All right, good morning. Once again, church family, as
you find your seats, if you would open your Bibles to the
Book of Numbers. And this morning we're going to
be in Numbers 22, one to 18, Numbers 22 one to 18.
Title of the sermon this morning is this Disobedience is not an
option. And so let's read the text.
I'll open this in a word of prayer, and then we will jump
into our sermon this morning, Numbers 22, beginning in verse
one. Then the people of Israel set
out and camped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at
Jericho. And Balak, the son of Zippor,
saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites, and Moab was in
great dread of the people because they were many.
Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel, and Moab
said to the elders of Midian, This horde will now lick up all
that is around us as the ox licks up the grass of the field.
So Balak the son of Zippor, who was the king of Moab at the
time, sent messengers to Balaam, the son of Beor, at Pithor,
which is near the river and the land of the people of Amah, to
call him, saying, Behold, a people has come out of Egypt.
They cover the face of the earth, and they are dwelling
opposite me. Come now, curse this people for
me, since they are too mighty for me.
Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from
the land. For I know that he whom you
bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.
So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with
the fees for the divination in their hand.
They came to Balaam and gave him Balak's message.
And he said to them, Lodge here tonight and I will bring back
word to you as the Lord speaks to me.
So the Princess of Moab stayed with Balaam, and God came to
Balaam and said, Who are these men with you?
And Balaam said to God, Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab,
has sent to me, saying, Behold, a people has come out of Egypt
and it covers the face of the earth.
Now come curse them for me. Perhaps I shall be able to fight
against them and drive them out. God said to Balaam, You shall
not go with them, you shall not curse the people, for they are
blessed. So Balaam rose in the morning
and said to the Princess of Balak, Go to your own land, for
the Lord has refused to let me go with you.
So the Princess of Moab rose and went to Balak and said, Balaam
refuses to come with us. Once again Balak sent Princess
more in number and more honorable than these, and they
came to Balaam and said to him, Thus says Balak, the son of the
poor, let nothing hinder you from coming to me, for I will
surely do you great honor, and whatever you say to me I will
do. Come curse this people for me.
But Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, Though
Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could
not go beyond the command of the Lord my God to do less or more,
and we'll stop there. Could you pray with me, Father?
I pray as we look at this text of a Pagan king who was
determined to curse your people, and as we look at a Pagan
prophet who was seemingly determined to oblige his
request, help us to see God, that even for a man like Balaam,
he understands that when it comes to you, Almighty God,
disobedience is not an option. I pray God that you would
instill in USA a firm resolution to not disobey when we are
tempted to sin. Give us a a resolve to say to
our flesh, to the world, to Satan.
I cannot go beyond the command of the Lord.
I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
In 1933 during the Great Depression, the unemployment
rate in the United States got up to 25%.
That's one out of every four people or adults unemployed.
In April of 2020, during the peak of of COVID, the
unemployment rate peaked at 15%, but in less than two years it
had dropped to historically low levels, less than 4% now.
Currently the numbers are still low relatively speaking, but
anecdotedly I've heard multiple stories of people losing their
jobs, especially in certain sectors.
Sectors like the tech world or the government.
Many companies have hiring freezes right now where in
certain sectors it's almost impossible to get a job in that
sector. But there is one company that is
always hiring. The pay is great, it's
phenomenal. The qualifications are low and
they will take anybody. The CEO promises the world and
he delivers hell. You see, Satan comes to all of
us just as he did to Jesus. He offers us a Kingdom.
He offers us a limitless supply of riches and comfort and glory.
Limitless. And the question is, in order to
obtain whatever he is offering, is disobedience an option?
Or will we say, as Balaam said, though you were to give me a
house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command
of the Lord my God to do less or more.
Brothers and sisters, disobedience is not an option
for us. That's what the sermon is about
this morning. This morning I'm going to be
weaving exposition and application together.
And so I want to start by looking at this passage by
passage. Let's start looking at verses 1
to 3, Deuteronomy 22. Then the people of Israel set
out and camped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at
Jericho and Balik, the son of support.
So all that Israel had done to the Amorites and Moab was in
great dread of the people because they were many.
Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel.
So our text this morning has the Israelites setting out and
camping in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan, next to
Jericho. So they're on the east side of
the Jordan River, right? Israel's on the West side.
They're on the east side of the Jordan River.
Now it might be helpful to give a very brief history of who Moab
is. The Moabites descend from a man
named Moab. That's where they hit their
name. Moab was Lot's son.
If you remember, Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, had
a nephew named Lot. So Abraham, nephew Lot.
Lot has a son named Moab. And the Moabites come from Moab.
And so they are related to the Israelites, but they are not
Israelites. Now Moab had previously
controlled the area north of the Arnan River.
We looked at this a few weeks ago.
But Saihan, king of the Amorites, came in and he
conquered the Moabites and took all their land.
And so now Saihan is reigning in that area.
And we will learn in verse four that the king of Moab at this
time is Balik, son of Zappour, and he is serving as the king at
this time. And he looks as this people come
and camp next to his land, and he sees all that they did to the
Amorites. Do you remember from three weeks
ago when I preached on chapter 21?
Israel had gone to several wars. They went to war with Arad and
they defeated them. They went to war with Sahan,
king of the Amorites, and they feeded them.
They went to war with Odd, king of Bashan, and they defeated
him. And Balak gets word of this.
He hears about all these victories of this massive
people, and they're just destroying everybody and it
makes him scared. Now, why is he scared?
Remember, Sion had defeated him. Sion, king of the Amorites, came
in and defeated them. But Israel conquers Sion, and so
he thinks, if Israel can conquer my conqueror, what can they do
to me? What can they do to us?
Look at how they respond in verse three.
He says Moab was in great dread of the people because they were
many. Moab was overcome with fear of
the people of Israel. Now on one sense we might say it
makes sense why you know why he is afraid.
But in another sense, what Balak didn't realize is that God had
commanded the Israelites not to go to war with Moab.
They are not allowed to go to war with them.
Deuteronomy 29, God says do not harass Moab or contend with them
in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for
possession. Did you catch that?
In other words, Moab is afraid because they don't understand
God or his ways. What we see from this is that a
misunderstanding of the Lord and His purposes will always and
inevitably lead to a misplaced fear of God.
Not just a fear of God, a misplaced fear of God.
Just as Balak looked at the Israelites and he did not
understand who God was or whose people were causing him to fear,
Even today the Lost World does the same and they look at the
church, they look at the people of God, they look at God, they
look at the doctrine of God, they look at the word of God.
They do not understand and it causes them to fear.
You see, we always fear what we don't understand, and this fear
can cause us to feel like we need to do something, we need to
take action. That's exactly what Balak does.
Look at verse 4 to 6. Moab said to the elders of
Midian. This horde will now lick up all
that is around us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field.
So Balick the son of the poor, who was king of Moab at that
time, sent messengers to Balaam, the son of Beor at P Thor, which
is near the river and the land of the people of a mall, to call
him, saying, Behold, a people has come up out of Egypt.
They cover the face of the earth, and they are dwelling
opposite me. Come now, curse this people for
me, since they are two for me, perhaps I shall be able to
defeat them and drive them from the land.
For I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom
you curse is cursed. So the king of Moab believes he
needs additional help, he needs reinforcements.
And so he calls up the king of Midian and says we need to join
forces. Let me loop you into the plans
of what's going on. He calls a meeting with the
elders of Midian. Again, this is a short history
lesson of who is Midian. Midian was Isaac's younger half
brother. There was a man named Midian who
is Isaac's younger half brother. He's born to Abraham's concubine
Katura. So just like Moab, Midian is
related to the Israelites, but they are not Israelites.
And look at what Moab says to the Midianite elders.
Look what he says in verse 4B. He says this horde will now lick
up all that is around us as the ox licks up the grass of the
field. You see, Moab is now convinced
that they have to do something. And here's their plan.
Let's summon Balaam, the son of Bior, at Pithor.
Now who is that? We're not told much.
His name, Balaam means destruction of the people.
He is not an Israelite. He lives in Pithor, which is
near the river and the land of the people of a mall, which is
today would be northern Syria. He lives in what would be today
northern Syria. Now where he's living and where
Moab is is around a 300 to 400 mile journey.
So when he goes to summon him and he sends the elders, they
are travelling 300 to 400 miles to go get this Pagan diviner.
Now the fact that Balaam knows about him and summons him means
that Balaic knows about him and summons him means that Balaam
must have had a reputation. He must have been known in the
region as being a Pagan diviner who had success.
He must have been successful. And what, what, why did?
Why did he summon Balaam? Look what he says in verse 6.
Come now, curse this people for me.
They're too mighty for me. Perhaps I should be able to
defeat them and drive them from the land.
For I know that he who you bless is blessed, and he who you curse
is cursed. So Balak sees this mighty horde
opposite of him. He fears that they're going to
come and attack him and take over his land.
So he has this plan. Let me summon Balaam to come
curse these people. That's his plan.
I'll curse them. It's it's almost like it'll,
it'll weaken them. Now, what does it mean to curse
them? Well, it basically means to call
down the power of a deity to invoke injury or harm.
That's what it means to curse. He says come and invoke upon a
deity to invoke injury or harm upon the Israelites.
Now why does Balak want to curse them?
He gives 3 reasons. A.
He says they are too mighty for me.
B. Perhaps I should be able to
defeat them and drive them from the land.
And see, I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and whom you
curse is curse. Now, I want to be clear here.
Balic's statement is not a statement of fact.
This is how he perceives the world.
Not all that different than how people believe that karma is a
real force, right? People say, oh, that's karma.
Even Christians will sometimes say that that's karma.
Karma's not a real force. Karma is a they believe this is
how Balak perceives the world. He believes that Balaam has the
power to bless people and to curse people.
Balaam does not have any power to do this.
It's clear that Balak feels trapped and hopeless.
You see that, right? He sees this, this great horde
of people. He's already been defeated by
Cyhan, and now he thinks he's he's feeling trapped.
He feels hopeless. He thinks they're threatening
me. I'm about to lose everything.
And in this hopelessness, what does he do?
He turns to Pagan means. He turns to Pagan means.
Why? Because he's looking for
salvation. He is looking for some means of
salvation. You see, in the face of
hopelessness, the world will always turn to Pagan means.
Why? Because they're looking for
salvation. They turn to work and success
for salvation. They turn to self medication
through alcohol and prescription drugs for salvation.
They turn to adrenaline highs through extreme hobbies or
gambling for salvation. They turn to new age movements
or eastern meditation for salvation.
In the face of hopelessness, the world will always turn to Pagan
means because they're looking for salvation.
Our job, our our job, brothers and sisters, is to show them a
better way, to show them that salvation is not found in
Balaam, but in Christ. The Balaams of this world, the
Pagan means of this world will not give you salvation.
It is found in Jesus Christ. Our job is to show them that
only Christ has the power to bless.
This casino will not bless you. This yoga will not bless you.
This job will not bless you. There's only One who has the
power to bless you, and he has the power to eternally bless
you. The world is hopeless.
We are here to offer them a better hope, better than Balaam.
Look at verse 7. So the elders of Moab and the
elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their
hand and they came to Balaam and gave him Balak's message.
Moab's elders and Midian elders, they make the long journey, they
make the 300 to 400 mile journey to go to Balaam, but they don't
come empty handed. They come with the fees for
divination in their hand. Now 2 questions.
Number one, what is divination and #2 why are there fees?
Here's a definition of the Hebrew word for divination.
The Pagan state or process of stating or determining the
future or hidden knowledge through signs.
Omens and supernatural powers. Now in the Old Testament there
were 4 broad classes of divination #1 the position of
stars, right? They would look at the stars and
try to figure out like, who am I supposed to marry?
Where am I supposed to go? Right?
Two. Speaking with dead spirits.
This is what Saul does when he summons the Witch of Endor. 3
Examining animal parts or potsherds.
Remember when they look at a a deer's a kidney or liver and one
of the prophets, I can't remember where it is, but let me
look at this. And if it's red, it means this.
And if it's if it's purple, it means this or 4.
Casting lots for a yes or no answer.
Now God had expressly condemned divination.
Deuteronomy 1810. There shall not be found among
you anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or
interprets omens or a sorcerer. So they are not supposed.
This is this is Pagan in every sense of the word #2 Why are
there fees since they came with fees for divination?
Well, Pagan diviners are for hire.
That's what they're there for. Balaam is a for hire person.
On his LinkedIn page it says Pagan diviner for hire.
This was a also a practice that God would later condemn Micah
311 Its heads give judgment for a bribe.
Its priests teach for a price. Its prophets practice divination
for money. You see, even the Israelites
begin to do this later on. Their prophets begin to practice
divination for money. Now Balaam's practice of
divination for money will expressly be condemned by God in
the New Testament. Let me read 2 passages to you.
Balaam's mentioned multiple times in the New Testament.
Let me read 2 to you. Second Peter 215.
Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray.
They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who
loved gain from wrongdoing. Here's one one other Jude 11.
Woe to them, for they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned
themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error, and perished
in Cora's rebellion. There's a double reference to
numbers. You see, Balaam, just like
Judas, had sold his soul for money.
He put his soul for sale on the open market and he was willing
to sell it to the highest bidder.
Brothers and sisters, we are surrounded by a culture that
sells their souls for money. We, we swim in it, especially in
a place like Seattle, We swim in an ocean of people who sell
their souls for money. Peter says they have followed
the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from
wrongdoing. Now here's what I want to say.
You don't have to love gain from wrongdoing.
There are many who love gain from right doing.
There are many people, Christians included, who make it
their aim to make as much gain as they possibly can.
That's their goal in life. I want to make as much as I
possibly can. Maximise earnings, maximise
profit, maximise stock market gains, maximise real estate
gains. That's their goal.
And listen, I am all for Christians being hard workers.
I am all for Christians being financially savvy.
We should be hard workers. We should be financially savvy.
We should be wise stewards. Here's what I want to caution US
against, though. Listen to me when I say this.
Let me caution US against this. We are surrounded by a culture
that sells their souls for money and we need to be mindful of
that reality. We need to be mindful of that
reality and how we save, how we give, how we spend, how we
retire, how we travel. If we save and give and spend
and retire and travel just like the world, how do we look any
different than those who have sold their soul to get this?
There's a well known professing Christian, many of you would
know who it is, who gives financial advice and planning
for a living whose net worth is $200 million, $200 million.
And I asked myself this question, How does that look any
different than the world? How does that look any different
than the world? Can you get to a place of having
$200 million without loving gain?
Can you get there without loving it?
I don't see how 2 verses 8 to 11 And he said to them, Lodge here
tonight and I will bring back word to you as the Lord speaks
to me. So the Princess of Moab stayed
with Balaam, and God came to Balaam and said, Who are these
men with you? And Balaam said to God, Balaic,
the son of the poor king of Moab, has sent to me saying,
behold, a people has come out of Egypt and it covers the face of
the earth. Now come curse them for me.
Perhaps I shall be able to fight against them and drive them out.
Now verse 8 comes as a shock, doesn't it?
When I read verse 8 initially, it just comes as a shock because
Balaam doesn't immediately agree to go with them.
Did you notice that they, I mean, here comes these elders,
they like, they show up, they show up with money in their
hand. Who knows how much he is for
hire and they come and like we've travelled 300 and 400
miles to come to you. Here is we want to hire you.
And he says let me sleep on it. So spend the night.
I got an Airbnb Outback spend the night let me sleep on it.
He says lodge here tonight. I'll bring back word to you as
the Lord speaks to me. Now I want you to notice here he
uses the covenantal name of God. He doesn't use the generic
Elohim. Elohim can refer to any God.
He uses the covenantal name of God, the Lord Yahweh.
So he has some understanding of who the Israelite God is.
He is somehow acquainted with the Israelite God.
Now, Balaam is not a priest. Let's be clear about this.
He's not a priest and he does not have a relationship with
Moses. He says let me go, bring back
word from the Lord. Here's a question I had.
How is he going to approach God? He doesn't have access to the
temple. He doesn't have access to Moses.
How is he going to approach God? He won't.
God approaches him.
And God came to Balaam and said, you see, the lost world often
believes that they can call upon the Lord when they want.
It doesn't work that way. God initiates to us first.
God is the initiator. We are not told what God spoke
to him, but there are several examples of God speaking to the
lost world through dreams. So perhaps God used a similar
method. My guess is that God spoke to
him through a dream. What's interesting is that when
God comes to him, whether it's a dream or a vision or whatever,
God comes in and he asked him a question.
It's an interesting question. He says, who are these men with
you? So what does God ask that he
knows good and well? He is.
He is omniscient. We believe that God knows all
things. Why does God say, who are these
men with you? He's giving Balaam an
opportunity to examine his heart.
He's giving Balaam an opportunity to examine his
heart. Have you ever noticed that when
God initiates a conversation to people in the Bible, He almost
not, not always, but He often begins the conversation with a
question? You ever noticed that?
Where are you, Adam? Where is your brother Cain?
What are you doing here, Elijah? Do you do well to be angry?
Jonah? Who are these men with you,
Balaam? God is giving all these men an
opportunity to examine their hearts.
The same is true today, brother and sister, even right now, God
will come to us. He will come to us through His
Word, through His Spirit, through His church, and He will
ask us some pointed questions. God may be asking you some very
pointed questions even this very morning, if you have ears to
hear questions that He knows the answers to.
But He is giving us an opportunity to examine our
hearts. Why are you doing this?
You know what you're doing. Why are you doing this?
Why do you believe this is the only option?
You know there are more options than this.
Why are you believing that this is the only option?
How do you know this is God's will?
How do you know this is my will? You're so confident that it is?
How do you know what is your motive in this decision?
What is truly your motive in this decision?
See, brothers and sisters, God's questions are brake lights on
the highway. They are warning us, alerting us
to slow down and consider, is this the right way?
Is this the way that God wants me to take?
You see, the scary thing is that Balaam answers God's question,
and Balaam answers it truthfully and accurately.
So how will God respond? Look at verse 12 to 14.
God said to Balaam, You shall not go with them.
You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.
So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the Princess of
Balak, Go to your own land, for the Lord has refused to let me
go with you. So the Princess of Moab rose and
went to Balak and said, Balaam refuses to come with us.
Now we're going to see next week what appears to be a
contradiction. Next week.
I'm, I'm really excited to teach on this because it just doesn't
make sense. And I love teaching on passages
that don't make sense. But for now, I want to highlight
something. Don't miss this.
I want to highlight God's first instruction to Balaam.
What did God say? First, you shall not go with
them. Now keep that in mind.
Tuck that away for next week, because the story is going to
take some twist and some turns, leaving us to wonder what
actually was God's will here? Was it God's will for him to go
or not go? But for now, make no mistake, it
was God's will for him not to go.
God said very clearly, unequivocally, you shall not go
with them. You see, God's will is a tricky
thing, is it not? We have God's will of
ordination, what will happen? And we have God's will of
command, what should happen. And these two wills, they are
not the same. They are distinct, but they are
often intertwined and interconnected in mysterious
ways, ways that we can't even comprehend.
Often we get ourselves into situations and we think, what
was God's will here? Had somebody asked me this
before? You know, they, they, they dated
and then they dated for like a year and they broke up.
And, and the question was, is was it God's will for us to date
or was it not? If it, if it was his will for us
today, then shouldn't we have been married?
If it wasn't his will for us today, then how do I discern
what I discerned? And does that mean I was
disobedient? We often get ourselves into
situations and we ask ourselves, what was God's will here?
What was it? Was this God's will or was that
God's will? If this was God's will, why did
that happen? If that was God's will, why did
this happen? You ever think that God, if this
was your will, why did this happen?
Next week it's we're going to look at it appears to be that it
was God's will for Balaam to go. Next week we're going to see God
tells him go and you're like, which is it?
But for now, for tomorrow, this morning, don't miss what God
said first. You shall not go with them.
I think sometimes we overcomplicate God's will.
We overcomplicate it. People ask, you know, like is is
it? Is it?
Sometimes it is as simple as this question, What did God say?
What did he say? What did he say?
Now what does your pastor say? Now what does your parents say?
Not that. What does Reddit say?
Not does what society say. What did God say?
It's that simple. You're over complicating it.
Look what God says next. He says you shall not curse the
people, for they are blessed. Notice not they will be blessed,
not they might be blessed, they are blessed.
God told Abraham in you all the families of the earth shall be
blessed. He said cursing the Israelites
is not even an option because they're already blessed.
You can't curse what's already blessed, brother and sister.
No one may curse us, for we are already blessed.
And yet even though we know that, the reality is, is that
some of us are carrying around an emotional satchel of curses.
Things that people have said to harm us, injure us, aren't we?
Do you not have an emotional satchel of things that people
have said that have hurt you, harmed you, injured you May have
come from our parents, may have come from a boss, may have come
from a former boyfriend or girlfriend.
May have come from a classmate, May come from a distant
relative, may have come from a fellow church member, may have
come from even a total stranger at the store.
These negative criticisms, these negative slander and revilements
and insults, they are spoken over us as curses.
But hear me when I say this. No one may curse us, for we are
already blessed. We're already blessed.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places. Ephesians 1/3 No matter what
human flesh says about you, this is what God says about you.
It can't be undone. The blessing of God is
irrevocable. Let people say what they want.
I know what my father has said about abelian obeys.
He does as God instructs him, but his heart is not completely
right and how he does it. He obeys as God instructs him,
but his heart is not completely right and how he does it.
He's very slight. You might have missed it if we
don't slow down and observe his wording.
You really have to like slow down and pick this up.
Look at what Balaam says. He says go to your own land for
the Lord has and here it is, Refused to let me go with you.
Did you catch that? What stood out to me is this
word refused, Refused. You know why that's important?
I looked at this Hebrew word. It's used 46 times in the Old
Testament. 45 of the 46 times it refers to man's refusal.
This is the only instance where it refers to God or it's used of
God. The overwhelming majority of
those 45 times is in the context of man being stubborn.
Pharaoh will not let them go. He refuses to let them go.
Now what does that mean? It's as if Balaam is accusing
God of being stubborn. That's what he's doing.
Balaam is accusing God of being stubborn.
Ian Dugwid, who's a commentator, a pastor as well, writes this.
So too, when Balaam said that the Lord had refused to let him
come with them, he clearly implied that he personally would
have loved to be able to oblige Balak if only the circumstances
have been different. Balaam is essentially saying to
Balak, hey, tell your king I would love to come.
I would love to come. Curse his people like I'm free,
my calendar's free. But he refuses to let me go.
Brother and sister, be careful that we do not subconsciously
accuse God of being stubborn. I was talking to somebody the
other day who had somebody who had lost their job.
They have, they have actually changed jobs four to five times
in the past four to five years. And they, this is what they
said. Really God, really, you see what
is, what's behind that heart that says really God, here's
what it is. There's an implication that God
needs to get with the program and give them a job.
That God is just being stubborn here.
That God, you gave me a job and then I lost and you gave me a
job and I lost. And God, just like he's just
being stubborn. You see, we can all be guilty of
this, people. You hear it in phrases, right?
Well, God just won't let me have this.
He knows I want to be married. He just won't give it to me.
He's just being stopper. God's just not going to answer
this prayer. He knows I need healing.
I've been praying for it. I've been praying for this job.
I've been praying for this, you know, whatever.
And God's, I mean, he's just not going to answer this prayer.
You know, he just keeps giving me trials.
God, I've had, I mean, I've had enough trials like another,
really another haven't had. It's in these kind of
statements, you know what we're doing when we say that kind of
thing. We're subconsciously accusing
God of being stubborn. We're subconsciously saying,
God, stop being so stubborn. We're suggesting that God's will
needs to bend to our desires, rather than praying that God
would bend our desires to His will.
Now what's interesting is that when the elders of Moab go back
to the king, they make no mention of the Lord.
When they go back, what do they say?
They don't say that the Lord refuses.
They say who Balaam refuses. They don't even mention the Lord
at all. God doesn't even factor into
their equation. They simply say Balaam refuses.
There's a word again. That's one of the 45 times
Balaam refuses to come with us. They assume the decision lies
with Balaam, that is his decision and that Balaam is
being stubborn here. Look at verse 15 to 17.
Once again Balak sent Princess more in number and more
honourable than these, and they came to Balaam and said to him.
Thus says Balak, the son of the poor, let nothing hinder you
from coming to me, for I will surely do you great honour and
whatever you say to me I will do.
Come curse this people for me. Balak assumes that Balaam's
refusal. You know what he thinks he's
just negotiating. That's why he he refused.
You never accept their first offer.
We all know that he came and game, you know, an amount and,
and, and Balaam is like, no, no, no, I can't come, sorry, I can't
do it. And he's like, I got you.
I he's negotiating. So what does he do?
He sends more Princess, more Princess and more honourable or
more distinguished than the first.
The text doesn't say this, but implied in that statement is he
UPS the payment, he sweetens the offer, he offers him more money,
more honor. And look at what Balick said.
Balick said let nothing hinder you from coming to me.
Nothing which includes the Lord. Notice Balick doesn't even
mention the Lord. In his mind, it doesn't matter
if it's his wife, it's his health, it's his religion, it's
his previous commitments, it's his reluctance to travel.
He says let nothing hinder you from coming to me and look at
what he offers. He says I will surely do you
great honour. Whatever you say to me, I will
do. In other words, here's here's
how we would say it today. Name your price, Name your
price. Name your price.
It's yours. Who does that sound like?
Brothers and sisters, it is the voice of Satan that whispers to
us. Let nothing hinder you from
coming to me. Satan will come to us and he
will say name your price. What will it take for me to have
you? How much?
What do you want me to do for you?
And here's here's the thing. Just like Balak, he won't take
no for an answer. He'll sweeten the offer.
Oh, it it's not money you're looking for.
Oh, OK. What?
Well, what is it? Oh, a relationship.
Got it. Satan will say to us, let
nothing hinder you from coming to me.
Do you hear it? Do you?
Do you hear that when you're tempted with sin that Satan is
saying to you, What will it take for me to have you?
And do you hear the voice of our Savior whispering in the other
year, saying to you, What does it profit you to gain the whole
world and to forfeit your soul? What is it profit you if you
gain marriage but you forfeit your soul?
What does it profit you if you gain that 6 figure salary that
you want so badly, but you forfeit your soul doing it?
What does it profit you to finally gain the approval of
your family, but to forfeit your soul and doing it?
What does it profit you to finally gain that retirement
where you can travel the world and eat buffets for the rest of
your life? If you forfeit your soul,
brothers and sisters, what does it profit Balaam to gain all the
riches of Moab and forfeit his soul?
Because that's what he did. Balaam is not in heaven.
He forfeited his soul. And here's the thing, Balak
says. I I just need you to do one
thing. Just know that Balak's not
saying, look, when I hire you like we're going to make a
contract, you're going to be like my professional cursor for
the next 10 years. I want you to like he says,
look, just come one time and make one.
Curse one thing and think about it.
Think you'll have all the riches?
Everything that we have Moab has, It'll all be yours.
Just do this one thing. That's what Satan does, doesn't
he? Right.
Just just just compromise in this one way and it'll all be
yours. You can make a compromise once.
It's just one thing. We are all sinners, none of us
are perfect. Just compromise once and and
think about what you'll get. Look at what Balaam says in
verse 18. But Balaam answered and said to
the service of Balak, though Balak were to give me his house
full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the
Lord my God to do less or more. Balaam says, listen, if you were
to give me all of the King's treasury, your whole house full
of silver and gold, I was wondering how much gold does the
United States government have? United States government has
over $700 billion of gold. Can you imagine if we had a
king? We don't have a king, but you
imagine if we did had a king and he offered you $700 billion to
just do one thing. I mean, all you got to do is
walk over and say you are cursed, thank you very much.
That's it. You.
Would you do it? Would you do it?
What would you do for $700 billion?
Balaam says. Even if you were to give it all
to me, I could not go beyond the command of the Lord to do less
or do more. Now I want to point out one
thing about this phrase. When he says Lord my God, that
might, you might read that and it might raise the question
well, was he a worshipper of God or not?
He calls him the Lord my God. Was he a true prophet of God or
was he a false prophet or not? The fact that Balaam calls him
the Lord my God means nothing. Nothing Jesus said on the day of
judgement. Many, many will say to me, Lord,
Lord, did we not prophecy in your name?
And did we not cast out many demons in your name?
And did we not do many money wonders and works in your name?
And he says, I will turn to you and say, depart from me, you
workers of evil. I don't know you talk is cheap.
Balaam saying the Lord my God means nothing.
Balaam simply understands as Satan does, how things work with
an almighty God. You see, Satan would say the
same thing if a demon came to Satan and said Satan do this and
he says I can't do anything unless God allows me.
And Balaam is saying the same thing.
I cannot go beyond the command of the Lord.
Balaam understands that he is not allowed to transgress the
command of the Lord. And I love that he says less or
more because it covers sins of omission and it covers sins of
Commission. Meaning if God tells me to speak
and open my mouth, I cannot decide not to speak, I have to
speak. And if God tells me not to
speak, I cannot decide to speak. I have to be silent.
Brothers and sisters, disobedience is not an option
for us. I am not suggesting that we
don't sin. We will sin.
We'll go out of this place and within an hour we'll sin.
But I am saying that disobedience is not an option
for us. How easy it would have been for
Balaam to think, Lord, just let me have this this one time.
Just let me get this one. Like, like God, I just need to
pronounce one curse right. I do this one time and then I'll
be a rich man. Let me pronounce one curse and I
can go away a rich man. Yes you can.
A rich man straight on his way to hell.
Disobedience is not an option the next time.
And this will happen maybe as early as today, probably today.
The next time that Satan comes to you and he dangles that
carrot in front of you and says just indulge.
It's OK, we're all sinners. Just indulge.
I want to encourage you to look at him and say back to him, by
the power of the Spirit and the blood of Jesus Christ.
The same thing that Balaam, a false prophet, says, I cannot go
beyond the command of the Lord my God to do more or to do less.
Disobedience is not an option for me.
Let's pray.