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“The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine upon
you
and be gracious to you; the Lord
turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”
Numbers 6:24-26 (NIV)
This passage is special to me. Back
in high school, I heard the choral club sing these words as a closing to their
programs. I loved hearing it.
In
the Old Testament, God gave these words to Moses to pass on to Aaron and his
sons. My Bible carries the heading of The
Priestly Blessing.
“The Lord bless you and keep you” We all, as God’s children, desire
to receive God’s blessings. In addition, we want Him to keep us, and all we
hold dear away from harm and illness.
“the Lord make his face shine upon you”
We like it when God looks at each one of us and guides us through our days.
“and be gracious to you;” We ask for God
to work for us out of His grace for us as well as for those for whom we pray.
the Lord turn his
face toward you Our desire is for God to look upon us and smile. Although,
we have times when we feel He has turned His back on us, we intuitively know He
has not.
“and give you peace” This phrase tells me God will reward us. He
sees us as His children and He delights in us. I love this ending to this
blessing. I have shared it with those whom we visited in the hospital and the
nursing homes. It gives me peace in sharing it. Even in this day, I find myself
f responding to a store clerk’s “Have a nice day,” with “The Lord bless you.”
Some other times I tell the clerks, “Be blessed.”
Are there any passages
of scripture that you share with others? Would you like to share them here?