Whether they do so formally or not, most every church ends their worship service with a blessing for the congregation, you’ll see it in your bulletin as the “benediction,” which means “good word.” In many churches, and most Sundays here, that benediction comes from Number 6:24-26, called the Aaronic Blessing. There, God tells Moses’ brother Aaron, the head of the priests, to bless the people of Israel by saying, “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.” This benediction is more than just a good word or a promise of blessing though. As Mike Glodo writes, “God made us with faces so that his could shine on ours and that the Aaronic Blessing could be to us not only a ‘little Bible,’ but a ‘little gospel.’ Over the course of these six weeks, we’ll seek to gain a deeper understanding of the blessing in Numbers and how the Gospel is both summarized and lived out through it.