Archaeologists in Jerusalem recently uncovered two silver cylinders of Hebrew text that predate Qumran by four centuries. They record this ancient benediction, making it the oldest portion of Scripture we possess. The Ancient Hebrews clearly treasured the blessing of God.
The poem consists of three lines of three, five, and seven Hebrew words as the Lord’s presence flows ever outward over the flock. The start of each line invokes the holy Name, so that the purpose of the poem is to invest God’s people with God’s presence.
And at its center lies the promise of light: “The Lord make His face shine upon thee.” Thus the presence of God and the peace of God pivot upon the power of God to illuminate the darkness.
And at its center lies the promise of light: “The Lord make His face shine upon thee.” Thus the presence of God and the peace of God pivot upon the power of God to illuminate the darkness.
On Monday, December 19, 2011, a transformer blew near Candlestick Park in San Francisco and left two football teams and seventy thousand fans in darkness and delayed the kick-off for twenty minutes. Midway through the second quarter, blackness descended again as the hasty repair work failed. The next morning, I awoke to discover that local vandals had stripped one hundred feet of copper wire from a nearby substation, ungrounded a transformer and left my home and over six thousand other people powerless.
“The Lord make His face shine upon thee.” We hunger more for light after we’ve been abandoned in the dark.
When Mary and Joseph, acting on angelic orders, named their baby “Jesus,” they loosed God’s light on our melancholy midnight. Our Lord made his face to shine upon us when he took on a literal face in the miracle of the Incarnation. And in days of dark and discouragement, when all our clever kilowatts fail and thieves plunder our self-willed power, we bask in the blaze of the Name that is above every other name.
Light This Candle!
Doug
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