Scripture Reading: Num. 6:22-27; 2 Cor. 13:14; Rev. 22:1-2

DAY 1 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 2 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 3 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 4 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 5 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 6 Outline　MorningRevival

«　WEEK 7　DAY 1　»

　　Eph. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.

　　22-23 And He...gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.

　　After the record of the Nazarite vow [in Numbers 6], the Lord told Moses to tell Aaron and his sons...to bless His people in the way of His Divine Trinity. Jehovah is the Triune God. As the Triune God, He dispenses Himself into us in His divinity and in His Divine Trinity. Without being triune, God could not dispense Himself into His chosen people as their blessing. The very blessing is God Himself dispensed into His chosen people. Although God desires to bless His chosen people in this way, they need to come up to a standard that matches His blessing.

　　The unique blessing in the whole universe is God Himself. Anything besides God is vanity. The entire universe was created by God, yet without God, apart from God, even the universe created by God is vanity. The existence of the universe is a great miracle, but without God the miraculous existence of the universe is vanity. Apart from God, everything is "vanity of vanities" (Eccl. 1:2). Only God Himself is real. Only He is the blessing to us....History is filled with cases of people who gained many riches and many material things but who eventually realized that, without God, it was all vanity. God Himself is our blessing, and this blessing comes to us through the dispensing of the Divine Being into us in His Divine Trinity—in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (Life-study of Numbers, pp. 77-78)

　　[Eternity in man's heart is] "a divinely implanted sense of purpose working through the ages, which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy" (The Amplified Bible). God created man in His image and formed in him a spirit that man may receive and contain Him....In addition, God put eternity, an aspiration for something eternal, in man's heart so that man will seek God, the eternal One. Hence, temporal things can never satisfy man; only the eternal God, who is Christ, can satisfy the deep sense of purpose in man's heart (cf. 2 Cor. 4:18). See footnote 1 on Song of Songs 1:4. (Eccl. 3:11, footnote 1)

　　Ephesians 1 gives us a record of how the Triune God blesses His chosen, redeemed, and transformed people in His Divine Trinity. This chapter is mainly on the three steps of God's blessing us in His Divine Trinity, that is, on how He blesses us in the Father (vv. 3-6), in the Son (vv. 7-12), and in the Spirit (vv. 13-14). Eventually, because of such a flow of the Divine Trinity as the blessing to God's chosen people, there is an issue, and the issue of this blessed flow is the church as the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all (vv. 22-23). The church as the Body of Christ is the total issue of the Divine Trinity as a flow to dispense all that God is into His chosen people. The Body of Christ is the fullness, the totality, of the One who fills all in all.

　　Like Numbers, Revelation, the last book of the Bible, is also a book of numbers....The New Jerusalem has twelve gates with the names of the twelve tribes (21:12), and twelve foundations with the names of the twelve apostles (v. 14). Furthermore, the tree of life bears twelve kinds of fruit (22:2). Among these twelves the Triune God is hidden, and even mingled, as His people's blessing.

　　The consummation of the record of the entire Bible is God the triune as the very particular and subjective blessing to His people. As the consummation of the entire record of the Bible, the New Jerusalem is just the very God in His Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—wrapped up in the number twelve with His chosen, redeemed, and transformed people as their blessing. This blessing will last eternally. Such a blessing is the ultimate fulfillment of God's blessing to Israel in Numbers 6. Only when the New Jerusalem comes, will this blessing be completely fulfilled. (Life-study of Numbers, pp. 78-79)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Numbers, msg. 11

«　WEEK 7　DAY 2　»

　　Num. 6:23-24 Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the children of Israel; you shall say to them, Jehovah bless you and keep you.

　　John 17:15 I do not ask that You would take them out of the world, but that You would keep them out of the hands of the evil one.

　　The blessing in Numbers 6 is neither an Old Testament blessing nor a New Testament blessing. Rather, it is the eternal blessing of the Triune God, which is the Triune God dispensing Himself in His Divine Trinity into us for our enjoyment. This is God's eternal blessing.

　　"Jehovah bless you" means that Jehovah gives Himself to you. However, God does not give Himself to us merely in an objective way like one brother giving a gift to another. God gives Himself to us in His Trinity, step by step and little by little. If you were to ask me what blessing I have received from the Lord, I would answer, "The only blessing I have received from the Lord is my Triune God. My Triune God is my blessing." (Life-study of Numbers, p. 80)

　　Referring to the Father, Numbers 6:24 says, "Jehovah bless you and keep you." The Father blesses us in every way and in every aspect in His love (cf. Eph. 1:3), and He keeps us in every way and in every aspect in His power (cf. John 17:11, 15).

　　The blessing One keeps us. In Numbers 6:24 the word keep is of crucial importance. In John 17:11 the Lord Jesus prayed that the Father would keep us in His name. This is to keep us in the dispensing Triune God. While the Triune God is dispensing Himself into us, we are kept in the dispensing One. In John 17:15 the Lord Jesus went on to pray that the Father would keep us from the evil one. When we are kept in the dispensing Triune God, there is nothing left for the hand of the enemy. We should pray for the blessing of being kept absolutely in the dispensing Triune God and altogether outside of the evil one. What a blessing this is! (Life-study of Numbers, p. 80)

　　The Son's believers are still in the world. They need to be kept that they may be one even as the Divine Trinity is one, that is, that they may be one in the Divine Trinity. The Son prayed that the holy Father would so keep them. (John 17:11, footnote 1)

　　To be kept in the Father's name is to be kept by His life, because only those who are born of the Father and have the Father's life can participate in the Father's name. The Son has given the Father's life to those whom the Father has given Him (John 17:2); hence, they share the Father's name by being kept in it, and they are one in it. The first aspect of this oneness, that is, the first aspect of the building up of the believers, is the oneness in the Father's name and by His divine life. In this aspect of oneness the believers, born of the Father's life, enjoy the Father's name, that is, the Father Himself, as the factor of their oneness. (John 17:11, footnote 2)

　　The whole world lies in the evil one (1 John 5:19). Hence, the believers need to be kept out of the hands of the evil one, and they need always to be watchful in prayer that they may be delivered from the evil one (Matt. 6:13). (John 17:15, footnote 2)

　　John 17:11 says, "I am no longer in the world; yet they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given to Me, that they may be one even as We are." The oneness...here...is something of the divine name. In the Bible, especially in the Gospel of John, the name denotes a person. Thus, the Father's name is actually the Father Himself....In 17:11 to be kept in the Father's name is to be kept in the person of the Father through His action. Today the Father is...actively building His house, the church.

　　[We should not live and act] in [our] own person...[but] live, act, and work in the person of the Father. (CWWL, 1982, vol. 2, "The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John," pp. 494-495)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1982, vol. 2, "The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John," ch. 54

«　WEEK 7　DAY 3　»

　　Num. 6:25 Jehovah make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

　　John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.

　　The second part of the blessing [in Numbers 6:25] says, "Jehovah make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you." In Luke 1:78, when the Lord Jesus was about to be born, Zachariah prophesied, "The rising sun will visit us from on high." This rising sun is the Son in the Divine Trinity. This implies God's incarnation to show Himself to us in a shining way. No one has ever seen God, but through His incarnation we have seen His face and have beheld His glory (John 1:14), and He has been shining upon us continually. Wherever He went, He was a great light shining upon the people sitting in darkness (Matt. 4:16), for He is the light of the world (John 8:12). (Life-study of Numbers, pp. 80-81)

　　The word face in Numbers 6:25 signifies presence. As the One whose face shines upon us, Christ the Son is the visible presence of the invisible God. God and His presence are invisible, but through His incarnation He became the shining sun. This shining sun is God's invisible presence becoming visible. God's presence not only became visible—it was also shining. On the Mount of Transfiguration, some of the Lord's disciples beheld Him in His glory (2 Pet. 1:16-18; Matt. 17:1-2).

　　Numbers 6:25 speaks not only of Jehovah making His face to shine upon us, but also of Jehovah being gracious to us. These two points added together equal John 1:14, 16-17. God's incarnation was the shining of His presence. Along with this shining there was grace. "The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us...full of grace" (v. 14). The Lord is gracious to us; He has even become grace to us. For the Lord to be gracious to us means that He is continually grace to us. This grace is the grace of Christ (2 Cor. 13:14a), which is actually Christ Himself. When we have Christ, we have grace. The Triune God is altogether gracious to us. Day after day we enjoy Him as grace. (Life-study of Numbers, p. 81)

　　Because Jehovah is mentioned three times [in Numbers 6]—once in each part of the threefold blessing—Jehovah is the Divine Trinity. The first part of the blessing, "Jehovah bless you and keep you" [v. 24], implies the Father, the first of the Trinity. The second part, "Jehovah make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you" [v. 25], implies the Son, the second of the Trinity. Face signifies presence. Shine implies light and means that something is coming. Be gracious means "give grace." Thus, in the second part of the threefold blessing, Jehovah comes to us and gives grace to us, which is more subjective and experiential than Jehovah's blessing and keeping us. In the third part of Jehovah's threefold blessing, which implies the Holy Spirit, the third of the Trinity, Jehovah lifts up His countenance upon us and gives us peace [v. 26]. The face (v. 25) denotes the presence of the person, and the countenance [v. 26] denotes the expression of the person. The countenance is more particular and intimate and is mostly for pleasant expressions such as love, mercy, and kindness.

　　Verses 24 through 27 are the blessing of the Triune God. The Father blesses and keeps us. The Son, who is God incarnated, is the shining of God's presence and brings grace (John 1:14, 16-17). The Spirit is God's intimate, pleasant presence and gives us peace. Several New Testament Epistles say, "Grace to you and peace" (e.g., Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:3; 2 Pet. 1:2; Rev. 1:4). Grace is God for our enjoyment, and peace is the result of our enjoyment of God. Grace is Christ (2 Cor. 13:14a; cf. 1 Cor. 15:10; Gal. 2:20), and peace is the Spirit (Rom. 14:17). God's face and God's countenance, Christ and the Spirit, and grace and peace are all similarly related. The Trinity is uniquely unveiled in the threefold blessing in Numbers 6. (CWWL, 1983, vol. 3, "The Divine Trinity as Revealed in the Holy Word," p. 271)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Numbers, msg. 11

«　WEEK 7　DAY 4　»

　　Num. 6:26-27 Jehovah lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put My name upon the children of Israel, that I Myself may bless them.

　　Eph. 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption.

　　The third part of this blessing says, "Jehovah lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace" (Num. 6:26). In the blessing in Numbers 6 we have both the face and the countenance, and there is a difference between them. The face denotes the presence of the person, and the countenance denotes the expression of the person. To lift up your countenance upon a person means that you confirm, assure, promise, and give everything to that person. Jesus came as the face of God, and the Holy Spirit comes as the countenance of God. Ephesians 4:30 says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God." If we grieve Him, His countenance will drop. If we obey Him, He will be happy with us, and He will lift up His countenance to confirm us, assure us, guarantee us, promise us, and give us everything. (Life-study of Numbers, pp. 81-82)

　　The Father blesses, the Son shines, and the Holy Spirit lifts up His countenance. When the Triune God is dispensed into us, we have the face of the Triune God and also His countenance. He is happy with us, assuring us, confirming us, guaranteeing us, promising us, and giving us everything. Eventually, we are kept in the Triune God, the Triune God becomes grace to us every day, and we have peace.

　　In Numbers 6:23-26 there is no mention of material blessing. In these verses the Lord did not tell the children of Israel that He would bring them into the good land, that He would give each one of them a portion of the land, that He would keep them from famine and give them rain, that He would protect them from their enemies, and that He would cause them to flourish. The blessing here is not of such a nature.

　　What, then, is the blessing in Numbers 6? This blessing is the Triune God in His person as the Father, as the Son, and as the Spirit. In the Father we receive the blessing and are kept in the Triune God. In the Son we receive God's presence and enjoy Him as grace. In the Holy Spirit God's countenance is over us, and we enjoy peace day and night. (Life-study of Numbers, p. 82)

　　The third aspect of the blessing is related to God the Spirit's countenance and His peace. The lifting up of the Lord's countenance upon us and the giving of peace is certainly the gracious work of the third of the Trinity, the Spirit. Today the Spirit is constantly lifting up God's countenance over us and giving us peace. He gives peace not only in our environment, but also in our being—in our heart, in our spirit, and even in our mind. In the Spirit, through the Spirit, and with the Spirit we have peace. Others may be troubled in heart, mind, spirit, and environment, but we should not be troubled. Wherever we are, we have peace because the Spirit of God is with us and His countenance is uplifted over us.

　　In summary we may say that blessing is the bringing of people into the presence of God, into the very enjoyment of God. The threefold blessing in Numbers 6 is the pattern of blessing by the priests in the Old Testament. This pattern reveals that the proper blessing is to bring people into the presence of God, into the light of His face, and into the shining of His countenance that they may participate in His grace and may have peace. This surely is the proper blessing. How wonderful! How marvelous! (Life-study of Genesis, p. 1217)

　　The third [blessing] is the blessing of the Spirit: the Spirit lifts up His countenance upon us and gives us peace; the Spirit is the presence of God with us, bringing with Him peace. This blessing of the Divine Trinity is not related mainly to material things; it is related mainly to the Triune God being gracious to us, appearing to us, and being seen by us. (CWWL, 1990, vol. 3, "The Economy and Dispensing of God," p. 87)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Genesis, msg. 95

«　WEEK 7　DAY 5　»

　　2 Cor. 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

　　2 John 3 Grace, mercy, peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

　　The blessing in 2 Corinthians 13:14 is actually the same as that in Numbers 6:23-26. The grace of the Lord is the Lord Himself as life to us for our enjoyment, the love of God is God Himself as the source of the grace of the Lord, and the fellowship of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself as the transmission of the grace of the Lord with the love of God for our participation. (Life-study of Numbers, pp. 82-83)

　　In 2 Corinthians 13:14 the apostle Paul also gives a pattern of blessing....We have seen that a priest brings people to God. An apostle, however, brings God to people; he comes to people with God. In 2 Corinthians 13:14 we see a gracious visitation of the Triune God. In the blessing of the apostle Paul, the Triune God comes to people for their enjoyment. This enjoyment is the love of God as the grace of Christ by the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Love, grace, and fellowship are not three separate things; they are three aspects or stages of one thing. They are the three stages of God for our enjoyment. Love is within, grace is love expressed, and fellowship is the transmission of grace into us. Love is within God Himself. When this love is expressed, it is grace, and grace is transmitted in the fellowship. I may love a certain brother, but this love is within me. How can it be expressed? I may express it by giving him a Bible. The Bible represents grace as the expression of the love I have within me for this brother. In order to communicate this grace to him, I must actually hand the Bible to him. This is fellowship.

　　In the Old Testament the basic thought with respect to blessing is that of bringing people into God's presence. But in the New Testament the apostle, coming with God, not only brought people into the presence of God; he also brought God into them. There is a great difference between the Old Testament pattern of blessing by the priests and the New Testament pattern of blessing by the apostle. The New Testament blessing is much higher and deeper. On the one hand, to bless others is to bring them into the presence of God; on the other hand, it is to bring God into them as love, grace, and fellowship.

　　All Christians are familiar with the word blessing. One hymn even says, "Count your blessings, name them one by one." Undoubtedly, the concept of blessing expressed in this hymn is that blessing is a matter of being given a good wife, children, education, promotions, houses, and cars. According to this hymn, these are the blessings we should count one by one. More than thirty-five years ago, I sang this hymn during the last few hours of the year. I would gather some together and say, "Let us count the blessings of this past year, one by one." But the blessing according to the pure Word is much different from this. According to the Old Testament pattern of the blessing by the priest and the New Testament pattern of blessing by the apostle, the proper blessing is to bring people into the presence of God and to bring God into them as grace, love, and fellowship that they may enjoy the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Hence, blessing is a matter of enjoying the Triune God. (Life-study of Genesis, pp. 1217-1218)

　　The love of God is the source, since God is the origin; the grace of the Lord is the course of the love of God, since the Lord is the expression of God; and the fellowship of the Spirit is the impartation of the grace of the Lord with the love of God, since the Spirit is the transmission of the Lord with God, for our experience and enjoyment of the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, with Their divine virtues. (2 Cor. 13:14, footnote 1)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Genesis, msg. 95

«　WEEK 7　DAY 6　»

　　Num. 6:24-26 Jehovah bless you and keep you; Jehovah make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; Jehovah lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.

　　2 Cor. 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

　　In both Numbers 6:23-26 and 2 Corinthians 13:14 the blessing is not outward and material. The blessing here is not a matter of an excellent job, a nice house, a high education, and a good family life. Furthermore, this blessing is not related to having any kind of position in the church. Sometimes when we consider our situation, we may be disappointed and feel that we do not have anything. It may seem to us that everything under the sun and even everything in the spiritual field is vanity of vanities. We may feel that nothing is real, not even in the church life. What should we do when we feel this way? We should turn to the Triune God. He is our real blessing and portion. What a blessing it is to have Him as the blessing! What a blessing it is to have His face, His presence, and to enjoy Him daily as grace! The more we suffer, the more we enjoy Him as grace. What a blessing it is to have His countenance smiling upon us, assuring us, and confirming us! And what a blessing it is to have peace in Him, by Him, and with Him! This is the Triune God as our blessing. Oh, may the grace of Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all! (Life-study of Numbers, p. 83)

　　[The grace of the Lord, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Spirit] are not three separate matters but three aspects of one thing, just as the Lord, God, and the Holy Spirit are not three separate Gods but three "hypostases...of the one same undivided and indivisible" God (Philip Schaff).

　　In 2 Corinthians 13:14 the grace of the Lord is mentioned first because this book is on the grace of Christ (1:12; 4:15; 6:1; 8:1, 9; 9:8, 14; 12:9). Such a divine attribute of three virtues-—love, grace, and fellowship—and such a Triune God of the three divine hypostases—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—were needed by the distracted and confused yet comforted and restored Corinthian believers. Hence, the apostle used all these divine and precious things in one sentence to conclude his lovely and dear Epistle.

　　This verse is strong proof that the trinity of the Godhead is not for the doctrinal understanding of systematic theology but for the dispensing of God Himself in His Trinity into His chosen and redeemed people. In the Bible the Trinity is never revealed merely as a doctrine. It is always revealed or mentioned in regard to the relationship of God with His creatures, especially with man, who was created by Him, and more particularly with His chosen and redeemed people.

　　After His resurrection He charged His disciples to disciple the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19); that is, He charged the disciples to bring the believing ones into the Triune God, into an organic union with the processed God, who had passed through incarnation, human living, and crucifixion and had entered into resurrection. Based on such an organic union, the apostle, at the conclusion of this divine Epistle to the Corinthians, blessed them with the blessed Divine Trinity in the participation in the Son's grace with the Father's love through the Spirit's fellowship.

　　Thus, it is evident that the divine revelation of the trinity of the Godhead in the holy Word, from Genesis through Revelation, is not for theological study but for the apprehending of how God in His mysterious and marvelous Trinity dispenses Himself into His chosen people, that we as His chosen and redeemed people may, as indicated in the apostle's blessing to the Corinthian believers, participate in, experience, enjoy, and possess the processed Triune God now and for eternity. Amen. (2 Cor. 13:14, footnote 1)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Numbers, msg. 11