The Prayer Life of Jesus – Aaron’s Blessing
The Prayer Life of Jesus – Aaron’s Blessing.
“Tremendous power is released through the passionate, heartfelt prayer of a righteous man!” (James 5:16).
The Lord Jesus always was and still continues to be the ultimate prayer warrior. He prayed to the Father even before He was born (Hebrews 10:5-7), and He kept praying until the moment of His ascension (Luke 24:50-53). But He didn’t stop praying when His work on earth was done, for He continues to intercede for us at the right hand of the Father as we read this! (Hebrews 7:25). His ministry was largely a prayer ministry in the sense of prayer being the foundation for everything He did. He prayed for saints and sinners, privately and publicly, with His face to the ground and His head up facing the heavens. He prayed in grief and He prayed in gratitude, while exhausted and while full of energy. Jesus prayed with His dying breath and He prayed after He rose from the dead. He prayed before major decisions and during dramatic miracles. He prayed spontaneously and He prayed in words prepared thousands of years before Him. He prayed short, one-sentence prayers (John 12:28), and He prayed in at least one long prayer that seemed to encompass just about everything (John 17). Jesus developed a lifestyle of prayer that was common to observant Jews, but nonetheless uncommon in its intimacy with the Father.
Jewish Lifestyle. Being born and raised in an observant and orthodox Jewish household, Jesus was immersed from Day One on earth in prayer, in the centrality of prayer to one’s life and faith. Observant Jews practiced formal prayers frequently during the day, and spontaneous prayers throughout each day. They would pray the Sh’ma twice a day, the primary statement of faith for all biblical Jews, starting with its first line, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your might…” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). Then there’s the Amidah, a series of 18 sacred benedictions that each Jewish father would recite at home twice a day, or perhaps each rabbi in the local synagogue. The Psalms were memorized and on the lips of all believing Jews, as were other classic prayers from the Hebrew Bible, most notably Aaron’s Priestly Blessing in Numbers 6:24-26, “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace.” But by no means were the Jews content with all those formal prayers each day. The rabbis taught each Jew to offer up sincere blessings for just about everything in the course of each day, as many as a hundred blessings, giving God praise and thanks for every common blessing enjoyed. There were blessings for practically every conceivable grace and event, from successfully going to the bathroom, to waking up each morning, to the blessing of being able to retire at the end of the day. These formal prayers and the more informal blessings developed a habit of prayer in each earnest Jewish believer, and made sure that God was seen as the main reference point all day for everyone in the faith. The Jewish prayers were constant reminders of God’s grace and goodness, and made sure that each Jewish home and synagogue were cultures of prayer. Jesus was shaped and directed and nurtured in this Jewish prayer life, and since He was a faithful Jew, prayer was certainly second nature to Him throughout His time on earth.
The Priestly Blessing of Aaron.
“The LORD Yahweh bless you and keep you;
The LORD Yahweh make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
The LORD Yahweh lift up His face onto you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26).
[Author Note: This is a wonderful opportunity to include oneself in the blessing, so I imagine that it is acceptable to insert “us” in the place of “you” when praying this blessing, whether over another individual person or group of people such as family or classroom. This prayer of blessing was given to Aaron in a moment of divine inspiration. This high priestly blessing was discovered on two small silver scrolls dated 7th century BC, which makes it the oldest written Scripture known to us at this time. Needless to say, this sacred blessing has stood the test of time in the history of faith. Because of the priesthood of all believers, all followers of Jesus have the authority in His name to pray this blessing over others at any time. I have tried below to amplify the meaning of this classic Blessing, because it often helps to understand a passage if it is expressed in other words that mean the same thing].
May the LORD Yahweh bless us and keep us… May the Great I AM continue to remain active in our lives. May Yahweh bless us by providing our daily bread. May He sustain us in our daily work and livelihood, enabling us to pay the bills and remain productive in our jobs. And may He keep us by being our refuge, protecting us against whatever may cause us harm. May He keep us from crisis, serious illness, accident or injury. May the Lord protect us in whatever spiritual warfare we may experience. Blessing us and keeping us, may God continue to provide for us and protect us.
May the LORD Yahweh make His face to shine upon us… May the Great I AM, the Lord of Life, shine His face upon us in friendship. May His eyes light up with fondness when looking upon us. May He deepen our friendship with Him, our intimate union with Him. May the radiance of His presence shine on us by taking pleasure in us, like a loving parent smiles in pleasure when with his or her child. May the face of the Lord reveal His divine approval and acceptance of us. May His shining presence reveal the light of His glory to us in a personal way. May His shining face upon us be like the brilliant sun shining on the surface of the earth to bring about growth and blessing. May your face, Lord, pulsate with heavenly light and be the light of our world. May we see a bright, smiling face when we see God in the holy ground of our heart.
May the LORD Yahweh be gracious to us… Continue your graces upon us, Lord, your unearned gifts of love. Be gracious to us as we go through each day, vulnerable and helpless without your compassion. We thank you for how you have been so extravagant in your love to us in the past, and we pray that you would continue your mercies as we seek to follow you each day. Be tender with us, Lord, and understanding. Thank you that you are full of grace and truth. May our family, friends and neighbors, and even our enemies, realize at a deep level that you are a gracious God, freely offering your love to all of us even though we don’t deserve it. We realize, Lord, that the word “gracious” is in the middle of this blessing, and we know that it is your grace that is in the middle of our lives, that eternal quality of yours that led to the coming of our Redeemer and Savior. Thank you for your grace.
May the LORD Yahweh lift up His face toward us… We thank you for looking at us full in the face, God, eye-to-eye. Look upon us with favor, and don’t pass us by. We pray for your loving attention, that you would turn your face in our direction and share with us a true glimpse of your loving countenance. Thank you, Lord, that you are a personal God who recognizes us, who gives us meaningful spiritual eye contact. We thank you that you are pleased to show us your face, King of Glory, that you would deign to be familiar with us, your servants. We thank you that you have promised us to be, not merely a passing acquaintance, but instead an increasingly intimate friend with us as we seek your face.
May the LORD Yahweh give us peace… O Prince of Shalom, give us your peace. Give us peace in our spirit, our heart, our mind. May we be free from anxiety and worrisome thoughts as we seek our peace in you and you alone. May there be freedom from strife and disorder in our family, peace between parent and child, between spouses, between children, between siblings. May we be peacemakers with our friends and enemies in the power of your Spirit. Please heal any division or discord in us that would take away from your peace in us. Grant us true shalom in our homes, Lord, a sense of flourishing and wholeness and abundant well-being. Give us peace within the spirit of each of us and peace with others. We are so grateful that Jesus has brought to us peace with you, through the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Glory to God in the highest, and peace to His people on earth! Amen!