Verse for the Day, 11 May 2015.

Numbers 6:26, “…the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”

Numbers 6:22-26 has thus far taught us that God is demonstrating the depths of His love, grace, mercy and faithfulness to the people of Israel. All these attributes are seen first in the life of the one who is first commanded to proclaim this blessing upon the people of Israel, Aaron. He was responsible for leading the nation into idolatry, and when confronted by Moses, denied it and lied. Yet God extended remarkable grace, mercy and forgiveness to Aaron by not consuming Aaron in His wrath. Now God was showing even more grace by giving Aaron the privilege of being the first high priest and giving him this blessing to proclaim over God’s people.

The blessing itself shows that God extends the same favour to all of Israel, but ultimately to those who believe in Jesus Christ. God desires to put His name upon His people, and the evidence of them being God’s people, the bearers of God’s name is by the enjoyment of this unique and divine blessing.

God is promising to bless His people, not just to be nice and good to them, but to prosper and provide for them in every single manner. He is promising to be faithful to them, ensuring their needs are met, granting them many undeserved gifts of love, providing for them even when they are walking in disobedience. God is promising to prosper them, to the point that they will be seen as the most prosperous nation on the earth, all men will be drawn to them, when they see how God has prospered them.

With prosperity, with the rich blessings of God, and the eyes of all looking towards Israel, towards God’s people, comes the fear that the other nations will come against them. There is the fear of being under threat from all sides, threats from man, from beast and from evil. But they have in this blessing the comforting assurance that God shall both bless them and protect them. He will be their protector, defender, their shield, their safety and their refuge. He shall keep them from harm and He promises to fight for them, to go ahead of them against the enemy and to bring them both victory and peace from all their enemies.

God promises to bless and to keep His people, for God’s face is turned towards them. God is directing His favour towards this nation, to His people. God is drawing close, He is amongst His people, He reveals Himself, His glory and His grace to His people in a previously unseen manner. The people Israel, but more so believers in Christ, are given great privilege as they receive God’s favour and the blessing that come with it. God is towards, God is for these people, God is favourable towards them, God is amongst them.

Why is it that God is making such promises to these people, who have thus far been ungrateful, unfaithful, bitter, angry, unkind, filled with doubt and have constantly question God? God is making these promises and God performs all these promises, these blessings, because God is gracious. This whole blessing either stands or falls on the grace of God. This blessing will be true and will continue to be enjoyed by God’s people for as long as God’s grace stands. Should God remove His grace, then this blessing would collapse, it would be removed from our lives. It is because God is gracious that He seeks to make us His people. This is the key and centre point of the blessing because it points us to Jesus Christ. Jesus is the full revelation and demonstration of God’s grace, and it is through the work of Christ that we are brought into the eternal, true and complete blessing of God.

As we are drawn into the blessing of God, into the family, the people of God by Christ, so we have the promise of the constant faithfulness of God towards us. We are given a new confidence, boldness and right to enter into God’s presence through prayer. We can go to God in prayer with confidence, for He promises to hear and to respond, to respond favourably, for our greatest and highest good and for the furtherance of His glory.

Thus where we have all these rich blessings, blessings of provision and prosperity, of security and safety, of God drawing near to us, of God’s grace given to us through Christ, of a right to enter into God’s presence without fear and the promise that God shall hear and answer our prayers for our good, because we have and know all this, the result is peace.

Peace, perfect, full, abiding, eternal peace! A peace that is more than just the absence of war, rather a peace that is a complete one. We could think of it as a peace that goes right down into our souls, it is a soul-satisfying peace. It is not a temporary peace which can be shattered within a few seconds, it is an abiding, eternal, unchanging peace. It is not an earthly and circumstantial peace, it is a divine, heavenly peace, that comes consistently from God without fail and in every circumstance. Ultimately it is the peace of God extended to us by Christ, the great peacemaker, who has reconciled us to God. The peace of knowing the God is no longer our terrifying judge, but He has become our gracious and loving Father. The peace of knowing that sin’s curse has been broken, we have been set free from the eternal consequences of our sin, and now we have been given life and heaven has been made our home. It is the peace of knowing that if we are God’s people, if His name is upon us, then we can rest peacefully for we know that God shall do all that which He promises, and shall safely keep us until He draws us into His eternal presence, glory and kingdom. Peace, perfect, eternal, divine, soul-satisfying peace!

Lord Jesus Christ, You are our great Peace-maker, You are our Prince of Peace, You have become our Peace. How we thank You for the richness of this blessing that we have received through Your work on our behalf. We rejoice in the fact that we have received from the Father an abiding, eternal, divine and soul-satisfying peace. A peace that daily fills our lives no matter what our circumstances are, and reminds us that we are Your people, God the Father is our Father, He holds our lives, He blesses and keeps us, He grants us all good things and He extends His favour to us every day. Thank You that we can rest and live in this peace today, tomorrow and for all eternity. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 7 May 2015.

Number 6:26, “…the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”

There are occasions in Scripture when we come across words that have almost disappeared from the English language. The word countenance is one such word. Not many of us can recall having heard this word used whether in conversation or in the literature that we read. But it is not just the word that disappears, its meaning disappears as well. As a result we are uncertain as to what the word means.

This phrase, “lift up His countenance upon you…”is an incredibly rich statement. It is probably best to describe this phrase by way of illustration. When a child is troubled, in difficulty or needs help, what do they do? They go to, they seek out or even cry out for their father to come to their aid. How does the father respond? He responds by lifting up his countenance upon his child. In other words he hears the cry of his child and he responds by listening to the child’s request and then seeks to answer and work in such a way that is for the child’s greatest good. Sometimes that help might be painful, if the child has stood on a thorn, the thorn has to be removed. In helping our child we have to cause them to feel greater pain for a brief moment, the thorn has to be taken out, even though the child may object, cry all the louder, or even refuse, the thorn has to be removed. Once removed the pain is relieved and healing can begin. On other occasions we in lifting up our countenance upon our children we will have to say no to their request, for we know it is for their good. Of course we know that our children are prone to throw a temper tantrum, sulk or pout when they do not get their own way. Yet how similar we are to them when God says no to us!

Then there are times when we can say yes to our children and in joy and delight come to their aid, bringing them relief and joy. But no matter what the situation may be, we are always willing for our children to come into our presence, or to ask for help. It is our joy and delight to extend love, help and comfort to them. Furthermore we accept our children, our children have confidence to come to us, for they know they are our children, thus they have that special right which is exclusive, unique to them. They come not as friends, not as a servant, but as sons or daughters, with full rights and free access to their parents.

God in His abundant grace towards us promises to lift up His countenance upon us whenever we call out to Him. Think for a moment of how wonderful and reassuring this promise is.

The God of the universe, who alone is all-knowing, all-powerful and all-wise, promises to hear us and not just to hear us but to then answer us and work for our greatest and highest good. God promises to work in such a way that will ultimately lead us to a greater joy, deeper peace and a greater appreciation and understanding of our salvation. God not only hears us when we cry out to Him, He also invites us to come into His presence with confidence, knowing that He will receive us with joy and favour. This is why a child cries out to his father or mother, for he knows they will hear and will respond favourably, they will receive the child with joy. What hope and confidence this should give us in our relationship with God! We are invited to come to Him, we are promised that He will receive us with joy, we will find favour in His sight and as we call out to Him, He promises to hear, to respond for our greatest good and lead us to a deeper joy.

How prayer should be a constant delight for us, knowing we have the Father’s invitation, He lifts up His countenance upon us, He hears, He responds, He works, He delivers! The people of Israel came to know the truth of this as they journeyed to the Promised land. On countless occasions they cried out to God, sometimes with genuine and grateful hearts, but more often with ungrateful and selfish hearts, yet God was faithful to His promise. He lifted up His countenance upon them each time responding and working for their good.

As with all the other elements of this promise, this aspect of it comes to us because of Christ. The Father lifts up His countenance upon us because we come to Him in the name of Christ, through the work of Christ and clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Therefore the Father delights in receiving us and works for our good and joy. What a privilege we have! Let us therefore be eager to go to prayer, eager to spend time in the Father’s presence, and rejoice in the goodness and grace that God so faithfully extends to us.

Our Father, what a joy it is for us to know that as we call upon You now, so You lift up Your countenance upon us. You joyfully receive us into Your presence, Your hear our every prayer and You answer in Your prefect goodness and wisdom, for our highest good. Thank You that we can come to You in all things, for all things, with confidence and joy, knowing that we will find You and shall see Your faithfulness, love, mercy and help once more. Thank You for that great work of Christ on our behalf that has enabled us, made us to become Your children, full heirs. To You belongs the highest praise! Amen.

Verse for the Day, 6 May 2015.

Numbers 6:25, “…the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you…”

Today we come to centre point of the blessing, remove this element and the whole blessing collapses. Think for a moment how different our daily lives would be if God was not gracious. The fear and uncertainty that we would live in daily would be unimaginable. We would have no hope for the day, never mind the future. As for having our needs met, the rising of the sun, the changing of the seasons, the sending of the rains, we would have no certainty. Ultimately if God was not gracious we would not even exist, for each and every day we give God more than enough reason to destroy us in His just wrath. However, we would not have even come to be, for it is God’s grace extended to Adam and Eve that secures our existence. God warned them that they would die if they ate of the forbidden fruit, but God held that death at bay until a later time. Yes, they were handed over to death, in fact the moment they ate of the fruit they started to die physically and immediately died spiritually. But God extended grace to them so that they might come to repentance and salvation.

What would there be left to this blessing if grace were removed? Nothing! It is because God is a gracious God that He blesses us and protects us, that He reveals Himself and draws near to us. It is because God is gracious that He hears and answers our prayers, seeking to draw us into a relationship with Him and fills us with His great, soul-satisfying, abiding peace. In many respects we could say that grace is the determining attribute in our relationship with God, in fact in our very livelihood and daily existence. There is not a single moment, not even one second, whereby we are not 100% dependent upon God’s grace. Should God remove His hand of grace, the result would be beyond disastrous!

This grace in Numbers 6 also clearly points us to the one who is the very expression and fullness of God’s grace to sinful mankind. It is through the coming, the life, ministry and work of Jesus Christ that God’s grace comes to us. As John rightly tells us in John 1:17, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

Jesus comes not only to demonstrate God’s grace to us, but also to provide God’s grace to us, so that we might enter back into a relationship with God. God is not just gracious to us in supplying what we need day by day and upholding our physical lives, He extends grace to us, so that He might accept His grace offered back to Him through the work of Christ and through this give us eternal life. God the Father sends God the Son in grace, God the Son demonstrates the grace of God to us. God the Son in grace dies upon the cross for us, offering up the free sacrifice of His life as payment for our sin, God the Father in grace accepts the offering of God the Son. Then God the Father in grace extends to us the grace of salvation. Grace, grace, grace, it is all about the incredible, divine and undeserved grace of God given to us. Grace that brings us into salvation, into God’s family and into the rich and eternal blessing of God.

It is to our own spiritual detriment that we fail to meditate upon the riches of grace given to us in Christ. As a result we rob ourselves of the great joy that could be ours, the confidence, peace, assurance and hope that comes to us all as a result of grace, in abundant measure.

Again, think of what grace has brought us and promised to us!

Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places…”

This grace grants us all the promises of God, it gives to us every spiritual blessing to be found in heaven! It is a grace that keeps us so that we will receive all these promises and blessings. It is a grace that is poured into our lives day by day as God continues to forgive our sin. Let us be those who meditate daily upon the abundant grace that God has lavished upon us. If we make this our daily habit, it will serve to increase our joy, fuel our worship, aid us in our battle against sin, and enable us to be joy-filled witnesses to the world.

Gracious and glorious God, what can we say in response the great gift of grace that You have given us in sending the Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank You for the fresh supply of grace that we receive from Your hand every day and shall continue to receive for all of eternity. Help us to meditate constantly upon Your grace, to rest and rejoice in it, and to declare the wonders of it to others. Amen.