Balaam's fourth prophecy, delivered under divine compulsion after three failed attempts to curse Israel, reveals God's sovereign plan and the ultimate triumph of His people. Despite Balaam's desire to curse and Balak's anger, God forced Balaam to utter a prophecy foretelling the rise of a star and scepter from Jacob and Israel, signifying Christ's dominion and victory over Israel's enemies like Moab, Edom, and Amalek. This prophecy highlights that no weapon formed against God's people can prosper and serves as a testament to God's immutable counsel, ultimately pointing to the coming of Christ who will rule all nations and bring salvation even to those considered outsiders. The sermon concludes by emphasizing the importance of standing with God's people and prioritizing truth over fleeting happiness, contrasting Balaam's choice to return to his own place with the eternal destiny of those who follow God.
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And we're going to begin our reading at verse ten. We're dealing tonight with the fourth prophecy of Baalim. He had been called by Baalik, the king of Moab, to curse the children of Israel. And God turned the curses into a blessing on these three occasions. And this is what took place at the end of the third Prophecy, verse ten, and Baelic's anger was kindled against Baelim, and he smote his hands together, and Baelic said unto Baelim, I called thee to curse mine enemies, and behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times.
Therefore now flee thou to thy place. I sought to promote thee unto great honor. But lo, the Lord has kept thee back from honor. And Balaam said unto Balaam, Take I not also to thy messengers which thou sentest unto me, saying, If Balaam would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord to do either good or bad of mine own mind. But what the Lord sayeth that will I speak. And now behold I go unto my people. come therefore and I will advertise thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days. And he took up his parable and said, Balaam the son of Dior has said, the man whose eyes are open has said, he has said, which heard the words of God and knew the knowledge of the Most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty falling into a trance and having his eyes open.
I shall see him, but not now. I shall behold him, but not nigh or near. There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Sheth. And Edom shall be a possession. Seer also shall be a possession for his enemy, and Israel shall do violently. Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city. And when he looked on Amalek, he took up his parable and said, Amalek was the first of the nation, but his latter end shall be that he perish forever.
And he looked on the Kenite and took up his parable and said, Strong is thy dwelling-place, and thou putest thy nest in a rock. Nevertheless, the Kenite shall be wasted until Asher shall carry thee away captive. And he took up his parable and said, Alas, who shall live when God doeth this? And ship shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asher, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish forever. And Belem rose up, and went, and returned to his place. And Belek also went his way.
Now may the Lord bless. the reading of his words. This is Balaam's fourth prophecy. Three times he tried to curse the people of God and three times Balaam failed. Three times Balaam's attempted curse was turned into a blessing for God's people. It is wondrous to realize that no weapon formed against God's people can trust them. It is wonderful to realize that God says, Fear not, I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name.
Thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee. Through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest to the fire, thou shalt not be burned. Now, Balaam, after these three prophecies, He decided to leave the scene, anxious to get away from the boiling wrath of Baloch. And old Baloch was really hot under the collar. And you have that especially in verse ten. It says his anger was kindled against Baloch. Now, but before the alarmed prophet could leave, God forced him to say more. Hence we have this fourth prophecy.
Imagine, Baalek the king is angry, Baalem is trying to leave, and God makes him utter a fourth prophecy. I tell you, that is a tremendous thought when you put it together. It gives us an idea of the one who sits upon the throne, the greatness of our God, and the fact that his counsel shall stand, he will do all his pleasure. Potomor, this prophecy deals with what Israel will do to Moab in the last days. You have that especially in verse fourteen.
And Moab were the people over whom Baalek reigned. It was he who hired Baalem to curse them. So God has a final word, especially for Moab. So we have in verses fifteen and sixteen the source of the prophecy. Now the great theme of this final prophecy of Balaam has to do with the second coming of Christ to smite the foes of Israel. Balaam attaches his signature to the prophecy. You'll notice it in verse fifteen. Balaam the son of Beor have said, the man whose eyes are open have said.
So here we have Balaam attaching his signature, as it were, to that which he uttered. Now he begins his utterance as he did in these previous prophecies. He was a human instrument who once thought that the God of Israel could be manipulated. You know, a lot of Christians have that idea that the God of Israel can be manipulated. I was very impressed with Ord Morrow this week on the Back to the Bible broadcast. He said a lot of Christians have the idea, well, it doesn't hurt to sin.
We can just confess it, God will forgive us. So they go ahead and sin. But you see, that's not the purpose of it. John says these things right unto you that you may not sin. And if any man sins, we have an advocate with a father. Never imagine for a moment that the God of heaven can be manipulated by the minds of men. It cannot be done. Balaam thought that God could be manipulated and that he could take money and curse the people of God.
What a lesson he learned. For the more... Balem in the Old Testament and Simon Magus in the New Testament thought that the sacred things of God could be bought and sold. And you read of Simon the Sorcerer in Acts chapter eight and verse ten. And Peter told him that he was in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity because he thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money. Now the signature here of Balaam, it does carry weight. If for no other reason than it was the pledged word of a man who was a sworn enemy of God's people.
Balaam hated the people of God. He perishes fighting God's people. Numbers chapter thirty-one, verse eight. Balaam would have cursed the people of God. if he could. And the sad part about it, in the next chapter, he corrupted the people of God. And you wouldn't know it reading the next chapter unless you read the second chapter of the book of the Revelation. You wonder how God's people could fall as they do in the next chapter, in chapter twenty-five.
But we learn when we get to the book of the Revelation, chapter two, why they fell. And who was to blame? None other than Balaam, the son of Beor. He taught Balaam. He told the king what to do. He cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel. Now God warns us, who are the Lord's people, in a very special way, in our dealings with each other, in the family of God. For in the family of God, there are those who are called strong brethren and weak brethren. We that are strong, the Scripture says, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, but not the doubtless disputations.
Romans chapter fifteen and verse one. We must bear what we are not alone, just because we think we're strong to put a stumbling block whereby a brother or a sister would stumble. Now, the signature of Balaam is significant also because it becomes part of the inspired word of God. And he himself is a hostile witness. God can use hostile witnesses to declare his truth. And that's what he does with Balaam. For Balaam is accepting money to curse.
And that's what he'd like to do. And anyone who accepts money to do a job wants to do the job to the satisfaction of his employer. If he possibly can. And I'm sure Balaam wants to do that. And hence we get an insight into it. The truth is dragged out of Balaam, so to speak. But then. Belom, he has a vision of the Almighty. And I want you to notice in verse sixteen, he uses three names for God in verse sixteen. He uses the name God, El, the singular for God.
Then he uses the name Shaddai, the Almighty, or the bountiful giver. You have that. He says, we heard the words of God and knew the knowledge of the Most High, Shaddai. which saw the vision of the Almighty, El Yon, which means the High One over all the earth. In other words, when you really examine that verse, it almost gives us the sound of the doctrine of the Trinity in the verse. Three times with three different names, he speaks of God. What a wonderful test.
There's a hint there of the triune nature of God in the text. I wouldn't push that too hard, but nevertheless, there's a hint there. Just as I believe you have a hint in the great benediction that Moses used, the Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. I believe that the three mentions of the Lord in that benediction come close to the New Testament rendering where we have made the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit abide with you as Paul closes his letter to the Corinthians, second Corinthians.
But now that brings us to the substance of the prophecy. The first thing you have in verse seventeen is a time factor. And I like to think of two things in the time factor. First of all, I believe it relates to Balaam himself. I shall see him but not now. I shall behold him but not near. And I believe that that verse there is a personal testimony of Balaam, the harling prophet, that he would not get near to the Lord's anointed. our Lord Jesus Christ. He would see him at a distance. At a distance. As someone has said, he'd see him across the Gulf, the Great Gulf.
However, there's the other side, which I think is more in keeping with the text, and that is the coming of the Mighty One is in the distant future. I think that's more in line with what the text is teaching. for he's speaking of the mighty one who is coming. The message had nothing to do with the immediate presence. I shall see him, but not now. It had reference to the one who had not yet appeared. He's speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, our Lord's first coming was about fifteen hundred years, hence from the time that Balaam sought to curse the people of God.
And the second coming of Christ is approximately two thousand years further. So at the present time, it's about thirty-five hundred years. Almost said twenty-five. But thirty-five hundred years ago, that's hard to imagine, isn't it? Thirty-five hundred years ago, Balaam stood up. try to curse the people of God. But the ongoing program of God, according to the sovereign decrees of God, has kept going and has not failed, and it has not deviated at one point.
In spite of all the foes who mounted up against the people of God, God's program has kept going. Now we want to notice the true focus of the prophecy. He speaks of the star and the scepter. They shall come a star out of Jacob and the scepter shall rise out of Israel and shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Sheth. The star and the scepter. He saw the coming one who would come from heaven to shed light upon the earth. And truly when our Lord came, the star attended his coming.
It's quite interesting where Balaam was from. He was from the area where the Magi came from. And he may have taken this prophecy along home with him and told them of the coming one, of the star that's going to arrive. For... The wise men came from that area, from Babylon, from the area of Babylon, to ask the great question of King Herod, where is he that he's born king of the Jews? And when they found him, they worship him. They found him, and they worshiped him.
So he saw the star, but he saw more. He saw the scepter. He beheld the power of Christ, the coming one who was to rule all nations. He beheld the one who star anon, the birth of the king of the Jews, the one in whose hand God would place a scepter of rule over the whole earth. Notice he saw the star that would come out of Jacob. He used that expression. And then he says it would rise out of Israel. In other words, Here we have the special blessing upon the Hebrew people. When the term Jacob is used for the Hebrew people, it speaks of their fault and their failure, their worldliness, carnality, shortcoming, and sin.
What our text here says, a star out of Jacob and a scepter. out of Israel. So Jacob speaks of the failures of the nation. But Israel signifies the nature in a spiritual state, cleansed, converted, consecrated, and crowned. The scepter shall rise out of Israel. Now the name Israel means Prince with God. It was given to Jacob that night at Penelope When he wrestled with the angel of God until the breaking of the day.
And the angel touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh. And he couldn't wrestle any longer. And he just crave unto the Lord. And he said, I will not let you go until you bless me. And the scripture said he blessed him there. He blessed him there with a new name. First of all, he said, what is your name? And what a confession it was. He had to confess it, Jacob. I'm a cheater. I'm a rogue. I'm a heel catcher. I live by the adage, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. That was Jacob all through his life.
But God blessed him there. But then he beheld the enemies that are going to be overcome by Israel. And he speaks of this one who's going to rise out of Jacob. and the scepter out of Israel. He speaks of smiting the corners of Moab. And then he speaks of Edom. And he speaks of the sons of Sheth. Here we have three enemies of the people of God. Let me just say a few words about each one. Moab and Edom are related by blood to Jacob.
to Israel. Moab were the people who descended from Lot. Edom are the people who descended from Esau, Jacob's twin brother. Both of these nations, neither one of them permitted the people of Israel to pass through their borders when they came out of Egypt. Both of these Edom said you cannot pass through, we will not give you water, even though they were going to buy whatever they used. And the people you remember of Israel, because they had to go out around, make that circuitous journey, out around the land of Edom, they murmured against God.
Moab and Edom. In the twenty-third chapter of Deuteronomy, We read that a Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord unto the tenth generation, yea, even forever. A Moabite. And yet you and I know of a Moabite who's in the congregation of the Lord. And we cry out, how did she get in? It's a woman. Her name is Ruth. And she was in the line of our blessed Lord. She got in the same way I got in, and we sang it tonight in the last psalm.
My Redeemer, oh what beauties in that lovely name up here. You see, Boaz was the mighty Redeemer, the mighty man of wealth, and he redeemed Ruth. He redeemed her to be his own bride. And you see, She was an outsider. Just as we were outsiders, we were outside of the covenant of promise. We were outside aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. We had no claim at all upon God, but a mighty Redeemer came, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And he looked at us in our sin, and he said, you're an outsider, but I'm going to make you an insider. And I'll tell you, beloved, To be an insider is a most glorious privilege I know to be in Christ. An insider. Whenever I think of Ruth and her husband Boaz who redeemed her, I like to think of Boaz' mother. For he had a mother who I believe knew what it meant to be an outsider. Rahab. Rehab was the mother of Boaz.
And Rehab was an outsider. What God made her an insider. And by faith she received the spies with peace. And by faith the harlot Rehab obtained with her. You see, when you look at the women in the life of our, or in the ancestry of our blessed Lord. They display each one of them in mighty power, attributes of God. You see, it begins with Tamar back in Genesis thirty-eight, and she magnifies the grace of God. You see, oh, what a magnificent picture of the grace of God.
Then the next one is Rahab. Rahab magnifies faith by faith. Rahab you see and then when they come to Ruth there's redemption the redemption that was that's how she got in and then when you come to Bathsheba it's mercy oh the mercy of God and when you come to Mary it's sovereignty for God chose her and she says who am I that the Almighty should choose me And she does it in such a lovely way in what is known as a magnificent.
So we have Moab and Edom here. And they're blood relatives of Israel. And he says concerning them, Edom shall be a possession. Moab is going to have the corners cut. And then he speaks of Sheth. And I believe Sheth stands for mankind in general. Why do I say that? We'll follow it through. After the death of Abel, when came through Abel, a third son was born whose name was Seth. And Sheff is usually spelled Seth as E-T-H.
And Noah descended from the line of Seth. and all except the family of Noah perished in the flood and all mankind is related to Noah as well as to Adam and we're related to Noah through Seth you see and I believe here is a picture of the rulership of our Lord over all mankind for we read in verse nineteen Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remained of the city.
And that brings us to Samoa Nation. Verse twenty. And when he looked on Amalek, he took up his parable and said, Amalek was the first of the nations, but his latter end shall be that he perish forever. He spoke of Amalek as the first of the nations. First, because he was one of the dukes. that are mentioned in the thirty-sixth chapter of Genesis. The kings reigned in Edom long before kings ever reigned in Israel. There's a lesson for us that children of the ungodly multiply and establish themselves rapidly.
That was a cry of the psalmist in the seventy-third psalm. That was a cry of the psalmist in the thirty-seventh psalm. Why do the wicked prosper? And kings reigned in Edom long before kings reigned in Israel. And Amalek was the grandson of Esau. Furthermore, he says he's the first of the nations. He was the first of the nations to fight Israel. He came against Israel at Rephidim. Numbers chapter seventeen. and Joshua had a deal with him. And in Deuteronomy chapter twenty-five and verse eighteen, he is described as the one who attacked the hinder part of the nation of Israel.
And he smote the feeble and the faint, those that were feeble and those that were faint among them. And the scripture says, Amalek feared not God. and the scripture says his latter end shall be that he perish forever and when you go through the scriptures and you take up all that has that God has to say concerning Amalek here's where King Saul failed he failed to utterly destroy Amalek and later on there was a prince of Amalek by the name of Haman who sought to destroy the people of God there are lessons here the enemies that we as God's people don't deal with in our lives are going to afflict our grandchildren and our great-great-grandchildren and our great-great-grandchildren if we don't deal with them they'll be dealt with our offspring will have to and beloved if God has given anything to us whereby we're to exercise wisdom It is in keeping the balance in
order that we don't open the floodgates for the next generation to deal with what we're afraid to stand up and deal with. You and I are called upon to live in righteousness. Zephaniah chapter two and verse nine, it speaks of what Moab and the children of Ammon, the children of Lot, the descendants of Lot. Lot failed to take the gospel to Sodom. But Lot brought Sodom out to afflict the people of God in future generations.
And if we fail to carry the gospel, beloved, our children are going to be plagued by those who we failed to proclaim the truth to. Now when I mean carrying the gospel, I'm not saying we convert. Only God can convert. But he does it, beloved, through the preaching of the gospel. And God has commissioned us, not angels, to tell the message. It is up to us. This was Paul's message to Paul, or God's message to Paul when he was appeared to in the Corinth in Acts chapter eighteen.
This is his message to us. And it's his message to us. And we can't apply this too strongly. Now when he looked on the Kenites in verse twenty-two and verse twenty-one, the Kenites, who were there? Well, they were people who were friendly to Israel. You remember Moses' father-in-law was a Kenite. We read that in Joshua chapter one and verse sixteen. And you read it again in Joshua did I say Joshua I meant to say Judges chapter one in verse sixteen and Judges chapter four in verse eleven he's also described as a priest of Midian in Exodus chapter two when Moses kept the flock or of Jethro his father-in-law the priest of Midian now if he were a priest of Midian then he's also a relative of Israel.
Abraham's wife, Keturah, you remember. Abraham had three wives. There was Hagar, and to her he produced Ishmael. There was Sarah, to whom he produced Isaac, and there was Keturah, to whom he produced a number of nations, at least four, that are mentioned in, I think, the twenty-fifth chapter of Genesis. So he'd be a relative, a distant relative of Israel. Now this chapter concludes very solemnly. And by the way, in verse twenty-four, it says, And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, that is Cyprus, and shall afflict Asher, that's the Assyrians, and shall afflict Eber, they're the Hebrews, and he also shall perish forever.
But what a solemn ending. Balaam returned to his place. His place. Not God's place. His place. The place he had chosen. And Baelic also went his way. And when you get the numbers, chapter thirty-one in verse eight, Baelic dies fighting the people of God. The wages of unrighteousness, the desire for earthly gain. Baelic said, don't you realize that God kept me from promoting you?
Has God ever kept you from a promotion? Has God ever kept you from a promotion? I'm afraid that we're more interested today in the promotion that the world has to offer than in obeying the voice of the Lord. The other morning as I was in fellowship with the Lord, a thought came to my mind. Often you have a choice between happiness and truth. Give me truth every time.
Not happy. I have all eternity to be happy. This is the day, beloved, that stands for truth. Don't miss. Don't miss it. Salem went to his place. He died fighting the people of God. He looked at the promotion that the world had to offer. And it wasn't worth it. Oh, may God speak to our hearts. In this day, that the truth of God will mean more to us.
And the people of God. Getting back to Moses' father-in-law, by the way. I don't agree with everyone who looks at Moses' father-in-law as giving good advice in Numbers or in Exodus chapter eighteen. I don't think Moses should have been listening to his father-in-law. And the reason I don't believe he should have been listening to him was when Moses turned to his father-in-law in the book of Numbers, chapter eleven, and he says, Come with us, and we will do the good, he referred his own people to the people of God.
That's a dangerous choice. That's a dangerous choice. I believe that the call of God is clear-cut. And we have to take our stand with the people of God.