Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / June 4, 2023 | Numbers - Donkeys and Curses

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June 4, 2023 | Numbers - Donkeys and Curses · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Morning.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: It's great to woo.
0:03
SPEAKER_00: It's great to be with you guys this morning as we go through the book of Numbers.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're uh we're done with numbers at the end of June, right?
0:12
SPEAKER_00: Just as it's getting so hot outside, we're gonna exit the wilderness and move on to something else.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: But uh this morning I have a story for you.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: It's the longest story in the book of Numbers, and um I'm actually gonna read a decent amount of it to you.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: And before you exit, um the reason is because this story, it's wild.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's it involves an angry king and him trying to curse the nation of Israel using dark magic.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
0:43
SPEAKER_00: No lie.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're talking about today.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: But as we look at this story, um, as is the case, hopefully, every time we look at God's word, we are still going to find something uh that applies directly to us today.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: And so uh if you want to work with me, uh we'll begin in Numbers chapter 22.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm reading from the CSB version.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: And um I'm gonna stop a couple different times to kind of explain some things that are going on, but really I'm gonna get through basically all the story, and then I'll sort of bring in a couple things that hopefully are really relevant.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: So um at this point in Numbers 22, right, Israel has fought against the nation of the um uh the Amorites, all right, and they have defeated them.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: That was in chapter 21.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh they tried to go through their land, they were like, nope, you can't, and so they came out and fought Israel, and Israel defeated them, and that is what leads us into chapter 22, okay?
1:48
SPEAKER_00: So the Israelites traveled on and camped in the plains of Moab, near the Jordan across from Jericho.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: Now Balak, son of Zippor, saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: Moab was terrified of the people, because they were numerous, and Moab dreaded the Israelites.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: So the Moabites said to the elders of Midian, which is a neighboring nation, This horde will devour everything around us like an ox eats up the green plants in the field.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: Since Balak, son of Zippor, was Moab's king at that time, he sent messengers to Balaam, son of Beor, at Pethor, which is by the Euphrates and the land of his people.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: Balak said to them, Look, a people has come out of Egypt, they cover the surface of the land, and are living right across from me.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: Please come and put a curse on these people for me, because they are more powerful than I am.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: I may be able to defeat them and drive them out of the li drive them out of the land, for I know that those you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: Time to stop here and get ourselves oriented, right?
2:48
SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, map time, right?
2:51
SPEAKER_00: Map time, not a big deal.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: We can handle it, right?
2:54
SPEAKER_00: Map on the left is the big version of the map on the right.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: And this tells us kind of where we're at in the story.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: Because, see, this space generally up here is the promised land, okay?
3:07
SPEAKER_00: And Israel is trying to, is God has promised them, right?
3:11
SPEAKER_00: Why is it the promised land?
3:12
SPEAKER_00: God has promised it to them.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: And so they are heading, they're supposed to be going into the promised land.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: This is the same area that they were rejected from earlier, right?
3:20
SPEAKER_00: And so they have been sort of swinging around the backside here because they are ultimately going to enter into the promised land after they cross over the Jordan River.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: So if you're familiar with the Joshua and the Battle of Jericho, like that's the first thing that happens once they cross over the Jordan.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of where we're headed.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: So Israel has come to this place, though, where they are camping in something called the plains of Moab, right across from the Jordan River.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: This is actually for a book that has involved Israel traveling hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of miles back and forth over 40 years, they're done moving, basically.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: This is where they're going to be for the entire book of Deuteronomy, which is essentially Moses telling them what they need to know before they cross the Jordan, right?
4:09
SPEAKER_00: All of it happens right there.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: The problem is, and where our character comes in this morning, Balak the son of Zippor, right, he is the leader of Moab.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and Moab is to the south, but Israel, just in Numbers 21, uh defeated the nation that was right here, okay?
4:29
SPEAKER_00: And so uh Balak saw them come in and destroy this nation and take part in the land and then move on, but he's scared that they're gonna come for him next.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't know that the Lord has instructed the Israelites to not do that.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, he's like, aren't we would lose in a battle?
4:46
SPEAKER_00: We are not gonna beat them.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: Moab is tiny compared to the nation of Israel.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: Notice all the places where he's like, they cover the land, right?
4:54
SPEAKER_00: They eat all the grass.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: Um there's a lot of them here.
4:59
SPEAKER_00: And so Balak goes to the next strategy, which is actually a relevant strategy that he is going to curse the nation.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: Or because he can't, he's gonna hire somebody to curse the nation.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: So enters Balaam.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: Balaam is gonna be the main guy in our story.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: And he is basically a, you could call him a diviner, a seer, whatever.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: He is a practitioner of basically uh dark magic.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna explain that in a second what I mean.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: This isn't sorted into Gryffindor stuff, okay?
5:34
SPEAKER_00: This is separate.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: Uh but what he's doing is he has sent for this individual who has a reputation amongst the ancient world, that by paying him an insane amount of money, he will either bless or curse the nations, okay?
5:49
SPEAKER_00: That's his business card.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: I bless who I bless, and I curse who I curse, right?
5:54
SPEAKER_00: Um and that is what we see at the end of verse 6, right?
5:58
SPEAKER_00: For I know that those you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: That's going to become super important.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: But before we go on, there's something else I want to talk with you about, though, right?
6:08
SPEAKER_00: Which is this idea of um magic, okay?
6:13
SPEAKER_00: It's not that you cast a fireball spell, it's not that a rabbit comes out of a hat, it's not um that you are doing card tricks, okay?
6:22
SPEAKER_00: The magic that we're talking about is very real in the sense that there is, there are individuals in the Bible who are able to have power by accessing this sort of spiritual world.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and if I know I've lost some of you already, right?
6:40
SPEAKER_00: Just bear with me.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: But what is actually going on here is there is on top and overlaid of this world that we see, there is a spiritual world.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: Okay, whenever we talk about angels, whenever we talk about demons, whenever we talk about spiritual things, that is the world that we're talking about.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: And there are people who, whether by ignorance or evil intent, try and access that world, in particular demonic forces, and there is power that comes through that.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
7:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, Pharaoh, back in uh the book of Exodus, right?
7:14
SPEAKER_00: Pharaoh has magi, that's what they call them, but they are able to replicate when Moses comes in and throws his staff down on the ground and it turns into a snake, they're able to do that too.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the first two plagues that afflict Egypt that God brings, turning the Nile into blood or turning water into blood, and bringing frogs, the pharaohs, like court magicians, are able to replicate those.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: And it's only once the third plague comes that they say that is obviously the finger of God because we aren't able to do that.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: Meaning they aren't using God's powers to be able to do these things.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: They're using something else.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: Um the prophet Daniel, right, in the book of Daniel, when he goes and he's in Nebuchadnezzar's court, uh, they call him a Magi.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: Now, not because he was doing that, but because uh they didn't understand that the power that he had was cut had come from God.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: And there were other people around him who were doing weird things and had power that came from sources outside of God.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, King Saul, right, goes to seek out a medium who speaks and brings somebody back from the dead or to talk with them, so on and so forth.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: My point to you is that this is not entirely out of the biblical narrative.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: Like what we're talking about here, and Balak's strategy to curse Israel is a relevant strategy because blessings and curses are real.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: Blessings and curses are real, not in the sense of poking like needles into dolls, right?
8:46
SPEAKER_00: But blessings and curses are something that actually even God does.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: His relationship with Israel is one that is based upon the foundation of blessings and curses.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: If you go back and you read the covenant language that he has with them, he says, if you do this, right, follow me, be my like I am your God, Ten Commandments kind of thing, and beyond that, he says, you will be blessed.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: And those blessings have real, practical, powerful outcomes that are attached to them.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: All right.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: When we look to the other side, he says, but if you reject me, if you go against me, if you oppose me and don't believe me and have faith in me, then you will be cursed.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: One of those curses, for instance, is that they will be thrown out of the promised land, which is eventually what happens because they worship false gods.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: So I bring all these things together because I want you to understand is as I go forward in this story, right, this idea of blessings and cursings, it's not just if any of you are from the south and southern ladies when they have pity on you and they're like, bless their hearts, right?
9:52
SPEAKER_00: This is different than that, okay?
9:54
SPEAKER_00: This is not the same kind of thing.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: Um what Balak is paying Balaam a lot of money to do is something that is a real potential threat to Israel.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: And well, okay, let's just keep reading and then I'll keep talking.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: So um I am I am gonna skip around a couple different places.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: So um in your Bibles, um basically what happens through verse 20 is Balak sends these people to go and get Balaam to come, and he says, no, and Balak sends more people, and Balaam says, Okay, fine, because the Lord has told him, he says, Okay, you can go with them.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: Though uh Balaam's, we find out from other places in the Bible, throughout this story, Balaam is going to talk with God and is gonna respond to God and is going to technically do what God has asked him to do.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: But Balaam is not a follower of God.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: He is, he is sort of a general practitioner of the dark arts, and he recognizes the power of God and responds to it.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: But when he says, like, I can only do what God tells me to do, that's not the same as when Israel's like, hey, we're gonna follow after God.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
11:06
SPEAKER_00: And so in verse 22, we pick up with, you ready for a talking donkey?
11:13
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: So but God was incensed that Balaam was going, and the angel of the Lord took his stand on the path to oppose him.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: Balaam was riding his donkey, and his two servants were with him.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing on the path with a drawn sword in his hand, she turned off the path and went into the field.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: So Balaam hit her to return her to the path.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow passage between the vineyards, with a stone wall on either side.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: The donkey saw the angel of the Lord and pressed herself against the wall, excuse me, squeezing Balaam's foot against it.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: So he hit her once again.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: The angel of the Lord went ahead and stood in a narrow place now, where there was no room to turn to the right or to the left.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she crouched down under Balaam.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: So he became furious and beat the donkey with his stick.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: Right?
12:02
SPEAKER_00: Not a good dude.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: Um Then the Lord opened the donkey's mouth, and she asked Balaam, What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times?
12:12
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm not gonna do the donkey voice, okay?
12:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna it's a female donkey.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: Imagine it yourself.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: Donkey sa female donkey sounds like me.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times?
12:25
SPEAKER_00: Balaam answered the donkey, You made me look like a fool.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: If I had a sword in my hand, I'd kill you now.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: But the donkey said, Am I not the donkey you've ridden all your life until today?
12:35
SPEAKER_00: Have I ever treated you this way before?
12:38
SPEAKER_00: No, he replied.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord opened Balaam's eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the path with a drawn sword in his hand.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: Balaam knelt low and bowed in worship on his face.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: The angel of the Lord asked him, Why have you beaten your donkey these three times?
12:52
SPEAKER_00: Look, I came out to oppose you, because I consider what you are doing to be evil.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: If she had not turned away from me, I would have killed you by now, and let her live.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, I have sinned, for I did not know that you were standing in the path to confront me, and now if it is evil in your sight, I will go back.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: Then the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, Go with the men, but you are to say only what I tell you.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: So Balaam went with Balak's officials.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: So lots of things we could say about the talking donkey.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: Um there's the actual thing, though, that we should be focusing on here is what does this story add to the narrative as a whole?
13:33
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you're in the Bible, right, these are things that should be going through your head.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: Like we shouldn't just be reading verses at a time or a paragraph at a time, like we're reading in context.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: And so, though it is fascinating that God gave a donkey the ability to speak and what it had to say to Balaam, okay, really, though, the message that this brings is the donkey serves as a parallel figure to what Balaam is about to go through.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so the donkey is only able to go where the Lord is going to let her go.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: The donkey is being pushed forward by somebody who is ignorant of what the Lord is trying to do.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, this um then the ignorant animal, this ignorant creature, is the one that we would not expect to be able to speak the word of the Lord or be empowered by the Lord to speak, and yet it does.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: It is the one who speaks truth.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
14:25
SPEAKER_00: Balaam is about to, this is all spoiler, but Balaam is about to encounter a situation where he cannot go, where the Lord uh the Lord won't let him go.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: He is going to try and curse Israel, and God will not let him.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, three different times.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: He is going to be pushed forward by this ignorant figure, which is Balach, the king of Moab, who does not realize what God is doing in this situation, and Balaam is going to be unable to move forward.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: And third of all, Balaam, the most unlikely of figures, who we find out later in the Bible, is this very evil individual who wants to see the downfall of Israel and to curse them and to be paid a lot of money to do it, is surprisingly the one like Uno reverse card, the one that God is going to use now to bring blessing upon Israel.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so the donkey serves a narrative function over and above the fact that an animal was talking, right?
15:23
SPEAKER_00: So as we go on, um uh in verse 36, right?
15:28
SPEAKER_00: Balak heard that Balaam was coming.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: He went out to meet him at the Moabite city on the Arnon border at the edge of his territory.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: Balak asked Balaam, Did I not send you an urgent summons?
15:38
SPEAKER_00: He's like, hustle, dude, we've got a nation to curse, right?
15:42
SPEAKER_00: Why didn't you come to me?
15:43
SPEAKER_00: Am I really not able to reward you?
15:46
SPEAKER_00: Right?
15:46
SPEAKER_00: So once again, we're reminded that the real reason Balaam is here is because he gets money.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: Balaam said to him, Look, I have come to you, but can I say anything I want?
15:55
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I've got this guy this being named God who's telling me I can't do what I want to do.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: I must speak only the message God puts in my mouth.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: So Balaam went with Balak, and they came to Kiriath, Huzoth.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: Balak sacrificed cattle, sheep, and goats and sent for Balaam and the officials who were with him.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: In the morning Balak took Balaam and brought him to Bamoth Baal.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: From there he saw the outskirts of the peoples, Israel's camp.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: So the story is now completely set up.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
16:25
SPEAKER_00: We have Balak and Balaam arrayed against the nation of Israel.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: The last thing he does here is uh Balak brings Balaam to sort of this uh this high mountain range where he can see the nation of Israel that is camped below.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
16:41
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in the map here, I kind of drew all over it.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: So let me erase.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: But remember, Israel is up here, right?
16:50
SPEAKER_00: They're camped in the plains of Moab.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: And these locations, like Bamoth Baal, it's right there.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: These red dots are where we don't know exactly, but this this whole region surrounding the plains of Moab is a mountain range.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: And so Balak takes um Bal uh Balaam to look at them, and from this sort of overlook point is where he is supposed to be cursing them, okay?
17:15
SPEAKER_00: And not only that, but he has also brought them, and this is where we see that there's greater stakes involved than just like, hey, these two nations are fighting, which is significant, but there's really a spiritual battle that's going on because the powers that are opposed against Israel are always backed by Satan, every single time.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: That is, we'll talk about that more next week when we're in Numbers 31 and they go to war finally.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, but what we see here is not just, hey, I want you to curse this nation, but it is Satan sort of arraying himself against God's people and bringing about this individual who has this terrible um access to power that God tells Israel they're to have nothing to do with, right?
18:07
SPEAKER_00: And from this vantage point now, we're going to basically see Satan's schemes to curse the nation of Israel and how God has already, before the story even properly begins or continues, has already made the agent of evil basically his pawn.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, I'm going to move you where I choose, even though you are supposed to bring destruction against my people.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: It is bringing together when Balaam's business card says, The people I curse are cursed, and the people I bless are blessed, right?
18:40
SPEAKER_00: That is God's business card.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
18:43
SPEAKER_00: God says, The people I bless are blessed, and you are not to curse them.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: And those two things are about to fight against each other.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: So move with me to chapter 23, verse 7.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
18:57
SPEAKER_00: Uh Balaam is about to speak his first oracle, right?
19:01
SPEAKER_00: And what Balak is expecting is that this is a curse.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: He's like, We've sacrificed all these animals, we're on these high places, you've gone to seek your God, you've come back, ready to roll.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: Balaam proclaimed his poem.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab, from the eastern mountains.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: He says, Come put a curse on Jacob for me, come denounce Israel.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: How can I curse someone God has not cursed?
19:27
SPEAKER_00: How can I denounce someone the Lord has not denounced?
19:30
SPEAKER_00: I see them from the top of rocky cliffs, and I watch them from the hills.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: There is a people living alone, it does not consider itself among the nations.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: Who has counted the dust of Jacob, or numbered even one fourth of Israel?
19:44
SPEAKER_00: Let me die the death of the upright, let the end of my life be like theirs.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: And Balak is like, What are you doing?
19:51
SPEAKER_00: This is the opposite of what your seer to like, I'm paying you all this money to curse them, and you're doing the opposite.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: He says, I brought you to curse my enemies, but look, you have only blessed them.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: And Balaam says, Shouldn't I say exactly what the Lord puts in my mouth?
20:06
SPEAKER_00: So one thing to draw up here, and this will be the case for each of these oracles, is these are now, right?
20:12
SPEAKER_00: Um Bug Spunny flips Elmer Fudd's gun back on at him, right?
20:16
SPEAKER_00: Okay, what they intended for bad, God is intending for good.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: All right?
20:20
SPEAKER_00: And so what is happening is this thing that's supposed to be a curse, it is now a blessing, which has real, permanent, and existing power.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that Balaam is going to do is he's going to bring back up, because he is basically the mouthpiece of God here, even though he doesn't want to be, effectively, he's going to bring back the blessings that the Lord has already promised to Israel.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: So in verse 10, when he says, Who has counted the dust of Jacob or numbered even one fourth of Israel?
20:51
SPEAKER_00: If you're just reading that, you're like, that's kind of a weird thing to say, right?
20:54
SPEAKER_00: He's because remember, he's looking at the entire nation that's spread before him in the valley and the plains of Moab below.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: Well, what he's saying there is he's reiterating a promise that God made to Abraham in Genesis 13, verses 14 through 17, where God said, Your descendants, Abraham, who is childless, will be so many that they are like the dust of the earth and they cannot be counted.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: And so when he brings up here, he says, Who has counted the dust of Jacob?
21:24
SPEAKER_00: Nobody.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: And that's the point.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: That he is, that God is fulfilling his promise to his covenant people.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: Right?
21:32
SPEAKER_00: Well, Balak says, okay, round two, let's try this again.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: Um maybe that was a fluke.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: And so he goes, they sacrifice more animals, and um in uh, let's see, verse 18 of chapter 23, we see the second oracle come about.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: Balam proclaimed his poem.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: Balak, get up and listen, son of Zippor, pay attention to what I say.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: God is not a man that he might lie, or a son of man that he might change his mind.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: Does he speak in?
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Not act or promise and not fulfill?
22:03
SPEAKER_00: No, he doesn't.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: I have indeed received a command to bless.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: Since he has blessed, I cannot change it.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: He considers no disaster for Jacob.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: He sees no trouble for Israel.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: The Lord their God is with them, right?
22:18
SPEAKER_00: That's significant.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: That's not just like, hey, he's hanging around.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: That is the amazing relationship that we've talked about through the book of Numbers that God has with his people, that he dwells with them, right?
22:29
SPEAKER_00: Their Lord is with them in their camp, and there is rejoicing over the king among them.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: God brought them out of Egypt.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: He is like the horns of a wild ox for them.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: There is no magic curse against Jacob, and no divination against Israel.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: It will now be said about Jacob and Israel, what great things God has done.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: A people rise up like a lioness.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: They rouse themselves like a lion.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: They will not lie down until they devour the prey and drink the blood of the slain.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: Woo! Okay.
22:57
SPEAKER_00: So then Balak, and I I think this is funny, right?
23:01
SPEAKER_00: Like he's like, I was gonna pay you so much money to curse them.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: And he sacrificed all these things, and he's just like twiddling his, like waiting for Balaam to do what he's supposed to be doing.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: And then he's like, Don't curse them.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: What are like you're saying, you if you can't do the thing I brought you here to do, then just like quit talking.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: Like what you're doing is worse.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: You were supposed to curse them.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: It would be better if you were just like not here at all.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: Don't curse them, don't bless them.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: And Balaam says again, Didn't I tell you whatever the Lord says I must do?
23:32
SPEAKER_00: And again, this is not like, hey, I'm a huge fan of God.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: This is like, I have to do what this being is telling me to do because I understand that he is powerful and I am going up against something that I cannot compete with.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: That's the dynamic here.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: So uh Balak says, hey, third time's a charm, right?
23:53
SPEAKER_00: They go to another location.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, they sacrifice uh even more animals.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: They're up to 21 bulls and 21 rams.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: And then we go in chapter 24, uh, verse 3.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: What happens is Balaam now enters into a trance.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh and he said he, instead of the Lord just giving him words to speak, okay, what happens now is Balaam actually sees a vision of the future.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: And so these blessings are getting more and more extreme.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: And so what he says here, I won't read the whole thing, but he just starts talking about, again, from this vision, like I Israel, I see you in the promised land.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: I see God fulfilling his promises to you.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: Your tents are spread over the nation of Canaan, right?
24:41
SPEAKER_00: That you are like cedars planted beside the water.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: You are these huge and mighty trees that cannot be destroyed.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you are amazing.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: Water will flow from his buckets, and his seed will be by abundant water.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7, his king will be greater than Agag, and his kingdom will be exalted.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: Right?
25:01
SPEAKER_00: Later on down in verse 9, we get the lion language again.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: And then notice what we say here.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: Those who blessed you will be blessed, and those who curse you will be cursed.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, Balaam is again, he's bringing back stuff that God has promised to his people.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: Right?
25:16
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 17, verse 6, and verse 16.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: When God is speaking to Sarah, childless Sarah, about the promise that she's going to have a child, that nations will come from, that the earth will be blessed by.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: He says, He will be a king, and he will be above all the other kings.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: And here now, Balaam is saying his king will be greater than Agag.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: Well, Agag doesn't exist yet.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: He won't exist for hundreds of years.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: That is the name of the king that Saul kills, the first king of Israel.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: And so already, we're way in the future, we're hundreds of years in the future.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9, those who bless you will be blessed, those who curse you will be cursed.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: That's Genesis 12.
25:58
SPEAKER_00: That's the beginning of the Abrahamic covenant that God made with his people.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: So if you're, I just want to say, like, if you are completely outside of church, you don't know the Bible very well, and you're getting into these things, I get that that didn't make any sense.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: Um, but what I really what you could be looking at here, though, is this understanding that God has a people that he has chosen to be his people.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm going to bless them no matter what they do.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: Now, there are things that they can do to sort of not receive all of the blessings that I've given to them, but I will never let them go.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: They will never not be my people.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: I am faithful to them.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: And so what is happening here is while, again, this sort of cinematic view, Balaam is up on this mountain range, trying to curse the nation of Israel, and Israel is down below.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: We don't know this until chapter 25.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: They've gone whole hog and are worshiping false gods for the first time.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
26:55
SPEAKER_00: They, because some of these Moabite like priestesses have come in and are trying to like sway them, they've begun to worship a false god.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: And so down in the plains of Moab, Israel's doing dumb stuff, and Balaam is up here trying to curse them, and God is using an agent of evil and has flipped it, and he says, No, I will use his mouth, the mouth that is supposed to be cursing, and it will be a blessing to them instead.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: Right?
27:21
SPEAKER_00: God is faithful to his promises.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: So after this third time, Balak says, Alright, we're done.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, not gonna do this again.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: And what's kind of funny is uh around time the third oracle, Balak got this idea in his head that God himself was going to curse the nation of Israel.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what he says to Balaam is He's like, Go ask this God that you've been talking to if he'd curse them.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: Balaam says, No.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: Alright.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: And so then after this third oracle here, Balak became furious, struck his hands together, and said, I summoned you to put a curse on my enemies, but instead you have blessed them these three times.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: Right?
28:08
SPEAKER_00: Remember the donkey, right?
28:09
SPEAKER_00: Three separate times, we're going forward, three separate times, driven by an ignorant person, three separate times, not being able to go where God will not let you go.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: Now go to your home.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: Go home.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: I said I would reward you richly, but look, the Lord has denied you a reward, which is just kind of funny.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: He blames it on God.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: He's being cheap, he's not going to pay him, he didn't do the thing, and he blames it on God.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: But Balaam has one final thing.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: He says, Hey, it was a it was four for the price of three oracles deal that you purchased, Bloch.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: And so what he does is as he's leaving, he goes into a trance again, and he gives a fourth and final message to this guy.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
28:49
SPEAKER_00: And so um that's in verses 15, and honestly, it continues all the way through 25.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: But I just want you to look at verse 17.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 24, verse 17.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: Look at that.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: We have a vision of the future.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: Balaam says, I see him, but not now.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: I perceive him, but not near.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: A star will come from Jacob, and a scepter will arise from Israel.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: He will smash the forehead of Moab and strike down all the Shethites.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: And what's happening here is Balaam, without even knowing it, we don't know exactly what he saw, but without understanding, what God was doing was proclaiming a future king that was going to come and would ultimately put all of God's enemies under his feet.
29:39
SPEAKER_00: Namely, in this situation, Moab gets listed, right?
29:43
SPEAKER_00: Balak's like, this is the worst possible outcome.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: But Balaam brings about this situation, and we understand, right?
29:50
SPEAKER_00: So David, King David, partially fulfilled these things, partially fulfilled these prophecies, but nobody has ever had this scepter that has arisen from Israel to ultimately put down all their enemies.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: That is language that we only use to describe the Messiah.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: And so Balaam, intending to curse them, has not only blessed them, but has proclaimed the ultimate blessing.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: Right?
30:21
SPEAKER_00: So you take this story, right?
30:24
SPEAKER_00: And it's a pretty wild story.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: It's the longest story in the book of Numbers.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: But the thing you should be picking up, and what I want to impress upon you, is the faithfulness that God has to his people who are in rebellion against him.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: Again, remember, while they're down in the valley worshiping a false God, he's like, I'm gonna keep my promises to them.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: But also, and this is where it picks up for us today, is that the language of blessings and cursings still applies.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: It's not the exact same as it was in the Old Testament, but the New Testament talks about the blessings of those who follow after God.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: These same things that are not just like, you know, hey, it's neat to be a Christian, but there are real, tangible, um uh powerful benefits, gifts that God has given to those who worship him.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: This is why Paul in the New Testament says, Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: Words that are repeated there, blessings in Christ.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: And so what's happening is this one, this king that Balaam sort of was prefiguring, was foreshadowing that was going to come, right?
31:48
SPEAKER_00: Now that he has come, that he has died on the cross for our sins, those who have faith in him, it works the same way, right?
31:56
SPEAKER_00: Those who had faith in God's plan, those who have faith in the plan of God to bring Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins, now those are the ones who are blessed.
32:07
SPEAKER_00: And you say, Well, what's this blessing?
32:09
SPEAKER_00: I am not in the plains of Moab about to cross the Jordan River.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: Well, briefly, Paul explains these things, and I just wanted to list a couple of them for you, because this in a moment when we go to the Lord's table, this is what we are going to kind of reflect and meditate on.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: Right?
32:27
SPEAKER_00: The blessings of God in Ephesians 1, verses 3 through 13, you are chosen by God.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: Don't lose sight of that.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: You're holy, you're given the status of being holy and blameless.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: You are adopted children into his kingdom, like Jesus Christ.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: You have been given a glorious grace.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: You have the redemption for your sins and forgiveness, right?
32:51
SPEAKER_00: That's like in the middle of the list that you are forgiven for your sins.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: God has revealed his divine plan to you.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: You have a heavenly inheritance, right?
33:00
SPEAKER_00: You get to be with God in heaven forever.
33:04
SPEAKER_00: You have assurance of your faith, which is given to you by the Holy Spirit, and then just in general, you have the Holy Spirit now dwelling within you.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: Those are all real blessings that apply today to those who have faith in Jesus Christ.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: But the language of cursing is also true today.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: And just as it was true back then, it applies to those who have rejected the promises of God, who say they don't have faith in Jesus Christ, and who don't need his sacrifice to be forgiven of sin.
33:37
SPEAKER_00: This is why Paul as well in 1 Corinthians says, if anyone does not love the Lord, a curse be on him.
33:43
SPEAKER_00: Our Lord come.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: Paul isn't like, you know, stabbing pins into a doll right here.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: He's not actually, he's not hoping that, you know, tragedy befalls somebody, which is kind of how we think of this.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: But this is a curse reaching all the way back to the beginning of the Bible, where God says, those who have sinned are going to be cursed.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: The ground is going to be cursed, and it will be hard to work, and we'll have to toil over it because we've rebelled against God.
34:10
SPEAKER_00: But those who believe in his plan of redemption, they are the ones who have are blessed.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: It is this binary choice that you are either blessed or you are cursed based upon your faith in God.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: We are blessed through our faith in Jesus Christ, and those who reject him are cursed.
34:31
SPEAKER_00: And that is a curse that is only able to be removed by accepting the gift of God and the blessings that he brings.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: So if there is a grand takeaway from this story, it is that, well, last week, right, we talked about the bronze serpent, okay?
34:52
SPEAKER_00: And the whole point there was the cross is the symbol of salvation, and all the other benefits that come alongside with that salvation are secondary to the primary understanding that we are sinners who need a savior.
35:05
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, now this morning, what we're saying is, yeah, but let's talk about all those other benefits.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about all those other things that come along with being a part of God's covenant community, trusting in Christ and knowing Him.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: We're being forgiven is in a list of ten, which isn't even exhaustive when we look at the New Testament.
35:25
SPEAKER_00: As Christians, these are things that we should be thinking about more often.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: That we understand that when God talks about blessings, it's not some flippant language of, you know, just thinking it's fun to be a Christian, but that you, like Israel, are chosen by God and receive benefit for it that you don't deserve.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
35:56
SPEAKER_00: So this morning I'm going to step down for just a second, and we are going to reflect on uh what it means and ultimately the greatest blessing of all, which is Jesus Christ.
36:11
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna put this slide back up here about the blessings of God, and just for a minute, I want you to be praying over these things with gratitude and gladness in your hearts for all of the ways in which the Lord has blessed you that you don't deserve.
36:28
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna step down, and when I come back up, we'll go through the Lord's table.
38:16
SPEAKER_00: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, This is my body which is for you.
38:25
SPEAKER_00: Do this in remembrance of me.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
39:05
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you took the schemes of Satan to curse your people and flip them on their head and blessed your people instead.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you took the schemes of Satan to bring death as a curse.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, you flip that on its head by sending Jesus to die on the cross and bringing him back to life.
39:30
SPEAKER_00: And as Lord, he now sits and throne in heaven as the great king that Balaam unwittingly prophesied about.
39:43
SPEAKER_00: God, might we have a deeper faith in him than we ever have before?
39:48
SPEAKER_00: With gratitude and gladness, understanding the real, powerful, tangible benefits, Lord, the blessings that you have brought to those who have faith in you, that we might praise you and rejoice in your name because you have given us something, Lord, that we have never deserved, yet we gladly receive it because we know that you are good.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that you would help us to appreciate these things more often, to help those who are cursed to find God's blessings instead.
40:24
SPEAKER_00: And God, that you might help us to be a people a bit more faithful than Israel as you've chosen us.
40:33
SPEAKER_00: God, thank you for all of the blessings in our lives.
40:37
SPEAKER_00: And it's in Jesus' name we pray.
40:39
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
40:41
SPEAKER_00: Thanks everybody for being with us this week.
40:43
SPEAKER_00: Have a great week.