All right, good morning, church family.
If you would open your Bibles to the Book of Numbers, chapter 22.
We're continuing our study of the Book of Numbers and
continuing more specifically our study of Balaam.
We have started study on him two weeks ago and and we're going to
continue that this morning in verses 30 through 41.
The title of the sermon this morning is this.
Speak Every Word that God puts in our mouth.
So let's read the text. I'll open this in a word of
prayer, and then we'll jump into the sermon this morning.
Numbers 22, beginning in verse 30.
And the donkey said to Balaam, am I not your donkey on which
you have ridden all your life long to this day?
Is it my habit to treat you this way?
And he said no. Then the Lord opened the eyes of
Balaam, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way
with his drawn sword in his hand, And he bowed down and fell
on his face. And the Angel of the Lord said
to him, Why have you struck your donkey these three times?
Behold, I have come out to oppose you, because your way is
perverse before me. The donkey saw me and turned
aside before me these three times.
If she had not turned aside from me, surely just now I would have
killed you and let her live. Then Balaam said to the Angel of
the Lord, I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood in
the road against me. Now therefore, if it is evil in
your sight, I will turn back. And the Angel of the Lord said
to Balaam, Go with the men, but speak only the word that I tell
you. So Balaam went on with the
Princess of Balaic. When Balak heard that Balaam had
come, he went out to meet him at the city of Moab, on the border
formed by the Arnon at the extremity of the border.
And Balak said to Balaam, Did I not send to you to call you?
Why did you not come to me? Am I not able to honor you?
Balaam said to Balak. Behold, I have come to you.
Have I now any power of my own to speak anything?
The word that God puts in my mouth, that must I speak.
Then Balaam went with Balak, and they came to Kiryath, whose
oath. And Balak sacrificed oxen, his
sheep, and sent for Balaam and for the Princess who were with
them. And in the morning Balak took
Balaam and brought him up to Baymoth Baal, and from there he
saw a fraction of the people. He will pray with me.
Father, I pray as the words that we just set sung in our our, our
last song. Lord, give us eyes to see.
Give us ears to hear. God, that is my single request
of you this morning. God, that you would give us eyes
to see and you would give us ears to hear.
I pray in Jesus name, Amen. A doctor's job is to tell you
about your health. Nobody likes to hear you're
overweight, or your blood pressure is too high, or you
need to stop smoking, or you need to get more exercise.
Nobody likes to hear these words from a doctor, but that's the
doctor's job. A lawyer's job is to tell you
about what is legal and what is not legal.
Nobody likes to hear that you can't do business this way, or
you can't take that loophole, or you need to read the fine print.
But that's the lawyer's job. A financial advisor's job is to
tell you where to invest and where not to invest, or how much
to spend, or how much to save, or what to do with your money.
Nobody likes to hear that you should not invest all your money
in this new startup that you are convinced is the next NVIDIA, or
that you need to scale back your spending, or you need to ramp up
your savings or whatever. Nobody wants to hear that.
But that is the financial advisor's job.
So what about us? What is our job?
God has made all of us who are in Christ profits, and He has
put words into our mouth and we must speak them even if we
desire to say something else, even if we desire to say nothing
at all. We must speak every word that
God puts into our mouth. That's what the sermon is about
this morning. Speak every word that God puts
into your mouth. I want to give the context.
We're jumping into the middle of the story.
We're coming right to the end of the first part of Balaam's
story. And so I want to give the
context if you have not been with us the past two weeks, so
you know where we're at and where we're going.
Here's the context of our our text this morning.
The Israelite people are camping near the plains of Moab and the
Moabite King Balak sees this great horde of people camping
right outside his territory and he is scared.
He thinks they're going to come and attack him, so he decides to
go and hire a Pagan diviner named Balaam in an attempt to
weaken the forces of Israel. But God comes to Balaam at night
time and tells him do not go with the Moabites.
You may not curse them for they are blessed.
Now Balak won't take no for an answer, so he sends another
delegation to Balaam. And when they get there, rather
than tell them to go home, he says to them, all right, listen,
I'll go to the Lord tonight. I'll see what more he might say
to me. Now we would expect God to give
him the exact same answer. We'd expect God to say, well, I
already told you, don't go with them.
But to our surprise, that's not what God says.
God tells Balaam go with the men, but with one caveat.
Only do what I tell you. So in the morning, Balaam goes
with them. But as he's going along the way,
we discovered that God is angry with Balaam for going.
Now we're not. We're left confused as to why
God is angry. Didn't you just say to go?
But if you read the entire story, it becomes clear that
Balaam was not planning to obey God.
He was planning to get rich. So God decides to oppose Balaam.
He sends the Angel of the Lord with a sword in his hand to
stand in Balaam's way. Now as this Angel stands there,
Balaam doesn't see the Angel, but his donkey does.
The first time that the Angel stands there, the donkey sees
the Angel. He turns.
She turns into a field, which prompts Balaam to strike his
donkey. The second time, the donkey
tries to squeeze by against a wall, trying to go around the
Angel crushing Balaam's foot against the wall, prompting
Balaam to strike his donkey a second time.
The third time, there's nowhere to turn.
It's a narrow path. Can't turn to the right.
Can't donkey just lays down on the ground, prompting Balaam for
the third time to beat his donkey.
And then God does something really unexpected.
He opens the mouth of the donkey and she speaks to Balaam.
The donkey says, what have I done to you that you strike me
these three times? And Balaam speaks back to the
donkey, and he says, because you have made a fool of me.
If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right here, right
now. And that's where we left off
last week. So let's pick up on our text.
Let's start in verse 30. I'll be continuing with the
structure I've been using. I'll be weaving together
application exposition as we go through the text.
Let's look at verse 30. The donkey said to Balaam, am I
not your donkey on what you have ridden all your lifelong to this
day? Is it my habit to treat you this
way? And he said, no.
You know, what I find interesting is that not only did
the donkey speak to Balaam, but that the donkey had a logical,
rational conversation with Balaam.
It's not as though the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey
to just utter one word, right? That would be miraculous enough
where the donkey just says as it's getting beaten, stop or
look, you know, it's not. A donkey doesn't just say one
word. The the donkey has a logical
rational conversation with Balaam.
The Lord opened the donkey's mouth to ask Balaam 3 questions
and these are the type of questions that God ask.
It's as if God is speaking through this donkey.
That's how I read it, is that the donkey is simply a messenger
and God is speaking through the donkey.
One of the primary lessons that this story teaches us is this.
If God can speak through a donkey, what else is he speaking
through? If God can speak through a
donkey, what else is he speaking through in your life?
Now I know we can take this too far.
We can begin to interpret cloud formations as though God
speaking to us. We can take that too far, but we
can also fail to take it far enough.
In other words, where we failed to consider is God speaking to
me? You see, God used a donkey to
speak to Balaam. If that's true, what else might
God be using to speak to you? Don't discredit the message
because of the messenger or the means.
Or sometimes, you know, we, we discredit the messenger or we
discredit the means and then we therefore we don't hear the
message. But listen to me, God used a
donkey to speak to Balaam. What might he be using to speak
to you? It's not as though like God only
speaks through pastors or that God only speaks through this
particular me. What might God be using to speak
to you? Last week we looked at the
donkey's first question. Now let's look at the second and
third question that he asked. She asked the second question
the donkey asks is, am I not your donkey on what you have
ridden all your life long? To this day?
It's interesting that the donkey is essentially appealing to her
relationship with Balaam. The donkey is is essentially
saying to Balaam, hey, I'm not an Uber, I'm not a Lyft.
I'm your donkey. How many years have I been with
you? I like what Shong prayed last
week. And when she prayed, she said
when someone is trying to deliver a message to us, help us
not to strike them. Isn't that so often so common?
What happens? We don't like the message.
Somebody comes to us. Maybe somebody who is eating
close to us comes to us and tells us something.
We don't like what they're saying.
And in those moments, we need to remember who the messenger is.
How many times does our spouse exhort us, maybe even rebuke us,
and we're angry with them for it?
We need to remember who the messenger is.
Is this not my spouse? They're not my enemy, They're my
spouse. How many times does a friend or
a housemate or a fellow church member exhort us, challenge us,
and we are angry with them for what they said to us?
And we need to remember who the messenger is.
This is my friend. This is my housemate.
This is my fellow brother and sister #3 the third question the
donkey asked. Is it my habit to treat you this
way? Is it my habit to treat you?
The donkey is now appealing to Balaam's sensibilities.
It's interesting that the donkey is speaking more logically and
rationally than Balaam is. The donkey is essentially
asking, Balaam, can you put aside your anger and your pride
and your ambition and can you consider for just a minute right
now? I know you're kind of when we,
you know, when we get into our emotions, whether it's
discouragement or anger, and that's all we can see right
then. But the donkey is saying, look,
can you put aside your anger for just a minute and can you
consider, is this my practice? Is it normal for me to treat you
this way, brother and sister? When we feel mistreated by God
and we often, whether we admit it or not, feel mistreated by
God, maybe we feel like God is not being fair to us.
It's not fair that this person got this promotion when I'm way
more qualified than them. It's not fair that this person
found a significant other when I'm far better looking and far
more intelligent than they are. Maybe we feel like God is not
being fair to us. Maybe we feel like God is even
being harsh to us or loving to us.
And in those moments when we feel that way, we need to step
outside our feelings and we need to ask ourselves, is this the
normal habit of God? Is it God's normal habit to
treat me this way? I think if we do that, I think
we will discover the same answer that Balaam had.
I love the simplicity of Balaam's answer.
I love it. He says no, no.
This is the first time that Balaam humbles himself and he
considers the reason of his donkey.
He says, no, it is not your habit to treat me this way.
And I think it is this answer that prompts God to to do what
He does next. Look at verse 31.
Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the Angel of
the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his
hand, and he bowed down and fell on his face.
Now I want you to notice what the text didn't say.
The text doesn't say. Then Balaam saw the Angel of the
Lord. That's not what the text says it
says. Then the Lord opened the eyes of
Balaam and he saw the Angel of the Lord.
The Lord opened Balaam's eyes. When we think about the story of
Balaam, if you, you know, especially if you taught this to
kids, but even adults, if you ever asked what is the, the
miracle, the story, right? Almost everybody would say it's
the miracle of the donkey speaking.
But I submit to you that God opening the eyes of Balaam is no
less a miracle than God opening the mouth of a donkey.
God must open our eyes to see what is unseen.
Because Balaam looks at this road, this path to Moab, and you
know what he sees? All he sees is an open path.
That's all he sees, and yet there is an Angel standing in
his path with a drawn sword in his hand, ready to judge him,
and he can't see it. Why?
Because his spiritual eyes haven't been opened.
So many people look at this like maybe even here this morning.
I am well aware that not everybody who walked through
that door can see. There are blind people in this
room. So many people look at this life
and all they see is an open path.
An open path. And what they don't realize is
that on this path there is a Saviour hanging on a cross,
ready to receive them if they will come to Him, and ready to
judge them if they forsake Him. And the reality is, is that they
will never see Jesus if he doesn't open their eyes.
Brother and sister, praise God that when we were lost, when we
had hopelessly lost our way, that God came to us, opened our
eyes to see on our path of life the risen Saviour, crucified and
risen from the dead. He showed us what we couldn't
see. Sometimes that site is even like
you've been in church all your life and what you see is you see
church, you see social club, you see the Bible, you see religion,
you see baptism, you see friends, you see community, you
see fellowship, you see food, you you see a lot.
But what you don't see is Jesus Christ.
You don't see them because your eyes haven't been opened.
Even as Christians, if you're here and you're like, hey, Matt,
my eyes have been open, I see Jesus.
OK? God has to continue to open our
eyes to see what's unseen. They're called blind spots for a
reason, right? Do we not have blind spots?
We must pray every week of our life and ask God, God, open my
eyes to see what I don't see. Do you pray that?
Do you pray every week of your life?
God opened my eyes to see what I don't see.
Now here's a question. Why did God open the eyes of the
donkey three times and open the mouth of the donkey to ask three
questions before he opened the eyes of Balaam once?
Why did God do that? Here's what I'm going to subject
or submit to you. Because God had to get His
attention first. God had to humble him first
before He was ready to see it. You see, pride functions like
cataracts and God has to humble us before we can see.
God has to get our attention before we can see.
Let me give a fictitious example.
Suppose a wife test her husband. Her husband is in his office at
work. He works from home.
He's in his office. He's busy at work.
He's I don't, I don't know how you code like he, he's busy at
work. He's distracted in his work.
She comes into his office. She shows him a receipt.
She says, hey, this is what I got at the mall.
He's busy. He briefly looks at it.
OK, good. She leaves.
It was a $30,000 Louis Vuitton handbag.
He saw the receipt. He saw the receipt, but she
didn't have his attention. She didn't have his attention.
God has to get our attention first before He can show us what
we need to see. Now when God opens the eyes of
Balaam, Balaam sees the Angel Lord standing in the way with a
drawn sword in his hand. God has his attention.
God has Balaam's attention now. And look at what Balaam does.
He bowed down and fell on his face.
This may have been the first and only time that Balaam bowed
before the Lord. I don't know, but maybe.
What does this tell us? It tells us that God doesn't
just open the eyes of the blind, He also opens the humility of
the proud. You ever had a moment where you
almost died? You ever had a moment where you
almost died because of your own choices?
I, I have, I'm maybe I'm the only one dumb enough to have
those moments. But you ever had a moment where
you almost died because of your stupidity?
You ever been engaged in secret sin and you almost got found out
like you were this close to getting found out?
You ever been about to make the biggest mistake of your life
like you were this close to making the biggest mistake of
your life? Those moments are humbling.
They're humbling. God doesn't just open our eyes,
He also opens our humility. Look at verse 32.
And the Angel of the Lord said to him, Why have you struck your
donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to
oppose you because your way is perverse before me.
The Angel Lord now speaks to Balaam.
The donkey speaking career is over.
Now it's the angel's turn to speak.
And just like the donkey, the Angel asked Balaam a question.
The Angel asked the same question that the donkey asked.
Essentially, why have you struck your donkey these three times?
And then the Angel says something interesting.
The Angel says the word behold. You know what that word behold
means? It's an invitation.
It's an invitation to see. That's what it literally means.
It means look, it's it's, it's an invitation.
The Angel says, behold, look, I have come out to oppose you.
That word opposed is the same Hebrew word we looked at last
week. Satan sacks, same words.
Satan, same word as adversary in verse 22.
You ever felt like God was opposing you?
You ever felt that way? I just felt like God was just
opposing you. You see, we want God to be a
runway. It's like God, I want you to be
a runway. I want to land this thing.
And so often he is the air traffic controller telling us to
just keep circling. You're like, why can I land this
thing? Can we close this deal?
Can we make this happen? God, can you please give me what
I want? And you feel like God is just
the air traffic controller that says keep circling, keep
circling. Why are you opposing me God from
landing this plane? Look at the reason the Angel
gives, because your way is perverse before me.
Now, I don't want to suggest that that's true for all of us.
That may not be the case at all. It was true for Balaam.
What does the word perverse mean?
This is the only time this Hebrew word is used.
Here's what it means. Morally reckless, IE to be
morally on a wrong or dangerous path of life as a figurative
extension of a travel down a steep dangerous path as a
senseless behaviour. It it, it's a figure like it
literally means to like travel down a steep path, right.
This you ever watch like these extreme people on YouTube?
And like I watched one the other day, this mountain biker who was
like going down this like it was going like 60 oz.
I mean, it was just like, and I was just like that.
That's that's ridiculous. Like, like you're, you're,
you're flirting with death. Translations here Is is contrary
or reckless? Balaam is being reckless.
God has called us to be careful, not careless, not reckless.
Brothers and sisters, is there any area of your life where you
are being reckless? Is there Is there any area of
your life where you are being reckless?
What about reckless with your words?
Ever been reckless with your words?
The Bible says that the tongue is a sword.
Imagine if I walked in here with a real samurai sword.
Not, not, not something I got from Party City.
Imagine if I walked in here with a real samurai sword and I came
in here and I just started swinging around.
Like during the greeting time I was just swinging it around.
What would you think? That would be reckless, right?
Put that thing away, Pastor. Yeah.
How often are we reckless with this sword?
How often are we reckless with this sword that cuts far deeper.
Often. You see, we can be reckless with
anything. We can be reckless with our
driving. They call it reckless driving.
Reckless with our eating, Reckless with our drinking,
Reckless with our spending, Reckless with our scrolling.
God loves his children, He loves us, and He will oppose us if we
are being reckless. If my son who is he doesn't have
his driver's license yet, but when he gets his driver's
license and I catch him recklessly driving, I will
oppose him. I will take your keys away if
you're reckless. God will oppose us if we are
being reckless. Verse 33 The donkey saw me and
turned aside before me these three times.
If she had not turned aside from me, surely just now I would have
killed you and let her live. Verse 33 kind of just blows your
mind, doesn't it? The Angel essentially says the
only reason that you are alive is because of your donkey.
You wanted to kill your donkey, but it was your donkey that kept
you from getting killed. In other words, if you didn't
write, if you went walking instead of riding this donkey,
you'd be dead. Your donkey has preserved your
life, he says. If she had not turned aside from
me, surely did you guess the word?
Surely there surely meaning the Angel saying he would not have
hesitated to kill Balaam, wouldn't have thought about it,
wouldn't debated about it, would have killed Balaam right then
and there. As I mentioned last week, what
if the very thing that we wish would die in our life is the
very thing that is keeping us spiritually alive?
What if the very thing that we wish would die just go away in
our life? What if that is the very thing
that is keeping us spiritually alive?
If you've ever read the story of Jonny Erickson Tata, she became
a quadruple quadriplegic at the age of 17 from a diving
accident. In her early years, she prayed
and prayed and prayed for healing.
She actually did everything. She would go to these, you know,
healing ministries. She did everything she could to
be healed. Early on, all she wanted was her
paralysis to die. She wanted her paralysis to die,
but God's answer to her was no. And here is what she said to
that No answer. No answer to my request for a
miraculous physical healing has meant purged sin, a love for the
lost, increased compassion, stretched hope, an appetite for
grace, an increase of faith, a happy longing for heaven, a
desire to serve, a delight in prayer, and a hunger for His
Word. Oh, bless the stern
schoolmaster. That is my wheelchair.
What if the wheelchair, just like Balaam's donkey, is the
only thing that is keeping her spiritually alive?
Brother and sister, what if the thing that you dislike most
about your life right now? If I were to ask you that
question, what do you dislike most about your life?
What if the thing that you dislike most about your life is
the very thing that is keeping you alive spiritually?
Look at verse 34. Then Balaam said to the Angel of
the Lord, I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood in
the road against me. Now therefore, if it is evil in
your sight, I will turn back. Now Balaam has already responded
to the donkey. So what's responding to an
Angel? If you're going to talk to a
donkey, you're willing to talk to an Angel.
Balaam says something interesting to the Angel.
Balaam says I have sinned. Now the phrase here, when Balaam
says I have sinned, that phrase means nothing, absolutely
nothing. This phrase is spoken by
Pharaoh, it's spoken by Saul, it's spoken by Judas, all of
whom are, I presume, are in hell.
There's nothing salvific about admitting that you sinned.
There are no rewards for truth tellers in hell.
All Balaam is admitting to here is ignorance.
That's all he's admitting to, he says.
For I did not know that you stood in the road against me.
I have prayed many times in my life.
God, let me not be ignorant of what you're doing in my life.
Let me not be ignorant of what you're trying to teach me.
God, I recognize that I don't know everything, no matter how
much I may think I do, I don't know anything.
God, let me not be ignorant of what you're doing right now,
because Balaam was ignorant. Balaam says now, Therefore, if
it is evil in your sight, I will turn back.
Now. I want to be clear here.
It is not as though Balaam's desire is to please the Lord.
That's not what Balaam's desire hears.
Balaam's desire is to not get killed.
That's his desire. There is a difference between
desiring a person and not desiring A punishment.
Let me say that again. There is a difference between
desiring a person and not desiring a punishment.
Balaam doesn't desire God. He desires not to get killed.
Jesus didn't die on the cross to get us out of hell.
He died to bring us to God. Nobody wants to go to hell, no
matter what the world says. Nobody desires to suffer
eternally. You don't have to be a Christian
to want to avoid hell. If you are a Christian because
you don't want to go to hell, that means nothing because
nobody wants to go to hell. You don't have to be a Christian
to not want to go to hell. You do have to be a Christian to
want Jesus. Look at verse 35 and the Angel
Lord said to Balaam, go with the men, but speak only the word
that I tell you. So Balaam went on with the
Princess of Balak. Now this verse seems to confirm
that God was not angry with Balaam for going with the men.
He was angry with his heart and his motives for doing so. 2
reasons here. Number one, the Angel repeats
God's instructions. He tells them go with the men.
God's will is for Balaam to go with them.
The second reason is the Angel repeats God's caveat.
He says speak only the word that I tell you.
The fact that the Angel repeats this command seemed to me at
least seems to imply that Balaam was initially going to take some
liberties with his prophecy. I think Balaam was going to go
and he was hoping that God would kind of forget about him.
And guys like, I got the green light from God.
I'm going to take some liberties.
I'm going to maybe curse because, you know, maybe I can,
I've got, I've got, I can have my cake and eat it too.
And Balaam needs some reminding. You may only speak the word that
I tell you. You see, we all need some
reminding from God because often along the way we forget, don't
we? As the hymn says, we are prone
to wander. You see, Balaam started off.
He started off saying I can't go beyond the commanded Lord.
That's how he started off. But somewhere along the way he
begins to think God did say that I could go and now that I'm
going, maybe I could just offer a few curses and get rich at the
same time. That's, I think that's what he's
thinking. He starts off well.
We often start off well, don't we?
We start the day well, We start the week well.
We start the job well. We start the dating relationship
well. We start the marriage well.
We start the parenting well. We start the ministry well and
somewhere along the way we get off track.
Somewhere along the way you wake up one day and you're like, how
did we get here? How did we get here?
How did I get here? And in those moments we need
reminding from God. We need to hear the voice of the
Holy Spirit telling us you are to only do what I I tell you.
It's very simple. Do what I tell you.
Look at verse 36 to 37. When Balak heard that Balaam had
come, he went out to meet him at the city of Moab, on the border
formed by the Arnon at the extremity of the border.
And Balak said to Balaam, did I not send to you to call you?
Why did you not come to me? Am I not able to honor you?
So Balak gets word that Balaam has now come, and he actually
goes to the border to meet him, the border of Moab.
And just like the donkey, Balak has three questions for balaam
#1 he says, Did I not send to you to call you?
It appears that Balak is somewhat miffed.
He's somewhat offended, like, hey, I called you, why didn't
you come #2 Why did you not come to me?
He thinks there must be a reason.
There's got to be a reason that you didn't come to me.
Surely there is. And in fact, there was #3 he
says, Am I not able to honor you?
In other words, can I not pay you?
Do you not think that I can reward you greatly?
It sounds as though Balak is insulted by Balaam.
You know that he thought like, well, what's this king going to
give me? That's what Bailey thinks.
And he's like, do I not have riches to give you?
Do you? You don't think I'm rich.
I am rich. I can I can give you a lot.
After all, he's like, are you not AI checked your LinkedIn
page. He said Pagan diviner for hire.
That's why I hired you. And he's like, this is not just
some small client calling by you.
This is the king of Moab. He's like, I'm the king.
Don't you think that I can make you rich?
Surely you want to get rich, don't you, Balaam?
And the problem is, he does. He does.
You see, these questions from Balak are often taken upon the
lips of our enemy. Satan will come to us, and he
will say, did I not send to you to call you?
Why didn't you come to me? Am I not able to honor you?
Brother, Sister, Satan is able to honor us.
He honored Aiken with gold and silver and a cloak.
He honored Ghazi with a talent of silver and a change of two
changes of clothing. He honored Judas with 30 pieces
of silver. He honored Ananias with some of
the prophets from his land. Satan has the power to honour
you. If you want to get what you
want. You don't have to go through God
to get it. You can go through Satan.
It's not just with money. It could be marriage.
I need more than two hands to count how many people have said,
you know what, if I have to choose God and singleness or not
God and marriage, I'll take this one.
You can get what you want. It could be college if I have to
choose God, or if I have to sell my life to get this college
degree, I'll choose this one because I got to get this
degree. I've got to get this job.
It's, it's, it's all a bust. I can't go back now.
Friends, success, comfort, approval.
See, Satan will figure out what you want most.
He's been around for thousands of years.
He is very clever. He is very smart.
He'll figure out what is it that this person wants most, and
he'll exploit it. He'll exploit it.
Look at verse 38 to 41. Balaam said to Balak, behold, I
have come to you, Have I now any power of my own to speak
anything? The word that God puts in my
mouth that must I speak. Then Balaam went with Balak, and
they came to Kiriath, whose oath Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep
and sent for Balaam and for the Princess who were with him.
And in the morning Balak took Balaam, brought him up to Bay
Moth Baal, and from there he saw a fraction of the people.
Balaam says to Balak, Look, I'm here, all right?
I mean, OK, I I I may be late to the party, but I'm here.
I made it. But I need you to know
something. Even though I'm here, I need you
to know something. Have I now the power to speak
anything that I want? This is the first time that
Balaam actually asked a question.
He's basically letting Balak know.
He's like, look, I know that you may draw up a contract to pay me
handsomely, but I need you to know that I also have a contract
with the sovereign creator of the universe.
And he has told me in my contract that I'm not allowed to
say whatever I want. The word that God puts in my
mouth. That is all I can say.
Balak, I want you to notice three elements of Balaam's
statement. A God is in control.
Balaam says the word that God, not the word that I want, but
the word that God wants. Not even the word that you want.
Balak, God is in control. B God is active in his control.
Balaam says the word that God puts that verb there puts, can
be translated, arranges, appoints, establishes, confirms.
In other words, God is not in control.
From a distance, Balaam maybe thought that, but when God meets
him, he makes it clear I am not in control.
I am actively in control. He's active in this process.
And see, Balaam is under necessity to speak, meaning he's
telling Balak, look, even if you don't like the word, I need you
to know you like not only may I be here to say nothing or to
curse them, I may actually say what you don't want to hear.
And I need you to know I'm required to speak it.
In other words, now that I'm here, I can't be silent.
I must say whatever God tells me to say.
And what's interesting is that Balak, he just totally
disregards what Balaam said. He doesn't even like consider
it. It's as if Balak is like, yeah,
yeah, yeah. Well, that's all.
Goodbye. But look, if you want to get
paid, you're going to say what I say.
You want to get your money, you're going to say what I say.
So Balaam goes with Balak. Balak sacrifices oxen and sheep.
Why? I think this is for a meal.
I think it was common to honor guest by having a sacrificial
meal. I think, in other words, when he
makes this meal for Balaam, he's already beginning to honor him.
He's already beginning to try to fatten him up to do what he
wants. And in the morning, Bailey
brought Balaam up a mountainside to overlook the people of
Israel. But he only saw a fraction of
the people. And so I want to close with what
Balaam said in verse 38. Balaam said, have I now any
power of my own to speak anything?
The word that God puts in my mouth, that must I speak.
Brother and sister, God will put words in your mouth.
He will. If you are in Christ, you are a
prophet. In Christ.
All may prophecy. God will put words in your
mouth, and we must speak those words.
If God gives you a rebuke, don't offer encouragement.
If God gives you an encouragement, don't turn it
into a rebuke. If God gives you the gospel,
don't default to small talk. If God gives you a prophecy,
don't offer an opinion. If God gives you the Bible,
don't quote the world. If God gives you silence, don't
speak a word. If God gives you the truth,
don't settle for 1/2 truth. If God gives you counsel, don't
let the fear of man muzzle that counsel.
Speak every word that God puts in your mouth.
Let's pray.