The certainty of the Divine benediction.
"He will bless us." The repetition of the word "bless" adds great effect to this passage. The Lord has many blessings, each one worthy to be remembered—he blesses, and blesses, and blesses again. Where he has once bestowed his favor, he continues it, his blessing delights to visit the same house very often, and abide where it has once lodged. Blessing does not impoverish the Lord; he has multiplied his mercies in the past, and he will pour them forth thick and threefold in the future. He will have a general blessing for all who fear him, a peculiar blessing for the whole house of Israel, and a double blessing for the sons of Aaron. It is his nature to bless, it is his prerogative to bless, it is his glory to bless, it is his delight to bless; he has promised to bless, and therefore be sure of this—he will bless, and bless without ceasing. The subject dealt with should be this—The past is the pledge of the future. A nation makes a fatal mistake when it separates itself from its past; though it misuses the past when it binds itself with precedents, and so destroys its own freedom and individuality. A man makes the gravest mistake when he separates himself from his past, but he makes as grave a mistake when he persists in forcing his present life and relations into the old moulds. What is always safe to do is, keep in mind what God has been to us in the past. Our selves in our past seldom teach us much. In regard to human experience, Froude's word is a wise one, "Experience is like the stern-lights of a ship, which throw their rays on a way which has been taken." God in our past always teaches us much, seeing that we have no very definite aim in working for ourselves, and he has a very definite aim in working for us.
I. GOD HAS BLESSED US. How true this is seen to be in a review of the history of God's people Israel! Especially if we take, as the chief idea of God's blessing, over ruling for God. The more clearly we understand our own lives, the more fully we shall realize that as our best idea of God's blessing. Certainly it is what would most come home to the restored exiles.
II. GOD IS BLESSING US. This is a fact of observation; a conviction of feeling; and an argument from the nature of God. We cannot conceive of him as beginning to do a good, and leaving it off; and the blessing we need is blessing that we continuously need.
III. GOD WILL BLESS US. Since we are well assured that our conditions, relations, and needs will remain much the same, and call still for his merciful overrulings and blessings.—R.T.