Text: Numbers 6:22-27
Count your blessings. Think about the ways that God has blessed you in this last year. Each one of us has different blessings. Some of those blessings might seem trivial to others but to us it was a meaningful event. Other events are things that were celebrated by many people. God gives us many blessings in this world. He gives us those moments of joy. Many things that give us joy in this world only give us a temporary joy. We need God for the truly lasting blessings. Today we focus on the fact that Jesus Blesses Us with Peace.
Part 1: He gives us protection
The verses before us from Numbers are part of the instructions that God gave to Moses regarding worship. For us it is a very familiar section of Scripture because we still use these words on a regular basis as one of our closing blessings for worship. God wanted these words included in worship to remind his people that his goal is to bless us. This is something that we need to be reminded of regularly and it is certainly something that the Israelites at the time of Moses needed to be reminded of. Those Israelites were constantly complaining about the Lord’s way of guiding them.
The book of Numbers takes place after the Israelites have left Egypt, even after they have received the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai. After God gave them instructions about worship, the Israelites arrived at the Promised Land. Moses had twelve men go into the land to explore it. When they got back they reported that the land was very good. They described it as a land flowing with milk and honey. However, they also reported that the people who lived there were very powerful and the cities were well fortified. This report discouraged the people and they didn’t think that they could conquer the land.
Caleb and Joshua, two of those 12 men who explored the land, tried to encourage the people to take possession of the land. Caleb and Joshua trusted that God would give them the land just like he had promised. In spite of what Caleb and Joshua said, the other 10 men were able to convince the people that it was a bad idea to try to conquer the land. The majority of the people became upset with Moses. They claimed that Moses had brought them this far so that they would die by the sword as they tried to enter this Promised Land. The people wanted to choose a new leader and to try to go back to Egypt.
God was very angry with the people. He said this to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they” (Numbers 14:11-12). God was frustrated with these people. They refused to trust him in spite of all the things that he had done for them. Some of the big miracles included sending the 10 plagues on Egypt, dividing the waters of the Red Sea, and giving the people Manna and Quail throughout their time in the wilderness. God was angry and wanted to destroy the people.
Moses asked God to be merciful to the people. He asks God to forgive them for their wicked rebellion. God states that he has forgiven them, but there will be consequences for their lack of faith. Because they did not believe God when he told them that he would give them the Promised Land, this generation of Israelites was going to wander in the desert for 40 years. Not one of those 10 men who discouraged the people would be allowed to enter the land. Caleb and Joshua were going to be the only ones to enter into the land of Israel.
To those Israelites, God had given the blessing of our sermon text. Let’s look at the very first phrase. In Numbers 6:24 it says, “The Lord bless you and keep you.” God promises to bless us and protect us. He will send his angels to guard us. Psalm 91:11 says, “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” And also in Hebrews 1:14, the angels are described as ministering spirits who are sent to serve those people who will inherit eternal life. God tells us that he will “keep us” by sending us those guardian angels.
Don’t misunderstand these promises of protection. They do not mean that we can take all kinds of unnecessary risks and still be fine. They also do not mean that we will not get sick or that we will not have to deal with pain and suffering in this life. There will be earthly troubles. When we experience those troubles, God wants us to come to him. Psalm 50:15 says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” Sometimes these troubles happen because God is trying to teach us humility and lead us to trust in him. Other times, troubles occur as a result of someone else’s sin or because of our own sins.
There are times that we don’t understand why God allows trouble to come into our life. The wrong thing to do would be to react like the Israelites. It would be sinful for us to stop trusting in God or to trust in ourselves for the solution to our problems. The Israelites wanted to trust in themselves, choose a new leader and return to Egypt. When we experience difficulties or even tragedies, we often look to ourselves. If God isn’t part of the discussion, our attempts aren’t going to accomplish what is truly important. Our strength is nothing compared to God’s strength. Only his Word can truly change hearts and lead people to do what is right.
God wants to love us. Moses said to the Israelites, “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands” (Deuteronomy 7:9). God shows love to us and our response of faith is to love him and keep his commandments. God is angry with us when we fail to keep his commandments. We should never mock his love by thinking that we can just go out and commit sins just because he is a loving God. It we willfully and continually disobey him, he will take away his protection and let us deal with the terrible consequences of our sin.
Part 2: He is gracious toward us
Fortunately, God continues to be gracious toward us as he gives us many more blessings than we deserve. Think about the next part of his blessing. It says, “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 6:25-26). In the Old Testament, people could not see the face of God. The reason for this was that God was too perfect and holy for a sinful human being to be able to look at him and live. God talks about his face shining on us and turning his face toward us so that we can understand how significant it is that our holy God is merciful toward us.
In the New Testament, people were able to see the face of God in the person of Jesus Christ. True God from all eternity took on human flesh and became our brother. In Jesus we see the grace of God. Jesus is our substitute. He kept every command of God. He honored and respected every one of the 10 commandments. He followed the Father’s will and earned us forgiveness. After he ascended into heaven he sent the Holy Spirit into the hearts of believers to give us peace. Through the Holy Spirit, we are connected to Christ and his salvation.
The Israelites in the desert did receive blessings. God was gracious to them. He provided for them throughout those 40 years. He did have to give them reminders that he was in control but the people did turn back to him. On one occasion when they rebelled, he sent poisonous snakes among the camp. Many people were seriously harmed when the snakes bit them. God told Moses to put a bronze snake up on a pole so that when the people looked at it their lives would be saved. This was actually a picture of Christ. Just like the people were saved by looking to the snake on the pole, believers are saved as we look to Christ on the cross.
Those Israelites were also blessed with the Promised Land. That gift was certainly more than they deserved. That is also how God deals with us. He gives us more than we deserve. As we enter a New Year, we certainly try to think about the great blessings that we have received in the previous year. But how often do we sit down and try to think about the sins we have committed? It is probably a good thing that we don’t. If we did, we would be reminded of all the terrible things that we said about others or to others. Then we would have to evaluate all those terrible thoughts that we tried to contain only to our sinful heart. We would think about the ways that we have harmed others with our actions.
And yet, if we looked at our sins, we would also see just how much God has blessed us. Think about how gracious he has been. He forgives us for our thoughts, words and deeds. Only with his strength can we then go out and live a life which glorifies him. Philippians 2:12-13 says, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”
That phrase about working out our salvation with fear and trembling might make us pause and think that we need to save ourselves but that is not the case. As we live in this world there are many things which try to pull us away from Jesus. They try to get us to live in sinful ways. That possibility of falling away from God is what can make us afraid and lead us to tremble. But God has worked in us through faith. God leads us to act according to his purpose. God has blessed us with his grace and with his peace. With God in our hearts, we are confident of our salvation and we enjoy his many blessings.
Conclusion
It is certainly a very good thing to sit down and count your blessings. God has blessed us in so many ways. When we think about these blessings, we need to remember that they are all from our loving Savior. If we forget that, we might start to put the focus more on the physical earthly blessing, rather than focusing on the one who gave it. When we keep the worship of our God as the top priority in our lives, then he gives us even more wonderful blessings. If you do sit down and make a list of the blessings from this previous year, put Jesus right at the top of that list. Think about his great blessings, forgiveness and eternal life, as you hear the words of our text today: The Lord bless and keep you, the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you, the Lord look on you with favor and give you peace. Amen.