Numbers 6:24-26

A Rabbi once told a story about two brothers. One brother was married and had three children, whilst the other was a bachelor. They both worked the land their father had left them, and at harvest time started cutting the wheat and placing it in bundles. During the first night of harvest the bachelor awoke and thought of all the mouths his brother had to feed. He got up and cut a few extra sheaves, then placing them in his brother’s pile. Later the same night his brother awoke and thought about how his brother would find difficulty in old age with no children to support him. He then got out of bed and cut a few extra sheaves, placing them in his brother’s pile so he’d have extra finance to prepare for future years. Over the next few nights both men repeated their actions, unbeknown to each other. At the end of the harvest they counted their sheaves and were surprised to see they both had the same number. After talking and realising how this had come about they looked at one another and embraced, recognising how much they were loved.

God looks at us in love; He wants us to know His ways and experience His loving-kindness. Our Heavenly Father wants His nature and character to shine upon us through the work of His Son as He helps us to grow.

Background to our verses

• The Hebrew name for the book of Numbers is ‘B’Midbar’, meaning, “In the wilderness.”
• The first ten chapters are about organising the tribes – hence we call the book ‘Numbers.’ God seeks to reorientate wrong thinking. He seeks to straighten His people out so that they can be all they were destined to be. God wants to be a Father to His people, hence the blessing of Numbers 6.
• Verse 27 reiterates this, “so they (the priesthood) will put my name (bring my nature and character to bear) on the Israelites (tell them in word and deed that God really cares for them).
• The rest of the book is about wilderness wanderings, which came about through Israel going about life in her own strength, rather than trusting in the Lord.

Focusing on the word ‘Face’

“….the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.”

The Hebrew mind would know that the word ‘face’ (panah) speaks of that which turns. When a person turns and faces us it speaks of their life. Hence ‘face’ is ‘that which speaks of life.’  God has not given up on us; He willingly turns towards us at great cost to Himself.

My wife Ann once wrote these words concerning ‘face,’ “The face is a portrait of the heart, it reveals what is going on deep inside. The face expresses a person’s character – it can display kindness, compassion, excitement and enthusiasm for life itself. The lines, wrinkles and contours of the face can be as an open book, revealing a life of experience. The eyes in particular can be windows into a person’s heart and mind. In them we catch glimpses of love, sorrow, anger, frustration, loneliness and longing. We can reach into a person’s life with just a look.”

When we face someone we are giving him or her our full attention. God chose to turn His face towards Israel because He willingly upheld His side of the covenant made with Abraham. He did not give up on Israel and sought to bring them to life in all its fullness. This would involve seeing God as a Father and living according to the blueprint of the One who is totally opposed to sin, yet loves the sinner. God wants His nature and character to shine forth on the believer as He heals wounds and corrects wrong thinking.

As mentioned above, when a person turns and faces us, it speaks to us of their life. What we turn and face also speaks of what we focus on most in our lives. So where is our focus right now?  Some people focus on their failings and this fuels them, propelling them into a state of hopelessness and inadequacy.  Others may focus most of their attention on their finances and their homes. This can build a ‘mountain’ of thinking that prevents them from seeing the One who can help them most. In the Bible strength is often spoken of as ‘seeing properly.’  If we are genuinely focused on the Lord, we will become strong, and not pushed this way or that way in our thinking.

In the book of Numbers (the book of ‘in the wilderness’) Israel ended up wandering around because she was proud and thought she knew better than God. In the Bible pride is lifting up one’s own strength – something that was going to be woefully inadequate and offensive to God.

Yet God did not turn His face from them. Throughout their wanderings they were made aware of many things, and one of them was that ultimately it is God who feeds and sustains His people. What has He got to do with us to make us realise this?  He wants to shine the blessing of His presence on us.

Hundreds of years later we come across another situation where God reveals His face (His nature and character / His life) in a particular way to Ezekiel (read Ezekiel 1:25-28). Ezekiel was in captivity in Babylon, an amazingly powerful and beautiful city with huge temples and great wealth. God knew that Ezekiel needed the encouragement of seeing that God was much bigger; hence the particular vision.  God knows just how we need to see Him today – maybe as someone who has not given up on us, for example, or as someone who really does not like what we are doing. How do we need to see God today? Maybe as the One who can help us overcome our inadequacies; maybe as the One who will overcome our pride (lifting up our own strength).

Hundreds of years on from Ezekiel we see God clearly revealed in His Son Jesus Christ, the light of the world (John 8:12), and a few decades after His resurrection we read of another group who were not seeing God eye to eye:  the Galatians. So Paul helps them to see the face of God, so to speak. He points out that the power of the cross delivers from sin (Gal 1:4); the power of the cross delivers us from what self has become: (Gal 2:20). The power of the cross delivers us from the world (Gal 6:14). It is because of the power of the cross that we have God’s Spirit with us (Gal 3:14). It is because of the power of the cross that we have the gifts of the Spirit present in the church (Gal 5:22-26)

Concluding thoughts

May His face shine upon us. There is no need for any of us to be a double-minded, unstable person (James 1:8, 4:8) such as many in Israel were, due to their own thinking. Perhaps it is time to ask God to deal with those feelings of failure and inadequacy, which often hold us back. Perhaps it is time to say, “I want to give up doing things my way, even though I cannot seem to let go of them” and allow His power and strength to enable us to live life as it should be lived. Let us focus on the Lord and see Him as He really is: to do so in open honesty is to become strong in His strength. As Jesus said, “…let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”  Matthew 5:16

“Turn toward me and extend mercy to me, as you typically do to your loyal followers. Direct my steps by your word! Do not let any sin dominate me! Deliver me from oppressive men, so that I can keep your precepts. Smile on your servant! Teach me your statutes!

Ps 119:132-135