The Prophet Jeremiah Part 18

I have to warn everybody, you know, so it'll be a slightly shorter Sunday school and Bruce Burns is in the house.

So with that anything could happen Yeah But we do have a tendency when

Rachel went when Bruce is around that we could end up off in the weeds even faster than if I just do it myself, so Right, okay, that's right.

Okay. So let me see here. I think I got the everything good Let's pray and we'll get started Lord Jesus again as we open up your word and we consider what was revealed to the

Prophet Jeremiah and it's tie -ins with the the state of the church even today as We are buffeted by the deceptions of the devil and those who follow after their own hearts

We ask that you would fence us in with your word convict us of our sin our unbelief the different ways in which we have participated and believed these false doctrines and Prophecies and that we would bear fruit in keeping with repentance by seeking only your pure word.

We ask in Jesus name. Amen Okay, so last time we were in the the book of Jeremiah I'm family put this over on this part over here

There we go, and I probably should have the participants just right over there. I again

I hate zooms free -flowing Floating windows, it would be easier if everything were connected and just like in a drawer you hit one button

I would pop out that alas, you know, I will continue to complain to no avail

So when we last left off we looked at the very first portion of Jeremiah chapter 23 as it related to God speaking against the

The shepherds who care for themselves That's That's one of the things that you see in apostasy.

Jude has that same type of language when he talks about waterless rain clouds and Fruitless trees in autumn.

What good is it? What is it good as a fruit tree if it doesn't have fruit on it in autumn? Right, you know waterless rain clouds fruitless trees in a you know, and so the shepherds who feed only themselves

Used The false prophets and this still applies today what

I find fascinating is that in my Public salvos

Given and received by dr. Michael Brown Michael Brown refuses to believe that somehow passages like this in Ezekiel 13 and Deuteronomy 18 have any bearing on anybody who claims to be a prophet today

So, you know the claim by the the current NAR Pentecostals and charismatics is that That Prophets are allowed to make errors

They are allowed to make errors and that and that in the New Testament The New Testament prophecy is not of the same quality as Old Testament prophecy and the reason given specifically by Michael Brown is he says that the the survival of an of the nation of Israel isn't

Dependent upon 100 % accuracy anymore. Therefore. We don't need 100 % accurate prophecy

And I would note this I have in my records and I've talked about it on my podcast in the past Noted that dr.

Michael Brown himself has given false prophecies Prophecies that have not come true, especially as it relates to a group of people who are believers in Israel And the prophecy that he gave was regarding somebody who had become deathly ill and he prophesied that the person would recover from that illness and the fellow died and the only thing he could say is that he misheard the

Lord and And that he most likely mistook his desires for the voice of God How does one do that?

How does one? Mistake the voice of their there's their desires and their opinions for the voice of God when

God is talking You'll note that people normally pay very close attention and they know exactly who is talking to them and so It's kind of a primer on this.

I One of my favorite stories along these lines is the story of Balaam. Yeah, you guys familiar with Balaam All right this this is super helpful because one of the things we know about Balaam is that he was he was a prophet for profit and Balaam was a guy who lost a lot of money as a result of God the actual

God Connecting to him and talking to him and at no point is this man a true believer in Yahweh in fact the aftermath of all of this is that he did ultimately get his revenge on Yahweh and Helped these people get their

Get their curse on Israel and we'll talk about how that happened. All right, so in Numbers chapter 22

Let's take a look at that And you know, we'll note what's going on here.

And the reason for this is to demonstrate Nobody needs practice Balaam did not have a prophetic activation from Patricia King nor did he have a prophetic activation?

I mean the people in the NAR or anything that he had never been in a prophecy school He did not have to sit in the lotus position and go home

In order to learn how to hear the still small voice or anything like that. This guy is as wicked as they get

He didn't even spend three tons on 9 .95 Right, right. So and he's the guy who's making money like his false prophets

So the people of Israel, they set out and camped on the plains of Moab Beyond the

Jordan and Jericho Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the

Amorites and Moab was in great dread of the people because they they were many Moab was

Overcome with the fear of the people of Israel and Moab said to the elders of Midian This horde will now lick up all that is around us as the ox licks up the grass of the field

So Balak the son of Zippor who was king of Moab at that time sent messengers to Balaam the son of Baor at Pethor which is near the river in the land of the people of Ammah To call him saying behold a people has come out of Egypt They cover the face of the earth and they are dwelling opposite me

Come now curse this people for me since they are too mighty for me Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them

From the land for I know that he whom you bless is blessed and he whom you curse is cursed

So Balaam has been summoned. He will be offered money for the purpose of cursing

Israel All right Sounds like a real godly thing to do, right?

I'm speaking facetiously, right? So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination

Our believers allowed to practice divination This is strictly forbidden

Deuteronomy 18 comes into play and you'll note, you know So sorcery divination talking to the dead fortune -telling all of this stuff is straight out.

So we know from this guy's From His Vocation it's not even right.

That's a that's the wrong word. We know from his job and What he's getting paid for this guy is as wicked as they get

So they came to Balaam and gave him Balak's message and he said to them watch And We know this from the ancient prophets these soothsayers of the past there was a lot of flim flam a lot of theatrics and So one has to wonder, you know, because did he really talk with different deities and stuff like this or did he you know?

Pick up the phone and pretend to talk, you know, it's like hey, yeah. Yeah, this is Balaam. How you doing, dude?

Yeah, it's been a while since we talked It's we'll have to wonder right by the way, this is not a phone it's a remote control

I shouldn't be talking to this thing. You guys can get me locked up for that. Okay so the princes of Moab And God came to Balaam and said so know what happens here

When you hear in the prophets and the word of Yahweh the word of the

Lord came to the Prophet Isaiah We know from John chapter 1 verse 1.

Jesus is the word. So the the Dabar Elohim or the

Dabar Yahweh the Word of God when it shows up It doesn't show up in any

Mistakable form you'll note. He wasn't, you know sitting in the Lotus position trying to hear

God God came to Balaam Came right to him and God said to him who are these men with you?

That's not a safe question All right God's in charge here Balaam is accountable to God and God makes that very clear from right out of the gate

Who are these men with you and Balaam said to God? Balaam the son of Zippor the king of Moab has sent me saying behold the people has come out of Egypt It covers the face of the earth now come curse them for me

Perhaps I'll be able to fight against them and drive them out God said to Balaam you shall not go with them.

You shall not curse the people. They are blessed So Balaam rose in the morning

He said to the princes of Balaam Go to your own Well he's false prophesying even then

Yeah Because the Lord declares his blessed status Of Israel And Balaam withholds the truth the

Lord gave him Yeah From the people who had heeded it Might not have become toast a couple chapters later

Yeah So Bruce has rightly pointed out That his explanation that he gives to Balaam Entourage Is that He's not speaking the truth

God has basically stated The blessing The blessed state of Israel And by the way

This applies to all of us who are in Israel If you are a Christian you are congratulated in Israel We are blessed

We are not cursed So he doesn't give a straight answer And so The princes of Moab They rose and went to Balaam And said

Balaam refuses to come with us So once again Balaam Sent princes more in number and more honorable than these

So Balaam at this point Is interpreting Balaam's Behavior as He wasn't impressed with the entourage

He wasn't impressed with The amount of money And that he's engaging in a negotiation tactic

Have you noticed That people in the Middle East have this amazing Ability to negotiate

Okay It is a sport In certain places

You know It's unbelievable You know So if you are traveling in the

Middle East I've seen this done on a travel channel In places like this And you find a really nice oriental rug

That you want to purchase from somebody And they say this is a $500 rug Don't give them the $500

You say something to your head I'll give you $100 for it I mean what a horrible ugly color

And you kind of talk it down And then they say $100 you're insulting me

You're insulting me I couldn't even begin to part with this For less than $450 And the negotiations on So they think that this is

Balaam thinks that's what's going on He wasn't impressed with the first group So let's up the kitty a little bit here

So they came to Balaam and said Thus is Balaam the son of Zipporah Let nothing hinder you from coming to me

I will surely do you great honor And whatever you say to me

I will do Come curse this people for me Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balaam Though Balaam were to give me

His house full of silver and gold I could not go Beyond the command of Yahweh My God to do less or to do more

And one has to wonder If he's saying this under duress This is Even the devil recognizes that Yahweh is his

God Well he's lying He's already denied that himself He's posing in public

Like a Pharisee Far be it from me to do anything But what the

Lord commands To be more money He puts on pious pretenses here

But he's not a believer In Yahweh at all And you can see this in the result of the story So you two

Please stay here tonight I may know what more Yahweh will say to you So God came to Balaam that night and said to him

If the men have come to call you Rise and go with them But only do what

I tell you So Balaam rose in the morning Saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab Now I'm going to note something here

Is there any Evidence of any true prophet of God A real believer in Yahweh Having to have this kind of fence

Put around them when they give a prophecy No Not at all

True believers Those who fear God When given a real prophecy by God Never have to be told

Do not go beyond what I say You will do what I tell you to do You will say what I tell you to say

Balaam is doing this Against his will He's being compelled You'll note that his free will doesn't seem to Be Be along for the ride

Willingly So God's anger was kindled because he went And the angel of Yahweh Took his stand in the way

As his adversary Yes sir Singular, Jesus Which is the singular?

The angel of the Lord He's got the title Okay yeah Alright That is

Jesus Yeah The Moab, Yahweh, the angel of Yahweh Right Singular, angel

This is Jesus standing Jesus makes appearances All over the Old Testament So he took his stand

As his adversary He was riding on the donkey And two servants were with him

And the donkey saw the angel of Yahweh Standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand Uh oh

There goes precious moments Jesus again Okay He's not even concealed carrying

This is open carry of a deadly weapon So the donkey turned aside Out of the road, went into the field

Smart donkey Right Balaam struck the donkey

To turn her into the road Then the angel of Yahweh Stood in a narrow path

Between the vineyards With a wall on either side When the donkey saw the angel of Yahweh She pushed against the wall

And pressed Balaam's foot against the wall So he struck her again Then the angel of Yahweh Went ahead and stood in a narrow place

Where there was no way to turn Either to the right Or to the left

When the donkey saw the angel of Yahweh She lay down under Balaam And Balaam's anger was kindled And he struck the donkey with his staff

Then Yahweh opened the mouth of the donkey And she said to Balaam What have I done to you that you have struck me

These three times What follows is one of the most bizarre Things in all of the

Bible Okay Because what Balaam should have done is Wait when did you start talking

Okay Without even pausing He answers Balaam said to the donkey

Well because you've made a fool of me And I wish I had a sword in my hand For then I would kill you

He still doesn't realize he's talking to a donkey The donkey said to Balaam Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden

All of your life to this day Because it might happen to treat you this way And he said No Okay this is quite the conversation

The donkey is the smarter of the two Yeah more faithful too The donkey was at least

Considered worthy enough to see Christ Right So then Yahweh opened the eyes of Balaam He saw the angel of Yahweh Standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand

And he bowed down And fell on his face Okay He didn't politely go

Oh lord nice to see you He immediately Knees on the ground Boom face down He knows he's in trouble

And the angel of Yahweh said to him Why have you struck the donkey these three times Behold I've come out to oppose you

Because your way is perverse before me Well that just hurt his self esteem

His feefees are hurt after this right Believe me when I tell you He's going to bear a grudge for this

He's not going to repent And he's not going to consider the kindness of God That Christ didn't strike him down on the spot

His feelings are hurt He's going to feel like he's been Outed a lot of money and honor

And he's going to get his revenge Okay Yes I think some of the

Details are similar Although we don't know if Paul Was actually riding a donkey Okay Maybe not it doesn't say

Some people say God knocked him off his high horse And a horse is mentioned But you'll note that there is some parallel here

The difference is that Paul is legitimately Called to be an apostle of Christ And is brought to repentance

Balaam No no Okay so I can point this out One of the things that you hear in the

Pentecostal movement Is that Christians Must perform

Signs and wonders It is a necessary part Of evangelism because people need to see

The power of God Demonstrated and when they see The power of God demonstrated

They will realize that there is a God in heaven And they'll come to believe in Jesus This is

Discounting God's actual example of His power Which when Moses asks to see His glory takes him up the mountain and says

Here's my glory Punishing evildoers and forgiving sinners Not the glory that God chooses

But the special effects budget that they want Right exactly I would note that the people who talk this way

About signs and wonders They're idolaters They're idolaters of God's power

You guys remember Mickey Mouse and the Sorcerer's Apprentice Okay There's a reason why that is a classic

There's a reason why we can kind of Actually resonate with the theme in that Particular little short

That was from the Pantasian movie The original Pantasian There's Mickey Mouse and he's the He's not even the youngest but he's the water boy

Or real lizard right And he steals the guy's hat And then begins to operate in his power

And everything goes bonkers But the reason why that is happening Is because within us

There is an idolatry We desire to be God That was the original

Temptation of the devil When you eat of the fruit of the tree You will be like God Knowing good and evil

And we want to have that God's powers But we don't want God to be the one

Operating within We want to kind of steal That's kind of how the Satan works In all of his evilness

And so as a result of this You're going to note here God himself Jesus appeared

To Balaam Did this guy repent Not on your

Life And here's the other bit

You're going to see this in a minute He legitimately gives a prophecy Regarding Christ In fact

That's kind of the undertone of all the actual Words that God gives him to speak It's really interesting

All right All right Let's see

Behold Your way is reversed before me The donkey saw me and turned aside before me These three times.

If she did not turn aside For me, surely just now I would have killed you and I would have let her live

Your donkey Is holier than you alone Okay, so Balaam said to the Angel of God, I've sinned

I did not know that you stood there in the road Against me. Now therefore If it's evil in your sight, I will turn back

Notice he didn't ask for forgiveness So the angel of Yahweh Said to Balaam, go with the men

But speak only the word that I tell you. So Balaam went with the Princess of Balaam. And Balaam heard that Balaam Had come.

He went out to meet him At the city of Moab On the border formed by the Arnon At the extremity of the border

And Balaam said to Balaam Did I not send to you to call you? Why did you not come to me?

Am I not able to honor you? Balaam said to Balaam Behold, I have come

To you. I am now Have I any power of my own To speak anything? The word that God Puts in my mouth, that must

I speak And Balaam went with Balaam And they came to Kiriath -Uzzah And Balaam sacrificed

Oxen and sheep and sent for Balaam And the princess who were with him And in the morning Balaam Took Balaam And brought him up to Baal And from there he saw a fraction of the people

Balaam said to Balaam Build for me Here seven altars Prepare for me here seven bulls

Seven rams Balaam did as Balaam had said And Balaam offered on each altar

A bull and a ram And Balaam said to Balaam Stand beside your burnt offering And I will go Perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me

And whatever he shows me I will tell you And he went to a fair height

And God met Balaam And Balaam said to him I have arranged the seven altars

I have offered on each altar A bull and a ram And Yahweh put a word in Balaam's mouth

And he said Return to Balaam And thus you shall speak And he returned to him

And behold he and all the princes of Moab Were standing beside his burnt offering Balaam took up his discourse

And he said From around Balaam has brought me The king of Moab From the eastern mountains

Come curse Jacob for me And come denounce Israel So God not only gives him the word

Gives it to him in Hebraic verse But how can

I curse Whom God has not cursed How can I denounce Whom Yahweh has not denounced

Far from the top of the crags I see him From the hills

I behold him Who Who Who's him

I'll give you one guess It's Jesus Right I see him

I behold him Behold a people dwelling alone Not counting itself among the nations Who can count the dust of Jacob Or number the fourth part of Israel Let me die the death of the upright

And let my end be like his And then Balak said What have you done to me

I took you to curse my enemy And behold you have done nothing but bless them And he answered and said

Must I not take care to speak What Yahweh puts in my mouth And Balaam here is saying this

Legitimately under duress With the edge of the sword of the angel of the

Lord Up against his neck Okay Did he give a true prophecy here

Yeah And you're gonna note something This is the interesting bit When you consider the end of Balaam And when you consider his end

The fact that The children of Israel Collected up these words

Hang on a second here I just got kicked off Alright so let me explain what happened

We lost internet here at the Kongsvinger So Let me There we go

Alright so I'm back I'm on my cell phone's hot spot Because we lost the internet here at Kongsvinger Let me share my screen

And We'll see how this rolls here Okay So the point

I was making before We got so rudely interrupted by the Internet crashing Is that Balaam He dies

A horrible death And the children of Israel Despite how wicked this man was

They took They got these words That Christ put Into his mouth

And they wrote them into the scriptures The source was

Yahweh The instrument was Somebody who was perverse But the words

Were true And it was a true prophecy And it got written into scripture It's crazy when you think about it

But if it worked that way Then God would be able to faithfully Speak through some misogynist

Like Paul and women couldn't be pastors Did y 'all hear him?

But if it worked that way Then God would be able to speak Through some terrible misogynist

Like Saint Paul and women Couldn't be pastors Yeah I would invoke the 8th commandment in Paul's defense

Here Those who claim that Paul was a misogynist They are breaking the 8th commandment

And slandering him But you're right, even if he was a misogynist Which he wasn't That the

Lord spoke faithfully through him Note the faithfulness of God Is not dependent upon The faithfulness of the person he chooses

To speak through And that's kind of the point This Stands out

Because the words that Balaam Spoke were put Into the scripture

Despite the unworthiness And the perversity Of the person giving the prophecy

Important for us to keep that in mind So Balak said to him Please come with me to another place

From which you may see them You shall see only a fraction of them And you shall not see them all

Then curse them for me For me from there This kind of reminds me of Dr.

Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham You know Do you like green eggs and ham? I do not like them,

Sam, I am Would you eat them in a box? Would you eat them with a fox? Not in a box, not with a fox

I will not eat them here or there I will not eat them anywhere That's kind of what's going on here

He's asking, you won't curse him from there Let's go over here, you can curse him from there So he took him to the field of Zophim To the top of Pisgah And built seven altars

Offered a bull and a ram on each altar Balaam said to Balaam Stand here beside your burnt offering

While I meet with Yahweh over there And Yahweh met Balaam Put a word in his mouth and said

Return to Balaam And thus shall you speak And he came to him and behold

He was standing beside his burnt offering And the princes of Moab with him And Balaam said to him

What has Yahweh spoken? Balaam took up his discourse Rise, Balaam And here, give ear to me

O son of Zippor God is not a man that he should lie Nor a son of man

That he should change his mind Has he said And will he not do it?

Or has he spoken And he will not fulfill it? Now note here that Yahweh Is speaking directly

To Balaam Through Balaam And letting him know who

God is And what he is like And you'll note, if you ever hear somebody say Ask the question

Can God lie? Not on your life What's the biblical proof?

Well it says in Numbers In the book of Numbers In chapter 23

That God is not a man That he should lie or a son of man That he should change his mind Who was the person who spoke that prophecy?

Balaam And you'll note That's quoted in the New Testament It's quoted in the

New Testament By the apostles Okay God is not a man that he should lie

Or a son of man that he should change his mind Has he said and will he not do it? Has he spoken and will not fulfill it?

Behold, I received a command to bless He has blessed I cannot revoke it

He has not beheld misfortune In Jacob nor has he seen trouble in Israel Yahweh their

God is with them And the shout of a king Is among them Who's that?

It's Jesus again Great messianic prophecy Beautiful description by the shout of a king

Right So God brings them out of Egypt It is for them Like the horns of the wild ox

For there is no enchantment against Jacob No divination against Israel And this applies to all who are in Christ So when you hear somebody in the charismatic movement

Say, you know, we need to do some Deliverance ministry over you Because we need to do some We need to break some generational curses and stuff

If you're in Christ You are blessed, you are not cursed Christ has broken every one of those

Curses You are in Israel And you are blessed

There is no divination or sorcery That can work against Christ Alright There is no enchantment against Jacob No divination against Israel Now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel What has

God wrought? Oh, salvation by grace through faith It's right there Behold a people

As a lioness it rises up And as a lion it lifts itself It does not lie down until it has devoured the prey

And drunk the blood of the slain Yeah Right So Balak Now he's a little agitated at this point

Do not curse them at all Don't bless them at all It's not what

I paid you for But Balaam answered Balak Did I not tell you All that Yahweh says

That I must do And Balak said to Balam Come now I will take you to another place

Perhaps it will please God That you may curse them for me from there

So Balak took Balam To the top of Peor Which overlooks the desert And Balam said to Balak Build for me here seven altars

Prepare for me seven bulls, seven rams And Balak did as Balam had said Offered a bull and a ram on each altar

And then when Balam saw That it pleased Yahweh to bless Israel He did not go as to the other times

To look for omens But he set his face toward the wilderness And Balam lifted up his eyes

And he saw Israel Camping tribe by tribe And the Spirit of God came upon him

And he took up his discourse Note, the Holy Spirit now inspires Balam to prophesy directly

And you're going to note Watch what happens next Balam did not say I feel the

Lord is telling me For this season That he's going to raise up A bunch of suddenlies And that you know

No prophesy bingo buzzwords At all The oracle of Balam, the son of Beor The oracle of a man whose eye is open

The oracle of him who hears The words of God, who sees The vision of the Almighty falling down With his eyes uncovered

How lovely are your tents, O Jacob Your encampments, O Israel Like palm groves

That stretch afar, like gardens Beside a river, like aloes That Yahweh has planted, like cedar trees

Beside the waters Water shall flow from his buckets And his seed shall be in many waters

His king shall be higher than Agag And his kingdom shall be exalted God brings him out of Egypt It is for him

Like the horns of the wild ox He shall eat up the nations His adversaries He shall break their bones in pieces

And pierce them through with his arrows He crouched, he lay down Like a lion and like a lioness

Who will rouse him Blessed are those who bless you And cursed are those who cursed you Here we go again, another messianic prophecy

And the implication is actually quite simple Not only is

Israel blessed And cannot be cursed But even more than that They have one among them

Who is the king of kings And nobody can conquer him

Right? And this is by virtue of the fact that Well, the lion of the tribe of Judah Right?

He's in the loins of the successor To the messianic promise Now Balak's anger was kindled Against Balaam, he struck his hands together

Right? And Balak said to Balaam I called you to curse my enemies And bold you've blessed them these three times

Therefore now flee to your own place I said I will certainly honor you But Yahweh has held you back from honor

Those words will hit It's true Okay Now prophets

Do you think that they are happy When their bottom line is impacted negatively? No And you'll see this in his actions that follow

So Balaam said to Balak Did I tell your messengers whom you sent to me If Balak should give me his house

Full of silver and gold I would not be able to go beyond the word of Yahweh To do either good or bad of my own

What will Yahweh What Yahweh speaks That will I speak And now behold

I am going to my people Come I will let you know what this people will do To your people in the latter days

And then he took up his discourse And said the oracle of Balaam The son of Beor The oracle of the man whose eye is opened

The oracle of him who hears the words of God And knows the knowledge of the Most High Who sees the vision of the

Almighty Falling down with his eyes uncovered I see him

But not now I behold him But not near A star

Shall come up out of Jacob A scepter shall rise Out of Israel It shall crush the forehead of Moab Break down all the sons of Sheth Edom shall be dispossessed

Seir also His enemies shall be dispossessed Israel is doing valiantly

And the one from Jacob Shall exercise dominion And destroy the survivors of cities

And then he took on He looked on Amalek And he took up his discourse And said Amalek was the first among the nations

But its end is utter destruction And he looked at the Kenite And took up his discourse

And said enduring is your dwelling place And your nest is set in the rock Nevertheless Cain shall be burned

When Asher takes you away captive And he took up his discourse And said alas who shall live

When God does this But ships shall come from Katim And shall afflict Asher and Eber And he too shall come to utter destruction

And I would note the ships of Katim Are mentioned also in Daniel In reference to the

Antichrist It's kind of an interesting thing A little eschatological thing there Then Balaam rose and went back to his place

And Balak also Went his way So what happens to Balaam?

Balaam immediately after this Gets his revenge And this is

The incident While Israel lived in Shittim The people began to whore with the daughters of Moab These invited the people

To the sacrifices of their gods And the peoples ate and bowed down To their gods So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor And the anger of Yahweh Was kindled against Israel And Yahweh said to Moses Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them

Bruce was it you Who described this as kind of like Sexual warfare or something to that effect?

And if you're not sure How we get that Let me just do a quick word search So what happened is

Immediately after this Moab sent all the hot chicks

Into the camp of Israel And they found the young Single or even the married guys

And they went hey there Hey there Mr. Israelite You're looking pretty cute there

Would you like to come over to my place? Know what I mean? And we can have a little barbecue for Baal And maybe you and I can

Do some Netflix and chill You know? That's what Baal worship was

It wasn't a clothing optional church It was a clothing not allowed church Clothing Yeah the worship of all clothing not allowed church

Okay that's Yeah I get what you're saying So and here's the thing Where did they learn to do this?

Okay why all of a sudden is that the case? And if you were to do a word search For Balaam in the

Old Testament Let's see In fact why don't I just do it all text There we go So let me fast forward here

Because in the later parts of Scripture It explains where Moab Got this idea from Alright let's see here 23

Pass this Scroll in So here's the end of him

By the way Balaam His demise is listed in Numbers 31

Let's talk about his death real quick They killed the kings of Midian With the rest of their slain

Ive, Rechem, Zer, Hur, Reba The five kings of Midian They also killed

Balaam The son of Beor with a sword So he was killed later by the Israelites Okay And Joshua Mentions him

It also says Balaam the son of Beor The one who practiced divination Was killed with a sword

But we also learned that Let's see here He was the one who taught

Israel So Let's see here Where does it say he taught

Israel to do that? Looking off the top of my head That's New Testament Is it really in the

New Testament? Yeah here it is It's Jesus In Revelation 2

So Christ is having a letter Sent to one of the churches To the church at Pergamon The angel of the church at Pergamon That's your pastor

The words of him who has the sharp two -edged sword That's kind of appropriate Because the sword

The sword that he was holding involves Balaam's neck So you're going to do what

I tell you to do You're going to say what I want you to say You and my sword have a little conversation

Christ says I know where you dwell Where Satan's throne is Yet you hold fast to my name

And you did not deny my faith Even in the days of Antipas My faithful witness who was killed Among you where Satan dwells

But I have a few things against you You have some there who hold to the teachings of Balaam Who taught

Balak To put a stumbling block Before the sons of Israel So that they might eat food

Sacrifice to idols and practice sexual immorality There's the rest of the story

So Balaam gets his revenge And it happens the exact next chapter In come the weaponized

Hot chicks For the purpose of sexual immorality The fembots

The fembot army of Moab Comes in That might be a little too far

I have to work on my metaphors But they come in And they sacrifice

To Baal They have sex with these women And a whole lot of them

Were killed that day In other words Balaam basically said There's no way you're going to get

God to curse them You're going to have to cause them to stumble And to break his commandments And so that's

That whole thing was his doing But all of this to say And this is a little bit of ground work

For the next section in chapter 23 The words of the false prophets

Of Jeremiah's time With just A tiny few exceptions

None of them get recorded in scripture The ones that do get recorded In scripture

They get contradicted by God And the person

Who gave those false prophecies They were punished severely And the justice that God meted out

Against those false prophets Often times was directly Related to the false prophecy

That they gave One false prophet said God says we will not go into captivity

Nebuchadnezzar will turn away God basically says to that false prophet You're going into captivity

You're going to be led there by a hook in your nose Yeah Little tangent, but Balak In this passage

So in the Exodus Which has recently happened You know Yahweh waffle stomps his way

Up the Egyptian pantheon And this happens Again here

Because the Baals were regional deities And So they're not just random mountains

They're not just places with a view These are the high places of Baal High places of specific Baalim It was not just a

Baal There was a Baal for this hill and a Baal for this hill You know Everywhere they would get a rise

And it ends with Baal Peor Who Is a thorn in Israel's foot

For Almost a thousand years After this He's like the top

Of the Baals in the region So Balak He's trying to level up the

Baal Which Baal he can attack With power and curse Absolutely I think that's one reason for the repetition

God doesn't change He waffle stomps his way Through the

Palestinian Or through the Canaanite Pantheon too That's a good point

God always demonstrates that he exists And he answers prayer and he's The one who has power and these other deities

They don't even exist So there's A little bit of legwork before we get into Jeremiah 23

About the false prophets next week But the idea here is Is that the children of Israel Despite the fact they killed

Balaam rightly so And he's the one who taught Balak To put a stumbling block before them

At Baal Peor Eating food sacrifice to idols and practicing Sexual immorality Yet Balaam's words that God gave him

Were collected up and put into the book of Numbers And they are true So consider that as we get to Next week

Peace to you brothers and sisters Lord willing we will see you next time And hopefully our internet will be more stable