does not simply pronounce this blessing over His people. Nor does He leave it to His servant Moses. Instead, Moses has to pass these instructions on to Aaron and his sons. This shows that God wants to use the priesthood to bring this blessing to His people.
The priests speak the words, but God is the one who blesses:
This rich blessing flows through the channel of priesthood. God will bless and keep His assembly, always. Jehovah's name is to be called upon it. He is ever there to bless.
One writer carries this same pattern forward to Christ, and points to a difference in the hands:
This principle has held good to the present day: it is Christ through whom all blessing comes to us. When He went up from the earth to the Father, we read: "And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven" (Luke 24:50, 51). Aaron also raised his hands to bless (Lev. 9:22), but his hands had not been pierced. Those of the Lord Jesus had indeed been pierced, and that is how the disciples saw Him ascend.
The blessing comes right after the law of the Nazirite — a person who took a vow of separation to God. That order matters:
The Nazarite offered himself to God, and God put His name upon Israel. But He did so only as they were separated to Him.
Another writer sees the order as deliberate, and the blessing itself as still ahead:
Is this why the high priest's blessing comes right after? It stands in close connection with the end of the Nazarite's vow… This will really and literally be the case when the Nazarite's term has come in every sense. It will end in the unbounded joy and gladness of the thousand-year reign.
Israel's history reads as the opposite of this verse — and then as its recovery:
God's name would be put upon Israel (v. 27). This has not truly happened at any time in their history so far. Israel has suffered for centuries because of rebellion against God. Instead of having God's name upon them, God said of the child of Hosea, "Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God" (Hosea 1:9). But at last they will turn in faith to the Lord Jesus in genuine repentance. Then "in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'sons of the living God'" (Romans 9:26). A wonderful change indeed! Of their capital city, Jerusalem, we read: "And the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD Is There" (Ezekiel 48:35).
The privilege of carrying God's Name does not end with Israel:
The overcomers in the church at Philadelphia received this promise: "I will write on him the name of my God … and my own new name" (Rev. 3:12). This will be one of our greatest privileges in eternity: "They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads" (Rev. 22:4).
And the size of the privilege sets the size of the trust:
What an unspeakable privilege to be free to appear before God and men in the name of Christ! On the other hand, the very greatness of the privilege shows the vastness of the responsibility. For if we are entrusted with the name of Christ, as with a holy standard, think what that asks of us! It takes constant watchfulness, and a real sense of our dependence, to keep it pure and guard it from all dishonour.
- Name — the closing line is not a seventh blessing. It is the sense of all six: God's Name on a people, tying God Himself to them.
- Channel — God sent the blessing through Aaron and his sons, and it still comes to us through Christ, who lifted His hands and blessed.
- Source — the priests pronounce, but "I will bless them" keeps God Himself as the one who supplies.
- Condition — the Name follows the Nazirite's separation; God put His Name on a people set apart for Him.
- Reach — Israel lost the Name and will receive it back. The same Name is promised to those who will see His face — a trust to guard, not just a gift to enjoy.