Law & Grace - God's talking to you, but that's not good - Part I (Balaam)
Vern Peterman · Jan 30, 2011
Law & Grace, No. 09
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926225292507

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. Actually, Courtney, you don't need to worry too much about the names. Most of those get anglicized anyway. Anyway, we won't try to be technically correct to the finest detail here. Before we move into the passage, there was one thing I wanted to take a few minutes to cover. And that is the question, why the parenting seminar? I've been giving a lot of thought to it. Here's one that's rather personal.

Of the eight children in my family and Nancy's family put together, five in mine, three in hers, Christian Holmes, at least nominally, half, four, ended in divorce. And that doesn't tell the whole story about those who were not divorced. Here's another little statistic, a little less personal, but maybe not. Four out of five children raised as Christians during their teen years will put their Christian faith on the shelf by the time they reach their 20s.

That's a statistic from just about five years ago. A recent survey showed that 60% of young adults believe that a living together arrangement before marriage is wise. But the facts are quite the contrary, particularly or especially when marriage is preceded by multiple partners. 40% of the live-together arrangements break up before marriage, and doing so increases the chance of divorce in the subsequent marriage by an average of 80%. I say average because if there are two live-together arrangements before the second one results in marriage, the chance of that ending up in a divorce is 166% higher. The secular culture that we have now trains your children to be secular. Faith, if any, is private. Keep it to yourself. Not to be brought out in public. The intent of Muslims is to make your children and your grandchildren totally Islamic. And globally, they are in the process of succeeding.

One of the reasons why I say that, 25 years ago, I made several business trips into Western Europe, principally into Germany. And I remember the company that I was working with over there having some mumblings about expressing concern about the Muslims that had moved into that part of Germany where they were at. The current figure is, this is across Europe as a whole, about 20% of the adult population in Europe is Muslim. 50% of the school age children. See what's next? The intent is to make your children, your grandchildren, totally Islamic.

There is a Muslim billionaire. His name is Gulen. He now lives in Pennsylvania. He has so far funded all, beginning in this decade, 140 charter schools. Those are public schools, by the way, that he's putting the bill on, as long as they go Islamic. It's growing wildly, especially as school districts run into financial strains. And this guy's worth something like $25 billion, so he can fund quite a bit.

Though Islam is not a uniform religion, and percentages vary, it presently fosters pedophilia. It is legal in a number of Muslim societies to marry a daughter off at as young as one year of age. Quite often, mass marriages involving a number of girls under the age of 10. Multiple wives, up to four. Beatings of wives and children.

I've seen that personally in my travels to Uganda. That was a part of the counseling load, was dealing with those who were former Muslims, where it was the custom of the husband to beat the wife. Slavery still takes place in Muslim populations in the Middle East and in Africa. The typical candidates for slavery are Christians. And terrorism, and I could go on, but that's enough.

They are succeeding. It's the fastest growing religion in the world. It's the fastest growing religion in the United States. Television, video games, athletic and cultural involvement, education, Along with nominal church attendance, though certainly not prohibited, are building a future that is a spiritual and moral wasteland for our country.

That will likely result in a culture ultimately dominated by Islam in at most two generations. If what is happening in Europe now is any measure, and I think it's a good measure, you're looking at two generations. And the predominant religion will be Islam. And it fills the vacuum left by what is secular.

Unless parents are intentionally biblical. So when I talk about a parenting seminar, I am kind of struck by some of these things. Yes, some of them are global. Some of them are personal. But anyway, that's some of my thoughts. Now, in today's passage, there is a donkey who has something to say. Yes. In today's passage, there is a donkey who definitely has a story to tell. And so we will look at that. It starts like this. And as you recall, as we began our study, oh, this was over two months ago, of Law and Grace.

It began in Goshen, the eastern part of the Nile Delta. And from there, the Israelites, after 10 plagues, were brought to a place of seeing the sea part. From there, they went down the west side of the Sinai Peninsula, coming to the place where Moses was given the Ten Commandments to pass along the children of Israel. Up the east side, of Sinai Peninsula.

And by the way, there's this spot here that I particularly want to make note of. There's actually a lot of wandering that goes on in that little oval that I've drawn. I've decided to avoid it just for the sake of too much complexity. But there, in fact, was some wandering.

And then taking us to our present account, and that is in the land of Moab, east of the Dead Sea. as we'll see shortly, one with a lot of history in common. As the Israelites move toward the place where they will enter the land that God's promised them, they're about to cross paths with some distant relatives. So actually one way you could look at this is just one really big family feud. They've already done battle with some enemies, the Amorites in particular, and have beaten them severely by the Lord's hand.

And the Lord said, if you will walk faithfully, I will help you. Balak, king of the tribal kingdom of Moab, took notice. At this time, the kingdom of Moab is more of kind of a nomadic group situated in this one area. Not a lot of intensive civilization, but rather a kind of a nomadic moving tribal group that relied on pasture lands. In Numbers 22, 3 and 4, to underscore what Courtney read for us, So Moab was in great fear because of the people, for they were numerous, that is, the people of Israel. And Moab was in dread of the sons of Israel. Moab said to the elders of Midian, Now this horde will lick up all that is around us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field. And Balak the son of Zippor was king of Moab at the time. This guy is the son of a zipper. Anyway, okay. You can imagine what Balak was thinking here. He looks out on this encampment.

This is the pattern that the Israelites had. They had an assignment of three of their main tribes on each of the four sides of the tabernacle. The tabernacle was in the center. And then there would be this large gathering of tribal groups in tents and other aspects of encampment around this tabernacle. But one more thing we should not fail to see here. How would you feel if you saw this in the Israelites' camp at night? Because remember, here they were encamped, and over the tabernacle was a pillar of fire. That's got to get your attention. There's this great pillar of fire. I imagine it not only putting off light, but rather a constant burning sound. That's got to be awesome.

And here's Balak thinking, uh-oh, I am in real trouble, especially after he sees that this group has taken out the Amorites. He's thinking, I don't have a chance against these people unless I can come up with some very special advantage. So having seen the neighboring Amorites severely beaten, he's concerned that he is the king of this little tribal kingdom, rather nomadic at this point, will likewise be defeated by the people of Israel. He's thinking, oh, we're just next. as he used the analogy with the ox just kind of eating one bunch of grass and then the next and the next. He figures he'll just get eaten up by these Israelites who are overpowering them. So Balak, the king of the tribal kingdom of Moab, hires the best pagan prophet in the business to place a curse on the Israelites.

He says, that's going to give me an advantage. He says, there's no way my military cannot do their military. There's just no way. But perhaps, hopefully, if I can get a really good prophet, I mean the best, to curse them, then I'll have an advantage. So he calls on Balaam, son of Baal. Now, Balaam is living in the land of the Midianites, in the city of Pethor.

He is therefore likely, it's not certain, likely a Midianite, a descendant of Abraham by a second wife, Keturah. So here you can imagine as you start looking at this family tree, here on the one part you see from Abraham descended Midian, Balaam, if he by his place of living, is indicating his lineage, would be of that background.

And by the way that's not certain, but that's I think a reasonable assumption. Then there are the 12 tribes of Israel. That's where Moses is associated here. And then off on the right-hand side of the chart, and you likewise have it on your handout, under Moab is Balak.

So here you have essentially a family tree that has them all basically in some way or another related. And so here these family feuds are about to come together here. Now, perhaps you see this, you know, talking donkeys, all this stuff. It's possible you've heard somebody say, how can you believe all those made-up stories in the Bible? It's just mythology. Well, not so fast. I have heard that.

In a place called Deir Allah, It's found here on the Jordan side of the Jordan River versus the Israel side. In 1967, an inscription was found on an ancient temple wall. Three times in that inscription, it says, Balaam, son of Baor. That sounds like the exact same Balaam, right? And it extols, praises his ability as a prophet. And guess what?

It's about 60 miles from where this event that we see here takes place. So there is archaeological and historical foundation that not only fits in terms of Balaam's son of Baor, it's not even something close, it's exactly it, but it's also within a fairly short distance away. And so here's the inscription kind of copied out where you can sort of see the letters. I don't know about you, but I don't read that kind of lettering, so we'll have to assume that they've got it right.

Balaam, the son of Baor, is a very well-known pagan prophet in this day. That's why Balak wanted to get the best. And for some centuries afterwards, including the time in this temple, the exact name here written three times in this nearby temple. So Balak sends one set of messengers to Balaam. asking Balaam to curse the people of Israel.

God tells Balaam not to go. Don't go, Balaam. And not to curse the people because they are blessed by God Himself. Balaam, don't go. I know they've asked you. Don't listen to them. Stay put. So when Balaam refuses to go, Balak sends another set of messengers. Even more impressive, I suppose. And God does permit Balaam to go. Perhaps a surprise, but tells him to only say what the Lord directs him to say and nothing else. Don't say a thing beyond what I tell you to say. So, God's angry at Balaam for going. How can God be so angry at Balaam for going when God told Balaam he could go? That's puzzling, isn't it? Alright, we will offer more insight into that next Sunday because we're going to take this up looking more into the answers.

But in quick summary, brief summary, Balaam has bad motives. Bad motives, bad intent. That's the quick summary. It's not because God said don't go and left it there And Balaam went anyway, but even when Balaam went, he left with bad intent. God, knowing the hearts of the people, knows the intent of Balaam. So God is angry at Balaam for going.

Well, this is interesting. The Lord intervenes as Balaam travels in some ways that are surprising, unique, and in fact, even humorous. And we'll talk about what ways it's humorous here. It starts with Balaam's donkey taking a detour into nearby field, and here's how it goes. Numbers 22, 22. And the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as an adversary against him, that is, against Balaam. Now he was riding on his donkey and his two servants were with him. So he's riding on this donkey. It happens to be a female donkey. Riding on the donkey along with his two servants and the Lord stands in the way, the angel of the Lord.

Now, we've pointed out some time back in our study of Genesis, the angel of the Lord speaks as God, and particularly does things that God does. We have several references here, even some that don't include the book of Numbers, and we could include those. It was kind of like this fills up the page, so we're done. As in this account with Balaam, the angel of the Lord often is seen speaking as if he were God.

Before Balaam leaves his home, God says, don't say anything except what I tell you to say. The angel of the Lord says exactly the same thing. Don't say anything except what I tell you to say. Apparently, Balaam intended to go and do what he wanted to do, to carry out his plan since God gave him permission to go. He figured, well, I'll go ahead and go and do what I want to do anyway.

Since appearances of the angel of the Lord end at Christ's birth, even though they take place throughout the Old Testament, we take the angel of the Lord to be the pre-incarnate Son of God, that is, Jesus Christ, before he was born of Mary. The next verse, verse 23, When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, now this is interesting, the donkey sees the angel of the Lord, Balaam does not, at least not at first. Standing in the way with his sword drawn in his hand, the donkey turned off from the way and went into the field. But Balaam struck the donkey to turn her back into the way. Now let us not be such, here at Holly Hills, that donkeys see more than we do. Okay? Alright. that donkeys have better spiritual perception than we. Alright, verse 24. Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path of the vineyards with a wall on a side and a wall on that side. So here he is constrained between these two walls that are fairly close together. A narrow path along the way.

Then the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, and she pressed herself to the wall, and pressed Balaam's foot against the wall. So he goes whack and strikes her again. Numbers 22-26, the angel of the Lord went further and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn to the right hand or to the left. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, here's the donkey seeing what Balaam doesn't, she laid down under Balaam. So Balaam was angry and struck the donkey with his stick.

Oh boy. Okay. You may have thought that I was thinking that the donkey doing like this was humorous. It's not humorous yet. Wait. And the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey and she said to Balaam, what have I done to you that you have struck me these three times? It's not humorous yet. But very interesting, this donkey can count. And maybe that's even more impressive than talking. But here it gets good. Balaam talks to the donkey. Now that's funny, right? I mean, having a conversation with the donkey. That's weird. Okay.

Then Balaam said to the donkey, because you have made a mockery of me, if there had been a sword in my hand, I would have killed you by now. And people always talk to donkeys like that, right? Okay. So verse 30, the donkey said to Balaam, Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I ever been accustomed to do so to you?" And he said, no, talking again to the donkey. Now, I hope you never get to the point where you are accountable to a donkey, answering inquisitive questions to a donkey.

That's Balaam. 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. Numbers 22, 31 through 33 go like this, 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 all the way to the ground. Oh boy!

The angel of the Lord said to him, Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out as an adversary because your way was contrary to me. Yes, I gave you permission to go, but as you were going, you had the wrong intent. You were thinking that it would be an opportunity for you to do what you always wanted to do anyway. but the donkey saw me and turned aside for me these three times. If she had not turned aside for me, I would surely have killed you just now and let her live." Balaam is thinking, if I had a sword, I'd kill you, Mrs. Donkey. Whereas the Lord says, look, I surely would have killed you and let the donkey live.

The next verse is 34 and 35. Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, I have sinned, for I did not know that you were standing in the way against me. Now then, if it is displeasing to you, I will turn back. But the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, Go with the men, but you shall speak only the word which I tell you. So Balaam went along with the leaders of Balak. As Balak leads Balaam to the various places after this, where Israel's camp is in view, Balaam proceeds to speak blessings on Israel. This is not at all what Balak had in mind. He says, hey, if anything, we need some curses. Blessings are really going to hurt us here, right? But that's all that Balaam does. He speaks blessings. Why?

The Lord has made it abundantly clear, even with a talking donkey, The Lord has made it abundantly clear that Balaam is not to do anything but to bless these people. Do not curse them. Balaam's several prophecies, in fact, include true statements about God's character. Balaam, in this passage, makes one of the statements in the Bible, both the Old and New Testament, that says God does not change.

He is not like a man. He even prophesies about a star for the Magi, the wise men who would seek the star. And as we followed a few Christmases back, I believe the sequence is the prophecy here about the star and a scepter was carried to Babylon under Daniel, who was head of the Magi, the book of Daniel says. and then that was carried on to the point where the Magi in the New Testament were looking for that star that Balaam had actually prophesied. But what are we to learn from this passage? Well, we'll take a look at some more of this this next week, but for starters it goes like this.

God will allow us to do things that may be what he in fact allows but not what God desires or intends for us. God can, in fact, allow us to do things that he doesn't want us to do. God can, in fact, allow us to take a direction in life that's not at all what he intends. So just because God allows you to do something does not mean that it's God's will. It is far better that we seek His will through prayer, His word, and by counsel and example in the church body. What does God really want, not just what will God let me get away with, as far as I can tell. Forcing, I put that in quotes here, or expecting God to intervene to stop us from doing the wrong thing and directing us forcefully towards the right thing is not God's desired way with us.

Perhaps you've heard of the circumstance where the atheist stands at a podium and maybe drinks a glass of water. In fact, I think I'll do that. and says, I'll give God 15 minutes to strike me dead. And they wait 15 minutes, and see, God didn't strike him dead, so see, there must not be a God. Well, God does not work that way. Does God listen to atheist demands? I kind of doubt it. In fact, I don't think God believes in atheists.

We ought not to expect God to work miraculously and forcefully in our lives, but rather instead to look at what he has revealed and the guidance he clearly offers. There's a big difference between the two. Be careful about alliances that are at odds with God's intent.

Balak the Moabite expected Balaam to curse the people of Israel. Therefore, playing into Balak's expectations was a problem. And as we'll see, it continues to be a problem for Balaam. What expectations do others have of us? What do they expect us to do and not do? What spiritual and moral consequences will those expectations have in our lives?

The people of Israel were already under God's clear promise to Abraham. Genesis 12, one through three, which I believe you have on page two of your handout. Now the Lord said to Abraham, and this is Abram, later changed to Abraham, go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land which I will show you. In other words, he hasn't been there yet. I will show it to you.

And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you shall be a blessing. You shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and this continues on to the descendants of Abraham, and the one who curses you, I will curse. So if Balaam curses the Israelites, is that going to turn out good? Not at all. This is going to be bad news. The Lord has determined to do things this way. As a matter of fact, this is still true. and will be true on to the end of this present heavens and earth.

The Israelites' obedience to the law of Moses would be the basis for them to be blessed or cursed by God, not a man. Not the curse that Balaam was being expected to cast. Deuteronomy 28 is certainly not the only passage but it's a good one because within that chapter we find this, if the Israelites I mean specifically them. If the Israelites would live according to the law, they would be blessed. The first 14-15 verses go that way. And it starts off like this in Deuteronomy 28, first three verses.

Now it shall be if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments, which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God. If. Blessed if. Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the country.

And it continues on for some number of verses. Twice in this passage under the blessings, in the land, in the land. Which is one of the clues that we're not under the law of Moses. We're not in the land of Israel. The next part is the part under curses, and I have to tell you, it's a lot longer. The blessings, a little more than a dozen verses. The curses, dozens of verses. But they start like this in verse 15.

But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe, to do all his commandments and his statutes, which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. Curse shall you be in the city, and curse shall you be in the country, and on and on. And where I told you the blessings had two statements of in the land, the curses have two statements of from the land.

From the land. And guess what happened to the Israelites? They were taken from the land. After centuries, just recently, by centuries count, returned to it. How about us? How about us and the church? Are we going to be blessed and cursed this way? No. Nope. The blessings and the curses are if. You? It's quite different.

Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, Ephesians 1.3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. And he continues to go and lay out what those blessings are. Only towards the last part of the book does he begin to say, OK, now that we've talked about how you're blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, Let's talk about your stealing and lying problem. Now let's talk about it. But the blessings are certain. It's already a done deal.

The blessings for the Jews, Deuteronomy 28, verse 14 verses, in the land. The blessings for you's, the blessings for you's, in the heavenly places in Christ. The Jews were blessed if. You are not blessed if. You are simply blessed. And the place of blessing is different for the Jews in the land, for you in the heavenly places in Christ where you are right now, where you have your citizenship, where your heart's home is.

Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, and we expect to continue to learn from this account of Balaam as we look at it again next week, we thank you for what you have made evident. We thank you for this principle of blessing. And what we've seen very clearly is blessing is very important to you. And it's something that you maintain even for centuries. and beyond centuries. We thank you for the blessings that are made evident in this passage, and the blessings that we have in the heavenly places in Christ, most certainly, absolutely, and without condition. We thank you. We praise you. In Jesus' name, amen.