Let me invite you all to find your seats, and as you find your
seats, if you would open your Bibles to the Book of Numbers
this morning, we're going to be in Numbers 2411 to 25.
We've been going through the Book of Numbers for several
months, and we've been going through the prophecies of
Balaam, the false prophet Balaam.
And so we're on his final prophecy this morning.
His fourth and final prophecy, Numbers 2411 to 25.
The title of the sermon this morning is this.
God holds the future. So let's read the text, open us
in a word of prayer, and then we'll jump into our sermon this
morning, Numbers 24, beginning in verse 11.
Therefore now flee to your own place.
I said, I will certainly honor you, but the Lord has held you
back from honor. And Balaam said to Balaic, Did I
not tell your messengers whom you sent to me?
If Balaic should give me his house full of silver and gold, I
would not be able to go beyond the word of the Lord, to do
either good or bad of my own will.
What the Lord speaks, that will I speak.
And now, behold, I'm going to my people.
Come, I will let you know what this people will do to your
people in the latter days. And he took up his discourse and
said, the Oracle of Balaam, the son of Bior, the Oracle of the
man whose eye is opened, the Oracle of him who hears the
words of God and knows the knowledge of the Most High, who
sees the vision of the Almighty falling down with his eyes
uncovered. I see him, but not now.
I behold him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob,
and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.
It shall crush the forehead of Moab and breakdown.
All the sons of Chef Edom shall be dispossessed.
Say here also his enemies shall be dispossessed.
Israel is doing valiantly, and one from Jacob shall exercise
dominion and destroy the survivors of cities.
Then he looked on a malek and took up his discourse and said A
malek was the first among the nations, but its end is utter
destruction. And he looked on the key night
and took up his discourse and said Enduring is your dwelling
place, and your nest is set in the rock.
Nevertheless, Cain shall be burned when Asher takes you away
captive. And he took up his discourse and
said, Alas, who shall live when God does this?
But ship shall come from Kateem, and shall afflict Asher and
Eber, and he too shall come to utter destruction.
Then Balaam rose and went back to his place, and Balak also
went his way. He will pray with me.
God, this morning as we close out the story of Balaam, at
least for now, God help us to reflect on all that we've
learned over the past four weeks, looking at this, this
story of of Balaam and and how from start to finish, it has
been a story of your Providence that were man planned, where man
connived and and try to control the future.
You have shown us, Lord, that you hold the future.
You are the sovereign God who controls all things and all
things are under your hand, including the future.
So this morning, God, would you help us to see that and, and
especially as we look at Balaam's prophecy and how he
prophesized what will happen to Moab, what will happen to Israel
and how it is certain because you have decree to God.
I pray this all in the name of Jesus, Amen.
What would you pay to know the future?
If there was somebody who could objectively know the future,
they came to you and they said, I can tell you one thing about
your future. You can pick it whatever you
want, however near or far into the future.
I can tell you one thing about the future.
What would you pay? How much would that kind of
information be worth? What would it be worth to you?
Or better yet, what if you could control the future?
What if this person said for an extra fee, not only can you know
the future, but you could control something.
You can dictate what happens in the future.
You can pick one thing and you can control.
You can make this happen in the future.
How much would that be worth to you?
For Balak, it was worth a lot. He was willing to pony up a
small fortune to control his future.
And yet, when Balaam shows him in this 4th and final Oracle
this morning, he shows him this. God dictates the future.
God holds the future. That's what the sermon is about
this morning, that God holds the future, your future, my future,
all of our futures. God holds it in the palm of His
hand. I want to give a context.
We're jumping right into the middle of a story this morning.
Let me give just a brief context and then we'll jump into our
text and our sermon. Balak is the king of Moab and he
has hired Balaam, a Pagan diviner to come and curse
Israel. Balaam has already 3 prophecies
that we've looked at over the past several weeks.
But with all three prophecies, rather than curse Israel, Balaam
has instead blessed them. Now Balaam warned Balak from the
get go that all the words that God puts in his mouth that he
must say. But Balak ignores this warning.
And as a result, what man meant for cursing, God used for
blessing. And this morning we're going to
get to Balaam's 4th and final prophecy starting in verse 11.
That's what we're going to pick up.
If you will look at me with me in your text.
Therefore, now flee to your own place.
I said I will certainly honour you, but the Lord has held you
back from honour. So after three failures, Balak
is now done with Balaam. Three strikes and you're out.
He says, I hired you to curse my enemies, but you have done
nothing but bless them. So now we're done.
I'm done with you. Therefore, now flee to your own
place. Now this is Balick's way of
saying go, Go home and go at once.
Flee. Do not pass.
Go, do not collect $200. Go home.
As for our contract, I wrote in there that I would honor you.
I said I will certainly honor you.
Meaning I had every intention of rewarding you handsomely, but
the Lord has held you back from honor.
In other words, I know you desire to get rich, but the Lord
has kept you from getting rich. Now what's interesting is that's
true. That's true.
The Lord did keep him from getting honored.
Church family, what is God keeping you from?
What is God keeping you from? God kept Balaam from cursing
Israel. What is God keeping you from?
In the High Priestly Prayer, Jesus prays that God would keep
us from the evil one. What evil is God keeping you
from? Remember the story of David and
Abigail and Nabal? Remember David asked Nibal for
some refreshments for his soldiers and Nibal said I don't
know who David is. I'm not giving him any
refreshments. Nibal rebuffs him.
And what does David do? David tells all of his men,
strap on a sword. We ride from the balls.
Tonight David is planning to get there and denominably kill
Nibal, but to kill all of his family, all the men in his
family. But Abigail wisely intervenes.
She makes amends for her husband's folly.
And when she gets to David, this is what she says to David.
Because the Lord has restrained you from blood guilt and has
kept you from saving with your own hand.
You see, David sought vengeance, and had he enacted this
vengeance, he would have been guilty.
He would have been guilty of blood guilt.
But God kept him. God restrained him from doing
it. What is God keeping you from?
You see, it's so easy for us to focus on all the things that God
is not giving us, right? God, why are you not giving me
this promotion? I deserve it.
I've earned it. I've worked hard for this.
Why are you not giving me this promotion?
Or this job or healing? Ever wonder why God wouldn't
heal you? Or a boyfriend, or a girlfriend,
or a spouse or friends, or a child or another child.
Why won't you give me? This is so easy for us to focus
on all the things that God is not giving us.
But have we ever stopped to consider that maybe it's not
that God is refusing to give us something good, but that He is
keeping us from something worse? Have you ever stopped to
consider that every day of our life God is keeping us from
evil? We may never even know it.
We may never even discern what it is, but He is doing it.
He is keeping us from evil. Look at verse 12 to 13, and
Balaam said to Balak, did I not tell your messengers whom you
sent to me? If Balak should give me his
house full of silver and gold, I would not be able to go beyond
the word of the Lord to do either good or bad of my own
will. What the Lord speaks that will I
speak. You know that phrase.
I told you so, right? Nobody likes to hear that.
But that's what Balaam gives to Balak.
He's like, why are you surprised, Balak?
Why are you so angry with me? I told you so even before this
whole charade started. When your servants first came to
me, all the way back long ago, they came to me.
I told them. I said, look, if your king gave
me all of his riches, I could not go beyond the word of the
Lord. I would not be able to do it.
The problem is that Balaam Balak thinks that Balaam can still do
his own will. Balak hears this and he thinks,
yeah, but Balaam, you still have a will of your own, and you can
do your own will. And Balaam says, no, I can't.
I can't do good or bad of my own will.
That's what he says. I can't do my own will.
Even Balaam, a false prophet, teaches us the importance of
saying not my will. You see, Balaam's will is to
curse Israel. That is his will.
His will is to curse Israel and get rich.
That's what he wants. But Balaam says I can't carry
out my own will. The entire battle with sin in
this life comes down to one line spoken by Jesus.
You can really say that our entire battle with sin in this
life comes down to this one single line by Jesus.
And here it is. Nevertheless, not my will, but
yours be done. I was talking with Lauren a few
weeks back and I was sharing with her that one of the hardest
pieces about marriage is that a husband has a will and the wife
has a will and often you can't accomplish both.
I mean, not even on spiritual things.
I mean just like just life, husband has a will, wife has a
will, you often can't accomplish both.
The husband wants to eat out or wants to eat at home.
The the wife wants to eat out. One of those wills has to win
out unless they're going to do their own thing.
The wife wants to have a second child.
The husband wants to stop at one.
One of those wills has to win out.
The husband wants to buy this house.
The wife wants to buy that house.
One of those wills has to win out.
It's a in marriage, you have to decide whose will is going to
win out. How are we going to figure this
out? And yet when we come to God,
this dynamic does not exist. It doesn't exist.
It must not exist. It's never, well, God, can we
compromise? You know it's a, it's a 5050
God, right? You get your way 50% of the
time. I get my way 50% of the time,
right? It's, it's a give and take.
God, you know sometimes your will, right?
No, God's will must win out every single time.
Every time. We never know better than him.
We never have a better idea than God.
We have never thought through this decision more thoroughly
than God has. When it comes to the decisions
that we make in our life, we should never say, well this is
what I want and therefore what it's going to happen.
We should say I don't have a will.
I have submission to His will. My desires matter.
They are not ultimate. I don't have a will.
I have submission to His will. Balaam says what the Lord speaks
that will I speak. They like it doesn't matter what
I want. I have to say what God says.
You know, what I find interesting is that there is a
final Oracle. Do you think about that?
Why? Because Balak was angry.
Balak was angry. Verse 10 says that his anger was
kindled against Balaam. He struck his hands together.
He told him not only to go home, but he says flee to your home.
Now, I don't know about you, but if I'm a Pagan diviner and this
king who's got an army behind him tells me you best flee, I
might want to run out of there, right?
This guy might kill me. He is a king.
He's got an army behind him. And yet Balaam says to Balak, I
don't get to go home. I don't get to go home until the
Lord sends me home. Everything that God tells me to
speak that must I speak. Balaam continues to prophecy
despite Balak's anger. Think about that, brothers and
sisters, we need not let man's anger glue our mouth shut.
You ever told your mom something that made her angry?
What do? What do we do?
Let's end of that conversation. You ever told your friend
something that made them angry? End of that conversation.
We need not let the anger of man glue our mouths shut.
You ever made someone unrighteously angry with your
righteous words? We've all been guilty of making
someone righteously angry with our unrighteous words.
But you ever made someone unrighteously angry with your
righteous words? You see, Balaam shows us that we
need not let the anger of man silence us.
Remember when Stephen was given his witness in the Book of Acts?
He spoke the truth to them. He tells them nothing but the
truth. And how did the people respond
when they heard these things? They were enraged.
They ground their teeth out to him, They covered their ears,
They yelled at the top of their voices, and they all rushed at
him. And they stoned him.
Brothers and sisters, if you make it your goal to never make
man angry, you will actually accomplish two goals.
You won't make man angry, and you will make God angry.
I would rather. Man, be angry with me, then God
be angry with me. Look at verse 14.
And now behold, I'm going to my people.
You kind of wish that was the end.
Balak's like, OK, go, that's what I said, go home.
He says, come, I will let you know what this people will do to
your people in the latter days. Balaam says, look, I'm going
home. But before I go home, before I
go to my people, I got one more thing I need to do.
I'm going to tell you what's going to happen to your people.
I have blessed Israel. Now it's time for me to tell you
what's going to happen to your people.
I know you didn't pay me for that.
It's free of charge. Here's what's going to happen to
your people in the latter days. I want you to notice how
different this time is. Balak didn't ask for a final
prophecy. Bailey doesn't ask for this.
Balaam doesn't tell him to build 7 altars and all for seven bulls
and seven Rams. Balaam doesn't seek the Lord as
before. So why does Balaam give this
final prophecy? Why does he give it?
This is my conjecture. 2 reasons #1 Because the Holy Spirit is
still upon him. Remember we looked at the last
week. The Spirit of God comes upon
Balaam and I think the Spirit of God is still upon him, still
working in his life. It's almost as if the Spirit is
saying, I'm not finished with you yet, Balaam, and #2 it's
almost as if God is saying, Balak, this is not going to end
on your terms. This will end on my terms.
God says I have one more final prophecy to deliver.
Brothers and sisters, don't let the fire of the Spirit be
extinguished. Let it burn, Let the fire of the
spirit continue burning, don't extinguish it.
The Spirit of God has rushed upon Balaam and God is not
finished with him yet. The reality is, is that the
Spirit may be working in your life.
There are many of you here where the Spirit is actively working
in your life. I mean, he's all working in all
of our lives, but maybe in a, in a unique way, in a fresh way, in
a different way, the Spirit is working in your life.
Maybe He's shown you several insights, prophecies,
revelations. Maybe He has enabled you to put
to death, for the first time in your life, some several
besetting sins. Maybe He has spurred you on to
step out in faith in a way that you've never stepped out in
faith before. And if that's true, I want to
exhort you right now. Don't let that fire go out.
Let the fire continue burning. Let it continue to burn.
One of my biggest pet peeves in basketball is when a team is on
a run and the coach of the team that is on the run either calls
a time out or puts in Subs. I can't stand it.
You're down 15 points, You then go on an 18 to three run and you
tie it up and then you make one small state mistake and the
coach is like time out, no, or you put it, you're on a run,
time out. You put some Subs in.
No, let the run continue. We're on a run.
We got a good thing going here. Why would you put in Subs?
Why would you call time out? Let it continue.
And I want to say the same to you, brothers and sisters, if
the spirit is working in your life, let it continue.
Don't be satisfied and be like, oh, that's good lot, lot, lot
was accomplished there. Let it continue.
Don't quench the spirit. You know what that word quench
there means literally extinguish.
Don't extinguish the spirit. Let the fire of the spirit
continue burning in your life. Let God accomplish all that He
wants to do and in through you. Sometimes we let the Spirit take
us this far and God says, I'll take you further, I'll take you
further. Let it take.
Let him take you further. Look at verse 15 to 16.
And he took up his discourse and said the Oracle of Balaam, the
son of Beor, the Oracle of the man whose eye is opened, the
Oracle of him who hears the words of God and knows the
knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty
falling down with his eyes uncovered, Balaam takes up his
final discourse. Now the opening of this 4th
prophecy, it's almost identical to the opening of third, so I'm
not going to rehash most of it. The one change is this addition
of the line. And knows the knowledge of the
Most High. That piece is added, knows the
knowledge of the Most High. So here it is.
Not only had God opened Balaam's eyes to see him, not only had
God opened his ears to hear him, God has also opened his mind to
know him. And for the second time, Balaam
has the same response, same as the third prophecy, same as the
4th. What does he do?
He falls down. He falls down in the presence of
God. I want you to see the
connection. What does seeing God, hearing
God, and knowing God produce? Worship.
It produces worship, even if it is a Pagan kind of worship.
That we'll see at the judgement when every knee bows down before
the Lord. Our worship of God is directly
correlated to how much we see God, know God, and hear God.
They're directly correlated. Let me give a very basic
analogy. Suppose a 30 year old shepherd
man living in 600 BC lived on a flat plain.
I mean, it's, it's it, it is just completely flat, peak
elevation, 4 feet. All this man, his whole life
ever saw, all he ever heard, all he ever knew about was this flat
plane. Thought that that was all that
there was. Thought the whole world was this
one giant flat plane. And then suppose one day his
sheep is lost and he goes looking for it.
He goes looking for it and looking for it and he travels
farther than he's ever travelled before in his whole life.
And he sees something in the distance.
He's like, what is that? As he gets closer, it's a hill,
a 200 foot hill, and he just marvels at it.
He just sits there and stares at it and wonder, wow, I didn't
know such things existed. What a majestic hill.
He's never seen anything but flat plains and this 200 foot
hill looks majestic to him. Now let me ask you a question.
What do you think his wonder will be if he sees Mount
Everest? You see, if all we see and all
we hear and all we know is a 200 foot hill, that our worship will
be 200 feet deep. But if we see, if we hear, if we
know a 29,000 foot mountain that our worship will be 29,000 feet
deep, The more we see God, the more we hear God, the more we
know God, the more we worship God.
See, God is the same. You look at one person, you say,
why is your worship of him greater than mine?
It's not because they see a different God.
It's that they see more of God. They hear more of God.
They know more of God. That's always how it happens.
Your worship of God will always be as deep, as deep is your
knowledge of Him, and you're hearing of Him, and you're
seeing of Him, no more, no less. Look at verse 17.
I see Him, but not now. I behold Him, but not near.
A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of
Israel. It shall crush the forehead of
Moab and break down all the sons of chef Balaam says I see him,
but not now. I behold Him, but not near.
What does this mean? And who does this refer to?
This either refers to the person in the second-half of the verse,
the star and the scepter, or refers to Israel as a people in
the latter days. Either is possible.
The point is that Balaam sees this prophecy and he sees it as
taking place in the distant future.
This is not going to happen anytime soon.
This is going to happen in the distant future.
And then Balaam gives this beautiful prophecy.
He says a star shall come out of Jacob, a scepter shall rise out
of Israel. Now this is Hebrew parallelism,
where scepter is paralleling star and Israel is paralleling
Jacob. So they're referring to the same
thing. Now why A star and why a
scepter? And who is this?
Well, stars were often used metaphorically to refer to
kings. The Babylonian king is called
the day star in Isaiah 1412. So I think this is a king.
Who is this future king? This is generally understood as
a messianic prophecy. This is King Jesus.
We are given a messianic prophecy of our king by a false
prophet. Jesus refers to himself in
Revelation 2216 as the bright morning star, and even a star
announced his birth. This is further solidified by
the fact that it talks about a scepter.
A scepter? What is that?
A scepter is a staff, or it's a baton, usually in the hand of a
sovereign or ruler. It's an emblem of authority,
again giving credence to the fact that this is a king that's
coming. Interesting that when Jacob
gives his prophecies about his sons back in Genesis, this is
what he said about Judah. He says to Judah, the scepter
shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between
his feet. Now, why is that important?
Because Jesus descended from the tribe of Judah.
Now this star and this scepter may have found its partial
fulfillment in King David. I do think there's a, there's a
double fulfillment here. It's partially fulfilled with
King David, but it is ultimately fulfilled in King Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, Jesus is the light to our darkness and he
is the King to our hellbound rebellion.
You know, we have flashlights now and all kinds of things for
light at night time. But in those days, stars were
vastly important. That's how you navigated.
If you're a ship on on the seas and you have no idea if you're
heading towards land or not, you need the stars.
They are the light in your darkness.
Jesus is the light to our darkness and he is the king to
our hell bound rebellion. I'm going to tell a very
personal and embarrassing story. When I was in 7th grade, my
church took a youth trip to the beach and we stayed in a hotel
room. It was me, my older brother, my
older cousin that I like worshipped, and a friend.
All four of us were in one room. On the first night, I woke up in
the middle of the night and I had to go to the bathroom so
bad, but I couldn't find a light switch.
The room was so dark. I don't know why it was so dark,
but it was so dark. It was a new room, so I was
disoriented. I couldn't even find the
bathroom door either. So I started to panic.
I was frantically running my hands along the walls trying to
find the bathroom door, trying to find a light switch or the
bathroom door, and I couldn't find either.
Couldn't find the bathroom door, couldn't find the light switch.
Panic begins to set in. And then after a minute or so, I
couldn't hold it anymore. And so I just stood in the
middle of that hotel room and peed all over myself.
I was so embarrassed, I was so ashamed.
I did not want my brother, my older brother, and my older
cousin and my friend to know. I'm in 7th grade.
I'm not a 7 year old, I'm in 7th grade.
I did not want them to know that I had done this.
So I took my clothes off and I hid them.
I couldn't find. I couldn't even go get a shower
because I couldn't find the bathroom.
I think about that moment from time to time, the feelings of
panic, the feelings of anxiety, the feeling of shame, the
feeling of embarrassment, desperately hiding my clothes.
I'm wanting like please don't let them find this out.
All of which which could have been solved if I could have just
found the light. Friends, Jesus is the light to
our darkness. He is the king to our hell bound
rebellion. You see, we were born on this
earth leading a rebellion against God.
Satan has convinced us that our name plate is on this throne.
And So what do we do? We sit down as King.
But we have been deceived. We have been deceived by him.
I love that scene in Lord of the Rings where Solomon has taken
over King Theodrid. He's holding the king hostage
until Gandalf the White comes in, removes his robe and reveals
that he is. And he, what does he do?
He drives Solomon out. It's such a picture of Christ
coming into our life and driving out Satan.
Jesus is the light to our darkness.
He is the king to our hell bound rebellion.
The Balaam started this prophecy by saying come, I will let you
know what this people will do to your people in the latter days.
And here's what he will do. It shall crush the forehead of
Moab and breakdown all the sons of Chef.
In other words, God is going to judge Moab for their sin.
What an ironic twist. Talk about irony.
Balak hired Balaam to curse Israel so that Moab can defeat
them in battle. And instead, Balaam says, well,
actually here's what's going to happen in later days.
Israel is going to crush Moab's forehead.
You see, Balak was so desperate to control the future.
Desperate to control he he went to extraordinary means to
control the future. But the future could not be
controlled by this king. Why?
Because another king has already written the story.
The story's already been written.
Brothers and sisters, we can sometimes be so desperate to
control our future, right? I'm in that why we're anxious.
We want to know how the story turns out.
We like we we would do anything to know that like this will
happen. Whatever this is, when God has
already written our story, it's already been written.
We can be so desperate to plan for the future, to predict the
future, to secure the future, to determine the future.
Why? Because the future is scary.
It is right. I'm a human like you.
The future scares you. These four boys like their
future terrifies me. We don't like the unknown.
We don't like not having control.
And yet, despite our best efforts to try to control the
future, God holds the future. And we need to realize this.
In the summertime, we'll usually get a few spots with ants in our
house. We can get them in the church.
I find it fascinating to play with ants because an Ant will
try to go this way. And I'll put my finger up to try
to redirect it, you know, And then it just tries to go around
my finger. I put my finger up again and it,
it, it just keeps trying, right? And I think to myself, this is
futile. Ant, give up.
I have limitless resources to block you.
I can remove the trash that you so love.
I can give you poison to end your life.
I have sovereign control over you Aunt.
Give up, you will not win. Brothers and sisters, God has
sovereign control over your life.
You might say. Yeah, yeah, I already know that,
Matt. Right.
It's one thing to know that it's nothing to live like it.
Give up on trying to dictate your future.
Give up. God has already written your
prophecy. It's already been written.
Stop trying to control it. Look at verse 18 to 24.
Edom shall be dispossessed. Say you're also his enemy shall
be dispossessed. Israel is doing valiantly and
one from Jacob. So exercise dominion, and
destroy the survivors of cities. Then he looked on a maleic and
took up his discourse, and said, A maleic was the first among the
nations, but its end is utter destruction.
And he looked on the kenite and took up his discourse, and said,
Enduring is your dwelling place, and your nest is set in the
rock. Nevertheless Cain shall be
burned when Asher takes you away captive.
And he took up his discourse, and said, Alas, who shall live
when God does this? But ship shall come from Kateem,
and shall afflict Asher and Eber, and he too shall come to
utter destruction. I find it fascinating that
Balaam doesn't stop with Moab, Right.
I mean, Balak's here for Moab. And then Balaam tells him,
here's what's going to happen to Moab.
And he says, Oh yeah. By the way, before I go, I'm
going to give some prophecies on some other nations.
While I'm here. I might as well.
God is going to judge four other nations.
Let's look at them individually, really briefly #1 eat them.
Edom is the descendants of Esau. Balaam says that Edom will be
dispossessed. Essentially, they will be
conquered and possessed by another.
Sayir is a mountain range in Edom.
So they're one in the same. They're not two different
things. But while all this is happening
to Edom, Israel is getting stronger.
Israel is growing valiantly. Balaam says that one from Jacob,
we don't know who, one from Jacob will exercise dominion and
destroy the survivor of the cities second group, the
Amalekites. He says a Malik.
A Malik was the first among the nations.
I don't know if they're actually are that maybe meaning that like
they thought they were the first among the nations, first in
supremacy, but its end is utter destruction.
If you remember, when Israel came up out of Egypt, a Malik
came and attacked Israel. And what did the Lord say about
a Malik? He said write this as a memorial
in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua.
That I will utterly blot out from memory a Malik from under
heaven. The Lord will have war with a
Malik from generation to generation, and later God will
use Saul to wipe them off the planet.
Saul fails to do so, but that will happen in the days of
Hezekiah 3 key night. They are one of the 10 tribes
living in Canaan during Abraham's time.
He says Enduring is your dwelling place.
Your nest is set in a rock. Nevertheless, Cain shall be
burned. It was commonly thought that
Cain was the father of the Kenites.
That's conjecture, but that's what is commonly thought.
And he says God says he'll use Asher to judge them.
Now, what is that? Asher is an ancient city dating
back to 2500 BC. Asher's going to come in.
It's going to take the Kenites captive.
This will later become the homeland of the Assyrians.
But then he says look, don't think that Asher is going to get
off Scott free. Asher's day of judgement will
come for Asher. Balaam asked the question, who
can live when God does this? He says ships will come from
Kateem. That's an ancient name for the
island of Cyprus. This probably refers to the
Philistines. He says the Philistines will
afflict Asher and Eber. He too will come to utter
destruction. Now why does he give all of
these prophecies? I think because Balaam is
testifying to Balak, to Moab, to Israel, that one day all of
Israel's enemies will be crushed.
They will all come to utter destruction.
And the same is true for us brothers and sisters.
One day, all of our enemies will be destroyed.
This star coming out of Jacob will use his scepter and he will
crush the forehead of Satan. He will break down all the sons
of darkness. Sin will be dispossessed.
Our flesh will come to utter destruction, The world will be
burned, and death will be carried away in chains to an
everlasting lake of fire. We know how the story ends.
We've been told, we it's been prophesied.
We know how it ends. Our enemies lose.
God wins and I love how this story ends.
Verse 25. I love verse 25.
Then Balaam rose and went back to his place and Balak also went
his way. Balaam rose and went back home.
Balak also went his way. That's it, the end.
I love this ending because of its simplicity.
God has spoken, God has decreed, and all Balaam and Balaam could
do is go home. What are we going to do?
I guess we'll go home. Church, family.
Sometimes the best thing we can do is go home.
Go home in submission. Sometimes we are fighting God,
fighting God, fighting the will of God, fighting the desires of
God. And sometimes the best thing we
can do is say, I need to go home.
God, you win now. Tragically, we'll find out later
that Balaam doesn't go home. We'll find this out too much
later. He doesn't.
He actually goes to Midian and becomes a snare to Israel.
But he had a window right here. Right here.
He has a window. He had a chance.
He saw God, he heard God, he knew God, and he has this small
window where all he needs to do is go home and submit to God.
And he doesn't do it. He doesn't do it.
Sometimes the godliest thing we can do is go home and submit to
God's control over our life because He holds the future.
Let's pray.