Numbers 6:22-27 – “Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:  24 The LORD bless you, and keep you; 25 The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; 26 The LORD lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.’  27 “So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.”  NASB

We have considered The Blessing of Covenant and how that relates or translates into daily living.  I desire to be a little more specific in this discussion.  I feel we need to understand exactly what is being said in this passage and what we can expect in terms of “The Blessing of Covenant.”

The Covenant Blessing was prayed for the Children of Israel every day.  The Priest would raise his hands and invoke these Blessings on the people in the morning and evening sacrifices.  It was daily!  It was never casual or simply an expression.  There was expectation involved, or there was supposed to be an expectation.

Not to belabor or rehearse too extensively but “The Blessing” is a conveyance of power using words.  Words are spoken and those words convey power.  The people hearing those words were endued with power and that enduement enabled them to be successful.  They were successful in material things, but we must never forget that success always begins on the inside.  It is Spirit success and flows from the inside to the outermost extremities of life. 

It means “To Be Prosperous.”  Tragically, too many view prosperity as being what we have but the Biblical understanding is that it begins on the inside.  It is “Prosperity of Spirit” that moves from inside to outside.  It means to enjoy physical health and spiritual health.  It means to have a long life and to know the active Goodness of God operating and being manifest in our daily lives.  It means that we have an aurora about us that can is noticed and sensed.  The world will never understand this and too much of the church fails to fully grasp it as well.  It is that enduement from God that causes our enemies to flee before us.  THAT IS BLESSING!

Hopefully, we will not belabored the point to extensively, but I would like to ask that you consider this in more detail with me.  In verse 24 we read, “The LORD Bless you and Keep you.”  That is the beginning of The Blessing – “The Lord Keep you!”  

The Covenant person enjoys the Blessing of the LORD, walks in an alien world, and has success, prosperity, and peace.  We live in a world of darkness that is hostile toward us.  The devil and his demons are real, and they are incredibly hostile toward the children of God.  The world hates us, so we are encompassed by hostility.  Yet, God promises that as we walk in this hostile environment we are “Kept by God!”  Hallelujah!

The word “Keep” is an interesting old English word that used to mean something entirely different than we understand it today.  If you visit parts of Europe and go into the castles you always go through what is called “The Keep.”  It is the first gate of the castle.  You have to walk through it to get into the castle proper. 

The “Keeps”, called that because that was designed to “Keep the Castle” safe from invading forces breaching their walls. If you could stop the enemy there, you remained safe.  There were many ways of doing that.  As an enemy would enter those guarding the castle would be on little balconies high above.  They would hurl arrows, stones, hot pitch, oil, and tar at the invaders.  It was incredibly difficult and costly to get through “The Keeps.”  The word came to mean what we understand today – “I am Kept!”

Therefore, when we hear, “The LORD Keep You” we understand that God is our “Keeps”.  Before the enemy can touch us, he has to go through God.  If he can get past God, he can touch us, but only if he gets past God.  You cannot get past God that’s what the person in Covenant enjoying The Blessing has “perfect peace” – WE ARE SAFE!  We are KEPT!

Hopefully, this whetted your appetite for more, and we will take a step deeper into understanding and detailing in the next devotional.  But until then we say, “Go with God and He will go with you.”

Have a fantastic day!