Numbers 6:22-27

Welcome to Week 2 of Change the Atmosphere!

Our words can bless or curse, can bring hope or despair, can encourage or crush.  Words have power to change the atmosphere, of a home, a workplace, a classroom, a neighborhood conversation, even the direction and destiny of nations.

This week we’re studying a famous blessing from the Bible.  Even if you don’t know where it comes from (HINT: the closing verses of Numbers 6), you may be familiar with at least some of its words: The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up the light of his countenance upon you and grant you peace.”

The LORD bless you … We may also be familiar with the way that Southern culture can sometimes use the words “God bless” in ways that aren’t quite blessings!  What does it mean to bless someone or something?  

Our passage gives us an important clue to what blessing is and how it works.  It’s in the words immediately following the blessing itself, quoted above.  Here they are:

So they [the priests] will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.

To bless is to “put God’s name” upon a person or situation. To bless is to say, “You, even you, belong to God.”  To bless is to remind, to speak out what is most true in every situation: The LORD reigns!

Yes, blessing must be received: everything does belong to God, but I can resist and refuse, I can cling to my agenda and seek to stay in control.  The LORD indeed reigns – and, strange as it sounds, allows me freedom to rebel.

But our role is to bless, to speak words of grace, mercy, and peace, words of truth and love, words of kindness and patience.  Our job is to “put God’s Name” upon the people and situations we find ourselves in the midst of.  A blessing received blesses; a blessing unreceived … well, that’s not our responsibility.

The next time we find ourselves in circumstances when words are poisoning the atmosphere, may God remind us to bless.  We don’t need to shout or try to seize the microphone.  We can pray, even silently, as our eyes circle the situation and the people: “The LORD bless you … and you … and you.  The LORD keep you, protect you from your own worst impulses.  May you see the face of God, even in the faces of these people with whom you are arguing.  May you find yourself and your situation filling up with the grace of God.  The peace of God be upon you!”