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Radiating Radiance

It’s part of a priestly blessing, originating with Aaron, and used through the ages:  

“The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you”;   (Numbers 6:25)

This shinning of His face is a radiance or shining forth of His divine favor toward us.  Other passages further expand upon what that divine favor might entail:

“Make your fact shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love!”  (Ps 31:16)

“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, ” (Ps 67:1)

“Restore us, O God of hosts, let your fact shine, that we may be saved!”  (Ps 80:7)

When His divine favor shines forth, it is can save us, bless us, restore us and extend grace to us. 

And if we look to Him and become radiant, it even somehow removes shame:

“Those who look to Him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.”  (Ps 34:5)

We can also look around us and see His divine favor impacting others and this too can cause us to be radiant:

“Lift up your eyes all around, and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall come from afar…  Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and exult, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you…”  (Isa 60:4-5)

“They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more.” (Jer 31:12)

One of our great joys and privileges is that we can see the radiance of God in His Son, Jesus:

“He is the radiance of the glory of God and exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power...”  (Heb 1:3)

In fact, seeing the fact of Christ can have an extraordinary impact on us:

“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor 4:6)

His light shining into our hearts points us to the knowledge of His glory in the face of Christ. 

So look to Him and be radiant!

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