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The Israelites wander in the desert in the book of Numbers. God tells Moses Moses, Tell Aaron and his sons, 'This is how you are to bless the Israelites." Then God says the amazing blessing that we are going through today. We are reminded in this blessing, that because we have God, we have enough. No matter how much we feel like we are lacking. May you feel God's presence and love for you so deeply!
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Transcript
Introduction and Purpose
00:00:01
fillingyouupwithhope
Hi, it's Abby from Filling You Up With Hope. I am so thankful that you're here today. um We at Filling You Up With Hope, I talk about God's Word and we always find so much hope. Today we're talking about the blessings, right? Which is such an amazing thing, right? We all want, but in reality, in our world, right? We often are thinking about the things that we're lacking in. We don't have the relationships that we want. We don't have the material things that we want. We don't have the love that we want and we need. And like the Israelites, they felt like they were lacking. They were hungry and thirsty, wandering in the desert.
00:00:57
fillingyouupwithhope
in the desert.
Exploring the Book of Numbers
00:00:59
fillingyouupwithhope
um But with the priestly blessing that we're going to go over today, and we're going to be reminded that when we have God and we have him deep down and we're really connected to that, then no matter what, we have enough. So we're in a new book. We're in a new book today. We're in Numbers. And it's named that because there God told ah Moses, right, to do this census.
00:01:38
fillingyouupwithhope
So it has lots of names in it, counting, get the Israelites ready for battle, right? It's the names of men. And so this is what it says in numbers one, three. You and Aaron are to count, according to their division, all of the men in Israel who are 20 years old or more unable to serve in the army. So in this book, Numbers, and it starts two years after God's amazing miracle of setting the people free from slavery in Egypt. They've been wandering in the desert, right? And this book,
00:02:26
fillingyouupwithhope
is 40 years, the book of Numbers is 40 years of the Israelites wandering in the desert, right? And what God really wants is for the Israelites to take in the priestly bless blessing, which is Numbers 6, 24 through 26. So we're gonna start with that. We're gonna take it in. And there's so much hope in this. So i just I pray that you stay through this message and you really take it in. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. And so many of us know this blessing. There's a beautiful song, The Blessing, which has these verses in it. And I remember during COVID, my younger son and I, over and over again at night, like this is what we listened to.
00:03:24
fillingyouupwithhope
During COVID, different countries did different versions of the song. And so every night we would listen to a different country's version of it. and But what a blessing, what a beautiful thing to take in. Like as they're wandering in the desert, as they're going through these times of uncertainty, who keeps them? who They belong to God, right? And that is what they need to take in. That's what we need to take in as we go through the desert and the and the the amazing times in our lives too. So, but this this blessing, like they found copies of it. They were excavating things, I think in the 1970s and they found copies of this.
00:04:19
fillingyouupwithhope
from 600 years before Christ. And so this was still being said 600 years before Christ. Like Numbers is like around 1444 BC, I think, around there. um But they were still reciting this blessing and was an important part of the Israelites life. um And So it's a really important thing for us to go through and really dissect a little bit, what does it mean? I think it's gonna bring us so much hope. So what does it mean? Well, in Hebrew, buruch means blessing,
Understanding Biblical Blessings
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fillingyouupwithhope
right? Hebrew teachers, um they say that buruch means an increase. So let's just take that in. The Lord increased, right? Increase his presence in your life.
00:05:17
fillingyouupwithhope
like praying that for the people in your life, right? That his presence is increased in their life, right? And um like in Genesis, God blesses Adam and Eve, Genesis 1, 27 through 28. So God created man in his image, in the image of God, in the image of God created him, male and female, he created them. And God blessed them. And God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over it, over the fish of the sea, over the fowl and the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. but So, so, so something, right? Be fruitful and multiply, like he's blessing them
00:06:17
fillingyouupwithhope
And he's telling them to multiply. It's an increase. That's what Baruch means. And I love it because the last name in Hebrew, Brooks, right? That's surname. Our son is named Brooks. And, you know, in Hebrew, that means blessing because like what we're talking about, it comes from Baruch. And like those of you who listen knew, know that I was raised Jewish until I was six
00:06:48
fillingyouupwithhope
and and so I i and would have gone to Hebrew school and things like that. But I remember from Passover's, right, I remember Baruch atay, Adonai, Alehenyo, Mela, and I'm sorry, I have a horrible, horrible accent, but I remember Baruch, right, that is Baruch atay, Adonai, that is said at the beginning of many, many Hebrew prayers, right? Blessing God. But anyways, so this is all like amazing stuff. But the opposite of lacking, because that's, I think if we look at our lives, a lot of us like, um like I started with, right? A lot of us feel like we're lacking things in our life, right?
00:07:46
fillingyouupwithhope
but an increase of God's presence. So when you're saying bless you, think of think of the amazing thing that you're saying, take that in, you're saying, may God's presence increase in your life. And that's what, you know, we pray for every human being and that his presence is there, but that we take that we take it in deep to our heart that God's presence is there, right? So, like I said, Baruch Atahed and I, it starts many Hebrew prayers, and it means, blessed are you, our Lord. and But how do we bless God, right? And by turning to Him, acknowledging
00:08:46
fillingyouupwithhope
Acknowledging him, praying to him because he is there. His presence increases, right? it We feel his presence when we turn to him and we focus our hearts on him. and And that's what taking in this blessing does, right? And praying it over our families, praying it over our friends, praying over everybody in this earth. um so So we're just gonna go through it. The first part, the Lord bless you. It shows how caring our Lord is, right? And it makes me think of being fruitful. Bear fruit, like be rooted in God and and flourish. That's how we flourish in our our life when we're deeply
00:09:45
fillingyouupwithhope
rooted in God in this blessing. And it only works when we're deeply rooted in Him or we wither like we need to be connected to Him. Oh, so the Lord bless you and keep you. Like what a beautiful thing to say. And being kept in the Lord means being rooted in Him.
Staying Rooted in Faith
00:10:14
fillingyouupwithhope
Right, and and keep in keeping us like he guards us, he protects us. This is Psalm 46, one. The Lord is our refuge and strength, a very present help and trouble. He is our refuge and strength. Like taking taking that in, he's reminding the Israelites, like he already is this to them, right? But he's reminding them
00:10:42
fillingyouupwithhope
And we need to remind ourselves, our children, the people in our lives of these things, because as we go through our wanderings in the desert, um we forget, we forget how loved we are. We forget that um to remain in him and that he keeps us and he protects us. So next is, The Lord make his face shine on you. and And being close to God, he fills us with light. right He is the light of the world. And his presence is with us. right And just like when we're in the sun, right when we're sitting there in the sun, it it changes us. it changes
00:11:36
fillingyouupwithhope
um are the chemicals in our body like it gives us vitamin D and makes us feel good um it it changes like it changes our skin pain in the sun it changes us when we are in god's presence when we're truly like connected to him it changes us and so do we do we know that
00:12:08
fillingyouupwithhope
have Have we really taken in like that God's face shines on us, the light of the world? do we Do we take that in? I think God knows that we forget these things, right? Just like how it says, do not fear so many times in the Bible. Some translations it's 365 times because God knows that we have a tendency to fear. and to remind ourselves, um do not fear for I'm with you. And so we need to remind ourselves of these things. We need to remind ourselves that He is the light of the world and He is in us. We just need to connect to Him. And the next verse, He's gracious to us. May He be gracious to you. He fills us with the Holy Spirit.
00:13:07
fillingyouupwithhope
when we When we turn to him, connect to him, repent, we're filled with the Holy Spirit, with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Like how gracious all of these gifts. And yet we have a tendency to worry, right? And to complain like the Israelites did in the desert, because they were like they were hungry and thirsty, and they felt like they were lacking. But God is reminding them, like, you have everything you need. I've been gracious to you. I set you free from slavery. And He provides for us.
00:14:00
fillingyouupwithhope
And it's just so something that we need to remember that we're taking care of. He's gracious and you you have what you need because you have him. And there's a reason why some people think that this was recited often, right? um Because it needs to be taken in. And the feelings we have when we read this priestly blessing, the feelings we have are
00:14:34
fillingyouupwithhope
It just feels so good that we're but we are taking care of. You are taking care of no matter what you are going through in your life. And the Lord turned his face toward you. Like so many times, and and we talk about this a lot on this podcast, right? We feel not listened to and like we're not enough and like nobody cares about us. And so the Lord turned his face toward you. May you
Finding Peace Through God
00:15:11
fillingyouupwithhope
feel and know that he pays attention to you, that he listens to you. He sees you. And, um, he remembers you like we talked about last week in the podcast. So no matter how I'm listened to, we feel
00:15:32
fillingyouupwithhope
Just knowing that the most important, the most important thing about like God, God hears you. But we need to be turning to Him to to take all of these things in, right? And then may He give you peace, right? What is the way to peace? Like we all, want it and look for it in so many so many ways like if I do all this exercise if I eat all of this way if if I do these things like that's what's gonna give me peace right because we're all looking for it but add peace in Hebrew they're talking about like wholeness right completeness right and
00:16:30
fillingyouupwithhope
What this blessing is telling us is that the way to have that wholeness, it isn't through like your marriage or relationship. It isn't through like material threatt things. He is the one who makes us, who makes us whole, who makes us complete. It's only through him. And when we've really taken that in that we have what we need. We are complete because we have Jesus. When we've really taken that in, then we can have secure attachments in our life. We can have secure relationships because we know no matter what I have got, I'm his child. I'm here to do um his purposes, right? I'm i'm here for him.
00:17:28
fillingyouupwithhope
And so I can get through the wandering in the desert. And it just, this blessing shows us that for the Israelites, for us, for everyone, the the answer that we're all looking for is God. That's the answer.
Conclusion and Prayer
00:17:49
fillingyouupwithhope
And it shows them how to deal with lacking, was wandering in the desert. Because we all go through times of that. But we turn to God and we take this in. The Lord bless you and keep you. Make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. And so I just pray that you that you turn to God and that you just
00:18:26
fillingyouupwithhope
You feel like He is there with you. You feel His presence. And I'm just so thankful we got to go through the blessing today. And I will talk to you next week. Bye.