Numbers 23:13-26 Bible Study | Episode 799

October 31, 2024

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

Numbers 23:13-26  Bible Study | Episode #

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.

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Transcript

Speaker A: 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.

Speaker B: Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in numbers, chapter 23. Numbers, chapter 23. And we're dealing with balaam and balaam. Now, the second prophecy, kind of the third, but anyway, the second prophecy and the third prophecy intensify in order. And when I say intensify, God's intensity against Balak and his intensity for Israel grows and grows. And now I want you to hear me. God is in this passage, prophesying through Balaam his love and his desire to protect and take care of his children, his people. And that is an important understanding in the first one, in the first one, in this chapter, in the first one, he basically says, they are people that are dwelling alone. They are numerous, but they are by themselves. They don't have any allies, they don't have anyone protect them. God's protecting them. And oftentimes we as gods people feel like we're under attack. But God has held together a remnant of his people for now going on 3500 years. And so this is not a, when you think that you're all alone, you need to understand, you serve a God that has proven that he can take care of the weak and the, and the alone and the separated. He can do that for. He's done that for 3500 years. I mean, he's a God. That's proven. He does those type things. And so understanding that he does that and that he's intensely loyal, he's intensely jealous for you. He wants you to know him, and he wants you to know his power and his presence. He wants you to glorify him as a God who is able to hold you in the cleft of the rock, to. To mount you up on eagles wings. You know, all these promises that we find in scripture, and all you gotta do is look for inspirational promises for God's people. Just google that and there'll be a list of 40, 50, 60 verses. Why? Because it's not uncommon for God to say he's gonna take care of us. In fact, that is really, that is really one of the major things was the scripture. First of all, one of them is, is a God sovereign? Second, man's lost, admired in sin. Third, God is a redeemer. And fourth, God takes care of those who he redeems. You know, those, that's just kind of the story of scripture. And as he takes care of us, we. I guess the fifth thing you could throw out there is that God's people choose and do walk by faith. And so this is just one of those things that goes on. And so as we see God progressing in his aggressiveness toward his zealousness for his people and his aggressiveness against those who would try to destroy them, and trust me, God is in that business. He is in that business. He's even in that, been in that business over the last 75 years in the Middle east. He is a God who's proven over and over again he can take a small remnant and overcome massive odds and destroy the enemies of his people over and over and over again. And so you need to know that. You need to realize that we serve a God who is constantly and consistently at work in the world, doing big stuff, doing big things, pouring his spirit out on all flesh, taking care of the weak, taking care of the widow and the orphan. I mean, even, just look that up. God's desire to care for the widow and orphan, and you're going to find several passages just on that specific group of people. You just, you just don't, if you don't understand the great love God has for his people and the zealousness that God has for his people. Well, you just haven't been reading the Bible enough. You need to read it more. It says. Then Balak said to him, please come with me to another place from which you may see them. You shall see only the outer part of them, and you shall not see them all. Curse them firmly from there. Now, he thinks that if he goes into a certain place and says the right words and pronounces the right things, that he's going to win. And so he brought him up to the field of Zofim, to the top of Pisgah, which is a small mountain, and built seven altars there and offered a bull and a ram on each one of them. He does the same thing in a different location, thinking that location is the important thing, thinking that ritual is the important thing. It's nothing. It's not. It's the relationship. Location, ritual, time, space. Not. Not important. Relationship's important. And he said to Balak, stand here by your burnt offerings while I meet with the Lord over there, meaning that God's not going to meet with Balak because Balak's not his. Balak's not one of his children. Balak's not a worshiper of God. Balak has no relationship with God, or God would be speaking with Balak rather than Balaam. He doesn't, and so he doesn't. He doesn't have a relationship, so he doesn't speak with him. Tragically. That's a terrible position for Balak to be in. It's also a position of ignorance is just like understanding who God is, just the way that's going to be. He's not going to understand God, and he's not going to understand what God's at work doing. And so Balaam tells him, you stand here. I'm going to go over there and talk to goddesse. This is a very sad verse right here. It's really a tragic verse for Balak. And you go, where gets Balak? I know he's on the other team. Yeah, I get it, but. But the truth is, he's human being, and the truth is, he's trying to seek out his own will by destroying God's plan, and that's not gonna work. It's gonna destroy him. It's gonna destroy. It's gonna destroy his people. He. He is. He is a megalomaniac. That's going to lose, and I'm going to tell you that's going to happen over and over again eventually, all the time. It's. It is the human. It is the human condition. We. We've had many, many tyrants, and many, many, many of those who would want seek all the power and all the control to them. And what they. What they mount up, what they. What they're able to pile up eventually is destroyed, because God is sovereign over all things. Then the Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth again. Notice he. He says, go back to Balak, and thus you shall speak. So he came to him. There he was, standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab were with him. And Balak said to him what the Lord had spoken to. Then he took up his oracle and said, rise up, balak, and hear. Listen to me, son of Zippor. What he's saying was, you need to hear this. This is important. I've already told you once, kind of reminds you of pharaoh, doesn't it? You've been given the knowledge you need to act upon what God has said. God is not a man that he should lie. Verse 19. That's a good verse to memorize anyway. God is not a man that he should lie about the way it's quoted elsewhere in scripture, nor a son of man that he should repent, meaning that God doesn't lie and he doesn't change his mind. He's not like a human being. He does not repent. He does not turn back from what his will is. Has he said and will he not do what, what God's saying is? If I said it, I'm going to do it. By the way, if you just want to memorize anything, just memorize the whole verse because all three of those lines are great, right? God is not a man that he should lie, nor is your son a man that he should repent. He has said and will not. And, and will he not do or has he spoken and will he not make it good? He has said, will he not do? Has he spoken and will he not make it good? Yeah, he's going to do what he says he's going to do. Behold, I received a command to bless and he has blessed and cannot reserve it. What God said is, you're not going to trick me into anything. I'm not one of these demigods, one of these made up gods that you serve. I am the Lord of the universe. I am sovereign over our things. He blessed his people and he is going to bless them. He has not observed iniquity in Jacob nor has seen wickedness in Israel. Why? Because they have walked in faith. Now are they perfectly walking in faith? No. No, they are not. But they are walking in faith. And in comparison to all humanity, they are definitely walking in faith. And remember, just a little bit of faith is all that God desires. God desires for you to learn to walk by faith. Big faith. But, but at the start, all he desires is just a little. And let me say this, just a little trust in God will go a long way in your life and eventually it'll lead to big, big things and big faith for you. The Lord his God is with him, meaning Israel. And the shout of a king is among them, meaning they have authority and power. They're, they've, God's with them and they have power and control. God brings them out of Egypt and he has strengthened. He has strength like a wild ox, meaning Israel's. Israel is strong and powerful for there is no sorcery against Jacob, nor any divination against Israel. By the way, this is good for you just to see in the, nobody can curse you or, or place a spell on you or, or do any of that. If you, if you are, have fear about stuff like that. Those things have no power over you. There's, they're nothing. Just, I treat them like they're nothing because they're nothing. They have no power over you. They may have power over the darkness of this world. They don't have any power over you. They may not even have that, but, but they definitely don't have any power over you. He says it now must be. And by the way, if you try to, if you try to manipulate things to be as you want them to be and not be as God's will is leading them to be, you are involved in sorcery and divination also. Okay? So many times I, and I get this from, we need to pray that so and so decides to do this. That's a little bit of sorcery and divination. That's a, that's one of those things that's kind of between them and God. I'm gonna pray that God will spirit will be on them. I'm gonna get prayed if they have revelation, I'm gonna pray that they're protected. I'm gonna pray that God will move in their lives and, and they will, they will clearly see and understand his will. But I'm not going to pray that God will force a human being to do that which a human being has not set in his heart to do. Why? Because God does not do that. God does not force your will, his will upon you. He doesn't force you to walk in his will. He invites you to. He reveals that will to you. He shows you his power, he shows you his love, he shows you his desire for your very best, and then he invites you to do it. See, that's one of the great things about glorifying it, that, I mean, that's probably the greatest thing, that a heart bent toward wickedness, a heart that is dead to a relationship with God, can hear God's voice and turn to him. I mean, that's, that's, that's the ultimate of glorifying God. That God can take a broken thing and make it and fix it. He can take a dead thing and make it alive. And so that process necessarily involves, as a part of the process, repentance or turning toward God, which means that the person chooses God, too. Once God has chosen them, they choose him. And there's a walking with him. You can't divine that out of the process. That's an important part of the process. He says that now must be said of Jacob and of Israel. Owe what God has done. See, what he's saying is God's got to glorify himself through them now, because they've walked by faith. I mean, he's got, he's going to prove himself to be God through them. They owe what God has done. And by the way, that's what God's going to do with you, too, by the way, no matter what. No matter what, he's going to glorify himself with your life. And so he's going to say, oh, what God has done. Now, I hope it's not that he takes you out, because you, you don't walk with him ever, ever, ever. You just, you just have a few religious experiences, and then he takes you out. And then people say, oh, well, look what God has done. This is supposed to be a positive thing. Oh, what God has done is supposed to be positive. Okay, let's work toward that. And the only way you work toward that is trust God. He says, look, a people rises like a lionesse and lifts itself up like a lion, meaning they're getting up like a whole pride of lions. By the way, that's really the most scary thing out there. It shall not lie down until it devours the prey and drinks the blood of the slain. What he's saying is, they're going to destroy you, and you can't curse them. You can't do it. They're going to be victorious. You're going to be victorious. You ought to take it. You ought to expect it. You ought to walk in it. Then Balak said to Balaam, neither curse them at all nor bless them at all. Said, don't say anything, just stop. I mean, we've gone from not cursing them to blessing him, blessing them to blessing them to my detriment. Stop. Don't do either. So Balaam answered and said to babe, did I not tell you, saying, all the Lord speak that must I do? Well, the answer is, yeah, yeah, that's what he said, and that's what he's done. Balaam's been faithful with the word of God. And really, that's all you can ask for. One who is called to speak God's word is that they'd be faithful to, not faithful to the people or a group in the church, not that they'd be faithful to a political movement. I thought they'd be faithful to a theme or a idea that is popular today. What you can mainly and mostly well bless God for in a person's life who is called to speak his word is that that person has been faithful to the word of God, not manipulating it for their own purpose, not nothing preaching it for their own gang, but true to God's word, so that God's people might have a pure version of the truth. And Balaam is doing that. Who knew? You're going from a donkey trying to keep you from getting killed to being faithful to God's word. I've known a lot of donkeys, meaning preachers who figured that out. They do. A lot of times they do. A lot of times you'll think that person ain't got a chance. And then you realize, you know, with God, all things are possible. And God does use the small and the weak and those that are not expected to do big things. And he does that with Israel also, and he plans that to do that with you. And you should expect God to be zealous towards you, and I be desirous of you being victorious. You should expect that and you should be excited about it, and you should see that God sees you as a pride of lions about to take its prey. You're going to get God's best, and you're going to get it powerfully. You just got to walk toward it.

Speaker A: 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.