“The Triple Blessing of the Lord”
Numbers 6:24-26

Click for Audio

Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Trinity Sunday—June 15, 2014

In the Name of the Father and of the Son ad of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Our meditation for Trinity Sunday is based on the familiar words of the Benediction:

“The Lord bless you and keep you;

“The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you;

“The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.”’” 

The ancient people of Israel were about to embark on their 40 long years of wandering in the wilderness.  During those bitter years of hardship and struggle, there must have been many times they felt God had aban—ed them, forgotten them, didn’t care about them anymore.

Like the ancient people of Israel, we also are on a pilgrimage in this life, a pilgrimage to the promised land of heaven.  And like the ancient people of Israel, before we get to the promised land, we must first endure many bitter hardships and struggles, as we wander through the wilderness of this world.  At times WE may feel God has aban—ed us, forgotten us, doesn’t care about us anymore.

Just before the Israelites set off on their journey, the Lord commanded Moses: “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: 

“The Lord bless you and keep you;

“The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you;

“The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.”’” 

With those beautiful words the Lord reassured the ancient people of Israel, and he reassures us today, that we do NOT walk alone on our pilgrimage to the promised land. 

The three stanzas of this benediction are like the three sides of a triangle, each representing a Person of the Trinity:

“God the FATHER bless you and keep you;

“God the SON make his face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you;

“God the HOLY SPIRIT lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.”

In this familiar Benediction we receive “The Triple Blessing of the Lord.”

Blessing #1: “God the FATHER bless you and keep you.”

We live in such an impersonal world, it’s hard to comprehend that the Almighty God is personally concerned with each one of us.  The chaplain for the prisoners at the Nuremberg trials after World War II was a Missouri Synod pastor.  He once asked Herman Goering, “How do you think God feels about you?”  Goering replied, “I think God is much to busy running the universe to be concerned with me.”

IS God really concerned about you, personally?  Is God really interested and involved in your everyday life?  Psalm 139 says, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to pass,” and Jesus makes the amazing statement, “Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”

Moses says in Deuteronomy, “He has watched over your journey through this vast desert. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything.”  In their wandering through the wilderness, on their pilgrimage to the promised land, the Lord protected the Israelites and provided for them, as Nehemiah says, “You fed them with manna and gave them water for their thirst.”  In the same way, on your pilgrimage through the wilderness of this world, to the promised land of heaven, the Lord is protecting you and providing for you.

When newsmen are criticized for reporting only bad news, they reply, “No one wants to hear about the planes that DON’T crash.”  It’s the same way in our lives; we tend to FOCUS on the hardships and struggles and FORGET all the bountiful blessings we receive from the Lord.  Psalm 103 says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.  Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”

Martin Luther describes some of the Lord’s blessings to us, and our response to the Lord, this way in the Small Catechism: “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still preserves them; also clothing and shoes, meat and drink, house and home, wife and children, fields, cattle, and all my goods; that He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life; that He defends me against all danger, and guards and protects me from all evil; and all this purely out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me; for all which it is my duty to thank and praise, to serve and obey Him.”  “The Lord, God the FATHER, bless you and keep you.”

Blessing #2: “God the SON make his face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you.”

The phrase “make his face shine upon you” means “to accept, to approve, to favorably receive.”  You know how a new piece of clothing usually has a little slip in a pocket, which says something like, “Passed by Inspector #12”?  The bad news is, because of our sins, we all fail God’s quality control.  For he demands a spiritual standard none of us could ever achieve: absolute perfection.

But the Good News is, you have been “Passed by Inspector #1”!  “The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you.”  You are accepted, approved, favorably received by God, because he is gracious to you on account of his Son.  As Paul says in Romans, “[You] are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”  Have faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior.  Your sins are washed away by his blood and his perfection is credited to you.  That’s what it means to be justified.  For his sake your sins are forgiven and you are accepted by Inspector #1.  “The Lord, God the SON, make his face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you.”

Blessing #3: “God the HOLY SPIRIT lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.”  To “lift up” one’s “countenance” means “to smile upon with favor and blessing.”  We sometimes say “lady luck” is “smiling” on someone.  God the Holy Spirit himself is smiling on you with favor and blessing. 

You therefore have peace, even in the bitterest hardships and struggles of this life, for you know God is not angry with you, God is not punishing you.  As Paul says in Romans, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

You have peace also because you know that the hardships and struggles of this life will come to an end when you enter the promised land.  Revelation says of heaven, “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. . . And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. . .  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.”  Paul says in 2 Corinthians, “Our light and momentary troubles are accomplishing for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”  “The Lord, God the HOLY SPIRIT, lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.”

We call a hard blow a “triple whammy.”  The Lord gives you, not a triple whammy, but a triple blessing: 

“The Lord bless you and keep you;

“The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you;

“The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.” 

It is very appropriate and beautiful and meaningful that this blessing often comes at the end of our Sunday services.  For, just as the Lord commanded Moses to have Aaron and the other priests bless the Israelites with these words before they set off on their journey wandering through the wilderness to the promised land, in the same way the pastor blesses you as you set off on another week of your pilgrimage, wandering through the wilderness of this world to the promised land of heaven.  With these words the Lord is assuring you that you never walk alone.

The three stanzas of this blessing are like the three sides of a triangle, each representing a Person of the Trinity:

“God the FATHER bless you and keep you;

“God the SON make his face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you;

“God the HOLY SPIRIT lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.”

And right in the middle, surrounded by God’s love on every side, is you.  “The Triple Blessing of the Lord” is upon you.