Sermon May 30th, 2010

Numbers 6:22-27
A BLESSING FOR GOD’S PEOPLE
I. The Father’s Concern.
II. The Son’s Grace.
III. The Spirit’s Keeping.
In the name of our Triune God, dear fellow redeemed children of God;
My theory is that when I watch or listen to my favorite sports teams, they lose. I doubt that my teams play has anything to do with me sitting in front of the TV set or listening with my ear to the radio, still it does seem like whenever I sit down to watch the Sunday afternoon or Monday night game, my team doesn’t do very well. Remember there was the exact opposite situation in the history of God’s people. The Israelites were fighting against the enemies of God’s people down in a valley. Moses was standing on the mountain side above the valley with his hands raised in blessing over the soldiers. When Moses hands were up the Israelites were winning the battle. But after a while his hands grew tired and he put them down to his side. When that happened the enemies beat the Israelites back. Finally Joshua and Hur came up with the idea of standing on each side of Moses and holding up the prophet’s hands of blessing.
The blessing of the Lord was important for His people. It assured them that the Lord was with them as they entered a desert and later the land with all kinds of physical and spiritual enemies. God’s blessing is a comfort for you too as we live in a world with all kinds of physical and spiritual enemies. God had a wonderful way of keeping things simple for His people and yet letting His truth shine forth in neat ways. In this blessing He teaches us about our Triune or “Three in One” God. You won’t find the word triune or Trinity in the Bible. Those are words that we came up with to try to describe what God tells us about Himself in the Bible. We see an example of God describing himself in His Blessing For His People. As we look at God’s Blessing, let’s see I.The Father’s Concern, II. The Son’s Grace and III. The Spirit’s Keeping.
I’ve often thought to myself about how glad I am that the Lord allows me to be a pastor rather than an Israelite priest or Levite from the Old Testament. All of the ceremonial law was an important picture of Jesus and His sacrifice but I’m glad I don’t have to worry about the scapegoat I was in charge of leading out into the wilderness finding its way back into camp and I really don’t think I would be cut out for butchering all of the animals for the sacrifices. There were many things for those Old Testament priests to remember. They were the health inspectors and the court system of the day. In the first part of the Book of Numbers, God explained what the priests were to do about the purity of the camp and restitution for wrongs. Later God goes on to talk about the Nazirite vow and a whole host of other things the Levites had to remember. God wanted all of these instructions taken seriously. Two of Aaron's rebellious sons were even killed because they lit and unauthorized fire before the Lord. In the middle of all of these "do this" and "don't do that" commands, we can see the concern of the Father come shining through in the words with which Aaron was to bless the Israelites.
The Father’s concern was passed from the Heavenly Father to His children through Aaron an earthly father. The Lord said to Moses, "Tell Aaron and his sons, "This is how you are to bless the Israelites." The fact that God loved his people is brought out even by the name used for God, the "Lord." God had already explained this special name to His people. "The Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with Moses and proclaimed his name, the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses proclaiming, "The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. The Father of free and faithful love wanted his children to know that He loved them and that he would be with them as they moved through the desert and into the promised land.
Riding in a car with a complaining child is enough to put any human father near the edge. Can you imagine the patience of the Heavenly Father traveling with 2 million complaining Israelites through the desert. The Israelites were constantly complaining. When God sent Moses to bring them out of Egypt, they complained that they wanted to be left alone. As soon as they came to an obstacle in the desert, they complained that it would have been better if they had just been left to die in Egypt. Again and again the cycle repeated itself and we hear, "The people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. They quarreled with Moses and said, "If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord. Why did you bring us up of to Egypt to this terrible place?" In spite of all that complaining the Lord still blessed Israel. An earthly Father gets tempted to say to a complaining child, “get out of the car and walk.” Yet God didn’t leave the Israelites to fend for themselves. He kept those 2 million people safe for 40 years as they traveled in the desert. He reminded them of His constant love through Aaron’s words of blessing, “The Lord bless you and keep you.”
How is the view from the backseat in the car of your life? Have we grumbled about the way the Lord is driving our lives as he continues to bless us and keep us? I guess if we are honest with ourselves we have to admit that at times we have grumbled. Yet the Lord has not made us get out and walk. Instead He has shown us the grace of the Son.
Aaron was to continue on, "the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you." How is it possible that the God whose holiness consumes sinners in a ball of everlasting fire could turn his face toward sinful complaining people like you and me. In His grace, God turned His face to man when man deserved nothing from him. As sinners we were enemies of God. Often the hatred between enemies is so strong that they cannot even look at each other. Yet God turned his face toward undeserving man, toward us. When my children were small we had one of those big plastic turtle sandboxes. They have a great time in it, but I don't always appreciate it because the grass underneath it always dies. The grass dies because there is no sunlight. If God had not turned the sunlight of his face toward us, all sinful people would have died eternally. One of our well known hymn verses goes like this, "But God beheld my wretched state, before the world's foundation, and mindful of his mercies great, He planned my soul's salvation. A father's heart he turned to me, sought my redemption fervently, He gave his dearest treasure."
Over this weekend we have the opportunity to thank God for the blessing of our veterans. We thank God for the sacrifices they made and are still making for us. In Christ, God showed His sacrificial love to us. They put our interestsahead of their own. Love is action word that for
God meant putting our interests ahead of His own. That’ the gracious love Christ showed to us. "While we were sinners, Christ died for us."
God's favor was not just a one time gift, but God continues to bless you and me everyday. He continues to grant the peace and keeping of His Holy Spirit. God told Aaron to conclude the blessing with these words, "the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace." Through the work of the Holy Spirit, the Lord turns us from rebels and enemies of God into God's dear children. Because the Holy Spirit worked faith in our hearts, God turns His face to us when we pray. One of the prayers in our liturgy asks that Jesus would give us that peace which the world cannot give. Jesus told his disciples, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give you peace as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." The believer enjoys a peace which stands up even in the fiercest trials, even in the face of death. This peace allows us to say with Paul, "I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels or demons, neither the present nor the future nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord."
As she was wrapping up a visit at her house would say, “Nah, Yah” and then she would say, “Come good home.” The Lord wants you to come good home- to come to our home in heaven. He sends the Holy Spirit to keep you safe.
When I was growing up there was only one kind of winter boots boys would wear to school. When they were all piled together near the door it was hard to tell which ones were yours. Mom wrote my name in mine. That’s what God does through these words every time you leave church. It is God’s way of putting His label on you. God says that through this blessing, "they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them." Let’s come again and again to have God put His name on us and give us His blessing. Amen