NUMBERS 6:22-27 GOD WANTS YOU BLESSED2021 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Numbers 6:22-27 God Wants You Blessed

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2021. Well, this morning as we look at Numbers chapter 6, I want you to know that God wants you to be blessed.

You need to know, I want you to know that God wants you to be blessed. That's the title of the message this morning. And it kind of has a triple meaning in this idea, this phrasing, God wants you to be blessed. And in one part, I mean that God wants to bless you. That God himself wants to impart blessing in your life and to work around good things or work out good things for you and on your behalf.

But also I want you to know that God wants you to be in a state of blessing. Like God wants to do the blessing. He wants to be active and doing blessing, but he also wants you to end up in that state of blessing, to be in that blessed state.

And thirdly, God wants his servants to declare to you this blessing. And so God wants to bless you. He wants you to be in a state of blessing and receive the blessing. And he wants his servants to communicate and represent him in declaring the blessing to you.

And so as we look at this today, you need to know God wants you to be blessed. And this record here, this blessing that is recorded in verses 22 through 27 is really a famous passage. It's called the high priestly blessing or the Aaronic blessing, not ironic, but Aaronic like Aaron. It's this blessing that was to be given by the priest to the people of Israel. And

And as we begin to consider this blessing, you need to start out understanding that this blessing that Aaron or one of the other priests would communicate to the people was not a wish or a hope. It wasn't the idea of a blessing like, I hope God blesses you, or I'm praying that God would bless you. It's not a wish, it's not a hope, it's not even a prayer. You can look at this and understand it is truly a declaration of God's blessing.

Notice in verse 27, God says, so they shall put my name on the children of Israel and I will bless them. As God gives the instruction for the words with which to bless the people, God says, when the priests declare this to the people, I will bless them. And so it's not a wish, it's not a hope, it's not even a prayer. This blessing that is recorded here is actually a promise from God.

It's a promise of blessing that God wanted declared to his people. The commentator Gerard Van Groningen, or something like that, said this. He says, an important factor in this passage must not be overlooked. Aaron and his sons are not to pray or call this blessing down upon the people. As anointed and ordained priests, they stand in the place of God and speak authoritatively in his name.

They speak authoritatively in his name. When they would declare this blessing to the people, again, it wasn't a hope. It wasn't a prayer. It wasn't, I'm praying that God will bless you in this way. They stood and said, look, I'm God's agent. I'm God's representative. I'm God's spokesperson. And I'm telling you, the Lord bless you and keep you. It was a declaration straight from the Lord to the people through the agent of the high priest.

And this blessing would be a frequent reminder for the people of Israel because the priests would deliver this blessing with the morning sacrifice as well as the evening sacrifice. And so if you were around the tabernacle at the time, if you were there in the midst of it, you would hear and receive this blessing from the Lord through the priests every morning and every evening. But it would also be a reminder

that would be given when an individual would bring a sacrifice to the Lord. And we've talked a lot about the sacrifices as we worked our way through the book of Leviticus. And so individuals would bring an offering

A sin offering, a fellowship offering, a grain offering, different kinds of offerings to the Lord to worship the Lord and to walk with him. And as they did, the priests would be delivering this blessing. And so they would be reminded every time they brought a sacrifice, the Lord bless you and keep you.

God's agent, his authorized representative, declaring to them not a wish, not a hope, not a prayer, but a fact, a promise. God bless you. Three times a year, the Israelites were instructed and commanded to gather together around the tabernacle for various feasts. And there was other feasts throughout the year as well.

Three times a year they were required to participate in these particular feasts and the priests would deliver this blessing to the people.

And so there would be very many occasions where the people would be around the tabernacle and would receive this message from the Lord, this blessing from the Lord, this reminder, God wants you blessed. And I would encourage you this morning to understand that, to grasp hold of that, and to receive it in that way. This is the Lord speaking directly to you and about you. He wants you to be blessed.

Now, of course, this is the Old Testament. It's the Old Covenant. There's some factors in there that we have to consider as we study these things and dissect a little bit, you know, the nation of Israel and promises to them and what the Lord speaks to us today through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But I would encourage you and remind you of Ephesians 1, verse 3.

where Paul tells us, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. This concept, this understanding that God wants you blessed was not just found here in Numbers chapter six, but this continues on today as believers in Jesus Christ.

Paul tells us here, every blessing that is available to you in Christ is yours. Every blessing that God wants for you, every good thing that God has for you, it's yours in Christ Jesus. As a believer in Jesus, as a recipient of his forgiveness and grace, you can experience this condition of blessing from God. And so God wants you blessed.

And so we're going to consider this blessing here. It's a poetic expression, really, of a blessing to the people of Israel. And in this poem, there's three lines. Three lines of blessing, three points for us to consider this morning on how God wants us to be blessed. The first thing we find in verse 24, here's the first line, the Lord bless you and keep you.

And it gives us point number one, God promises to bring you joy and protection. This morning, I want you to know, and I want you to consider that God promises to bring you joy and protection. Again, this blessing that was pronounced by the priest was not something that was just wishful thinking, not just, you know, hey, I'm sending good thoughts your way. That's not what the priest was saying. The priest was saying, I speak on behalf of the Lord.

And on behalf of the Lord, here's his promise. To bless you, to keep you, to bring you joy and protection. That first phrase there, the Lord bless you. The word bless is a word that means

Oftentimes we describe it and it's kind of summarized as, oh, how happy. Blessed is the one who walks, you know, in the ways of the Lord, who sits in the seat of his counsel, right? And so blessed, to be blessed is to be happy is one way to look at it. But happy is not necessarily the best word for us because happiness many times is so temporal as we think about it.

And so I like to use the word joy. And I would suggest to you that the idea of being blessed, the condition of blessing or the state of blessing is a soul that rejoices in abundance. There's a joy that comes from all of the provision of the Lord. The word bless also speaks of prosperity.

And I hesitate to even bring that up because immediately in our minds we can start to think of, yes, I want prosperity. And again, we're thinking temporarily. We're thinking in the moment. But God does want your prosperity. He does want your health. He does want what's good for you. But we need to think beyond and understand the context beyond the temporary because this life is temporary.

We have a certain number of days here in this life, but then eternity beyond is forever and ever and ever. And God has the prosperity and health and good of you for eternity in mind in all that he does and all of his promises toward you. And so the Lord bless you, bring you prosperity and peace.

Bring you to a place that your soul rejoices in the abundance of all that he has provided. It's not really a promise of no difficulties, but it's a guarantee that every situation, every difficulty you face, you will benefit from.

and you'll receive from the Lord in the midst of it. Pastor David Guzik says, we have often settled for happiness or comfort or wealth when God wanted us to be blessed. True blessing from God is higher than happiness or wealth and comfort. Again, making a distinction between the temporary and the eternal. That doesn't mean that

we can't have good health or that we might not be prosperous financially in this life. We might be. God does that. He allows that. He works that way. He blesses that way. Absolutely. But the promise is not in this life. That's a possibility. The promise is for eternity. You could think about it this way. For the prodigal son, wealth was the worst thing possible for him.

And so if God answered all of our prayers in the way that we think we need to be blessed and the way that we want to interpret blessing, and if God gave us everything that we asked for, that could be the worst thing for us. And that could destroy our lives. And so sometimes God withholds the things that we want or maybe the temporary things that we're looking for or wanting to accomplish or see happen in our lives.

Because God has the eternity in view and he says, you know what, that's not actually good for you. You want it, you desire it, you crave it. Seems like a good thing. Everything looks like it's gonna be great. But in actuality, that is going to be harmful towards you. And so the Lord bless you as a promise to bless you in ways, to do good in your life, to bring your soul to a place that it rejoices in the abundant provisions of God. And that is in part materially,

But it's also spiritually. It's also emotionally. It's also every part of you, your whole being blessed and satisfied in abundance. That's God's desire for you. That's his promise to you. He promises to bring his people joy. But the second part of the line here goes on to say, and keep you.

The Lord bless you and keep you. And that word keep, it means to guard, to preserve, or as I put it here, to protect. The Lord protect you. The Lord guard you and preserve you. You know, it would be a really terrible thing if God was able to give blessing, but then unable to preserve the blessing.

right? If God was able to give you, let's just translate blessing to three billion dollars, but then he was unable to keep someone from stealing the three billion dollars out of the account that he just gave you, right? That would be a terrible blessing. That would be a terrible God to follow and to worship. And so God's promise here is not just to bring you joy, but to keep you there, to protect you so that you can enjoy the joy that he has provided, so that you can enjoy that bountiful, abundant provision that

that he has given to you, that he has desired to bless you with. The Lord bless you and then protect you so that you can maintain all that God has given to you. So the priest here representing the Lord says, this is God's promise to you. I'm going to bless you. I'm going to work in your life and I'm going to protect you and protect those blessings that I'm pouring out into your life. It seems like this promise

was an inspiration for the psalmist David in Psalm 121. It's kind of a famous psalm. You might know those first couple verses. I lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. And three times in this chapter, Psalm 121, I'm sorry, not three times, six times in this chapter, the word keep is used. The word keep

The Lord bless you and keep you. That same word keep is used in Psalm 121 as the psalmist is thinking about, where does my help come from? I'm in a situation. I'm in a position. I need help. Where does my help come from? And the reminder, my help comes from the Lord. And so over and over in the verses that follow, he thinks about the Lord keeping him safe.

Here in the last two verses of the Psalm, it's translated preserve. Verse 7 of Psalm 121, the Lord shall preserve you from all evil. He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth and even forevermore. This is the promise of God. In those situations, in those times where you need help and I need help, those things where we're calling out to the Lord and looking forward,

Where's my help going to come from? Let us be reminded in the promise of God, my help comes from the Lord and his promise is that he shall preserve me. He shall protect me from all evil. Everything that would be detrimental to my eternity, God protects me from. Again, this is not a promise of no difficulties in this life, but it's a promise of protection from any evil that would be accomplished.

by difficulties in my life or by blessings in my life. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil. He shall preserve your soul. Again, God's looking out for your soul. That's what's most important because that's what lives beyond this life. This body is temporary and it does not last. But God is protecting you. He is keeping you in a way that you are preserved for eternity.

and that his blessings in your life will last for eternity. He says, the Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in, as you go here, as you go there, from now until forevermore. For all of eternity, the Lord promises to keep you, to protect you, to preserve his work forevermore.

your life. What an incredible blessing. What an incredible promise of God. He promises to bring you joy and protection. It's promised. Both joy and protection, they're promised from God. And as you consider that, what other conclusion could we come to except the conclusion that Paul came to in Romans chapter 8 verse 28? We know all things work together for good to those who love God and

How else can you conclude anything different? When God promises to bring us joy and protection, what else can you conclude except that no matter what we go through, God is going to work it out for good, for joy, and to preserve the joy that God has provided for us. Now the promise is to those who love God, who are the called according to His purpose.

Similarly, the priests here would deliver this blessing, right? In order to receive this blessing from the Lord through the priests, where would you need to be? You would need to be at the tabernacle. You would need to be seeking the Lord. You would need to be drawing near to the Lord. And as each person determined in their heart to draw near to God, as each person determined to seek the Lord and to follow Him, then God met them and said,

I bless you. I promise to bless you. As you seek me, as you love me, I promise to bring you joy and to protect you. It's the promise to those who love God, those who are the called according to his purpose. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says, the pronouns in this benediction are singular, meaning that God's blessings come to us personally. If the priest was from the South, he wouldn't say, the Lord bless y'all. It's not God addressing everybody personally.

As much as it is God addressing each and every person. It's singular. He's saying, the Lord bless you. And you, and you, and you, and you, and you. The Lord bless you. The Lord promises to bring you. And you might start going, I don't know about this. This is hard. I mean, can I really believe that God promises these things to me? Can I really believe that God promises joy to me?

And God promises to keep me for all eternity. Can I really believe that? God wants you to know. He's authorized his priests. He's authorized his ministers to say, the Lord bless you and keep you. This is his desire for you. This is his promise to work in your life.

Well, moving on to the second line here in this poem of blessing, verse 25 says, the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. And so here we get point number two, God smiles at you and promises grace. God smiles at you and promises grace. You know, sometimes when we get the wrong picture of God, how often do you picture God and

That picture includes a huge smile on his face as he looks at you. It's easy to picture the Lord and kind of picture a scowl, furrowed eyebrows, upset face, maybe a red face, upset, angry, displeased. Perhaps you kind of picture the Lord and you're like, the Lord's just looking, shaking his head, saying, I'm so disappointed in you, you know. It's easy for us to get those pictures of God in our minds, but that's not the picture God paints here.

The picture that God is painting here is a great, big, huge smile on his face as he looks at you. It says, Now remember, this is poetic, right? My mind works literally at first. And I have to like translate in my head, okay, why do I want a light in my face? I don't like light in my eyes. It's like painful.

and the glory of the Lord we know is super bright. And so super bright light in my eyes. I'm like, no, like that's not pleasant. Why would I want his face to shine upon me? Oh, that's right. That's right. It's poetic. Okay. Let me think about this. What is the Lord trying to say here? The Lord make his face shine upon you. We have an expression that we use, perhaps might make a little bit more sense to us. When someone is, their face is beaming with joy or pride.

A parent who is just overwhelmed with joy or pride, overwhelmed with emotion as they're looking at something that's happening with their child and their face is just beaming, right? It's just glowing as they're so filled with joy and excitement over what they're seeing in their child. Listen, God says, that's how I look at you. Yeah, you and you and you and you and you. It's individual, remember?

That's not how God looks at y'all. That's how God looks at you. He looks at you and his face lights up and he starts to glow and he's just beaming with joy as he sees you. Do you think God smiles at you? Do you think his face beams when he looks at you in your life? Again, it's so easy for us to picture it the other way, right? And anything else except for this.

But this is what God wants you to know. He smiles at you. Jesus explained this to his disciples in John chapter 16. John 16 verse 26, he says, in that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say that I shall pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and notice, and have believed that I came forth from God. Jesus here talking to his disciples, it's

Just hours before he's about to go to the cross. And as he's preparing them for that, he's saying, look guys, I'm going to be crucified. I'm going to be ascended pretty soon. I'm going to be out of this world and you're going to carry on the mission of the kingdom of God. And here's what I'm telling you. You will be able to pray to the father directly. And Jesus says, I want you to understand. I'm not saying you tell me and then I'll tell the father. Jesus is saying, you're going to have a direct line of communication to the father.

You're going to have a direct opportunity, an ability to pray to him, to communicate directly to him. And notice what it says, for the Father himself loves you. Now, again, sometimes we get the picture in our mind, Jesus loves you, and it's a good thing he's around because God hates you, and Jesus is the only thing that's keeping God from striking you down, right? Like sometimes we have this picture in our mind of God that is not accurate. Jesus says, look, I want you to know the Father himself loves you.

And perhaps in your mind, if you picture Jesus, maybe he's smiling at you, but you picture the Father and he's not smiling at you. Let the word of God reshape the doctrine that is happening in your head and understand the Father himself loves you because you're such a perfect person. No, no, that's not what it says, right? Why does the Father love you? Because you love Jesus. What does it take to get the Father to smile at you, to love you? Love Jesus.

and believe that he was sent from the Father. As we come back to it so often, right? Jesus says, this is the work of God. You want to do the work of God? Here's the work of God. Believe in the one that he has sent, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And here Jesus says, the Father loves you. Well, because you've decided to believe him in regards to the Son. You've decided to love Jesus and believe in Jesus. And that's all that it takes. Because believing in Jesus...

Well, it accomplishes for us forgiveness. It accomplishes for us justification so that we stand before God just as if I'd never sinned. Justified. Just as if I'd never sinned. And so it's no problem for the Lord to smile with a beaming smile at us because all of our sin has been paid for at the cross.

Because all of our sin has been washed away and forgiven, cast as far as the east is from the west. No problem for God to smile with great joy at us, no matter how much we have fallen short or failed. Because even though you might be surprised at how badly you've failed, the Lord's never surprised by it. He knew it all along. He wanted you and he called you even knowing how bad and terrible you are, even more than you know.

And he paid for it all at the cross. And so if you believe in Jesus, you can count on this promise. God smiles at you. His face shines upon you. Now here, as you think about the father and the son, we're kind of delving into a little bit the triune nature of God.

which is, of course, a challenging topic for us to understand, a challenging doctrine for us to grasp, but there is one God, and yet at the same time, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. You can see this reflected in the blessing. Remember, there's three lines of blessing. I'm not going to go into this at the moment, but a little side note for you to maybe kind of meditate on later on on your own. You can see a kind of a real correlation between each line of blessing and

and different members of the triune nature of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so I'd encourage you to try to figure that out. Which one lines up with which? The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit in verses 24, 25, and 26 here of Numbers chapter six. But here the point is, God smiles at you and promises grace.

As you think about the beaming smile of the Father upon you, His face lighting up with great joy as He sees you, as He takes in who you are and your life. And you might be quick to think, I don't deserve that. And that brings us to that next part of the blessing. He promises grace. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. Again, this is not a hope, not a wish.

This is God's promise to you. I'm going to deal with you with grace. We often refer to grace as undeserved favor and kindness. It's a good summary. It is God doing good to you, doing good for you, working on your behalf in ways that you don't deserve and could never earn.

And sometimes it's kind of a surprise for Christians to learn that grace is not just a New Testament term. But God has always related to his people with grace. Always. From the very beginning, he has always related to his people with grace. And similarly, his grace has always been received by faith. That was Paul's point in Romans chapter 4 when he points back to Abraham.

There he records, Abraham believed the Lord and it was accounted to him for righteousness. That was the grace of God at work in Abraham's life. That when Abraham believed God, when he believed the words of the Lord, God said, boom, here's my grace. And I'm accounting it to you as righteousness. I'm treating you as if you were righteous, even though you're not. I'm treating you as though you have not sinned, even though you have sinned.

I'm going to work good in your life. And instead of bringing about the judgment that you deserve, I'm going to bring about the blessings that you don't deserve. That's grace that comes to us by faith in Jesus Christ, God's goodness. Understand that there is no more judgment to unleash in your life. There's no more judgment that God wants to bring in your life. It's all been paid for at the cross.

Jesus received that full judgment. Even though you might deserve judgment, even though you're going to continue to do things that, well, should be penalized by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, God relates to you by grace. And so you could think about the first part of the blessing and

God's goodness in your life and his promise to bring you joy and his promise to protect you and preserve that joy. And you could think, I don't deserve for God to work that way in my life. I don't deserve for, and you're right, you don't. But you don't have to earn God's blessing. You don't have to earn God's favor because God's promise is, I'm gonna relate to you according to grace. And so God smiles at you and promises grace.

I like what Charles Spurgeon says about this. He says, why should he fret when God smiles? What matters, though all the world should censure, if Jehovah's countenance is his servant, a look of approval from God creates a deep, delightful calm within the soul. I know it's kind of old school English. But here what Spurgeon is saying is, look, why should you fret when God's smiling? Why?

Listen, even if the whole world is against you, even if the whole world should fight against you, should hate you, should want to destroy you, why should you fret when God looks at you and smiles? Why should you fret when you've failed abundantly, when you've sinned severely? Why should you fret when tragedy hits, when difficulty arises? Why should you fret? Because God looks at you and smiles.

He beams with joy over you. A look of approval from God creates a deep, delightful calm within the soul. We don't deserve it. We could never earn it. But God looks at us and smiles, beaming with joy. His face shines upon us. Well, the final line of the blessing here in verse 26 says, "'The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.'"

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. It gives us point number three. God promises to give you his attention and peace. As we continue to consider, God wants you blessed. Part of that blessing comes from him working in your life, from him being attentive to what's going on, being attentive to your needs, being attentive to what is happening in

in your heart, in your mind, in your bank account, everything. You have God's attention. The verse begins saying, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you. Now, lifting up the countenance, it's similar to the face shining, right? They're both talking about interactions with the face of God.

So in the first, in the previous verse, he's saying the Lord looks at you and he's beaming, he's smiling, he's just overwhelmed with joy as he looks at you. Here, the idea of lifting up the countenance, perhaps it's a little bit helpful to understand the contrast. To not lift up the countenance, that is to look down on, it's a rejection, a dismissal, a despising perhaps.

to look down on someone, right? To look away from, the Lord uses that terminology and that kind of description to refer to those times where he is angry with his people because they refuse to draw near to him and to listen to him. And so to look away from speaks of anger. To look down on speaks of that belittling, that despising, that dismissing

But to lift up the countenance is the idea of lifting up his head and looking directly at you, giving you personally, individually. Remember, this is not y'all. This is you. God gives you attention. He's looking at you, and he knows what's happening in your life. He's looking at you. He's making eye contact, and he's saying, you, yes, I'm looking at you. You've got my focus. You've got my attention.

And I'm working in your life. Listen, God will never forget you. He will never lose sight of you. The Lord promised several times in the Old Testament, also in the New Testament, I will never leave you nor forsake you. You've always got my attention. You've always got my focus. Again, it's easy to kind of get in our minds and think that, you know, God's got more important people to take care of and deal with and pay attention to. God says you.

I'm going to focus on you. I'm going to pay attention to you and what's happening in your life. And what's more than that, in the midst of all of that, my promise is to give you peace. In the absence of peace, it's very easy to think of God as far away, disconnected, not really aware of what's happening in our lives. Because surely if he knew what was happening in our lives, he would have prevented that or intervened somehow. But it's not the case. Again, we need to

discern between the temporary and the eternal. As God here promises his attention and focus in your life, as he promises peace that comes from that, we need to understand it in the whole perspective of God's plan for us. Pastor Warren Wiersbe gives a great explanation of what this idea of peace is. He says, peace, the Hebrew word is shalom, is one of the great words in the Hebrew vocabulary.

And it means much more than the absence of storm and trouble around us. It involves quietness of heart within us, spiritual health and spiritual prosperity, adequacy for the demands of life and the kind of spiritual well-being that rises above circumstances. I would ask you to consider, does that sound like something that you want? The quietness of heart, spiritual health,

spiritual prosperity, everything that you need for life that rises above circumstances. Pastor David Guzik described it as this is the abundant life that Jesus promised in John chapter 10 verse 10. This peace that God promises is not just there's not going to be fighting, but there's going to be that satisfied soul within you.

This is, we talked about that joyful soul from the first line, right? This is that satisfied soul, that soul that is settled, not anxious, not distraught, not torn up, but settled because God has paid attention. He's worked. He's accomplished his purposes. And in the end, it's good. It's peace. God promises to give you his attention and peace.

And so this morning, you need to know God wants you blessed. This is for us as believers today. Again, every spiritual blessing that God has for you, it's found in Christ. And as a believer in Jesus Christ, you can understand it, grasp hold that these are promises of God to you. God promises to bring you joy and protection. He smiles at you and promises grace. And God promises to give you

His attention and peace. Now as you think about that, the thing that struck me as I was meditating on this blessing that was given here, this explains why for so many things in our lives. When you understand these promises of God and the fact that God wants you blessed, that's why you should trust Him. That's why you should trust Him because He has promised these things to you.

And in those times of doubt and in those times where you wrestle with where is God and what is God doing? And I don't understand. This is why you should trust him because God's promise to you is to bring you joy and to protect you, to smile at you and work with you in regards to his grace. He promises. You've still got his attention and he's working out peace in your life. You should trust God. That's why you should trust him because he wants you blessed.

Listen, that's why you should obey him. That's why you should obey God. Because God wants you blessed. There is no command of God that is the result of him wanting something different, something lesser. There is no command of God that is the result of him wanting to pay you back or withhold from you something good. All of the commands of God, every one of them that are for you, are for your good, for your benefit, to bring you joy and protection.

to work out peace in your life. And so God says, no sex outside of marriage. And we might think God's trying to rob us and steal us from us, you know, some good things. God says, no, I'm trying to bring you joy and I'm trying to protect you. It's for your good. I command this. God says, honor your father and mother. It's for your good to bring you peace. God says, submit to authority. It's for your good to bring you peace. God says, flee immorality.

For your good, to bring you peace. God says, stop lying and speak the truth to bring you joy and protection because you've got his attention and he wants you to have peace. This is why you should obey him because he wants you blessed. The very heart of God to the core for all of eternity is for your good. So listen to him and do what he says. That's why we should seek his will and not just seek to get God to bless what we want.

But listen, this is why we should seek his plans and purposes for us. Here in the book of Numbers, we're reading today in Numbers chapter 10, the account of Israel now leaving Mount Sinai. They've been at Mount Sinai for a little over a year now throughout the book of Exodus and Leviticus. Now in Numbers, they're going to head out into the wilderness and head towards the promised land. And as God is leading them, he's doing so with the cloud overhead by day and a pillar of fire by night.

And there's always this great picture then of just staying under the cloud. When God moves, move with him. When he stops, stop with him. It's a picture of seeking the will of God, his plans. When he wants to go, when he wants to work out something in your life, then be on board with that. Move with him. Seek out his desires for you. That's why you should do that because God wants you blessed.

And his ultimate desire for you is to have joy and protection, to experience the fullness of his smiling at you because of his grace, to enjoy the peace that comes from his attention and his working in your life.

That's why we trust him. That's why we obey him. That's why we seek his will. That's why we dedicate ourselves to him. On Wednesday, we talked about the first part of chapter six, the Nazarite vow, really cool opportunity for the nation of Israel to consecrate themselves to the Lord for a season, for a time. But as you look at the restrictions, as you look at the requirements and the cost involved, you might think, why would anybody ever do this? Make this vow to God.

Well, here's why. Because God wants you blessed. Yeah, I want to be dedicated to the Lord. I want to have those, you know, strategically dedicated and devoted times where I'm seeking him wholeheartedly. He's my primary attention because he wants to work good in my life. He wants what's best for me. That's why we trust him. That's why we obey him. That's why we seek his will. That's why we devote ourselves to him.

That's why we look to him for help, going back to Psalm 121, because he wants good for us. I want to finish up just by talking a little bit about a little puppy that I have recently acquired. I try not to talk too much about Maui because I know some of you like cats instead, and that's kind of weird, but try not to exclude, you know, half of my audience. It's kind of a new experience for me.

not really had a pet before like this. We had a cat for a little bit, but it was kind of an adult and always weird from the get-go. But this puppy is different, and we're spending a lot of time together. He just finished his rounds of vaccination, so he's able to be out and about. And so now it's my responsibility to take him on walks every morning and evening.

And Maui loves to go on walks. When I pull out his harness, he gets so excited. Like sometimes he just pees right on the spot. Like when he gets excited, he's just like, he's so excited he can't control himself.

He's so excited. He can't sit still. He's running back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I can't even put the harness on him because he's just like flailing his paws and biting at everything and like just freaking out because not because he doesn't want to go, but because he's so excited about going on the walk. It's going to be great. Except for I can't get the harness on him. Sometimes we get so excited about things. We just want to rush ahead. We just want to go forward. We just want to go and accomplish and conquer. And the Lord's saying,

I know, I understand. But listen, this is why I've given you these commands. This is why I'm calling you to trust me. This is why I'm calling you to read my word and spend time with me. There's a harness here. You need to not skip that part. If we tried to go on a walk without the harness, it would be disaster for Maui, for his good. He's excited, but he needs the harness. In a similar way, you and I, there's a lot of good things that God wants to do and a lot of things for us to get excited about, but let's not run ahead of the Lord.

Run outside of that cloud and just go do what we want to do. This is why God wants our blessing. I want to bless Maui with a walk, but he's got to let me put the harness on him. As we're out on the walk, one of the things he loves to do is explore everything, including the dead grass that some of my neighbors have. None in my house. None of that. Just my neighbors. He's so excited to explore. He doesn't see all the dried grass.

prickly stickers that get bound up in his fur. And we'll be walking down the sidewalk and I'll see him limping a little bit. Oh, sure enough, there's a sticker there. We got to pull it out. He picked one up in that bit of dried grass. He gets so excited. He doesn't see the dangers, the things that will hurt him. In a similar way, the Lord looks at us. He says, look, I want your blessing. This is why you should trust me. This is why I've instructed you. You don't see those prickly things that are going to hurt you.

and cause you to limp. And that's why I'm holding you back from that. And you're resisting it. You're fighting against it. But just trust me. I want what's best for you. I'm going to bring you joy. And I'm going to protect you. Let me do that work in your life. This morning on the final leg of our walk, headed back home, some neighbors had put out some trash on the curb. And there was a big vacuum cleaner there. And I don't know why, but

Now he got freaked out, so fearful. He stopped dead in his tracks, and he's little, so, you know, I can make him move even if he doesn't want to move, but he's got his paws down, and I'm just kind of like pulling him, and he's just, he's not walking. He's just dragging along the sidewalk. I had to kind of bend down, encourage him, you don't have to be fearful. It's okay. It's just a broken vacuum cleaner. Like, I know you don't like the running ones, but this one's not even running. It's broken. It's okay.

Sometimes we're so fearful and God says, here, I want you to move in this direction. I want to go this way with you. I want to, let's head out this way. And we're like, no, resisting, dragging our feet. No, no, God wants you blessed. That's why you should trust him. That's why you should obey him. That's why you should seek his will and let him do all that he has in mind for you. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you, God, for this great promises and great reminders. I pray, Lord, that you would help us to trust you, to really accept these things as your truth for us, that as we believe in you, as we receive your gift of salvation, your gift of forgiveness, God, you smile at us. You're beaming with joy as you look at us. You love us and you're looking out for what's good for all of eternity.

So help us, Lord, to believe these promises and to rest in your arms. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May he make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Have a great week.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.