October 11th 2019 – Numbers 6:22-27

"22 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,

24 The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord lift up his countenance[c] upon you and give you peace.

27 “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”

Numbers 6:22-27

The commentator Delitzsch has a footnote at this point in which he refers to Luther's exposition of these verses. Speaking of the threefold nature of the blessing, he goes on: 'Luther refers the first blessing to 'bodily life and good'. The blessing, he says desired for the people 'that God would give them prosperity and every good, and also guard and preserve them.... The second blessing he refers to 'the spiritual nature and the soul', and observes, 'Just as the sun, when it rises and diffuses its rich glory and soft light over all the world, merely lifts up its face upon all the world ... so when God gives His word, He causes His face to shine clearly and joyously upon all minds, and makes them joyful and light, and as it were new hearts and new men. For it brings forgiveness of sins, and shows God as a gracious and merciful Father, who pities and sympathises with our grief and sorrow'. The third also relates to the spiritual nature and the soul, and is a desire for consolation and final victory over the cross, death, the devil, and all the gates of hell, together with the world and the evil desires of the flesh. The desire of this blessing is, that the Lord God will lift up the light of His word upon us, and so keep it over us, that it may shine in opposition of the devil, death, and sin, and all adversity, terror, or despair.' Some blessing indeed.