Numbers 6:26 - The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

This third evocation of God’s name is used in the blessing of God’s presence in the midst of His people. When the Hebrew Children were wandering for those 40 years in the wilderness wherever they might be they could look above the tabernacle where they would see the Shekinah Glory of God, a cloud by day and a flame by night and they would know that God was with them. In that knowledge of the protection and the presence of God, they would also find the peace of God. If God was with them what had they to fear?

Centuries later when the God’s nation had forsaken him and been driven into captivity, they were given a promise and an assurance that still God had not abandoned them. The old Covenant of the law had failed because it depended on them but God had is never unprepared, never surprised and He never can fail. Already He had prophesied a new covenant dependent only upon Himself. It was prophesied by God’s prophets during the exile in Babylon

Jeremiah 31:31-34  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:  …  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Ezekiel 36:27  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Joel 2:28  And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:  And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.

The people of God no longer would need a tabernacle or a temple with God’s presence dwelling between the cherubim of the mercy seat. That glory, that peace they lost, but this future promise of God’s Spirit in them, meant God would never forsake them. He would be with them, dwelling through His Spirit in their heart.  What a  promise. What an assurance of peace. But it could not be fulfilled until Messiah had come, given His life and then ascended back to the father. Once that happened then on the Day of Pentecost, 50 days after Jesus was crucified and resurrected, the Holy Spirit came and indwelt the people of God.

His Presence in the Holy Spirit.

The fulfillment of the promise from Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Joel was begun in

Acts 2:1-4 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.  And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

I believe this was the same Shekinah Glory that once filled the sky over the tabernacle, the same Shekinah Glory that filled the Temple and now filled God’s new house of witness, the church. But there is a difference, for now it would fill the life of every individual believer, we as believers were the new tabernacle for the presence of God in the person of the Holy Spirit to dwell in.

Jesus had promised the gift of the Holy Spirit the night before He was taken and crucified

John 14:16-17  And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;  Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

Now on the Day of Pentecost, that promise was fulfilled. The Jewish people of Jesus time looked for this as a confirmation of the coming of the Messiah, the New Covenant written in the heart of God’s people and the gift of His Spirit to be with them.

Just as God gave a sign, a proof, of his presence to the Israelites in the Shekinah Glory, He has also given a proof of His presence to us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Just as the blessing in Numbers 6:26 states, The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. It is His presence in the Holy Spirit that will give us peace.

The last half of Romans 8 is all about the gift and the power of the Holy Spirit. Let me just read a few verses.

Romans 8:14-16 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: Vss. 26-28 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

When Paul wrote Timothy he reminded him of God’s gift of the spirit and what it meant in him. 2 Timothy 1:6-7 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. 7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

 This is the undeniable, unassailable peace, that comes from being blessed with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We are His and He has bound us to him eternally by the anchor of His Spirit in us. That no matter what may happen, that bond of adoption can never be broken. We are His, blessed by the Father’s protection, bought by the blood of Christ and bound by the gift of the Comforter.