Numbers 23:1-12 Bible Study | Episode 798

October 30, 2024

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Numbers 23:1-12  Bible Study | Episode #798

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

If you would like to revisit today’s Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. 

If this podcast ministered to you, please subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Reviews help us reach more people and spread the wisdom of God. 

Please follow us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopealivewithgod/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopealiveministry/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeComChurch/ -Lake Community Church

Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to hope alive, applying God's word to your daily life. Hi, this is Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up his word to you and allow you to see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today, in Jesus name.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in numbers, chapter 23. Numbers, chapter 23. And we are dealing with. It's called the second prophecy. It's really the first official prophecy that Balaam is going to do for Balak. He did one earlier, but they didn't jump through all the hoops. And when I say jump through all the hoops, what I mean by that is that at this time period in human history and at all times before it and at all times after it, human beings have had, in some. For some reason, some. Some idea that they could influence the will or the plans of God, that somehow, if they do things right, if they say the right words in the right way, if they perform the right sacrifices in the right way, if they do it the way that they want it done, that in some way, they'll be able to just be able to influence the will of God, to, in essence, change the will of God and cause God to do what the man or the human being their will is. And so what we've done is we've replaced the will of God himself to the will of a human being. Now, when you have multiple gods and they all had human traits, I'm talking about, generally the pagan gods of the world, and then I say that in a very broad sense. But I mean, the pagan gods, especially the ones of the Middle east, of North Africa, of Europe, of the asian steppe, these gods, these gods had human traits, because as far as their. I. The people were, they were just. They were just, well, more powerful people. They were people on a higher level. They were, you know, greater people than the people in many ways. They're a lot like our superheroes of the today. They're. They're demigods. They're. They're. They're gods, but they're gods that really have all the faults and flaws of human beings. Well, we understand that in order for God to be God and meet that standard of being God, he's got to be at ultimately, ultimately good being, a completely good being, because he created all of the laws of the universe that we exist in. He created all the living beings. He's an author of life, and ultimately his creation works. It's good. And you see that actually in Genesis, where God makes something and says it's good. Why? Because you have to be a ultimately good being. And that means that you don't have the flaws and the character traits of human beings that you don't have, that you're not. You're not a. You're not a broken being. You're a being that hears and knows God. And, I mean, you are a being that is perfect and are able to hear the voices of human beings and. And guide them in the right way, in the good way, in the way of life. And so a God that is worthy of the title of God has to be good. He cannot be manipulated by human brokenness to do human will. And so when you go and seek out a word from goddess, you're not seeking out a word from God that you want to hear. You're working out. You're seeking out a word from God that. That. That God is going to give you to lead you into the best, into life, into goodness. And so when. When. When Balaam goes to Balak, Balak is looking for the low type of God. And I do want to make the further statement before we go into this. He's willing to hear what he wants to hear from God. And so when we go to God's word and we reject what God says in his word, or when we go to God and reject what he says by his spirit, what we're doing is we're saying that what we want and what we desire is either on par with God or better for us than what God's will is for us. What we're saying is, is that, you know, we are. We would like to, rather than to be made in the image of God or be made in the likeness of God or to know his will and his way, we want God to conform to our will and our way. And so when you ask God to conform to your will in your way, what you're doing is you're making God in your own image rather than the reverse, rather than God making you as he is, growing you as he is, you are saying to God, I want you to be as I am. I want you to. You to act as I want you to act. And when, when you do that, when you, when you say that with your life, that that's what you want, you're not worshiping God anymore. You're worshiping yourself. You're seeking after your own will in your own way, not God's will and God's way. And, and this, we see this in the story. We see this a lot of times in, in the scriptures where somebody is trying to make God in their own image, and we shared our, see it in the, in the world we live in today, where people say, well, I don't believe God's this way, or I don't. This is not, this is not. And when they say that, that's clearly out of line with, with, well, the, the God that is presented by scripture, the God that is presented by the word of God. And so what they're saying is, my will and my way is, you know, preeminent over his will or his revealed will to me. And so, you know, really, I want to be. God says, then Balaam said to Balak, build seven altars for me here, and prepare for me seven bulls and seven rams. So they're going to make sacrifices and they're going to try to appease God and get God to give them their will rather than God's will. And Balak did, just as Balaam had spoken verse two. And Balaam offered a burl and a ram on each altar. Then Balaam said to Balak, stand by your burnt offerings and I will go. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet me. And whatever he shows me, I will tell you. So he went to this desolate height. So he went on up to the highest part of the mountain, and God met Balaam and said to him, I've prepared seven altars, and I've offered each, on each altar a bull and a ram. He's talking to Jesus and he's saying, you know, we've, we've prepared the sacrifice for you to tell us exactly what, what you want to, we want you to hear. We've appeased you, God, so that you'll give us what we want. Then the Lord put us a word in Balaam's mouth and said, return to Balak, and thus you shall speak. Now, notice Balaam is been true to his gift and his call. He's going to say what God has for him to say. He said it earlier, he's going to say it now, he's going to say it again, but he's going to say what God has to speak now. What, what he's going to say has, has two very important contents to it. First of all, he's not going to say what Balaam wants, and he's not going to say what Balak wants. He's going to say what God says. And then he's also going to say some things about Israel, about God's chosen people. And so you can take some really good stuff from that. First of all, when we get God in his true form, meaning not in the form of making men, but in history form, when we get that, we usually get a lot of good stuff for us. I want you to hear me. When you choose God's will over your will, you're choosing the best will. When you're choosing God's will over your way, you're choosing a way that actually leads to life and goodness. When you choose God's will of your will, you're actually, you actually have a reason for hope and purpose. So when he gets this will, especially when it's speaking about God's chosen people, we as believers can take a lot of good stuff from this. So he turned to him, and there he was, standing by the burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab. And he took up his oracle and said, bailiff, the king of Moab has brought me from Aaron, from the mountains of the east. Come curse Jacob from me, and come denounce Israel. Now, God said, this is what's happened. Balak has. Has dragged me out of my home country to come and curse Jacob and denounce Israel. How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how shall I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him. He's saying he sees God in creation. It's obvious that there is a God, and that God is a good God. He says. He says, there a people dwelling alone, not reckoning itself among the nations, meaning this people are separate. It's different than everyone else. These are God's people. Who can count the dust of Jacob a number, one fourth of Israel. Let me die the death of the righteous, and let. Let my end be like his. Meaning. I don't want. I'm not going to curse them. They're blessed by God, and they're blessed in numbers that you would have no idea about, by the way, I think that's a very important verse in ten where he's talking about God. God's the number of people who God changes their lives. The number of people who God makes his own are more than you think they are. They're more than you can imagine. And he says, then Balak said to Balaam, what have you done? Why have you done? What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them bountifully. Well, of course, I tend to get my will out of God's mouth, and I got God's will out of God's mouth because Balaam told him that's the way it was going to work. I'm going to say what God says, and let me say this, that's really the simple answer to it. It's not my will, but your will. Isn't that what Jesus said? Jesus said that to his father. Not my will, but your will. And so if that's what Jesus says to the father, that's what Jesus says to the one who sent him. Shouldn't we have that same attitude? We don't want to hear from God what we know, how we live. We're the ones that put ourselves in this situation. We're the ones that have messed this up. I don't need to hear from the one that's messed it up. I need to hear the one from the one who has the answer. And God is willing to give us that answer. In fact, he's quite clearly wanting to give us that answer. So Balak's not happy, he says. So he answered and said, must I not take heed to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth? I'm sorry. That's Balaam. Balak is the one who said, what have you done to me? I've took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them bountifully. Well, of course he has. God blesses those who are his, he says. So Balak said, look, I just said what God told me to say. I did what I was supposed to do. You know, sometimes it's just that simple. Really. It really is. It's not my will. It's God's will. So what is God's will, really? That's it. Not my will, but God's will. So what is God's will? And where can I find God's will? Where can I find it? Well, I have to. It has to be revealed to me by God. So obviously, the Holy Spirit's gonna have to reveal it to me, but he's not going to reveal it in some mystical way. This is not. This is not some secret plan to know what God has to say. In fact, God quite. Lear says he's easy to find he says, if you seek me, you'll find me, but you got to seek me with your whole heart, meaning that you can't play games with. It's got to be, it's got to be a genuine seeking. And so if we seek after God, we can find him, but we got to seek him with our whole heart and that's found in his word. So you've got heir of God at play in this. You've got the father's will, which is revealed by the Son in his word. The word is literally the Son, the Son in the flesh. And then it is, it is, it is given light to us, meaning we can see it and understand it when the Holy Spirit reveals it to us. So you've got the full revelation of God through his son and then the full revelation of God through the Holy Spirit revealing the Son in the word. So you got God's will. You've got God's revelation in the flesh in Jesus Christ. And then you've got the Holy Spirit unveiling that to you, the whole godhead, revealing God's will for you. That's a pretty good plan. That's a great plan for you. You ought to walk in it. You ought to live it. Y'all love it. You ought to expect it. And you ought to have a high view of God's word, not the words you want, but what God says.

As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today. In Jesus name.