The Lord bless thee and keep thee. Numbers 6:24
Our text today isn’t very big, is it? But appearances can be deceiving; this little verse is brimming with good and glorious things. Let’s take a peek at some of them.
This little verse is the first part of the great benediction that God gave the Israelites, a benediction that was to be used in their national convocations, in their regular worship gatherings, and in their interpersonal communications. Remember how Boaz used part of it in his greeting to his field workers. This first portion of the benediction is a prayer for the Lord to both bless and keep. What more could we possibly pray the Lord to do for His people today?
To bless is to make happy, simply put. It is true that we as the Lord’s people have much to be happy about, from our salvations’ deliverance from sin and its consequences to our glorious hope of eternal bliss, and every wonderful blessing in between, we have every reason to rejoice every hour of the day. But it is only as we appreciate all these things that we actually rejoice in them. So our prayer for each other is that we be constantly reminded of all that we have in Christ, and be filled with joy.
We often say that everlasting life would not be everlasting life if we could lose it. Therefore, we acknowledge that our salvation has given to us eternal security. We could not save ourselves, nor can we keep ourselves saved. So why should we pray for the Lord to keep us when He has promised to do so eternally? Because while we are kept eternally in our position as God’s redeemed, we need daily help with our condition as God’s redeemed. We sin and struggle in our mortal flesh, and need to pray that the Lord would keep us daily in His will and in His work. And He will.
Notice the pronoun used in our text – thee. Modern-language Bible versions render this as ‘you’. And in doing so, they destroy a most precious part of the blessing, the reality that it is an individual and personal blessing, not a general blessing that wraps around everybody. The word ‘you’ is actually plural, although common use has rendered it both singular and plural with nothing to show the distinction. When I say ‘you”, I could be addressing one or a thousand. But ‘thee’ is singular. When I use it, I am addressing one individual person. As God the Lord does in this great blessing. He cares and blesses and keeps every one of us, emphasis on the one.
Only seven single-syllable words in today’s text, and yet it is wonderful in its presentation of how much our loving Lord wants for you and me today. – Jim MacIntosh