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Text: Num 22:21-38
Theme: God blesses us in spite of our disobedience.
Doctrine: Blessing
Image: talking donkey
Need: encouragement
Message: be encouraged, God is blessing you
*Blessed, though Undeserving*
Num 22:21-38
*Intro*
This may seem strange to our modern conception of warfare, but it is the custom in many pagan cultures to hire someone to curse their enemy for them.
This even happened in the Burmese war; the Burmese hired sorcerers to speak curses against the British, hoping that then they would be able to defeat them.
These pagan cultures think that if the gods are unhappy with their enemies, if those other people are cursed, then they might be weak enough to defeat.
In this story Balak, King of Moab, contracts Balaam, the most fearsome sorcerer around to curse the Israelites.
The Moabites had no idea that God had commanded the Israelites not to touch them (Deut 2:5-6), they had seen what the Israelites had done to the other nations they had opposed.
The Moabites were scared of being wiped out just like the Amorites had been.
The people of Moab looked out on the gathered army of Israel, and they shook in their sandals.
When Balak sent to Balaam he had supreme confidence in Balaam's abilities.
He says, “for I know that whoever you bless will be blessed, and whoever you curse will be cursed.”
The act of sending for Balaam to curse Israel, puts God's covenant promises to the test.
God promised Abraham that he would bless his descendants and that “whoever curses them I will curse, and whoever blesses them I will bless.”
This passage outlines a direct test of God's covenant with his people, by a human king.
*God instructs him not to go, yet allows him to go.*
Balak sends an envoy to Balaam to try to hire him for this job.
Balaam, realising that the best way to curse a people is through their own God, decides to inquire of Yahweh.
That evening, Yahweh meets with this pagan sorcerer.
He tells him, “You are not to go with them.
You are not to curse this people, because they are blessed.”
When Balaam got up in the morning, he told those who had come to get him, “Go back home, Yahweh has refused me to go with you.”
He does not tell them that he has been instructed not to curse the people, nor has he told them that the Israelites are blessed.
He simply says he is not allowed to go with them.
When Balak receives the message from Balaam, he assumes Balaam is stalling for more money.
This prompts him to send another envoy to Balaam, this time more honourable and numerous than the first.
It was commonly held that pagan prophets could bend the will of their god, thus Balaam must simply be refusing on principle.
He promises Balaam, “I will give you great honour, whatever you say, I will do.”
Balaam answered his envoy, “If Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go against the word of Yahweh.”
And so he inquires of the Lord again.
But he already knows the answer.
Yahweh told him not to curse the people.
Balaam is hoping that he will be able to change the will of God.
He is hoping that he could get permission to do what he wants to do.
He tells Balak's envoy to spend the night so he might see “what more the Lord will say to him.”
What more could God say?
He told him not to curse them, he told him that the people are blessed, he told him not to go.
Does God change his mind?
No, he doesn't.
What more, then, could he say?
Well, all Balaam wants is approval for a plan he has already put in place.
He wants to go to Balak.
All this pious talk is really a cover up for his true motives.
He mentions wages and rewards numerous times, and it is an attempt to get more.
The apostle Peter says that “Balaam son of Beor, loved the wages of wickedness.”
(2 Pt 2:15) Balaam loved the money that he got from his job as a sorcerer.
He knew that Balak would give him a large reward, and he wanted it.
He wanted it so badly he could taste it.
He has set his heart toward it.
Because he did that, because he wanted it that badly, God gave him over to the desires of his heart.
He allowed Balaam to go with the princes from Moab.
God allowed Balaam to go against his will.
*God instructs us not to sin, yet allows us to.
*
God allows us to go against his will too.
We heard from God's will earlier in the service.
We know what God's will for our lives is.
We know we are not supposed to set out hearts on anything other than God, yet all we seem to think about is money.
We know we are to keep the Sabbath day holy, yet all we can think about is the glistening snow outside.
We know we are to honour our father and mother, yet we do things which cause them pain and grief.
We know we are not supposed to murder, yet we sometimes wish people would die.
We know we are not supposed to commit adultery, yet we forget that whoever looks at another person lustfully has already committed adultery in their hearts.
We know we are not supposed to steal, and yet we rig a business deal so that we get more than our fair share.
We know we are not supposed to lie, yet often we do it because it is easier or because it will avoid embarrassment.
We know we are not supposed to covet, yet we want to have the best crop, or the best vehicle, or the best vacation, or the best ... you fill in the blank.
God has commanded us to follow these instructions, yet he also allows us to break them.
When we are younger our parents give us a list of rules to follow.
As we get older we begin to test the boundaries.
One of my friends in High School rang home some Saturday night to ask if he could go to a party.
He knew he was not supposed to stay out late on Saturday night because of church the next day.
His parents said, “No”.
He kept begging however, hoping they would change their minds.
Finally his Dad said, “Look, I can't stop you from going.
If you want to go so badly, then go.
You know we have said you cannot go, but if you chose to break the rules, we cannot stop you.”
So he went, thinking that was that.
As the night wore on, he began to feel really guilty, and he did not stay at the party long.
He still had to face the consequences when he got home.
He had made a decision to go against the will of his parents, and he had disappointed them.
He never told me what his punishment was, but he was never really the same after that weekend.
Well, God does the same thing my friend's parents did.
He gives our wills over to the desires of the flesh, and in so doing we bring upon ourselves our punishment, and we disappoint our father in heaven who has given everything so that we could be his.
He has expressed his will to us, but he does not force us to follow it.
*God opposes him in the road to make his warning clear.*
God did not force Balaam to follow his will either.
He did not force him to stay in Pethor, but allows him to go with the envoy.
“You can go,” he says.
“But do only what I tell you to do.”
That is like my friend's parents saying, “I cannot stop you from going, but I have told you not to.”
So Balaam gets up in the morning, saddles his donkey and heads off down the road with two of his servants, going against God's command, and making him angry.
It is a pleasantly cool morning, a good time to be travelling.
Balam is calmly riding his donkey down the path, when suddenly she bolts off the path into the neighbouring field, taking off at a run.
He does all he can to hold on to her, and is extremely angry.
He gets off her back and he begins to kick her mercilessly.
He beats her to turn her back into the road, swearing all the while.
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