What is the Aaronic Blessing?

After having placed the people around Himself — having counted them by name, having arranged the service, cleansed the camp (which is distinct from the cleansing of defiled individuals, a subject which belongs to Leviticus), and shewn the true position of the devoted servant, a position which Israel might have taken, and which Christ, true servant, set apart for God, has taken — God ends by putting His blessing and His name on the people. The blessing places them under the keeping, the grace, and in the peace of Jehovah; and effectively Jehovah first blessed them in a general way; then, in making His face to shine upon them, He caused them to enjoy His grace; lastly, in lifting up His countenance upon them, He gave them the assurance of peace.

With this, the purification of the camp is completed, and as thus purified, the divine blessing is now given to them and Jehovah's Name is put upon them. There are three pairs of related blessings with which this last is a seventh, making it perfect. The connection of the three parts of the blessing with the three Persons of the Triune God, often referred to, is indeed easy to be traced: that in the mouth of the apostle comes very near it, — "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost." (2 Cor. 13:14.) For the first blessing here is that of preservation as from the Creator-Father; the second, grace in God as revealing Himself, as He has done in Christ; while the third speaks of inner experience and enlightenment, with the deep rest which flows from it, the work of the Spirit of God. All that God is is thus 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.

"And the Lord spake to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, On this wise we shall bless the children of Israel, saying to them, The Lord bless thee and keep thee; the Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious to thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them."

This copious 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 of Him, continually; it is ever to bask in the sunlight of His gracious countenance; its peace is to flow as a river; Jehovah's name is to be called upon it; He is ever there to bless.

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, as we shall see. 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. In place of being satisfied with their portion in the God of their fathers, they lusted after other things. (Compare Ps. 105 and Ps. 106) In place of the order, the purity, and the separation to God with which our book opens, we have disorder, defilement, and giving themselves to idolatry.

The blessing with which this chapter ends gives a precious revelation of the triune God. Three times the Name of Jehovah was put upon the children of Israel ; the Father-God, who keeps; Jehovah the Son, who is gracious; Jehovah the Holy Spirit, who gives peace. And there are certain people who deny the triune God and claim that no such doctrine is found in the Bible! How great will be the blessing, when He comes the second time to bless His people and all creation!

What strikes us about the blessing is that, in a day when blessing was so largely connected with earthly and material things, it is so bound up with spiritual things. The shining of Jehovah's face and the lifting up of His countenance surely signifies that Israel might be kept in the light of the revelation of God, as known in their midst. Then they would experience His grace though they were in the dispensation of 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.

Take another word (Num. 6:22, 27): "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them." How Jehovah here profusely bestows His blessing upon the people, His heart gushing out towards them! He calls Moses before Him to enact this special ordinance, and to impose upon him this new and distinguished function. As king in Jeshurun - the prophetic, the priestly, and the royal officer combined in his pre-eminently typical person - he must be the medium of displaying to Aaron and his sons the style and character of the blessing in all its fulness and richness, in all its depth and amplitude, which God would have pronounced on the people of His love. Not until we get to Deut. 7:7 do we read of Jehovah's love to Israel, and then how touchingly is it presented, "Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people; 'but because the Lord loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt."

Is it not fitting that a people so beloved and so distinguished should be taught the real delight of heart that Jehovah had in blessing them? "On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee, and keep thee." Here we have the first character of their blessing. It is the blessing of Jehovah of hosts, and its initial feature is security from evil, immunity from that to which all else were exposed. "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth even for ever. For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous." (Ps. 125:2-3.) For us how much more blessed a thing it is. Bodily, earthly, temporal deliverances belonged characteristically to Israel as the preserved of the Lord; but ours is a salvation marked by eternal security, not of a physical but a spiritual order, and which reaches to our very hearts and minds. Thus says the apostle, "The peace of God, which surpasses every understanding, shall guard (or garrison) your hearts and minds by Christ Jesus." Through the grace of God, the eternal security of the believer carries with it a present salvation of the soul (1 Peter 1:9), a future but no less equally assured salvation of the body (Rom. 8:23), and intermediately the heart and mind kept by "the peace of God" in the unbroken serenity and profound calm which prevails in the atmosphere of His own essential presence. This is what the Holy Ghost ever seeks to make good to the faith of the children of God.

The next character of blessing is found in verse 25, "The Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee." It is evident, from the frequent way in which this shining of the face of Jehovah is found in the Psalms, that it was a familiar thought in Israel. The most remarkable instance is that in Ps. 80: "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock: thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh," (the three tribes nearest to the Ark), "stir up thy strength, and come and save us. Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved." (vv. 1-3); also in verse 7, "Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved." And again in verse 19: "Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved." The differences in name and title used in these verses clearly indicate the augmenting intensity of the plea for the shining forth of Jehovah's face as the Shepherd of Israel. To us its application is nothing short of the direct enjoyment of Himself, and as such expresses a specific character of blessing which ' no hearts like ours could or ever shall so appreciate. He never blesses us so supremely as when He makes Himself the object of our hearts, today and for eternity

But there is a third thing: "The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." With what assured confidence can the saint of God go forward when he has the Lord's countenance! It is just this which makes "the path of the just as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." His countenance illuminates the path. To have the countenance of a human patron in any given course imparts assurance and confidence in proportion to the stability of it and him; but what assurance of heart is the portion of them who are countenanced by the Lord Himself! Nor is there any divine thing ministered to us that is more deep, more steadfast, or more assuring to the heart than "the peace of God." As the apostle says, it "surpasses every understanding." "And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them." Thus does Jehovah crown with His own name this thrice-blessed people, closing with the asseveration, "And I will bless them." Who will venture to tell us which stands out most saliently here - the strength of His purpose, or the delight of His heart in again and again and again blessing them?

‘And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them’ (6:27).

Verse 27 brings the blessing to its conclusion. Whereas in verses 24–26 the person or the recipients of the blessing are addressed directly, verse 27 again takes the form of an instruction: ‘And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel’. Those referred to as ‘they’ are once again Aaron and his sons (cf. v. 23).

This sentence is not so much a separate seventh blessing as a summary or interpretation of the six blessings of this benediction: 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.

‘Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel; saying unto them ...’ (6:23).

It is remarkable that God dos not simply pronounce this blessing over His people. Nor does He leave it to His servant Moses. Instead, Moses has to pass on these instructions on to Aaron and his sons. This indicates that God wishes to employ the priesthood to give this blessing to His people.

These verses complete the picture of eternal blessing for us, though literally for Israel they refer to her temporal blessing. But believers will for eternity enjoy the blessing and keeping grace of the Lord Jesus (v.24). His face too will shine upon us in radiant beauty without intermission, and His grace (His favor) will be showered continually upon us (v.25). with His countenance lifted up in loving approval, He will provide the peace that passes all understanding for eternity (v.26).

In this blessing of Israel, however, God's name would be put upon them (v.27). This has not been properly fulfilled in all their history thus far, for it has been for centuries that 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 Lo-Ammi, for you are not My people, and I will not be your god" (Hosea 1:9). But when finally in faith they turn to the Lord Jesus in genuine repentance, then "in the place where it was said to them, You are not My people, there they shall be called sons of the living God" (Romans 9:26). Wonderful change indeed! Israel will not see evil any more. In fact, of their capital city, Jerusalem we read in Ezekiel 48:35, "the name of the city from that day shall be: THE LORD IS THERE." Yet, far higher still, His name will be upon His saints in glory, for eternity. "I will write on him My new name" (Rev.3:12) is the promise of the Lord Jesus to the overcomer, that is, to the one "who believes that Jesus is the Son of God" (1 John 5:4-5).

‘Jehovah make his face shine upon thee’ (6:25a).

This verse gives us the next two components of the blessing that Aaron was to pronounce on the people. If it says that God (here again ‘Jehovah’) was to let His face shine on them, it has to do with light. It is the light or revelation to us of a God known to us with reference to our dwelling-place, our pathway and our circumstances. When Israel left Egypt to journey to the promised land, God used the cloud of His presence and the pillar of fire to show His people 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.