Numbers 22:1-41, “The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three times. If she had not turned aside from Me, surely I would also have killed you by now, and let her live.”
If you will not humble yourself, God will. Let’s see what the Lord has for us as we finish. Vs. 34. “And Balaam said to the Angel of the LORD; “I have sinned; … Now therefore; if it displeases You; I will turn back.”; 35, “Then the Angel of the LORD said to Balaam; “Go with the men; but only the word that I speak to you; that you shall speak.” We said God is a God of second chances, here we have a man who acknowledges his sins, how selfish, stubborn and arrogant he had been. Declaring “not my will but yours be done”. If you look at it from the beginning, it was about him, now that he has been humbled, he is ready to do whatever pleases the Lord even if it means terminating the mission but not with a perfect heart though. He is ready to sacrifice what he desires for what the Lord requires. Psalms 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart– These, O God, You will not despise”. And anyone who comes to the Lord in this manner, the bible says God will not despise him. It does not matter how many times you have fallen, if you are willing to come to Him with a repentant heart, He is waiting for you with open arms. David says, “Let us fall into the hands of the living God” for He is a God of mercy and second chances. His humility, repentance and decreasing channeled to be led of God and not himself.
A chastised Balaam ready to do the will of God comes to Balaak with a different motive. He knows God will not curse the Israelites and by now he knows that whatever the Lord will put in his mouth will be in favor of the Israelites and not for the Moabites. As you read in chapter 23, God used him to speak more blessings upon the Israelites. The more he did, the more Balaak became angry. The more Balaak asked him to curse the Israelites the more God spoke blessings over the Israelites through Balaam. The more God used Balaam, the more he learned God’s nature and character and the more he also preached the same to Balaak. Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? 20, “Behold, I have received a command to bless;”. In other words, “I tried twice to have Him reverse what He had done and He did not and I am here to tell you as His mouth piece, GOD WILL NOT CHANGE HIS MIND WHEN IT COMES TO DOING GOOD“. He does not say one thing and do something else therefore we shouldn’t see Him the way we see man. Man can make promises they can’t keep, God will keep His promises. Man will lie, God is the author of truth. God will not repent, because He never makes mistakes. Perfect is HE!. This was a message Balaam was bringing to Balaak but because of the hardness of Balaak’s heart, none of these messages were getting to his heart. He still desired Balaam to curse Israelites.
Numbers 24:1, “Now when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not go as at other times, to seek to use sorcery, but he set his face toward the wilderness”, My greatest desire and zeal is to please the Lord. Learning what He requires of me and doing it will please the Lord. If I can please the Lord, I would have accomplished what He requires of me. The more Balaam walked and spoke God’s words, the more he discovered what pleased the Lord and the more he performed them. He would always go before God and inquire only to learn that God will always bless so why not just go ahead and bless the people. God said, “I will write my laws in their hearts that they will know what to do without me even telling them“(paraphrased), Proverbs 10:32, “The lips of the righteous knows what is acceptable“. That is what walking with Christ is all about, climbing from glory to glory, learning more of God and becoming like Him. John 1:12, “As many as received Him, to them gave ye the power TO BECOME the sons of God“. What does this mean, the more you walk with Him, the more you are becoming like Him (not there yet but getting there). As for Balaam, he now understood what pleased the Lord and that is to bless Israel and not only that, he discovered a secret, Numbers 24:8, “…Blessed is he who blesses You, and cursed is he who curses You”. You bless God’s people, His people will be blessed, you will be blessed and He will be pleased. What Balaak had offered Balaam could not be compared to what God was doing, though Balaak was angry against Balaam, none of that could change what he had destined to do for the Lord.
What are his beginning words and ending words, Numbers 24:12, “So Balaam said to Balaak, “Did I not also speak to your messengers whom you sent to me, saying, 13, “If Balaak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of the LORD, to do good or bad of my own will. What the LORD says, that I must speak’”. He said this in the beginning but almost compromised his integrity, he started poorly but finished this race gracefully. There is so much I could share about Balaam but I hope you have learnt something just like I have. Few lessons, we need to know who is standing on the way. Also it does not matter how you start, how you finish matter’s a lot; God will not curse or let you curse what He has blessed; if you can’t humble yourself, God will; as you walk with God and know what pleases Him, you will perform it even when He does not speak; the more you bless His people, the more you are blessed; do not abuse what God has used to be a blessing to you. Balaam had great flaws, yet God used him and so will He use us, Have a blessed weekend Evans
He Has Magnified His Word 