"God's Determination to Bless, pt.2 (Numbers 23-24)", Will DuVal | 5/4/25
Numbers 23-24 | 5/4/25 | Will DuVal
I wanna begin this morning by asking you a question: “When you picture GOD, up in heaven, right now, looking down on you, what kind of EXPRESSION is on his face?” AW Tozer famously said, “What comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you”; what comes to YOUR mind? What’s His expression?
Is He **stern and squinty-eyed, carefully scrutinizing your every move, ready to chastise you as soon as you inevitably mess up…
Or is He **retracted, wrinkled, pain-faced, as if the stench of your SIN is offending his nostrils…
Or perhaps He’s **not looking at you AT ALL. He’s too busy with more IMPORTANT things; his face glued to some celestial TV screen, and he can’t be bothered with your petty problems.
According to God’s WORD, NONE of those pictures of God is accurate. Instead, Psalm 18, v19 exults: “the LORD… DELIGHTS in me”; Zephaniah 3, v17: “The Lord… rejoice[s] over [me] with gladness; he [sings over me] with his love”; Psalm 149, v4: “the Lord takes pleasure in his people”.
Our God is a LOVING Father, who looks down with “gladness” and “PLEASURE” on His children. His disposition toward us is NOT one of judgment, or disgust, or apathy… but DELIGHT… IF we belong to HIM. For all who ARE “his people”, “his children”, who’ve been purchased by the blood of His Son Jesus, you can GLORY this morning in the knowledge that your Good heavenly Father wants to BLESS you: “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a future.” (Jer 29:11; NIV)
And what GOD plans… when God PROMISES… “no purpose of His can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). When God is DETERMINED to BLESS us, who can stand AGAINST us?
That is the blessed ASSURANCE we have in Christ. But it is also the QUESTION that is put to the TEST in this morning’s text. Here in Numbers chs 23 & 24, we’re gonna see the evil king of Moab BALAK, and the corrupt prophet-for-hire BALAAM conspire together to put God’s promise to bless Israel to the TEST. It’s supposed to be a RHETORICAL question - “If God is for us, who can be against us” (Rom 8:31) - but sadly, it doesn’t stop evildoers from TRYING, does it?
If you’re just joining us, we’ve been studying through the book of Numbers since January, in which God has been leading his people through the wilderness toward the Promised Land, and in chapter 22 last week, they arrived at “the plains of Moab just beyond the Jordan at Jericho” (v1). So after 40 long years, they are finally right on the precipice of entering in; all that stands in Israel’s WAY now, other than the Jordan River, are the MOABITES. Who are TERRIFIED of Israel, because they’ve HEARD about what YAHWEH did to PHARAOH king of the EGYPTIANS and the SIHON king of the AMMONITES and OG king of the AMORITES… so now BALAK king of the MOABITES is TERRIFIED! He knows he’s outmatched militarily, so he hatches this plot to hire BALAAM, a notorious, international sorcerous HITMAN of sorts, to “curse [Israel]... and drive them from my land” (22:6). Because, Balak declares, “I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”
And he’s absolutely RIGHT; he’s just talking to the wrong PERSON. Balaam’s already admitted to him: “I can not go beyond the command of the Lord… The word that God puts in my mouth, that must I speak” (22:18,38); it’s not he whom BALAAM blesses who is blessed, but whom GOD blesses. As Balaam will put it this morning in ch23: “How can I curse whom God has not cursed? …[God] has blessed [his people], and I cannot revoke it” (23:8, 20).
And this is still a story for US TODAY, Church. Those of us who belong to God’s “people” by grace through faith in Christ, we must realize that we TOO have an enemy who desperately desires to CURSE us. So God’s word WARNS us to “Be sober-minded; and watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Pet 5:8). And how do we DO it? Actually, “we” DON’T! Rather, “the God of all grace… will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (5:10). In other words, you are no match for SATAN - his power, his curses - but take heart: SATAN is no match for GOD - HIS power and BLESSING. And we see that in ISRAEL’s example this morning - Israel does NOTHING here in chs22-24; they are completely PASSIVE - completely UNAWARE! - peacefully camping down below, blissfully OBLIVIOUS of “the schemes of the [enemy]... the spiritual forces of evil” (Eph 6:11-12) trying to CURSE them from the cliffs just overhead.
And isn’t that US?! God WARNS us to “be watchful” and “put on the whole armor of God” so we’re READY for “the flaming darts of the evil one”, but how often do we FORGET we’re even engaged in a spiritual WAR that’s raging all AROUND us!? The Bible says, “take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and pray at all times in the Spirit” (6:17-18), but how often do we NEGLECT God’s word, and God’s Spirit in prayer.
I’m convinced, if we had the SPIRITUAL eyes to SEE… you know, there’s a story in the OT where the prophet Elisha and his servant are SURROUNDED by the entire Syrian army, and his servant asks, “Master, what are we gonna DO?!” And Elisha says, “Don’t worry; OUR army is bigger than THEIRS.” And he prays, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see”, SPIRITUALLY. And God did, and the servant beheld the ANGEL army of the Lord, surrounding the Syrians.
I’m convinced if you and I had the SPIRITUAL eyes to see the “cosmic powers over this present darkness” that are all around us, all the time, even this morning - ESPECIALLY this morning, cuz there’s NOTHING Satan hates MORE than when God’s people gather to hear from him, and WORSHIP him; SatanHATES it! And he’ll try everything in his power to KEEP you from it, to “blind the minds of you unbelievers, to keep [you] from seeing the light of the gospel… of Christ” (2 Cor 4:4), and to “lead astray, if possible, even God’s ELECT [us BELIEVERS]” (Matt 24:24).
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God, open our eyes that we may SEE, and MAKE us more watchful, more prayerful, more MILITANT in the war of faith.
But here’s the good news of Numbers 23 & 24: even when we’re NOT - even when we are blissfully oblivious, dangerously DISREGARDFUL of the war - our GOD is still fighting FOR us. And despite the enemy’s curses, God remains DETERMINED to BLESS us… in FOUR ways. This list is by no means exhaustive - Ephesians 1 says God “has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing” (v3) - but these 2 chapters highlight just FOUR of them for us in particular. Balaam’s going to ATTEMPT to curse Israel FOUR times for Balak, but EACH time, God turns the curse into a BLESSING. And all FOUR of these prophetic blessings - or ORACLES, your Bible might label them - are SIMILAR to one another in some ways - the repetition is here to EMPHASIZE certain points - but there are also points of DISTINCTION; each oracle will introduce and foreground a different BLESSING that Yahweh pronounces over his people. And that’s an important point to recognize before we even read: Balaam is NOT a “false prophet”. He sometimes gets called that, but all of his prophecies here are TRUE; they come directly from the LORD. Balaam’s own motivations were impure, greedy, as we learned last week. But our God is so powerful he can even work through the Balaams and Nebuchadnezzars, the Bidens and Trumps of the world; our God can even use the WILLs and _____s of the world, to accomplish his purpose, and speak HIS truth. Heck, he spoke through Balaam’s ASS last week! (His DONKEY, for those of you who weren’t here… I’m still disappointed Pastor Thad didn’t read the Donkey’s dialogue in his Eddie Murphy voice…)
Enough delay; let’s READ. The chapters are long enough we’re not gonna stand up for all of it; we’ll just read one section at a time, four chunks total. And we begin in ch23; actually, let’s pick up in v41 of ch22:
“...In the morning Balak took Balaam and brought him up to Bamoth-baal, and from there he saw [the extent] of the people. (Now, if you’re reading the ESV translation like me, your Bible says he saw “a FRACTION” of the people - that’s a bad translation of the Hebrew word used here, and I’ll explain later why it matters…)
ch23:v1 And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” 2 Balak did as Balaam had said. And Balak and Balaam offered on each altar a bull and a ram. 3 And Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever he shows me I will tell you.” And he went to a bare height, 4 and God met Balaam. And Balaam said to him, “I have arranged the seven altars and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.” 5 And the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 6 And he returned to him, and behold, he and all the princes of Moab were standing beside his burnt offering. 7 And Balaam took up his discourse and said,
“From Aram Balak has brought me,
the king of Moab from the eastern mountains:
‘Come, curse Jacob for me,
and come, denounce Israel!’8 How can I curse whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?9 For from the top of the crags I see him,
from the hills I behold him;
behold, a people dwelling alone,
and not counting itself among the nations!10 Who can count the dust of Jacob
or number the fourth part of Israel?
Let me die the death of the upright,
and let my end be like his!”11 And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them!” 12 And he answered and said, “Must I not take care to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”
Now, before we narrow in on the distinctive BLESSING in the first oracle, I wanna point out the repeated structure of the NARRATIVE portion to you and explain why it’s important, what it teaches us. So there are four fairly repetitive sections, but in the FOURTH one God’s gonna purposely blow up the whole structure because here’s the POINT: GOD WILL NOT BE MANIPULATED. That’s what Balaam’s trying to do here with his jinxing ritual, formula: Balaam thinks he’s got this CURSING business down to a SCIENCE: you just gotta make sure you can SEE the people you wanna curse, then build the right altars and offer the right sacrifices - you’ll ALSO notice the repetition of the number SEVEN; isn’t that interesting, that Balaam knew enough ABOUT Yahweh to know that 7 is the biblical number of completion. He’s kind of like the seven sons of Sceva in the book of Acts, who knew enough about Jesus to try and cast out demons in his NAME, without actually knowing Jesus personally or having his power. We must be CAREFUL in the Church not to confuse knowledge ABOUT God with the knowledge of GOD. The Church is FULL of modern-day PHARISEES; listen: SATAN’s got the Bible memorized TOO, and he TWISTS it and USES it, MIS-uses it, for his own demonic purposes; there are some folks in the CHURCH like that today. That’s what BALAAM’s doing here; trying to MANIPULATE God into doing his OWN bidding, through his tried-and-tested HEXING protocol. Before Jesus taught us how to pray the Lord’s prayer, he said, “when you pray, don’t heap up empty phrases like the Gentiles do”; they think if they just say the right, “magic words”, enough times, they can get God to LISTEN and INDULGE them; Jesus said: “That’s not how God WORKS.” And God makes it CLEAR here to BALAAM.
V5: “the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth” - Balaam tries putting words in GOD’S mouth - “please CURSE them, God…” - but YAHWEH puts the word in HIS mouth instead: “Return to Balak and say this exactly”.
Now, each of the four oracles OPENS - before God blesses Israel - he first REPROVES Balak & Balaam. V7: “From Aram Balak brought me… to CURSE Israel… but How can I curse whom God has BLESSED.” And NOW we’re ready for the BLESSING:
#1- God blesses His people with PURITY. (23:1-12)
V10 ALSO celebrates Israel’s ABUNDANCE - “Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number the fourth part of Israel?”; God made GOOD on his promise to ABRAHAM to “multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore” (Gen 22:17); Balaam says: “I’m looking down, and I can’t even count a FOURTH of them!”; according to the CENSUS taken back in Numbers ch1, there were 603,550 MILITARY-aged men ALONE in Israel, so all total with the women and children they would have EASILY numbered 2-3 million.
But the BIGGER focus here is Israel’s PURITY, their HOLINESS: “behold, a people dwelling alone, and not counting itself among the nations”. The word “holy” literally means “set apart”, “dwelling alone”, “not like the surrounding nations”. This was Israel’s CALLING, from God, from the very beginning: to be “consecrated”, separated, different - in a GOOD way - such that the other nations would SEE how distinct Israel was, and how distinctly BLESSED they were by their distinctly AWESOME GOD, Yahweh, and they would TURN from their worthless idols to worship HIM - the one TRUE God - instead. That’s what BALAAM, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, SEEMS to do here in v10: “Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!”. He says, “I’ve gotta believe that a holy GOD is going to reward the holy LIVING of his holy PEOPLE, “the upright”.”
But the problem, as David Guzik points out, is that EVERYONE wants to die the DEATH of the upright; but very FEW people want to live the LIVES of the upright. Everyone wants to get to HEAVEN, but not MANY of them want to walk the straight and narrow, the DIFFICULT path that according to JESUS, actually leads us to eternal LIFE.
It’s the path of PURITY, holiness. Hebrews 12:14 exhorts us to “Strive for… the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” God is holy; if you wanna spend eternity with HIM, you better be… HOLY.
The PROBLEM is: we’re NOT. We’re a lot like ISRAEL. If you’ve been here for even a LITTLE of our study through Numbers, you should have LAUGHED when Balaam called Israel “the upright”. You mean the people who’ve complained and REBELLED against God and his servant Moses… HOW many times now?! I’ve lost count; you can just as soon count the ISRAELITES as you can count their faithless FAILURES… their SINS are ALSO like the sand that’s on the seashore.
And so are YOURS, and so are MINE. But praise GOD that though “our sins they ARE many, HIS mercy is MORE”.
Praise God that he’s THROWN them into a SEA without bottom OR shore.
Praise God that though he is all-knowing, he counts NOT the sum of our sin, “If you, O Lord, should COUNT iniquities… who could stand?”. But what LOVE He has, to remember NO wrongs we have done!
And how does God DO it, without compromising his perfect JUSTICE?!
“Christ’s blood was the payment; His life was the cost”. Jesus Christ DIED on the cross to bear the CURSE of sin that you and I deserved, in our place. Such that all who simply receive Him by FAITH are forgiven and FREED. Freed from the curse of sin, and freed for eternal LIFE now in Christ. And it STARTS NOW! Eternal life isn’t just something we’re awaiting in heaven; Jesus said, “The words that I have spoken to you are… LIFE.” (Jn 6:63) In other words, to the extent that we OBEY God’s WORD, and LIVE lives of obedience and HOLINESS, we can live “life to the fullest” in the here and now.
Sin brings DEATH; but obedience, holiness, PURITY brings LIFE.
But it ONLY comes through CHRIST. We need a righteousness that is NOT our own; the riches of kindness HE LAVISHES on us. And praise GOD: he graciously GIVES IT to us. And then he CALLS us to “BE holy as I am HOLY”.
We’ve gotta be really careful - the Church must BEWARE of the DESIRE to FIT IN, in today’s culture. A lot of churches today seem to want, more than ANYTHING - more than HOLINESS, distinctness - to instead want RELEVANCE; because if we FIT IN with the culture, then we can REACH the culture. And they don’t REALIZE that “the church does the most FOR the world when the church is the least LIKE the world” (Campbell Morgan, in Wiersbe, 289). Christians don’t win popularity contests; not in THIS world. “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own,” Jesus told us, “but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (Jn 15:19)
And sometimes, they hate your BLESSING. They HATE that you’ve got JOY coming in the office on Monday morning, when they’re all gloomy.
They HATE that your kids respect you and theirs don’t, cuz they’re not raising ‘em in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
They HATE that you take up the entire culdesac on Tuesday nights for life group; that you’ve got that many friends, while they’re so lonely.
But every ONCE in a while, they hate it SO much, they decide they’ve just gotta have it for THEMSELVES. “I want the blessing! I want the JOY, the RESPECT, the COMMUNITY…” and we get to SHARE with them the SOURCE of the blessing: it’s JESUS! The greatest blessing of ALL, is relationship with HIM! You want love, joy, peace, patience… ALL the blessings - You need JESUS! You TOO can be different, distinct, BLESSED; come to JESUS.
#2- God blesses us with PROTECTION. (23:13-26)
Let’s read vv13-26 now:
“And Balak said to [Balaam], “Please come with me to another place, from which you may see them. Then curse them for me from there.” [“Maybe we were just cursing Israel from the wrong LOCATION, and we were getting a bad signal, poor reception… Maybe we’ll be able to manipulate God from over HERE…”; But notice, THIS time Balak says…] You shall see only a fraction of them and shall not see them all. [That’s why I pointed out the bad translation earlier; the FIRST time Balaam tried jinxing ALL of Israel. So Balak thinks: “Maybe that was too much; try a more MODEST jinx: “just a FRACTION” of the people. And the really INTERESTING and TELLING thing to note here is that each of his attempted curses will get more and more MODEST, but each of God’s BLESSINGS gets more and more MARVELOUS. The ENEMY would settle for even just a LITTLE curse of God’s people; but GOD won’t settle for anything less than the GREATEST BLESSING for us. They GROW: the first oracle was 14 lines; this second one here is 22 lines; the THIRD is gonna be 24 lines, and the FOURTH is 27. God’s blessings just get BIGGER and BETTER. But v14…]
“So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 15 Balaam said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering, while I meet the Lord over there.” 16 And the Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth [Notice God doesn’t even let Balaam SPEAK this time; that’s ANOTHER development we see with each new oracle: God’s increasing INTERRUPTION of Balaam’s ritual, CONFRONTING and REBUKING him.] and God said, “Return to Balak, and thus shall you speak.” 17 So he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the Lord spoken?” 18 And Balaam took up his discourse and said,
“Rise, Balak, and hear;
give ear to me, O son of Zippor:19 God is not man, that he should lie,
or a son of man, that he should change his mind. [God actually uses Balaam to convey some of the most important, profound self-revelations and doctrinal truths in all of Christian theology; here it is his absolute TRUSTWORTHINESS resulting from his IMMUTABILITY: God doesn’t CHANGE.]
Has he said, and will he not DO it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? [If God SAYS it, you can COUNT on it.]20 Behold, I received a command to bless:
he [GOD] has blessed, and I cannot REVOKE it. [God is SOVEREIGN; supremely “in charge”. But now we get to the BLESSING, in v21…]“He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob,
nor has he seen trouble in Israel.
For the Lord their God is with them,
and the shout of a king is among them.22 God brings them out of Egypt
and is for them like the horns of the wild ox.23 For there is no enchantment against Jacob,
no divination against Israel; [Balaam’s saying - actually GOD’S saying, THROUGH Balaam - “This is a FUTILE ENDEAVOR, Balak! You can’t curse my people; cuz I have BLESSED them!” “No weapon formed against me shall PROSPER”, Isaiah 54:17; “the Lord is faithful; He will… guard you against the evil one.”; 2 Thessalonians 3:3.What’s God PROMISING them here - promising US - in vv21-24? It is His BLESSING of PROTECTION.]
now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,
‘What has God wrought!’ [or WORKED. Israel couldn’t WORK out their own protection; they TRIED defending themselves against the Canaanites, back in ch14? And they “wrought” a WHOOPING! But when GOD fought FOR them, the same Canaanites in ch21, GOD wrought the VICTORY. ]24 Behold, a people! As a lioness it rises up
and as a lion it lifts itself;
it does not lie down until it has devoured the prey
and drunk the blood of the slain.” [Who’s the lion? GOD’S the lion! (Hos 13:7)]25 And Balak said to Balaam, “Don’t curse them at all, and don’t bless them at all.” [He says, “Just stop TRYING; your “curses” are only making things WORSE; they’re actually BLESSINGS!] 26 But Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘All that the Lord says, that I must do’?”
Our enemy wants to curse us with CALAMITY, but our GOD has promised us the BLESSING of his divine PROTECTION.
Now does that mean “health, wealth and happiness”? Does it mean that Christians are uniquely protected, perfectly insulated from physical SICKNESS, poverty, and sorrow?
NO. Of COURSE not. Just look AROUND; we’re walking through the same wilderness as everyone ELSE… for now. We’re susceptible to the same afflictions, the same sufferings; maybe even MORE so than unbelievers, since Jesus calls us to suffer for HIS sake as well - persecution, hatred.
But what he DOES promise us is THIS; TWO things:
First, his PRESENCE. God is WITH us in our suffering; v21: “The Lord their God is with them”; God promises “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Josh 1:5). And the cross was proof that God was willing to endure the WORST suffering imaginable, to be WITH us. “Behold, I am with you always”, Jesus says.
And SECOND, he promises to protect us not just physically here, temporally, but ETERNALLY. Which is INFINITELY better! It’s so SAD that some would settle for “health, wealth and happiness” HERE, when God wants to give us ETERNAL health - “no more sickness or death” - eternal treasures in HEAVEN, where moth and rust cannot destroy (Mt 6:20) and eternal JOY, at his right hand where there are pleasures forevermore (Ps 16:11).
Listen: the enemy - Satan - can break your health, take your wealth, and bring you misery and affliction in this fallen world. But the one thing he CANNOT rob you of - that NO ONE can take from us - is the eternal inheritance that is laid UP for us in Heaven in Christ JESUS: “According to God’s great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope… an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation” (1 Pet 1:3-5).
And Church: if GOD’S guarding it, by HIS power, then you can KNOW that it’s SECURE. Jesus said, “My Father… is greater than all, [He’s the Good Shepherd] and no one is able to snatch [you] out of the Father's hand” (Jn 10:29).
1 John 5:18 - “He who was born of God [Christ] protects [us], and the evil one can not touch [us]”.
Romans 8: “If God is for us, who can be against us?! …Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died [and] was raised [and] is at the right hand of God… interceding for us… And I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come… nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (vv31-39).
#3- God blesses us with PROSPERITY, success, FLOURISHING. v27: (23:27 - 24:14)
27 And Balak said to Balaam, “Come now, I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.” [Boy, this guy is REALLY not getting the MESSAGE, is he?!] 28 So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor… And Balaam said… “Build me seven MORE altars and sacrifice seven MORE bulls and rams.” [...same ritual. But…] When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go, as at the other times, to look for omens, [he didn’t even bother TRYING to ask God to curse them this time] but set his face toward the wilderness. 2 And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe. And the Spirit of God came upon him, [God had previously “put a word in Balaam’s mouth”; NOW he says, “I’ll just put MYSELF in your mouth!”] 3 and he took up his discourse and said,
“The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,
…the man whose eye is OPENED, [AHA! It only took THREE prophecies and ONE direct FILLING with the Holy SPIRIT, but God has FINALLY gotten THROUGH to him! His spiritual eyes have been OPENED; v4: he finally…] hears the words of God,
[and] sees the vision of the Almighty… [and what does he SEE??]“How lovely are your tents, O Jacob,
your encampments, O Israel!6 Like palm groves that stretch afar,
like gardens beside a river,
like aloes that the Lord has planted,
like cedar trees beside the waters.7 Water shall flow from his buckets,
and his seed shall be in many waters;
his king shall be higher than Agag,
and his kingdom shall be exalted.Let’s pause there. The oracle continues, and re-emphasizes God’s PROTECTION - God is “FOR them like the horns of the wild ox… like a LION…”; a lot of the same imagery repeated and expanded. But the main FOCUS of this THIRD oracle now is God’s blessing of PROSPERITY: “Lovely encampments”, extensive palm groves, luscious gardens, well-watered cedars… all these images of blooming, burgeoning, vibrant, vivacious LIFE!
Jesus said, “I came that you may have life and life to the FULLEST!” And friends, he DIED and came back to LIFE to GIVE it to us.
Listen: God wants to PROSPER you - “I know the PLANS I’ve got for you”, he assures us, “plans to PROSPER you... just maybe not in the way you’re praying for. Cuz to be honest: sometimes WE want, we’d SETTLE, for the “health and wealth” gospel, prosperity in THIS life; but God says, “I’VE got plans to give you a hope and a future” that ETERNALLY TRANSCENDS it, ETERNAL prosperity, for all who belong to JESUS. And I - your perfect heavenly Father - WON’T settle for anything less.
Well, needless to say, King Balak isn’t happy at ALL by this point:
V10: And Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam, and he struck his hands together. And said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them these three times now! 11 Therefore flee… I said, ‘I would honor you,’ but the Lord has held you back from honor.” [He says, “I’m not PAYING you for this!” And can you BLAME Balak? I mean, if you had a leaky sink, but every time you brought the plumber out he managed to burst another PIPE and make things exponentially worse, at SOME point you gotta say, “ENOUGH!” and you REFUSE to pay him. But v12…] Balaam said to Balak, “Didn’t I tell your messengers… ‘If Balak should give me his whole house full of silver and gold, I STILL wouldn’t be able to go beyond the word of the Lord, to do either good or bad of my own will. What the Lord speaks, that will I speak’?” [PAY me, or DON’T pay me; GOD is the REAL BOSS here.]
And God PROVES it one last time now in v15; he says, “Balak: you can have THIS oracle for FREE! And it’s the best one of them all, which means you’re probably gonna like it least…”
15 And [Balaam] took up his [FINAL] discourse and said,
“The oracle of Balaam… whose eye is opened… who hears the words of God,
and knows the knowledge of the Most High now,
[God gives Balaam unique, temporary access into his own divine OMNISCIENCE, in order to SHOW him - and show US THROUGH him - this most GLORIOUS of prophecies now, certainly in all of NUMBERS, and arguably in all of the Old TESTAMENT; READY??]17 I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near: [someone’s COMING; WHO??]
a star shall come out of Jacob,
and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;
it shall crush the forehead of Moab
and break down all the sons of Sheth.18 Edom shall be dispossessed;
Seir also, his enemies, shall be dispossessed…19 And one from Jacob shall exercise dominion
and destroy the survivors of cities!”20 Then he looked on Amalek and… said,
“Amalek was the first among the nations,
but its end is utter destruction.”21 And he looked on the Kenite, and… said,
“Enduring is your dwelling place…
Nevertheless, Kain shall be burned
when Asshur takes you away captive.”23 And he… said,
“Alas, who shall live when God does this?
24 Ships shall come from Kittim
and shall afflict Asshur and Eber;
and he too shall come to utter destruction.”What in the WORLD is going ON here? What’s he TALKING about? Asshur refers to the ASSYRIANS, KITTIM to the ROMANS. So commentator Iain Duguid explains (287): “This final oracle spans the entire sweep of human history. Nation after nation will rise to world domination only to fall to defeat.”
The KENITES fell to the ASSYRIANS; the ASSYRIANS (and the EDOMITES) fell to the Babylonians; the Babylonians fell to the PERSIANS, who fell to the GREEKS, who fell to the ROMANS (Kittim), who fell to the barbarians and the Ottoman Turks… on and on and ON down through history… and ENGLAND’s world dominance gave way to AMERICA’s, and as we SPEAK, AMERICA’S world dominance is giving way to CHINA’s… and lest you try and DEBATE me on that, or let it cause you a lot of HEARTBURN and HAND-wringing, here’s what God wants you to know through His inspired WORD this morning:
#4) God blesses US with HIS PREDOMINANCE. (24:15-25)
HIS “ascendancy, power, authority, and RULE over ALL others”.
Friends: when ALL is said and done, and ALL of this world’s kingdoms have risen, and had their day in the sun, but then eventually FALLEN, only ONE King will REMAIN. A “STAR”, a “SCEPTER shall rise out of Israel… And one from Jacob shall exercise dominion” over them ALL. And every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that JESUS CHRIST is LORD; “All HAIL King JESUS!”
And on that day, only one PEOPLE will be left standing WITH him: HIS people; all those who belong to Christ.
A PURE, PROTECTED, PROSPEROUS, PREDOMIN-ATED people. HAPPILY ruled, JOYFULLY surrendered, to King JESUS.
Is that YOU this morning? Who sits on the throne of YOUR heart? You and I make small, sad kings; but JESUS will outlast them all, RULE them all, and RESCUE all who humbly surrender to him. Won’t you come to Him this morning, and be BLESSED.