The Lord Bless You and Keep You: The Promise of the Gospel in the Aaronic Blessing

Michael J. Glodo

Reviewed by: Benjamin M. Ward

The Lord Bless You and Keep You: The Promise of the Gospel in the Aaronic Blessing, by Michael J. Glodo. Crossway, 2023. Paperback, 224 pages, $16.99. Reviewed by OP pastor Benjamin M. Ward.

In his new book, Michael Glodo puts forward a study on the Aaronic Blessing from the end of Numbers 6 (“The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you . . .”). He focuses not only on the blessing itself, but on how it reverberates throughout the rest of the Old and New Testaments. Thus the sections of the book easily delineate into the “context,” the “content,” and then the “consequences” of the blessing. A final section applies what the reader has learned about the Aaronic Blessing to corporate worship and the shepherding ministry of the church.

The book is perhaps a bit mistitled. While the focus of the book is on the Aaronic Blessing in general, it more specifically concerns “to make his face shine upon you.” This one aspect of the blessing is clearly the singular focus of the book. A theology of both God’s face and human faces pervades it, and there is even a lengthy section on four different “veils” or “vales” that cover our faces. These, Glodo argues, are removed through coming to God through Christ, based on 2 Corinthians 3:16, “when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed” (83).

With plenty of illustrations throughout, and study questions at the end of each chapter, Glodo does a great job making what would ordinarily be a high-level theological discussion into something edifying for both pastors and laypeople.

It is not a coincidence that both this book and the article on which it was based came out during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with its swirl of questions regarding the wisdom and propriety of masking, and the deeper theological question of what it means to cover the human face for an extended period of time. Glodo really only touches on those questions in his conclusion, and I do not find convincing his assertion that “the covering and masking of our faces makes us less human” (171). It is, however, also difficult to understand whether the point Glodo is making is metaphorical or not, as he will also sometimes critique masks which “create the fictional characters we or others wish us to be” (171).

For the most part, Glodo avoids polemics and makes a convincing case that an important part of the good news is God showing us his face in Christ with his blessing and peace. Because God has “unveiled” himself in Christ, we need not put on the various masks we wear to hide from others. While not persuasive on every point, Glodo demonstrates the importance of God’s “face” and the faces of those made in his image. As Glodo reminds us, paraphrasing C. S. Lewis, “we still have faces.”