1. This was a type of Christ's errand into the world, which was to bless us (Acts 3:26) as the High Priest of our profession. The last thing He did on earth was with uplifted hands to bless His disciples (Luke 24:50, 51). Bishop Pearson observes it as a tradition of the Jews, that the priests blessed the people only at the close of the morning sacrifice, not of the evening sacrifice, to show that in the days of the Messiah, which are (as it were) the evening of the world, the benediction of the law should cease, and the blessing of Christ should take place.

2. It was a pattern to gospel-ministers, the masters of assemblies, who are in like manner to dismiss their solemn assemblies with a blessing. The same that are God's mouth to His people to teach and command them, are His mouth likewise to bless them; and they that receive the law shall receive the blessing.

II. A FORM OF BLESSING IS HERE PRESCRIBED THEM. In other of their devotions no form is prescribed; but this being God's command of the blessing, that it might not look like anything of their own He puts the very words into their mouths (vers. 24-26). Where observe —

1. That the blessing is commanded upon each particular person: "The Lord bless thee." They must each of them prepare themselves to receive the blessing, and then they should find enough in it to make them every man happy (Deuteronomy 28:3). If we take the law to ourselves, we may take the blessing to ourselves, as if our names were inserted.

2. That the name Jehovah is three times repeated in it, and (as the critics observe) each with a different accent in the original. The Jews themselves think there is some mystery. And we know what it is, the New Testament having explained it (2 Corinthians 13:14).

3. That the favour of God is all in all in this blessing, for that it is the fountain of all good.(1) "The Lord bless thee." Our blessing God is only our speaking well of Him, His blessing us is doing well for us; those whom He blesseth they are blessed indeed.(2) "The Lord make His face shine upon thee." Alluding to the shining of the sun upon the earth, to enlighten and comfort it, and to renew the face of it. "The Lord love thee, and make thee know that He loves thee." We cannot but be happy if we have God's love, and we cannot but be easy if we know that we have it.(3) "The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee." This is to the same purpose with the former, and it seems to allude to the smiles of a father upon his child, or of a man upon his friend whom he takes pleasure in. If God gives us the assurances of His special favour, and His acceptance of us, that will put gladness into the heart (Psalm 4:7, 8).

4. That the fruits of this favour conveyed by this blessing are protection, pardon, and peace.(1) Protection from evil (ver. 24). "The Lord keep thee," for it is He that keepeth Israel, and neither "slumbers nor sleeps" (Psalm 121:4), and all believers are kept by the power of God.(2) Pardon of sin (ver. 25). The Lord be gracious or merciful unto thee.(3) Peace (ver. 26), including all that good which goes to make up a complete happiness.(4) God here promiseth to ratify and confirm the blessing (ver. 27). "They shall put My name upon the children of Israel." God gives them leave to make use of His name in blessing the people, and to bless them as His people called by His name. This included all the blessings they could pronounce upon them, to, mark them for God's peculiar, the people of His choice and love. God's name upon them was their honour, their comfort, their safety, their plea: "we are called by Thy name, leave us not." It is added, "and I will bless them." A Divine blessing goes along with Divine institutions, and puts virtue and efficacy into them. What Christ saith of the peace is true of the blessing. When God's ministers pronounce the blessing, "Peace be to this congregation," if the sons of peace and heirs of blessing be there, the peace, the blessing shall rest upon them (Luke 10:5, 6). For in every place where God doth record His name, He will meet His people and bless them.

( Matthew Henry, D. D..)

1. It was a blessing given through a priest. Christ, as the great High Priest who offered Himself without spot unto God, is the Divine channel of blessing. Do we know the Lord's Anointed?

2. This benediction is of the nature of intercession. Never forget that Christ "made intercession for the transgressors." He has, moreover, a special pleading for believers (John 17:9).

3. This benediction is yet of a higher order than intercession. Here is not only faith pleating, but faith receiving and bestowing. The priest speaks the blessing: for which he asks.

4. This blessing is sure. Christ is commissioned of the Father, and anointed of the Spirit, as the ambassador of peace.

5. It is continuous. God blesses ever; curses never.

II. THE BLESSING ITSELF.

1. It passes from the priest to God. "The Lord bless thee." What a blessing the Lord gives! Have we not heard a mother say to her little child, "Bless you "? What a wealth of meaning she threw into it. But when God says, "Bless you! " there are infinity and immutability in it. There can be no limit to the goodwill of the infinite God.

2. Notice that the name of the Lord, or Jehovah, is three times mentioned. Here we hear the voice of One, yet Three.

3. Notice that this benediction is all along in the singular. Why? Because the people of God are one, and He views them as one, and so the blessing comes upon the entire Church as a whole. But, next, I think it is that every individual believer may take the whole of this benediction home to himself.

III. THE DIVINE AMEN. Here is the authority repeated by way of confirmation of what has been said. "They shall put My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them." The priest does his part, and then the Lord makes the blessing effectual. Herein is condescension on God's part, and honour and security for us. When the Lord's name is named upon anything He will guard His own dedicated things. The name of the Lord is a strong tower, and within it we are safe. I think I see here a confirmation of those blessings which are pronounced by good men. "They shall put My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them." I loved to have my grandfather's blessing when I was preaching the Word in early days. He has now gone into the glory; but he blessed me, and none can take away the name of God from me. Most of you will remember the blessings of good men who are now gone to glory; and God confirms those blessings. He allows His people, whom He has made priests and kings unto God, to put His name upon others, and to pronounce blessings upon them. Their word shall stand, and what they bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And then comes, best of all, the blessing of our God most surely promised. "I will bless them"; they shall have their troubles, but I will bless them through their troubles. When they have earthly goods I will bless them and make them real comforts. I will bless their basket and their store. If those earthly comforts arc taken away I will give them compensation a thousandfold in myself.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

2. Observe how, by implication, the doctrine of the Trinity is here set forth.

I. "The LORD BLESS THEE." The blessings meant would seem to be chiefly spiritual. Not that we are to think lightly of temporal favours. They are left-hand blessings, if not right-hand mercies; they are gifts to be thankful for on earth, if not graces that take to heaven; provision for the perishing body, if not food for the immortal soul. Health, strength, such a measure of worldly goods as shall keep the wolf from the door and enable us to owe no man anything but love, children growing up to be a comfort to their parents, a kind and affectionate partner, warm and faithful friends, an untarnished name, who shall say that these are not blessings for which God is to be praised? And yet how infinitely short do these temporal blessings, which perish in the using, fall of spiritual blessings which endure for evermore.

1. Godly fear in the heart — that fountain of life by which an awakened sinner departs from the snares of death — is not that of all blessings first and foremost because the "beginning of wisdom?" It is "a fountain of life," and, like a river, is only increased and deepened by successive additions of grace. If we have not the beginning we can have neither the middle nor end.

2. But is not faith a blessing too? And who know faith to be a blessing? Those who are deeply exercised and tried by an unbelieving heart.

3. And is not hope a blessing too?

4. Love.

5. Patience.

6. Testimonies of God's mercy and grace to the soul.

7. Is not the rod often a blessing?

II. "AND KEEP THEE." Blessing first and keeping afterwards. The blessing given, and then, when given, the blessing kept. The letter written, and then sealed; the jewel put into the casket, and then the casket locked. "The Lord keep thee." We cannot keep ourselves.

1. I need hardly observe that the first and foremost is to be kept from positive evil. The Lord asked of the Father for His disciples, "I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world" — no; let them suffer there as I have suffered before — "but keep them from the evil." And this will be first and foremost in the petitions of every child of God who knows his own evil heart and has suffered from its weakness and treachery, that the Lord will keep him from open evil, that he may bring no distress and guilt upon his own conscience, or reproach upon the cause of God.

2. Error.

3. A spirit of delusion.

III. "THE LORD MAKE HIS FACE SHINE UPON THEE."

1. The allusion here seems to be to the sun. Sometimes the natural sun has not risen, and the world must needs be dark if the sun be still beneath the horizon. So with many gracious souls, it is darkness with them because at present neither the Day-star has appeared nor the Sun of Righteousness risen upon them with healing in His wings. But sometimes after the sun has risen we see not his face; dark clouds may obscure the face of that bright luminary throughout the whole day, and we may not get a single ray. So, many of the Lord's family, after the Sun has risen upon them in the morning of their spiritual life may pass perhaps much of their subsequent time in the dark shadow, till perhaps at evening tide there is light, and a departing ray gilds the dying pillow. But, again, there are sometimes days when mists drive rapidly across the face of the bright orb of day, and yet occasionally he peeps through the breaking clouds. And is not this, in some measure, an emblem of the way in which the Sun of Righteousness is continually obscured by the mists and fogs which spring up out of our unbelieving heart, hidden from view by the doubts and fears that, like the vapours of the valley, spread themselves to our view over His beauteous face? Yet there are time, when He gleams through the clouds and disperses the mists. When the Lord is pleased to bless the soul and shine upon it with any sweet manifestation, then He breaks in through the dark clouds; but they gather again. It is not in Christian experience one bright summer day. Our spiritual climate is humid, our inward latitude northern.

2. "The Lord make His face shine upon thee." Is the Lord, then, sovereign in these matters? Can we not lift up our hand and remove the cloud? We have as much power to stretch forth our hand and sweep away the mists that obscure the Sun of Righteousness, as we have power with the same hand to sweep away a London fog. How this puts the creature into his right place I and the creature is only in his right place when he is nothing, and God is all in all.

3. "The Lord make His face shine upon thee." And if He make His face shine upon thee, He will make thy face shine too.

IV. "AND BE GRACIOUS UNTO THEE." HOW sweet the gospel is! But what makes the gospel sweet? That one word which sheds a perfume through the whole — grace. Take grace out of the gospel and you destroy the gospel. Grace pervades every part and every branch of the blessed gospel; it is the life of the gospel; in a word, it is the gospel itself.

V. "THE LORD LIFT UP HIS COUNTENANCE UPON THEE." The meaning of this expression may, I think, be illustrated by a simple figure. A child has been disobedient to, or otherwise displeased its parent. When we offend a person, his face is not toward us as at other times. It was so with Laban towards Jacob; and if we have in any way incurred a friend's or superior's displeasure we watch instinctively his countenance. Is it down or up? Does it wear a frown or a smile? Is it looking upon us with the eye of affection, or are the eyes averted? We can tell in a moment if we know the countenance. Thus is the blessing asked, "The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee," as a kind and affectionate parent upon an obedient child.

VI. "AND GIVE THEE PEACE." Oh what a blessing! It is this that makes the pillow easy in life, and will alone make that pillow easy in death — peace with God through Jesus Christ, "the peace of God which passeth all understanding." The blessing that the gracious soul most earnestly covets is peace; for this is the sweetest honey-drop in God's cup. It is true that it does not make the heart overflow like joy, nor to dance with exultation like the first beaming in of the rays of hope, nor melt it down like visits of love; but it is in some respects sweeter than all, because it so settles down the soul into sweet assurance; it is the realisation of the Saviour Himself, for "He is our peace," and may thus be called the crowning blessing. But see how the links of this Divine chain meet. "The Lord bless thee" — link the first; "and keep thee" — link the second; "the Lord make His face shine upon thee" — the third; "and be gracious unto thee" — the fourth; "the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee" — the fifth; "and give thee peace" — the sixth. Six blessed links, and all united into one continuous chain; for when the Lord begins to bless, He ends with peace. We need wish no greater nor pray for a higher blessing than peace, for God has none greater to give. When a father dies he leaves his children all his goods. Jesus, before He died, said, "Peace I leave with you; My peace give I unto you; not as the world giveth give I unto you." It was His last legacy; His dying gift; in His own eyes of the greatest value, and it should be such in ours.

(J. C. Philpot.)

1. Divine benediction. In a world in which everything is rather semblance than reality, how delightful the thought that there is One — the Uncreated and Unconditional, the Ever-present and Ever-true, who is not more able than He is willing to overtake all the conditions of our being, and to do for us exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think! Our weakness can never fall to a depth lower than His power can reach. Our necessities can never exceed His resources. Our difficulties can never be so involved but that His wisdom can direct us. Our sorrows can never be so acute, or so accumulated, but His Spirit can assuage and relieve us.

2. Divine preservation. Not only "the Lord bless thee," but "keep thee." The consciousness that with a finite and dependent nature we are in a world of temptation, must ever render acceptable and blessed the help of another mightier and more able.

3. Divine illumination. "The Lord make His face to shine upon thee." The reference here is doubtless to that mysterious symbol of His presence which God vouchsafed to His ancient Church, as the outward and visible expression of His favour and love. We rise from the material into the spiritual, and repose in the promise of that inward light which is ever streaming from the Spirit through the truth to guide and cheer arid render certain the steps of the wanderer across the desert of life.

4. Divine communication. "The Lord be gracious unto thee." The grace of God is but another expression for His infinite and exhaustless bounty. The highest conception which we can form of the Divine benevolence is derived from the work of human redemption. Herein is love. In no other act of His administration is it so conspicuous or so glorious. Salvation is grace running out into infinite and everlasting kindness. And what are all the communications of spiritual blessing to the soul but the love of God ever repeating itself, and assuring us that the treasures of eternity are unlocked to supply our need?

5. Divine manifestation. "The Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon thee." What will heaven be but this perfected and perpetuated in the immediate presence of God?

6. Divine satisfaction. "The Lord give thee peace." It is a question in mechanics whether there be such a thing as a body in a state of perfect rest. We confess ourselves to be in a position not to solve the problem. Of this however we are certain, that in the spiritual world there is a centre of eternal repose on which the whole universe may rest for ever. The soul of man is torn and distracted with unfulfilled desires; and possess what he may, while one single longing is left unsatisfied the perfection of inward quiet and peace is impossible. This can only come with that completeness of life which is enjoyed in God.

II. LET US INQUIRE INTO THE EVER-LIVING AND UNCHANGEABLE SOURCE OF SUCH INESTIMABLE BLESSING. The incommunicable name Jehovah, here translated Lord, includes within itself every possible perfection and excellence. It not only points to the sum of being, but to the fountain of blessedness. His eternity we place in opposition to all that is temporary; His immutability in opposition to all that is changing; His immortality in opposition to whatever has in it the seeds of decay and death; His all-sufficiency and infinite felicity in opposition to all that is inadequate and unsatisfying.

(R. Ferguson, LL. D.)

(R. Ferguson, LL. D.)

II. THE BLESSING WAS GIVEN BY PRIESTLY LIPS. It was Aaron, and his sons, who were to bless the children of Israel. God spake to Moses, Moses to Aaron, Aaron to the people. Jesus Christ is both Mediator and Priest. He is a mediatorial Priest, and a priestly Mediator. There is no blessing apart from the true priesthood and sacrifice.

III. THIS THREEFOLD BLESSING TELLS OF A TRINITY IN UNITY, AND A UNITY IN TRINITY. Faith believes it, but reason cannot understand it.

IV. IN THIS BENEDICTION WE HAVE THE EARNEST OF ALL SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS. What a fulness there is!

V. THE BLESSING WAS FOR ALL ISRAEL. "On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel." It was a common blessing for all the tribes. It is a blessing for those who are rejoicing, and for those who are sorrowing; for those who are praying, and for those who are praising. It is a blessing for the young, and for the old; for those who labour, and for those who suffer. It is a blessing for the living, if for them to live is Christ; for the dying, if they die in the Lord.

VI. IT IS A BLESSING— SECURED BY PURPOSE, PURCHASE, AND POWER. "I will bless them." Satan, and all our enemies, will be constrained to confess, "He hath blessed and I cannot reverse it."

(R. E. Sears.)

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

(T. Burroughs.)

(Christian Commonwealth.)

(H. W. Beecher.)

(Joseph Cook.)

     8117   discipleship, benefits

Numbers 6:22-26

     6703   peace, divine OT

Numbers 6:22-27

     5042   name of God, significance

Numbers 6:23-27

     8638   benedictions

Numbers 6:24-26

     1335   blessing

Numbers 6:25-26

     1210   God, human descriptions
     5150   face

Tenth Day. Holiness and Separation.
I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people. And ye shall be holy unto me, for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from other people that ye should be Mine.'--Lev. xx. 24, 26. 'Until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy.... All the days of his separation he is holy unto the Lord.'--Num. vi. 5, 8. 'Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered without the …
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

Of the Duties which we are to Perform after Receiving the Holy Communion, Called Action or Practice.
The duty which we are to perform after the receiving of the Lord's Supper is called action or practice, without which all the rest will minister to us no comfort. The action consists of two sorts of duties:---First, Such as we are to perform in the church, or else after we are gone home. Those that we are to perform in the church are either several from our own souls, or else jointly with the congregation. The several duties which thou must perform from thine own soul are three:--First, Thou must …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

These Things, My Brother Aurelius, Most Dear unto Me...
38. These things, my brother Aurelius, most dear unto me, and in the bowels of Christ to be venerated, so far as He hath bestowed on me the ability Who through thee commanded me to do it, touching work of Monks, I have not delayed to write; making this my chief care, lest good brethren obeying apostolic precepts, should by lazy and disobedient be called even prevaricators from the Gospel: that they which work not, may at the least account them which do work to be better than themselves without doubt. …
St. Augustine—Of the Work of Monks.

The Worship of the Synagogue
One of the most difficult questions in Jewish history is that connected with the existence of a synagogue within the Temple. That such a "synagogue" existed, and that its meeting-place was in "the hall of hewn stones," at the south-eastern angle of the court of the priest, cannot be called in question, in face of the clear testimony of contemporary witnesses. Considering that "the hall of hew stones" was also the meeting-place for the great Sanhedrim, and that not only legal decisions, but lectures …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

Peace
Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. I Pet 1:1. Having spoken of the first fruit of sanctification, assurance, I proceed to the second, viz., Peace, Peace be multiplied:' What are the several species or kinds of Peace? Peace, in Scripture, is compared to a river which parts itself into two silver streams. Isa 66:12. I. There is an external peace, and that is, (1.) (Economical, or peace in a family. (2.) Political, or peace in the state. Peace is the nurse of plenty. He maketh peace in thy borders, …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Gen. xxxi. 11
Of no less importance and significance is the passage Gen. xxxi. 11 seq. According to ver. 11, the Angel of God, [Hebrew: mlaK halhiM] appears toJacob in a dream. In ver. 13, the same person calls himself the God of Bethel, with reference to the event recorded in chap. xxviii. 11-22. It cannot be supposed that in chap xxviii. the mediation of a common angel took place, who, however, had not been expressly mentioned; for Jehovah is there contrasted with the angels. In ver. 12, we read: "And behold …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Covenanting a Privilege of Believers.
Whatever attainment is made by any as distinguished from the wicked, or whatever gracious benefit is enjoyed, is a spiritual privilege. Adoption into the family of God is of this character. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power (margin, or, the right; or, privilege) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."[617] And every co-ordinate benefit is essentially so likewise. The evidence besides, that Covenanting …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Prayer
But I give myself unto prayer.' Psa 109: 4. I shall not here expatiate upon prayer, as it will be considered more fully in the Lord's prayer. It is one thing to pray, and another thing to be given to prayer: he who prays frequently, is said to be given to prayer; as he who often distributes alms, is said to be given to charity. Prayer is a glorious ordinance, it is the soul's trading with heaven. God comes down to us by his Spirit, and we go up to him by prayer. What is prayer? It is an offering …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Annunciation to Zacharias of the Birth of John the Baptist.
(at Jerusalem. Probably b.c. 6.) ^C Luke I. 5-25. ^c 5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judæa [a Jewish proselyte, an Idumæan or Edomite by birth, founder of the Herodian family, king of Judæa from b.c. 40 to a.d. 4, made such by the Roman Senate on the recommendation of Mark Antony and Octavius Cæsar], a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course [David divided the priests into twenty-four bodies or courses, each course serving in rotation one week in the temple …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Things to be Meditated on as Thou Goest to the Church.
1. That thou art going to the court of the Lord, and to speak with the great God by prayer; and to hear his majesty speak unto thee by his word; and to receive his blessing on thy soul, and thy honest labour, in the six days past. 2. Say with thyself by the way--"As the hart brayeth for the rivers of water, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, even for the living God: When shall I come and appear before the presence of God? For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Numbers
Like the last part of Exodus, and the whole of Leviticus, the first part of Numbers, i.-x. 28--so called,[1] rather inappropriately, from the census in i., iii., (iv.), xxvi.--is unmistakably priestly in its interests and language. Beginning with a census of the men of war (i.) and the order of the camp (ii.), it devotes specific attention to the Levites, their numbers and duties (iii., iv.). Then follow laws for the exclusion of the unclean, v. 1-4, for determining the manner and amount of restitution …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament