FBC Daily Devotional – May 28, 2021

Well, a good Friday to you.

Last day of the last full week, last work day of the last full

week of the month of May, and I hope your week has gone well.

Hope your month has gone well.

You look back over the month of May and just rejoice in what the Lord has

done.

Maybe you have worked through, the Lord has brought you through some very difficult things in this past month, and maybe you're still

working on some of them.

Well, I trust that you can see the Lord's hand of grace and kindness in your life

in the month of May.

Well, today we're reading in the book of Numbers, and witness

this strange account of.

The.

Prince of, the Prince Balak, who wants to, Prince of Moab, Balak, who wants

to have the people of Israel cursed.

He's thinking, if I can just get a prophet, a spokesman for God, to come and curse these people,

then they'll, they'll be destroyed.

I don't have to worry about them.

And remember, Balak has, in his rearview mirror, he sees the destruction that has already been leveled

against Og, and the king of Bashan, and Sihon, the king of, you

know, king as well, and, and he didn't want, he didn't want to suffer the same fate.

So Balak wants to see these people destroyed.

So he sends a messenger off to this guy, Balaam, and we don't really know much about him.

He's, he's obviously a well -known seer, someone who could,

you know, speak words of prophecy that would seem to come true and so forth.

I don't know that we should interpret, interpret things that, that he was an actual

follower of Yahweh, the one true God of Israel.

But he, he seemed to have a connection with the spirit world, I think is the best way to leave it, and,

and everybody knew that.

So he is approached by Balak to come and curse,

curse Israel.

And, and Balak says, well, you know, their God is Yahweh, and I can't say anything

against them, that would contradict their God, contradict Yahweh.

So I'll have to say whatever Yahweh says.

And so, you know, he spends the night and an angel comes to him and says, don't go.

And so he comes back to the people and says, I'm not gonna go.

I'm not gonna go curse him.

Balak sends more emissaries.

Come on, please.

I'll give you up to half my kingdom and all this kind of stuff.

I'll give you whatever you want, blah, blah, blah.

And, you know, Balaam's already, already knows the mind of the Lord in this.

He, he should have, he could have just simply said, no, look, I already got the response.

I'm not gonna go.

Go home.

Go back and tell Balak, forget it.

Drop it.

It's a dead deal.

That's not what he does.

He says to these emissaries, well, you know, hang around.

Maybe, maybe though, it's like, maybe Yahweh will change his mind.

And so in the course of the night, again, the angel comes and says, so these people come back.

Yeah, they come back.

And then when we, and so, so then the angel says, well, all right, go along and go, but you're only gonna tell

him what I tell you to tell him.

And so I think the, the way we should understand that is what you're, what you're gonna say

is what I once said.

Whether you want to or not, it's what I once said.

So the next morning they get up and Balaam goes along.

Now, here's the thing, you know, the Lord told him go alone.

Go ahead and go.

But then in the next chapter, it says the Lord was angry with him for going.

Why was the Lord's anger kindled against him when the Lord told him, if they've come to bid you to go, go

ahead and go with them.

I think the best understanding of that is the Lord knew Balaam's heart.

He knew what Balaam really wanted.

What he really wanted was the reward money for voicing a curse against

Israel.

And he was hoping that he would get there and be able to curse Israel and get the, get the reward

for it.

So the Lord knew what was in Balaam's heart as he went.

And just how perceptive was Balaam after all at discerning spiritual reality?

This whole incident with his donkey shows us he wasn't all that clever.

He wasn't all that insightful, was he?

He's going along and the angel of the Lord is standing in front of him blocking the way and the

donkey can see him but Balaam can't.

And the donkey finally, you know, is blocked, completely blocked by the angel of the Lord.

The donkey sees it but Balaam doesn't.

He beats up on the donkeys.

What are you stopping for?

And so forth.

And finally, finally, we have this, this very humorous incident of the donkey opening his mouth and says, what are you doing?

Why are you beating me?

What have I done to you?

You know, if I ever, you know.

And finally, the Lord opened Balaam's eyes that he could see the angel of the Lord in

front of him.

And the angel of the Lord, of course, then reinforces the message that, all right, you're gonna

go there.

But the only thing you're gonna say is what I once said.

So off he goes.

And what the Lord once said as a pronouncement, is not a

curse, not at all.

It's a blessing.

And in that blessing, we have some wonderful truth communicated for God's people.

And that is God's people are secure.

And no matter what anyone would say to to bring them down or to

desire to destroy them, they are secure.

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark, never failing.

That's Martin Luther penned.

And this is brought out in Balak's repeated, Balaam's repeated

attempts to curse Israel.

Every time he opens his mouth, he can't.

He can't.

The only thing that comes out is blessing.

And when all is said and done, and again, let me just put my eyes back on here.

When all is said and done, here's what he has to say in verses, chapter 23, verse 19.

God is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent.

Has he said and will he not do?

He has said that he will bless his people.

He has said that he will give them this land.

He has said that they will conquer their foes.

Has he said and will he not do?

Will he not make it good?

And in verse 23 says, for there is no sorcery against Jacob.

There is no conjuring against the chosen people of God.

There is no divination against Israel.

Why?

It must now be said of Jacob and of Israel, Oh, what God has done.

The people of God are secure in the Lord's sovereign determination

to preserve and to protect and to provide for them, to bless them.

And no, no cursing can ever change that.

So what a great encouragement for the people of God that comes even from the lips of this

hypocritical prophet who couldn't see even as clearly as the

donkey he was riding on.

Well, I hope that'll be an encouragement to you today.

And I hope that this Lord's Day, just day after tomorrow, you'll be able to get to God's house for

services and worship together.

We will meet at 9 .30 for Bible study time at 10 .30 for the morning service.

And then we're into the summer schedule and summer and fall schedule for evening service that

begins at six o 'clock.

All these things are live streamed.

The Sunday school and morning service we live stream on Facebook and YouTube and the home and the church home

page.

Sunday evening service just on the church website.

So if you can join us for any of those, you're welcome to, but would we prefer if you could join

us in person.

So.

Have a good rest of your day and a wonderful weekend.

God bless.