God’s face shines upon us through His representative (Moses the foreshadower, Jesus the fulfillment). This surely evokes the shining of Moses’s face after he spoke with God (Exodus 34:29-35), which is picked up by Paul and applied to Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:6, plus context starting in 3:7). It is God’s will that we have His peace-and it comes through the High Priest, who himself has that peace and offers to share it with us.Īnd then there is the shining face. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:27) And on the day of his resurrection: “As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, ‘Peace to you!’ ” (Luke 24:36) He has made the benediction his own, as it rightfully is. Didn’t Jesus have something to say about giving peace? Indeed, the night before he died for us: “Peace I leave with you my peace I give to you. Reading it this way certainly seems correct, since he is undeniably our High Priest. Have you ever read this benediction thinking that this is Jesus, praying for this blessing on you? Whose role is a type, a foreshadowing of the role of the Great High Priest, the Anointed, Jesus. However, our use of this prayer isn’t actually the point of the passage!īefore the benediction itself, we have this: “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them…’ ” The benediction was to be spoken by the High Priest. It is, in fact, my prayer for anyone reading this, and very likely it is a prayer you have expressed for others. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you Even with so much exposure, it remains a breathtakingly beautiful prayer for the Lord’s blessing on someone we care about. It is familiar to many, many people-we see it on posters and plaques, and in memes that circulate on the internet. And as we know, a significant chunk of Hebrews goes into how the high priesthood points to Jesus’s priesthood.Ī beautiful benediction was given by God to Moses, recorded in Numbers 6:22-27. The temple veil is Jesus’s (and our) flesh. The sin offerings point to Jesus’s sacrifice. The New Testament frequently and emphatically reminds us that the Law of Moses was a foreshadowing of the work of Messiah.
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