NOTES for Num 6:22-27
The Bible often contains traditional blessings used by the Levitical priests when blessing the people. Many, of course, already in ancient times treated these blessings merely as a traditional ritual. Yet the words of the ancient blessings carry a profound meaning. What did a blessing mean to the people of that age?
When did this practice arise? Its roots undoubtedly reach far back into pre-biblical antiquity. In those days a blessing was understood as the bestowal of power, whether power received by a person from some pagan god or spirit, or power received from another person. A curse, by contrast, meant depriving a person of his power and therefore of life itself: what was at stake was not only physical strength but also that supernatural energy of life which, according to the beliefs of the time, permeated the universe and gave strength to every living thing, from a plant to a human being.
For those who believed in the God of Abraham, the source of this power was, of course, the God of Abraham Himself. He could give a person strength or take it away. How did this happen? Judging by the blessings found in the Book of Numbers, God blessed a person when He met him face to face. It is no accident that these blessings mention God's shining countenance. Only in this way can God preserve a person from danger. Does that mean, then, that if a person has not met God face to face, God's authority does not extend to him?
It does, of course. But it extends to different people in different ways. God's power truly permeates the whole universe; His breath is present in the world without merging with nature and yet acting upon it. It is precisely God's breath that pagans know as the power of life they have revered since ancient times. But for them it remained impersonal: behind it they did not see the living and personal God. Therefore the power they encountered did not change them in any way; their human nature remained as it had been.
Only a face-to-face encounter with God can change a person. Such an encounter stands not only upon God's power but also upon His will and, most importantly, His love, without which everything else remains fruitless. This is why the blessings mentioned in the Book of Numbers place the face-to-face encounter with God at their very center. A biblical blessing is an encounter not so much with God's power as with His love. For in God love gives rise to power, not power to love.