Your Bibles to the Book of Number, or you can type in your
device the Book of Numbers, chapter 23, Numbers 23.
And this morning we're going to be in verses 13 to 26.
We have started a series of numbers several months ago and
we've made to a smaller series on the prophet Balaam.
And so this morning we're going to be continuing that study of
Balaam. And last week we looked at his
first Oracle, and this morning we're going to be looking at his
second Oracle. So Numbers 23, let's read the
text. The title of the sermon this
morning is this. God doesn't lie or change his
mind. So let's read the text, open us
on a word of prayer, and then we'll jump into the sermon this
morning. Numbers 23, beginning in verse
13. And Balak said to him, Please
come with me to another place from which you may see them.
You shall see only a fraction of them, and shall not see them
all. Then curse them for me from
there. And he took him to the field of
Zophene, to the top of Pisgah, and built 7 altars, and offered
a bull and a ram on each altar. Balaam said to Balak, Stand here
beside your burnt offering, while I meet the Lord over
there. And the Lord met Balaam and put
a word in his mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus you
shall speak. And he came to him, and behold,
he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the Princess of
Moab with him. And Balak said to him, What has
the Lord spoken? And Balaam took up his discourse
and said, Rise Balak, and hear, Give ear to me, O son of Zippor.
God is not man that he should lie, or a son of man that he
should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do
it, or has He spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
Behold, I received a command to bless.
He has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.
He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble
in Israel. The Lord their God is with them,
and the shout of a king is among them.
God brings them out of Egypt, and it's for them like the horns
of the wild ox. For there is no enchantment
against Jacob, no divination against Israel.
Now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel, what has God
wrought? Behold a people as a lion rises
as a lion it lifts itself. It does not lie down until it
has devoured the prey and drunk the blood of the slain.
And Balak said to Balaam, Do not curse them at all, and do not
bless them at all. But Balaam answered, Balak, did
I not tell you all that the Lord says that I must do?
If you will pray with me, Father, I pray that as we
continue to look at the Book of Numbers and as we continue to
look at the prophet Balaam and his prophecies over the people
of Israel, God, would you help us to see and to hear the words
this morning that He says that you are not a man that you
should lie, nor son of man, that you should change your mind.
You are a God who does what he says.
Help us to not just merely hear these words this morning, God,
but to allow them to change us in the way that we view you and
see you, to know that we can trust you, that we can always
trust you. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
If you are going to date someone, if you are going to
marry someone, if you're going to live with someone, if you're
going to be friends with someone, if you're going to
attend church with someone, or in other words, if you're going
to be in a relationship of some form with another person.
There are two universal truths that we should be aware of #1
all people lie and #2 all people change their minds.
It may be an emotional lie, It may be a mental lie.
Maybe 1/2 truth or a deception or an exaggeration or a
misleading or the wrong facts. But the truth is, all people
lie, one way or the other. And all people change their
minds. We change perspectives, we
change opinions, we change preferences, we change our
commitments, We might even change our promises.
All people lie and all people change their minds, which is why
it is a great, great comfort that God is not a man that he
should lie, or a son of man that he should change his mind.
That's what the sermon is about this morning.
I want to start by giving the context.
If you have not been with us in the past few weeks, we've been
doing a study on the Book of Numbers and specifically Balaam.
And let me give the context. So we're all brought up to
speed, and then I'll jump into our text this morning.
So here's the context. Balak is the king of Moab, and
he has hired Balaam, a Pagan diviner, to curse Israel.
Balaam has told that he can only say what the Lord tells him to
say. But Balak's kind of ignores
these instructions and says, you know, just just try.
And so Balaam begins his discourse.
And that's what we looked at last week.
But rather than curse Israel, Balaam actually blesses Israel.
And Balak at the end of this says, what have you done to me?
I hired you, curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but
bless them. And Balaam tells them, I already
told you, I already told you, I can only say what the Lord tells
me to say. And that's where we left off
last week. So we're going to pick up in the
second Oracle this morning looking at verse 13.
If you'll look at verse 13 with me said to him, please come with
me to another place from which you may see them.
You shall see only a fraction of them and shall not see them all.
Then curse them for me from there.
So in the first Oracle, Balaam went to this bare height.
He's kind of overlooking the people of Israel.
He talks about seeing Israel from the top of the crags and
from the the hills and Balak and and it doesn't work according to
Balak. And so Balak gets this idea.
He's like, maybe if we change location, maybe if we go to a
different location, Balaam will be able to curse them from that
location. Maybe it's a location problem.
So Balak takes them to a new location and he says you only
see a fraction of them. And he repeats his instructions
to Balaam. He says curse them for me from
there from the new location. Now what?
Balak failed to understand that God is not a local deity.
Our God is not a local deity because our God is omnipresent,
which means he exists everywhere.
Location doesn't matter. God testifies in the book of
Jeremiah. Am IA God at hand?
Am I not a God? Also far away?
Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him,
declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth?
Declares the Lord? Jeremiah 2323 to 24.
In other words, God's omnipresence matters.
Something an attribute of God that may not give a whole lot of
thought to, but God's omnipresence matters.
Here's why I've talked to many Christians throughout the years
who suggest that maybe a change of scenery will make things
different. Their life's not going the way
that they want, and they think maybe a change of scenery will
make things different. Maybe if we change cities, maybe
if we change jobs, maybe if we change churches, maybe if we
change schools, maybe if we change relationships, maybe it
will change things. And the answer is maybe.
But here's what it won't change. It won't change the Lord, and it
won't change God's will for your life.
God's will is to bless Israel no matter where Balaam curses them
or attempts to curse them from. It doesn't matter where he
attempts to prophecy from. Or here's another way to think
about it. Some Christians will be
righteous in one place. They'll be righteous in setting,
but then they will make allowance for their sin in
another. We can have this cognitive
dissonance where we think that the Lord sees me here, the Lord
sees me in church, the Lord sees me in small group, the Lord sees
me when I'm around other Christians, but he doesn't see
me when I'm over here. Brothers and sisters, God sees
not only in Jerusalem, He also sees in Sodom and Gomorrah.
Just as much the psalmist writes, Where shall I go from
your spirit? Where shall I flee from your
presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are
there. If I make my bed and she'll
behold you are there. Where can Balaam make this
prophecy and the Lord not be there?
God's omnipresence matters. Look at verses 14 to 15 and he
come to the field of to the top bull and a ram on each altar.
Balaam said to Balak, stand here beside your burnt offering
there. So Balak takes him to a field on
top of mount Pisgah on top of this mount and they repeat the
same process as before. He builds 7 altars and he offers
a bull and a ram on each altar. So Balak has now invested in 14
altars, 14 bulls and 14 Rams. In other words, he is willing to
spare no expense to make sure this curse happens.
And Balaam gives him the same instructions.
He says stand here beside your burnt offering while I go over
there. But notice the difference, he
says, while I meet the Lord over there.
Now that's different than what we saw last week, isn't it?
Earlier last week, Balaam said perhaps the Lord will meet with
me over there. But now there's no perhaps.
In other words, Balaam expects God to meet with him.
He expects it. What does that mean for us?
It means this, the more we encounter God, the more we
expect to hear from God. The more we encounter God, the
more we expect to hear from God. It's kind of like learning a
language. All right.
My wife asked me, since our boys are home schooled and, and we
have to like, you know, she takes care of their education.
She asked me, she said, what language do you want our boys to
learn? Required to take a foreign
language and like, what language do you want them to learn?
And I was like, English, I'd like for them to be masters in
English, but if it's absolutely necessary for them to learn a
language, the easiest possible one may be Spanish.
She asked if Chinese would be an option and I was like, no, no,
can't just learn Chinese casually.
You either have to have parents who speak it or you have to be
immersed in the culture. You cannot learn Chinese
casually. The same is true with hearing
from God. You can't just hear from God
casually. You have to be immersed in it.
The more you are immersed in it, the more you will hear, the more
you will understand, the more you will expect God to speak to
you. If you only casually listen to
the Lord, if you are not immersed in this, you will know
as you will understand as much as I understand Chinese, which
is not much at all. Look at verse 16 to 17.
And the Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said,
Return to Balak and you shall speak.
And he came to and behold, he was standing beside his burnt
offering, and the Princess of Moab with him.
And Balak said to him, What has the Lord spoken?
Now God does exactly what he did before the Lord met Balaam.
He put a word in his mouth and he gave him instructions to
speak it. Now what I find in interesting
that God didn't put the same word in Balaam's mouth.
He put a new word in Balaam's mouth.
All four of these oracles are different.
They're all different. You could argue that.
Why not just give them one prophecy to bless them and just
keep repeating over and over again.
God doesn't do that. They're all different.
God gave Balaam a new word every time.
Brothers and sisters, let me exhort you to ask the Lord to
give you a new word in Psalm 40. In a place of hopelessness and
despair, the psalmist writes, He put a new song in my mouth
multiple times. The psalmist exhorts us, Oh,
sing to the Lord a new song. And in the same vein, ask the
Lord to give you a new word, a new word.
There's a reason why the phrase Christian says exists.
You ever heard that phrase right?
That's a Christian cliche. There's a reason why that
exists. Here's why.
Because Christians are often guilty of attempting to draw
fresh water from stagnant wells when God is willing to lead us
to living wells. The reason?
We read books, Christian books and articles and devotionals,
not to the Word of God. The reason we listen to sermons,
the reason you're listening right now, the reason we listen
to podcast, is because we don't want to keep repeating the same
prophecies, the same exhortations, the same rebukes,
and the same encouragements. We want God to put a new word in
our mouth, not only a word. Last week we talked about God,
please put a word in my mouth. But now we are saying, Lord, put
a new word in my mouth. I don't want to always keep
giving the same word. I want a new word and don't and
don't hear me saying that like like this only one word.
But the way that we apply this, the way that we use this can be
new and fresh, or it can be old and stagnant.
Balaam returns to Balak and the scene is exactly the same as
before. He's standing beside the burnt
offering with the Princess of Moab with him.
Except this time Balak asked Balaam.
He says what is the Lord spoken? Now did you notice that he
doesn't say has the Lord spoken? He just says what has the Lord
spoken? In other words, even Balak that
Balaam would hear from God, even this Pagan king expects that God
would speak to him. You almost get the sense that
Balak wants to know. He's like, can you tell me what
you're going to say before you say it?
I, I made that mistake the first time and now I'd like to know
ahead of time what you're going to say before you say it.
But Balaam doesn't doesn't give him a preview.
Now before we move on to verse 18, I want to point out
something. Why does God allow Balaam to
keep approaching him like this? Do you think about that?
Balaam approached God the first time.
God said don't go with them. Balaam approached him the second
time. God said you can go but only say
what I tell you to say. Balaam approached the third
time. God gave him a prophecy to
bless. Now Balaam is approaching God a
fourth time. Why doesn't God say to Balaam
enough, enough of the charade? Because as Isaiah says, the Lord
is the everlasting God. He does not faint or grow weary.
The fact that there are 4 oracles testifies to the
patience of our God. God is patient with Balaam,
patient even with Balak, which means this for us as his sons
and daughters. We should never think that we
are bothering God. I understand that some of us,
you know, you may have grown up in a family where if you
approach your parents, you all like not only did you something,
you always felt like you were bothering them.
We are never bothering God, ever.
You can come to Him 100 times a day and ask Him, and He is not
weary of it. He does not grow weary.
Look at verse 18 and Balaam took up his discourse and said, rise,
Balak in here, give ear to me, O son of Zippor.
So Balaam begins his second discourse and I want to draw
your attention. You know, we might just skip
over verse 18, but I don't want to do that because it's AI want
to be verbs that Balaam exhorts Balak with #1 he says rise.
Now that word rise there probably means pay attention in
this context, you could translate it as pay attention 2
here and three give ear exhorts. Balak pay attention and listen.
Now that's important because up until this point Balak has not
been paying attention. He hasn't been listening.
It's very right because he. Balaam has told him over and
over again, I can only say what the Lord says.
I can only say what the Lord says.
And Balak's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever you can say.
Like if you want to get paid, you're going to say what I say.
It's very clear that Balak is not listening.
And so Balaam tells them, he says, Balak, pay attention and
listen. One of the most important
disciplines that we can perform in the Christian walk is to pay
attention and listen, let me give an analogy.
I mentioned before, I think I mentioned last week and maybe a
few weeks before that, I mentioned last week that we just
started working out at the gym. My one of my boys basketball
coach is actually one of the here this morning, one of the
boys basketball coach came to me and he's like, has Joe ever
worked out before? And I was like, I get yeah, OK,
I got it. Like note taking, we'll get a
gym membership, we'll start working out.
So we started working out. We started working out.
And it can be easy when you go to the gym to just like, want to
just jump in, just go in there and, you know, just start
working out. I see that all the time.
Yeah, I see like a new guy come in and he puts like 40 fives on
and you're like, you're not going to be able to do that.
There's so many machines, there's so many devices.
There's so many weights. There's so many muscles to work
on. You're like, I have so much to
do. You look in the mirror.
I got a lot of work to do here, right?
I best get started. Let me just jump in and go at
it. But perhaps the best thing we
can do first is to pay attention and listen to, actually pay
attention to somebody who's teaching us what to do or what
not to do. Because if we don't, we will
either hurt ourselves or we'll look like a fool, or we'll just
waste our time. Friends, it is important to read
our Bible. It's important to pray.
It's important to attend church. It's important to give.
It's important to worship and evangelize and fast and meditate
and journal. All of these are important.
But none of these matter if we don't 1st pay attention and
listen. Does God have your undivided
attention? Does He have it?
Look at verse 19. God is not a man that he should
lie or a son of man that He should change his mind.
Has he said not do it? Or has He spoken and will he not
fulfill it? Verse 19 is one of the most
famous verses in the book of Numbers.
It might be the most famous from the book of Numbers.
Balaam makes 4 statements about God here.
I want to look at them one at a time.
Because this is one of the most pivotal verses, if not the most
pivotal in the book of Numbers. I want to look at them one at a
time. I'll give the negative version
of it as as the narrator get as as as Balaam gives, and I'll
give the affirmative version of it.
So here they are, one at a time. For one, God is not a man or a
son of man. Or in other words, God is God.
God is God. He is not a man, He is God.
Another way to think about this God is not like us.
Praise God that he is not like us.
We are made in God's image, but God is not made in our image,
which means that God's anger is not like ours, His forgiveness
is not like ours. God's justice is not like ours.
God's patience is not like ours. Sometimes we can highlight how
different things are right. You know, cats and dogs are very
different, men and women are very different, cultures are
very different. But none of these differences
are anywhere near as significant as the difference between God
and man. God is not like us two.
God is not a liar. Or in other words, God is
truthful. God never lies, which means he
can always be trusted. Always.
Here's why I find this so comforting.
One of the reasons that I despise by I despise buying
anything like other than like food, and only because I have to
I despise buying anything is because I suffer from extreme
analysis paralysis. Like extreme like, I can just
need a new pencil sharpener, right?
Lauren can tell me we need a pencil sharpener.
I'll spend an hour researching what is the best pencil
sharpener? What's the highest reviewed?
What's the budget version like? I can't buy pencil sharpener
without having analysis paralysis.
I have to know that I made the best possible decision on this
pencil sharpener and therefore I hate buying anything.
Do you know what's at the centre of my analysis paralysis?
What's at the centre of it? Trust.
I don't know who to trust. We recently bought a new
mattress. We've been our mattress is 17
years old. That's old.
We recently bought a new mattress.
I spent hours and hours researching mattresses.
Hours. Why?
Because I didn't know who to trust.
I didn't know who to trust. I even went to Mattress Firm and
then somebody told me that they were a front and I was like,
yeah, I probably can't do stuff. Friend and and no offence if you
like Mattress Firm and I I I don't know that they're front.
Here's why this is comforting friend.
You can always trust God. In other words, I don't need to
get online and try to figure out what are the reviews of God.
I don't care what the reviews of God are online and some of them
are pretty harsh. I don't care what anecdotal
evidence you may have heard about God and you go talk to
people like what is your anecdotal evidence of your
experience with God? I don't care.
The word of God says you can trust God every single time
because he never lies, ever. He will tell you the truth every
single time without fail, and you can always trust it #3 God
is not capricious, which is another way of saying God is
unchanging. God is not capricious, or in
other words, saying God is unchanging.
I preached a whole sermon on this topic over a decade ago.
The title of the sermon was Does God Change His Mind in the book
of Jonah? I won't rehash that sermon, but
here's why this matters. Balak thinks that God might
change his mind. That's what he's doing, right?
In other words, Balaam has told him that God's going to bless
them. And Balak thinks, well, maybe
he'll change his mind. Now, why does Balak think this?
Because his understanding of the gods is that all gods change
their mind. Go to any culture, to any
foreign God, and all gods change their mind.
That's what they do. The gods are fickle.
Gods are capricious. Yeah.
I mean, you see that just look mythology, right?
One day Zeus is angry, Bolt. Another day, he's happy
Blessing, right? The gods are fickle.
They change their minds. So why would the Israelite God
any different? But the reality is, he is
different. He is not capricious.
He is not fickle. Our God is unchanging.
Now we call this attribute immutability.
If you ever heard that firm immutability, that's the
attribute. God doesn't change.
Malachi 36 for I the Lord do not change.
He was 13-8. Jesus Christ says the same
yesterday, today, and forever. For Samuel 1529, the prophet
Samuel actually repeats the same words.
The glory of Israel will not lie or change his mind, for he is
not a man that he should change his mind.
Now here's why this is such good news.
Because God provides stability in an unstable world.
God provides stability in an unstable world.
I remember asking my mom years ago, years ago, why she married
my dad because they are so different.
I mean they're so so different. And I was like why did you marry
dad when my mom was lost? Not a Christian.
She was previously married 2 times.
Both marriages were pretty bad and were pretty rough.
And she told me, she said I chose your dad because he
provided stability. Her world was unstable.
He provided stability for her. That's what God does for all of
us in Christ. He provides stability in an
unstable world that we wait every morning that God is the
same as yesterday and 10 years ago and 1000 years ago.
Can you imagine if God did change his mind?
Think about that. Can you imagine if our God
changed his mind? How impossible would it be to
wake up every day with any stability at all?
Like what if one day God said, you know what?
I'm getting kind of tired of that.
I'm tired of forgiving him. I'm tired of his excuses.
I'm, I'm just going to take him out of the book of life.
You know, I thought he was a good choice, but turns out, you
know, I'm just kind of really tired of him.
I'm just going to take him out. Can you imagine if we had to
live like that? We wake up every day with
tremendous comfort and stability because we know that God will
not change His mind. God is not a son of man that He
should change His mind. Amen.
Amen #4 God is faithful. Balaam says that God is
faithful. He does what he says, He
fulfills His Word. God has a 100% track record and
He always will. I have several family members,
both my side of the family and my wife's side of the family who
owns small businesses. Do you know what they are?
And the businesses are very different.
Like 1 is a tuxedo shop, another one is like APT right?
They all various. 1 is a dog grooming business.
Do you know what they all say is their number one problem with
their small business? They all say the same thing.
You know what they say is their number one problem with their
small. Hire somebody and they are
inconsistent at best. Sometimes they don't even show
up for work. In other words, faithfulness is
a rare quality these days where if somebody says that they will
do something, they will do it all.
Know that a friend, our God is faithful.
He will never flake out. He will never fail to never drop
the ball. He will never be a no show.
He will never bail. He will never ghost us.
He will never break his promises.
Our God is faithful. Look at verse 20.
Behold, I've received the command to bless.
He has blessed and I cannot revoke it.
Balaam has already exhorted Balaam and listen now he exhorts
him. He says, behold, see, I have
received a command to bless. Balaam says I have received,
which means again a reminder. God's commands are a gift.
He says I've received a command to what?
To bless. And notice what Balaam says he
has blessed. I've received a command to
bless. But here's the thing, he already
has blessed, meaning that this people that you're trying to
curse Balak, they don't exist in a neutral state.
It's not as though like they're just neutral, you know, and
let's determine what their fate is.
They are already blessed. God told Abraham, I will make a
great nation of you and I will bless you and make your name
great. And Balaam says I cannot revoke
it. I can't revoke the blessing.
I can't turn it back. God's blessing has a no return
policy. There's no undo button for God's
blessing, Paul writes. The gifts and the calling of God
are irrevocable. You may have seen that word
irrevocable before. If you ever set up a trust, if
you have, you know if you set up a trust for your kids or your
grandkids, you can make it revocable or irrevocable.
There's advantages to both. You can see Eric Liu, He'll
provide information for you. I'm just kidding.
I'm volunteering. There are revocable trust and
there's irrevocable trust. Irrevocable trusts are very
difficult to terminate. It's really only possible with a
court order. Thankfully for us, God is the
judge. He has set up an irrevocable
trust to bless His children, to bless His people, and He is the
highest court and therefore it cannot be terminated.
It can't be undone. Look at verse 21 to 22.
He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble
in Israel. The Lord their God is with them,
and the shout of the king is among them.
God brings them out of Egypt and is for them like the horns of a
wild ox. The first lines in verse 21
they're translated quite differently.
I think the idea here is that God has no 'cause or plans to
curse His people. The NET Bible has an interesting
translation. The NET Bible translates this as
He has not looked on iniquity in Jacob.
That's an interesting translation.
In other words, God has not looked on their iniquity and
He's not held it against them. Now, here's why this is
important. God's people were surely
sinners. We've seen that in the book of
Numbers. I mean, you read the book of
Numbers. Good grief, they were sinners
and they were deserving of God's curse.
I think this is perhaps what Balak is, is hoping for.
I think Balak is thinking that like, what man, these people,
they're, they're pretty sinful. Maybe their God will curse them.
Maybe he's fed up with them and he'll curse them.
But Balaam says God has not planned disaster for them.
He has not planned disaster curses for them.
Remember what God said to his people in Jeremiah 2911.
For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord plans
for welfare and not for evil. Brother and sister, God does not
have bad plans for us. I think sometimes we feel that
he does. I think sometimes we might even
subconsciously think that he does.
Like why? Why is God's plans for my life
bad? Maybe God's plan is just for me
to suffer. Maybe that's just His plan.
It's for me to. I don't think God's ever going
to give me what I want. Trust, family.
God's plans for us are not bad. They're not even neutral.
His plans for us are good. There are two explicit reasons
that Balaam states why God has not planned misfortune or
trouble for his people. They're in the text.
Look at them. Number one, God is with them and
#2 God is for them. Let's take this one at a time.
God is with them. One could argue that this is the
theme of the Bible. The cross is the central focus
of the Bible. But the purpose of the cross is
what? So that we would be with God?
One could argue that the theme of this book is God making a way
for us to be with him. Balaam says that the shout of a
king is among them, meaning the people rejoice, shout over their
king that is among them. Now we see this most clearly
when Jesus rise into Jerusalem, the people shout, Hosanna,
blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king
of Israel. John 1213.
God is with us and #2 God is for us.
He is for them. Notice that he says He is for
them like the horns of a wild ox.
Don't you love poetic metaphors? Or I guess this is a this would
be assembly I guess, not a yes, this will be a simile.
See This is why you need to master English.
This is a simile, not a metaphor.
If you have ever seen a wild ox, how large and powerful this
animal is, I saw on YouTube. You probably saw the video too
at some point, but I saw on YouTube one time a lion trying
to attack a wild ox and another ox comes over.
And literally just tosses this lion up in the air.
It goes like 20 feet up in the air.
It just picks the lion up with its horns and the lion goes like
flying and then it runs off. The Bible says that our enemy is
a prowling lion seeking someone to devour.
But our God has the strength of a wild ox, and He won't let this
lion touch us. He is for US.
Brothers and sisters, God is with you.
God is for you. One of my favorite things to do
is to watch my sons play basketball.
I cheer for them, I root for them.
Doesn't mean I don't see their mistakes.
I see their mistakes. Got to go left, can't always go
right. I see their mistakes, I see
their sin, I see when they argue with the ref.
But I will never cheer against them.
I will always be for them. That is how it is with our God.
Balak is trying to get God to cheer for Moab and God says not
a chance. I am for Team Israel.
God is with us, He is for us at all times.
Look at verse 23 to 24. For there is no enchantment
against Jacob, no divination against Israel.
Now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel, what has God
wrought? Behold a people.
As a lioness it rises up, and as a lion it lists itself.
It does not lie down until it's devoured to pray and drunk.
The blood of the Balaam testifies there is no
enchantment against Israel. In other words, there's no
sorcery, there's no magic, there's no curse, there's no
omen. You see, the elders of Moab had
departed with fees for divination.
But Balaam says there is no divination.
There's no divination against Israel.
And now it shall be said among the people.
What has God wrought or the net Bible translates?
I like this translation. Look at what God has done.
That's what that means. Look at what God has done.
In other words, when people see Israel, when they look out at
this nation, they don't see a people who are cursed.
They see a people that makes them say look at what their God
has done. You see the difference between
social media's definition of blessed and the Bible's
definition of blessed is the end goal or the purpose.
If you get on social media, you'll see people all the time
saying blessed, right? And they have a big house,
blessed. New car, blessed.
You're in Hawaii sitting on the beach drinking a Mai Tai.
Blessed. But what is the end goal of
that? What is the purpose of that?
To be blessed. The goal of being blessed is to
be blessed. The end.
That's the goal. That's the purpose.
But what is the Christian's goal of being blessed?
What is the Christian's purpose of being blessed?
Here it is that people would say, look at what God has done,
God always blesses us that his blessing would turn into praise.
And Balaam concludes his Oracle with the image of a lion and a
lioness for Israel, which probably conveys their power,
their strength, and even royalty.
That God takes his strength and he gives it to his people last,
which is Balaam's way of telling Balak essentially you are a
zebra picking a fight with a pack of lions.
Last section look at verse 2526. And Balak said to Balaam, do not
curse them at all, do not bless them at all.
But Balaam answered Balak, did I not tell you all that the Lord
says that I must do? Initially Balak asked the
question, what have you done to me?
I think you may have misunderstood the terms of your
contract. But now Balak tells Balaam,
listen, don't curse them at all. Don't bless them at all.
In fact, don't say anything at all.
Just just keep silent. Stop prophesying, stop all
prophesying. But Balaam says, did I not tell
you? You can see why Balaam's initial
exhortation, pay attention and listen was important.
He's like, I've been telling you, I told you that all that
the Lord gives me, I have to say it.
Meaning you have moved from desiring me to curse to desiring
me to be silent. And he's telling I can't be
silent. Now that you've brought me here,
now that the Lord has approved this mission, I cannot be
silent. I must speak what God commands
me to speak. Brother and sister, silence is
not an option for us. Baylor gives Balaam instructions
to stop speaking. You ever been given a version of
stop speaking? Maybe the world or maybe even
your own family members will give us instructions to say,
don't talk to me about this anymore.
I don't want to hear about this anymore.
And I understand that's a fine line of how to deal with that.
But let me challenge you. Our response must be some
version of what Balaam says. All that the Lord says that I
must do, I cannot be silent. Let's pray.