And give you peace

"The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace." ' "So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them." – Numbers 6v24-27

I thought I could move on with just one mention of the priestly blessing, but a couple more caught my eye, and not necessarily in order.

Today’s thought is similar to yesterday’s in some ways. They both deal with God and His appearance to us. When I think of a countenance I think of the look on someone’s face. Is it a good or a bad countenance? Is it an approving or a disapproving countenance? Is it pleased or displeased?

The part of the blessing here is that God’s countenance would be ‘lifted up.’ None of us are going to literally see His face here on earth, but we can be assured that His countenance toward us is a positive approving one.

We all treasure that look of approval toward one that we care about. We want them to be pleased with us.

As children of God we can be assured that we are always His. He always will love us and look on us as His children. But there are times when God is surely displeased with our behaviour. Our status as His children is not affected, but we can walk in a way that brings about a disapproving countenance.

In a sense God’s countenance is always lifted up to us because we are his. Our desire should be that His countenance is also would of approval of how we live for Him.