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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/norman-crawford/egypt-to-canaan-9-numbers-15-26/
I'd like to read tonight in Numbers chapter 23 with you. Numbers chapter 23, verse 5 of Numbers 23. The Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, Return unto Balak, that's the king of Moab, and thus shalt thou speak.
And he returned unto him, and lo, he stood by his burnt sacrifice, he and all the princes of Moab. And he took up his parable and said, Balak, the king of Moab, hath brought me from Amram out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me, Jacob, and come, defy Israel.
How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him. Lo, the people shall dwell alone, or rather it is a people that shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.
Who can count the dust of Jacob and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his. Now verse 18, this is a second prophecy. And he took up his parable, false prophet, who spoke words of truth.
He took up his parable and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear, hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor. God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it?
Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Behold, I have received commandment to bless, and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it. That's a good thing to know about what God has said. No man can reverse it.
He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. God brought them out of Egypt. He hath, as it were, the strength of the unicorn, and so on.
Chapter 24, please. And when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went not as at other times, or as at the other times, to seek for enchantments. But he set his face toward the wilderness, and Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents.
I want you to notice this expression because this is characteristic of the book of Numbers. He saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes. That's the divine order seen in the camp of Israel.
And the Spirit of God came upon him. And he took up his parable and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said, he hath said which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open.
How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel, as the valleys are spread forth, as gardens by the riverside, as the trees of Lin-Alos, which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters.
He took up his parable and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said, he hath said which heard the words of God, and saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open.
I shall see him, but not now. I shall behold him, but not nigh. Who? There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. And when Balaam says, I shall see him, I shall behold him, he's referring to this future ruler who will rise up out of Jacob and come out of Israel.
And this ruler shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Sheol. And Edom shall be a possession. Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies. And Israel shall do valiantly. I find this to be a very stirring portion of the word of God.
We've read of the four prophecies of Balaam the false prophet. And if you look over on this, on your right-hand side of the chart, you'll notice that you have the three things that are spoken in the New Testament about this man, Balaam.
First of all, his error. And then the next thing that the New Testament has to speak about is his way, 2 Peter 2, verse 15. And finally in Revelation 2, verse 4, Balaam's doctrine. Now we have read of four views that he had of Israel.
He first of all saw them as a separated people. And then he saw them as a justified people. And then he saw them as a people whom God had blessed. And then he saw them as a waiting people. Now that should be our subject tonight.
And I would like to get to it just as quickly as possible. But before we do get to it, we have to pick up some threads and follow something of the journeyings of these people. Because last night we left them, you remember, here at Kadesh Barnea, that day of provocation when they should have gone into the land and possessed it.
And Israel believed the evil report of the ten spies. And they refused to obey the word of God. And they turned back in unbelief. And from that day onward in Holy Scripture, that is marked as the day of provocation, the day when Israel tested God.
And God said they would wander for 38 years until all that generation had perished. And there was not a man left alive who had come out of the land of Egypt as a man of war at his 20 years old and upward, that every one of them would die in that waste howling desert.
And only Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun, would live to go into the land of Canaan. Now, the book of Numbers is a book of service. I think you remember that as we've been going through these subjects in the church, we have pointed out that in the book of Genesis you have a book of beginnings.
You have man ruined. Of course, the book of Exodus is man redeemed. The book of Leviticus is man worshiping, God's people, that is, saints, believers. When you get to the book of Numbers, you have the pilgrimage of the people of God.
You have the journeyings and the wanderings in the wilderness. But the book of Numbers is very particularly a book of service. And more than that, it's divine order in service. And God is not the author of confusion.
You remember that Paul wrote to the Corinthians, and I would expect that the God of order would have order among his earthly people. And I expect today that that same God of order has order among his heavenly people who are still here on earth.
And of course, the order is given to us in the New Testament very, very clearly. There's many a lesson to learn from the divine order that is seen in the book of Numbers. When the children of Israel camped, there was order in their encampment.
Chapter 1 and chapter 2 of the book of Numbers have to do with the order of the camp of Israel. That may not be of great interest to you, but I hope before we go much further, I hope it will stir some interest in your heart.
Because I link it with what we read tonight in Numbers chapter 23 or 24. It says that this man Balaam, the third time that he prophesied about Israel, it tells us that he saw Israel abiding in their tents according to their tribes.
And this is the first time that it says the Spirit of God came upon him. The other times he sought for enchantments using the means of an idolatrous worshiper. But finally he forgot all about his so-called charms and enchantments, and he turned his face toward the wilderness, and the Spirit of God came upon him.
What caused such a stir in the heart of Balaam? He looked down from the mountaintop, and he saw the camp of Israel. And it tells us in chapter 23 and verse 10 that even if he saw the fourth part of the camp, if he only saw a quarter of the camp of Israel, he saw divine order there.
He saw the imprint of the divine hand, and his heart was stirred. And he says, How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel. And he describes the tents of Israel being like the lim-allowed trees for order, for arrangement.
It was the divine arrangement. All right, now seeing we've given such an introduction to it, what's so important about it? Well, there is something important. The Bible tells us that the camp of Israel was divided into four parts.
They encamped around this tabernacle in the wilderness, and they encamped according to the divine order that God had given. Now, I haven't tried any of these nights to tell you that I don't have any notes in my Bible.
I'm not one of these kind of men that shake out his Bible and say there are no notes in here. Mind you, I have a wide-margin Bible, and I can put them in the margin. But I don't do that for the simple reason that I might not want them there next year, and I might still be using the same Bible.
And this is one thing that to keep it in my mind, it's absolutely necessary to put it down. And I suggest to you that when you go home and you have opportunity to look in your Bible, you will find in Numbers chapter 1 and chapter 2 the exact arrangement of the camp of Israel.
And I suggest to you that you put some note down about it to help to keep it lodged in your mind, because it is of the greatest importance. Now, as they camped around the tabernacle in the wilderness, right in front of the door of the tabernacle—that is, the door of the court—was the tribe of Judah.
Of course, immediately in front of the door, Moses and Aaron and Aaron's sons had their tents pitched. Immediately at the east end of the court of the tabernacle, at the very gate of the court, Moses, Aaron, and his sons had their tents pitched right at the gate.
And just behind them, that would be on the east side of the tabernacle, would be the standard of the camp of Judah. On either side of the standard of the camp of Judah would be Zebulun and Issachar. That would be on the east side of the tabernacle.
On the north side of the tabernacle were the Morarites and the three tribes, Asher, Dan, and Naphtali. So the three tribes on the north side would be pitched under the standard of the camp of Dan. On the west side of the tabernacle was Ephraim in the middle, with the standard of the tribe of Ephraim, and on either side of Ephraim would be Benjamin and Manasseh.
And on the south side of the tabernacle would be the Kohathites. In the middle of that south side of the tabernacle would be the tribe of Reuben, with its standard, and on either side the tribe of Reuben, Simeon, and Gad.
Now, in the book of Revelation chapter 4, the apostle John sees the throne. He is lifted from earth to heaven, and he finds there's a throne filled in heaven. There might be a madman sitting upon the throne in imperial Rome, but there was a blessed man on heaven's throne.
And John sees him as the son of the right hand. He sees him as the Lord in all his glory, with a rainbow round about the throne in sight like unto an emerald, the stone of the tribe of Judah, the praise of heaven ringing loud in the ears of the Lamb upon the throne.
And John says, as he looked on that scene, he saw four living creatures about that throne. And he describes the living creatures like this. One of them had the face of a lion. The second one had the face of an ox.
The third one had the face of a man. And the fourth, the appearance of a flying eagle. Now, it's remarkable that what John saw at the throne of God was the very thing you would see when you looked at the camp of Israel, because Judah's standard was the lion.
And immediately in front of the tabernacle door was Judah with the lion on its banner. And what is the lion? It's the gospel of Matthew. It's the gospel of the king. And the tribe of Judah on the east side of the tabernacle, with a banner weaving above the camp, tells us of the kingly one who came from the heights of glory to a world of sin to be the man of sorrows and to be nailed in all his lordly dignity to an accursed Roman cross.
The north side of the camp was the standard of the camp of Dan. And of course, Dan tells us of the flying eagle. The standard of the camp of Dan was the eagle of John's gospel, the son of God from heaven, the one who came from the heights above.
And John, he said, he that is from above is of all. So you see, the camp of Dan is a picture of the gospel of John. On the west side of the camp was the standard of the camp of Ephraim. And on that standard was emblazoned the picture of a man.
So you have the gospel of Luke, the son of man who came to seek and to save that which was lost. And of course, on the south side, you have the standard of the camp of Reuben. And on Reuben's standard was an ox.
So you have the gospel of Mark. Those four creatures that are seen there in Revelation chapter 4 at the very throne of God that tell out the character and attributes of the one who sits upon heaven's throne, the very same thing was seen in the encampment of Israel.
The standard of Judah the lion, the gospel of Matthew. The standard of the camp of Reuben, the ox, the gospel of Mark. The standard of the camp of Ephraim, the man, the gospel of Luke. The standard of the camp of Dan, the eagle, the gospel of John.
Those four gospels that give testimony to Christ, that give us the fullness of the glories of the man who was here and who went to the lonely tree and took the guilty sinner's place. Did you know that the order there in the camp of Israel told of his glories?
No wonder the heart of unbelieving Balaam was stirred. No wonder when he looked on even the fourth part of the camp of Israel, he saw there the glory of the Lord. And no wonder he spoke such words of truth when he saw the order in the camp of Israel.
Now chapter 1 and 2 of Numbers tell us of the order in the camp. Chapter 9 and 10 tell us of the order on the march. And when Israel camped or when Israel marched, the Lord was in the midst. And if you were to take the order of the camp in the march in chapters 9 and 10 of Numbers, you would find that in the very front of the armies of Israel.
And it wasn't just some kind of a rabble mob moving through the desert. It must have been a delight to see two million of God's earthly people on the and perfect order, the divine plan, the divine order in it all.
And going out before the whole camp of Israel was the Gaidon, the standard of the tribe of Judah marching before the camp of Israel. And right in the middle of the camp were the Koobites, bearing the precious sacred vessels and furniture of the tabernacle.
And right in the very midst of all, the Ark of the Covenant, which told of the presence of God. In fact, that's the meaning of Psalm 80. Psalm 80 begins, Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock.
And listen, before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up thyself. Did you notice that? Before, in front of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. That was the order of the march. And immediately in front of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, as they marched through the wilderness, was the Ark of the Covenant.
The Lord was in the midst of his people. That's what gave the camp such order, the Lord in the midst. Just as in Revelation 4, the Lord is in the midst of the throne, so in the camp of Israel, the Lord was in the midst.
In the New Testament, there's an expression that's found so often. You read of it at Calvary, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst. You read it in John 20, twice over, in the upper room, on those morrows after the Sabbath, the first day of the week, and the disciples were assembled there for fear of the Jews with the doors shut.
Then came Jesus and stood in the midst. That expression, en meso, which is found so often in the New Testament, describes the preeminence of our blessed Lord. He has the preeminent place in the midst of his gathered people.
That's the meaning of Matthew 18 and 20, where two or three are, having been gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. So in the book of Numbers, you have the order. In chapter 3 and 4 of Numbers, you have another order.
In chapter 3, you have priestly service, and as you go on to read in chapter 3 and 4, you have Levitical service. I believe that priestly service comes before Levitical service. I believe in the divine order.
I said this the other night in the meeting, and it was right at the very end of the meeting, and I don't think I explained myself very well. Now look, if this is important in the book of Numbers, if this is the subject of the book, if it's order in service, and surely you must see that from what we've said about chapters 1 and 2 and 9 and 10, you must see that the divine order is here.
Well, chapter 3 and 4 describe order in service too. Priestly service comes before Levitical service, and I would expect that a brother who is exercised to preach the gospel would be exercised about priestly service first.
I would expect a man who's to engage in Levitical service, Levitical service would be gospel testimony, would be service toward men, whether teaching or gospel ministry or whatever it might be, it would be service toward men.
I would expect that he would observe the divine order, service toward God first. So brethren, I say this with, I believe, all the authority of the word of God behind it. I believe that those who are exercised in Levitical service will be those who are, first of all, exercised in priestly service.
Every believer is a man of war to fight. Every believer is a Levite to serve. Every believer is a priest to worship. But the order comes in the opposite way in the book of Numbers. It's priestly service first, Levitical service next, and it's the warfare afterwards.
What's the matter that so often there are those down here in the prayer meeting, before the gospel meeting at night, it does my heart good to hear 15 to 20 brethren raise their heart to God in prayer for the preaching of the gospel.
That's Levitical service, brethren. I know you're praying to God, and I know you're acting as an intercessor, but it actually has to do with service toward men. And I believe that there should be the same exercise when we come together to give God thanks for his son.
I only say this to encourage you. I hope that you're exercised to gather your basket of firstfruits through the week, and to come to the place that God has appointed where he has put his name. It's not a geographical location now.
It's a person where the Lord Jesus is, and to offer to him in priestly service the loveliness and the beauty and the glory of his son. Now, sisters are priests as well. They don't take part audibly, but their priestly service is most important.
In fact, I believe when God's people gather together, I either add spiritual weight, I either add spiritual character to the gathering, or I detract from it depending upon my spiritual state. That's why we should never come with unexamined hearts.
That's the truth of 1 Corinthians 11. That's quite a little way from the subject, but it's most practical and it's most necessary. In chapter 5 and 6 of Numbers, you have the purity of the people of God that's necessary because of what I've just been speaking of.
God was in the midst of the camp, and if the presence of God was there in the midst of the camp, he demands holiness from all them that are about him. The Lord is greatly to be feared in the assembly of his saints and behead in reverence.
This is the camp of Israel, mind you, the psalmist is speaking of. He's to behead in reverence of all them that are about him. Only two events took place in the 38 years of wandering. I hope I get to Balaam tonight, but in the 38 years of wandering, the only two events that are recorded in the word of God are the stoning of the Sabbath breaker, which of course tells us of the severity of the law, and the rebellion of Korodathan and Abiram, which tells us something of the rebellion that's in the natural heart.
So the 38 years of wandering are passed over in almost complete silence. 38 years wasted, 38 years lost. They were right on the border back into the wilderness, and during that time in Numbers 1, there's a numbering of Israel, and the number is given to us.
When you get to Numbers 26, there's a second counting of the men of war in the armies of Israel, and would you believe it, there are 1820 less. In 38 years, they never grew a bit. In fact, all the generation that were men of war that come out of Egypt, they all died.
Their carcasses were strewn along in the desert because of their disobedience. Disobedience is a very costly thing. Sin in the life of the believer is a very costly business. Don't ever forget it. A prophet Jeremiah said, know ye that it is an evil and a bitter thing to depart from the Lord thy God.
And Israel was to learn that lesson in 38 years of wandering, and it's a solemn warning to us at the judgment seat of Christ, brethren and sisters, there'll be much loss like those 38 years that are passed over in almost silence.
At the judgment seat of Christ, I'm afraid, there'll be a great deal of my life to go in for pleasing God. Some events that took place before we get to Balaam, and I'm going to go through them just as quickly as I possibly can.
The first thing, of course, was the retribution. I have put some titles on them to help me. The retribution that took place for the Sabbath breaker, and of course, that only shows us the fact that God is a God of holiness and truth and righteousness.
The next thing that you read about is the rebellion. That's in chapter 16 of the book of Numbers of Korah and his company. Here was a man who was a Koaphite. He was a man who was part of that Levitical family who carried the sacred furniture, the holy furniture of the tabernacle.
And he rose up in rebellion against Aaron and against Moses particularly. And he actually was attempting at least to start a new priestly order. And the glory of the Lord appeared before the camp of Israel.
And as the glory of the Lord appeared, God spoke. And of course, you know the result of it. Those men are called sinners against men. They sinned against Moses and against Aaron. They are called sinners against the Lord.
And they are called sinners against their own soul. And Korah and his company went down alive into the pit. And the 250 men who had joined with them as allies, they were burned when fire came out from God and destroyed them.
But here's a remarkable fact. There's always grace mingled with God's judgment. God mingles mercy with his wrath. And when Korah and his company perished, and all that pertained to them, Number 16 says, all that was theirs went down alive into the pit.
It tells us in Numbers chapter 26 in verse 11, nevertheless, or notwithstanding, the children of Korah perish not. I've heard men say that they didn't seem to think that the children of Korah perished.
Well, I don't think about it at all because that verse says it as clear as black and white can make it, that they did not. And that's why later on they became singers. And Psalm 84 is one of the Psalms for the sons of Korah.
And listen to what they said. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tent of wickedness. Where were the tents of wickedness? Their father Korah and Dathom and Abiram and those 250 who joined with them in that rebellion against God and against God's servants.
And God visited it with judgment. It's a solemn thing to rebel against God. You see that the evidence of God's presence was there, the evidence of divine order, and they rebelled against it. There are many today who rebel against the divine order.
There are men today who may be really children of God. And yet they try to take a place that God never gave to a man. They become a one-man minister. They try to start a new order of priesthood. And they refuse to recognize the fact that all God's people are priests.
So in the case of Korah, Dathom and Abiram, we learn the cost of rebellion. And the next thing that you read about is restoration. And this is very important. After 38 years of wandering here, they came back to Kadesh.
You know, you have to come back to the place where you got off the track. And that's exactly what happened in the history of this people. In chapter 20 and verse 1 of the book of Numbers, they come back to Kadesh.
And of course, that's made even more clear for us in Numbers chapter 33. It's told us very distinctly in the order of their wanderings that God in his tender mercy, after a whole generation had died here, God brought their sons and their daughters back again to the very place where they had first rebelled and got away from God.
I believe there must have been some bitter memories stirred when they came back to Kadesh, don't you think? They must have remembered the bitter cost of the rebellion 38 years before. God has brought them back and God has restored them.
On this chart, you'll notice that the wanderings are a type of a worldly believer. So these wanderings for 38 years are a picture of the worldly believer, who instead of being guided by the word of God and the spirit of God, wanders on himself away from God in heart and sooner or later away from God in life.
Thank God for the God of restoration. Thank God for the God of recovery. And for every time we've been able to say, he restored my soul. And so God brought them back again to the very place where they had got away.
If you've got away from God in heart, you'll have to get back in the very place where you got away. If there was some place in your past life where you left the path of obedience to the word of God, you'll have to go back there and you'll have to make that matter right with God before you'll ever be able to go on.
It was at Kadesh that their wandering began and it was at Kadesh that their wandering ceased and now they're journeying again. And once more, God is guiding them. And from Kadesh, of course, Miriam dies.
It reminds them that the old order was passing. Miriam, who had once been a leper for her disobedience, she belonged to that generation that perished in the wilderness and Miriam died. And then Moses sent word to the king of Edom to ask if they could pass through his land on the king's highway.
And they said they wouldn't drink his water without paying for it and they wouldn't eat the grain out of his fields. But the king of Edom sent back word that he would not allow them to pass. And in Numbers chapter 21, of course, you have them going around the land of Edom to compass the land of Edom.
And Numbers 21 describes the weariness of that journey. But before we get there, there's another vital event that you must remember. We spoke about it the night we spoke of the smitten rock, which is a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus smitten at Calvary.
I wonder, is there a sinner here tonight who never has known that Christ was smitten for your sake at the cross? Have you ever been to Calvary to learn why the Lord Jesus died? To get a look at the bleeding lamb and the wrath of God that fell upon him and learn the truth of Isaiah 53 and 4?
He was smitten of God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. That rock was a low rock and the water gushed out when it was smitten to meet the need of a thirsty multitude.
And it speaks of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. But this was a high rock now, this rock that was to be spoken to. And it tells us of Christ in glory. It tells us of the one who has been exalted and he ministers to the need of his people.
1 Corinthians 10 says that rock followed them for some reason the water had dried up. That rock was Christ. And Moses is told in Numbers chapter 20 that he's to speak to the rock and it will give forth its waters.
But Moses' soul has been sorely tried. The rebellion, the murmuring, the complaining of these people of Moses. He was only a man. He was one of the very best of men that ever walked this earth. But he was just a man.
He stands in contrast to our perfect Lord who never needed to retract a word. So when he was reviled, reviled not again. And that day Moses stood at that rock that he should only have spoken to. And he raised the rod over the rock.
And he said, here you rebels, shall we bring water out of this rock for you? As if he was going to do it. Never mentioned God. You know, God knew they were rebels. They really were. And that Moses called them rebels.
Ma, I've learned a lesson from that. I remember years ago when that first struck me. God knows what I am. God knows what a, what a faithless heart I have. He knows all about my wanderings and backslidings, all about them.
But you be careful what you say about another believer. You be careful how you speak of them. They're God's people. Moses called them rebels. And God said for this, you'll not be allowed to lead my people into the land.
You'll die in the plains of Moab. What a tragedy. What a cost you say. For the man who had been so faithful. Oh, wait till I tell you something. God is very careful of pictures of his son. And that rock is a picture of Christ.
And when Moses smoked the rock, he spoiled the picture. The rock only was smitten once, and that was at Calvary. The Lord on the throne above only has to be spoken to. And you can speak directly to him, dear young Christian.
What a privilege. And the blessings will flow out. And listen, here's the grace of God again. Though Moses disobeyed God that day. And mind you, if ever a man had reason or excuse or whatever you want to call it for losing his temper, it was Moses.
But God was looking on and God said, you didn't glorify me before the eyes of my people. And for that, Moses was never to go into the land of Canaan. He was to die alone here. The rebuke of Moses. The next thing that happens in their experience is in chapter 21 of Numbers, the brazen serpent on the pole.
Let me just say very simply about it. This was a lesson that the new generation had to learn. They had to learn some of the awfulness of sin and they had to learn something again about the remedy. So I would say Numbers 21 is the remedy.
Numbers 20 is the rebuke of Moses for his loss of temper and his loss of faith that day. Numbers 21 is the remedy. You know, there was a difference between the brazen serpent on the pole and the fiery serpents that bit the people.
Well, you say, I know that preacher. I know there was a difference. But wait till I tell you what the difference was. The serpents that bit the people had the venom in them. The serpent on the pole had none.
And the Lord Jesus said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so shall the son of man be lifted up. It was a reminder of sin. Sin was judged at Calvary, but there was no sin in the lifted up Savior.
What a beautiful picture of him. And here's a rebuke to those who tell us, well, if Christ died for sinners, then everyone saved. That universalist idea. Because you see, God doesn't say that everyone's going to be healed because the serpent's on the pole, but rather those who looked were healed.
It came to pass that whosoever looked was made instantly whole. You have to look to Christ. That teaches me a very simple lesson. There's a Savior for lost sinners. There's a Christ who died at Calvary, but he's not mine.
His sacrifice is not made good to me until I look by faith to him, until I trust him. Now, the next thing, of course, is the resistance they met when they came to Moab. And this is what we read tonight.
And there's only about 12 and a half minutes left in the meeting. So I don't know what kind of justice I'll be able to do to it. The resistance was of two kinds. First of all, here's a man who was hired to curse God's people.
The next resistance that they met was a man who was skillful in corrupting them. If you can't curse them, if you can't destroy God's people, you can corrupt them. What a solemn lesson. But wait till I tell you about Balaam's error.
What was his error? You read about that, by the way, in the book of Jude, verse 11, about those who have gone after the error of Balaam. What was his error? Well, wait till I tell you what it was. His error was in thinking that these were such a wayward, sinful people that it would be no trouble at all getting God's curse upon them.
Balaam was mistaken. He had the notion that because in them there was such waywardness from God that it would be perfectly in keeping with the mind of God to curse them. And he was hired by Balak. First he wouldn't come.
And then Balak sent a bigger offer. And he sent a more important recruiting crew. And when Balak finally saw all the gifts that were to be his, even though he knew the mind of God about it, he was determined to go.
You remember the story how the angel met him in the way with the drawn sword and how Balaam's ass actually spoke to him. And finally Balaam's eyes were opened and he saw the angel of the Lord before him.
And he still went on. And here you have in these verses we've read tonight of his attempt to curse the people of God. Now we read, at least we mentioned the other night, that there are five, four outstanding men in the book of Numbers.
And of course in the book of Numbers you have his lessons. There's Caleb as a disciple and in the book of Numbers you have his devotion. There's Balaam as a doctor and you have his doctrine. And of course there's Phinehas and he enters into this story as a warrior.
Four views that Balaam had of the camp of Israel, that camp that was laid out in all its beautiful order. The first view he had was a distant view as he looked down upon them and he saw them as a separated people.
And that first prophecy that we read tonight in chapter 23 of the book of Numbers says, lo the people shall dwell alone. They shall not be reckoned among the nations. A separated people unto God and even a godless Balaam could see it.
I wonder can the ungodly see that we're a separated people? Does the world around us know that we're separated? Do your neighbors know that you're separated from the ways of the world? Christian parents, do your children know that you're separated?
Do you really see true separation? Or you say I don't dance and I don't go to the show and I don't drink beer and I don't smoke cigarettes? Thank God if you don't. But do you live for the world for its material gain?
Do you make that your God? Do you let anything take the first place in your life other than Christ? Our children are far far too clever. You tell children you're living for heaven and all the time they see you're living for this world and they're not going to believe you.
Thank God whether things of God are put first. I'm not saying brethren that you don't have to earn your living in the world. And some of you know a whole lot more about the problems of it than I do. And so I'm going to say very little about that.
But I believe that this is something we need to show today. The strength that we have lies in the amount of separation there is from the ways of this world. Am I even skating near it? Am I trying to see how near I can come to it without tumbling headlong into it?
Well if I am, I don't have much power for God. Even Balaam could see that they were a separated people unto the Lord. When he got a partial view of them later on in Numbers 23, he saw that they were a justified people.
And I think these are some of the most startling statements that were ever made about Israel. Listen to them. He says, God is not a man that he should lie. Neither the son of man that he should repent.
Hath he said and shall he not do it? Hath he spoken and shall he not make it good? Now listen to this. Is the way of Balaam. What was the way of Balaam? He was a hireling. The possessions he was going to get.
He would have done anything to get it. That was his way. And this man who was a mere hireling, he named Jacob. He was a man of perverseness. Just the thing God sees me in all the perfections of the work of his son.
God sees me holy. God sees me just as clear of guilt as his righteous throne can make me. I stand before God with a perfect standing. I love standing in the presence of God. That's what it means to be justified.
And if you're a young believer here tonight, let me say it just as simply as I can. If you are saved tonight, if your sins are forgiven, if you have trusted Christ, you're as holy in the eyes of God himself could ever make you.
You're just as fit for heaven at this moment to myself. There certainly was perverseness in Israel. There certainly was iniquity in Jacob. But this is God looking at them through the sin offering. This is God looking at them through the perfections of the word of Christ, and of every charge of guilt.
To be justified means to have a right standing before God. To have the righteousness of God means that in God's sight, as he looks at me with holy eyes, that I have a right standing of holiness and righteousness in his presence.
I couldn't possibly have more fitness for heaven than I have in the finished work of Christ. Justified people. The next time you read about, at least the very next thing Balaam says about them is, the son of a king is among them.
Or he's rising higher. And he's beginning to see that people in the wilderness are not just some wandering band of nomads, but in this people is the fulfillment of God's purpose for the redemption of mankind.
He sees that from them comes the king. The Lord was their king. The spirit of God. Prophecy has to do with that very subject. He saw Israel abiding in their tents, it says, according to their tribe. And for the first time you have the fact that the spirit of God came upon them and he saw them as a blessed people.
And he said, how goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel. But in the fourth prophecy that you have in chapter 24, beginning at verse 15, he begins to speak of the future glory of this people.
And he sees them as a leading people in the camp of Israel. He recognized the fact as he had this personal view of them, that they were people waiting for a deliverance. They were waiting for a king. Listen to his words.
There shall come forth a star out of Jacob. I shall see him, he says, but not now. I shall behold him, but not nigh. There shall come a star out of Jacob. And the wise men knew this prophecy when they came from the east to find the child Jesus.
A star shall come out of Jacob, a star shall rise out of Israel. Oh, there's a coming king, a coming Lord. And this is a people who are to us in these four prophecies, a separated people, a justified people, a blessed people, and a leading people to come.
We're waiting for God's kingdom to arise. We're waiting for the Lord Jesus to take to himself his great power and reign. Or you say, Mr. Cropper, I'm waiting for the Lord to come to the air to call away the church.
It's only going to be the opening of the door into the glories of the kingdom. Now I'm waiting for the king. Christ in all his power and his glory. And I long for that day when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord.
When I'll be done with the wilderness forever and done with the flesh and all the sins and failures that have marked our passage here, the wilderness will be ended. I would like to have one of these subjects and time doesn't allow it.
It's remarkable that when they got to the borders of the land and the people were numbered again, that they had to learn almost on the borders of Canaan what it meant to be a separated people. Balaam failed to curse them.
How can I curse? God does not curse, he said. But he found another way to corrupt God's people. And if you were to read chapter 31 and verse 16, you would find that it was this very man, Balaam, who taught Balaam about God's people.
And Israel were mingled together in unholy union. 25 is a sad story of corruption. They worshiped Baal-pior, which was a fertility god of the Moabites, Balaam for the most heinous kind of sins. And Phineas rises up with his gavel in his hand to avenge the righteous God.
25 is the most solemn scene. Let me tell you something about the numbering just as I close. When the tribe of Simeon was numbered at the beginning of the wandering, that was at Sinai. Numbers chapter 1 describes a counting of the people here at Sinai.
The tribe of Simeon was counted at Sinai. Until they were counted here, they had diminished 7 ,100 men. When Phineas arose with the javelin in his hand, a prince of the tribe of Simeon, who was the first man to be slain.
God's people cannot be destroyed. God's people cannot be cursed. God's people can be corrupted. And we're still in the wilderness, brethren, in our experience. We're in Egypt as to our surroundings. We're in the wilderness as to our experience.
We're in Canaan as to our position. But as long as in our experience we're in the wilderness, we can be corrupted. May God preserve us from it. I would like to have spoken about Numbers 19, the ashes of the red heifer.
Maybe we'll try to speak a little about that tomorrow night, though it'll be going back, before we try to cross the Jordan and tell you something of the glorious victories that God gave to this people.
It's been a sad story so far. Cheer up. The story gets brighter. Great victories took place. They were actually defeating Zion and Og, the king of Dacian. God gave them mighty victories and finally brought them across that Jordan into the land.
The grace and the faithfulness of God was to triumph over all the failure of his earthly people. I tell you, the day will come when the Lord will say, Behold I and the children whom God has given me, and every one of us that will be there will be there as trophies of his sovereign grace.
God help us. In the meantime, we might bring glory to him in our service. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for the word and pray that thou wilt bless it tonight and grant that there might be something learned from these solemn lessons and something to encourage us, something Lord of thy word to cheer us.
We thank thee for the divine order. We thank thee Lord that even a Balaam could see it and we thank thee for the blessed hope of awaiting people and we wait for our blessed Lord. Help us Lord as we wait to serve, to occupy till he come and in our occupation that there might be much for thy glory in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen.