9/12/2023

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)

“Balaam answered Balak, ‘Did I not tell the messengers you sent me that even if Balak gave me all the silver and gold in his palace, I could not do anything of my own accord, good or bad, to go beyond the command of the Lord—and I must say only what the Lord says? Now I am going back to my people, but come, let me warn you of what this people will do to your people in days to come.’” (Numbers 24.12-14)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

There is an inevitability in this story about Balak and Balaam. Balak took Balaam to three different places from which he could view the people of Israel stretching out as far as the eye could see. By the time this new generation of God’s people had arrived at the doorstep of the Promised Land they numbered in the millions. And beyond that number included as their animals and livestock. Still, we cannot lose sight of what Balak was hoping for. He knew that he could not overcome this mass of humanity even with neighboring alliances. Asking Balaam to consult “their” God was a silent confession that Balak’s god and gods were insufficient to the task. His only hope was that they would be convinced by their God to go back or go another way. Better yet, that they would be cursed with a life-rendering plague and die right where they were. With each call for a curse, Balaam was the oracle of denial as he spoke for God. Why would God now curse the very people He blessed with freedom and liberty and a land flowing with “milk and honey”? Why would He denounce them as His people when every effort had been extended to claim them and deliver them? I have offered that this conversation thus far can serve as a foreshadowing of the temptation of Jesus by Satan in the wilderness. The promises of Satan for power, dominion and authority (seen as blessings by mere mortals) were fully acknowledged by Jesus, God’s mightiest man, as curses upon God and thus upon God’s people. After three attempts to seduce Jesus into sinning against God and Himself, Satan retreated. He parenthetically “slithered back under the rock from which he came.” I believe that is a fitting image since the curse upon Satan announced as the “sentence for his sin of insurrection in the Garden” was that he would be crushed by the offspring of Adam and Eve. While we know from Genesis that God declares, “The serpent will strike at the offspring’s heel but in turn the offspring will crush the head of the serpent.” It is by the “rock of faith” that Satan is crushed. The very “cursing” Satan desired to inspire becomes a curse upon himself. To play on words, the curse Satan intended to use to crush God became a crushing curse in return. I believe Jesus might say in a situation such as that “One reaps what one sows.” A word to the wise even today.

It is at this point in the story that we hear Balaam declare that it is good to see God blessing His people. God’s word, will and way have been put forth as immutable and immovable. Nothing further had to be said except “It’s time to go back to my people as my work here is done.” Can we hear some music in the background “It’s once, twice, three times a blessing; what more can there be?” Except Balak was furious. The inevitability I mentioned at the start and hinted at in the Garden had not yet fully sunk in. So, God gave Balaam four more words to declare over Balak. Those four words were actually the cursed consequence that would come against Balak and any who would oppose the people of Israel. There was no pause for reflection between the four words (not literal single words but four proclamations). It was a rapid fire production like a boxer’s body blows put against Balak. There was no debate. There was no Q/A. There was no fireside chat to follow. God gave four words to Balaam to deliver to Balak. Balaam did as he was told and then went home. How did Balak respond? He went home, too. He bore the weight of God’s word and contemplated there how he would respond. This is the way God deals with us, too. He gives us His word. Sometimes that word is sweet and a blessing. Sometimes it is challenging and feels like a curse. Sometimes it is like that rapid fire body blow knocking the wind out of us and our will to live. But, there is always the opportunity to make a decision in response to each word. We must decide our “yes and no.” There is no maybe, could be or who cares. To not choose is to make a choice. Let us get this strait in our minds. The day is coming when we will have to make that fateful choice. Will we bless God and others and enjoy the blessing that is given to us? Will we curse God and others and cultivate the consequences of the curse which happens when the blessing is refused?

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.