Balaam's second prophecy in Numbers 23 reveals that Israel's standing among nations is not due to their merit but to God's immutable character and covenant promises. Despite Balak's attempts to find fault, Balaam is compelled by God to bless Israel, highlighting that God's promises, like His character, cannot be reversed. The sermon emphasizes that God's faithfulness to His covenant, exemplified by His unchanging nature and His command to bless, provides security for both Israel and believers. Ultimately, this divine commitment assures that God's purposes will be fulfilled, regardless of human actions or attempts to thwart them.
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The turn to the book of Numbers, chapter twenty-three. Numbers, chapter twenty-three. We're continuing our studies on the prophecies of Balaam. To me, one of the most interesting studies in the whole of the scripture for Balaam, you know, is an outstanding example of a false prophet in the Bible. Yet everything he said is a truth. because God controlled his tongue. And the reason Balaam did it is because he was a lover of money. Balaam was a covetous man.
Balaam stands out as an example of First Timothy six that they who would be rich fall into many a snare with the many painful and hurtful lusts. Now there's nothing wrong with being rich. God has a warning for those who are. Don't trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God. That's not a warning to me. The other warning is to me, those that would be rich. You see, those of us who would be rich can have a very covetous nature.
And that's where Balaam fell. Balaam fell into that area, into that category. And God is a warning for each side. God wants us to be Balaam. And we're dealing tonight with the second prophecy of Balaam. We looked at the first last week. We begin at verse eleven of Numbers twenty-three, where we read, and Balaam said unto Balaam, What hast thou done unto me? I took thee to curse mine enemies, and behold, thou hast blessed them altogether. And he answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that?
The Lord hath put in my mouth. And Delach said unto him, Come, I pray thee with me unto another place. From whence thou mayest see them? Thou shalt see but the uttermost part of them. Another translation could put it thou. hindermost part of them. Get a picture of the rear view of the army of Israel. And thou shalt not see them all, and curse me them from then. And he brought him into the field of Zopham to the top of Pisgah and built seven altars and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar.
You notice how Balaam the soothsayer, how he tried to pattern what he did after the order that God gave to Israel. Satan mimics God. Satan delights to use the word of God. And here we have a picture of Balaam's activity. Verse fifteen. And he said unto Baelic, Stand here by thy burnt offering, while I meet the Lord yonder. And the Lord met Baelim, and put a word in his mouth and said, Go again unto Baelic, and say thus.
And when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him, and Baelic said unto him, What hath the Lord spoken? And he took up his parable and said, Rise up, Baelic, and here. Archement to me, thou son of Zippor. God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Behold, I have received commandments to bless, and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob.
neither hath he seen perverseness in israel the lord his god is with him and the shot of a king is among them god brought them out of egypt he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn surely there is no enchantment against jacob neither is there any divination against israel or according to this time it shall be said of jacob and of israel what hath god wrought behold the people shall rise up as a great lion and lift up himself as a young lion. He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey and drink the blood of the slain.
Amen. Lord bless the reading of his words. What we read tonight, especially verses eighteen through twenty four, is Balaam's second prophecy. Balaam came down from the mount after his first prophecy, a shaken man. He was shaken, but he was belligerent. Isn't it amazing that a man could stand in the presence, the awesome presence of the Holy God of Israel, get a word to deliver the opposite of what he wanted and still be belligerent?
It gives you an insight into the heart of man And into Romans eight, verse seven, where it says, the carnal mind is enmity against God. And it is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be. So that they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Belek looks at him and he says, what has God done unto me? Well, he said, I hired you to curse them. and you bless them all together isn't that comforting what God here says concerning Israel in this second prophecy let me just go off on a little limb for a moment and outline the second prophecy from chapter from verse eighteen to verse twenty four in verses eighteen and nineteen you have Israel's standing.
Then in verses twenty through twenty-two you have Israel's salvation and then in verses twenty-three and twenty-four you have Israel's sovereignty. So when we see their standing in their salvation and their sovereignty you see What Balaam had to say concerning the saints of God is tremendous indeed. He said, there's no enchantment against Israel. No matter what I do in all my devilish acts to curse them, I can't do it.
Oh, when I think of that in the presence of God, there isn't any weapon that he formed against us that can crush us. More than that, the devil and all his host cannot separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And we can use the language of Bonar in that hymn we sing occasionally on the Lord's Day morning. I think it's number thirty-nine in our hymn book. The fifth stanza says, or is it the sixth? The victory is ours. The victory is ours, beloved. And Romans chapter eight determines it for us.
Now then, King Baelic, he thought of a new strategy, however. And I want you to notice his strategy. He said, now I want you to take a different view of Israel's camp. I want you to look at him from a different way. Perhaps if you just saw the rear of the camp, you see, that would help. If you just saw the rear. Well, what had Baelic seen previously? Maybe he looked at the whole camp and he could do nothing but bless. But what did he see when he looked down there? When Balaam looked at the camp of Israel, let me tell you what he saw.
As he saw Israel on the march there in the plains of Moab, he saw Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. He saw them leading the procession of Israel. And behind them he saw the Gershonites. carrying the tabernacle. Following the Gershonites, he saw the tribe of Ruben, Simeon, and Gad. And following those three tribes, he saw the Kohathites, the sons of Kohath, and they were carrying the sacred vessels that were covered with those beautiful covers as they were on their mark.
And then following the Chorothites with the sacred items of the sanctuary were the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin. And then finally he saw three tribes at the end. He saw the three tribes of Dan, Asher, and Naphtali. Who were there? Well, we dwelt a little on this Sunday morning. They were the tribes that sprang from the slave girls, the slave wives of Jacob, Bilha and Bilha, the concubines of Jacob and the slave of Rachel and Leah.
Now, these tribes marched in the rear. They were the least important. They were the least significant of the tribe. Perhaps Beirut had his spies on trying to find out who was where. And maybe Beirut did some of his homework. So he knew who was where and how Israel was on the march. You see. So Beirut thought, give Beirut a look at the insignificant part. Probably he could find a good reason to curse them. you know that may have been his thinking but there is you know there's a lot of reasoning like that even among God's people they forget the third verse of Ephesians chapter two I remember a preacher's wife who said tell me one time I won't mention her name but she said tell me concerning somebody they have no background They have new upbringing.
I almost said, what do you have? The Bible says we were children of wrath, even as others. Because somebody's born with a silver spoon in their mouth doesn't impress God, you know. God isn't impressed by a lot of the things that impresses Christians. And God isn't impressed if they're born with a golden spoon in their mouth either. That does not impress God. You see, beloved, that reasoning that God would care less for those who we esteem the least than he does for those who we esteem the greatest.
And it's so easy to reason in that way. Do we really believe what the word of God says? In First Corinthians one in verse twenty seven, God hath chosen the foolish things of this world and things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. Beloved, there is never an instant that God will ever permit the flesh of man to glory in his presence because God hates the flesh, no matter if it's the flesh of Philip or the flesh of somebody else.
God hates it. And God will deal with it. Never get the idea that because you esteem somebody least, that God does. Or never get the idea that because you hold somebody over somebody else that God does. We need to learn that lesson of Ephesians chapter two, verse three. I bow to it often where it says, We were children of wrath, even as others. No difference. No difference at all. So Barak did something.
He took Belem to the top of Pisgah. Now this is a great mountain. Oh, Pisgah commanded a tremendous view, you see. And here Moses from this mountain was given his first view. And he's asking of the promised land that God promised to Abraham. And from Pisgah the whole land lies open to view from Engadi on the south. to the up through the winding Jordan River Valley to the distant peak of Mount Hermon on the north there it was it says curse them now as you look at the least esteemed of the tribes of Israel but I tell you something King Belek you're in for another shock he got a shock the first time he's going to get another one That brings us to Israel's standing.
And Israel's standing deals, first of all, with God and His character. Israel's standing among the nations, beloved, does not rest upon any special merit or worth in the Hebrew people. It wasn't because of who Israel was. Israel's unique place among the nations has its root in the person and purposes of God. Baelic had to learn that, and we have to learn it too. In his second parable, Baelim speaks about Israel's special and unique relationship to God that makes her different from all nations.
And he begins in Numbers chapter twenty-three. He begins with a word, verse nineteen. God is not a man that he should lie. Neither the son of man that he should repent. Have he said, and shall he not do it? Or have he spoken, and shall he not make it good? These are great verses, Philip. God is not a man that he should lie. You know what the oldest verse in the Bible is? The oldest promise? Not the oldest verse. The oldest promise. Where would you look for the oldest promise in the Bible? Well, if you say the Old Testament, you're wrong.
It's in the news. It's in Titus chapter one, verse two. In hope of eternal life, that God who cannot lie promised before the world began. God promised eternal life. When? Before the world began. To whom? To his dear son and to those whom he had given to him. Oh, what a passage. So he says, God is not a man that he should lie, nor is he the son of man that he should repent. Now you read at times, as you do in the book of Genesis chapter six, it repented God that he made man on the earth.
I thought it says he doesn't repent. Now somebody came to you and said, I found a contradiction in the Bible. Numbers twenty-three, nineteen says God does not repent. Genesis chapter six says he did. How would you answer? You see, here's where we get to what we were studying Monday night on the must of perspiration. In Bible study, the must of perspiration. You've got to study and you've got to work to come up. with an answer we know that there are no contradictions in the Bible you see and this is so important what's the answer to this well number one God doesn't lie because God doesn't change Titus one verse two says in hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie it doesn't not only says he doesn't lie it says he can't lie it's an impossibility here's something that's impossible for God to do He cannot lie.
That's amazing, isn't it? So when God says in the Psalms, your problem is, you thought that I was such a one like yourself. Often we are that way. Well, when we read of God repenting in Scripture, and you read it not only in the sixth chapter of Genesis, but you read it at other places, When you read this in the Word of God, it is what scholars call an anthropomorphism. That's all one word. I'm amazed that I got it out. Anthropomorphism. Anthropology is a study of man. If God is going to communicate with man, he can't expect man to talk to him.
but he has to condescend to reveal to man his ways. And the only thing man can understand are things that his limited knowledge can take in. And therefore God comes and he speaks to man as a man. But because God knows the end from the beginning, he doesn't need to repent because he has planned it all. Because coupled with God's foreknowledge and omniscience. See, what God knows to be future friends must come to pass. Otherwise he wouldn't be God. If he knows something to be in the future and it doesn't come to pass, then he's not God.
For no, not the God it always works from the beginning. But you see, God is dealing with human beings. And as he reveals himself, it seems to us that God changes his mind. But he doesn't. He is not a man that he should repent, nor the son of man that he should change. He doesn't change. God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. God is the immutable God. He doesn't change. Now, in light of this, after... Balem had told this to King Baloch, I'd like you to look at verse twenty-seven.
After the prophecy is over, Baloch said unto Baloch, Come, I pray thee, I will bring thee into another place. Peradventure it will please God, that thou mayest curse me them from then. He still, he didn't listen. He thought he could still change God's mind concerning Israel. Now we have a question tonight. Does God mean what he says? He sure does. And that leads to a second question. Does God have a future program for Israel? When you read this prophecy of Balaam, now there are many who teach that the promises that God made to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to David, to Solomon, are not to be taken literal, and they seek to explain them away.
I'd like to ask you a question. How do you think Abraham understood them? How do you think Isaac understood them? How do you think Moses did? Now we may not know all that God intended in these promises, in the matter what camp you happen to fall. Any camp that says that they have all the answers, I'm afraid of. I'm afraid they don't have all the questions. But at the same time, I do believe that Abraham understood the promises.
that were made to him. He may have not understood every detail. But I believe they were to be taken literally. Because Abraham thought that Ishmael would do. But God said no. In Isaac shall thy seed be called. Now that brings us. We not only have in Israel standing here in this statement God and his character. For God's character is important. He is the immutable God. He doesn't change. If there is any change in God, if God needed the change, the change necessary would be the measure of God's imperfection.
But God is the perfect God. Furthermore, we not only have God in his character, but we have God in his covenant. Did Balaam who came from Mesopotamia the same area that Abraham came from? Did he know of the promises that God had made to Abraham? Had the news gotten back home of the promises that God had made to Abraham confirmed to Isaac and to Jacob? See, God told Abraham in Genesis chapter fifteen that in the fourth generation, after they were evilly entreated as a nation.
They would come forth and they would possess this land on which he was a stranger. That's what God told him in Genesis fifteen when he made that covenant with him and confirmed it to him. And this is the fourth generation, friends. Let's count them all. We begin with Jacob who went down into Egypt. And of course Jacob's son went with him. And he sent Levi, went down into Egypt. And you can trace it through. There was Levi. Then he begat Kohath. Kohath begat Amram. And Amram begat Moses.
How many generations? Four. God says in the fourth generation, I'm going to bring them out. And God is bringing them out. His covenant. The covenant that he made with them. You see, the God of Abraham keeps his word. The shackles of slavery were broken. And Israel is victoriously on the march. And Satan, through Baloch, is standing there to keep the children of Israel from the inheritance that God promised them. It's an interesting thing in the study of scripture.
I'm going to throw something out for your meditation. Israel is entering into the land. There are two that withstand them. Belek, who is political, and Belem, who is religious. And the political is working through the religious to try to thwart the purpose of God. It's an amazing thing. When I come to Revelation thirteen, I find there are two beasts there. One is political and one is religious.
The Antichrist and the false prophet. They're united to do something. They're united to thwart the purpose and the program of God. It was when God brought Israel into the land the first time. And I happen to be one who believes that God is going to bring them in a second time. And I believe that the beast and the false prophets are prefigured here in Belek, the king, and in Belem. It's an amazing thing concerning God in each covenant.
that each time when God speaks to Abraham and he reconfirms this covenant to him, he reiterates to him, he becomes more specific each time as to his purposes for his people. Now the Abrahamic covenant, beloved, is a glorious covenant of grace. Theologians call it the watershed of the Old Testament. In fact, the watershed of Scripture. wherein God calls one man Abraham and to him he makes a covenant and that covenant finds its ultimate fulfillment in the seed the person of our Lord Jesus Christ Galatians three and verse sixteen Christ is the true seed of Abraham and it's a covenant of grace for this reason Israel may falter and fail, and they'll be chastised for it.
But the fulfillment of the covenant isn't dependent on Israel, it's dependent on God. And beloved you and I, as the children of grace, as those who have been born into the family of God, we're related to Abraham, to Christ. And our glorification doesn't depend on what we do, not if we go astray. God is going to chasten us, for whomsoever the Lord loves, He chasens. But my glorification doesn't depend on my work, but it depends on His.
His work and His work alone. As we sing occasionally, Thy work alone, My Savior, can ease this weight of sin. Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within. So we have not only God in his character and God in his covenant, but we have God in his command. Notice verse twenty. He says, Behold, I have received commandment to bless. And he has blessed, and I cannot reverse it. Salem says, No matter what you say, God commanded me to bless. And I bless you. I can't reverse it.
Beloved, let's turn that over to us, who are the saints of God in this age. God has given commandment to bless us, and that commandment will never be reversed. The gifts and callings of God are without repentance. Romans chapter eleven, verse twenty nine. Now man may change his mind, but God will not. And I've said this before, and I'm not ashamed to repeat it. When I was director of the Youth Congress at Greenwood Hills, I can say it now, Richard isn't here.
But I remember one year, for four days, he sat with Betsy every night. He sat with Betsy every night. His wife's name isn't Betsy. But he sat with Betsy every night. But by Wednesday night or Thursday night, Betsy was somewhere else. And Richard was somewhere else. Something happened. Somebody repented. Somebody changed their mind. Let me ask you a question now. In the light of the fact that the gifts and callings of God are without repentance.
When did God set his love upon you? Jeremiah says, yea, I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore, with loving kindness I have drawn. How much did God know about you? or more than anybody else does, I'll tell you that. He knew every time you'd fail, he knew every time you'd be ashamed to speak up. One of the brethren prayed tonight that we may have boldness in telling others, in communicating to others the gospel. God knows every time that we know that we should say a word for God and we're just a bit scared.
He knows all about it. He knew all about me when he loved me and said his love upon me. All about me. You know I know myself that well, but sometimes I get scared. But he'll never change his mind about me. Isn't that great? Others might. Others have. But God never does. Isn't that great? He has given me a commandment to bless. I want to reverse it, but I can't. That's what Balaam's really saying.
I can't do anything about it. But to him who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, to him be glory forever. Amen. Our Father, we stand amazed at your love and grace. We ask you now that you will take the word and bless it to our heart. Oh, we thank you for these statements concerning Israel's standing. Because Israel stands the same way we do in grace, by grace, for grace, and so do we.