The Lord bless you and keep you
Sometimes, in passing, we give someone a quick ‘God bless you’ before we turn our eyes back to the task at hand. Often, after Sunday service or at a mid-week Bible study, we may bid farewell to our brothers and sisters in Christ with the familiar words ‘God bless you’. Maybe the most peculiar instance is when someone sneezes, we instinctively say, ‘God bless you’. But the Lord gave a very specific command to Moses concerning the blessing of His people. The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them: 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.’” God loves to bless His people and has given many precious promises of protection and peace over all who are His, and yet He felt it necessary to command Aaron, and his spiritual descendants, to petition Him for blessings on behalf of His people, which should make us realize that prayers for God’s blessing on others must be very important to the Lord. Each promise is a blessing, and each pronounced blessing is a gracious gift from the Lord. God loves to bless His people, but He also wants His people to call on Him to ask for His blessings. It is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, together as One Who illuminates our hearts and leads us in the way of righteousness and peace. It is our eternal God Who is being invoked to bless us…and it is the Lord who wants us to summon Him to bless others. May the Lord bless us all and keep us, and may He cause His face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us and give us His peace. “May the LORD bless you and keep you.” May we who have been so blessed by God to be His children, be used by Him as channels of His blessing through Whom the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is poured out in great measure to others, this day and forevermore.
Spiritual Steve 