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Numbers 23.1-38
21 November 2010 St Mary’s
Introduction
I’m sure that you will agree that Paul Gascoigne – Gazza – is an
interesting place to start a sermon on the Book of Numbers.
Gazza, if you don’t know, was the most talented English footballer of his
generation.
Sadly, like many others before him, that talent was to a large extent wasted
and his life has become something of a slow moving train crash.
The papers are full of such stories. Do we like them because they give us
a sense of moral superiority?... Or do we like them because they are full of
such pathos, the tragedy draws us in….
Whichever, and I can probably hazard a guess if you tell me which paper
you read, the bible tells may similar stories because that is the stuff of
which we, humanity, are made.
o Saul
o (David)
o The Kings of Israel and Judah
o Pilate
o Judas
o The seven churches
However, I will be speaking about more than Balaam’s character for the
story of Balaam is a story within a story, the story of God’s people.
I. The STORY
Set against the background of the Book of Numbers the reason that
Balaam’s story is told at all is because it highlights the Lord’s faithfulness
to Israel.
That is why Israel represented such a threat to people such as Balak the
Moabite king and also why his response, that of calling in Balaam the most
famous and powerful spiritual ‘hitman’ of the age, represented such a
threat to them (He was a sort of Derren Brown of the ancient world)
2
Now Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites, 3 and Moab
was terrified because there were so many people. Indeed, Moab was filled with dread
because of the Israelites.
4
The Moabites said to the elders of Midian, “This horde is going to lick up
everything around us, as an ox licks up the grass of the field.”
So Balak son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at that time, 5 sent messengers to
summon Balaam son of Beor, who was at Pethor, near the Euphrates River, in his
native land. Balak said:
“A people has come out of Egypt; they cover the face of the land and have settled
next to me. 6 Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are too
powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the
land. For I know that whoever you bless is blessed, and whoever you curse is
cursed.”
What the ensuing story reveals is that Balaam’s much vaunted powers
count for nothing where the Lord’s promise is concerned. It is those
whom He blesses who are blessed and those whom He curses who are
cursed whatever Balaam or anyone else might say or do.
Though we haven’t time to explore them, Balaam’s four oracles for rather
than against Israel as well as having great comic value, with an enraged
Balak trying everything to get an ‘angle’ on Israel, must surely represent
some of the most magnificent promises in the bible let alone the OT.
Allow me to quote one or two verses…
Similarly, following Gordon Wenham, the drama of Chs. 22-24 falls into
six main acts of two sets of three (22.7-14, 15-20, 21-35, 41-23.12, 13-26,
27-24.25) and in each one it is clear that Balaam was able only to say what
the Lord allowed him to say.
This is the ‘wide angle’ view of the story and it is a view that has much to
say to us to day. We too on a regular basis need to discipline ourselves to
‘pan out’ and recall God’s larger purposes for us, for His people and for
His world.
I was running on Friday morning at about 06.30 when the morning star
(Venus) was very powerfully present in the sky
II. The STORY WITHIN A STORY
Now we ‘zoom in’ to the story within a story, the story of Balaam and
what a story it is.
Then, after a bigger, better and possibly more generously provided for
delegation is put together, it’s a more unconvincing ‘no’
15
Then Balak sent other officials, more numerous and more distinguished than the
first. 16 They came to Balaam and said:
“This is what Balak son of Zippor says: Do not let anything keep you from coming
to me, 17 because I will reward you handsomely and do whatever you say. Come and
put a curse on these people for me.”
18
But Balaam answered them, “Even if Balak gave me all the silver and gold in his
palace, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the
LORD my God. 19 Now spend the night here so that I can find out what else the
LORD will tell me.”
20
That night God came to Balaam and said, “Since these men have come to summon
you, go with them, but do only what I tell you.”
The decision to invite the emissaries to stay the night is the first clear sign,
I would suggest, that Balaam is shifting ground. After all, if the Lord’s
will was that Israel were to be blessed, why contemplate any alternative?
DMLJ story of the preacher who determined to speak on only one verse at
a time and always have three points
Point One – always rise early (even if its to do something your’re not
supposed to be doing)
Point Two – the value of saddlery
Point Three – something from the NT
How this miracle happened who knows? It is recorded also in the NT and
is clearly stated in the text
But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—an animal without speech—
who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
2 Peter 2.16
You have, by the way, got to feel a little sorry for the donkey
o Lesson One
o Lesson Two
o Lesson Three
Just because the Lord allows something doesn’t mean that He approves of
it
o Lesson Four
o Lesson Five
People can have amazing gifts, but not necessarily any grace. In other
words, they can be spiritually and morally bankrupt.
Whyte p.267
Matthew 7.22,23
o Lesson Six
However far away from the Lord we go, His grace continues to pursue us.
The problem is that our hearts may have become so hardened that we
cannot turn back