Balak king of Moab hired Balaam to curse Israel for him. God made it explicitly clear to Balaam that he was not to go beyond God’s word, because God had blessed Israel. Balak took Balaam to the high place of Baal, and YHWH put a word of blessing in his mouth for Israel. Balak to him to the heights of Pisgah, and YHWH put another word of blessing in his mouth.

Numbers 23:27 And Balak said to Balaam, “Come now, I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.” 28 So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the desert. 29 And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me here seven altars and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” 30 And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Balak just doesn’t get it; in the last blessing, God revealed his character and nature; he is not a man or a son of man. He does not lie, he does not change his mind. God has blessed them, and there is no sorcery that can overturn God’s blessing. God is with his people, he is for them, and he will fight against those who fight against them. He took him to the top of Peor, another high place for worship of Baal, a place which will gain an ill reputation in chapter 25. Different location, same procedure; again seven altars, seven bulls, seven rams.

The Spirit of God Came Upon Him

Numbers 24:1 When Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not go, as at other times, to look for omens, but set his face toward the wilderness. 2 And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe. And the Spirit of God came upon him,

This is different. God said ‘there is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel’ (23:23), so Balaam does not look for omens; the word is the same as ‘enchantment’. He finally recognized that ‘it pleased YHWH to bless Israel’ so instead of his usual occult practices, he ‘set his face toward the wilderness’, and ‘lifted up his eyes’ and saw the camp of Israel.

And the Spirit of God came upon him. God had spoken to him, and put words in his mouth, but this time was different, God’s Holy Spirit came upon him, and rather than a word put in his mouth, the Spirit of God upon him inspired him to speak. We don’t see Moses or Aaron in this whole section of Numbers, and this language is not used throughout the five books of Moses about either one of them. In Numbers 11, YHWH took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on 70 of the elders of Israel, who prophesied. In response to Joshua,

Numbers 11:29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!”

We see God’s Spirit come upon some of the prophets and judges and kings of Israel, even on some common Israelites who prophesied, but here we see the Spirit of God come upon an unbelieving pagan sorcerer. In the New Testament he spoke through Israel’s unbelieving high priest Caiaphas (Jn.11:49-52). As we’ve learned from the donkey incident, the Lord can speak through whomever he chooses.

Israel Camping Tribe by Tribe

Verse 2 tells us that Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe. Back in chapter 2, God organized Israel around the tabernacle, three tribes on each side, east, south, west and north. We are given the census of each tribe in chapter 1, and if we lay that out, looking out from the mountains west northwest over the plains, the organization of the camp would have taken the shape of a cross.

Blind Eyes Opened

Numbers 24:3 and he took up his discourse and said,

“The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,

the oracle of the man whose eye is opened,

4 the oracle of him who hears the words of God,

who sees the vision of the Almighty,

falling down with his eyes uncovered:

5 How lovely are your tents, O Jacob,

your encampments, O Israel!

6 Like palm groves that stretch afar,

like gardens beside a river,

like aloes that the LORD has planted,

like cedar trees beside the waters.

7 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.

8 God brings him out of Egypt

and is for him like the horns of the wild ox;

he shall eat up the nations, his adversaries,

and shall break their bones in pieces

and pierce them through with his arrows.

9 He crouched, he lay down like a lion

and like a lioness; who will rouse him up?

Blessed are those who bless you,

and cursed are those who curse you.”

Balaam the seer had been blind. Blind to what his own donkey saw so clearly, the angel of YHWH with drawn sword standing in the way to oppose him, because his way was perverse before the Lord. His own greed had blinded the seer from seeing the spiritual realities around him. But now, the Spirit of God having come upon him, his eye has been opened. He hears the words of El. He sees the vision of Shaddai. Falling face down on the ground at the presence of God almighty, he can finally see.

A Fruitful Garden (Like Eden)

And he begins to see Israel as God sees her; “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 the LORD has planted, like cedar trees beside the waters.”

One of the primary complaints of the people as they crossed the wilderness was a lack of water. Now this vision is of abundant water; wadis or river ravines spreading out, gardens beside a river, carefully planted like Eden by YHWH himself (Gn.2:8-9; the holy place in the tabernacle was full of garden of Eden symbolism). The tents, the encampments of Israel the Lord considers lovely. As we saw last time, Israel was considered upright; the Lord ‘has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel’ (23:1,21), not because they were without fault, we’ve read the story, we know better. But because God is with them, and because they belong to him, he views them with a righteousness not their own, a righteousness credited to their account.

God views Israel as YHWH’s garden of Eden restored, like cedars beside the waters. In Psalm 1 the righteous are compared with

Psalm 1:3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

In spite of all their failures and flaws, as long as his people abide in him, he will prune them and they will bear fruit (Jn.15:1-5)

Living Water From Finite Vessels

The water metaphor now changes; not only are they well watered like a carefully planned garden, they become a water source that spreads out to bless others. A bucket or jar is usually used for drawing water, for containing, carrying, or storing water; it is not a source of water. But the picture here is flowing or living water flowing out of a finite clay jar. ‘We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us’ (2Cor.4:7). Jesus said to the sinful woman at the well:

John 4:10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” … 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Jesus said in John 7

John 7:37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”

The Exalted Kingdom of the Coming King

This word for water can also be used for seed, and the focus of the prophecy moves to descendants, to children spreading out like water, like streams in the desert bringing with them abundant blessing. The concepts flow from blessings to offspring, to a coming King and his coming kingdom.

Numbers 24:7 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.

A king named Agag shows up in 1 Samuel 15, about 350 years later; this could be a prediction of his future defeat by the first king of Israel, or Agag could be a contemporary king of the Amalekites, after whom the king in 1 Samuel is named, or instead of a personal name it could be a royal title of the kings of the Amalekites. The Amalekites attacked Israel in Exodus 17 after they came out of Egypt; they defeated the people when they presumptuously attempted to enter the land after their rebellion and disobedience in Numbers 14.

There is a coming king who would be far superior to the ancient enemy of Israel. This coming King’s kingdom would be exalted. Although this may find a partial fulfillment in Saul, ultimately it points to the king who was God, who became human,

Philippians 2:8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The Conquering King, Lion of Judah

In the last oracle, it was plural; God brings them out of Egypt; he is for them like the horns of a wild ox; now God brings him out of Egypt; and is for him like the horns of a wild ox. If we trace the nearest antecedent, the ‘him’ must be referring to the coming King whose kingdom shall be exalted. Matthew 2:15 sees the prophecy of Hosea 11:1 fulfilled in Jesus; “Out of Egypt I called my son.” Balak feared the tongue of the domestic ox; he should have feared the horns of the wild ox. There is one coming, one to be feared.

Revelation 19:13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. …15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

Revelation 6:15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

This coming king is the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Rev.5:5). It would be wise not to poke the Lion. Balak attempted to wage spiritual warfare against God’s people, assuming that this pagan sorcerer had the power to bless and to curse. He summoned Balaam with the words: “for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed” (Nu.22:6). But back in Genesis 12, God told Abraham;

Genesis 12:2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God will not contradict himself. By attempting to curse Israel, Balak brought no harm to Israel, but instead put himself under God’s curse. The coming King will crush the head of the serpent, and all who align themselves with him.

The Price of Misguided Spirituality

Numbers 24:10 And Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he struck his hands together. And Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them these three times. 11 Therefore now flee to your own place. I said, ‘I will certainly honor you,’ but the LORD has held you back from honor.” 12 And Balaam said to Balak, “Did I not tell your messengers whom you sent to me, 13 ‘If Balak should give me his house full of silver and gold, I would not be able to go beyond the word of the LORD, to do either good or bad of my own will. What the LORD speaks, that will I speak’?

Balak was frustrated. Not only did he not gain any traction against God’s people, but all his efforts to the contrary only brought further confirmation of God’s blessing on his people. So far, Balak had on each of these three occasions sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams on seven altars. That’s 21 bulls and 21 rams. Just to help wrap my head around what that might have meant, quick search gave me today’s prices; an average bull goes for around $6,000 and a ram around $500 (and those estimates are on the low end); that would total somewhere around $136,500. For nothing. And that doesn’t include the animals sacrificed for the welcome feast. The price of misguided spirituality is high. Not only does it promise and not deliver, it will ultimately cost you everything. The Lord invites us:

Isaiah 55:1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 ​Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.

Jesus said:

Matthew 11:28 ​Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

***

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

Balak king of Moab, out of fear and ignorance of God’s word, hired the renown sorcerer Balaam to curse God’s people; he said:

Numbers 22:5 …“Behold, a people has come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the earth, and they are dwelling opposite me. 6 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.”

The Lord told Balaam

Numbers 22:12 God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.”

For Balaam, this was merely a step in the negotiation process. Balak sent a more prestigious delegation with a more irresistible offer, and Balaam sought a different answer from the Lord. He got his wish;

Numbers 22:20 And God came to Balaam 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.”

Balaam eagerly went on his way,

Numbers 22:22 But God’s anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the LORD took his stand in the way as his adversary. …

Three times his donkey turned away, three times she received a beating from her master.

Numbers 22:32 And the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me. 33 The donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, surely just now I would have killed you and let her live.” 34 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. Now therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I will turn back.” 35 And the angel of the LORD said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but speak only the word that I tell you.” So Balaam went on with the princes of Balak.

Balak received Balaam with a feast, and the next morning brought him to Bamoth-baal, and made seven altars and offered seven bulls and seven rams, and Balaam went to a bare height to hear from YHWH. God sent him back with a message of blessing.

I cannot curse those that YHWH has not cursed. They are a people set apart, they are numerous as the dust, and Balaam expresses his desire to die the death of the upright and be identified with them in the afterlife.

Numbers 23:11 And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them.” 12 And he answered and said, “Must I not take care to speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?”

But he’s not giving up. He thinks maybe a change of scenery, a change of perspective, a different angle might change the outcome.

Blessings From Pisgah (Nebo)

Numbers 23:13 And 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 shall not see them all. Then curse them for me from there.” 14 And he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 15 Balaam said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering, while I meet the LORD over there.” 16 And the LORD met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus shall you speak.” 17 And he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the LORD spoken?”

Same procedure, different location. From the high place of Baal, now to the field of Watchers, to the top of a cleft. Pisgah is identified with Mount Nebo, where Moses went up to see the land from a distance before he died (Dt.3:27; 34:1). The goal is still the same; ‘curse them for me from there.’ Again YHWH graciously puts a word in Balaam’s mouth. ‘What has YHWH spoken?’

Numbers 23:18 And Balaam took up his discourse and said,

“Rise, Balak, and hear;

give ear to me, O son of Zippor:

19 ​God is not 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?

Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

20 Behold, I received a command to bless:

he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.

21 ​He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob,

nor has he seen trouble in Israel.

The LORD their God is with them,

and the shout of a king is among them.

22 ​God brings them out of Egypt

and is for them like the horns of the wild ox.

23 For there is no enchantment against Jacob,

no divination against Israel;

now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,

‘What has God wrought!’

24 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.”

Ontologically Different

God tells us something about himself that we need to know. God is not a man, or a son of man. God is ontologically different than man. He is a different sort of being altogether. God is not a man, and he is not descended from man. Man is the pinnacle of God’s creation, but mankind was created by the uncreated Creator. Moses prayed in Psalm 90

Psalm 90:2 ​Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

God has no beginning or end; he is the uncreated Creator of all that is. God said to Moses ‘I AM that I AM’ (Ex.3:14); Jesus said ‘before Abraham was I AM’ (Jn.8:58).

Balak is fixated on the threat of Israel, and assumes the gods can be manipulated to do what he desires. He needs to know who God is. God is essentially different than his creation. Humanity is dependent; God is independent. God does not change ‘I the LORD do not change’ (Mal.3:6); humanity is constantly changing; we are born, we grow, we die. We lie. We change our minds. We may have the very best of intentions, but circumstances which are out of our control prevent us from doing the thing we intended to do. There are no circumstances outside of God’s control; what he says he will do, what he speaks he will fulfill. God always fulfills his promises, and that is good news for us who have very great and precious promises in the gospel. He who promised is faithful; all God’s promises are ‘yes’ to us in Jesus (2Cor.1:20).

The Command To Bless

This is the first time that Balaam has admitted that he received a command to bless and not to curse. He admits that he is powerless to overcome God’s blessing; if God has blessed, and he has, that is the final word; it cannot be revoked, it cannot be overcome, overturned. God’s blessing is rooted in his own unchanging character. We have God’s word on it.

Imputed Righteousness

Verse 21 is surprising; He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel. In the last blessing, Balaam called them ‘upright’. If you’ve read Numbers so far, this should come as a shock. Numbers is a chronicle of the misfortunes and troubles of rebellious Israel. Grumbling, complaining, rebelling, rejecting God’s promises, rejecting God’s leaders, rejecting God’s promised land. A whole generation sentenced to die in the wilderness for unbelief. Defeat by enemies, lethal serpents, graves of craving, no food, no water, loathing God’s good gifts. How can God say he has not beheld misfortune, nor seen trouble seen in Israel? That’s pretty much all we’ve seen!

The Psalmist cries out in Psalm 130

Psalm 130:3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.

If God keeps record of wrongs, we are all in trouble. But God is a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, forgiving. Not only does he forgive us when we trust in Jesus, but he removes our transgressions from us as far as the east is from the west (Ps.103:12). He forgives, and he will remember our sins no more (Jer.31:34). Not only does he remove our sins from us, but he clothes us in the perfect righteousness of his only Son (Rom.4:6). By faith we ‘receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness’ (Rom.5:17). In Jesus we ‘become the righteousness of God’ (2Cor.5:21). I am ‘found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith’ (Phil.3:9), so that when the Father looks at me, he sees nothing but the perfect righteous record of Jesus Christ.

We’ve seen that God disciplines the one he loves. His purpose is holiness. But here we see that God doesn’t talk about the flaws of his beloved with outsiders.

Ephesians 5:25 …Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

We’ve read the story, we see glaring issues that need to be addressed. But what God says to this pagan sorcerer, this outsider is ‘He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel’.

YHWH God is With Them

‘The LORD their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them’ (v.21). This is a powerful encouragement. God is not far off, blessing from a distance; he is with them, in their midst. ‘There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother’ (Pr.18:24); “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb.13:5)

The tabernacle was the tent of God, in the middle of the camp. The pillar of cloud and fire was a visible manifestation of the presence of God among them. Remember, at this time there was no king in Israel; God was their king in his royal tent, leading and directing them. God’s presence was with them. What an amazing and powerful comfort to have God visibly present among them. God encamped in the middle of the camp of Israel, ministered to by priests, protected by Levites, approached only through blood sacrifices.

Brothers and sisters, we have something better! We do not have the visible presence of God in fire and cloud, we have constant access through faith to the throne of grace! (Rom.5:2; Heb.4:16). We, believers in Jesus, are the temple of the living God (1Cor.3:16; 6:19). The triune God has taken up residence in us (Jn.14:23; Rom.8:9-11). Jesus has truly come to be Immanuel, God With Us! The victory shout of the King of kings is among us!

Wild Ox and Ravenous Lion

In Numbers 22,

Numbers 22:4 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. …

Balak feared the tongue of a domestic ox, but Israel’s God is much more dangerous than he anticipated! God is untameable; ‘He is for them like the horns of the wild ox’ (v.22). The picture is lethal, uncontainable, powerful. If we jump ahead to verse 24 The people are compared to a lioness and a lion on the hunt; ‘it does not lie down until it has devoured the prey and drunk the blood of the slain.’ This is much worse for Moab than an ox licking up the grass. Moab, by its spiritual act of aggression, has drawn the attention of the wild ox, the hungry lion.

No Sorcery Against God’s People

Balak had hoped to weaken Israel by cursing them; in verse 23 Balaam admits: ‘For there is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel’. What he has been hired to do is not possible. God has blessed them, and there is no way by the powers of the occult to overthrow God’s decree of blessing. Numbers 24:1 tells us that enchantment was what Balaam had been attempting in his curses turned to blessings. Divination is what he was hired to perform for Moab. In Deuteronomy 18, participation in these occult activities is comprehensively condemned as abominable to the Lord. No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed (Is.54:17).

What Has God Wrought!

Numbers 23:23 For there is no enchantment against Jacob,

no divination against Israel;

now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,

‘What has God wrought!’

What has God wrought? Stand in awe, in amazement, in worship. Bow the knee; look at what God has done! God took a Jacob, a manipulating thieving deceiving heel-grabber and made promises to him. He had it out with God, and God gave him a limp, and a new name; one who prevails with God, prince of God. God took a Jacob and made him into Israel; God takes sinners and turns them into saints; God made a way for sinners to be forgiven, for their sins to be remembered no more, look what God has done! God took slaves and set them free, he came to dwell among them, to be with them. Look what God has done! He led them through the wilderness, provided for their needs, promised to defeat their enemies before them, to give them a good land. Look what God has done! God viewed them as righteous, a righteousness not their own, righteousness credited to their account; look what God has done! Behold what God has wrought!

***

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

Miriam is dead. Aaron is dead. Moses will not enter the land. He is absent from the narrative of Numbers 22-24. Aaron was commissioned to put YHWH’s name on the people in blessing:

Numbers 6:24 The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Aaron is gone, but God is still able to bless his people, and he can use whomever he wishes.

Israel is camped on the plains of Moab, opposite Jericho. God’s people had taken the long detour around Edom when they refused them passage, because God refused to give Israel the land of their relatives. They passed by Moab and crossed the Arnon into Amorite land and conquered Sihon and Og and possessed the land from the Arnon river to Mt. Hermon in the north, to the borders of Ammon (the Ammonites were also relatives through Abraham). Moab, ignorant of God’s word of protection over them (Dt.2:9), and in fear because of their circumstances, attempted to wage spiritual warfare against this great horde who had already defeated the ones who defeated them. They were no match militarily, so they attempted to weaken them spiritually by hiring the pagan diviner Balaam from Aram. God had forbidden Balaam to go (22:12), but on his persistence, allowed him to go with the clear restriction ‘but only do what I tell you’ (22:20). Because he went, God’s anger was kindled, and he sent his Angel to oppose him ‘because your way is perverse before me’ (22:32). His dumb donkey was more perceptive than the spiritually blind seer, turning away from destruction three times, receiving blows from her master, whose anger was ignited because of the disobedient beast.

Numbers 22:28 Then the LORD 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?”

Balaam’s anger flared against his animal who embarrassed him by disobeying him in order to save his life. God’s anger flared against Balaam, who disobeyed his first command “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed” (22:12).

The Lord has to open the eyes of this spiritual man who claims to have his eyes open, to enable him to see what his donkey had already seen, the Angel of YHWH standing with drawn sword to oppose him. Balaam acknowledges his ignorance of this spiritual being’s presence, confesses his sin, and offers to turn around ‘if it is evil in your sight’ (22:34). If!

Numbers 22:35 And the angel of the LORD said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but speak only the word that I tell you.” So Balaam went on with the princes of Balak.

Balak comes out to meet him, expresses his frustration at the delay, but Balaam has learned just a little from his humbling journey, and answers

Numbers 22:38 …’Have I now any power of my own to speak anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that must I speak.”

Balak sacrifices oxen and sheep, likely as a feast for his esteemed guest, and in the morning he ‘brought him up to Bamoth-baal, and from there he saw a fraction of the people.’

Chapters 23 and 24 consist mainly of Balaam’s four oracles, framed by the preparations to receive a word, and the response to that word.

Preparations for the First Oracle

Numbers 23:1 And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” 2 Balak did as Balaam had said. And Balak and Balaam offered on each altar a bull and a ram. 3 And Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet me, and whatever he shows me I will tell you.” And he went to a bare height, 4 and God met Balaam. And Balaam said to him, “I have arranged the seven altars and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.” 5 And the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 6 And he returned to him, and behold, he and all the princes of Moab were standing beside his burnt offering.

Seven altars, seven bulls, seven rams; numbers like seven were full of symbolism and significance; seven the number of perfection or completion, like the seventh day of rest from creation, or the seven lamps for light in the tabernacle, blood sprinkled seven times to purify or set apart. Here in this occultic context, the number was likely more superstitious.

Balaam said ‘perhaps’. Perhaps YHWH will come to meet with me. He acknowledges that he could not guarantee the effectiveness of his practices, that YHWH God of Israel is free to reveal himself to whom he wishes whenever he wishes; and he is just as free to withhold revelation when he chooses not to reveal himself. Balaam is not in control of this situation; he is subject to YHWH’s will and YHWH’s purposes.

Ezekiel 21 gives us some insight into the occult practices of ancient diviners:

Ezekiel 21:21 For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination. He shakes the arrows; he consults the teraphim; he looks at the liver. 22 Into his right hand comes the divination …

Although we are not told in this passage, it is possible that the liver and other parts of these sacrificial animals were examined in an attempt to discern secret messages. But that is not where the message was received. God met Balaam. Balaam pointed to his procedure of offering seven bulls and seven lambs on seven altars, but YHWH put a word in Balaam’s mouth. God had already demonstrated that he can open a donkey’s mouth, and he can just as well control a pagan diviner’s mouth to speak his truth. Quite apart from any merits of the sacrifices, God chose to reveal himself. He chose to communicate.

Oracle 1: Blessing from Bamoth-baal

And this is the word YHWH gave him to speak:

Numbers 23:7 And Balaam took up his discourse and said,

“From Aram Balak has brought me,

the king of Moab from the eastern mountains:

‘Come, curse Jacob for me,

and come, denounce Israel!’

8 How can I curse whom God has not cursed?

How can I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?

9 For from the top of the crags I see him,

from the hills I behold him;

behold, a people dwelling alone,

and not counting itself among the nations!

10 ​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!”

The LORD is the Source of True Blessing

Balak summoned Balaam to curse Israel; Balak had requested:

Numbers 22:6 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.”

But in Genesis 12, YHWH promised Abram:

Genesis 12:2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

YHWH God claims to be the true source of blessing and cursing, and no pagan diviner, no matter how learned or skilled or powerful in dark arts, can overturn what God has decreed.

After rehearsing the glorious gospel, Paul exults:

Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If God is for us, if God has blessed us, and he has abundantly blessed us in the gospel: he did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all; if God is for us, who can be against us? No physical or supernatural power will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus said:

John 10:27 ​My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 ​I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 ​I and the Father are one.”

We are kept according to 1 Peter 1:5, not by our own strength but by God’s omnipotent power.

A People Set Apart

In verse 9 Balaam describes the character of God’s people as ‘a people dwelling alone, not counting itself (or not counted) among the nations’. God said

Deuteronomy 14:2 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

God’s choice of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob set them apart from every other nation; he gave them laws and customs that distinguished them from all the other nations, ultimately to be a blessing to the nations. They are a holy people, a separate people, a unique people; a people set apart to be God’s own treasured possession. They are not one nation among many, just another people group. They have been set apart, holy to the Lord.

Innumerable as the Dust

And in verse 10 Balaam’s words affirm that the promise of God to Abraham from Genesis 13 has been fulfilled;

Genesis 13:16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.

The Lord re-affirmed this promise to Jacob as he fled from his brother Esau:

Genesis 28:14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

The Glorious End of the Upright

Balaam calls Israel upright, and desires that his own end, his own death and what happens after would be like theirs. He understands that God’s blessings will follow them even beyond death, and he wants to be a part of that. He acknowledges that God’s blessing is on them, and he would rather be identified with righteous Israel than with unrighteous Balaak seeking to bring a curse on them.

Response: What Have You Done To Me?

Numbers 23:11 And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them.” 12 And he answered and said, “Must I not take care to speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?”

Balak’s question is interesting; what have you done to me? He still assumes that the power to bless and to curse resides in Balaam, that God could be manipulated to do what he wishes, that God could be bought with sacrifices of costly animals that ultimately already belong to him. He feels that Balaam has of his own will done the opposite of what he is hiring him to do. He takes it as a personal offense against himself. The question Balak ought to be asking is ‘what have I done to myself?’ Balak and his people, the Moabites, had nothing to fear; as descendants of Abraham’s relative Lot they were under God’s protection. But out of fear and ignorance of God’s word, they sought through the dark arts of a sorcerer to bring a curse on God’s people, and thus put themselves under God’s curse.

Balaam is beginning to learn something; much like his own donkey he is serving as a mouthpiece for the words that YHWH puts in his mouth. The messenger of YHWH stands ready with sword drawn to prevent this greedy sorcerer from going beyond God’s omnipotent word. “Must I not take care to speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?”

An Invitation to Experience God’s Blessing

There is an invitation here; an invitation to experience God’s blessing by blessing Israel. Balaam longed to ‘die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!’ This was not out of his reach. God promised Abram ‘I will bless those who bless you.’ God’s promise is available even to a pagan sorcerer to experience God’s blessing by aligning himself with God and with his people.

Balaam has a choice; continue to pursue temporary gain in a futile attempt to curse those God has blessed, a way that is perverse before him (22:23), or turn and reject the promised riches of Balak and truly seek the blessing of Israel. How will you respond?

***

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

Israel is spread out on the plains of Moab, camped opposite Jericho, the rebellious generation buried in the wilderness, their children now poised to enter the land. Moab, under God’s protection because they were descended from Abraham’s nephew Lot, acting out of fear and ignorance of God’s word, send for a pagan seer with a reputation for blessing and cursing to curse Israel.

They were ignorant of the fact that God forbade Israel to attack Moab or take any of their land (Dt.2:9). They were also ignorant of the fact that God had blessed Israel in his blessing on Abraham. They were ignorant of the promise that YHWH would bless those who bless God’s people, and curse those who dishonor God’s people (Gen.12:3). They foolishly put their faith in a pagan diviner to seek to overturn the promises and blessings of God. But even though Israel was oblivious to the spiritual warfare being waged against them, God stood in their defense.

When the first delegation of princes from Moab came to summon Balaam,

Numbers 22:12 God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.” 13 So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princes of Balak, “Go to your own land, for the LORD has refused to let me go with you.”

God’s answer was clear. But what Balaam didn’t say was telling. Balaam didn’t tell the delegation that he couldn’t curse the people. He didn’t say that God had blessed the people. He didn’t say that he didn’t want to go with them; only that YHWH refused to let him go with them.

The Second Offer; More and More Honorable

Numbers 22:14 So the princes of Moab rose and went to Balak and said, “Balaam refuses to come with us.” 15 Once again Balak sent princes, more in number and more honorable than these. 16 And they came to Balaam and said to him, “Thus says Balak the son of Zippor: ‘Let nothing hinder you from coming to me, 17 for I will surely do you great honor, and whatever you say to me I will do. Come, curse this people for me.’”

Balak did not understand Balaam’s declining of his first offer as a final no, but as a step in negotiating a better price. So he sent more and higher ranking delegates with an open-ended offer. Whatever you want, I will give you.

Seeking Another Answer From God

Numbers 22:18 But Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, “Though Balak 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. 19 So you, too, please stay here tonight, that I may know what more the LORD will say to me.”

Balaam claims not to be able to go beyond the command of YHWH his God. Is Balaam a believer? He claims YHWH to be his God. Is everyone who claims the name of the Lord a true believer? Are all who claim the name of Christ true Christians, genuine followers of Jesus? Jesus says ‘no’.

Matthew 7:21 ​“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 ​On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 ​And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Balaam’s answer sounds like he is determined to obey the Lord, but his words betray his heart; he is still negotiating; he wants more than Balak’s house full of silver and gold. If he was truly determined to not go beyond the command of YHWH, he already has that; “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.” (22:12). Period. That seems pretty clear. Who are these men with you? Why invite them to stay the night? Why seek another word from YHWH, when he has made his will abundantly clear? Is the Lord a man that he should change his mind (Nu.23:19)?

Does God Change His Mind? Whose Voice Will You Heed?

Numbers 22:20 And God came to Balaam 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.”

Does God change his mind? First he says ‘you shall not go with them.’ Now he says ‘rise, go with them’. What is going on here?

God says ‘if’; if the men have come to call you. God knows they were there, he knows why they came. Who are these men with you?The question is not if they are more in number and more honorable men; they are mere men. Will you listen to the voice of man, or the call of God? Whose voice will you heed?

Does God change his mind? Sometimes when we are not satisfied with God’s word to us, and we determined to get a different answer, God ‘gives us our request, but sends leanness into our souls’ (Ps.106:15KJV; Nu.11:18-20). We demonstrate that we want what we want, we do not want him, we are not content to take God at his word and trust that his ways are perfect. When we refuse to take ‘no’ for an answer and demand our own way, sometimes God gives us what we crave, to our own harm.

Numbers 22:20 And God came to Balaam 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.”

If you are determined to listen to the voice of man and go, then go, but my word will be the final word; you must do exclusively what I say. You are free to reject, to choose to disobey my word to your own harm, but my word of blessing, my word of promise cannot be thwarted even by your willful disobedience.

God’s Righteous Anger and The Angel of YHWH as his Satan

The next verse is shocking in sheer brazen defiance. Balaam is mute in his disobedience; he got what he wanted, the Lord’s permission, so without a word,

Numbers 22:21 So Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab. 22 But God’s anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the LORD took his stand in the way as his adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him. 23 And the donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey turned aside out of the road and went into the field. And Balaam struck the donkey, to turn her into the road.

We might wonder why God was angry when Balaam did the thing God gave him permission to do, but when we keep in mind the bigger picture, that Balaam only reluctantly obeyed God’s first word and then sought another word until he got permission to do what he wanted to do, it makes sense. When the angel of YHWH becomes your adversary (the Hebrew word is ‘satan’), and he stands in your way with a drawn sword, you should know that you have chosen the wrong side. But this spiritually gifted see-r is blind to what his donkey sees. The donkey saves his master from God’s wrath by turning aside, and is rewarded with a beating from his blind master.

The Blind Seer and his Seeing Ass

Numbers 22:24 Then the angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on either side. 25 And when the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she pushed against the wall and pressed Balaam’s foot against the wall. So he struck her again.

Again his donkey sees what the man who claims to have his eyes opened is blind to. Again she protects her owner and gets beat for her efforts.

Balaam’s Unrighteous Anger Erupts

Numbers 22:26 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. 27 When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she lay down under Balaam. And Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff.

This third time, with nowhere to turn, this perceptive donkey simply lays down under her master. She refuses to take him to his destruction, despite how much he might deserve it. In verse 22 it was God’s righteous anger that was kindled against Balaam’s determination to go; here Balaam’s unrighteous anger flares against his faithful animal who refuses to go against the Lord’s will, and results in him beating his faithful animal.

A Conversation with His Ass; God Will Use the Humble

If you’ve never heard this account before, this is where the story takes a most surprising turn:

Numbers 22:28 Then the LORD 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?”

God will put words in the mouth of this skilled spiritual seer to speak, but here he shows that he can use anything and anyone to communicate his truth. The reformer Martin Luther took great courage from this text; he wrote:

“And Balaam’s ass was wiser than the prophet himself [Num. 22:21–35]. If God spoke then through an ass against a prophet, why should he not be able even now to speak through a righteous man against the pope?” (LW 44:135-36).

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1

1 Corinthians 1:27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

That a donkey’s mouth was opened to speak to its owner is surprising, but what happens next might be even more shocking; Balaam actually engages in an argument with his animal!

Numbers 22:29 And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.” 30 And the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way?” And he said, “No.”

Balaam is so concerned about his own reputation, he is blind to the danger he is in. Balaam says that his donkey made a fool of him, but he is the fool who went against the clear command of YHWH. This is the famous seer with a reputation for spiritual insight and power, but he is blind to the spiritual realities that his donkey so clearly sees. This is the one with a reputation that his words have power to curse and to bless, but he is impotent to control his own donkey with his words, and wishes for a sword to kill his donkey. His donkey is more reasonable than this spiritual man in a fit of blind rage.

The Seer’s Blind Eyes Opened

Numbers 22:31 Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed down and fell on his face. 32 And the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me. 33 The donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, surely just now I would have killed you and let her live.”

The pagan seer was spiritually blind until YHWH opened his eyes to see the real reality of his situation. Balaam now understands why his donkey laid down under him, and in fear he does the same. If we were in any doubt about the integrity or motives of Balaam, the angel of YHWH clears away the fog; ‘I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me.’ His way was perverse in the sight of the Lord who sees the heart, and for this Balaam deserved to die. But his wise animal was innocent.

Proverbs 12:10 ​Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.

Balaam’s ‘Confession’

Numbers 22:34 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. Now therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I will turn back.”

Balaam starts out in the right direction. He owns his sin, and confesses his own blindness to the spiritual realities around him. But even if he failed to see the invisible angel, he should have known that his heart was opposed to God. Was he really that blind to the condition of his own heart? And he says ‘if’. If? is there any question if it is evil in the sight of the Lord? His angel stood in the way three times to oppose him, and would have killed him if his beast had not turned aside. He declared ‘Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me’. At he very beginning, God had said clearly “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.” How does this blind seer twist this into an ‘if”? Such is the thinking of those blinded by their own desires.

Numbers 22:35 And the angel of the LORD said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but speak only the word that I tell you.” So Balaam went on with the princes of Balak.

God is teaching this pagan diviner a lesson; that he may go willfully on his own way, but God will have the final word. What he says will prevail. Even after all this, Balaam continues down his reckless path.

Numbers 22:36 When Balak 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. 37 And Balak 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?”

Balak expresses his anger toward Balaam’s delay. He took it as an offense against his honor. Who are these men? The question that should still be ringing in Balaam’s ear is ‘who will you listen to?’ But by his actions he has made his choice clear.

Numbers 22:38 Balaam said to Balak, “Behold, I have come to you! Have I now any power of my own to speak anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that must I speak.” 39 Then Balaam went with Balak, and they came to Kiriath-huzoth. 40 And Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep, and sent for Balaam and for the princes who were with him. 41 And in the morning Balak took Balaam and brought him up to Bamoth-baal, and from there he saw a fraction of the people.

Balaam has at least learned something. He confesses his own inability, his own dependence on God. Even the pagan diviner, however reluctantly, has to bow the knee and acknowledge the sovereignty of YHWH God of Israel.

***

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

God has brought his people out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, to Mount Sinai, where he entered into a covenant relationship with them, extended forgiveness to them even when they broke his covenant, led them through the wilderness to his promised land. They rebelled and preferred the familiarity of slavery to the adventures of obedience, and God granted their request; that generation would die in the wilderness, but their children would enter in. Miriam died. Aaron died. Moses would die. Brother Edom (Esau) refused them passage so they took the long detour by way of the Red Sea around Edom. They kept east of Moab, crossed the Arnon into Amorite territory, a people who had taken the land from Moab. Israel defeated Sihon, king of the Amorites and possessed his land to the border of Ammon. Israel defeated Og, the giant-king of Bashan, and possessed all the land from the border of Moab to Mount Hermon in the North.

An Unknown Threat; Balak King of Moab

Meanwhile, and unbeknownst to them, another story was unfolding with Balak king of Moab and the elders of Midian as recorded in Numbers 22-24. An alliance is formed to undermine the strength of Israel and render them vulnerable to attack. A different kind of enemy, a hidden enemy conspires to destroy God’s people.

Anxious for Nothing

Numbers 22:1 Then the people of Israel set out and camped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho. 2 And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. 3 And Moab was in great dread of the people, because they were many. Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel. 4 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.” …

We were told in Numbers 21:26 that “Sihon the king of the Amorites, …had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon.” Now Israel has defeated the one who previously defeated Moab, and Moab is afraid.

These verses describe Moab as ‘in great dread of the people, overcome with fear of the people’. YHWH’s words about Israel’s defeat of Sihon are coming true:

Deuteronomy 2:25 This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

When the bully that beat you up gets beat up, you could draw one of two conclusions; you have a rescuer, or you have a bigger bully to be afraid of. Moab chose the latter. On one level, their fears were accurate and well founded; Israel’s God was fighting for them, and no one can stand against YHWH. But on another level they hand nothing at all to fear. YHWH had said to Moses:

Deuteronomy 2:9 And the LORD said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession, because I have given Ar to the people of Lot for a possession.’

The Moabites were motivated by fear; but their anxiety was entirely unfounded; YHWH had been forbidden Israel to attack Moab. Here’s the thing; it is unlikely that Moab would have know of this word of the Lord to Moses. They simply looked at the recent events and the current circumstances, and drew assumptions. They were anxious for nothing, because they didn’t know God’s word. This is what a lack of the word of God results in. What you don’t know can hurt you!

Now I’m sure none of you have ever looked at recent events and circumstances through the lens of your own fears and made assumptions, even made plans and acted accordingly. Balak looked at Israel camped adjacent to them and what Israel had done to the Amorites, and wrongly assumed Israel’s intentions toward them. I’m sure you’ve never assumed the intentions of another person? You know what you get when you assume? We’ll see more of that next week, as we get farther into this story. Fear is the opposite of faith.

Jesus told his followers in Matthew 6:

Matthew 6:25 ​“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 ​Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 ​“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Seek God, seek his righteousness, seek his kingdom, O you of little faith! Get to know him through his word. Know his word.

Philippians 4:6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Waging Spiritual Warfare

The king of Moab assumed Israel’s intentions, responded out of anxiety and fear, and an ignorance of God’s word. And his response betrayed a greater ignorance of God’s word.

Numbers 22:4 …So Balak the son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at that time, 5 sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor at Pethor, which is near the River in the land of the people of Amaw, 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. 6 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.”

Balak knows he is no match for Israel; they have defeated the kings who previously defeated Moab. It seems he is aware that there was a supernatural aspect to those victories. The God of Israel was fighting for them. So he engages in a different kind of attack; he endeavors to wage spiritual warfare against Israel. He seeks to hire a man with a powerful spiritual reputation from Mesopotamia near the Euphrates river. Balaam’s name was found on inscriptions discovered in a multi-chamber structure in Deir Alla, Jordan, possibly a temple of some sort. Part of the inscription reads ‘the book of [Ba]laam, [son of Beo]r, a seer of the gods. To him came the gods at night. [And they spoke to] him…’

Balaam has a reputation for blessing and cursing. The king of Moab said ‘I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.’ Now that phrase should get your attention if you know your Bible. In Genesis 12,

Genesis 12:1 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God is the source of all true blessing. This was God’s promise to Abram, before he left Haran, likely the same area Balaam was from. Lot, father of the Ammonites and Moabites, left Haran with Abram in response to this word from the Lord. This word should have been passed down and known to the Ammonites and Moabites. But the king of Moab is apparently unfamiliar with this, and he attributes the power of blessing and cursing to a pagan diviner.

Joshua 13 describes Balaam as ‘the one who practiced divination’. Deuteronomy 18 warns:

Deuteronomy 18:9 “When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, 14 for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this. 15 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—

This kind of spiritual warfare is real, but it is forbidden to God’s people. It is an abomination to him, because he has given us something so much better. He has given us his own infallible word. God spoke through Moses, and Moses points to someone greater, to a prophet like me, a prophet who does not hear in dreams and visions, but knows the Lord, speaks to him face to face. Moses commands us to listen to the coming prophet, the better Mediator, the only begotten Son of God, to Jesus. If we have God’s incarnate Word, access to the throne of grace through the blood of Jesus, his own Holy Spirit living in us, why would we seek any other word?

Who is Your Lord?

Numbers 22:7 So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand. And they came to Balaam and gave him Balak’s message. 8 And he 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 Balaam. 9 And God came to Balaam and said, “Who are these men with you?”

This is interesting. Balaam uses YHWH, the covenant name of God. Does this mean that Balaam is a believer in the true God, or just that someone in his line of work has to know all the names of all the different deities?

God speaks to Balaam. “Who are these men with you?” Why does the omniscient God asks questions? Not because he lacks information. He asks questions to make us think, to teach us, to cause us to search our own hearts. When God shows up in the garden after Adam rebelled, and asks ‘where are you?’ (Gen.3:9). He’s not asking about a location on a map; he’s asking about the condition of his heart. He’s giving him an opportunity to confess, to come clean. It’s not that God doesn’t know who these men are or where they came from or why they are there. He’s pursuing this pagan diviner. Balaam knows something of YHWH, he knows his name, but if he knows anything about this God, he knows he is using methods and taking direction from men that are opposed to God and his people. Will Balaam do things his own way, will he hire himself out for riches to do a job he knows is directly opposed to YHWH God of Israel? Who will he obey? To whom will he bow the knee? Who is your Lord? Will you serve YHWH, or an earthly king, or yourself and your own desires? God is speaking to Balaam, revealing himself to Balaam, inviting him to examine his heart, his motives, his allegiances, who he’s listening to, what he’s doing, where he’s going, and why.

Balaam’s answer is more in the line of giving God a summary of the information, as if he didn’t know already.

Numbers 22:10 And Balaam said to God, “Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent to me, saying, 11 ‘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.’” 12 God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.” 13 So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princes of Balak, “Go to your own land, for the LORD has refused to let me go with you.”

God’s command is clear. ‘You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people’ and he gives the reason ‘for they are blessed’.

Balaam appears to follow God’s command. ‘Go, for YHWH has refused to let me go with you.’ But what Balaam leaves out is more telling than what he says. He lays the blame on YHWH for forbidding him to go. It is not reluctance on the part of Balaam; he is willing. And he leaves out God’s second command ‘you shall not curse the people’. And he leaves out this foundational truth ‘because they are blessed’.

It would be good if the story ended here (and we’re going to leave off here for this week), but I want us to think about what God says.

God’s Purpose to Bless

You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed. Deuteronomy 7 says:

Deuteronomy 7:6 “…The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

God chose to set his love on them; God is determined to bless them. We’ve been walking with this grumbling and complaining people through the wilderness, as they have rejected God and experienced his discipline. This disobedient people, a whole generation of whom have died in the wilderness, are blessed? ‘The Lord disciplines the one he loves’ (Heb.12:6).

The Israelites have no idea what is happening behind the scenes; they are completely oblivious to the spiritual warfare that is being waged against them. But God sees, God knows, God is standing in their defense. God is not discussing with Balaam their faults, failures and flaws; he simply says ‘they are blessed.’ Why? Because God chose to bless them. And the one God blesses is blessed.

***

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

Numbers 20 chronicles death; death of Miriam, death promised to Moses and Aaron, the death of Aaron the high priest, and the transfer of his responsibility to his son Eleazar to serve the next generation.

Numbers 21, this next generation faces opposition and cries out to the Lord for help, and he gives them victory where they had previously been defeated. But their hearts still need to be transformed. There is no water, and so they speak venomous words against the Lord and against Moses. They call his good gifts, his provision ‘worthless’. They called the bread from heaven ‘worthless’. Jesus said:

John 6:33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” …35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

In a conversation about God’s miraculous provision of manna in the wilderness, Jesus claimed to be the bread who comes down from heaven, the bread of God. In describing this bread as ‘worthless’, they foreshadow a rejection of God’s provision in Jesus, and outside of Jesus there is nothing but to be given over to the power of the serpent. But as rebels, through their mediator, they cried out for rescue, and God decreed that his own curse on them be lifted up for all to look at, and whoever would look would live (Jn.6:40). You, who have spurned Jesus as insufficient, not enough for you, deemed his cross repulsive, repugnant, offensive, recognize your desperate situation and look to Jesus, lifted up on a cross, who became a curse for you; turn away from you sins, turn to Jesus, look and live!

Numbers 21 records the beginnings of transformation in this next generation. They began by seeking the Lord’s help and experiencing his gift of victory, but they tried out their parents’ habit of grumbling and complaining, and found that it ends in death. They confessed their sin, and God provided a way for them to escape the death they deserved.

Turning Sorrows into Song; March to the Land

In the rest of Numbers 21 we see a transformation of their grumbling and complaining into rejoicing, celebration of God’s provision, into song. The people begin to turn their sorrows into singing.

Numbers 21:10 And the people of Israel set out and camped in Oboth. 11 And they set out from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness that is opposite Moab, toward the sunrise. 12 From there they set out and camped in the Valley of Zered. 13 From there they set out and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that extends from the border of the Amorites, for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. 14 Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the LORD, “Waheb in Suphah, and the valleys of the Arnon, 15 and the slope of the valleys that extends to the seat of Ar, and leans to the border of Moab.”

This travel narrative advances quickly toward the land. It is a staccato list of the movement of the people (a more complete list is in Numbers 33); there is no narrative, no record of grumbling or complaining. After the detour around Edom by way of the Red Sea, they travel north crossing the brook Zered east of Moab and then across the Arnon river into Amorite territory.

God gave specific instructions in Deuteronomy 2 not to engage Edom or the descendants of Esau in battle, for he had given them the region of Seir as a possession. He warned them not to engage Moab or the descendants of Lot, for he had given them Ar as a possession. Later he would warn not to attack Ammon, the other descendants of Lot. Crossing the Arnon would bring them into Amorite territory, a people who were not related to Abraham. An excerpt from ‘the Book of the Wars of YHWH’ is cited, a scrap of poetry or song describing the geography of the area. They sing of the valleys, the slopes, the rivers.

God’s Gracious Provision: Water

Numbers 21:16 And from there they continued to Beer; that is the well of which the LORD said to Moses, “Gather the people together, so that I may give them water.” 17 Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, O well!—Sing to it!— 18 the well that the princes made, that the nobles of the people dug, with the scepter and with their staffs.” …

Here YHWH himself takes the initiative. ‘Gather the people together that I may give them water’. God knows our needs before we even ask (or complain; Mt.6:8). Sometimes the Lord withholds his blessings until we look to him, until we are gathered together so that we recognize it is the Lord that is providing our needs. Here the people are gathered together to receive a gift from the Lord, and here for the first time since crossing the Red Sea (Ex.15:1), they break into song. Spring up O well! Rather than leading them to an oasis, rather than striking or speaking to a rock, this time they were gathered together to dig a well at the Lord’s direction. This could be a work song, as the people encouraged one another to dig. Notice this was not top-down leadership, where the princes and nobles sat under palm branches while they supervised the workers working. No, the leaders led by serving, by digging, working together at the instruction of the Lord to provide water for the people. And this was an occasion for singing, celebrating the provision of the Lord (Ps.5:11). He alone is the source of our every blessing.

Sihon King of the Amorites Defeated

Numbers 21:18 …And from the wilderness they went on to Mattanah, 19 and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth, 20 and from Bamoth to the valley lying in the region of Moab by the top of Pisgah that looks down on the desert. 21 Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, 22 “Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into field or vineyard. We will not drink the water of a well. We will go by the King’s Highway until we have passed through your territory.” 23 But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. He gathered all his people together and went out against Israel to the wilderness and came to Jahaz and fought against Israel.

The Amorites were among the Canaanite tribes that the Lord had promised all the way back to Abram (even before he was renamed Abraham) that he would drive out before them (Gen.15:16-21). In fact it was the Amorites whose iniquity would bring about God’s judgment when he led his people in to dispossess them.

The people sent a diplomatic message to Sihon king of the Amorites with the same offer they had made to Edom; Sihon responded the same way; he refused them passage and mustered his army to meet Israel in the wilderness.

But this time went differently.

Numbers 21:24 And Israel defeated him with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as to the Ammonites, for the border of the Ammonites was strong. 25 And Israel took all these cities, and Israel settled in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages. 26 For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon.

The history given here that the Amorites had taken this land from the former king of Moab becomes important 300 years later in Judges 11 when the Ammonites come against Jephthah and demand he return the land Israel took from them. He responded that the land in dispute was not taken from Ammon, but from the Amorites, who took it from Moab, and Israel will possess whatever YHWH gives them to possess; Ammon can possess whatever their god Chemosh has given them to possess (Jud.11:21-24).

This time, with no divine prohibition to prevent them, Israel engaged in battle with the Canaanites. Where their fathers were afraid even to attempt to approach the inhabitants, their children stepped out in faith and the Lord gave them victory. Again they break into song.

Numbers 21:27 Therefore the ballad singers say, “Come to Heshbon, let it be built; let the city of Sihon be established. 28 For fire came out from Heshbon, flame from the city of Sihon. It devoured Ar of Moab, and swallowed the heights of the Arnon. 29 ​Woe to you, O Moab! You are undone, O people of Chemosh! He has made his sons fugitives, and his daughters captives, to an Amorite king, Sihon. 30 So we overthrew them; Heshbon, as far as Dibon, perished; and we laid waste as far as Nophah; fire spread as far as Medeba.” 31 Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites. 32 And Moses sent to spy out Jazer, and they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.

This is a victory song, a taunt song mocking the powerless false gods of other nations. Moab’s god Chemosh has sold his sons and daughters to an Amorite king, and now YHWH has shown himself more powerful than even the victorious Amorites or their false gods. It matters what god you worship! The Lord gave his people total victory over their enemy.

Og King of Bashan Defeated; The Battle Belongs to the Lord

Numbers 21:33 Then they turned and went up by the way to Bashan. And Og the king of Bashan came out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. 34 But the LORD said to Moses, “Do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand, and all his people, and his land. And you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.”

Here YHWH gives them a word of encouragement; ‘do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand’. Was not the previous victory enough to carry them on? We learn from Deuteronomy 3 that:

Deuteronomy 3:1 (For only Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its breadth, according to the common cubit.)

Og was a remnant of the Rephaim, a giant whose bed was 13.5 feet long and 6 feet wide, and it was put on display by the Ammonites in Rabbah. This is exactly what ignited fear in the 10 spies:

Numbers 13:28 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. …33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

Rephaim, Anakim, Nephilim. Goliath was 9.5’ tall (1Sam17:4). Giants. ‘Do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand’. When David faced Goliath he understood

1 Samuel 17:46 This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, …that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.”

‘The battle belongs to YHWH. That the earth may know that there is a God in Israel’

Numbers 21:35 So they defeated him and his sons and all his people, until he had no survivor left. And they possessed his land.

Deuteronomy 3 records

Deuteronomy 3:4 And we took all his cities at that time—there was not a city that we did not take from them—sixty cities, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 5 All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides very many unwalled villages. 6 And we devoted them to destruction, …

A Greater Purpose: The Fame of the Name of YHWH

These lands east of the Jordan were given to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. But there was a greater purpose in all this.

Deuteronomy 2:24 ‘Rise up, set out on your journey and go over the Valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession, and contend with him in battle. 25 This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

YHWH making a name for himself; In Joshua 2, Rahab told the spies:

Joshua 2:9 and said to the men, “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. 10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. 11 And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.

The people of Gibeon deceived Israel into making a covenant with them:

Joshua 9:9 …because of the name of the LORD your God. For we have heard a report of him, and all that he did in Egypt, 10 and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon the king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth.

God is glorified when he triumphs over his enemies, when he extends mercy to those who turn to him, and when his people rejoice and sing. Psalm 135 says:

Psalm 135:8 He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and of beast; 9 who in your midst, O Egypt, sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants; 10 ​who struck down many nations and killed mighty kings, 11 ​Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan, 12 and gave their land as a heritage, a heritage to his people Israel. 13 Your name, O LORD, endures forever, your renown, O LORD, throughout all ages. 14 ​For the LORD will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants.

The fame of the name of YHWH, his renown endures forever. YHWH vindicates his people, and has compassion on his servants.

God’s fame, his renown, is put on display most eloquently in the name above every name (Phil.2), the name of Jesus, who humbled himself to become human, to become obedient to death, even death on a cross, to rescue rebels. He was lifted up on a cross, so that whoever would acknowledge their need for him, look to him for rescue, would be given the gift of eternal life.

***

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

We’re in Numbers 21. Numbers 1-12 record the exodus generation organized and on the march to God’s promised land. Numbers 13 they sent spies to survey the land, 10 of whom brought back an evil report, the people turned away in fear rather than moving forward in faith; they desired the comfort of what they knew back in slavery rather than taking God at his word, who offered great and precious promises. The wages of their sin was death; that entire generation would fall in the wilderness, but the Lord promised that their children would enter in. Numbers 20 jumps ahead to 40 years after the exodus from Egypt, when the last of that generation was being buried in the wilderness. Chapter 20 begins with the death of Miriam, prophetess of Israel, it ends with the death of Aaron, high priest of Israel, and in the middle records the sin and rebellion of Moses and Aaron; even the leaders rebelled against the Lord and would fall in the wilderness.

Hormah; Devoted to Destruction

If you remember back to the end of chapter 14, after the people had rejected the Lord, his land and his leaders, after God hand decreed that the rebellious generation would fall in the wilderness, they presumed to go up in their own strength and take the land.

Numbers 14:40 And they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place that the LORD has promised, for we have sinned.” 41 But Moses said, “Why now are you transgressing the command of the LORD, when that will not succeed? 42 Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, lest you be struck down before your enemies. 43 For there the Amalekites and the Canaanites are facing you, and you shall fall by the sword. Because you have turned back from following the LORD, the LORD will not be with you.” 44 But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, although neither the ark of the covenant of the LORD nor Moses departed out of the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them and pursued them, even to Hormah.

Now here we are, almost 40 years later, with the children of that generation.

Numbers 21:1 When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negeb, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive. 2 And Israel vowed a vow to the LORD and said, “If you will indeed give this people into my hand, then I will devote their cities to destruction.” 3 And the LORD heeded the voice of Israel and gave over the Canaanites, and they devoted them and their cities to destruction. So the name of the place was called Hormah.

Hormah is the noun form of the word ‘charam’ used in verse 2 and 3 that means ‘set apart’ or ‘devoted’; set apart as an offering to God, devoted to destruction. At the end of chapter 14, it was Israel who was devoted to destruction because of their unbelief and disobedience. Here in chapter 21 we see something different. Israel begins to pray. They begin to look to the Lord for help, for rescue. And when his people cry out to the Lord for help, he hears them. He answers. He gives them good gifts. He is their protection. He is their salvation. He is their victory.

This new generation has learned something from watching their parents’ rebel against the Lord. There is a change in this next generation. They look to the Lord for help, and he gives them good gifts. The Lord begins to make good on his promises to defeat their enemies before them.

Works, Grace, and Responding to Adversity

But the more things change, the more they stay the same. It is difficult to unlearn the patterns impressed on the children by their parents.

Numbers 21:4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”

In chapter 20, Edom (another name for the descendants of Esau) refused them passage through their land, and because the Lord warned that he would not give them any of the land of Esau (Dt.2:4-5), they turned back and went the long route around Edom. This no doubt was a disappointing and discouraging detour.

What do you do when things don’t seem to go your way? You’ve been obedient, you’ve experienced victory, and now you expect the Lord will open the path before you and make things work out for you. But God is never obligated to do for us what we want, or what seems best to us. His ways are higher than ours. God has promised blessings; I want them now! Do you get impatient? Patience is fruit that the Spirit produces. Do you question God, his motives, his character, his goodness? Do you accuse him of evil intentions? Or do you just grumble and complain?

We want a works based relationship; if I follow the rules, then God is obligated to reward me with what I want, whether that’s possessions, power, pleasure, peace, excitement, health, comfort, or just a smooth path with no potholes and no detours. But if we understand what we really deserve, we don’t want a works based relationship; we don’t want what we deserve; we need grace. And when we begin to realize God’s purpose in trials, in difficulties, in hardships, in suffering, we will respond with joy.

Romans 5:3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (cf. 1Pet.1:5-7; Jas.1:2-4; Mt.5:11-12)

When we know what our trials are meant to produce, we can rejoice in them. But that’s not what Israel did. They followed in the footsteps of their parents, and grumbled and complained. But they didn’t simply repeat the complaints of their parents; they escalated it. ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?’ We’ve heard that before. But they go on ‘For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.’ Wow. We loathe, we detest, we abhor this nothing food. The Lord rained down bread from heaven; the Psalmist says ‘Man ate of the bread of the angels; he sent them food in abundance’ (Ps.78:23-25). Abundant food, more than enough; the bread of angels, and they called it worthless food, nothing food, and they loathed it.

The Sin of Ingratitude and the Gift of Repentance

How easy it is to lose our sense of gratitude for all God’s good gifts. We fail to honor God as God and give him thanks, and our foolish hearts are darkened (Rom.1:21). Did you know that sin is more than the bad things we do; it is also our failure to do the good we ought?

When we fail to honor God as God and give him thanks for the good gifts he gives us, that is sin. Not because God is needy or easily offended, but because he loves us and knows that selfishness and ingratitude are not paths to fulfillment.

Numbers 21:6 Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

The wages of sin is death. The death penalty for complaining? That might seem severe, but the punishment fits the crime. To speak against the Lord who gives you life and breath and everything, to reject his good gifts and call them evil, it seems appropriate for him to withdraw those gifts that you are rejecting and give you what you ask for. Deuteronomy 8 describes the wilderness God brought them safely through to be a ‘great, fearful wilderness of venomous serpents and scorpions’ (Dt.8:15). There are dangers from which God protects us that we may be completely oblivious to.

To let us persist in our ingratitude and entitlement would be a most unloving response. His holy wrath is perfectly compatible with his character as love, because love seeks to wake us from the danger we put ourselves in by our self-centeredness and dishonor of him. We need to be taught that our hearts are poisoned and that our condition is lethal to our very souls.

And that is what happened here. They were given the gift of repentance (2Tim.2:25). They responded ‘we have sinned’. They owned it, they didn’t make excuses or attempt to justify; they confessed their sin, they agreed with God that their sin was their own and that it was utterly sinful. They acknowledged their sin and that they were getting what they deserved, and they asked for grace. Pray for us. Ask God to take away the just judgment that we deserve. They asked their mediator to pray for them because in their rebellion they needed someone else to advocate for them. Moses prayed, and God answered.

The Curse Crushed; Look and Live!

Numbers 21:8 And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

This is a fascinating remedy! God’s curse on them became the thing to which they must look to live. This was shocking on multiple levels. The enmity between mankind and the serpent is rooted all the way back to the garden, where ‘the great dragon…, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world’ (Rev.12:9) deceived the woman into self-centered rebellion and was put under God’s curse (Gen.3:14-15). To look at an image of the serpent, a reminder of the curse and our original rebellion which brought death into this world, was offensive. We don’t like to be reminded of our failures. We don’t want our sins pointed out. We don’t want to be reminded that the wages of our sin is death, and that we are all destined to die.

This seems like a foolish solution. Their prayer was that the Lord would take away the serpents. But that would not help the people that had already been bitten. Give us a remedy, a solution, something to drink, some herb to apply that will counteract the venom of the snakes. Something that will ease the pain. Show us what we need to do to make it better. Look at a bronze serpent on a pole? How can that possibly help? That’s too simple, too easy to be effective. That just doesn’t make any sense. But that is exactly what God said to do. They had been given God’s word on it. ‘Everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.’ That was God’s promise. It wasn’t that the snake on the pole had any intrinsic healing properties; it was that God proscribed this method to heal those bitten.

And it wasn’t a preventative measure; looking at the snake didn’t give you immunity from being bitten; it was only those who already had felt the sting of death, who already had the deadly venom coursing through their veins, who would look and live.

The Backstory of John 3:16

This is the backstory to John 3:16. Jesus tells a Pharisee, a religious leader of the Jews ‘you must be born again, born from above, born of the Spirit’. Jesus explains:

John 3:13 ​No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 ​Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Jesus said ‘Moses wrote of me’ (Jn.5:46). Here’s another example. What Moses was instructed to do in the wilderness was a picture of Jesus. The Son of Man must be lifted up on a cross to die.

Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

Jesus was lifted up and publicly displayed as accursed. He was condemned as a criminal. He became a curse for us. The sinless Son of God became sin for me!

2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

This is the way God loved us, by giving us his only Son, to be lifted up on a cross, to take my sin, my curse, to take my shame and guilt, to bear the wrath of God that should have been poured out on me. Jesus, lifted up on a cross, so that whoever believes; if you today look to him as the one who takes away your sin, if you look to him as the one who paid your price, if you look to him as your only hope, ‘whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.’

But that’s too simple, too easy! Yes, it is that simple. But it’s not easy. You have to let go of your pride, your determination to have some part in your own salvation, to do something, to fix it, to contribute in some way. You have to be willing to admit that you are desperate, that you deserve death, and ask for a gift you don’t deserve. You have to humble yourself enough to receive a free handout. Grace.

If you today realize you are terminal, you are a sinner, and as a sinner you deserve God’s righteous wrath to be poured out on you, that you have the venom of the snake coursing through your veins, look to Jesus! ‘Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.’

***

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

Today is a really important day for the church; today we celebrate the birthday of the church. No, I’m not talking about Ephraim Church of the Bible; I’m talking about THE Church, Jesus’ church, of which we are a tiny part. He said in Matthew 16 “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Here we are, more than 2,000 years later, on the other side of the planet, at the ends of the earth, and the gates of hell are still not prevailing over Jesus’ church.

We’ve been walking with the people of Israel through the wilderness in our study through the book of Numbers, and I’d like to make some connections and give some background on Pentecost to help us see and appreciate this holy day. Pentecost is a Greek word that means ‘fifty’, for the feast of Weeks or Firstfruits, originally mentioned by God in Exodus 23 and 34, and the detailed instructions are given in Leviticus 23.

Passover – Unleavened Bread – Firstfruits – Weeks

Leviticus 23:4-5 give instructions for the LORD’s Passover, on the fourteenth day of the first month, commemorating that first Passover when God set his people free from Egypt. Verses 6-8 give instructions for the feast of unleavened bread, which began the day after the Passover, when Israel was to eat unleavened bread for seven days, remembering the haste with which they left Egypt. Verses 9-14 instruct the offering of firstfruits of the early barley harvest on the Sunday during that feast of unleavened bread. Then in verses 15-21 describe counting seven weeks or fifty days from that early firstfruits offering to the seventh Sunday, the feast of Weeks or Firtstfruits of the wheat harvest.

So Pentecost, or the feast of weeks, is inextricably connected with Passover. 1 Corinthians 5:7 says

1 Corinthians 5:7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

50 days ago (or 7 weeks ago), we celebrated Resurrection Sunday, and three days before that, Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified as our Passover Lamb. 1 Corinthians 15:20 says

1 Corinthians 15:20 …Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

40 Days Resurrection to Ascension

Now here we are, 50 days after Easter, celebrating Pentecost. Remember back to Good Friday and Easter Sunday? That feels like a long time ago. The good news message we believe and proclaim is that Christ died for our sins, was buried, was raised on the third day, appeared to many, and ascended to the right hand of his Father in glory. I don’t know about you, but I tend to compress those events together; death, burial, resurrection, ascension. I know that Jesus died on a Friday, was buried before sunset Friday night when the Sabbath began, and was raised early Sunday morning. I know he appeared to the women, and to the disciples, and a week later to the disciples with Thomas. And Luke records:

Luke 24:50 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51 While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,

Luke seems to make it sound like the ascension followed rather quickly after the resurrection. But if we continue on to Luke’s second volume, what we know as the book of Acts, we read this:

Acts 1:1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

Forty days. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, spending time with his disciples, teaching them. How do we know the gospels are accurate? How do we know that the disciples, who seemed clueless during the time Jesus was with them, got it right? How do we know that we can trust what they wrote? One reason is this, that Jesus spent 40 days with them, teaching them. 40 days to ask questions, to reminisce, to remember, 40 days for the lights to turn on as they finally began to get what he meant by so many of the things that he said. In Acts 10, Peter preached the good news of peace through Jesus Christ who is Lord of all:

Acts 10:39 …They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

We ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. In Acts 13, Paul proclaimed the message of salvation in Jesus, crucified, buried, raised,

Acts 13:31 and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.

For many days. Jesus appeared to his disciples ‘for many days’. Luke quantifies this as 40 days.

We get a snapshot of this in Luke 24 with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, where Jesus listened to their confusion, and then taught them:

Luke 24:26 ​Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Jesus gave them an Old Testament Bible study showing them that all the Scriptures pointed to him!

We are given some more snapshots in John’s gospel; After the accounts of Jesus’ interactions with the women who came to the tomb, and with his disciples, and then a week later with Thomas, John writes

John 20:30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

And then John gives us another snapshot of Jesus’ interaction with his disciples in Galilee by the sea.

Paul reminds us of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15; that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, was raised,

1 Corinthians 15:5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

Wait For the Promise of the Father (Luke 24; Acts 1)

These appearances took place over 40 days. But there was more. In Luke 24, Jesus

Luke 24:44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 ​You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

And in the next verses, he ascended. After 40 days of spending time with his disciples, teaching them, opening their minds to understand the Scriptures, before he ascended, he told them to wait. I am about to send you on mission to the nations, but wait. Stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Luke recaps in Acts 1

Acts 1:1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. 4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

Jesus spent 40 days with them, and before he ascended, “while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father”; “you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses…” 40 days after his firstfruits resurrection, he ascended to the Father, and he commanded his disciples to wait. 10 days later, 50 days after the resurrection, on Pentecost Sunday,

Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Wait until you receive the promise of the Father; Jesus had taught his disciples in John 14-16 of the promised Helper who had dwelt with them and would then live in them,

John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Exodus – Pentecost Parallels

If we jump back to Exodus, we see a lot of similarities between the origin of the feasts and their fulfillment.

Israelite and Egyptian were both in danger until the Passover lamb was killed, the blood applied to the homes of those who would be protected from the wrath of God. God saved his people from his own judgment, and delivered them out of slavery, brought them to the mountain, where he entered into a covenant with them and took them to be his people. Some time later, they were gathered at the foot of Sinai experiencing the thunder and lightning, fire and smoke and thick darkness of God’s holy presence as he revealed to them his holy law.

Both Israel at Sinai and the followers of Jesus in the upper room in Jerusalem were newly redeemed people, redeemed by the blood of the lamb; Israel by thousands of literal lambs whose blood was applied to the doors of their dwellings; the disciples by the blood of the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (Jn.1:29; 1Pet.1:18-19).

Moses, the mediator of the Old Covenant, went up on the mountain alone, away from the people to meet with God for 40 days, insulating the people from God’s holy presence (Ex.24:18). But Jesus, mediator of a better covenant (Heb.8:6), spent 40 days with his followers, God with us (Mt.1:23; Jn.1:14), teaching them, instructing them, eating with them, spending time with them.

In both, God’s presence was made known through fire; fire and thick darkness on the mountain, from which the people fled in terror, then a pillar of fire and cloud descending on the Tabernacle, again separated from the people by the tabernacle courts and the priests and Levites camped around the tabernacle. But the fire of God’s presence came down on each one of Jesus’ followers, setting them apart as God’s temple, the place where his glory now dwells.

1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

Both Israel and Jesus’ followers entered into a covenant; Israel entered into the Old Covenant, which they failed to keep, and their dead bodies fell in the wilderness (Heb.3:17). Jesus made a new covenant in his blood (Lk.22:20). The old covenant was written on tablets of stone; the new on tablets of human hearts (2Cor.3:3); the old covenant letter kills, but the New Covenant gift of the Holy Spirit gives life (2Cor.3:6). No longer an outward standard against which we are measured and found wanting, but inward Holy Spirit transformation, by which we are made perfect forever (Heb.7:18-19).

This is the promise of the Father, the New Covenant transformation of the heart by the Spirit of the living God. Ezekiel 36 says:

Ezekiel 36:25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Jeremiah 31 says:

Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

John the baptizer said:

Matthew 3:11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

This is the New Covenant blessing we now enjoy;

Ephesians 1:13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

***

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

In Numbers 20, we are in the first month of the 40^th year after the Lord set his people free from slavery in Egypt. That first generation witnessed the ten plagues, went through the Red Sea, saw God destroy their enemies, saw God reveal himself in dark cloud and fire on Mount Sinai, where he entered into a covenant with them to be their God and he took them to be his people. Before the contract was even delivered, they had been unfaithful and broken it, but he forgave and promised to be with them. They followed his instructions to build him a tent so that he could dwell in the middle of their camp. The Lord organized the tribes around his tent, organized them for the march to his promised land, and had the military age men numbered. Following God’s pillar of cloud and fire, when they arrived at the borders of the land, they sent spies, ten of whom brought an evil report, and the people rejected the Lord, his land and his leaders and desired to return to slavery. Their rejection got them what they asked for; their dead bodies would fall in the wilderness, but God would keep his promise to their children; the next generation would enter his land. Numbers 20 jumps ahead to the last of that generation falling in the wilderness. Even their leaders would die outside the land for their disobedience. Miriam died, Moses and Aaron failed to treat the Lord as holy and would join their generation falling outside the land. Only two of that generation would enter in, the faith filled spies Caleb and Joshua.

At the beginning of this chapter, Miriam died. The people complained of no water, and in an extension of amazing grace, Moses and Aaron were instructed simply to speak to the rock and it would give its water to the people to satisfy their thirst. Instead, they spoke to the people a harsh word of condemnation, took credit for God’s miraculous provision, and struck the rock twice. God in his grace met the people’s need, but the disobedience of Aaron and Moses cost them entry to the promised land. They missed an opportunity to put on display the amazing grace of God, giving the people what they don’t deserve. The Lord will defend the honor of his holiness, even when it is his chosen leaders who despise his grace.

Attempted Diplomacy with Esau/Edom

In verse 14, we see diplomatic negotiations with the king of Edom.

Numbers 20:14 Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: “Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the hardship that we have met: 15 how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time. And the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers. 16 And when we cried to the LORD, he heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt. And here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your territory. 17 Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or vineyard, or drink water from a well. We will go along the King’s Highway. We will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.”

Usually addressing a king, a more humble deferential term is used, like servant or slave. But here Moses introduces the people as ‘your brother’; there is a familial tie, a family obligation. This is not a subordinate making a request to a superior, this is a sibling.

The people of Edom are the descendants of Esau, Jacob’s twin brother. Genesis 36 tells us that ‘Esau is Edom’. Edom sounds like the Hebrew word ‘red’, reminding us both of Esau’s appearance at birth, and how he sold his birthright for a bowl of red lentil stew (Gen.25:30). Later Jacob deceived his father and stole the blessing from his brother as well. The relationship between Jacob (renamed Israel) and his brother Esau had been strained ever since.

Moses recounts both their hardships and the Lord’s faithfulness to them; they were harshly treated in Egypt, but when Israel cried out to YHWH, God sent his Angel, his Messenger to deal harshly with their oppressors and set them free with his mighty hand. This could be taken as both a threat and a promise; threat of judgment on those who mistreat God’s people, and a promise of blessing on those who bless them.

The request is simple; safe passage, without any expectation of hospitality. They will not take anything from Edom, neither water nor provisions.

Numbers 20:18 But Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through, lest I come out with the sword against you.”

Their request is flatly rejected, with a threat of violence. But Israel gives diplomacy another opportunity.

Numbers 20:19 And the people of Israel said to him, “We will go up by the highway, and if we drink of your water, I and my livestock, then I will pay for it. Let me only pass through on foot, nothing more.”

The terms of strict respect for property are restated with the offer of remuneration for any damages or anything taken.

Numbers 20:20 But he said, “You shall not pass through.” And Edom came out against them with a large army and with a strong force. 21 Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory, so Israel turned away from him.

Diplomacy failed to secure the desired direct passage to the promised land. Rather than engage in battle, Israel turned away to take a long circuitous route to the land, a route we will see in the next chapter that caused frustration and grumbling among the people.

We don’t see any prayer, any seeking the Lord’s direction for guidance in this situation. But Moses recounts in Deuteronomy 2

Deuteronomy 2:2 Then the LORD said to me, 3 ‘You have been traveling around this mountain country long enough. Turn northward 4 and command the people, “You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful. 5 Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. 6 You shall purchase food from them with money, that you may eat, and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink. 7 For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”’

The Lord had warned Moses to be careful with Edom, the people of Esau. He warned them not to contend with them. And he made clear that he would not give them any of their land. He reminds them of how YHWH God has blessed them and been with them, that he is the source of every good thing.

Deuteronomy 2:8 So we went on, away from our brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the Arabah road from Elath and Ezion-geber. “And we turned and went in the direction of the wilderness of Moab.

Later in Numbers, the pagan prophet Balaam will prophesy that Edom will be dispossessed (Nu.24:18), and in 2 Samuel 8, David subjugated Edom along with many other nations (2Sam.8:11-14).

Aaron Gathered to His People

Numbers 20:22 And they journeyed from Kadesh, and the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor. 23 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom, 24 “Let Aaron be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land that I have given to the people of Israel, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. 25 Take Aaron and Eleazar his son and bring them up to Mount Hor. 26 And strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron shall be gathered to his people and shall die there.”

This chapter began with the death of Miriam, in the middle even Moses and Aaron act in unbelief and rebel against the command of the Lord and are excluded from the promised land, and now the chapter ends with the death of Aaron the anointed high priest. The wages of sin is death. There are grave consequences for unbelief, for failing to treat the Lord as holy.

Moses, Aaron and Eleazar are to go up to the top of Mount Hor for this grim task. Aaron is stripped of his holy garments that designated him as high priest of the nation, the ephod with two onyx stones engraved with the names of the tribes, stones of remembrance which he bore before the Lord on his two shoulders for remembrance (Ex.28:12); the breastpiece with 12 engraved stones that he bore over his heart to bring the people to regular remembrance before the Lord, and to bear the judgment of the people on his heart before the Lord (Ex.28:28-30); a robe of blue with gold bells and pomegranates around the hem ‘and its sound shall be heard when he goes into the Holy Place before the LORD’ (Ex.28:31-35); and a turban with a plate of gold inscribed with ‘holy to the LORD’ to bear any guilt and from the gifts of the people, ‘that they may be accepted before the LORD’ (Ex.28:36-38).

There was a sense of shame in this stripping of the holy garments off Aaron because of his unbelief and rebellion, and there was also a practical aspect; if he died in these holy garments, they would need to be cleansed. To remove them before he died allowed uninterrupted continuity, with Eleazar able to immediately assume the role of high priest for the nation. This was a grace for the people.

This was also grace on Aaron. He would die and be gathered to his people. This is an intimation of the hope of something beyond death. In Genesis, this was said of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac and Jacob; each was ‘gathered to his people.’ When David’s child died, he had the expectation that “I shall go to him, but he will not return to me” (2Sam.12:23). Job said

Job 19:25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. 26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, 27 whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

Jesus is even more clear; he told the story of a rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16; he said

Luke 16:22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’

The righteous; those counted righteous through faith in Jesus Christ will be gathered together, comforted, while those who lived only for this life will be in anguish. To the murderer crucified with Jesus, who turned and believed in Jesus,

Luke 23:43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Hebrews 11 chronicles those who by their faith in God looked not to an earthly homeland but ‘to a better country, a heavenly one’, ‘to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God’ (Heb.11:10,13-16).

Aaron was disobedient, and died outside the land, and was gathered to his people. Although he was excluded from entering the promised land, he had a better country, a heavenly one, where he was gathered to his people.

The Death of the High Priest

Numbers 20:27 Moses did as the LORD commanded. And they went up Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. 28 And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. 29 And when all the congregation saw that Aaron had perished, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days.

The high priest of Israel died. We are told in Numbers 33 that Aaron the priest was 123 years old when he died on Mount Hor. Eleazar his son took his place as high priest of the nation. From this point on in Numbers it is no longer ‘Moses and Aaron’ it is Moses and Eleazar the priest; in Joshua it becomes ‘Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun’. The transition to the next generation has begun. In Judges it is ‘Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron’ (Jud.20:28).

In 1 Chronicles 6 we find this list:

1 Chronicles 6:3 The children of Amram: Aaron, Moses, and Miriam. The sons of Aaron: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. 4 Eleazar fathered Phinehas, Phinehas fathered Abishua, 5 Abishua fathered Bukki, Bukki fathered Uzzi, 6 Uzzi fathered Zerahiah, Zerahiah fathered Meraioth, 7 Meraioth fathered Amariah, Amariah fathered Ahitub, 8 Ahitub fathered Zadok, Zadok fathered Ahimaaz, 9 Ahimaaz fathered Azariah, Azariah fathered Johanan, 10 and Johanan fathered Azariah ( it was he who served as priest in the house that Solomon built in Jerusalem). 11 Azariah fathered Amariah, Amariah fathered Ahitub, 12 Ahitub fathered Zadok, Zadok fathered Shallum, 13 Shallum fathered Hilkiah, Hilkiah fathered Azariah, 14 Azariah fathered Seraiah, Seraiah fathered Jehozadak; 15 and Jehozadak went into exile when the LORD sent Judah and Jerusalem into exile by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.

The wages of sin is death. The priests of Israel were all sinners who died. Hebrews 7 laments:

Hebrews 7:23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office,

But the author of Hebrews is telling us that in every way Jesus is better. We have a better high priest.

Hebrews 7:23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Jesus is better, because he always lives to make intercession. His service as our great priest will never be interrupted. Jesus, being God, is eternal. He holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. When an Israelite sinned, Aaron, or his son, or his son’s son would make atonement, would intercede. Did you know that today, when you sin, Jesus, seated at the right hand of his Father in glory is praying for you? He is able to save fully, completely, entirely, all who draw near to God through him as their only intermediary.

Hebrews 7 goes on:

Hebrews 7:26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. 28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.

Aaron failed to honor God as holy, he was guilty, blood on his hands, he was a sinner just like the rest of Israel. He had his own sins to offer sacrifices for; he had to first be cleansed in order to be fit to offer sacrifices for others. Jesus is our better priest; he is holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens. He is not a sinful descendant of a long line of sinners; he is the sinless Son of God who offered himself for others.

Today, draw near to God through Jesus, our great high priest!

***

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

Number 20 begins a movement in the book of Numbers on a different trajectory. So far in Numbers things had looked promising, the people obedient, organized, following God’s leading, and they quickly spiral into failure, disobedience, rebellion. This chapter sounds a bleak note of death and disobedience, but the following chapters move us definitively back toward the promised land.

This chapter begins with the death of Miriam, in the middle is the death sentence on Moses and Aaron for their disobedience, and ends with Aaron’s death on the mountain and his son established as high priest in his place. We are going to take just the first half of this chapter today.

Miriam’s Death

Numbers 20:1 And the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was buried there.

Miriam, prophetess of Israel, Moses’ older sister who watched over him as an infant in the Nile, who led the women in song at the Red Sea deliverance, who with her brother Aaron criticized Moses’ leadership and was struck with leprosy, for whom Moses interceded and she was healed, now died and was buried. Unlike the latter part of this chapter where Moses and Aaron are condemned to die for their disobedience, nothing is spoken of her sin or guilt or shame. She simply died and was buried. Because of the rebellion of the people, the Exodus generation would fall in the wilderness, and we see in this chapter that even their flawed but faithful leaders would fall outside the promised land.

The people are on the march again, this time to the wilderness of Zin, camping at Kadesh. Although the year is not specified, this is the first month. In Exodus 12 the first month was established for them as the month of the Passover, the month of deliverance from slavery, to be commemorated every year. In Exodus 40 it was the first month of the second year when the tabernacle was erected. Numbers 9 picks up the story at the same point, the first month of the second year after leaving Egypt. According to the chronology in Numbers 33, we are leaping ahead to the first month of the fortieth year after leaving Egypt, as the last of those fighting men numbered at the beginning of this book were being laid to rest in the wilderness. The wages of sin is death.

The Complaint of No Water

Numbers 20:2 Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. 3 And the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the LORD! 4 Why have you brought the assembly of the LORD into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? 5 And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.”

If you’ve been with us through Numbers, this feels all too familiar. There’s a problem, an obstacle, circumstances are less than ideal, and the people default to grumbling, complaining, even preferring death to the circumstance they were currently facing. They accuse, blame their leaders for their problems.

The current problem is no water. That’s a serious problem, but this is not the first time they have faced problems with water. On leaving Egypt, there was too much water; they were trapped between the army of Pharaoh and the Red Sea, and the Lord parted the waters of the sea so they could walk across on dry land. Those same waters became the waters of judgment which closed over their pursuing enemies. In Exodus 17, at Rephidim there was no water, and the Lord split the rock and brought water from the rock for the people to drink (we will come back to this event in a bit). In Numbers 19 God provided the ashes of a red heifer to be mixed with living water to make the water that cleansed from the impurity of death. Here in Numbers 20, the problem was again no water, and now this next generation, like their fathers, were assembling together against their leaders to issue their complaint. But their complaint goes far beyond water.

They actually say that it would have been better for them to stand with the rebels of chapter 16 and fall under the wrath of God as fire came out from the Lord and consumed them. They would rather be swallowed by the earth and go down alive to Sheol than to endure a lack of the niceties of food and drink.

They attribute the Exodus to Moses and Aaron rather than to the Lord, and they view it as an evil plot to kill them rather than divine intervention to set them free. How often we reflect back on our slavery with fondness as if it were freedom, and complain about the true freedom the Lord has purchased for us!

They fail to take any responsibility for their current circumstances; they were in the wilderness because in chapter 13 they listened to the 10 spies who doubted the Lord’s promise to give them the land, and said that the opposition was just too big for them to conquer, rather than following the two who believed the Lord’s promises and said ‘let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it’ (Nu.13:30). They complain of no grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, the very things the spies brought back to demonstrate that the land the Lord promised to give them was an exceedingly good land, flowing with milk and honey. They were now in this ‘evil’ place because of their choice to reject the land God promised to give to them. They were following in the footsteps of their fathers.

A Word Of Grace

Numbers 20:6 Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the LORD appeared to them, 7 and the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.”

This too sound familiar. Moses and Aaron take the complaint of the people to the Lord and intercede for the people. The last time these two were on their faces before YHWH the plague had already broken out and Aaron rushed into the midst of the congregation to take his stand between the dead and the living to make atonement for them, because wrath from the Lord had already gone out. (Nu.16:44-49). But this time is different. There is no condemnation from the Lord, no rebuke of their sinful attitudes, no threat of judgment on the people. The glory of the Lord appeared, but this time with a gracious word. Assemble the congregation, take the staff, speak to the rock, and it will yield its water for all to drink and be satisfied.

I wonder if Moses and Aaron were a bit bewildered as they were on their faces before the Lord. No wrath breaking out, no fire, no plague, no judgment, no atonement to be made; just a word of grace, giving the rebellious people the good they don’t deserve.

The Rebellion of Moses and Aaron

Numbers 20:9 And Moses took the staff from before the LORD, as he commanded him. 10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.

Moses took the staff from before the Lord. The only staff that we know was placed in the presence of the Lord is Aaron’s staff from chapter 17 that ‘had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds’, which was meant to ‘make to cease from me the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against you’ (Nu.17:5,8). Although we are not told, I doubt this fruitful staff withered in the presence of the Lord. Imagine this abundantly fruitful branch, which was ‘to be kept as a sign for the rebels’, being brought out by Moses and Aaron. This would have gotten the attention of the congregation. Moses was instructed to take the staff and speak to the rock. He took the staff, but he spoke to the rebels. And what he says is startling; ‘Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?’ Moses, who in the past had pleaded before God on behalf of the rebellious people, now berates the people, giving them a verbal lashing. And even worse, he and Aaron take credit for the promised miraculous provision of water with no reference to the Lord as the provider of every good thing. Then imagine Moses taking this fruitful staff, and smashing it into the rock, scattering a flurry of leaves and buds and blossoms and almonds flying in every direction.

It seems they didn’t know how to respond to God’s grace. The Lord had revealed his character to Moses:

Exodus 33:18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

Exodus 34:5 The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.

YHWH is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. He will be gracious to whom he will be gracious, and show mercy to whom he will show mercy, all the while upholding his absolute justice. What Moses and Aaron were more familiar with was God’s just and holy wrath breaking out in judgment, and their posture of seeking to appease his wrath through incense and intercession. But here it seems they felt the people needed to be rebuked, so they rebuked them, forgetting that even they were commanded in Leviticus 19

Leviticus 19:18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay says the Lord’ (Dt.32:35; Rom. 12:19). It is not for you to take vengeance when I desire to show mercy.

Consequences for Unbelief

Numbers 20:12 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” 13 These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the LORD, and through them he showed himself holy.

There were consequences for unbelief, even for the appointed leaders of Israel. Even good leaders can fail. They failed to take God at his word, to believe what he said and to do exactly what he said. They failed to uphold him as holy in the eyes of the people. And the Lord will defend the honor of his holiness.

Strike The Rock

There’s some backstory to this account that we need to consider. Back in Exodus 17,

Exodus 17:1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 And the LORD said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the LORD by saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”

Forty years earlier, Moses had been commanded by the Lord to strike the rock to bring out rivers of living water. We also need to understand what the rock represented. In Psalm 78, which reflects on these events;

Psalm 78:15 He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. 16 He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers. …20 ​He struck the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. … … 35 They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God their redeemer.

God was their Rock; Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10 of Israel:

1 Corinthians 10:1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.

The Lord said ‘I will sand before you there on the rock, and you shall strike the rock.’ The Lord was saying ‘I must be stricken to bring out rivers of living water’

Isaiah 50:6 ​I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

Isaiah 53:4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 ​But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 ​All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The smitten Rock was Christ. But the sacrifice of Jesus was once for all.

Hebrews 9:24 For Christ has entered… into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

The Rock has been struck. Now all who are thirsty need only come to him to drink, speak to him, ask of him, our abundantly fruitful great High Priest, and he is pleased to answer, overflowing with mercy and grace for sinners.

***

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org