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Aaron’s Blessing Unpacked

HighBeamMinistry.com

“The Lord bless you and keep you;

The Lord make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,

And give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)

 

I’ve heard this blessing, called “Aaron’s Blessing” or “The High Priestly Blessing,” at the end of every Sunday service for years, and have struggled to understand what it means. It seemed so repetitive. Only some of the parts spoke to me. I understood, generally, “keep,” “grace,” and “peace.” The rest? Not so much.

 

That’s the thing about Bible study. We’re 21st-century Gentile Christians trying to understand God’s word that came through ancient Israelites c. 1440 B.C. Things get lost in translation, you know? The problem is we find ourselves having to work backwards through the text, and then forwards.

 

By that I mean reading our current favorite translation, and then having to go back to the original Hebrew or Greek, use our biblical sources and commentaries to pick up peculiarities in the language, learn the context in which the original text was first shared, and then roll it all forward to our day, hoping that it helps us understand and apply God’s word accurately.

 

Or we just throw up our hands and hope that our translation has done an adequate job, which most do.

 

However, in today’s example, we’re stuck if we do that. We’re left with a bunch of questions. What does it mean to be “blessed by God and kept by Him?” What does “make His face shine on you” mean? How does God’s shining face relate to His grace? Isn’t “lift up His countenance” the same as seeing His shining face?” And finally, “how does our Heavenly Father grant us peace” through all of this?

 

Good questions. Let’s do a little digging. For that, I’ll use a few sources I found online. Believe me, if you really want to dive down the rabbit hole of Bible study, there is a plethora of resources and information on the vast world of the internet.

 

For now, I’ll share what the words and idioms mean. In the next part, I will show how the Jewish teachers, the sages and rabbis of Israel, interpreted Aaron’s blessing.

 

First, the Lord bless you and keep you. What does it mean to bless someone? The Hebrew word is barak, as in giving a benefit to someone. According to ancient-hebrew.org, to bless means “to kneel as seen in Genesis 24:11. However, when written in the piel form (a verb form of Hebrew), such as it is in (the) Aaronic blessing, it means to show respect…The extended meaning of this word is to do or give something of value to another. Elohiym ‘respects’ us by providing for our needs and we in turn ‘respect’ Elohiym by giving him of ourselves as his servants” (ancient-hebrew.org).

 

“Whoa! That’s a lot. Short form, please, Dr. Jay?” Sure. As I understand it, “The Lord bless you” is about giving something valuable to someone in a respectful way, acted out by the giver kneeling before the receiver. Isn’t that mind-blowing? God told Moses to have Aaron pray that He would come to His people and present them with His gifts, i.e., the valuable things that they need for life. Here, we see God stooping low to offer help to His people. In other parts of the Hebrew scriptures, we see the proper response, that we return the blessing to God—by kneeling before Him to present our most valuable possession, ourselves, as servants to the One who is not required to give us a thing, but does so for a reason we’ll see shortly.

 

What does “and keep you” mean? The Hebrew word is shamar. It means to “keep, guard, observe, give heed. To watch over and protect and guard. Properly, to hedge about (as with thorns), i.e., guard; generally, to protect, attend to, etc.” (The Key Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic). The oft-prayed “hedge of protection” we declare around people is very much in line with this word. Ancient-hebrew.org describes the context well. “The Hebrews were a nomadic people raising livestock. It would not be uncommon for a shepherd to be out with his flock, away from the camp, over the night. In order to protect the flock, the shepherd would construct a corral of thorn bushes. The shepherd would then guard over the flock and the corral would be a hedge of protection around them.”

 

This picture is incredible to consider. Our Lord protects us with nothing less than Himself, guarding us “dumb sheep” and watching over us continually. He protects us from outward enemies so we can rest securely in His care.

 

Second, the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you. Now we jump from definitions to a Hebrew idiom, the stumper of the average Bible reader. How does God make His face shine on us? “To shine” means “to give light.” The use of the word is “equated with bringing about order as light illuminates or reveals what has been dark” (ancient-hebrew.org). Idiomatically, it means “to brighten you.” In other words, God wants to illuminate, or light us up, with something. What is that? His face. How so? “The face reflects the many different moods, emotions, and thoughts of the person.” So, by turning His attention toward us, the Lord illuminates us as we see Him more clearly.

 

Wild Hebrew grammar aside, the word for shine, avar, carries the sense of “revelation of light or truth” (chaimbentorah.com). “Ancients saw something very mystical in someone’s gaze. They felt when you were staring at someone you were imparting some form of your essence or energy onto the other person. This is how panah (face) came to express the presence of God. The presence of God is God gazing or staring intently upon us and imparting his energy, power or essence upon us. This whole expression therefore has the idea of God transferring his very presence or energy onto you as He steadily gazes at you. So if I were to paraphrase this expression…“Jehovah I ask that you look intently and impart your very energy, power, and truth, that is (your) very presence upon them.” In other words, may God impart the revelation of His very being to you (Ibid).

 

As if that weren’t enough to stoke your furnace, check out “be gracious to you.” The word for gracious is chanan, “to be gracious, show favour, pity” (Strong’s), and “yearn towards, long for, be merciful, compassionate, favourable, inclined towards” (BDB). This word “is often paralleled with other Hebrew words meaning healing, help, being lifted up, finding refuge, strength and rescue” (ancient-hebrew.org) with a primary emphasis on protection.

 

So, this second stanza is about God giving you revelation about Himself so that you experience His gracious favor, mercy, and compassion that He has for you.

 

Finally, the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. Have you ever walked along and met someone that you didn’t like? What was your first instinct? Avoidance. You would drop your gaze and let them pass by without acknowledgement because you didn’t want to engage with them. If you did raise your head, the other person would be immediately drawn to your face. According to chaimbentorah.com, this phrase should be rendered as “The Lord will lift up (draw attention to) His countenance (presence).”

 

In ancient times, for a king to turn his face away from you meant rejection or disfavor. If he turned his face toward you, it meant his approval and favor (freebiblestudyhub.wordpress.com).

 

For the Lord to lift His face toward you means that He is giving you His favor and approval. “When God’s face is turned toward someone, it signifies that He is paying attention to them, offering them His love, and favoring them with His protection…In this verse, God is depicted as lifting His face to His people, offering His favor and blessing” (Ibid).

 

At this point in Aaron’s Blessing, we see that our Heavenly Father wants to give us wonderful benefits, things of great value that we so desperately need—His watchful care, the glorious revelation of His presence in and around us, and His gracious protection, compassion, and mercy through His attention, approval, and favor.

 

You know what that leaves us with?

 

His peace.

 

Our Heavenly Father has always wanted to live with us in peace. Eden was the Garden of Peace, a peace that transcends all understanding. A peace that’s so complete that it exceeds our ability to comprehend it.

 

The Hebrew word for peace is shalom. It literally means “to set down in a fixed and arranged place” (ancient-hebrew.org). Shalom is also used for “completeness, soundness, welfare” (Strongs, BDB), and “without deficiency,” lacking absolutely nothing. Sound familiar? “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall lack nothing” (Psalm 23:1). David’s description of His experience with the Lord starts where Aaron’s blessing ends—complete, total, and absolute peace.

 

Shalom doesn’t apply only to our situation. More importantly, it applies to our relationship to God and one another. Peace in the coming times of the Messiah will bring harmony, unity, and wholeness to the entire world, physical and spiritual. But for now, it “is a promise that God will provide His peace in every circumstance, whether we are facing challenges at work, in relationships, or within ourselves” (freebiblehub.wordpress.com).

 

Based on my original understanding of Aaron’s Blessing, this magnificent utterance is more than “Be happy. You’re dismissed.” Aaron’s Blessing is profoundly deep and powerful. It speaks of a future reality that we can experience right now if we’re saved and communing with the Lord daily.

 

God Himself wants us to receive His gift of watchful care, the clear revelation of Him and His presence and grace, and His favorable attention that envelopes us in a peace that no person knows, but those who know Him.

 

Will you receive His offer of salvation today and be blessed?

 

A special note to you, dear reader: I want to know what you think of the Frothy Thoughts Blog. If you will, please send a quick email to HighBeamMinistry@gmail.com with your comment about this blog, or just to let me know you read it. Your response can be a sentence or a page. Don’t worry. High Beam Ministry won’t use your email for spam. For notifications about new material, please use the subscribe button on the website. Thanks so much for reading and replying!

 

 

Sources:


Shining the Light of God’s Truth on the Road Ahead

 

Pastor Jay Christianson

The Truth Barista, Frothy Thoughts

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