9/11/2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 2. 5-6)

“Then Balak said to Balaam, ‘Come, let me take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them for me from there.^‘  And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor,  overlooking the wasteland.” (Numbers 23.27-28)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

In the first two blessing stories concerning Balaam, Balak and the descendants of Israel approaching en masse, I focused on “What did Balak know?” What did Balak know about Balaam’s relationship with the God whom these Hebrews declared as their God? What did Balak know about Balaam himself because of his own relationship with his “hometown” people? What did Balak know about the Hebrews who were using Moab as a staging place from which they would enter the Promised Land. We could also ask ourselves, “What did Balak think?” We know he feared that so many people crossing over the border into “his” country would be a tremendous burden on the land, the people and his ability to rule. He had thought about it and collaborated with neighboring nations to establish a plan of action. Thinking that he could create a sense of a “common enemy” became a bargaining chip in establishing a force which would repel the intruders and possible usurpers. Even then, the reality was that the number of Hebrews exceeded the number of those in Moab and Midian prompted them to consult “a higher power.” Not a bad plan actually. But, the plan had, has and will always have a fatal flaw. Whether it was the brothers of Joseph, the court of Pharoah, the faithless generation of those freed from Egypt or any tribe and nation who stood between Israel and the Promised Land there was a fatal flaw. Even today, we see this glitch in the thinking of humanity being exposed as their “Achilles’ heel.” The question for us is “What is that fatal flaw?”

In today’s scripture reference we are ushered directly to the heart of the matter. When the first two “visions” were presented to Balaam, one at Kiriath Huzoth and the other at Mount Pisgah it was with the intention of convincing Balaam this gathering was a threat. Balak assumed that Balaam would be loyal to him since they were from the same hometown. (Strange how the people of Nazareth thought a similar idea about Jesus.) But, Balaam continued to remind Balak that his loyalty was to God who alone provided blessings and curses. As Balak was focused on bringing a curse on the Hebrews, he changed his tactic of convincing Balaam to be a collaborator to convincing God. It is what he thought about God that proves to be his fatal flaw. It would our fatal flaw as well. Whenever we act in such a way to assume authority over God we find the proposal of a hard lesson at the very least or outright failure as the final answer to be the result. Balak to Balaam to Mount Peor. From there, a vast wasteland could be seen. Balak was probably drawing a comparison to the wasteland that was and the wasteland that would be if these Hebrews were allow to come into Moab like the plague of locusts had done in Egypt. Surely God would not want to see good land go bad and thus bless Balak by cursing Israel. He thought he could present a convincing argument to God. I am not sure what Balak actually knew about this community of the desert wasteland who had survived forty years in the wilderness to become battle tested and faith filled people? It doesn’t seem like much. He certainly underestimated them and God and overestimated himself. Can you see the fatal flaw in all of that, mighty ones of God? Do we see it in action today? How many times will we attempt to convince God that our will is far more important that His? What kind of thinking can we invoke to put God in the subservient position of validating our perspective as the critically important one? We even hear that there must have been more to the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane between Jesus and His Father when the words come to us “Yet, not My will but Yours be done!” We know Jesus thought about the last cup He had shared with the disciples in the Upper Room just hours previous. There was the cup of curse which brought suffering and agony which preceded the cup of blessing which brings peace, contentment and perfect worship. But, it was that cup of blessing which Jesus said, “I will not drink of this cup again until I drink it new with You in the Kingdom of God.” Jesus was fully aware that from any and every vantage point, God’s will was perfect and impossible to get around. We must come face to face with this truth in our lives and in the lives of those with whom we share community. We simply cannot say “Whatever you want” in the place of “This is the word of the Lord.” Balak wanted to hear “whatever you want.” Balaam said “This is the word of the Lord.” His Word is final and completing, it is a blessing to those who will be blessed and a curse to those who desire to be a curse.

How many believe that their dire situation in life, and in many instances there are dire situations, their own will is the priority? Are we willing to get the truth straight in our minds and our thinking and transform what we know to what we need to believe? Tough questions with important answers that determine the course of our lives in these days and the days ahead.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed to us best in Jesus the Christ. By Him and Him alone shall we gain the eternal life and our place in eternal rest, living for You always. Show us more and by Your Holy Spirit instruct us in the way we should go, the truth we should reveal and the life we shall live with you forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.