Numbers 6:22-27

Are you a Christian? Do you wear that label, do you carry that name? If someone asked you, would you agree? You are a Christian. That’s your mark, your brand, your classification. Christian.

And if you said yes to that, if you agreed that you are a Christian, what would you mean? By wearing that name, does this mean that you have a membership in a certain organization, a church? That you go to this organization once or twice a week to sing songs and hear someone speak about God? That you vote a certain way about certain issues? What does it mean to wear the name Christian?

If this is what it means for you to be a Christian, then being a Christian is about what you do, what you believe, where you spend time on Sunday morning and evening, the decisions you make. Becoming a Christian, then, is something that you can do for yourself, if you do the right things. For a while, this seems nice and safe. When we are working hard at doing the right things, when we have the right opinion on all the issues, when we live good moral lives, then we’re comfortable in our Christianity. We made it. We’re Christians.

But if being a Christian is about what we do and how we think, then we bear the responsibility. It’s up to us to become Christians and to stay Christians, and that burden of responsibility is enormous. It makes us nervous that maybe we’ll get some of the answers wrong. We stay with our own kind, the people who agree with us, so no one presses us in our beliefs and forces us to rethink our positions. Because our Christianity is ours to carry out. We have to get the job done. If we’re going to wear the name Christian, then we better act like it. What a horribly heavy life to live.

God gave us a gift, and we turned it into a chore. God blessed us, and we saw it like a curse. Being a Christian means that you are blessed. When you say, "I am a Christian" you are saying, "I have been blessed. I have wear the name of the Lord on my forehead. I go through life with God’s face beaming on me, with His eyes glued to me, with His peace surrounding me above and around and below me. That’s what the name Christian means. Being a Christian isn’t what we do and think and vote. It’s what God does to us and in us and through us.

That’s why we hear these words from Numbers 6 twice every Sunday. So that we remember why we wear the name of Christ, who gave us this name, and what this name means. The people of Israel have been out of Egypt a little over a year. They had been released from Egypt, by the powerful miracles of God, by the shedding of the blood of the lamb at the Passover. They’d been freed from living lives that were beyond their control, being forced to do things they really didn’t want.

And now they’re heading to the Promised Land. But life has not always been easy for them. Right out of Egypt, they are terrified at the shores of the Red Sea, with the army of Egypt breathing down their neck. And God brought them through the water safely. They have been worried about food, and God gave them manna. They got sick of manna, and God gave them quail, a lot of quail. They were thirsty, and God provided water from the rock. They have faced hardships, they have complained, they have even sinned in their complaining, and each time God provides and keeps them going.

Now, they haven’t arrived, and they’re going to face even harder times. They’re going to face some big fearsome enemies along the way. They’re going to get thirsty again. And they’re going to sin. They will make an idol in the shape of a calf made out of gold. They will complain. They will shrink back in fear when God is ready to give them the promised land.

And each time, God will forgive and provide for them. There will be times that He will get angry, burning mad, and want to wipe them all out. But His anger will be turned away, and instead He will forgive. His love is as high as the heavens are above the earth. He will not treat them like their sins deserve.

Which is why He says to Moses, in verse 23:

Aaron speaks for God, and what God wants Aaron to speak is a word of blessing. Not a word of anger, not a word of threat, a word of blessing.

Now, those words of anger will come at other times. God will threaten His people. But what He’s warning them about is that they are leaving His blessing. He is offering them a relationship with Him that is safe and good and content. And when the people start to turn their back on God and walk away, He warns them, strongly, loudly, don’t leave My safety, don’t leave My goodness. You’re not going to like it. Stay close.

Because I want to bless you. He tells Aaron the high priest, and the other priests, to speak these words. These are not Aaron’s words, these are not words of a minister. These are God’s words, spoken to you. We’ve heard these so many times, and even though these are such beautiful words, I wonder if we hear them anymore. So let’s go slow and hear every word. We’ll notice that with each statement, God speaks stronger and deeper. The blessing grows and finally surrounds us with the blessing of peace. God begins by saying, in verse 24:

He begins with His own personal name, Yahweh, the LORD, with capital letters. This is just not coming from God Almighty, the sovereign ruler of the world. This is coming from the Person of God to the persons of Israel. And this Person is not thinking of punishment or anger or threat. He’s thinking of blessing and care and forgiveness. The Lord bless you.

And the Lord keep you. If this was being said to you by another human being, it’s a nice thing to say. May the Lord keep you. May He protect you. May He walk with you and keep you safe. These are kind words spoken to hurting people in times of fear or sadness. But if they are being said by human beings, all they really are are words, wishes, nice hopes for another person.

But these words are being spoken by God Himself. When He says, "May the Lord keep you" He’s saying that about Himself. I want to keep you. Like in Isaiah 41:13:

I’m going to hang on to you. I’m going to make sure you’re making the right decisions and going in the right direction. I’m going to make sure, in life and in death, that you’re going to be okay. I will personally stand next to you and make all your enemies run away. Psalm 91:9

The Lord bless you. The Lord keep you.

Verse 25:

We have a way of describing how God’s face looks when He looks at you. When He sees you, His face is beaming, shining, smiling on you. In your mind, does His face look angry, stern, threatening, dark? Then this is why the Lord gave us verse 25. He’s spelling out for us what His face looks like. He’s beaming. He’s shining with patience and kindness and compassion and love.

Not because we’re particularly handsome or beautiful or gifted or talented or hard working or holy. Not because of us. Because of Jesus. When you gave your life to Jesus, you and Jesus became one person. He lives inside you. His life becomes your life. So when Jesus looks at you, He sees Jesus, and He smiles. He beams. His face is shining upon you.

When we hear these words at the end of the service, and we hear that the Lord’s face is beaming on you, how do you respond? We will all respond differently, but how will you? Some of us need to bow our heads, because the light of God’s shining face is so strong and overwhelming, we can’t take it, we have to keep our eyes down, in reverence, in holy fear. Some of us turn our face up and let God’s shining face shine on our upturned faces. We want the full effect of His beaming face. We love that His face is shining on us.

And we’re thankful that He is gracious to us. Here’s the grace again, the grace that we’ve been hearing and seeing for the past 3 weeks. The Lord says that the Lord will be gracious to you. Even when we have other gods other than the one true God, even when we don’t treat our marriages, our husbands, our wives, with respect and honor, even when we’re not satisfied with the job God is doing in taking care of us, God won’t respond with thunderbolts and punishment. He will respond with kindness and grace. Again because of Jesus.

And as His face is shining, as He gives us His grace:

His face is turned toward you, His eyes are locked on you, He’s watching your every move, your every step. Which would be scary, terrifying, if His face was angry or suspicious or demanding. But remember, His face is beaming, as He’s watching your every move.

You’ve seen grandparents, how they watch their little grandchildren. You’re sitting in the living room, and there’s your toddler, exploring, trying to walk. And you’re watching, just thrilled by what they’re trying to do. And when they lose their balance, and bump down on the ground, you help them up again. And when they’re heading for a dangerous corner where they could bump their noggin, you steer them away. And you do this with joy, with your face beaming.

That’s your God, with His face turned towards you, His eyes locked on you, His face beaming. 2 Chronicles 16:9:

He’s watching over you by night and by day, to give you peace. There’s that amazing word, peace, shalom. Everything exactly the way it’s supposed to be. The bills aren’t creating any worries, because the Lord’s face is turned in your direction. The problems in your family aren’t making you lose any sleep, because His eyes are locked on you to strengthen you. The future doesn’t scare you because His face is shining on you. The sins you’ve committed in the past, whether last night or last year, are forgiven, because Jesus died and rose again for you, and because the Lord is gracious. Death is nothing to be afraid of, because death is just the door into the presence of the Lord who is blessing you and keeping you. Everything is okay, really okay. In fact, you kind of look around for something to worry about, and you can’t really find anything, because of the blessing of the Lord.

That, says the Lord to Aaron and his sons. Tell My people that. Make them know this. Remind them a lot. Tell them again and again, as often as you can. At least twice every Sunday, and then some. Verse 27:

You wear the name of God. If you know and believe that Jesus died to take away your sins, that He came out of the grave so that you can come out of your grave, then you wear God’s name. Want to know what name that is? It’s the name of the Son of God. It’s the name given to Jesus. The name of Christ. You are a Christian. Not because you did something right, but because God blessed you.

And wearing His name, you get to do things. You get to vote, with God’s kindness and grace making you kind and gracious. You get talk, with God’s blessing being the primary subject of your talk. You get to work, and God will keep you as you work. That’s the life of the Christian. It’s the life a person who has been blessed.

He blessed you with the life of His Son. He blessed you with His beaming face. He blessed you with His ever present protecting gaze. He blessed you with His grace. He blessed you with His riches and His strength and His healing and His forgiveness. The Lord blesses you and keeps you and makes His face shine on you and is gracious to you and never turns His face away from you and gives you peace. Amen.