Whatever the Lord Tells me I Must Speak

7/3/11 Sermon by Minister Michael Johnson; translation by 黃鼎皓 is attached.

Numbers 22:1-14; 22:31-36; 24:10-13

Everyone loves a good story. When Anna and I go to Michigan, we spend a lot of time with my family telling new stories or retelling old stories. My brother is especially great at telling stories. Every family gathering includes him telling a story with intrigue and suspense and usually a surprise ending. He can take a funny event or even an everyday occurrence and turn it into the most riveting story you’ve ever heard. Do you know what it means when someone says, “He had me in stitches”? It means that someone tells a story that’s so funny your side starts hurting because you are laughing so hard. Well, my brother’s retelling of an event will have the whole family in stitches, no matter how many times we’ve heard it before. I always look forward to dinnertime as I know I’m going to hear one of his famous stories. Not all stories are funny, though. They may have action or drama or mystery or serve as a historical account of what happened before our time. Storytelling has always been a part of our history as people. We didn’t always have pen and paper to write down our stories. Instead, the family elder would pass down stories to his children and they would pass down stories to their children and on down through the generations their family history was told. Today we read books and go to movies, and we can enjoy those things. But we should also cultivate the art of storytelling.

The Old Testament is filled with many wonderful stories about the work of the Lord and how He spoke to His people. They aren’t like the stories in the fiction section of the library. No, these are real-life stories. They serve as a historical record of what happened before our time and since God never changes, they give a glimpse of who He is. Through the Old Testament, we are given the chance to use our imaginations and picture God as He created the world. And visualize the Israelites walking through the wall of water in the parted Red Sea. And the journey led by Moses to the edge of the Promised Land. The story of Balaam is no different. Let’s look at it together.

With the story of Balaam we start with the Israelites as they are headed to the Promised Land. On their journey they settled in the Land of Moab. Picture the scene as I read Numbers 22:1-4: “The Israelites traveled on and camped in the plains of Moab on the side of the Jordan River across from Jericho. Balak son of Zippor saw all that the Israelites had done to the Amorites. And the Moabites were greatly afraid of the people, because they were so numerous. The Moabites were sick with fear because of the Israelites. So the Moabites said to the elders of Midian, ‘Now this mass of people will lick up everything around us, as the bull devours the grass of the field.’ Now Balak son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at this time.”

You need to remember this is happening in the desert. So when we hear of Balak and the Moabites watching the Israelites settle to camp you can imagine they saw them coming from a long way off. When they camped it is not as though they were hidden, but were in plain view and there were thousands of them. So not only is this large group of people headed their way, but the Moabites knew who they were. They were Israelites and they knew that the Israelites were winning wars against other nations despite the fact that those other nations way outnumbered the Israelites. So of course the Moabites were scared. It makes sense that the King of Moab, whose name is Balak, would go on defense.

Balak decided to send messengers to Balaam. Now, Balaam was known to be a man of God who was able to receive messages from the Lord. It makes sense that if you don’t know what to do, you’d seek out someone like Balaam. But Balak wasn’t sending messengers to find out what Balaam would do. Instead, the message sent to him was to ask that he pronounce a curse over the Israelites as a way to get them out of Moabite land, and they would pay him for it. Balaam knew that pronouncing a curse was a big deal. He requested to take a night to seek the Lord so that he could find out if making this curse was the Lord’s will, not just Balak’s desire. During the night Balaam had a dream and received a message from the Lord denying permission to curse the Israelites. When word reached Balak, he wasn’t very happy. He sent the messengers again in an effort to change Balaam’s mind.

Balaam is very insistent that he will not go with the messengers to curse the Israelites even if Balak gave him his own palace filled with gold and silver. However, Balaam starts to waver a little, and begins to entertain the idea of at least returning to Moab with the messengers. He tells them to stay the night and he will seek the Lord’s will in the situation. Wait, didn’t Balaam already seek the Lord? Didn’t he already know what the Lord had said? But he asked again anyway. He has another dream and this time the Lord says to go with the men but to only say what the Lord tells him to say. So did the Lord change his mind here? We will come back to this question.

In the morning, Balaam saddles up his donkey and is off to meet Balak. After starting his journey the Lord gets angry that Balaam is going to see Balak. But didn’t he just give him permission? How confusing is that? Well, keep in mind that God can see our hearts. He was looking at Balaam’s heart and He didn’t like what He saw. Only God knows what was in his heart for sure but I venture to guess that Balaam was starting to think about pleasing Balak, the king of Moab, more than the Lord. Plus, they had offered to give him money. God knew He had already answered Balaam’s question but Balaam had asked again, as if God hadn’t been clear the first time.

So let’s stop here for a moment. It is important to remember that the Lord does not change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. The Lord did not change His mind to let Balaam go and curse the Israelites. It is not as though the Lord said first, “Don’t go” and then said, “Well since you are persistent I will change my mind.” No the Lord is consistent which leads to His anger when we disobey Him. His will was going to be carried out, but He was going to teach Balaam a lesson in the process. It reminds me of one time around Christmas many years ago. My cousin, who was about 15, kept asking my aunt and uncle what they bought her for Christmas. We all do that, but she was persistent. She hounded them relentlessly about her presents. The answer was always no, you have to wait until Christmas like everyone else but she didn’t let up. What had started out as normal questioning turned into selfish obsession. Then one day she asked and they said alright we will tell you. So they told her what was in each package. Then, on Christmas morning, when her brother was opening up presents and getting excited she already knew what her gifts were. She had no excitement. Not only that, but it robbed her parents of the joy of seeing her surprised when opening each one. Her parents did not change their minds on what they wanted, but gave it to her knowing the outcome. They knew she would be disappointed but that she needed to suffer the consequences to learn a bigger lesson. The goal is that we listen and obey the Lord and, at the same time, rebuke our fleshly desires. Balaam heard the Lord, but did not rebuke any pull towards money, did not rebuke any fear of disappointing the king or whatever it was that had a hold on him. It’s as if he thought he couldn’t be persuaded by fleshly desires, as if he had some kind of special immunity to them. But he was not immune. He was human, just like you and me, which means he can fall prey to earthly desires if not held in check.

So Balaam is off to go to the King. He hops on his donkey and starts the journey. Are you picturing it? He is moving along pretty well until his donkey starts behaving very oddly. First, for no apparent reason, his donkey just turns off the trail and heads into a field. He strikes the donkey and redirects it back to the road. Next, he is going down a path in a vineyard with two walls on each side. All of a sudden the donkey crushes his foot against the wall. Balaam strikes him again. He is getting very mad. Then, when he and the donkey are moving down a very narrow path the donkey just decides to kneel down on the ground. Balaam is furious and strikes the donkey a third time.

Then the donkey does something that you would never expect a donkey to do. It talks! The donkey says, “What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times?” Balaam responds, “You have made me look stupid. I wish there were a sword in my hand for I would kill you right now.” The donkey says to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey that you have ridden ever since I was yours until this day? Have I ever attempted to treat you this way?” And Balaam answers, “No.” Then the Lord opens Balaam’s eyes to see the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with his sword drawn in his hand. Balaam bows his head and throws himself down with his face to the ground. The Angel of the Lord says to Balaam, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? Look, I came out to oppose you because what you are doing is perverse before me. The donkey saw me and turned from me these three times. If she had not turned from me, I would have killed you but saved her.” Balaam responds, “I have sinned for I did not know you stood against me in the road. So now, if it is evil in your sight, I will go back home.” But the Angel of the Lord says to Balaam, “Go with these men, but you may only speak the word I will speak to you.” So Balaam continued on with the messengers to meet Balak.

You can see how far Balaam drifted from the Lord’s instruction. He was so set on getting to Balak that he harmed his animal. In fact he threatened to kill the donkey, if he’d only had a sword. If this is not a clear example of losing sight of the Lord’s wishes and seeking fleshly desire I don’t know what is. It is one thing to experience adversity in life. After all, the Lord tells us life is not easy. Sometimes we may wonder why our path seems blocked even when we are seeking the Lord so passionately. Balaam sought Lord, and he even got a response, but He didn’t have enough faith in it to obey it. This is a perfect picture for when we do not heed the Lord’s direction. We can spend a lot of time in prayer, pursuing His will, but it’s sinful if we disregard His direction and go about our own way. It’s like getting an answer to prayer and saying, “Ah, I don’t like that. I’ll figure out something on my own.”

Now let’s return to the story. Balaam is back on track. He has been in trouble, he has confessed his sin, and now he doesn’t know what is going to happen, but he knows and trusts that the angel is going to give him the words to say. Balaam is not looking to gain money, or impress the king, but is pleased to serve as a conduit of the Lord’s word. When Balaam meets up with Balak, the king, he is upfront and says he has only come to speak the Word of the Lord and not just what the King wants. Balak, who is concerned with maintaining his kingdom, continues to pressure Balaam to pronounce a curse over the Israelites. But as you and I know, a lot happened on the way there and Balaam is not going to budge. Every time Balak asked for a curse, Balaam spoke a blessing. This happened three times. The first blessing was that Israel would be a great nation. The second blessing was that no nation would be able to over take them. The third blessing was that God would be their God and would be greater than the greatest king. Balak was mad, then angry, then furious, kind of like how Balaam was with his donkey. After the three blessings, Balaam delivers a fourth word that the Israelites will take the land the Lord gives them, which will include Balak’s kingdom of Moab.

The Israelites do not need this blessing. They already have it in the Abrahamic covenant. We know that God promised them land, that he would make them a great nation, and from Abraham’s line would come blessing to the earth. God was with them. But He wanted to bless them again, in the presence of their enemy. I believe this demonstrates God’s shield over Israel and His sovereignty over all the earth. We have already seen in the Old Testament time and time again how nations have tried to destroy Israel through military force. It has not worked. Despite their small numbers they still conquer the greatest armies. Here Balak is trying to bring them down, not through war, but through a curse. See, Balak new that Balaam’s God was powerful. He just didn’t realize that Balaam’s powerful God was God of the Israelites.

In this story, of fact and human history, we see how God protected the Israelites on their way to the Promised Land. We saw Him take what was meant for a curse and turn it into a blessing. Along the way, we saw that He spoke to Balaam in dreams; that He communicated with people outside the Israelite camp. We saw him use a donkey to accomplish His will, and even caused that donkey to talk. We saw Him send an angel to intervene and redirect. As you can see here, God’s ultimate will WILL be accomplished. We want to be a part of it, and not a hindrance to it. God may not have a donkey speak to us, but He has given us His Word and His Holy Spirit to correct us, cause us to repent, turn us around and have us pronounce blessing, not curses, over His people.