God desires to bless you (Numbers 22-24)

A friend of mine mentioned the danger of reading too much into our circumstances.  Life has not turned out for her as she had hoped.  A significant relationship had broken down.  Certain dreams have not come to be.  In the pain of this she had begun to think that God was angry with her.  But thankfully she regained her belief that God is good towards her.

In the unusual story of Balaam and his donkey we see God’s desire to bless a complaining and unfaithful people.  But what does His blessing look like?

I think we can learn a lot about the blessed life by pondering the blessing of Aaron at the beginning of the book of Numbers (6:24-26).  To be blessed is to have Yahweh’s face turned towards you, so that he can be gracious to you and give you peace.  The blessed life is experienced in the realisation that God no longer treats us as our sins deserve, but according to His loving-kindness, and the fact that He is with us even when life is difficult.

1.      God has the power over every blessing and curse (1-6)

The people of Moab were the descendants of Lot, who was Abraham’s nephew.  Lot who had received extraordinary kindness from God.  Yet the Moabites had quickly abandoned God.  Now they worshipped their own god, Chemosh.  Despite their hatred of Him, God was still kind to them.  He had told the Israelites not to harass them or contend with them in battle, ‘because I have given Ar to the people of Lot for a possession’ (Deut. 2:9).

However, their king, Balak heard that the Israelites had just defeated the Amorites.  He also knew that God had delivered these people from slavery in Egypt.  The Moabites dreaded the Israelites, ‘because they are many’ (3) and ‘they cover the face of the earth’ (5).  God had promised Abraham that his people would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand of the seashore.  God has been working to fulfil His promises.

God had also promised Abraham that He would bless those who blessed him and curse those who cursed him, and that through Abraham all the nations of the world would be blessed (Gen. 12:3).  So, what should Balak and the Moabites have done?  They should have turned to the God of Israel and blessed God’s people.  Then God would have blessed him and shown them mercy.  Instead, Balak seeks to curse the people of God.

He sends messengers to Balaam, asking Balaam to curse the people of Israel.  Notice, that he credits Balaam with the ultimate ability to bring blessing and curse.  ‘I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed’ (6).  The people of the Ancient Near East believed that there were many gods, and that those gods could be manipulated through the practice of divination.  The truth is that there is only one true God, and He has the ultimate power over every blessing and curse.

Some of you come from cultures where there is much more awareness of the dangers of witchcraft.  Even in this country things like wicca are growing in popularity.  What about things like voodoo?  The Christian knows to stay away from such things.  We are also comforted by the fact that our God has the power over every blessing and curse (23:23).

2.      God blesses undeserving people (7-21)

Balak, the king of Moab, sent the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian to Balaam ‘with fees for divination in their hands’ (7).  That is significant.  In the New Testament, the apostle Peter tells us that was motivated by ‘the love of gain for wrongdoing’ (2 Peter 2:15).  Don’t be taken in when you hear Balaam talk of ‘the LORD my God’ (18).  Balaam is not a genuine follower of God.  People in the culture would have no problem claiming multiple gods as their own.  Balaam would happily curse Gods people, if God had allowed him.

Look at God’s words to Balaam: ‘you shall not curse the people because they are blessed’ (12).  This story of Balaam was one of the key reasons I wanted to preach on the book of Numbers.  Here is our God continually seeking the good of His unfaithful and complaining people.  He is the God who does not treat us according to what our sins deserve, but according to His loving-kindness.

Balaam initially refuses to go to Balak.  But Balak, king of Moab, sends more princes and elders, and presumably the offer of more money.  Again, Balaam refuses to go with them.  Yet, rather than sending them straight home Balaam invites them to stay the night ‘so that I may know what more the LORD will say to me’ (19).  He was hoping that God might change His mind, or that he might yet find some other way to get his hands on Balak’s gold (Duguid).  That night God said, ‘go with them; but only do what I tell you’ (20).  ‘So, Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes with of Moab’ (21).

3.      No power can stop God from blessing His people (22-41)

As Balaam sets out God’s anger is kindled against him.  But why would God be angry when He told Balaam to go with the Moabites?  He is angry because He is the God who sees the heart, and He knows that Balaam is simply motivated by the thought of Balak’s gold.  Balaam is quite happy to curse the people God loves for profit.  But God will not let him!

Balaam’s donkey sees the angel of the Lord standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand.  Those of us who are animal lovers don’t like what happens next: Balaam strikes his poor loyal donkey.  Indeed, the angel of the Lord will rebuke Balaam for this.  ‘Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel’ (Proverbs 12:10). 

Eventually the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, but even more significantly the Lord opens the eyes of Balaam to see the angel of the Lord standing in his way with his sword drawn.  There is a spiritual reality that we do not see.  Think of Elisha who had his eyes opened to see a mountain full of chariots of fire (2 Kings 6:17).  The writer to the Hebrews tells us that angels are ministering spirits sent to serve those who inherit salvation (Heb. 1:14).

The angel of the Lord tells Balaam that the donkey had actually saved his life.  Balak responds with a shallow repentance.  I say ‘shallow repentance’ because later in the book of Numbers Balaam is still acting against God’s people.  Again, God tells Balaam to go with the men of Moab, but to ‘only speak the word that I tell you’ (35).

The chapter finishes with Balak taking Balaam to a high place, where Baal was worshipped, and from where they can see a fraction of God’s people.  Yet while Balak wants Balaam to curse these people, God will only allow Balaam bless them.  I find it quite moving to picture Balak and Balaam looking down on these people, who are unaware of the wicked schemes against them, and God is working for their good.

Conclusion

I began this talk by telling you of a friend of mine who looked at her circumstances and began to wonder if God was good to her.  Be careful of making conclusions from you circumstances.  God’s word tells us that God is good even when our circumstances are hard.  The truth is that if we have allowed ourselves to be swallowed up in the love of Jesus then we can be sure that God is always seeking our ultimate good.  It is who God is, as we have seen in this strong story.

Balaam actually points us to the source of all our blessings.  '...  a star shall come out of Jacob, a sceptre shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth' (24:17 b).  This is a promise of a king who will defeat the people's enemies.  It finds an initial fulfilment in David and Solomon, but beyond them it point to Jesus, who has defeated our enemies of sin, death and the devil and is the source of every spiritual blessing.  

‘If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs of God’s promises’ (Gal. 3:29).  Paul calls Jew and Gentile who follow Jesus ‘the Israel of God’ (Gal. 6:16).  God’s people are not a nation any more.  God’s people are all who are living in Jesus.

Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel (24:1).  That means that it pleases God to bless you if you love Jesus and are trusting what He has done for us on the cross.  That blessing does not mean that life will be easy.  It won’t be easy.  But God shines His face in loving light upon you, He does not treat you as your sin deserves but treats us with grace, and He wants to with an awareness of His shalom (peace and wholeness).

‘God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.  Has he said, and he will not do it?  Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfil it’ (23:19).  If you belong to Him then He HAs chosen you, and He cannot un-chose you.    

As we see Balaam’s inability to curse God’s people we remember ‘no weapon formed against us will stand’ (Is. 54:17).  ‘For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, neither height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom. 8:38-39).  For God speaks His words of blessing over us!