Great Texts of the Bible: The Lord Bless Thee and Keep Thee | Numbers 6 | Pastor William Hixson

know this. Some of your visitors may

not. We are in a new series. It's not a

book study series, which we've done

mostly in our many years here. It's a

verse series where we're picking out a

major verse in different books of the

Bible and focusing on that verse. That's

what we're doing. And we are in the book

of Numbers. So, this is our fourth

message in that series. If you'd like to

get on YouTube or Rumble or the church

website or Facebook, you can get the

other three messages,

they are there. We're thankful for those

that are working with that.

I'm interested in the book of Numbers,

the fourth book in the Bible.

I'm interested in numbers chapter 6

Numbers 6 · chapter mention

and verse 22

27.

And I would emphasize that when I'm

picking these verses, I'm picking verses

that I believe will open up the rest of

the Bible to. They're not necessarily

the main verse in the book, but they're

a verse that I believe will help us

understand not just that book, but the

rest of the Bible. I call them keys. Key

verses. And so, we're making a key ring

in this series. If I live long enough,

we'll have 66 keys.

Oh, wow. Anyway,

Numbers chapter 6 verse 22- 27.

Numbers 6:22–27

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

"Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons."

Who's Aaron?

Moses's brother. He's the high priest.

And his sons follow him in the

priesthood.

speak unto Aaron and unto his sons,

saying, In this way you shall bless the

children of Israel, saying unto them,

The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The

Lord make his face to shine upon thee,

and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift

up his countenance upon thee, and give

thee peace.

and they shall put my name upon the

children of Israel and I

will bless them.

That's our text for this morning. The

ironic blessing.

Father, we thank you for your word. We

pray that you'd help us to speak and

each of us to hear as those are going to

give account as those that are hearing

for eternity.

We pray, Father, you'd give us a hearing

ear and a and a hearing heart.

Jesus name. Amen.

>> Well, there are many memorable and

significant

uh

texts in the book of numbers that we

could pick. This wasn't the only one we

could pick. There are several others. It

was like I read through the book of

Numbers again and just tried to think,

what are some other vital texts in this

book? And of course, it didn't take me

long to find several.

Uh

Moses lifting up the serpent in the

wilderness. That's a big one, isn't it?

That has great relevance because if you

want to understand John 3:16, you got to

John 3:16

understand John 3:14

John 3:14

and 15. And it illustrates ahead of time

the cross of Calvary. That is a very big

one.

And

Uh, so that one's important. Aaron's rod

that budded.

Big deal.

That is reflective

ahead of time in biblical typology

of the resurrection of Christ validating

his priesthood.

Can't go back and teach all of that.

There's an argument of who gets to run

the show. And Aaron's rod budded and

life came where there was death. because

the Bible's just one story even though

it's many stories and Aaron's rod that

buted is a beautiful prefiguring

uh of the resurrection of Jesus Christ

or Kora's rebellion and Balum Balam's

efforts to curse Israel

that

there's a lot in there besides the

donkey talking and uh so it's important

any of those could be chosen

and our great texts in the Old

Testament.

But we're looking at the keys. We're

looking at ones that are very, very

special. And we can pick the others

because they are. But as I thought about

it, I believe this is the one we should

have. The Bible says the law is a shadow

of good things to come. Hebrews 10 1.

By the law, it means the first five

books of the Bible. Pentitude.

It's a shadow of good things to come.

Now, Peter Pan couldn't find his shadow,

but he was a fictional person.

And we can find the shadow of good

things to come. It's right here in our

Bible. You don't have to look for it. We

just have to look at it

and absorb it.

Now here we have the responsibility of

the of Aaron and his sons to give a

blessing

called the ironic blessing.

What does all this signify?

You and I have heard people say things

like this.

I was blessed with good health.

Ever heard anybody say that? I was

blessed with a strong constitution.

Uh, I was blessed with a good wife. I've

been blessed

with a good job.

Uh,

those kinds of things. I've been blessed

with a good church.

God's blessed me with many children.

are good neighbors.

What are people saying when they don't

just say it, but they use the word

bless?

Well, some might just be u doing what a

lot of people down south do. Bless your

heart.

And I'm told that when a southern woman

tells you that, it's not a good thing.

She's usually she's uh usually exposing

something that you've done and saying in

a very interesting way.

I'm not talking about that.

But people say it that don't even think

about what it means. But if you think

about what it means to be blessed by God

is to have God working on your behalf.

And to be cursed by God is the opposite.

If you're blessed by God, it's because

God's for you. If you're cursed by God,

it's because God's against you. And if

you had to choose the two, which one

would you choose?

And so when people are saying, "I've

been blessed by this," they're actually

giving God the glory for whatever good

they got.

I was blessed with

a lot of money. I was blessed with a

good house.

They're giving God the glory. They're

giving God the credit. And they're

recognizing, if they understand what

they're saying, that life is not a

do-it-yourself project.

Frank Soninatris might want to say, "I

did it my way." Sing that. The

Christians know better.

We We have a God

to be related to to be under his

authority and under his blessing. And we

look to him.

halfbrother of Jesus who wrote the book

of James said, "Every good gift

and every perfect gift is from above and

comes down from the father of lights."

If you got something good, it came from

God.

Wasn't an accident. Wasn't a

coincidence.

Every good gift and every perfect gift

comes down from above. That's what you

want.

We're not even smart enough to know

what's good for us, right?

And we and and we have nothing we

haven't received.

And in John 3:27, Jesus said, "A man can

John 3:27

receive nothing except it be given him

from heaven."

And in John 15:5, Jesus said, "Apart

John 15:5

from me, you can do nothing." Well, you

can do stuff, but nothing that lasts,

nothing that's important, nothing that's

you need God 24/7.

And in Psalm 16:2, it says, I say to the

Psalms 16:2

Lord, you are my Lord. Apart from you, I

have no good thing.

Apart from you, I have no good thing.

So we see the hand of God in the glove

of our history.

We see his providence protecting,

providing,

and all of that kind of thing.

And a Christian knows if God doesn't

give it, I won't get it.

And if I got it, it wouldn't be worth

having.

Now, you've heard me quote this proverb

many, many times. There's three of them

that are in the book of Proverbs on the

same subject.

I'll just quote this one. Every one of

us needs to know this.

Proverbs 3:33. You can get the address

Proverbs 3:33

on that one.

The Lord's curse is on the house of the

wicked,

but he blesses the dwelling

of the righteous.

Every home, I'm not talking about a

building now, every family

is either under the curse of God

or the blessing.

You think you can have a good family

apart from God, but he might be merciful

and you might have had that,

but it's not what it would have been if

you'd had a Christian.

Every house is either cursed by God or

blessed.

Life is not a do it, do it, do it

yourself project.

And you can't curse those God has

blessed. That doesn't mean those God

blesses have it easy or everything

always goes the way they want it to go.

That's not what I see in the Bible.

people God blessed still had plenty of

trials and troubles and difficulties but

there was blessing in

remember Jacob classic example Joseph is

not Simeon is not and you want to take

Benjamin away all these things are

against me no

they're all for you Jacob you just

haven't figured that out

So very very important. You remember

Balum the false prophet. The false

prophet that is actually whose name

actually is found outside the Bible at

that right time. He's very famous. He

had a worldwide reputation

in the ancient near east.

He's a false prophet. He wasn't a true

prophet.

But God tapped him on the shoulder and

and dealt with him. And he was trying he

was Balon was a prophet for hire. He was

like the wire paladin of the old west uh

uh black and white movies. Have gun will

travel. He had he had prophecy will

travel.

You pay me enough money I'll manipulate

the gods for you.

Now, he was crooked as a dog's leg, but

God tapped him anyway.

And he got hired by a king named Balik.

I'm nervous about these people coming

across my border.

I want you to curse.

Abram went. Money was good. God stopped

him. Almost died.

But God let him go forward after he

corrected him. But every time Balam

opened his mouth to curse him, he

blessed him instead. So much as his

employer said, "I paid you to bless him.

You've c I paid you to curse him. And

every time you try to curse him, you

bless him. You've done it five times.

This is enough. You're not getting paid.

those God blesses

and be unbs.

Having the blessing of God is not

something we earn, not something we

deserve.

It's something God gives in his mercy.

And people today live their lives under

the sunshine of God's blessing or the

thunderstorm of his curse.

Maybe you've wondered, "Why is my life

the way it is,

trying hard,

every time I turn around,

it's a dead end."

And we Christians even have some of

that. But something we know is I thank

God for unanswered prayer. I thank God

for the times he didn't do what I wanted

him to do. I thank God that he's leading

when he blesses.

I thank God for the disappointments

and the pain,

but God didn't let me have my way.

And I learned

I'm under the sunshine of his blessing.

He loves me too much to let me have what

I think I need. At that point, he just

slams the door on my face and says,

"Nope, that's not for you."

have actually learned to thank God as

much, maybe even more, for shut doors

than open ones.

Speaking as someone who's had plenty of

shut doors,

God's blessing is what? He doesn't let

us get what we think we want. It's not

the right thing. He slams.

Now in number six, chapter 6 verse 22-

27,

we've got God instructing Aaron and his

sons on how to give a blessing

to the nation.

This was a formal thing. This was part

of their job.

And this very brief portion of scripture

gives us three foundational truths about

blessing. Someone said Ian Dwed, a

Presbyterian

Old Testament scholar.

Number one, where blessing comes from.

Number two, what blessing is. And number

three, how we can receive it.

Pretty good. I like that so much. I'm

adopting his outline.

Where blessing comes from, what blessing

is, and how we can receive it.

And if we reread this section, you're

going to see the word Lord appears three

times. Capital L O R D.

Not capital L, little O, little R,

little D. It's a different Hebrew word.

And it repeats,

it's a blessing that comes from the

triune God.

Let's read it again with that idea.

Watch the word Lord.

Verse 23. Speak to Aaron and say to his

son, saying, "In this way you you bless

the children of Israel, saying to them,

the Lord, there it is. There's a word.

The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The

Lord make his face to shine upon thee

and be gracious to thee. The Lord lift

up his countenance upon thee and give

you peace."

Where do you get your blessing?

You hope you get it from the Lord

because then you are blessed.

But the ironic priest had that job to

pronounce this blessing

in the tabernacle and later the temple.

And Dwed said some have never

experienced this blessing of God.

They've never felt his favor or they've

never given their life to Christ.

They've never submitted their heart to

him. The Father's favor is not given

indiscriminately to all humanity, just

as the ironic blessing was not to be

administered to all peoples. It's only

given to those whom he calls his own

people in Christ. If you've never done

so, you need to come to Christ today and

receive the blessing of new life under

the smile of God.

Confess your sins. Repent of all the

ways in which you've sought to

manufacture your own life of blessing

and bow down today to God's only way to

blessing. Receive God's favor in Jesus

Christ. It's the only way to true

blessing and peace. A blessing that will

last for all time.

So now on this subject and I'm I'm just

going to quote verses. I'm not going to

look them up, okay? Just for time sake,

I can't help but go back to the book of

Genesis

and Adam and Eve.

Remember Genesis uh chapter 1 and uh

verse 26 to 26 28 the first marriage it

says God blessed them

and said to them be fruitful multiply

and fill the earth and take dominion

over it. You got a job to do. is to have

babies and reach out around the world

and take care of the animals.

But he blessed them. It says he blessed

them.

Bible starts out with God blessing man

and then man falls and then you get into

this curse thing

when man gets into sin through the

serpent

and you say, "Well, I don't believe in

the Bible because I don't believe snakes

talk." This one did.

This one still does.

Yes, there was a physical snake, but

there was a spiritual snake there, too.

And his name, it's that old serpent

called the devil. And the devil does

talk. And he gets people to listen.

And God said to the serpent, "Cursed are

you above all cattle, above all animals.

You just lost your legs. Apparently

physical serpents

had legs at one time. God took them

away. You're going to crawl on your

belly the rest of your life. That's the

physical snake. But the spiritual snake,

the seed of the woman is going to bruise

the serpent's head. She'll bruise his

heel.

And remember of Adam and Eve, cursed is

the ground for your sin.

You did it. You found your own nest.

My sister, when we were little, she kind

of motherthered us, although I was older

than her. My brother was a couple years

younger than her, but we did something

bad. I don't remember what it was. It

was We were usually doing something

honory. And my sister mixed up her words

and she said, "You buttered your bread.

Now lay in it.

Somehow in her young mind she got those

things mixed up. You know,

you made your bed now laying. You

buttered your bread now.

Never let her forget that.

But Adam and Eve got us in trouble. This

world is not the way it used to be.

Garden of Eden.

It's there's a curse.

Curse it is the ground. You're going to

have to earn your money with your you're

living with the sweat of your brow.

And you women, you got to have babies.

It's going to be painful.

Wouldn't have been that. You just done

what I said.

So the God that blesses is now the God

that curses.

And the pre flood world were very much

aware of that.

Noah's father said, "This one is going

to help deliver us from the curse of the

ground that God cursed."

They lived under that.

They were very aware of that. That's

Genesis 5:28 and 29

Genesis 5:28

and so forth and so on as you go through

the Bible.

That word blessing and curse is used a

lot.

Are we getting the message?

People, nations, families either are

under the cloud of God's judgment or the

sunshine of his mercy.

That doesn't mean people under the cloud

can't have some good days, but they're

they don't have God's favor.

Doesn't mean people under the blessing

don't have some bad days, but even in

the bad days, we have God's favor.

And we know something. Paul knew it. All

things work together for good to those

that love God, to those that are called

according to his purpose. He didn't say

they were all going to be good. It's

they're all going to work together for

good.

So, are we getting the message?

Now, you can't read the story about

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob without

understanding

they were very interested in this

blessing curse.

And remember Esau? Oh, I kind of like

Esau. He was a profane person, but he

was nicer than Jacob.

Jacob was a scoundrel.

But Jacob stole Esau's

blessing.

That wasn't the worst thing.

The worst thing that was the dad who was

giving the blessing was fighting God. He

was he was fighting God's word about

Isaac. He wanted to go to Esau

when God said he was going to go to

Isaac.

Now to all modern man all this stuff

is just a little bunch of do about

nothing.

It's not

the Nelson Bible of dictionary of the

Bible said the act of of blessing or

bless the act of declaring or wishing

God's favor and goodness on others. The

blessing is not only the good effect of

words. It also has the power to bring

them to pass.

In the Bible, important persons bless

those with less power influence. The

patriarchs pronounced benefits on their

children, often near their own deaths,

even if spoken by mistake. Once a

blessing was given, it couldn't be taken

back.

And Isaac found that out.

So, what is this blessing thing

is so important that the book of Genesis

is filled with it? I'm not even quoting

all the verses on it.

It's conveying a gift by a potent

utterance.

In blessing man, God bestows good at at

the time or later. Sometimes God says

you're going to get it, but you don't

get it right away.

And another fellow said, "The Old

Testament sees God as the only source of

blessing.

Those who are wrongly related to God can

neither bless nor be blessed.

What did God say to Abraham? In you

all nations of the earth will be

blessed. This is a big deal, Abraham.

You're going to be blessed.

Nations going to come out of you, but

all nations somehow are going to be

blessed. And that's a prediction of

Jesus.

Most people seek blessing in the wrong

place.

They think, "I've got a rich relative

and if I treat him nice, they'll be a

blessing to me." Maybe, maybe not.

Or if I can earn enough money, I'll I'll

be blessed. No, that that's not how much

money you got or don't have.

Finding good good grades. Yeah, that

that good greed is important, but that's

not everything. Good job's important.

It's not everything. You have the smile

of God.

Now, God knows the best people are

sinners. He knows all that. And the

people that the ironic blessing were

said to were sinners just like others.

And one writer said of this section in

this is a beautiful benediction in the

style of excellent Semitic poetry with a

message much needed

by those facing the uncertainties and

hostile forces of present living. It

tells of God's goodness in caring for

and protecting his people.

I'm glad I got a shepherd. Aren't you?

David's bragging about his shepherd. You

know what Psalm 23 is? is David the

sheep bragging about his shepherd.

Nobody's got a shepherd like I got.

I want to tell you about my shepherd.

He experienced the blessing of God.

Another

Old Testament writer said, uh,

grammatically, there's no need to repeat

God's name, but the repetition

emphasizes that the Lord is the source

of all Israel's blessing. Saying it

emphatically, the Lord, the Lord, the

Lord.

And so this benediction is quite

important.

It's a wish for the future.

It's a beautiful thing God's the author

of. Now, as I said, there's no neutral

status.

You're either under God's blessing or

under God's curse. And by the way, the U

there is singular.

Priests are blessing the whole nation,

but they don't use the plural U. They

use the singular U. In this ironic

blessing, each individual's

singled out.

Nobody gets lost in the crowd.

Everyone is provided for. That's good.

And it's in the context of the earlier

section of a Nazerite vow. Those are

kind of the super saints. I'll deny

myself this. I won't I'll cut my hair. I

won't do this. I won't do that.

Uh

super saints.

But this is given to everybody, the

general population.

No one is left out.

And while the words are directed to the

entire community, the pronouns are

singular. This is characteristic of

covenantal language. The Lord blessed

the whole by blessing the individuals

and he blesses the individuals by

blessing the whole. What does Athens

Bible Church need the most? Oh, if

somebody give us a million dollars, that

would help.

Or if a hundred more people would walk

in here next Sunday, that would help.

You know what we need more than anything

else?

The blessing of God.

You got all the rest of the stuff and

you don't have that,

you can do nothing.

very important.

Now, let's look at some of let's look at

the bit the the bigger picture here. Um

Jesus while on earth

blessed his disciples.

You know the last thing he did

on earth after he was resurrected and

spent 40 days with him showing him he

was alive. put his hands out and blessed

them and went to heaven.

Then we think, yeah, well, what's all

this about? Well, it's important.

Luke 24:50-53,

Luke 24:50–53

he blessed them.

The Apostle Paul in Ephesians says,

"God's blessed us with all spiritual

blessings in Christ."

He repeats that in Ephesians 1 over and

over again.

And in Ruth 2:4, Ruth pronounces

Ruth 2:4

blessing on Boaz. It's natural for her.

God bless you. It wasn't just a word to

say. It was something she was conscious

of. And how about the uh

how about the famous sermon on the

mount?

How about the beatitude?

Turn with me to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Some of you know this. Some of you heard

me teach this.

In the sermon on the mount, it starts

out with the biatitudes.

Bear with me.

And seeing the multitude, he went up

into a mountain. And when he was seated,

his disciples came to him.

It was my privilege to stand on the

sermon on the mount

where this took place.

There's enough for plenty of people. His

disciples came to him and he opened his

mouth and taught them saying blessed

verse three blessed verse four blessed

verse five blessed verse six. Those are

the biatitudes.

And these are not different kinds of

people.

He's describing

people who are saved.

So it's not like you get the one. You

get a blessing for being poor in spirit.

Somebody else gets the blessing for

mourning. Somebody else gets a blessing

for meekness. No, no. These this is a

description of saved people.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. That's

those are so poor they don't trust

themselves for salvation. They're like a

beggar. They just take ask God to give

it to them. Theirs is the kingdom of

heaven. Blessed are they that mourn,

mourning over their sin, for they'll be

comforted. Blessed are the meek, for

they'll inherit the earth. That's that's

a pretty good blessing. Getting the

whole earth.

Blessed are they that do hunger and

thirst after righteousness, for they'll

be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for

they'll obtain mercy. Blessed are the

pure in heart, for they'll see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they'll

be called the sons of God. Blessed are

they who are persecuted for

righteousness sake, for theirs is the

kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when

men shall revile you and persecute you

and say all manner of evil against you

falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be

exceedingly glad, for great is your

reward in heaven, for so persecuted they

the prophets who are before you. Those

aren't different kinds of people in

different shelves. They're all

descriptions of the same group.

He's looking at his disciple.

Then he says in verse 13, you're the

salt of the earth.

Well, who is the salt of the earth?

What's it mean to be the salt of the

earth? Uh,

well, salt is NAC

if I remember chemistry, which I don't

remember much of it because I'm pretty

bad student.

It has two ingredients

physical salt.

But this has many, right? I think it's

eight.

So he's talking to the group as a group.

It's people who have this blessing in

these different ways

that are the salt of the earth. They are

the preservers of this planet.

Crazy

liberals say, "Oh, we got to preserve

the earth by uh reducing our carbon

footprint and all that

about this

worried about ozone.

I'm not saying we shouldn't take care of

the planet. I'm just saying that's not

the biggest thing. You're avoid you're

avoiding the biggest thing. You've

already rejected the biggest thing.

The salt of the earth is the church. The

salt of the earth is Christians

individual

and collective.

And he says in verse 14, you're the

light of the world.

What are the shades of light in a

rainbow?

Well, it's the same blessedness that he

mentions the different shades. It he's

talking again about the same people.

Same people that are salt of the earth

are the light of the world.

It's blessed people and only blessed

people that are the light of the world

and the salt of the earth.

We don't have that in ourselves.

That's God's gift.

God's mercy. Remember Jesus told Thomas,

"You've seen and you believe. Blessed

are those who haven't seen him."

You think it'd be great to be back there

and see Jesus and be in the room with

him after. Yeah, that'd be great. We got

even something greater. We got a

blessing by believing without seeing.

Just take God at his word.

Romans chapter 4. Will you go there just

Romans 4 · chapter mention

for a moment?

The Apostle Paul picks out of all the

Jews of Jewish history, the first Jew

and the greatest Jew, Abraham and David.

You've heard me say it'd be like some

American picking out George Washington

and Abraham Lincoln.

So, he's just picking out these two big

Old Testament people and saying if they

got saved by faith and not by works,

then that's the way everybody's got to

get saved.

And so, what shall we say then? That

Abraham our father is pertaining to the

flesh is found. For if Abraham were

justified by works, he has something in

which to glory, but not before God. For

what says the scripture, Abraham

believed God, and it was counted to him

for righteousness. Now to him that works

is the reward not reckoned of grace but

of debt. But to him that works not but

believes on him that justifies the

ungodly, his faith is counted for

righteousness. Couldn't be clearer. And

then he goes to David. Even as David

also describes the blessedness of the

man unto whom God imputes righteousness

apart from works. and he's quoting the

Psalms saying, "Blessed are those who

iniquities are forgiven and those whose

sins are covered. Blessed is the man to

whom the Lord will not impute sin." If

you're saved, you put your trust in

Christ, you've come under God's

blessing.

A lot of people don't know that. They

have no comfort. They have no life.

Now, one of my I have a two volume

Hebrew dictionary deals with every

Hebrew word in the in the uh Old

Testament. And on blessing, it says to

bless in the Old Testament means to end

with power or success, prosperity,

pecundity, longevity. It's frequent

frequently contrasted with to esteem

lightly or curse.

And that's right.

Now, if we go to Ephesians 1, we find

every Christian is blessed.

God's blessed us with all spiritual

blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

And as we come back to uh go to

Galatians, I want you to go to Galatians

and then I'll close out.

Galatians 3

Galatians 3:10

verse 10. For as many as are under the

works of the law or under the curse, for

it's written, cursed is everyone that

continues not on all things that are

written in the book of the law to do

them. But that no man is justified by

the law in the sight of God is evident.

For the just shall live by faith, and

the laws not of faith. The man that does

them shall live in them. Christ has

redeemed us from what? Christ has

redeemed us from what? The curse of the

law,

being made a curse for us.

For it's written, cursed is everyone

that hangs on a tree.

Jesus took your hell that you could have

his heaven.

That's what it's talking.

He took God's curse

that you could have God's blessing.

Is that a little thing?

And why did he do it? Verse 14, that the

blessing of Abraham might come on

Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we

might receive the promise of the spirit

through God. Bible says that in Abraham

all nations of the earth will be

blessed.

If God be before us, who can be against

us?

Now,

I'm going to apply this just a little

bit and we'll close.

You realize

there was a recent very very very recent

archaeological discovery.

Archaeologist

found this

and I'm just going to read it to you

because it's fascinating to me.

New light was thrown on the authenticity

and antiquity of the ironic blessing.

That's what we're studying. Number six,

when two small corroded silver scroll,

two small corroded silver scrolls that

had been used as amulets were recovered

from the excavation affinum

west of the old city of Jerusalem in

1979.

The fragile nature of the artifacts made

unrolling them difficult and precarious

task. And when it was accomplished

finally in 1982,

the tiny scrolls appeared to be blank.

Under magnification,

faint writing appeared on the larger of

the two scrolls.

But it was only in 1986

when they were being prepared for

exhibition that the contents of these

omulants began became apparent.

The discovery of the three-fold

repetition of the divine name, the first

name, the name Yahweh has been found on

ancripture in Jerusalem led to their

decipherment of the ironic priestly

benediction.

on the omelets

amulets. An omelette, something you eat

on the amulet.

It was almost identical form to the

maseretic text of numbers 6:24-26.

Numbers 6:24–26

The maseretic text is the Hebrew text

that our Bibles come from.

And the script which had been etched on

the silver was typical of that in use of

the 7th century BC.

Can I say that again? 7th century BC.

You realize that's hundreds of years

older than the Dead Sea Scrolls.

This particular discovery

of this one little verse

on the silver amullet is the oldest

verse of scripture have anywhere.

This is not a little thing.

And uh and he said this makes the

scrolls from Katef Henam the oldest

biblical manuscript yet discovered

predating the earliest Dead Sea scrolls

by almost four centuries. And the fact

that the material was inulate form

testifies to the lengthy tradition of

usage as a personal blessing. The

scrolls also witness coinc

coincidentally to the fact that the

ironic blessing was written as well as

oral form long before the supposed P

document was compiled.

Say what's the P document?

unbelieving German

uh Old Testament scholars cut the Old

Testament up into uh different sections.

Jed DP.

He said Moses didn't write it.

There was this document that uses the

word Jehovah. This one used Elohim.

There was the Deuteronomy document.

There was a priestly document. They were

all different times and somebody put it

all together uh a lot later.

The only problem problem with that is

this predates that

kind of blew that out of the water. Much

like that other archaeological discovery

of finding God Jesus Christ on a church

floor that predates the council of Nika.

Crazy people saying that Nika they

invented the deity of Christ.

Well, how come the church was has God

Jesus Christ on their ceramic floor long

before the council of Na?

Deity Christ is not an invention by a

bunch of preachers in Na.

What [clears throat] was it? 3 325 AD.

The church believed that from the

beginning.

I love this this thing with this uh it

just blows away. I I was taught that

Raphael's an apothesis at OU when I took

Old Testament at OU. Didn't believe it.

Then I went to seminary. My Hebrew

prophet refuted it in one period.

Took one class for him to refute that.

But it's good to know that this has done

the same.

Some applications.

God's blessing is a total act of grace.

Number one, and not dependent on our

zeal or dedication.

Not all nations,

not all in the nation. We're Nazerites,

but all got the blessing individually.

Two, our dedication should be motivated

by the bounty of God's blessing. We're

not trying to squeeze blessing out of

God. We're responding to the blessing he

wants us to have.

and you're either blessed or cursed

according to Jesus.

Matthew 25

Matthew 25:31

verse 31 and follow.

Finally,

P. Campbell Morgan, the British pastor

100 years ago writing on this said

that these benedictions

they were included in the divinely

appointed appointed liturgy of worship

and in common with the whole of the

picture system

where riches and fuller revelation would

be given to men.

The priestly priest office priestly

office is mediatoral. Its function is

twofold. Intercessory and benedictory.

Each of these functions has a double

operation. The priest in intercession

stands first in the presence of God

pleading the cause of men.

And then in the presence of men pleading

the cause of God. The priest in

benediction stands first in the presence

of men pronouncing blessings from God

and then in the presence of God offering

the praises of men.

Our present m mediation is concerned

with the first aspect of the benedictory

functions. The pronouncement of the

divine blessing on men by the lips of

the mediating priest. Now you probably

didn't follow all that.

They offered the sacrifice first

and then the priest gave the blessing.

Without the sacrifice,

it'd be no blessing.

It says the Solom was a distinct part of

worship of the Hebrew people and its

place in the order of worship is

indicated quite clearly in the 22nd

verse of the 9th chapter of Leviticus

where we read these words. And Aaron

lifted up his hands toward the people

and blessed them. And he came down from

offering the sin offering and the burnt

offering and the peace offering.

So they offered the offerings and then

he pronounced the blessing.

It's only because our Lord died. He's

our burnt offering. He's our sin

offering. He's our peace offering

that God can bless God.

He Jesus was cursed because cursed is

everyone that hangs on a tree

that we

might be blessed.

That's the God we worship. That's the

God we praise.

Uh today we're going to do something at

the end instead of our trying to sing

number six. Actually, there are churches

who sing that. The Baptist church I was

raised in, we always sang that every

Sunday. Uh, as a benediction, and the

choir would come in with the difficult

parts. It's a little involved, but we've

got a choir on YouTube singing the

ironic blessing

in English. And I want you to hear that

today as we close out our service. And

it's beautifully done.

And I think that you will be blessed

by

going to follow along. That's page 571.

>> Yeah, it's 571 in our handbook.

YouTube will work.

We said we can use this time to count

our

>> [clears throat]

>> Yeah, I did right.

Let's

close our service. Father, we thank you

for the blessings that have come our way

through Jesus Christ.

We look back over this year,

those of us that know

the blessing of the Lord in our lives,

so thankful for it.

Even the hard things have been good

and have good purposes.

We look forward to this next year, not

knowing what it will bring, but knowing

that we're not on our own. As David

wrote, "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall

come."

In his name we pray.

Lord, [singing]

as we go from this place, [music]

loving you [singing] more,

trusting you more.

May the power of your [singing] love and

the light of your word shine to a sin,

darkened [singing and music]

world. As we go from this place,

[singing]