Monday 22 October 2012

Monday -- the Blessing

Prayer:  Heavenly God,  we thank You for our father and our mother and our home.  Bless us all and help us to love You and in love to serve one another as Jesus taught us to do.  Give us strength to do what is right today, and to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. This we ask in the name of Jesus.   Amen. (FMP 1964)

Read St. Luke 1: 8 – 10

Luke continues writing that Zechariah’s  division was on duty.  As a tribesman from the tribe of Aaron (the priestly tribe),   Zechariah was serving as priest before God.  His tasking for this particular day was to go into the temple and burn incense.  Now this just doesn’t mean getting one of those sticks of incense,  lighting it,  sticking it into a sandy pot, and saying a few prayers.   Burning incense in the temple meant creating a fire in a specific altar made out of a specific wood,  placing in the resin of frankincense, all the while saying prayers continually.  
The incense altar was made out of acacia wood.  The altar measured one cubit long and one cubit wide and one cubit high (1 ½ feet long and wide and 3 feet high).    The incense altar had to have horns.  Then the whole altar was overlaid with pure gold.    The altar also had to have two gold rings to hold the poles used to carry the altar.  The altar was put in front of the linen curtain that was before the ark of the Covenant  (Exodus 30: 1 -10)
Incense used had to follow the recipe in Exodus 30: 34 – 36.  No substitutions were allowed!     This recipe was only for temple use.  
Frankincense is a resin from the Boswellia tree (shrub).  The resin is created by workers slashing at the branches of the shrub (trees).   Then resin will slowly drain out of the trees (shrub) and form into hardened tear shaped drops.    The clearer the resin,  the better quality it is for incense. 
After the Priest offered prayers to God,  the Priest would come out from behind the curtain and bless the people.    We know this blessing today as the “Aaronic Blessing”. This is the blessing that is usually sung when a child/person has been baptized.  In actual fact,  this should be known as the Priestly Blessing (Birkat Kohanim – Hebrew).   For the people of Israel,  this Blessing is directly from God.  Priests can not bless,  the blessing they give to the people of Israel is directly from God… the priests are just the transmitters.  
There were so many priests during the time of Zechariah,  that this tasking would probably have only happened once in each priest’s lifetime.  So this day had special meaning for Zechariah!
Read Numbers 6: 22 – 27.  This is the Priestly Blessing.  The LORD bless you and keep you.  The LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.  The LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace. 
The people do not look at the Priests while they are saying the blessing for two reasons.   First,  the people would look down at the floor so as not to be distracted by the Temple or the Priests (or what they were going to have for supper….).  Second,  the Divine Presence would be shining on the fingers of the Priest as they blessed the people.  And no one is to look upon the glory of God. 

So we end off the devotion today with the people standing with heads bowed,  waiting for Zechariah to come out of the temple and bless them.

Prayer:  Great God,  our heads are bowed in prayer knowing that You have already blessed us through the gift of Your Son,  Jesus Christ our Lord.  Help us to love every one we meet this day and may they discover in us the light of Jesus Christ.  Amen. 

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