Num 6:24, The Lord bless you, and keep you; 
	This morning, we have a most wonderful passage to consider. It is part of the entire prayer instruction given by the Lord to Aaron and the priests in what is known as the Aaronic Benediction. The full prayer reads once more as follows: Num 6:23-26, "Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, 'Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.' 
	I included the verse which is the instruction from God to Moses to so bless the people with this prayer because it must never escape our conscious deliberation that this was the Lord teaching the priests how to pray. This is one reason that this passage is sometimes referred to as the Lord’s Prayer of the Old Testament, which makes it so wonderful and precious to consider. It holds as much promise to us, as Christians as it does for the Nation of Israel unto whom it was spoken. God’s promise and His Omnipotence and His Omniscience and His Omnipresence is in this prayer unto us as much as unto all the patriarchs of the Old Testament. 
	As mentioned, one of the reasons that this is considered the Lord’s Prayer of the Old Testament is that God had to teach His priests how to pray for the blessing of the people. The priests had no basis of what was appropriate to speak to the citizens in terms of what God would have them pray for the nation. Therefore, this was an instructional prayer of guidance in terms of what the priests were to offer to the people from the very mouth of God. He was giving them the verbal statement of His heart for the nation that He had chosen unto Himself. 
As well, it was a blessing from God that could be addressed to the individual in the community or the community as a whole. It was not limited to just the national grouping, but it was as appropriate for the individual blessing of one person as it was for the gathered masses as a corporate blessing. This is important because it all flows together into how God blesses His people. He will bless the one person, and because of it the whole body is blessed. Or, as He blesses the whole community, each member receives the outpouring of the Lord’s graciousness. There is interconnectedness and interdependency within the whole as unto the individual and the individual as unto the whole.
What this means, in very precise language is that we cannot separate ourselves from the blessing of God as He showers it upon His Body of Believers. The individual believer has that personal and intimate relationship with God that defines the whole corporate expression of the heart of God. The one is blessed in the same manner as the whole is blessed. God’s loving grace and mercy flows forth and binds the one to the whole, and honors the whole through the blessing of the one. 
Because this is the very promise of God to so bless His people, we find that it is in Jesus Christ that this blessing comes to complete fruition. It is God Who wanted the priests to tell the people that The Lord was going to bless them in the manner in which they were related to His glorious promise. It was The Lord God Jehovah, Who was going to bless them and keep them, as we will explore together this morning. It was The Lord God Almighty, Who would reveal the smile of His face unto them in the presence of His glory in their midst. It was Yahweh, Who would shower them with His grace in the manner of His dealings with them. He would lavish them with the radiance of His pleasure beaming upon them, and He would give them peace. Every characteristic of the Lord would be theirs to know and to rejoice in and to cherish by God’s own promise.
Moving forward then with this tremendous prayer for the people of God, let us devote ourselves to the consideration of the simple truth that God keeps His people. This is a very core reality that needs to be established within the mind and the heart and the knowledge of His people in order for any living growth into the greater truth of the Lord to develop and to blossom. If we do not know that God is the One Who keeps us, Who holds us close to His bosom and protects us, then we will forever be worried and anxious and living in the fear of what could happen to us. 
Beginning with the encouragement of the Psalmist in Ps 91:9-11, let us give God the thankfulness and the acknowledgment that we so appreciate Him as the One Who keeps us. Ps 91:9-11, For you have made the Lord, my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, Nor will any plague come near your tent. For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways. 
This is the truth of the manner in which the Lord has made Himself our refuge, our place of safety and security in the midst of every trial, tribulation, storm, or conflict. We will always find that we are safely kept by His Omnipotence and His Omniscience as we go through the every day walk on this earth. Nothing comes into our lives that does not first come through Him. He guards us and holds us firmly in His grasp from whence we can never be removed. This does not mean that He will not use those tribulations and circumstances to work into us a greater measure of faith and assurance in His power and His grace. That He will surely do. But we are eternally secure in Him, which makes all the troubles of this present time become as nothing in the vision of Who He has made us to be in Jesus Christ.
Again read and hear the triumphant words of the Psalmist as recorded for us in Ps 121:4-8, where there is security and guarantee of the triumphant power of God cast over us. Ps 121:4-8, Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, Nor the moon by night. The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in From this time forth and forever. This is the promise that was to be voiced and understood by those so blessed with God as the One Who will keep us, eternally and securely keep us and protect us from all evil.
The Prophet Isaiah understood this wonderful truth as voiced in Isa 27:1-6, if you would please turn to it. Isa 27:1-6, In that day the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, With His fierce and great and mighty sword, Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea. In that day, "A vineyard of wine, sing of it! "I, the Lord, am its keeper; I water it every moment. Lest anyone damage it, I guard it night and day. "I have no wrath. Should someone give Me briars and thorns in battle, Then I would step on them, I would burn them completely. "Or let him rely on My protection, Let him make peace with Me, Let him make peace with Me." In the days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will blossom and sprout; And they will fill the whole world with fruit. 
	There is a surety in place in the power and the wisdom and the sustaining greatness of God. Isaiah knew that the greatest and the fiercest of the created things were no match for their Creator. All were under the dominion and the kingship of the One by Whom they even had their existence. Since God is the One Who made the promise of His blessing of keeping those who belong to Him, all those who do are not to be afraid but rather to blossom in the strength and the beauty of the Lord. They will take that deep rootedness into their conscious knowledge that it is in us that the whole world will see the complete and utter fruitfulness of God’s plan and purpose.
	The prophet further illustrated this in Isa 42:5-13, if you would turn to it and follow along. Isa 42:5-13, Thus says God the Lord, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk in it, "I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations, To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon, And those who dwell in darkness from the prison. "I am the Lord, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images. "Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you." Sing to the Lord a new song, Sing His praise from the end of the earth! You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it. You islands and those who dwell on them. Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voices, The settlements where Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing aloud, Let them shout for joy from the tops of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord, And declare His praise in the coastlands. The Lord will go forth like a warrior, He will arouse His zeal like a man of war. He will utter a shout, yes, He will raise a war cry. He will prevail against His enemies. 
    	Because God is the Lord God Almighty, Creator of all the heavens and the earth and everything within them, He will never be defeated nor will He give up on His protection and keeping of those who belong to Him. Everything within this passage declares that we are safe in His hands as He will defeat every enemy who rises up against Him or seeks to harm those who belong to Him. This is no small or insignificant fact of His blessing voiced upon those who are under His keeping power. All of creation is directed and obedient to Him as He holds all things together by the awesome power of His Word.
	Then, in John 17:11+12, we have the very statement of the Only Begotten Son of God declaring that not one of His will be lost. He will keep us unto Himself by the power of His own name. John 17:11+12 "And I am no more in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are. "While I was with them, I was keeping them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me; and I guarded them, and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 
   	It is the keeping power of God that allowed the Apostle Paul to so fully encourage us, in Phil 4:6+7, to not worry about anything, but to count on the Lord to fully guard and keep us unto Himself. Phil 4:6+7, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 
    	In 1 Thess 5:23+24, the Apostle further details the truth that God is faithful to His promise and to His keeping power in our lives. 1 Thess 5:23+24, Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass. 
    	The Apostle Peter joins the chorus of the awesome keeping power of God to and in us in 1 Peter 1:3-9, wherein the full plan and purpose of God, expressed in this Aaronic benediction comes to fruition in Jesus Christ. Please turn to it and rejoice together in the majesty of the Lord God Almighty. 
1 Peter 1:3-9, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. 
    	No matter what this world may throw at us, no matter how it might seek to torment, torture and kill us because of our testimony for Jesus Christ, we are safe and secure in Him. He will keep us unto Himself and all those things will simply further the living witness of the power of God alive forevermore in Jesus Christ. He will keep us unto Himself for all of eternity.
	And for our concluding passage, we have the following expressed so triumphantly for us in Jude 24+25. Jude 24+25, Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.   
	Just as God had to teach His priests how to pray for and to bless His people, so do we need to learn what His blessing means in our lives. The initial truth of the fact that He will keep us opens up the eternal riches of His remarkable and overwhelming power and grace and mercy and love in and unto us for the sake of His majestic glory and honor. So be it!
	The Lord bless you, and keep you; Amen. 

This morning’s benediction is Gen 1:27+28. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Amen.