It’s not too often that you see a prayer written out in Scripture for us to follow.
Jesus did it in Matthew 6 when He laid out what’s commonly called “The Lord’s Prayer,” but would be more apt to be called “The Model Prayer.” God wasn’t giving them a chant to repeat over and over again, but simply teaching His disciples how to pray and what kinds of things they should focus on.
Numbers 6:24-26, however, is a prayer to be repeated verbatim. God tells Moses to tell Aaron to bless the sons of Israel using a specific set of words and, in doing so, will have God’s name “on the sons of Israel.”
In fact, if you peel back the prayer and look at it’s individual components, the real focus of this blessing has little to do with the people at all. Instead, it’s focused on God looking, shining, lifting up His countenance, blessing, and being gracious to the people. It’s not an exchange or transactional prayer—instead, it’s a plea to God for Him to simply look at His people.
In this way, it almost perfectly mirrors the benedictions given at the dedication of the Temple. In 1 Kings 8, Solomon begs God to continually look towards His people. If they’re in sin, if they’re in famine, if they’re in exile, the simple gaze of Jehovah will fill them with light.
It may seem like such a small concept—God looking towards His people—but think about all the times the Text indicates the power of God’s attention. Or even the lack thereof.
In the Garden, Adam and Eve hid themselves from God out of shame. They had sinned and they didn’t want to be in God’s presence with that on their record.
Conversely, when Stephen stands up in Acts 7 and makes himself the first Christian martyr, Jesus is seen standing at the right hand of God, watching His disciple give his life for Him.
We want God’s face to shine upon us—not just because that’s where blessings come from, but because it’s indicative of a healthy relationship with God. The people at the base of Mt. Sinai who asked Moses to put a veil over his face so they wouldn’t be confronted with the glory of God were afraid of His light shining on their souls.
But what were they afraid of? That God would see them in their less-than-righteous state?
The truth is, He sees all of us in that state all the time. The only question is whether or not we’re going to humbly bow the knee to Him and get our lives right with Him. If not, then we’ll beg God to look elsewhere.
If we want that intimacy with Him though, we’ll ask for His countenance to shine upon us all the time. And it’s through that intimacy that we’ll find peace.
