On the prophet, the false prophet of Balaam.
And so we're, we've made it to the third Oracle.
We've we've looked at the 1st and 2nd and this morning will be
on the the third one. And so we'll be in numbers 23
beginning in verse 27. And we're going to go all the
way through chapter 24, verse 10.
Title of the sermon this morning is this open eyes and bent ears.
So let's read the text. Open us in a word of prayer and
we'll jump into the sermon this morning.
Numbers 23, beginning in verse 27.
And Balak said to Balaam, Come now, I will take you to another
place. Perhaps it will please the Lord
that you may curse them for me from there.
So Balak took Balaam to the top of Pior, which overlooks the
desert. And Balaam said to Balak, Build
for me here 7 altars, and prepare for me here 7 bulls and
seven Rams. And Balak did as Balaam had
said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Chapter 24. When Balaam saw that it pleased
the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go, as at other times, to
look for omens, but set his face toward the wilderness.
And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camping, tried by
tribe. And the Spirit of God came upon
him, 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, who sees
the vision of the Almighty falling down with his eyes
uncovered. How lovely are your tents, oh
Jacob, your encampments, O Israel, Like palm Groves that
stretch afar, like gardens beside a river, like aloes that
the Lord has planted, like cedar trees beside the waters.
Water shall flow from his buckets, and his seeds shall be
in many waters. His king shall be higher than a
gag, and his Kingdom shall be exalted.
God brings him out of Egypt, and it's for him like the horns of
the wild ox. He shall eat up the nation's,
his adversaries, and shall break their bones in pieces and Pierce
them through with his arrows. He crouched, he laid down like a
lion, and like a lioness who will rouse him up.
Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse
you. And Balak's anger was kindled
against Balaam, and he struck his hands together.
And Balak said to Balaam, I called you to curse my enemies,
and behold, you have blessed them these three times.
And we'll stop right there with our text.
You will pray with me, God, as we continue our study of the
interaction between Balaam and Balak.
And your people got to pray. You would open our eyes and you
would bend our ears. You would cause us to see God
and cause us to hear what you want us to see and what you want
us to hear. I pray that everybody in this
room, God would know that there is something that you want us to
see this morning. There is something you want us
to hear. You have a a vision.
You have a word for every single individual in this place.
Help us to believe that Lord, and help us to to do something
about it. By your grace I pray in Jesus
name, Amen. You can't get someone to
necessarily see what you see. I remember when we moved here,
we noticed how many people here loved corgi dogs and I was like,
I don't get it. I don't see the appeal.
No offense if you love them or you have one, but I was like, I
don't get it. Sometimes you'll see a couple
together and you'll think, I don't get it.
What does he see in her or what does she see in him?
I don't get it. Or you might see an outfit or
some kind of a tire that's considered cool or trendy or
hip, and you say, I don't get it.
I don't see it. It looks ridiculous to me.
Or you might go to an Art Museum and someone says, oh, look at
that. What an exquisite painting.
And you say it's just a yellow dot.
I don't get it. I don't see it.
You can't always get someone to see what you see.
It's also true that you can't get someone to necessarily hear
what you hear. I listen to country music and
I'm like, I don't get it. What's the appeal?
But people love it. I don't know why my my wife
listens to comedians and she's often like I don't get it that
just sounds mean. So why do you like this?
Or what is a pleasant sound to one person is noise to another.
You can't get someone to necessarily see what you see.
You can't get necessarily to get someone to hear what you hear.
And the same is true in the spiritual world, isn't it?
You can be sharing about how wonderful God is, or what God
showed you this morning in your quiet time, or why you love God
so much. But as you're sharing, you
realize they don't see it. They don't hear it.
And the reason is because we all need God to open our eyes and to
bend our ears. Otherwise we'll never see it.
We'll never hear it. That's what the sermon is about
this morning. I want to start off by giving
the context. If you haven't been here with us
the past few weeks, I'm going to give the context so you kind of
know where we're at, and then we'll jump into our text this
morning. So here is the context.
Balak is the king of Moab, and he has hired Balaam, a Pagan
diviner, to come and curse Israel.
Balaam has given his first prophecy, but rather than curse
Israel, he has instead blessed them according to the word of
the Lord. Now Balak thinks that well maybe
if we change location, God will change his mind.
But Balaam affirms that God is not a man that he should lie, or
a son of man that he should change his mind.
So Balaam gives his second prophecy and he once again for
the second time blesses Israel. Balak then tells him stop all
prophecy, cease all operations, but Balaam tells him I can't, I
cannot be silent. Every word that God puts into my
mouth that must I speak. And that's where we left off
last week. So we're going to pick up in his
third Oracle. Let's look at verse.
We'll start at verse 27 of chapter 23.
And Balak said to Balaam, Come now, I will take you to another
place. Perhaps it will please God that
you may curse them for me. From there.
You know the definition of insanity doing the same thing
over and over again but expecting different results.
You ever heard that definition? Insanity is doing the same thing
over and over again but expecting different results.
It appears that Balak might qualify for that definition, he
tells Balaam. Let's try another location now.
He's already tried this. I want you to consider Balick's
stubbornness, or maybe we might say stupidity, here.
Think about it. Why would changing a location
change God's mind? Why?
Like why would that change God's
mind? If someone asked me, will you
curse your son? If you came to me and you know,
and not not that you would, but maybe someone in the world came
to me and said, will you curse one of your sons?
No. Well, what if it was in a park?
No. What if it's in the woods?
No. What?
What does it matter where I am? Why would I?
It is ironic that Balak would think this because Balaam has
just said, he just told him. He said Balak, God is not a son
of man, that he would change his mind.
He is not going to change his mind.
God is determined to bless these people.
He is not going to change his mind.
And Balak is stubbornly refusing to accept God's will.
Stubbornly. Church family, be careful that
we don't kick against the goads. You ever heard that phrase kick
against the goads? Here's how one commentator
describes it. In the many instances where the
proverb occurs in Greek literature, it always has the
meaning of resisting one's destiny or fighting the will of
the gods. Like a beast of burden kicking
against his master's goads, he would only find the blows more
severe. With each successive kick.
He was fighting the will of God. It was a futile, senseless task.
In other words, the more that Balaam resisted his donkey, the
more he got hurt and the more foolish he looked.
And the more that Balak tried to curse Israel, the more Israel
was blessed. Brothers and sisters, sometimes
God is goading us, provoking us, steering us, disciplining us,
teaching us. And we might be kicking against
it. Why?
Because we're determined to make something work.
We are determined to have our way.
We are determined to do our will.
Church family, submit to the will of God in your life,
especially if you don't like it. Notice how Balak words this.
Perhaps it will what please God that you may curse them for me
from there. Did you catch that?
He says perhaps God will be pleased literally.
Perhaps it will be pleasing in the sight of God to curse them.
They like really does not understand who the Lord is.
Here you see, one of the marks of the lost world is the belief
that God could possibly be pleased with sin.
One of the ways that you know the lost word from the
Christians is that you could possibly believe that God could
ever be pleased with sin. June is so-called Pride Month
where there is a month long celebration of sin.
What I find interesting about the movement is that they don't
have the perspective. We don't care what you think
about us. That's not their perspective.
Rather, they want this lifestyle to be viewed as moral, good,
righteous, loving. In other words, they want the
world to see their choices as pleasing in God's sight.
In other words, the lost world doesn't just want their evil,
they want the world. They want Christians.
They want everyone to call their evil good.
They're not content to just have it, they want it to be labeled
as good as well. Look at verse 20 to 30.
So Balak took Balaam to the top of Pior, which overlooks the
desert. And Balaam said to Balak, Build
for me here 7 altars, and prepare for me here 7 bulls and
seven Rams. And Balak did as Balaam had
said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Now previously they were on top of Mount Pisgah and now he takes
them to the top of Mount Pior which overlooks the desert.
And Balaam gives him the same instructions as before.
He says build 7 altars, prepare 7 bulls and prepare 7 Rams and
offer them on those 7 altars. And Balak does it.
He does exactly as he's instructed.
Now consider how deep he is in. Now Balak has invested 21
altars, 21 bulls, 21 Rams. This is starting to get quite
costly. The world is willing to pay an
extremely high cost to get what they want.
If you study history, you will see that people are willing to
pay extraordinarily high cost to get what they want.
Just take, I mean take human sacrifices for example.
Historically, if you look at human sacrifices, they will
practice in China, the Incans practice them, the Mayans, the
Aztecs, Israel, Egypt, the Assyrians.
I mean, one has to wonder that what if Balak, What if Balaam
told Balak, if you want me to curse them, sacrifice your first
born son. One has to wonder, would Balak
have done it? Maybe, maybe.
And yet the one thing that everybody wants, including
Balik, including you and including me, and including the
whole world, the one thing that everybody wants, whether they
know it or not, which is eternal life and eternal happiness in
that life, is a free gift. It's a free gift.
God does not require us to build an altar.
He built himself an altar in the cross.
God does not require us to sacrifice a bull or a ram.
He provided his own lamb. God does not require us to
sacrifice our Son. He chose to sacrifice his Son.
Friends salvation, eternal life, eternal happiness is a free gift
of God through Jesus Christ. Luke chapter 24, verse one.
When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did
not go as at other times to look for omens, but he set his face
toward the wilderness. Now this is such an interesting
twist in the story. It's so interesting.
When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did
not go, as at other times, to look for omens.
Now what does that mean? And he set his face toward the
wilderness. What does that mean?
Well, let's break this down first.
When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, so he
sees that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel.
This implies that it was somewhat of a surprise to
Balaam. He was like, oh, you're actually
pleased to bless them. This is again highlighting the
fact that Balaam is not acquainted with the ways of the
Lord. This blessing should come as no
surprise. God is always delighted to bless
His people. Nevertheless, when Balaam sees
this, it changes his actions. It changes what he does.
How he did not go, as at other times, to look for omens.
What does that mean? Omens here can be translated
sorcery, divination, or enchantments.
In other words, in the previous instances, in the first Oracle
and in the second Oracle, Balaam still sought to find a curse
against Israel. So when he said that he was
seeking the Lord, he it it seems to imply he was still seeking to
find a curse as well. Now whether he was legitimately
doing this, whether he was legitimately seeking a curse or
maybe he was just doing it as a pretense to Balick, I don't
know. Both could be true.
He might have legitimately be seeking a curse, or he might
have just been doing this to appease Balick thinking, well, I
still want to get paid, I don't know.
But after two times of getting no omens, he has no omens given
to him, Balick says. Balaam says, I'm not going to
seek out a curse. I'm not going to seek out a
divination. He seeks out no curses, no
divination. Instead, what does he do?
He sets his face toward the wilderness.
Now, what does that mean to set his face toward the wilderness?
I think it means this. I think it means that rather
than looking for an omen, he looked at the people of God.
Rather than setting his face to find an omen, he set his face on
the people of God, because that's who's in the wilderness
is the people of God. Now, why does that matter?
You almost get the sense that in the first two oracles, Balaam
has one eye on the Lord and one eye on Balak's riches.
That's kind of the sense you get.
He's got one eye on the Lord and one eye on Balick's riches.
He has what we might call chameleon eyes.
You ever seen a chameleon's eyes?
They can move them independently of each other.
It's kind of weird, right? When I was looking this way,
when I was looking this way, you see where as we can only focus
on one thing, right? Like if I'm looking at my wife
right here, I can kind of see some stuff over here, but I, I
can't see Frank at all. Like if I had a chameleon's
eyes, I could see Frank. And he can tell me how many
fingers he's holding up. I have no idea what he's doing
right now. I can only focus on one thing at
a time, whereas A chameleon can focus on multiple things at a
time. Brothers and sisters, if we are
not careful, we can develop spiritual chameleon eyes where
we have one eye on God and one eye on something else.
That was the rich young rulers problem.
Remember the rich young ruler, he has one eye on Jesus and he
has one eye on his riches. The reason that the rich young
ruler could not set his full face on Jesus is because his
eyes were on his riches. He couldn't take his eyes off of
his riches. Friends, you can only focus on
one thing at a time. In other words, if Jesus is in
the background and something else is in the foreground, and
you're focusing on what's in the foreground, Jesus will always be
blurry to you. You'll see him.
You'll get a distinct idea of who he is.
He'll always be blurry. At best, he'll be blurry.
It's not until the 3rd Oracle that Balaam stops looking for
omens. And notice what he starts
looking at. He set his face toward the
wilderness. Now why is that significant?
Look at verse 2 and Balaam lifted up his eyes.
He saw Israel camping tribe by tribe, and the Spirit of God
came upon him. Balaam lifted up his eyes.
There is a clear theme of scene in this third Oracle.
Clear theme. Let me show it.
Pior overlooks the desert. Balaam saw that it pleased the
Lord. He did not look for omens, he
said his face or his eyes toward the wilderness.
Balaam lifted up his eyes, He saw Israel.
Clear theme of scene here. And when he looks out at the
wilderness, he sees Israel. He sees the people of God
camping try by tribe. Now remember, in the previous
two oracles, Balak specifically said you won't see them all,
you're only going to see a portion.
It's almost as if like Balak doesn't want him to see him, all
of them. But now he sets his face toward
the wilderness and he sees all of Israel, camping tribe by
tribe. What's interesting is that it
appears that for the very first time, Balaam truly saw the
people of God for what they were previously.
I think he saw the people of God as a means to an end.
I think that's what he saw, right?
Bailey's got money. I'd like to get that money.
These people, that's the means to an end.
If I curse them, I get this money.
And when he looked at the people of God, they were a means to an
end. I think it's what he saw.
And I think this is the first time that he actually looks at
the people of God and he sees them for what they actually are.
Friend, what do you see when you look at the church?
You step inside this building on Sunday or Friday or small group
or any kind of church event. When you look around and you see
the people of God, what do you see when you see the church?
Is it a means to an end? Is it a means to community?
I don't have any community. Is it the means to a potential
spouse? Is it a means to friends?
Purpose. Identity.
What do you see when you see the people of God?
When you look, do you see what the psalmist sees?
As for the Saints in the land, they are the excellent ones.
And whom is all my delight? Psalm 16 Three.
And then something amazing happens.
Something unexpected happens to Balaam.
The Spirit of God comes upon him.
I mean, we could not expect this.
It didn't happen in the first one, didn't happen the second
time, and now all of a sudden the Spirit of God Almighty comes
upon him. Now previously the Lord put a
word in his mouth both times 1 and 2, the Lord put a word in
the now, instead of God putting a word in his mouth, the whole
Spirit of God comes upon him. Now what does this mean and why
did this happen and why did it happen now?
Let's first discuss what it doesn't mean.
This is not the same thing as the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit that we see in the New Testament.
That's not what this is. We were given no indication that
anybody in the Old Testament had the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit the way that we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in
the New Testament. In the Old Testament, God sent
His Spirit to come upon multiple people.
This happened to Samson, it happened to the 70 elders, it
happened to Othneil, it happened to David, it happened to Saul.
And it doesn't mean that they weren't dwelt by the Spirit.
There is a difference between the Spirit rushing upon someone
and residing within someone. If the Spirit resides within
you, you are in Christ. But if the Spirit rushed upon
someone in the Old Testament, it simply meant that God was
empowering them for a particular ministry.
The Spirit would come upon people.
Remember, the Spirit came upon Saul and left Saul.
The Spirit would come upon Samson and leave Samson.
Right. The Spirit comes upon Balaam.
He is a false prophet. We know that he's a false
prophet and the Spirit comes upon him to empower him for a
particular ministry. So Balaam now is going to give
this third prophecy under the power of the Spirit.
The Spirit is going to empower him and equip him to give this
third prophecy. Now why did the Spirit come upon
him? Now at this point, I don't know,
but I'm going to give my best conjecture.
I assume verse 2 is connected to verse one.
I assume that the Spirit came upon him because for the very
first time, Balaam didn't seek for omens.
Instead he sought the people of God.
I think that's why I think that before he is looking for omens,
he seeks God. But with reality, maybe he
didn't seek God at all. Remember, God's the one who
initiated to him, so maybe he's seeking omens and God interrupts
his omens, seeking to talk to him.
But now he's not doing that. He sees the people of God and
the Spirit decides to come upon him because of this change.
Brothers and sisters, there is a connection between how much we
seek the Spirit and how much we are filled by the Spirit.
There is a connection. We can never be more indwelled
by the Spirit. On day one of your justification
you are 100% indwelled by the Spirit.
That will never increase. Nobody is more into.
Charles Spurgeon has the same indwelling the Spirit that I
have and that you have. We will never be more indwelt by
the Spirit, but we can be more filled by the Spirit.
How do we know this? Because Paul writes in Ephesians
518, Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be
filled with the Spirit. That's a command to do
something. That's a command to do something
to be filled with the Spirit. Have you ever wondered why in
Acts 6, when they needed to choose seven men to handle the
food distributions among the widows, that they didn't say,
all right, guys, we need to choose seven men.
Do this. Let's pick out seven Christian
men. They didn't say that.
They didn't say let's pick out seven members of the church.
They didn't say that. Let's pick out seven mature men.
They didn't say that. Here's what they said.
Pick out from among you 7 men of good repute, full of the Spirit
and of wisdom. We need men and women who are
full of the Holy Spirit, not just indwelled by the Spirit,
full of the Holy Spirit. I used to play basketball with
this guy several years ago who would drink several beers before
games. Every time we go to play a game
and he would come and he he would, I mean, he would go to
the bar and he would drink several beers before the games.
One time he got kicked out simply because he smelled like
alcohol. He used to joke that he was the
first player ever to get a DUI playing basketball, dribbling
under the influence. He was a good player.
That that's the irony. He was a good player and I would
think if you can play this well drinking beer, imagine how good
you'd be if you drank water. Same is true for us.
Imagine what God would do in and through us if we came into this
place filled with the Holy Spirit.
Imagine if we spent our Saturday night or Saturday morning or
Sunday morning instead of catching up on work emails or
watching silly YouTube videos or whatever the case is filling our
souls with the Spirit of God. Imagine what God would do in and
through US. We need men and women who walk
in through those doors who are not just Christians, but who are
filled with the Holy Spirit. The verse three to four.
And he took up his discourse and said, the Oracle of Balaam, the
son of Beor, the Oracle of the man whose eye is open, the
Oracle of him who hears the words of God, who sees the
vision of the Almighty falling down with his eyes uncovered.
I want you to consider what effect the Spirit had on Balaam.
The Spirit, Notice the connection.
The Spirit came upon him, and he took up his discourse.
Don't miss that. The Spirit came upon him and he
took up his discourse. In other words, the Spirit moved
Balaam to give this third prophecy.
You see, the Spirit functions as a crowbar.
Our mouths. We have a lot of people in our
church who can be very slow to speak.
We do. I mean, that's just the truth.
You know what, I know it. We have a lot of people in our
church who can be very, very slow to speak.
I think a lot of that is rooted in courtesy and respect and
deference to others, which are all good.
Those are all good. The downside of that though, is
that sometimes our mouths can become sealed shut and we need a
crowbar to pry it open. It can be sealed shut out of
fear of man, sealed shut out of fear of appearing dumb, fear of
being wrong, fear of offending others, fear of saying the wrong
thing. You see, fear can function like
rust, and over times our mouths can become rusted shut, and the
spirit functions like a crowbar. He comes and he pries our mouth
open and says, you must open your mouth, you must speak all
that I give you. Look at how Balaam describes his
Oracle. He says the Oracle of the man
whose eye is opened, there's our theme of seeing again.
See, Balaam was a man who was blind.
He was blind to his own greed. He was blind to the aims of the
Lord. He was blind to what his donkey
was showing him. He was blind to the ways of the
Lord. And now God has opened his eyes.
He says who sees the vision of the Almighty falling down with
his eyes uncovered. Balaam now sees God.
He sees the vision of the Almighty.
His eyes are uncovered. He, God, has opened his eyes.
But you know what's scary about this?
Balaam's eyes were open to who God was.
Balaam wasn't saved. God opened his eyes to see God,
and he wasn't saved. Friends, it is possible to have
your eyes open to the truth of God, but not the beauty of God.
Let me give you a basic analogy. If you and I are in a completely
dark room, imagine we're in a completely dark room.
There is no light that gets in this room whatsoever.
You and I are in this room and you tell me, Matt, there's a
third person in this room. I can't feel them.
I, I have to take your word for it.
I have to take your word for it that there's a third person in
this room because I can't see them.
But suppose I, I have trouble taking your word for it.
I'm like, there's not a third person in this room.
I have explored this entire room.
I have exhausted all corners. There is not a third person in
the room. Suppose I have a hard time
thinking room with. Then suppose you turn the lights
on and when you turn the lights on, there is a third person in
the room. There they are.
I see them. I can now see the truth that a
third person exists, but that doesn't mean I see the third
person as beautiful. I might see the third person and
think they are ugly. I might see the third person and
think, why would you show me this person?
I don't want to see them. Turn the light back off.
You see, that takes another kind of opening of the eyes.
It is possible to see the truth of God and not see the beauty of
God. Balaam sees God, he doesn't see
God. It's beautiful.
Not only have Balaam's eyes been opened, but so have his ears,
the Oracle of him who hears the words of God.
His ears were open to the voice of the donkey, and now they are
open to the voice of God. God is in the business of
opening eyes and bending ears. Brother and sister, when you
read this book, do you hear the words of God?
Do you hear them? Few years back during pastor
appreciation, Frank, I think it was Frank.
I don't know if it was, but I think it was.
Frank got me this noise cancelling ear buds.
So I think they're fascinating. I use them now when I work out,
my boys will come up to me. I'm I'm sitting there like doing
a bench press and they come up to me and it's always the same
question. When are we leaving?
My boys will come up to me while I'm working out and they'll
they'll ask me something. I can hear them, but it's very
faint. It's very, very faint.
And often I, I really can't discern what they're saying.
I can kind of discern it, but I can't really discern it.
And so often I'll either need to pause the music or I'll just
take the earbuds out all together so I can actually
properly discern what are they saying?
You see, we can sit down to read this book and our calendar can
function like earbuds. Our To Do List can function like
earbuds, or the conflict that we had yesterday, or the work
problem that we can't seem to solve.
You can hear God speaking, but it's very faint.
It's very faint, friend. Ask God to open your eyes to
properly see him. Ask God to bend your ears to
properly hear him. Because it won't happen.
If he doesn't do it, it won't happen.
He has to do it, but you have to ask.
Ask Him and mean it. Mean it.
Open my eyes God, open my ears. I want to see, I want to hear.
Don't be content with a half hearted vision of God, with a
half fainted like whisper of God.
I want to hear Him loud and clear.
Verse 57. How lovely are your tents, O
Jacob, your encampments, O Israel, like palm Groves that
stretch afar, like gardens beside a river, like aloes that
the Lord has planted, like cedar trees beside the waters.
Water shall flow from his buckets, and his seed shall be
in many waters. His king shall be higher than
Agag, and his Kingdom shall be exalted.
Balaam begins blessing the people of God.
I mean, this is a future blessing because they, this is
not true of them right now, right?
They're in the desert and they're wearing 40 year old
shoes. And like, this is a future
blessing. He starts off by describing that
how lovely are your tents? Oh, Jacob, how lovely are your
encampments? 00, Israel.
Now let's be clear, it's not as though Israel got the best
camping gear from REI. That's not what's going on here.
What makes their tents lovely is not their tents, but their God
that dwells among their tents. And then Balaam describes them
with four similes, like palm Groves that stretch afar, like
gardens beside a river, like aloes that the Lord has planted,
like cedar trees beside the water.
What a beautiful sight that this will be of the people of God.
This coming Saturday will be 17 years of marriage for me and
Lauren. And I was thinking about that
because that means that the our 20 year anniversary is only
three years away. And I was thinking what are we
going to do for our 20 year anniversary?
I was thinking maybe we could go to Hawaii.
We both never been. And I was like, I heard it was
beautiful. I imagine this is what it's
like. Lovely palm trees that stretch
afar, gardens beside a river, aloes that the Lord planted
himself, beautiful trees beside the water.
And yet I want you to consider this is not a place that Balaam
is describing, but a people. It makes me think about a
wedding. You can have a wedding and a
beautiful place. It can have gorgeous
decorations. It can have lovely flowers.
And yet the groom's eye are on his bride, and the bride's eyes
are on her groom. There is nothing more beautiful
than our God, and the beauty of Hawaii does not compare to the
sight of God's people worshiping their God.
The most beautiful sight in this world does not compare to what
we are doing right now. You will not find a more
beautiful picture the 1st 2 lines of verse 7.
They're translated quite differently because of the
Hebrew. The idea seems to be that Israel
will be prosperous, will be fruitful.
They're already numerous, and God says that they'll be more.
So He says water shall flow out of his buckets.
It's kind of the idea when you would put a pole on your back
and you had a bucket on this side and to this side, right?
And as you're walking, right, water's just, you know, water is
like gold in those days. If you're, especially if you're
in the wilderness, you know, it's like you give somebody
gold. It's like, what am I going to do
with gold, right? I need water.
And he is so prosperous that water is just overflowing from
his buckets. That's the idea.
His king shall be higher than a gag.
This is an interesting prophecy because Israel does not have a
king yet. So we get even here one of the
earliest prophecies that God was eventually going to give them a
king, yet they won't have one for quite some time.
I don't think this is the same a gag as in First Samuel 15
because he comes much much later.
We don't know who this king is. A gag also might be a a title
like Pharaoh or Caesar or some or something.
We don't know who this king is, but not only is this king
exalted, but so is his Kingdom. Balak wanted to curse Israel.
He wants to bring them down. But Balaam testifies their God
will actually exalt them, meaning that not only am I not
going to curse them, I'm not even going to leave them
neutral. I'm going to exalt them.
You know what's ironic about verse 7 coming from the mouth of
Balaam is that this is what Balaam wanted, Prosperity.
This is what he wanted. He just sought it from the wrong
source. You see brother and sister, God
will exalt us. He will prosperous in due time.
This is why the story of the rich young ruler just blows my
mind because Jesus wasn't offering him poverty.
It wasn't like Jesus said go sell all that you have and be
poor. He says go sell all that you
have and you will have what treasure in heaven?
How tragically ironic that Balaam sought out treasure.
He did. He sought out treasure and yet
here it was. Here it is.
Here is true treasure, He just sticks it from the wrong source.
Look at verse 8-9. God brings them out of Egypt,
and his forehand like the horns of the wild ox.
He shall eat up the nation's His adversaries.
He shall break their bones in pieces and Pierce through with
arrows. He crouched, He laid down like a
lion, and like a lioness who will rouse him up?
Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse
you. Balaam testifies that Israel did
not escape Egypt. God brought them out of it.
He is for them like the horns of the wild ox.
We looked at that similarly last week.
The reason that they were able to defeat Sahan and Odd, two
nations that were far more powerful and larger than Israel,
is because precisely because God is for them.
God says that His plan is not only to bring them out of Egypt
to the promised land, but God's plan is also to use them to
judge the nation's. That was part of what God is
doing. Israel is going to be a tool in
the hand of God to judge the nation's, righteously judge
them. And Balaam gives 3 metaphors to
describe this judgement. He shall eat up the nation's as
adversaries. He shall break their bones in
pieces. He shall Pierce them through
with his arrows. Balaam is basically telling
Balaic Balak, if you go to war with these people, you're going
to lose. You lose.
He is crouching, he is laying down like a lion, and like a
lioness who will rouse him up. In other words, he's Balaam is
basically telling Balak, Balak, do you really want to poke the
bear? Brothers and sisters, we win in
the end. We win in the end.
This is so important because it feels like Christianity is
losing all the time, doesn't it? It feels like the church is
losing. Morality is losing, right?
The world is just is winning and we're losing.
That may feel that way, but we win in the end.
And Balaam concludes his prophecy with the same words
given to Abraham several 100 years before.
He says blessed are those who bless you and cursed are those
who curse you. And so, Balak, if you desire to
curse these people, you brought me here to curse them.
I need you to know you will be the one who's cursed.
I need you to know that all curses that are hurled at God's
people, they function like a boomerang.
They come right back at you. Verse 10 last verse And Balak's
anger was kindled against Balaam, and he struck his hands
together. And Balak said to Balaam, I
called you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed
them these three times. After the first prophecy, Balak
was abashed. He says, what have you done to
me? After the second prophecy, Balak
was anxious. Don't don't bless them at all.
Don't curse them at all. Don't don't do anything at all.
And after the 3rd prophecy, Balak is now angry.
His anger is kindled against Balaam.
He struck his hands together. Now what is that?
That was apparently an ancient expression of contempt.
Our closest, probably clenched fish.
You ever been so angry? You're like, that's got to be
idea. Balak once again repeats his
previous words. He says I, I hired you for a
specific purpose in my contract with you.
I specified specifically in my contract that I wanted you to
curse them, but you have done nothing but bless them.
Now the three times I want you to consider the progression of
Balak. He went from feeling abashed to
anxious to now angry. Why?
Because he can't accept God's will.
He can't accept it. Friends, so much of our
confusion, so much of our anxiety, so much of our anger
finds its root in a wrestling with the will of God.
We don't like it. I don't like your will, God.
I don't like it. You may not say that, but you
feel it. I don't like your will or I
don't trust your will. I don't trust it.
I don't trust I'll be happy with this.
I don't trust that you can make me happy with this.
And so I want to close with this Until God opens our eyes, I
don't mean salvifically necessarily.
Until God opens our eyes and bends our ears, we will continue
to be either confused, anxious, or angry.
Job wrestled with all three. Did you read the book of Job?
Job wrestled with all three of these.
He was confused, he was anxious, and he was angry.
And it wasn't until the end of the book that this is what Job
said. I had heard of you by the
hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you.
Let's pray.