Balaam's third prophecy, recorded in Numbers 24, reveals God's power to turn curses into blessings, as the hired prophet is compelled by the Spirit of God to pronounce Israel's future glory. Despite being in a desolate place, Balaam's eyes are opened to see Israel's orderly encampment, their future prosperity as gardens by the riverside, and their strength as a lion, surpassing nations and kings like Agag. The core lesson is that God's promises, rooted in the Abrahamic covenant, are unshakeable, and those who bless Israel will be blessed, while those who curse them will face judgment. The sermon concludes by emphasizing that the gospel, the message of a coming and present Savior, is the ultimate blessing to be shared with the world.
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We're turning tonight to the book of Numbers chapter twenty-four. Numbers twenty-four, we want to begin our reading at verse one. We're dealing with a subject of the prophecies of Balaam. And this is the third of his prophecies tonight. We have already dealt with the first two. So in Numbers twenty-four, verse one, we begin with our reading tonight. And when Baalim saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantment, but he set his face toward the wilderness.
And Baalim lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents, according to their tribes. And the Spirit of God came upon him. And he took up his parable and said, Baalim, the son of Beor, hath said, the man whose eyes are open hath said. He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty falling into a trance, but having his eyes opened, How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! As the valleys are, they spread forth as gardens by the riverside, as the trees of lane allows, which the Lord hath planted, and has cedar trees beside the waters.
He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. God brought him forth out of Egypt. He hath as it were the strength of an unicorn. He shall eat up the mountains, or the nations his enemies. and shall break their bones and pierce them through with these arrows. Be couched and lay down as a lion, and as a great lion who shall stir him up, blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee. And Baelic's anger was kindled against Baelic.
Now may the Lord bless his word. Baelic is a harling prophet. who was being paid the curse of people of God. However, God turned the curse of his people into a blessing in the very mouth that was hired to curse them. And while Balaam's mouth is used by God, he makes statements concerning the nation of Israel. and concerning the purposes and decrees of God that are both immediate, their immediate possession of the land of Canaan, and also future.
For in these prophecies, some of them reach to the first advent of the Savior, and some of them reach to the second advent of the Savior, and some of them are immediate. for the people at the present time, at that present time when Israel was marching through the wilderness to enter into the promised land. Now this third prophecy, as well as a fourth prophecy, they're different than the first two in a number of ways. In these two prophecies, God opens Balaam's eyes.
something that isn't mentioned in the first two. He says his eyes are opened. Now the place from which this prophecy is given was from the top of Pior as you look toward Jashimon. Mount Pior is one of the peaks on the northern part of the mountains of Abarim near the town of Beth Pior. Now Beth Pior was a place that was celebrated as a center of horrible, idolatrous practices. It was a Moabite, quote, holy, unquote, place.
It was a wicked place. Now, the word Jess Shimon means wilderness. It was a name for the frightful wilderness of Judea, a place of haggard and crumbling appearance. The place carries the violence and desolation of the Dead Sea Valley. When God overthrew the cities of the plain. For there were four cities in the plain that God overthrew. We well know about Sodom and Gomorrah. but there is also Adma and Zaboam. And when God speaks to Hosea the prophet, he says, I will make you as Adma and as Zaboam.
In other words, two of the cities that God overthrew along with Sodom and Gomorrah. Now this land bespoke the curse and the judgment of God. When God reigned fire and brimstone from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah, for their wickedness that rose up before the Lord. And beloved, you and I are living in a day of this same kind of sexual wickedness. And I remember watching a TV program one night, and there was a movie star, so-called, on there, and he made this statement, and I talked back to the TV set occasionally.
He made the statement, now AIDS is not a judgment from God. I said, but I think it is. And that's just the way I went. And if I would have been there, I would have said it loud enough that he would have heard it. And I would have pointed my finger at him too. For my opinion is as good as his. And furthermore, I had the word of God to substantiate it. If it isn't a judgment from God, what is it? God overthrew the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Adma and Zaboam, and it was upon this that Belek had Belem to look down.
He thought, boy, if he looked at that situation, he might be able to curse the people of God. Well, it may help. Balem may have thought, but you know the last words that we read, after he heard the words of God that are found in the Abrahamic covenant. Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee. His anger was kindled against Balaem. However, at this time, Balaem didn't use enchantments as he did at other times. You notice we read that in... the opening verses.
He went not other times to seek enchantment. Why not? Well, in his previous prophecy, he made a statement. He says in verse twenty-three of the previous chapter, Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob. Neither is there any divination against Israel. He didn't use any because he learned to God very definitely using his lips. that he couldn't use any might as well not use it because it won't work anyway but he did do something he offered seven bullocks and seven rams on the seven altars that were prepared this itself was an abomination to God Proverbs chapter fifteen verse eight says the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord it's a great statement The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord.
When a wicked man proposes to be religious and goes through his religious ceremonies, God doesn't even smell at it. He isn't interested in it. It is an abomination unto him. There are three things in this prophecy of Balaam tonight that we want to notice. First of all, there are the words of God in verses three and four. And then there is the glory and beauty of the people of God in verses five and six. And then we have the fruitfulness and strength of the people in verses seven through nine. In verse three we read and he took up his parable and said, Balaam the son of Bior have said, the man whose eyes are open have said.
I like Rotherham's translation here. He translates this, the oracle of the man of the opened eye. The oracle of the man of the opened eye. His eyes were opened at last. God opened them. God opened them like the blind man of John nine. Once I was blind, but now I see it. Now I don't believe he was saved. I don't believe he opened them in salvation, but God opened these eyes that he could behold what he was saying in a way that it hadn't taken place before.
Now, Balaam knew that he was speaking under the direct and controlling influence of the Spirit of God. Now, while it was Balaam the son of Bior who was speaking, the message was the message of God. because God put his words in his mouth. Balaam himself was just a small sold soothsayer from Chaldea. That's all he was. He was only a covetous crystal gazer from a demon-haunted land. That's all Balaam was. But the words he spoke, the words of the living God.
You see, the same God who put Saul among the prophets And the same God who put a prophetic utterance on the lips of Caiaphas, he didn't really know what he said when he prophesied that one should die for the people and that the whole nation shouldn't perish. And he said that being high priest that year. The same God who put these words, who puts all of them the prophets, And a word of prophecy on the lips of Caiaphas, he put the words of truth into the mouth of this false hiring prophet.
But Balaam here, as he says his eyes are opened, he authenticates his message. And I want you to notice how he does it. In verse four, he says, he has. He has said which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty falling into a trance, but having his eyes open. How did he authenticate his message? First of all, he said they were the words of God. The mighty one. L, which stands, which is short, E-L, in Hebrew for Elohim. The mighty one. The word that appears in Genesis one, one.
In the beginning, God, Elohim, created the heavens and the earth. But then he says, which saw a vision of the Almighty. Here is the word Shadiah. In other words, God the all-bountiful. God the all-sufficient. God the great giver. The Shadiah. You see, this name is used by God. in revealing to Abraham in the greatest detail the glorious contents of the Abrahamic covenant of grace, Genesis chapter seventeen.
You see, this name Shadiah, it reassured Abraham that all that God promised in the Abrahamic covenant, he had all the resources necessary to fulfill it. He said, Oh, Shadiah! God the Almighty One. That's the name that comes from the lips of Balaam. God caused him to realize. And by the way, it is this prophecy of Balaam that connects Shadiah with the Abrahamic covenant. He that blesses thee.
Blessed is he that blesses thee and cursed is he. that curseth thee. Now, as Balaam looked down on that wretched wilderness that had seen the judgment of a holy God, when Balaam saw that the giving God was down there, wrapped around with the glory of the Shekinah, he knew that nothing could keep Israel out of the promises that God had given to Abraham. He realized it. For you see, the Abrahamic covenant was an everlasting covenant. And the conditional clauses of the Palestinian covenants that came later were of a temporary nature.
We read that in the third chapter of the Galatians. They did not set aside the Abrahamic covenant. What God has promised, He is able to perform. the words of God. God put his words in the mouth of Balaam. But then we have second the glory and the beauty of the people. King Balaak of Moab, he tried to influence Balaam by showing him out the land under a curse, the arid areas around the Dead Sea. But the Spirit of God swept aside that view and gave the prophet a different picture altogether.
And in verses five and six, he says, How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel, as the valleys are they spread forth as gardens by the riverside, and as the trees of lane allows, which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees, beside the waters. What a statement here in verses five and six. First he saw the camp. That's the first thing God showed him. He saw the camp. What did he see? He saw an orderly camp of somewhere between one and a half and three million people, probably closer to three million. A new generation down there for the old generation passed away.
They were marching by a divine command. They only moved when God told them to move. And there was perfect order. And there was perfect symmetry as he looked down on the camp of Israel. No wonder we hear the word, the word, how goodly are thy tents, O Jacob. But he not only showed him the camp, he then showed him the country. You know, he was going to God was soon going to show the country to Moses. Moses hadn't seen it yet. God was going to show it to him, and then he was going to have him die in his presence and have him buried there in the valley.
So God was going to show it to Moses, but he's going to show it now to Balaam. You see, the moment he showed him the country, the arid plains of the Dead Sea vanished. He saw the people in a different environment and in a different land altogether. And you'll notice, as verse six says, as the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the riverside. In other words, he saw the curse removed. He saw the blessings of God flowing like a river. on behalf of these people whom he redeemed from Egyptian bondage.
Oh, what a savior. What a God. But that brings us to verses seven through nine. The third thing he saw, he saw the fruitfulness and strength of the people. First, he saw Israel as the head of the nations. He shall pour water out of his buckets. and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag. He saw Israel as the head of the nations. Now, that word, he shall be higher than Agag. Agag was a word like Pharaoh. It was a word that described the Amalekite or the Amalekite kings.
That was the word. Agag. And you remember, Agag was the king of the Amalekites when Samuel and first Samuel fifteen. He viewed him to death because King Saul spared him. He tried to find something salvageable in that which God cursed. And it wasn't possible. And Samuel obeyed God. And then you'll find the word, Amen. in the book of Esther. He was an agagite. And he was a descendant of Amalek.
Had King Saul obeyed God in first Samuel fifteen, you wouldn't have the problem years later in the book of Esther. But it teaches us a lesson. We're so protective of our children. But the enemies that we do not destroy, believingly, will rise up in the next generation to plague them. And we're wise if we take the advice from the Word of God in this area. If we don't deal with sins in our own day and obey God, those very things are going to come back to haunt our grandchildren.
And just giving our young people everything they ask for is not the answer. The one thing they need more than anything else is a knowledge of the Word of God and a knowledge of the ways of God and a knowledge of the purposes of God and the knowledge of the decrees of God. They need that more than anything else. Lot did not take the gospel to Sodom. He lived there, but he brought Sodom out to afflict the people of God.
Baelic was a king of Moab. Who was Moab? Moab was a descendant of Lot by incest with his eldest daughter, unmarried daughter. He didn't take the gospel in, but he brought the wickedness of Sodom out. And beloved in our day, the greatest thing in the world is to take the gospel to the world. That's more important than anything else that's happening in the world. It's far more important to take the gospel to the world than to get AIDS on a final exam.
Now I always wanted an A on a final exam. And I think it's great. And if you have a mind for an A and you get a B, it's sin. And if you have a mind for a B and you get a C, it's sin. I really believe that. But, beloved, there's something else that's more important than that. And that's the gospel. The gospel. We must learn the gospel so well that we can tell it freely and without getting all excited about it when we tell it so that we raise our voice and we put people in the corner, but rather that we can tell it in love in order that they respond to the person that we're talking of, the lovely Savior.
The gospel is important. We have to take it in. to the world. So we see Israel is going to be higher than Agag. In other words, they're going to be the head of the nation. For the more he saw the nations trembling before Israel. It says in this passage, his kingdom shall be exalted. And in verse eight, God brought him forth out of the land of Egypt. He hath as it were the strength of an unicorn. He shall lead up the nations his enemies. In other words, he saw the nations trembling before Israel. But then he also saw Israel responding to the nations.
In verse seven, in the previous verse, it says, He shall pour the water out of his buckets. In other words, Israel is not going to be selfish. But Israel in that day is going to share the blessings with our neighbors. This is the one thing Israel never wanted to do. And I just read through the book of Jonah yesterday morning. And all you have to do is read through the book of Jonah. God told Jonah, who was a prophet, go to Nineveh and cry against it. And you know what he said? No. I'm going to go just the opposite way. He went down the Joppa. And he bought a ticket to go to Tarsus.
But he didn't get too far. He didn't get too far. He made a decision. He made a decision to go to Tarshah. I read, Teddy and I heard a preacher say, speaking on the text, salvation is of the Lord. And he said, can you imagine one of these preachers wrapping on the whale and saying, Jonah, are you in there? Don't you want to decide to come out? And Jonah said, it was my decision that got me into this place. You see, salvation is of the Lord. I couldn't help but rejoice when he said that.
But you see, beloved, Israel didn't share their blessings. They wanted to keep them for themselves. And Israel in a coming day when God restores them to his favor. No matter how you view the future of Israel, one thing sure when you read Romans chapter eleven, God is going to restore Israel in one way or another. And when he does, they're not going to be stingy with their blessings. They're not going to be selfish. They're going to be blessed in pouring water out of their buckets.
Furthermore, he saw Israel residing among the nations. For he says, In that seventh verse, his seed shall be in many waters. For he gave him a view, didn't it? His seed shall be in many waters. This has not been Israel, or this has been Israel's lot. For under the judgment of God, they've been wandering over the nations of the world, little islands here and there. And when you go to Lebanon, Pennsylvania, all the way from Charleston Oak Street, all the way out to well it goes out pretty far now in that particular area there's an island there the sea of the Gentiles is about it but there's a beautiful island there and it's occupied by the sons of Jacob you see this has been there a lot in the judgment of God down to the centuries but then he saw Israel overcoming the nations He spoke of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage.
And when you read the eighth verse, I'll tell you what I think of. I think of two men that Joshua sent to Jericho to spy out the land. And Rahab, an inhabitant of Jericho, uses these words just about to speak of the way in which Israel was going through the land. And the hearts of the people in the nations sank because of it. Israel's triumph in overcoming the nations. And the lips of Rahab speak this truth to the spies. Then he saw Israel's triumph over everyone.
He shall eat up the nations, his enemies, and shall break their bones. No nation that has ever tangled with the Jews has prospered. But finally he sees a nation's tranquil before Israel. In verse nine he says, he cocks, he lay down as a lion and as a great lion, who shall stir him up? Here we see the nation's tranquil. He's pictured as a lion that's lying down with none to stir him up. And then Balaam closes this prophecy. And he closes the prophecy with a blessing that God gave Abraham when he told him to get out of his country and from his father's house and go into the land of Canaan.
He that blesseth thee, blessed is he that blesses thee, and cursed is he that cursed thee. And how true that has been. And this becomes part of the great Abrahamic covenant. For the blessing of God is rested upon those who have blessed Israel. And Israel in turn has been a blessing to the world for salvation is of the Jews. But curses he that curses thee. Pharaoh tried, and he couldn't do it. Haman tried, and he couldn't do it. Hitler tried, and he couldn't do it.
And there are others who are yet going to try, and they'll learn that they can't do it. When Balaam is finished with his prophecy, it leaves Balaam speechless and in a rage. For the scripture says, Balaam's anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together. I can just see him doing it. He's paying this man to curse the people of God. And he says, if we do, will be cursed ourselves but if we bless them we'll be blessed but they never got the message they never got the message how can you be a blessing to anybody by telling them the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ that's a way to be a blessing proclaim the gospel.
And you see, the gospel in these days was the message that God gave to Abraham, the promise of a coming redeemer through the loins of Abraham. That's as far as it went at this time. And that blessing was given and transferred from Abraham to Isaac. Then Isaac had two sons. Then it was transferred to the younger son of Isaac, to Jacob. And then Jacob had twelve sons. And it was transferred to Jacob's son Judah. And Judah had five sons. Two of them God killed.
Another one we don't read anything about. And then he had twins through Tamar. who was the wife of the first two boys. It was a sordid ordeal, but twins were born. And God said, Therese. Again, he chose between two boys, twins. Therese. And then finally, years later, He says, go.
Make a king out of one of the sons of Jesse. I found me a man after my own heart. And this morning as I was reading in the prophecy of Micah chapter five, but thou Bethlehem Judah. There's a day when God said to Samuel, go to Bethlehem and take a son. and make a king of one of the sons of Jesse. Out of Bethlehem, God chose his king, the son of David, the son of Abraham, our Lord Jesus Christ. At this time, the gospel was, a Savior is coming.
He's the seat of Abraham, and he follows this line. And when that message was believed, It brought peace to the heart. Our gospel message tonight is a Savior has come. A Savior has provided salvation on the cross on Calvary's Hill. And he who believes in him has life and has it abundantly. Is it yours? That's the gospel. That's the message that's believed. And the reason that he's believed is because God works inwardly in the life of that person.
And they savingly believe on our Lord Jesus Christ. And when we believe, we're saved. Do you believe that message enough to tell it to others? That's how you were a blessing. If you're not telling it, you just don't believe it enough. It's that simple. If you're not telling the message, it's because you really don't believe it enough. Because the more you believe it, it's one of those things you just have to tell.
Now let's pray. Loving Father, we thank you tonight for the riches of grace. for the excellency of thy dear son, for the knowledge that our sins are forgiven for his namesake. We thank you that you're the one who is in absolute control. You could control Saul among the prophets. You could control Caiaphas that he would utter one of the greatest statements in the New Testament concerning the death of Christ. You could control the lips of Balaam, the one who was paid to curse, but could only bless.
We thank you, our Father, that in your sovereign will, you are able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we may ask or think. Work in our midst. Give us to behold thy grace and thy glory. And may thy name be praised. For Jesus' sake, amen.