I reiterate my greetings to all of you, ministers who are present and those who are connected through the Amazonas satellite or the internet in different nations.
At this time let’s read the priestly blessing, which is in Numbers, chapter 6, verses 22 and on; it says:
“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them,
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:
The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”
May God bless our souls with His Word and allow us to understand It.
“THE PRIESTLY BLESSING.”
God commands the prophet Moses to tell Aaron, his brother, who was the high priest at that time, the way – to tell him the way he should bless the people; and here are the things that Aaron should ask as intercessor for the people, as high priest, the things he should ask in that blessing in favor of the people. It says:
“The Lord bless thee, and keep thee (a blessing and protection):
The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee.”
Throughout the different times we find that the face of God is promised, and that blessing is requested so that the face of God shines upon His people.
“Unto those who fear My Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing, salvation in His Wings.” Malachi, chapter 4, verse 2.
And also in Psalm *80, let’s see what this Psalm tells us here; verse 1 and on says:
“Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.
Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength, and come and save us.”
And here the request is that He stir up His strength before Ephraim (and Ephraim is the one who has the Birthright Blessing), before Benjamin (Joseph’s younger brother), and Manasseh (Ephraim’s brother). In other words, all of this is connected to Jacob and his son – his two sons: Joseph and Benjamin, the children of the beloved woman that he married:
“Turn us again, O God…”
And now it is a request that the restoration come to the Hebrew people.
“And cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.”
On Mount Sinai the face of Christ shone as the sun.
Now, right here, in verse 7, it says:
“Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.”
And now, for the salvation and restoration of Israel, the face of God must shine. And how will the face of God shine? Through His last manifestation, where the Presence of God will be manifested; and, therefore, God’s blessing of the restoration will come to His people.
When Jacob met the Angel and held on to Him and didn’t let go of Him until he received the blessing from the Angel, who changed his name, later Jacob named the place where he had this experience Peniel, because he said: “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”[1]
Peniel, the place where he saw God face to face. Peniel means: “The face of God.”
And now: “Cause Your face to shine, and restore us, save us!” There, when God was with Jacob in His heavenly body, and Jacob saw Him: he obtained God’s blessing. He was seeing the face of God; that is, the face of God’s heavenly body; he was seeing God face to face through his heavenly body.
When Christ was on Earth, He said: “My Father and I are one.”[2] “He that has seen Me has seen the Father.”[3] And He said: “I am the Light of the world; he that follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life.”[4] The disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ were seeing God face to face; the face of God was shining there, that manifestation of God through Christ.
In Saint John, chapter 5, verse 35, Christ speaking of John the Baptist, says that John was a burning light; and He says: “And you were willing to walk in his light.” In other words, when the promised Word for an age or dispensation is made flesh in the messenger relevant to that time, God is there in His heavenly body manifesting Himself and shining —God, who is Light— through a veil of flesh relevant to the time in which that manifestation of God is carried out.
And the promised Word made flesh, made a reality, in the man relevant to the corresponding time, that Word made flesh is the Light for the age in which people are living; that is the Light promised for each age and for each dispensation.
That is why Jesus could say: “I am the Light of the world; he that follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life.”
Moses was the Light for the time in which he lived, it was the Word made flesh in him.
In every prophet to whom the Word has come and has been made flesh in them, they have been the Light of God for the day in which they lived.
And that is also how it was throughout the different stages or ages of the Church, in which God sent a messenger for each age, through whom the Holy Spirit shone and gave Light in each age, in the Holy Place of the spiritual Temple of Christ, that is, of His Church.
The Light made flesh was there; the Word made flesh promised for each age was there; he was the wick of each candlestick or each lamp of the lampstand, on fire with the Holy Spirit. And on fire with the Spirit and placed in that bowl of the candlestick: he gave Light; and he had the Oil of the Holy Spirit, which was what burned in him; and therefore, he gave Light in the Church, in the relevant age to which he was sent.
The Word made flesh in the messenger relevant to each age is the Light of the age when you see It.
That’s also how it is with dispensational messengers; once it’s a dispensational messenger, it’s a greater Light.
That is why John was a burning light, in other words, a burning lamp, like those on the candlestick or lampstand; but Jesus was a greater Light, because Jesus is represented in the most holy place, where there is only one Light: the Light of God, the Light of the Pillar of Fire.
Him, in that Light, manifested above the mercy seat, shining in the most holy place and speaking there to the high priest, who is the one that would enter.
And when Moses was still alive, Moses would come into the most holy place and God would speak with him face to face (that is what God told Moses);[5] from there He would speak to him all the things that Moses had to speak to the people. That was after everything that happened on Mount Sinai.
And now, notice, when Moses comes down the mountain for the second time, with the new tables of the Law that he cut and prepared himself, according to what God told him, to then go up the mountain and have everything written there, what had been written in the first tables that Moses broke;[6] when he came down the mountain his face was shining
And when they realized it, a veil was then put over his face; and he kept that veil on. When he went in to speak with God he would remove it (and when…), he entered the most holy place without the veil. And when he spoke with God, he would finish, then he would come out with his face covered by a veil, and thus, he was covering that Glory of God that was being manifested through him.[7]
And now, God shines through the veil of flesh that He has for the time when He is manifesting Himself.
God will shine for the Hebrew people soon; and they will see that Glory of God manifested in the Most Holy Place of the spiritual Temple of Christ, which is the Age of the Cornerstone.
And they are going to see that manifestation in that “Third Pull” as Reverend William Branham called it. There they will see Christ, the Angel of the Covenant, the Messiah, shining and manifesting His Glory, manifesting His power, and so on.
That will already be in the last days, that the Virgin-Church will be on Earth. When that time comes, we already know that there will be few days left before we go with Christ to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
In those days: whoever hasn’t been transformed yet, will be transformed; and the dead in Christ who haven’t resurrected yet, will be resurrected.
It will be a time when the Glory of God will be manifested, when the face of Christ, of God, will be shining upon Ephraim; and God will be stirring up His strength before Ephraim.
And Ephraim is Joseph’s son, who was blessed first, before his brother Manasseh. That is in chapter 48 of Genesis.
And, therefore, since Ephraim went on to be the head…, the head tribe which had the Birthright Blessing, and he received the kingdom of the ten northern tribes when it was given to Jeroboam, a descendant of Ephraim… Notice, that kingdom couldn’t be given to someone else; it had to be to Ephraim, a descendant of Ephraim.
And now, in [First] Chronicles, chapter 5, notice what it tells us [verse 1]:
“Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel, (for he was the firstborn; but forasmuch as he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright.
For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph’s:)”
So the tribe of Joseph, which consists of two tribes: the tribe of Ephraim and the tribe of Manasseh, Joseph has the birthright.
Therefore, God will manifest His power before Ephraim, that is, before Ephraim and Manasseh (the ones who have the birthright and form the tribe of Joseph); and also before Benjamin, who is Joseph’s brother. And it will cover, therefore, the kingdom of the north and the kingdom of the south; because Benjamin belongs to the kingdom of the south and Joseph to the kingdom of the north.
So this request, this prayer of the Psalmist here, is going to become a reality for Christianity and then for Judaism: they are going to see the power of God manifested; and God will stir up that power before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh.
And the descendants of Joseph, and therefore, of Ephraim and Manasseh, are in the midst of Christianity under a New Covenant, those who have come into the New Covenant.
Those who have not come in are either within Judaism or are not believers, but instead live as if they didn’t have God; because among Jews, they’re not all believers; perhaps half or more are not believers.
Remember that in past times: sometimes an entire tribe, and on other occasions all ten tribes, turned to idolatry.
In the time of Elijah, God told Elijah, who thought that all of Israel had already completely turned away from God and that only Elijah was left, God said to him: “I still have seven thousand left who have not bowed their knees to Baal.”[8] Seven thousand, out of so many people, is a small group, but that is the remnant.
Just as God will also have a group of 144,000 elect of the Hebrew people, 12,000 of each tribe. And among Christianity, well, He has the elect of the Last Day at the end time, just like in each age He had the relevant elect who formed the Church of the Lord.
And now, the priestly blessing for the people, notice, has countless things that are requested in that blessing; and it is for the priest, the high priest, and for his children, who are the priests… because the rest of the Levites were not priests, only the high priest and his family; in other words, the rest of the priests had to be descendants of the high priest.
And now, seeing the content of that priestly blessing, which tells us:
“The Lord bless you and keep you (a blessing and protection); may He make His face shine upon you;” we have already seen how He makes His face shine.
And on Mount [Transfiguration] we saw the face of the Lord shining, and Moses and Elijah appeared.
When the ministries of Moses and Elijah are seen manifested in the midst of Christianity and later in the midst of Judaism, and consequently the ministry of Jesus as well: the face of God will be shining. That is the way for the face of God to shine: by first looking at His Church, and then looking at His people Israel with love and mercy.
[Numbers 6:25] “The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee (mercy is obtained there: as the face of God shines looking upon His people):
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.”
And give what? “And give thee peace,” because God is the One who gives peace.
He is also the One who… He says: “I have taken away the peace of this people;”[9] because of the sins of the people peace was taken away.
Because of the people drawing near to God with sincerity of heart, restoration comes for the people, and —consequently— peace also comes as a blessing for the people, and as a goal: happiness; for there is no happiness without peace.
“And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”
In other words, they must, when the high priest and the priests bless the people, according to the way it is established here, they must speak the Name of God upon the people; therefore, they must know the Name of God.
And now, we have seen that priestly blessing, and we have also seen that there is a ministry to speak that blessing. The ministers, the priests of the temple, were the ones who had that commission; not the Levites, although those priests were Levites descendants of Levi from the line of Kohath, which Moses and Aaron came from.
And now, notice, the priestly order, the high priest ministry or priestly ministry, in the Old Testament corresponds to Aaron and his children, his descendants; and in the Old Testament that is forever.
That is why, notice, to be a priest in the Old Testament you have to be a descendant of Aaron, and to be a high priest you also have to be a descendant of Aaron; that is the way that God established.
And to bestow the blessing upon the people: a high priest, or one of the priest descendants of Aaron as well, who could bless the people this way.
And now there are no priests ministering in the temple of God in Jerusalem, because there is no temple; but that’s no problem, we have the High Priest of the heavenly Temple, which is Christ, to bless in the Eternal Name of God all the believers in Him.
And we have a Priestly Order in Heaven: the Order of Melchizedek, of which Christ is the High Priest; and all the believers in Christ, it says in Revelation, chapter 1, verses 5 to 6, and Revelation, chapter 5, verses 8 to 11, and Revelation, chapter 20, verses 4 to 6, that God – that Christ has cleansed us with His Blood and He has… “cleansed us from all sin with His Blood and has made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign with Him.”
We will also be, not just kings (that is, in the political aspect) but also priests: in the religious aspect, the spiritual aspect, blessing the people. Christ, together with His Priestly Order, in the Millennial Kingdom will be blessing the people. Christ and the believers in Him, who are priests of that same Order of Christ, will have the Word of blessing for the people, for the individuals.
In the Millennial Kingdom we will see what it will be like; because it says there that those who bless themselves: “shall bless themselves or shall be blessed by the God of truth;[10] but we will leave that alone for now; notice how the people are blessed when the minister in the Name of the Lord asks for God’s blessing for the people.
“THE PRIESTLY BLESSING.”
Remember that we belong to a heavenly Priestly Order: the Priestly Order of Melchizedek, which the Lord Jesus Christ is the High Priest of. That Priestly Order will be here on Earth in the Millennial Kingdom, and there we will see how that Priestly Order will work. Let’s leave it there; and in the Millennial Kingdom of Christ we will see in more detail how everything will be.
And Benjie from Puerto Rico, if you’re hearing me: May God bless you greatly as well and use you greatly in His Work at this end time.
God bless you and keep you all.
“THE PRIESTLY BLESSING.”
[1] Genesis 32:22-32
[2] John 10:30
[3] John 14:9
[4] John 8:12
[5] Exodus 33:11
[6] Exodus 32:1-19, 34:1-4
[7] Exodus 34:29-35
[8] 1 Kings 19:18
[9] Jeremiah 16:5
[10] Isaiah 65:16