In Jesus Name Amen
From: A Simple Benediction
Numbers 6:24-26 HCSB
24 May Yahweh bless you and protect you;
25 May Yahweh make His face shine on you and be gracious to you;
26 May Yahweh look with favor on you and give you peace.
Reading thru the Bible allows you to find new insights into things which you may have read many, many times. Here’s one of those, and I found myself applying this great benediction, to how I end my prayers, namely, “In Jesus Name, Amen.”
First let me ask you, what is meant when you end your prayer, “…in Jesus Name, Amen.”
- In the authority of Jesus? Yes.
- According to all that He represents? Yes.
His Bigness
It has to do with His “bigness,” right?
I love Psalm 145:3, one version says, “…His greatness, no one can fathom.” When I quote it I usually say, “His greatness is unsearchable, which means we’ll get to heaven and spend an eternity learning insights into His height and breadth and depth and width.”
So, when I found and studied these three verses above, my understanding of God’s greatness, of what is included in, “His Name,” just exploded!
Friends, I get to enter the throne room of the Lord because of Christ’s authority, made available to me when I accept that His shed blood on the cross is my ONLY way to heaven.
All that’s Bottled Up In His Name
I hope this post helps you understand better, the solemnity which is bottled up in the words, “In Jesus Name, Amen.” In the video above, whether you use those words or not isn’t “magical,” the point is your attitude, in whom you trust.
And your attitude tells you under whose authority you enter the throne room.
By seeing some of the insights into this benediction in the book of Numbers, I am trusting that you will see the greatness of God, bigger than you ever have before.
The three verses above are a blessing given by Jewish priests to the Israelites, however, there is good application for us today, after all, is not all scripture for us today (Romans 15:4). At the end of 2 Corinthians, Paul gives a New Testament Blessing which, I think, in large part, draws from these verses.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
2 Corinthians 13:14 (NASB 1977)
3 Commentaries and Their Insights
Numbers 6:24 May Yahweh bless you and protect you;
- May God speak good unto thee, by . . . his excellent promises! (Clarke’s Commentary)
- The Lord is the keeper of Israel. He will care for thee. (Homiletics Commentary, W. Binnie)
- We can confidently commend ourselves, and all who are the “blessed of the Lord,” to his keeping, both in regard to spiritual preservation . . . and temporal deliverances (Homiletics Commentary, E. S. Prout)
- Security the first of blessings to those who have much to lose . . . Insecurity was the mark of Eden. God’s face shone, his countenance was lifted up on Adam and Eve, but he warned them there was danger in the midst of all their blessings. Perfect security belongs to the New Jerusalem. (Homiletics Commentary, D. Young)
Numbers 6:25 May Yahweh make His face shine on you and be gracious to you;
- God the Son is gracious unto sinners in remitting their offenses, which he died to blot out. (Clarke’s Commentary)
- “The face of God” imports not merely God’s good will in general, but His active and special regard. With the “face” or “eye of the Lord (Barnes Notes)
- There is grace in God’s heart for thee. He has given proof of this times without number. . . [that we] may bear thy name to the nations who know thee not. (Homiletics Commentary, W. Binnie)
- The shining of God’s countenance is an assurance that God will be gracious; its shining upon “thee” a pledge that we have received the grace and pardon we need (Homiletics Commentary, E. S. Prout)
Numbers 6:26 May Yahweh look with favor on you and give you peace.
- God the Holy Spirit takes of the things which are Christ’s, and shows them unto genuine Christians, and diffuses the peace of God in their hearts. (Clarke’s Commentary)
- [May the Lord] direct His thought and care toward thee . . . Through such loving providence alone could the peace of God in which the blessing closes be given. (Barnes Notes)
- There is a look of God which fills the soul with peace. (Homiletics Commentary, W. Binnie)
- The lifting up of God’s countenance may suggest his active intervention to secure to us the blessing of peace . . . The Christian’s peace is “the peace of God,” “my peace,” communicated by Divine power to the soul (Homiletics Commentary, E. S. Prout)
- Our trust and expectation should agree with what is a benediction to us through Christ, as much as it was to the Israelites through Aaron. (Homiletics Commentary, D. Young)
The Awe of “In Jesus Name, Amen”
I hope I never run through the words, “In Jesus Name, Amen,” without a sense of awe in its “bigness,” its greatness, in the awesomeness of God.
Here are the inks to the 3 commentaries which I perused, and have quoted above, to help me get my arms around Numbers 6:24-26:
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/clarke/numbers/6.htm
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