For more than a year I’ve been studying and writing about The Blessing God spoke into Abram and then empowering Abram to bless others. (Genesis 12:1-4). How would Abram know he had been blessed? In what ways would life be different because of The Blessing?

The last thing that Jesus did before ascending into heaven… “he lifted His hands and blessed them” (Luke 24:50). It was/is more than a benediction preceding “See you at the buffet.” The prayer of blessing He spoke is…

The Lord bless you and keep you
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 6:24-26.)

Aaron and his sons were instructed to pray this prayer over Israel—“So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them” (6:27).

This is the blessing:

“The Lord bless you”—give something of value to you.

“Keep you”—While the image of blessing is a camel kneeling, keeping is a corral of thorns to keep predators away. Think: “And deliver us from evil.”

“Make His face to shine upon you”—acceptance and favor—empowered to achieve, succeed.

“Turn His face toward you.” A rabbi connects this to God bending over Adam to look into his face and breathe the breath of life—a portable breath of abundant life in you.

“And give you peace.” This word means something larger than the absence of war or attack. It means “a positive state of rightness and well-being.” Not about religious righteousness, but a state of mental and emotional sense that things are “right” and you are in a state of well-being. It also means restoration of deficiency–peace restored where emptiness, lack, void has been caused by someone else.

The teacher said, say this prayer over yourself. Look in the mirror and say, “The Lord bless you…” habitually.

A Hebraic interpretation of the Aaronic Blessing
With the Hebraic understanding of each of these Hebrew words, we can better understand the true meaning of the Aaronic blessing as it was understood by the Ancient Hebrews.

YHWH will kneel before you presenting gifts and will guard you with a hedge of protection.

YHWH will illuminate the wholeness of his being toward you bringing order and he will give you comfort and sustenance.

YHWH will lift up his wholeness of being and look upon you and he will set in place all you need to be whole and complete. ( Source: http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/language_aaronic.html

The purpose is to move from abstract words to the experience of being blessed as a normal benefit of the Believer. Pray it over yourself while looking into your own eyes.

©2018 D. Dean Benton dean@deanbenton.org