«　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