If you attended our Sunday church service on January 1^st, you should have little difficulty in recognizing the Scripture verses in the box above as the appointed Old Testament Lesson for New Year’s Day. Even if you didn’t, you should have little difficulty in recognizing the triple blessing contained therein as the blessing that concludes most of our Divine Services. That blessing is known as the “Aaronic Benediction” because the Lord specifically commanded Aaron and his descendents, who served as God’s appointed priests, to use it to bless His people.

What a fitting blessing it is to end one year and begin another! If you look closely at it, three main themes become very evident. The Lord provides, the Lord pardons, and the Lord bestows.

In Hebrew, the word translated here as “Lord” is “Yahweh”. Yahweh is the original name of the one true God of Israel. It was held so sacred that no priest would ever utter it out loud to keep from offending the one true God. In its place, another word, one meaning “lord”, was spoken whenever Scripture was read. Later, the vowel accents of that other word were given to the letters of God’s name to give us the pronunciation of “Yahweh”.

What is interesting about Aaron’s blessing is that each time the word for God (Yahweh) is used (three times), there is a different accent on it. Ancient Jewish scholars sensed a mystery in this—the mystery of the Triune God, a mystery made perfectly clear by Jesus in Matthew 28:19 when He gave us the name of the one true God: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.

Repeating Lord three times along with the three different accents and a different focus in each of the three separate blessings all point to God being one God in three persons. The Apostle Paul, much in the same vein, coined his own Trinitarian blessing in the closing to his second letter to the Corinthians: May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Perhaps the most important point for us, however, is that the “you” in Aaron’s blessing is in the singular. All three of the blessings in the one main blessing are meant for each individual in the assembly of those who hear the Word of God. To say it another way, the Church is One, though many. All three are salutary thoughts. That is, they actually impart the blessings contained therein.

As we look back at 2005, thank God for blessing us and keeping each of us, that is, for “providing” everything needed to sustain our bodies and lives. Thank God for being gracious to each of us, that is, for “pardoning” our sins through the blood of His Son. Thank God for giving each of us peace, that is, for actually “bestowing” on us the peace of sins forgiven.

If God so diligently cared for us in the past year, how will He not do the same in the year ahead? As Hagar, thought to be abandoned in the wilderness, said, “You are the God who sees me” (Genesis 16:13). Our circumstances may be, by our observation or the world’s standards, worse in 2006 than in 2005. On the other hand, they might be better. No matter what, God does indeed see each and every one of us! He knows our circumstances and He uses everything for our good (Romans 8:28), whether we realize it or not.

God sees ahead! Literally, that is what the word “provide” means (pro-ahead; vide-sees). In His foreknowledge, God sees our circumstances and needs before they occur. Because of that ability, He saw our greatest need, our need to be freed from the consequences of sin, before we were even born. And to bless us and keep us, He did not keep His own Son. Jesus came to earth in the womb of a virgin to keep perfectly in life what we cannot—the Law of God. And to make His face shine upon us and to be gracious to us, He was not gracious to His own Son. It was His will that Jesus take on the sins of the world and to suffer His wrath against it in our place. And to lift up His countenance on us, to look on us with love, and to give us His peace of sins forgiven, He turned His face away from His own Son as Jesus hung on the cross securing our peace in the words, “It is finished!” Now, because of Jesus’ selfless sacrifice on Calvary, you, each one of you, is blessed by God in His keeping of you; in His graciousness toward you; and in the peace that He gives you.

Will 2006 be a better year than 2005, or worse? It really doesn’t make any difference under God’s grace, for He will carry us through no matter what. God grant every member of Trinity to continue hearing the words of Aaron’s Benediction as often as possible in the year ahead. It is a beautiful blessing. It comes from the love of God for His people. It is given to you personally as a pledge of His promises in Christ Jesus being fulfilled. And so, we conclude it in our Divine Worship by recognizing the one true God, the Triune God, with our triple amen.

Amen—it certainly is true that we are blessed by God in all that He provides for our needs in life! Amen—it certainly is true that God’s face shines on us as He continues to grant us forgiveness of sin through absolution and Word and Sacrament! Amen—it certainly is true that the Lord lifts His face on us in love and gives us the peace and promise of heaven!

Amen, Amen, Amen! A blessed New Year under God’s grace to each of you!