In the midst of issuing a list of laws and instructions to Moses for His people, God paused and said to Moses, “Say to Aaron and his sons, ‘Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, ‘ The Lord bless you and keep you: The Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you: The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. ‘ (Numbers 6:23-26) In this short blessing, God changed the direction of all his instructions into a recognition of His own Person-hood and His unique relationship with His people. He spoke of His face and His countenance and His desire to bless, and not berate. In this short blessing God shared His heart with His people, and, furthermore, He wanted them to know it.

When I was a teenager, our youth group ended every meeting with this blessing. I used to wonder what a “countenance” was, and how it was different from a “face”. Our pastor said that it was God’s whole being, more than just His face. I liked asking God to turn His whole being toward me, and that He Himself had said that we should ask.

Many years after God spoke this blessing to Moses, the Psalmist reflected upon the reality of God’s countenance in the lives of His people:…For not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm give them victory: but by your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your countenance, for you did love them.

(Psalm 44:3) God’s Countenance clearly shines. It shone through all the rules and regulations and the on-the-ground lives of the people of Israel for forty years, and for hundreds of years afterward, sometimes obscured, until, as Isaiah prophesied even later,: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. (Isaiah 9:2)

We have just finished celebrating the great light, more than two thousand years after that light appeared on earth. When he, Jesus, said Ask, seek, and knock (Matthew 7:7), he was talking about God’s countenance. Ask for the whole being of our God. Seek Him out, knock at His door, and receive Him who alone answers our needs, for God’s whole being is the love that He displayed even before His son came to seal it.

In the midst of bringing order to His newly liberated people, God’s heart moved, and He blessed His people. The blessing itself was a gift that has survived the ages, for it extends the whole countenance of God to His people, and that countenance is love, for He does love us.

Love in Him,

Prue