The Prophet Jeremiah Part 18
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Transcript
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