I’m sure if you listen to Christian music, you’ve heard of the newer song out by Kari Jobe and a few others called “The Blessing.”
Well before that song came out, I knew those words as a song composed by John Rutter that I learned in high school choir.
It is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard.
But today, I wanted to read and dig deeper into the text that those songs were written from: Numbers 6:24-26.
So I started but researching the history and context of the book of Numbers.
This book was written by Moses and is part of the Pentateuch. If you don’t know what that is, it is a fancy word for the first five book of the Bible that are labeled “The Law” and are generally studied together because of their common theme and author.
The Law was written for the children of Israel. At this point in the children of Israel’s journey, they are in the wilderness. Trusting God every day to provide safety, food, shelter, a place of refuge, and so on. So not everything is going super great for them, but they are learning to trust God more.
But God has given them leaders in Moses and Aaron.
In this particular text, Moses is giving Aaron words spoken to him from God himself.
He said, "The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace."
That last word: peace.
On the surface you think ok, awesome. He gives us peace. Well if you look a little deeper, there is more to it than that.
So I looked at the original Hebrew word: transliteration being Shalom.
The definition of the word is actually completeness, soundness, and welfare.
Another english word that comes up in this text from peace in “amend” which means to make good or finish.
And if you cross reference this Hebrew word, you will also find it in other verses as the translated word “restitution.”
Restitution is defined as the restoration of something lost or stolen to it’s proper owner.
Woah.
Not only does God want to bless us, keep us, be gracious to us, and show us the light of His face; but he restores us to Him when we are lost or gone astray.
We are His people called by His name, but sometimes we can feel a bit like the Israelites. Lost in the wilderness with no hope and barely enough faith to hold on.
When the world steals the light from your soul, when someone you love lets you down, when the loss of something leaves you searching for hope, God says he will amend. He will make it good.
His peace isn’t just good enough to get you through, it is meant to complete you. Fill in all the missing pieces.
Let God restore you to Him and watch all the pieces fall into place.
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