Numbers 23:27 & 24:1-9 Bible Study | Episode 800

November 1, 2024

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

Numbers 23:27 & 24:1-9 Bible Study | Episode #800

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, well, numbers, chapter 23 and chapter 24. Sometimes that just happens that way, especially considering that the chapters and the verses are actually not in scripture. They were put in there back about, I can't remember, somewhere in the neighborhood of 7800 years ago. And they were put in there by someone who wanted to help people be able to navigate to the word of God. Actually, I think it's more like four or 500 years ago, right after the printing press, because as the word of God began to proliferate out in the world, they want to be able to point people to different parts of scripture. And, you know, some of these books are long. And especially in the Pentateuch, the five books that we're studying through right now, they're just long. They're long books and they need, they need some dividing up so that at least when you're trying to go to them, you can find exactly where they're at. Rather than each manuscript being on, you know, different sized paper. And it not being, that was just not, not homogeneous, it was just not. It's just not. No way to figure out where somebody was talking about. You'd have to exactly know where that story was in your, in your. Well, in your papyra, in your, in your document. And so as they, as they moved along with printing press, they had the ability to give verses and chapters to it. Sometimes the chapters maybe don't fit in the right spot. Maybe they should have ended chapter 23 at verse 26 and then move verse 27 on into the next chapter because it's really kind of linked to the next chapter. It says. But, you know, in this situation, it kind of helps explain one of the things I think God is trying to show us in this passage, and that is that there is a brand of Christianity. And when I say brand, there's a. There's a type of Christian that deals with and struggles with this problem, and this problem is a reality. And so it says here. Then Balak said to balaam, please come. I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there. Now, this is the third time he's asked. It's the fourth prophecy. It's the third time he's asked Balaam to go to another place and try to get God to say what Balak wants him to say. It says verse 28. So Balak took Balaam to the top of peor. That overlooks the wasteland. Then Balaam said to Balak, build for me seven altars and prepare for me here. Notice they're doing the same thing they're asking. They burn altars, seven altars. They're preparing a ram and bur for each altar. And Balaam did as Balaam had said and offered a bull on every altar. Then you get the same results. Now, Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel. He did not go, as other times to seek the use of sorcery, but he set his face toward the wilderness, and Balaam raised his eyes and saw Israel encamped according to their tribes, and the spirit of God came upon him. Notice Balaam is doing exactly what he's supposed to be doing. He's seeking out God, and God is. God is bringing him to a place where he's using him. Uh, and. And now Balaam is using some other religious methodologies, but he knows God, and he knows how to seek God out. He's seeking him out. But he's seeking him out for someone who is trying to get God to tell him what he wants to hear. And that. That's the problem. That's. That's the problem. Oftentimes, you will find, and, you know, I've been doing this ministry for a long, long time. I've been pastoring for 30 years. You know, as you get to 30 years, it doesn't seem like it's been that long. But then you realize it's been really that long. When you get to this place that I'm at, you realize that there are people who are searching for their answer from God to their problems. They are trying to figure out how they can put themselves in a position for God to do what they want them. They want God to do. And those people are, in many ways, sad, sad for a pastor to deal with, because they never, ever really use their gifts, and they never really ever have joy, and they never really find peace. And they're always on the. They may even be trying to get into the group of believers at a congregation. They may be trying to get into the group that's really chasing after God, but they hold themselves back from it. They don't really join in and build deep, abiding relationships. It's either hurt from the past or. Or it's a desire for God to do something that he's just not doing. He's just not operating for them in their lives the way they want him to. And so they just never, ever really, truly buy in, become mature, use their giftedness. They just stay on the outskirts, and if they really like the church and the congregation, they really like what's going on there. They may stay longer than other places, but the truth is, is that they just eventually get to the place where they're. They're discontented with being there, and they move somewhere else. And we call them church hoppers, but some. Sometimes what we call a church hopper is just someone who is momentarily, you know, seeking God out for a feel good. I'm talking about people who legitimately stay somewhere, maybe a year, two, three years, and they never, ever really, truly buy in. They never, ever really, truly build deep relationships, and then they're gone. And oftentimes the issue is, is that they're trying to get Godd to tell them something that he's just not going to tell them, because it's their will, not God's will. And I'm sorry, it is your life, but it's God's will for your life, and so you can't change God's will for your life just by. Just by trying to go to a different place. And really, that's what Balaam is doing. Balak is doing here. He's just going to a different spot and saying, God. Okay, well, what about here? Will you. When you say what I want you to say, will you. Will you give me a word from you that I want to hear from here? The only thing that's changed, God hasn't changed, and the problem is, is that Balak hasn't been changed by God's word, so Balak hasn't changed. The only thing that's changing is the location. I don't want you to hear me. God's not going to change, okay? And so if you're not going to change, then the only alternative you have left is to change your location every once in a while. Once you hear from God and not get what you want out of that situation, your alternative is just to move somewhere else. Makes sense, doesn't it? It's kind of painful sometimes. Now, I'm not saying that there's not seasons for people at places. You know, people have seasons at this place, in that place. We, we all do. I've not been at the same church for 30 years, and, and not hardly anybody I know is. I mean, there are some who live in a community for a long, long time, and they are at a church for a long, long time. That's great. That's admirable. That's a good thing. But I'm not talking about, you know, when God moves you, when God, when you are in a different season of your life, and there are seasons of our lives that change. And so when you're in that new season, God may move you to a different place. And he does that definitely with pastors. But, but I'm talking about those who are they, they never, ever are there more than a couple of years? Sometimes. Not anywhere any more. In six months, three months, four months, five months, six months. And I have seen many, many of them over the years. Not bad people, not horrible people, not terrible people. Just people that can't find where they're supposed to be. They can't find where they're supposed to be. And so they just struggle with it. It is just a struggle. And what the problem is is not that they're not finding God at the different places. The problem is usually that they're, they're not wanting to hear what God has to say. And so they're not happy anywhere. They're not happy anywhere. They're not, they don't find a word from God anywhere that pleases them, because it doesn't. God's will for their life doesn't please them. And that is a, that is a terrible place. If you'll notice, Balaam doesn't even go through the process. He doesn't have to for this. He knows what God has to say. Balak takes him to a different place. Balaam first two times uses his process to talk to Goddesse. And let me say this, everybody's got a process to seek God out. Sometimes it does involve some paganism or some things that you probably picked up from somebody from the past that are not quite biblical. I want you to hear me. God overlooks that. He's interested in you hearing from him, and he'll overlook you. Maybe not doing it exactly right or maybe not even doing it biblically at all. But you are seeking him out and you're seeking his word out. You're seeking out his truth from his word. When you're doing that, God's going to be, he's going to be talking to you. He's going to, he's going to be revealing himself. If you're actually seeking a word from God, he's going to be revealing himself to you. And for Balaam here, he knows what God's going to say. Balak's the one who doesn't want to hear it. Balaam knows what God's word is. Now he's going to give him a different, he's going to give him a different understanding. Now you're going to say it a different way. He's going to. And when I say a different understanding, it's the same understanding, but he's going to reveal it in a different way. And let me tell you something. If you jump from church to church, church, you may hear the debt message differently at different places, but it's the same message. You're just hearing it presented to you in a different way, different context. Well, Balaam realizes that no users in going through the process. Holy spirit, tell me what to tell him this time. It's the same thing. It's really the same thing. But, you know, maybe packaged a different way. And it is packaged a different way. And he says to him, he says, listen, here it goes. Now you go, well, pastor, why aren't you in it? Well, the reason I'm not in it is because as I was going through this Bible study, I realized, you know, I don't want to, I don't want to miss out on some of the really good thing God says about Israel in here and realizations that after you read this, you realize that God's not going to, he's not going to change his view of Israel. In fact, his love for Israel grows and grows as you, as you go through these oracles over and over again, God gets more and more excited about who Israel is and says great things about him. And, and, you know, I really would rather focus on that when we're doing that Bible study. But this study really probably needs to just be, you know, are you just trying to find the right packaging of the right word from God that says the right thing for you because it's what you want, or are you really trying to find where God has for you to be and to use you? You're where God has for you to be, and it's clear that he has a use for you. You need to get to work, and you need to receive the message from God that he's given you and walk in it. Trust me, he knows you better than you know yourself. And you're going to be better off. You're going to be better off trusting him and walking in it. And quit trying to wander around and find a place where you get to be all of you, which includes the parts God's trying to change. Quit doing that. Don't do that. Stop. Settle down. Build relationships. Use your gifts and receive God's revelation for you. For you. Just do it. Don't. Don't try to find green or grass. It's all God's grass. It's all the same color, green. When it gets you a place where you know you're going to be fed, where you know you can serve well, you know God's going to use you and he's moving powerfully. You see the Holy Spirit at work. Get to work. Join in. Build a relationship. Build yourself a future there. I'm not just talking about a physical future. I'm talking about an eternal future. It's the best way to do it. Invest. That's what storing up for treasure in heaven means. You could literally translate in our modern language, invest in heavenly stock, invest in eternal dwelling places. But you can't do that if you're jumping around trying to find your version of God's will. It just won't work.

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.