And so they know exactly who John is speaking about. But I have a few things against you. This is verse 14. You have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balaam to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food, sacrifice to idols, and practice sexual immorality.
So the doctrine of Balaam, what's that? Well, we'll get to that here after a little while. And maybe even another couple of Sundays from now. But the doctrine of Balaam can persist and did persist into the early church.
And I'm certain from that even to today. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. For Father in Heaven, as we come to your word now, will you open our hearts and our minds and do us much good. You have said that we cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from your mouth.
And so now we open our mouths and ask that you feed us. And we thank you in Jesus' name, amen. All right, we are in chapter 22. So let's just start with a little bit of context.
Rather than just kind of parachute you out of the plane and drop you in chapter 22. And you don't know what's behind or what's come up to this point. Numbers can be fairly easy as a book divided into three parts. And so the first part of this is a little bit of expansion on how to apply some of the Levitical law, but also some of the civil law as well, that God had laid out in the book of Leviticus.
And how were the tribes supposed to be arranged around the tabernacle and worship was the central piece of life for them? That was life to them. Worship was life giving for them. And so the tribes were arranged outward in kind of a spiral, but something of a crossing pattern as they moved outward from the position of the temple.
And so we have some of that laid out for us in numbers. And then of course it's called numbers because the people were numbered. There was a census taken of the people at this time because they had really grown quite large as a nation. And now taking on an identity, we are post- Sinai here and the giving of the law.
These people have a formal, structured, real government. And so they are now being identified as such, even as they move through the country. And so they have left Sinai after a year there. And now they have entered the outskirts of the Promised Land.
And yet we have several different points at which, sadly, these folks distrust God and rebel. In fact, it's shocking the number of different rebellions you come across as you lead up to Numbers chapter 22. You've had rebellion from the leadership itself. You have Aaron and Miriam who said, ah, you know, this isn't working out with Moses so much.
Maybe he's not our guy. The Lord reaffirms, yes. Moses is the man to lead these people. And then you have the people rebel at one point.
The Levites rebal it another time. You have some really tragic events and some real disbelief that just shows all of its ugliness throughout this book. And so we come to this point in the book where we come to a story in which the Lord intends for us to see that he never abandons his people. When he makes a covenant, he will, in fact, see it through against mercenary prophets or against fearful kings who don't want to lose their power or even against his own unbelieving people.
He will, in fact, bless them and lead them. And the purpose of this, of course, is ultimately our Lord Jesus Christ to come into this world as our Savior. Now, the last opening statement here might be to say that with freedom, because the folks now are free from servitude and bondage in Egypt, with freedom comes responsibility. They now have their own governing laws and a set of and leadership that's structured and organized.
And yet it's now time for God's people to learn to live as men and women free to serve God alone. And this is, again, how this passage or these several chapters apply to us. We are free from the bondage of sin, even as Scott preached last Sunday, as Paul teaches in Romans, and we are free to serve Christ faithfully and without the hindrance of sin as a controlling factor. And so for those of you who like titles to sermons, the title is Testing in Our Traveling.
Testing in Our Traveling. They are traveling here to the Promised Land, and so are we now. And so we will be tested in one way or another in our travels on the glory. Testing in our traveling.
The rest of this sermon is just walking ourselves through, chapter 22. Are you ready? So I may keep the pace moving here, because you all are going to get hungry at some point and you'd like to go. And frankly so will I.
And so that's good. I have the motivation, same motivation you do. Chapter 22, then the people of Israel set out and camped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho. And Balak the son of Zippur saw all the Israel had done to the Amorites in these past chapters, chapter 21.
Good example of those stories there. And Moab was in great dread of the people because they were many. Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel and Moab said to the elders of Midian, this horde will now look up all that is around us as the ox licks up the grass of the field. So Balak the son of Zippur, who was king of Moab at that time, sent messengers to Baelum, the son of Baelor at Pethor, which is near the river in the land of the people of Amor, to call him saying, behold, the 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. Now there's a good bit of content right there, so let me just give you what's happening.
You've got a king who sees a great company of people camping out in the plains out in front of him, and he says, you know, this is not going well. I know who's next, and that's me and my folks. So I'm gonna have to link up with some people, maybe I don't like that much of the Midianites, but we're gonna have to be buddies for a little while. And that way we may be staying at chance at resistance, but I'm not gonna go into this deal with military might, not at first.
I don't think I've got enough rockets for this job. And so he says, let's start with some divination. Let's start with the spiritual world and see if I can't get some traction there and maybe, just maybe, if the gods that be here, me, and hear us, then maybe these people down there in the valley will be weak enough that we can set them back, defend ourselves. And there's some question and discussion, at least I couldn't find in my research exactly why or how we would know other than it's told us here who Balaam's father is, Baeore, and they lived for some period of time at least, or we're living then at Pethor, which is near the river and the land of the people of Amal.
It's hard to find these cities, some of this is unknown to us quite frankly. But why so specific? Why does God mention Balaam's father and where he lived and the river as though maybe we could find that? Well, first of all, to those who were listening to this for the very first time, Moses probably was compiling this.
Those folks may well have known exactly what we were talking about. But even for us, why is it important? Well, because this was a real person. We aren't making up a story.
If you are naming a real person exactly where he lived and you could have verified that at some time with people who would have heard that, you're not making something up. You could maybe call those people, well, send him a letter, send him a papyrus, and say, hey, what about that guy, Baeleam? Did he really, was his dad really Baeore? And did they live there at Pethor?
Yeah, they sure did. I remember him both. Never liked either one of them. I don't know what, but that was, the truth is that this really happened.
And that's what we can learn right there from what's in front of us. So the elders of Moab, so it's the big shots. It's the people running the show. The elders of Moab and the elders of Midian, let me back up and say, as these men leave, they have a very specific message they are supposed to bring to Baeleam.
This trip could have been as much as 400 miles away, or we're not really sure. And again, that doesn't matter so much to us, but they had to have a message to give to Baeleam, and it's that message that you find up here beginning at verse five, and it's a, Balak's message. He says, there's a whole lot of folks right out here in front of me, I'm scared about that, come now and curse this people. Okay, so it's very specific, I don't know if you wrote this up as a contract, and he said, take this with you, when you go talk to Baeleam, I wanna have him sign up, get him over here, I need him here as fast as I can.
Okay, he's fearful. However the case is, that is the content of the message that these men leave with the elders of Moab and Midian. They departed with the fees for divination in their hands. So they got cash in hand, we're buying this guy, and we're getting the best one, we're lowering up, right?
We're getting the best attorney we got out there, except this guy is, Baeleam is a soussayer, or someone who claims to have connection to the spiritual world. And evidently, whether he has promoted his name as such, or other people have, or both, maybe he had a really good media company for himself. Baelech says, for I know that he, who you, speaking to Baeleam, he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed. So Baelech's expecting success here in this enterprise, in this undertaking.
And so they came to Baeleam and gave him Baelech's message, that's verse seven, and he, Baeleam said to them, Lodge here tonight, and I will bring back word to you as the Lord speaks to me. So the princes of Moab stayed with Baeleam, and God came to Baeleam and said, who are these men with you? Now that's not God asking because he doesn't know who they are. This isn't God showing up now, Baeleam's place, and saying, hey, who are the guys staying with you?
This is a question to Baeleam, to make him, give an honest answer of why the men are there. He doesn't get to say to God Almighty, well, I thought I'd just have some friends over. No, he's gonna have to fast up as to exactly who they are and why they're there, and so he does. And he says to God, Baelech the son of the poor king of Moab has sent to me, saying, behold, a people has come out of Egypt, and it covers the face of the earth.
Now come, curse them for me, perhaps I shall be able to fight against them and drive them out, so he gives the correct answer, the honest answer, God said to Baeleam, you shall not go with them, you shall not curse the people for they are blessed. So Baeleam rose in the morning and said to the princes of Baelech, go to your own land, for the Lord has refused to let me go with you, the deals off. So the princes of Moab rose and went to Baelech and said, Baeleam refuses to come with us, sorry, sorry king, bad news, dispointing for us. Well, that wasn't the answer Baelech was expecting, and he's not gonna accept it, and so he's gonna pony up some more.
Once again, Baelech sent princes more in number and more honorable than these. Well, I'll send all the big guns then, if that didn't work, but I'm gonna get this guy and I'm not letting him say no. And they came to Baeleam and said to him, thus says, Baelech, the son of support, let nothing hinder you from coming to me for I will surely do you great honor, and whatever you say to me, I will do come, curse this people for me. He says, look, do I have to back up the Brinks truck, back it up, you can hear it, meep and he's unload it, right?
Fort Knox, not off limits, we're gonna pay up, because I'm scared and I need that. And so Baeleam answered and said to the servants of Baelech, though Baelech were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the Lord my God to do less or more. So you two, please stay here tonight, that I may know what more the Lord will say to me. You know, let's try this again.
And God came to Baeleam at night and said to him, if the men have come to call you, rise, go with them, but only do what I tell you. So Baeleam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab. Now this is all the setup to this point, right? There's been this king, he's scared, we're gonna hire somebody, we're gonna get someone who's got a connection to the spiritual world.
Don't know how all that works, that's what we're gonna do. And we're gonna spend all the money it takes. And he gets an answer of no, and he says, well that wasn't a good answer, I don't like that one, I'll buy the yes answer, that's the one I want. And so then he's got it now, because God has given Baeleam the green light to leave.
But he's made it plain, you can only say, what I tell you to say, that's it. Now, the first time I read this, I really did get kind of confused, because look at verse 21 with me, so Baeleam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey because God had said go, verse 22, but God's anger was kindled because he went. I really, I did, I scratched my head and I said, I don't see that. So let that question hang with you for just a little bit, because you're gonna see the answer here a few more verses out, and you'll know why.
And the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way, so Baeleam is now on the way, and we read there that he was now riding on a donkey, and his two servants were with him. I don't know if they were walking with backpacks, or if they had donkeys too, but I think Baeleam's got some money, maybe he got cash up front, maybe he had these servants regularly anyway, sounds like he's kind of a big shot in this region, and people know who he is. And so I think he's got a couple servants with him, and they're all provided for, but now in verse 23, and the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand. Remember reading about an angel with a two-edged sword earlier, Revelation chapter two, the word to perdimum.
This may be, in fact, a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus himself, who's going to defend Israel from this man, Baeleam. I suspect that's likely true. Often this phrasing the angel of the Lord does point to the Lord Jesus Christ, but we don't have to have it that. He could just be a Gabriel or a Michael angel on a higher order, and he's there to defend Israel, of course, on God's command.
So whichever way you want to take that, but because of its connection to Revelation chapter 21, I'm suspicious that, Revelation two, I am suspicious this is Christ himself, looking over his people and standing there for his people with a sword, a drawn sword in his hand. So we're in the middle of verse 23, and the donkey turned a side out of the road and went into the field, and Baeleam struck the donkey to turn her into the road, then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards with a wall on either side, and when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pushed against the wall and pressed Baeleam's foot against the wall, so he struck her again, crushed it, probably crushed, I don't think in his ankle or in his knee, and if you've ever tried to ride animals at all, and then they don't do what you want, it's really hard to keep your temper straight, and Baeleam's starting to lose it. He's pretty unhappy about this, and he's probably got a bruise down there on that left or right ankle for days, and skinned it and whatever else. So he's now hit that donkey again.
Verse 26, then the angel of the Lord 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 the Lord, she lay down under Baeleam, she just collapsed, just dropped to her knees. Now Baeleam's stuck in the middle of the road, his car's broke down, right? You could see him coming out of the hood as it were, a lot of his ears probably, and he, no go.
Can't move forward in this state, and makes it pretty easy now to get off the donkey, and really to let his anger get away from him. And Baeleam's anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff. So verse 28, then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Baeleam, now stop right there. That's supposed to catch your attention.
If you're reading this story, you just kind of read on it again in the Lord of the mouth of the donkey. No, you're supposed to say, wow. Now you want to read what the donkey's about to say. There was one commentator, and Ted, and I, in talking about it, were just a little bit confused.
He just really didn't want to have a talking donkey, and he said, I don't think the donkey said anything. I think the angel was talking to Baeleam, and he just heard it because the donkey was opened his mouth, and I thought, no, that's just not what the text says. Like take it for what it says, this is a faithful translation. You can have an English translation that's faithful.
We have Bible translators in the room. Ask them if they think he would believe that you can faithfully translate the word of God into another language. Yes, you can. This is a faithful translation.
This is perfectly fine. It really happened. Back then, we could have taken you and asked Baeleam, or about his son. What do you think of Baeleam?
So these people were real. This really happened. Baeleam says, so the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Baeleam, what have I done to you that you have struck me these three times? Baeleam.
Now he goes to arguing with the donkey. That's almost more surprising as you read the text. You would think there would be some other step back, like glasses off, rub his ankle, make sure that really happened right now. Like, I've been talking to God in the middle of the night with these guys a couple of times, and maybe I'm just really starting to go off my rocker.
But instead, he responds to the donkey. Well, because you made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand. This is somewhat ironic.
I wish I had a sword in my hand. For then, I would kill you. So he's that mad at the donkey, which wouldn't do him any good at this point, because he's on his journey. So I don't know.
Your car's broken on the side of the road. You don't now light it on fire, blow it up. But that's what he's going to do with the donkey. But that's how mad animals can make you.
And the donkey said to Balaam, am I not? So now they're having a conversation. Am I not your donkey on which you have written all your life long to this day? Is it my had it to treat you this way?
And he said, no. I think now he's running out of ideas on what's taking place. But he doesn't have to wander for very long. In verse 31, the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam.
So he opened the donkey's mouth, and then he had to open the prophet's eyes. Because at this point, the donkey had showed more wisdom than the prophet that was riding her. And so the Lord opened his eyes. And he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand.
So the prophet who wanted a sword didn't have one. But the angel who was about to educate the prophet through a donkey did have one. So we know where the power really lay here in this whole story and in this entire trip. This was never out of God's hands, not for a moment.
And so after Balaam saw this, says he bowed down and fell on his face. Yeah, that was a good move. I think that's what I would have done. And the angel of the Lord said to him, why have you struck your donkey these three times?
And that's not for the angel of the Lord to get information. Why don't you justify yourself now? No, it's to condemn him with that question. You don't have to use an imperative form to condemn.
You can do it in arogative form. Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me. Now that's your answer to the question of verse 22. When the anger, when God's anger was kindled because Balaam went.
And now he says your way is crooked or twisted, perverse before me. So what was Balaam really doing? Balaam left that morning. He had God's permission to go.
He'd gotten it. But he still plans to prophesy in accordance with a guy who's paying him. He's got one foot in each camp, and he's got his own plans. Or at best, he's hoping he can kind of wash out and water down whatever blessing God may tell him to speak.
But he's certainly not going to let the guy pay in him walk away disappointed. I first read this thinking, you know, here Balaam is talking to God, seems like he's a pretty good guy. Maybe he's all right. But if the angel of the Lord says, your way is perverse before me, then it is.
It's not right. It's not good. And he had the wrong heart. And he had the wrong attitude about this entire thing.
And he was taking money and then doing whatever he hoped he could get away with. Maybe I can just speak up, a little curse. And it doesn't. Then I can keep the money, keep the big man there happy, King Balaam, and maybe God won't be too mad at me either.
That would have been his rationale or his kind of thinking. And that's why God opposed him in the way. Then Balaam said, oh, verse 33, the donkey saw me and turned aside. The angel's explaining before me these three times that she had not turned aside for me surely just now.
I would have killed you and let her live. Then Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, I have sinned. For I did not know that you stood in the road against me. And so it sounds like he's remorseful.
But I think it's more just a matter of, well, that's just not working out for me now. I think I made a mistake. And then he actually says, now therefore, if it's evil in your sight to be going this way, then I'll just turn back. OK, come on, let's all turn around.
Undernaded degrees, we're just heading back home. Why? Because that's now the easy way out. If he just goes back, he says, well, the trip broke down on the way.
The donkey wouldn't go. And things didn't turn out. And then I did talk with an angel in the donkey both. And they said, I shouldn't go.
But he's going to find a way to explain that to Balaam. And now the Lord's not going to let him off the hook. No, you're going there. And you're going to say what I said.
You're going to tell him. So he says, go with the men. But speak only the word that I tell you. So Balaam went on with the princes of Balaam.
This last little bit is an exchange between Balaam and Balaam, verses 36 down to 41. When Balaam heard that Balaam had come, he went out to meet him at the city of Moab on the border, formed by the Arnaughan at the extremity of the border. And Balaam said, Balaam, did I not send to you to call you? Why did you not come to me?
Am I not able to honor you? Here he is. He's been threatening. He's got white knuckles gripping his throne.
Things aren't working out. He doesn't know when Balaam's going to get there. He needs to hurry. So this is a timing thing.
Because he's standing there looking at the man. He's not asking why didn't you come. He knows he came. Just you didn't get here fast enough.
And now I'm upset about that. And Balaam said to Balaam, the hold I have come to you. See, I'm standing right here. Have I now?
Have I now? But let me set you up, Mr. King. Have I now any power of my own to speak anything?
No. Just know the way this is going down is how God says so. The word that God puts in my mouth, that must I speak. Then Balaam went with Balaam, and they came to Kiriath as off and Balaam sacrificed oxen and sheep and sent for Balaam and for the princes who were with him.
And in the morning, Balaam took Balaam and brought him up to Balaam off Balaam and from there he saw a fraction of the people. And so that ends both this chapter for us. And we see what has come of Balaam's trip. Now I'll be preaching again in June and in July.
And so that's when we'll pop in again on this story and hear some of these blessings. And it's really quite surprising that by the time you get to the third blessing, it's actually even Christological. There is a prophecy and a forecast of Christ coming and rising from these people that have just been blessed. So fascinating story that we'll get to some more.
I had thought through this week, do I try to find the outline in here? And then sometimes I think we preachers make the mistake of trying to force a passage into an outline. And so instead of doing that, what we did today was read the word of God and come to understand it more. That was it.
We just let the word of God speak for the story that's there. But of course, I think we all want to say, well, that's good. I think I understand that story better than I ever did. But how should we then live in light of what we know?
That was the question that Francis Schaeffer asked in his video series and in his book. So there is a little application for us today. These are the ones that came to my mind. You may find some others.
But one that's evident here is that God is merciful. Even to mercenary prophets. He said, if the donkey hadn't protected you, I would have killed you because his way was perverse. And I think in some gratitude as believers, we would all have to say the same thing.
The angel of the Lord at any time, except for God's mercy, might have killed me because my way is perverse at different times and has been and my heart is not good. This is true of every one of us. And so we're asked to look to the mercy of God. And he's merciful.
And three times he made this happen. Three times. And we're told that the donkey was allowed to see the angel of the Lord. I mean, you don't normally see angels.
I don't know if we've got any in here right now. It's not that we're not at work. So I don't know where they're at. But we don't see them.
But it's not because they don't exist, or they're not there, or they're not present. I wonder how many times the Lord might have been merciful to us through his angels. And so we should learn not to take ordinary troubles and let them trouble us, but find ways to be thankful. I remember my mom or my dad years ago saying that we have flat tire on the car and we're sitting on the side of the road.
And you never have a flat tire in really nice weather. It's either raining or it's really cold or it's like, Arkansas hot or something. And that's when you have a flat tire. And it was something like that.
And they were smart because they taught me early how to change a flat tire. So they always had good help if I was around. And so I'm sure I was upset about it at some point. And I don't know if it was my mom or dad, but they said, well, you don't know where we'd be on the road right now if we didn't have a flat tire.
You know, maybe we would have been in an accident. Yeah, I don't know how the Lord works in mercy, his ways are mysterious. So God is merciful. Even to mercenary hard-hearted, perverse prophets and all to the rest of us.
Then secondly, I would say, we should be on our guard for use the word syncretism. That's what I think you could say, Baelin is guilty of. He's got a foot in each camp, one in the camp that will bless Israel and one in taking money from a wicked king. And so here he is straddling this line with politics and religion.
And I'm not saying we can't have those discussions. Of course we can, and we should. But we need to be careful that we as God's people aren't letting our hearts chase after something other than God alone. He is the one we are to love and worship and serve always and primarily and first.
And we shouldn't start asking questions first of how much money does that make me? Or what is my gain in this? Questions should always be first something on the order of how do I best serve God, right? Then you can ask those other minor questions.
And then last I would say, we all ought to take comfort in God's providential care for his people. You know, the Israelites are camping out down in the valley. And there's nothing in this passage that says they knew all of this was going on with Baelic, talking with the Midianites, uniting with them, and then calling in this false prophet. I think they don't know.
I think they're ignorant. But God is.