With outstretched arms, Aaron blessed the people of Israel, putting the name of the Lord upon the people: “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”(1)

These were instructions from God, who told Moses to tell Aaron to bless the people of Israel. “Benediction,” as it is now called, was to be an act of worship, a response of obedience to God’s instruction given to the priestly line. As a priest, Aaron was set apart. He and his descendants were forever “to consecrate the most holy things, to offer sacrifices before the LORD, to minister before him and to pronounce blessings in his name forever.”(2) The Aaronic benediction was a command, given in order that God’s name be placed upon God’s people.

So Aaron spoke the benediction over a people frustrated and wandering, and his words reached beyond him. Today the church continues to believe that there are moments often unknown to us with which God does the same. Like a river whose source does not know the far places it reaches, God’s name moves before the world; we don’t always know where it has come or where it is going. Yet we know that God’s hand is not too short to save. In the desert, on the mountaintop, at the invitation of Christ to the Table, God’s blessing reaches those who will receive and be filled. It is this God “who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land.”(3)

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