Gooding, David: 2 - The Blessing of God

Now let us begin our study this evening by reading in the book of Numbers, and first of all in chapter six. The Book of Numbers, chapter six, reading from verse twenty two. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise you shall bless the children of Israel. You shall say unto them, 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. So they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them. Then let's turn over, please, to chapter twenty two. Chapter twenty two for a succession of short readings, beginning in verse five. And he, that is Balak, king of Moab, sent messengers unto Balaam the son of Beor to Pethor, which is by the river, to the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt. Behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me. Come now, therefore, I pray thee, curse me, this people, for they are too mighty for me. Peradventure I shall prevail that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land. For I know that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou curseth is cursed. Verse twelve: And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them. Thou shalt not curse the people, for they are blessed. Chapter twenty three and verse seven. He, that is Balaam, took up his parable and said, from Aram hath Balak brought me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the east. Come, curse me, Jacob, and come, defy Israel. How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? And how shall I defy whom God hath not defied? Or from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him. Lo, it is a people that dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous. Let my last end be like his. Balak said unto Balaam, What hast thou done unto me? I took thee to curse mine enemies, and behold, thou hast blessed them altogether. Verse eight— uh, eighteen. And he took up his parable and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear, hearken unto 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 commandment to bless, and he has blessed, and I cannot reverse it. Chapter twenty and verse nine. He, that is Israel, couched, he laid down as a lion and as a lioness. Who shall rouse him up? Blessed be everyone that blesseth thee, and cursed be everyone that curseth thee. Alongside of that, let us put some well-known verses from the New Testament, from the epistle by Paul to the Ephesians and chapter one. Ephesians chapter one and verse three: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love, having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. The Lord give us good understanding of his word. Last week we introduced ourselves to the study of some portions of the book of Numbers, and we hesitated to guess that Numbers is one of the easier books of the Old Testament for us to interpret and to find from it practical lessons for our own good. For it is as a story how Israel, being redeemed from bondage in Egypt, journeyed across the wilderness to their glorious inheritance that awaited them in the land of Canaan. We immediately saw the connection of thought because we too have been redeemed. We too have an inheritance, though better than theirs, incorruptible and undefiled, that fades not away, reserved in heaven for us. And we too have to journey from the one place to the other. We noticed secondly last week that the book is in two parts. The second part, from chapter eleven onwards, records the actual journeyings of Israel and some of the experiences that came their way in the course of that journey. But the first ten chapters, more than a quarter of the book, the first ten chapters are devoted to the preparations that Israel had to make for that journey. And we saw at once the practical sense in that. Journeying across that particular wilderness in those days, as in some sense still today, could be a very dangerous thing. Granted that there were beautiful oases here and there, granted that now and again you would come across a caravan with all loaded with beautiful gifts and goods. And other parts of that wilderness were wild indeed, and people could get lost and perish. Our wilderness too is dangerous. Some of our traveling can be delightful and full of joy, tinged with the very glory that lies beyond. And God will give us as pleasant a time on the way home as he can possibly contrive to manage. With all that, he tells us the road can be difficult and needs that we shall be kept through faith by the power of God unto the salvation that is ready to be revealed when the Lord Jesus comes. When we looked last week at some of those preparations that Israel had to make, we were a little surprised. Of course, you can read there, if you will, about such practical things as ropes and wagons and carts and other such objects very useful in crossing the Sinai Peninsula. And yet there were a lot of other things that at first sight didn't appear to be practical. They were more spiritual things, things about the ritual of the tabernacle and the worship of God and the praise of God and the service of God. And then we bethought ourselves. One of the dangers and the testings of the journey would not be whether they'd remembered to bring enough grease to grease the wheels on the wagons so that they went okay. More dangerous was whether, as they came across the difficult parts of the journey, they might lose their faith in God. Losing their faith in God, lose their faith in the whole enterprise, and losing their faith in the goal that lay before them, find themselves in a wilderness, but going nowhere in particular, just going round in circles, lost. It can be a profoundly upsetting thing when people who have set forth on the way to glory, in middle life or before, find they lose their grip upon their faith and wonder whether God's word be true, whether the Bible be God's word at all. And losing faith therein, find that life has become a wilderness with no particular goal, and they feel lost. So we notice that in the preparations that God made for his people, that when we come to the actual journey that they went through, time and time again, Israel discovered that the preparations weren't for nothing. That God, who had foreseen their journey and foreseen all its eventualities in his wisdom, made them prepare the very things which, though they didn't see it at the time, would prove absolutely vital to keep them and bring them to journey's end. We saw last week, therefore, how that God had them stage the dedication of the altar. Because upon the journey, the Levites would be required to work diligently day after day in hard and tedious work to maintain the tabernacle services and to carry the tabernacle with them. Before they began their journey, before they began their tasks, God would prepare them to yield their bodies a living sacrifice. If they weren't prepared to do that, what would happen to them when they found the burden of their responsibilities along the journey? To help them yield their bodies a living sacrifice, God called them to witness the dedication of the altar and the supreme worth of that altar and its claim upon their lives. It was no waste of time, but careful divine wisdom that planned it so, for as we discovered last week, they hadn't got many miles on the journey across the wilderness. What some of the Levites rebelled. And some of them came to utter disaster. The earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up. The remainder had to be brought to stand once more beside the altar. Moses and Aaron took up the burning censers, still smoking, from the rebel Levites, beat them out into plates and put them on the altar. An everlasting memorial of what can happen in a wilderness. Tonight we are to look at another provision that God made for his people, and we shall spend a while thinking about its implications both for Israel and for us. Having thought about the preparation, we shall then spend the rest of our time looking at the journey, to see once more the wisdom of God, why they needed that preparation, and what eventually it meant to them. And so we come to those delightful verses that are recorded at the end of chapter six of Numbers. As God, so to speak, called his people aside, said, put down your old grease cans for a minute and your oiling rags, and and let those wagons be for a minute. You'll get moving soon enough. The journey will start quick enough. Don't get too impatient to be on the move. Sit down a minute. Now Aaron, he says, come, come, come, my man Aaron. Learn how to bless my people. How to bless my people such that their hearts and imaginations will be engaged, and they will begin to sense what a glorious thing it is to be blessed by Almighty God. Do it this way, says God to Aaron. You shall speak unto the children of Israel, saying, the Lord bless thee. With that sense of my blessing on them, you will induce in their heart a tremendous sense of the security that they have in the living God. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. Out there, shimmering in the heat, was a waste howling wilderness, and here and there an odd skeleton or two that the jackals had cleaned up and left white in the sun. Fancy starting a journey like that without the sense of the Lord's blessing in your heart. Without the glorious sense of utter security through faith in the living God. Oh, Aaron, before they start the journey, make them sit down now. Speak to them. Bless them. Fill their heart with a sense of security. The Lord bless thee. Then say, the Lord make his face shine upon you. It's a lovely crowd, the Hebrews were, weren't they? They don't talk always like theologians, they talk like ordinary human beings, and therefore God in his mercy condescends to their language. Of course, the Israelites knew that God didn't have a face, two eyes and a nose like we have. But God, in his mercy, talks to them about his face. And you know what it means, don't you, when you see somebody's face has been a little bit dull, and and then all of a sudden it it lights up. You know, ladies, when you're trying to get your husband to do the garden and he doesn't want to and he looks a little bit glum, and then you give him a box of your, his favorite mints or something, and oh, his face lights up, and it all, and you've scored a point. What a thing it has is to stand before Almighty God and watch the face of God light up with pleasure. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. A sense of the superlative grace of Almighty God. Oh, if only God's face shone towards me. How wealthy I should be, shouldn't I? Doesn't matter if I lived in an old tent like Israel, going across a barren wilderness with little but grains of sand around me. Let me see the face of God and see that face of God shine towards me, and I will see. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Lift up his countenance. Now the idea is the opposite of putting his head down or putting his head round. For in the ancient world, when you went to seek somebody, if they didn't look at you, you hadn't gained your point. When they lifted up their face and looked at you, and you got your requests. Would be a sore trial, wouldn't it, to get across the wilderness and to run into difficulty, thirst or hunger. It would be an infinitely sorer trial if in those moments you came to God and you felt he was looking the other way. He wasn't listening to your prayer. My brother, my sister, have you ever felt it so? That you went to God? He didn't look your way. You prayed, he seemed to take no notice. And then it wasn't merely the pain of outward circumstance, it was the puzzlement of heart, wasn't it, that destroyed your peace. Why doesn't God hear me? They were going across a desert that they had never traveled before. All sit them down there, says God to to Aaron, sit them down, my good man, and bless them in my name, saying, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you. Give you to know yourself accepted, that he's listening to you, that he's taking an interest in you, that he hasn't forgotten you, and that he is not neglecting you. And so, give you peace. So you shall put my name on them, says God. Ah, then they wouldn't get lost, would they? Or if they happened to get lost, you'd know whose they were anyway, if God's name was on them. So shall I bless them. Oh, my brother, my sister, I wish I could do it, but I can't do it. I wish I could. I see you here sitting, pausing for a few moments on your journey. I don't know your circumstance. Oh, how I wish I could bless you this evening. The Lord bless you and keep you. You've got that security, my brother, my sister? Do you know you're saved? Do you know that come what will, you shall never perish, and none shall pluck you out of the hand of the Savior, nor yet out of the hand of the Father? Oh, that the Lord would bless you now, whatever your circumstance, and renew within your heart that blessed sense that comes not from carelessness or self-confidence, not from circumstance, but from the sense of the reality of God, a God determined to bless you, who will keep you through to the end. The Lord bless you. Oh, that the Lord would cause his face to shine on you. What matchless riches are yours, the wealth, the riches of his grace. Oh, I wish I could make them sparkle in your imagination now. If only I could tell you the endless glories to which you are heir, and the wealth that awaits you. And you have it all now in God, for he is with you. Only life is rough sometimes, isn't it? It takes the glitter off things. And the rigors of life hide from us our will. And it becomes a weary foot slog. Oh, if now this moment God would cause to rise in your heart a sense of his blessing, you should see his face shine. You prayed recently and long over something. You would love some guidance as to what you're meant to be doing. Lord, which way is it, this way or that? You're puzzled. Underneath, you are s- a little uncertain, disturbed. You had a crisis in life. You wish you could have the answer and know exactly which way to go. You'd like to have that feeling of settled down and have peace in your heart, but the days go by and the thing isn't settled, and you're wondering. You hear one or two missionaries say how marvelous the guidance of God is at every crossroads. And if you're like me, you'd say, God bless the missionaries. I wish I were one. And the worst uncertainty that you pray and the Lord doesn't seem to give you the guidance you crave. And you wonder, is he listening? Or has he turned his face away from you? Oh, my brother, my sister, would I could do it, but surely God will do it for you this very moment. He hasn't turned his face from you. He watches you, every tick of the clock. His very name is on you. Why, when you were baptized, were you not baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? In this wide world, wherever you get to, a part of the divine treasure and property. If you are a believer, you shall never be lost. The Lord bless you. Ah, but let me not simply indulge in wishes or prayers. Let me cease being a Hebrew and start being a Christian, and just tell you for five minutes the glory that we share as believers in this fact that God has blessed us. Mark the term, not will one day bless us, but has blessed us. Oh, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, says Paul, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, even as he chose us. Now, the first basic point, all the blessing of God for you, now started out on your journey, or perhaps a long way along that journey, home to glory and to God. And here is God's word informing you that he has blessed you. In what sense, you say? Well, he's blessed you even as he chose you before the foundation of the world. So we better pause a moment to work that out. Chosen in Christ. Chosen, says the Bible, that we might be before him. Chosen that we should be sons of God. What a glorious destiny. And Paul says, you know, my dear brothers, you see, this is the first wonderful thing, that he chose you before the foundation of the world. You say, that's a mighty long while ago then, isn't it, what? But it isn't quite the point, my brother, that it's a long while ago. Of course it's a long while ago. That isn't the point. The point is that logically, long before God made this little planet, logically, he had you in mind, and he only went and invented the planet because he had you in mind. Did you not realize that? If you haven't, I'll get it into your head quick. This planet going around our sun, up our corner of the Milky Way, and goodness knows how much else of the vast masses that swirl in space. Do you know they were the second things that came into God's mind? The first was you. And he only made this planet because he had plans for you. One of these days, sir, you're going to the kitchen, if you know where it is, you know where the kitchen is. See your wife engaged there with a markable, uh, remarkable array of things. There'll be an oven that's got flashing lights on it and dials, miles per hour and other such things. I don't know why they have them on, on, on this, uh, oven affair, you'll see, and bells that go and things. And whizzing around the corner on the bench will be the latest Kenwood, four or five different speeds forwards and backwards. There will be all kinds of wires and things and galore and bowls that will be very impressive. You say, my dear, what are you doing? She says, I'm making a cake, of course. Hm, some cake's going to be a big thing. Yes, she says, look at this, going to be one of these four or five tiered affairs. What are you doing that for? She says, have you forgotten? Six weeks time is our Mary Ann's twenty first birthday. Oh, and then you remember. Mother hasn't forgotten anyway. She has her mind on the birthday. So before the birthday comes, there's all this gear, ovens and mixers and goodness knows what else. And you, poor father, you said to yourself, ah ha, that's why you nagged me until we got the new oven. Is that how it is? Oh, I see it now. Yes, for even before she got the oven, her mind was on Mary Ann and her birthday party. And because she was determined it should be such a party for Mary Anne as never was, then mother's logical brain thought, now, what do I do for a birthday party? Oh, cake. Now to get a cake, what do I have to do for that? Oh, get an oven, of course. Ooh, mine is worn up. What do I do now? Well, I get the right side of my husband and persuade him to buy a new oven. Do you see how the logical thing goes? The first thing in her mind was the last thing that's going to happen, Mary Anne's birthday, but it was the first thing in her mind, and all the other business, lights, buzzers, and everything else, and ovens, came to be because of that idea. Well, my brother, go out and look at the universe one of these starlit nights and tell yourself this. Why is it all there? Well, because before it was made, God had you in mind. It's gonna be not a birthday, it's gonna be a wedding day one of these days, the marriage supper of the Lamb. And God from all eternity had the idea that he would like sons, not just creatures. What a blessing to be not merely creatures made by God, but sons of God, being born of God, begotten of God. Not bits of his handiwork like the sun, moon, and stars are, but part of his own very life, generated from God himself. Little gods, if you like. That was God's idea. For you. God's problem was how to get it. But God can't make sons just by saying sons be, can he? Okay, curious thing. God wants a world, he says, let there be a world. There it is. If he wants to make creatures, God says, well, let's make man, and man has no choice in it, there is man. God couldn't do that with sons, could he? Why not? Well, a son of God is such a thing as can only come into being when God puts his proposal to a creature, and the creature says yes. It's like getting married, isn't it? You can't be born married. Not nothing, at least I never heard of it. One of those things, you know, you have to be asked. Huh? And being asked means you have the choice to say yes or no. And if you didn't, that wouldn't be our notion of a marriage, whoever's notion of a marriage it might be. The fantastic thing is God had a scheme to make sons. That meant that first of all, he had to make you as a creature and give you a free will, so that then he might approach you with this amazing offer that you could become a son of God through faith in Christ. And so that it could happen, that meant he had to make you a creature first. That meant you had to have a world to live on. That was nothing for God. He made it. And the whole universe that spins in space, he made it. To get you. The heart-stopping thing is that when God had that scheme and made man upon the world as a creature of his, then man turned round and trespassed against the plan of God and said no to God. I'm going my own way. You should imagine the absurdity of it. Little six-foot man on a little planet, whirling in space somewhere or other. He hasn't a clue into his head where it all came from or where it's going by himself. He dares turn around and say no to God's purpose and say I'm going my own way. If you want a guaranteed recipe for getting lost in this universe, my friend, you go your own way. I don't know how far you'll get, do you? It's dark a few miles off Earth. And what empty space is about, who knows? And what lies beyond it? And you're going your own way? And even so, God's mercy was not yet exhausted. He was determined to put his plan into operation and have sons. And who shall explain it? God's own son came to our planet to die for those that had trespassed against God's purpose. And the glory is, listen to the spiritual excitement in the pen of Paul. The glory is, he says now, God has done it, you know. That's the glory. It's no longer a promise. It's happened. God has blessed us, even as he chose us. There were centuries where the blessing was all in the future in this sense. Now it's happened, says Paul. He has blessed us. Seated us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You say, has he? Well, that may be so, but you say at this very moment I feel myself very much seated in Clockfern Gospel Hall on the outskirts of Belfast. Oh yes. But friend, isn't it true that as a believer you're in Christ? Isn't it true that God has given you his life and that you by his spirit, are in Christ? If that be true, then tell me, where is Christ? He's risen, you know. He's already at the goal of the journey. He endured the race that was set before him, and he's now sat down. Do you want security on the road? Ah, what a blessing it is. My brother, my sister, you may be in Cockfern, surrounded by all kinds of difficulties that I cannot imagine. If you are a believer, all the amazing blessing of God. He has blessed you. You are in Christ. You are seated with him in the heavenly places. The Lord bless you and give you to know that sense of security that while from one point of view you are still trudging along the journey of this life, God has blessed you to this extent that in another sense you are joined to Christ, seated with him in heavenly places. And to be able to journey through life, come what may, come fair weather or foul, come friend or foe, come joy, come sorrow. To know that you are blessed. You are already a child of God, already a son of God, already God has blessed you. The scheme has happened. You are linked with the Lord Jesus in heaven. Ah, that's to have a security that will see you through all the happenings of the desert road. And as I say, I wish I could bless you like that. I wish I could not merely recite the facts. I wish, by God's spirit, God would light up your heart to see that the face of God is shining to you this very moment. His face, he's lifted it up to you. His name is on you. For I tell you, you'll need it one of these days. Some of you have already discovered it. Some of you may be not yet discovered it, but if not yet, you will. There are badlands ahead. They won't last all the journey, but I repeat, part of the journey goes through the badlands. You say, what do you mean by the badlands? Well, historically, I am referring to that part of the journey, the record of which begins in Numbers chapter twenty and proceeds until the end of the Balaam story. Much of it was the bad land. You see, Israel had been going through the wilderness now for many years in their disobedience and wanderings. Now at length there came a new generation, and the time was drawing near for them to enter into the Promised Land. They came up out of the wilderness towards what we call the Southern Negev. Where head out there were the foothills of the Judean mountains, stretching all the way from west right down and over, down into the valley, into the Dead Sea. Here were the mountains. Up in those mountains there were kings, not one, but a half a dozen of them, kings and lords. What our English translation, in its quaint way, calls the lords of the high places. When they saw Israel coming to invade their territory, you don't suppose those kings said, how very pleasant, we'll get the coffee cups ready, do you? Powerful kings, strong lords, possessors of the high places, seated up there on those mountains that were the beginning of the inheritance, and sworn enemies of Israel, determined to keep them out of their inheritance as long as ever they could. I have to tell you that the scheme you're on sometimes when you look at it, you know, some Mondays or Wednesday afternoons when you sit down and look at it, I mean, fantastic, isn't it? You from Belfast, and you are proposing to go to the heavenly places? What, you? Are you not aware there are mights, dominions, principalities, powers in those heavenly places? The world rulers of this darkness, as Ephesians chapter six calls them. Don't you take that bit seriously? I tell you, they're real. That great, glorious, but evil spirit, Satan himself, who had the impertinence and yet the realism to tempt our blessed Lord and to try to stop his great work of redemption. I tell you straight, he won't leave you all the time just to wander into the heavenlies as you please without stirring up the opposition. So Israel came towards those mountains, and as they came, the desert was very bad. Miriam died, we're told, at the beginning of that chapter twenty. Ah, Miriam died. Nice little bag on Miriam. She was a bit of a difficult sometimes, you know, got a little bit jealous of Moses and had to be dealt with. But on the whole, she was a good soul, wasn't she? She couldn't half play the old tambourine, incidentally. And on the banks of the Red Sea, oh ho, what a do she had. You know, when they first started out, you should have heard them sing, banging away their tremendous staff. The Lord has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider is he cast into the sea. What? Oh, they did not sing. Nice, wasn't it, when they started? It's dead now. They weren't singing so much. Oh, some of you smile. There were times when you were young and redemption was new to you, and my, how you sang. And you haven't been singing so much recently. How could you? As trial and tribulation, as bereavement and sorrow, as illness and pain have come your way. And Miriam? She's dead these days. And the water ran out. Well, you can be as spiritual as you like. You'll go a week without water in the Sinai Peninsula, and some of the spirituality is in danger of evaporating as well, you know, as the water. And they came to Moses, and what a poignant thing they said. Wherefore have you made us to come out, up, up, up out of Egypt, to bring us into this evil place? How they meant what they said, wasn't it? It was one of the bad lands, this evil place. It is no place of seed or figs, they said. Why should think it wasn't? Oh, if you've been there, you know it certainly isn't a place of figs. It's an evil place. I hope nobody had told them that the way home to to their inheritance would always be marvelous and joyful. I feel like saying, my dear good fellows, cause course of it isn't a place of figs. What did you expect? It's no good arguing with folks when they're going through trials like that, is it? They set off for heaven, and they began with their singing, and now they've hit a patch of the road. It was very different from heaven. It's not a place of... figs. Well, I tell you by, by, by God's wisdom, many of you have already met it. Some of you will yet meet it, and perhaps more than once. And if you manage to pray or say something like that to God, oh God, this isn't a place of figs. It'll be the biggest understatement of the year. So God, you assemble the people. And the glory of God came down, said he, Moses, take your rod. Moses, speak to the rock, and it will bring forth water. Poor old Moses, whatever had come over the man. Do you know he was the meekest man in all the world, wasn't he? Put up with I don't know what from his, uh, fellow Israelites for years. But just now it got the better of him. And instead of speaking to the rock, he took his rod and he smashed it. Rebels, he said, must we bring you water out of this rock? And the water came out. Moses never got into the land. Why not? Because, as the Bible puts it, he rebelled against God. And Aaron didn't get into the land. He rebelled against God. I tell you, it was some bad lands. Fancy Moses getting so het up. Moses gave the law. Moses so provoked, he disobeyed the Lord. You'd have scared to believe that of Moses, would you? If you'd have heard it to me, you'd have said, well, I always had doubts about him, but Moses? Yes, but you see, the battle is real. And then, as now, there were principalities and powers interested in the thing. So what was wrong in smiting the rock? Didn't God tell him on another occasion to smite the rock and the water came out? He did indeed. We might make that the platform from which we now do three or four jumps and come to our Christian understandings of it. There was an early occasion, Exodus seventeen records it, when Israel, running out of water, murmured and rebelled against God, and God did a demonstration before them. God himself came and stood upon a rock, and he said, Moses, take your rod and smite. And just as you thought he was going to say, smite the people, God said, smite the rock, Moses, on which I stand. And the parable is not difficult to interpret, is it? What would you think if Her Majesty came to Cockfern, and they made a big platform, center of Cockfern, central, and Her Majesty stood on it, and while she stood on it, some chap came out of the crowd with a mighty great stick and started to belabor the platform upon which Her Majesty stood. How would you interpret it? You say that's nothing but rebellion. Yeah. So did God on that early occasion demonstrate to his people what was involved in their rebellion. For us, God has demonstrated it once and for all at another mount, namely Mount Calvary, when God's own son came and stood upon that mount, yea, he was hung upon a cross at Calvary, and the rod of God's wrath that ought to have smitten us the sinners fell upon him while we were enemies. All the marvel of that story. It pleased the Lord to bruise him for the sake of us rebels. Yes, that earlier story is a vivid parable for us Christians, isn't it? It happened at the beginning of the journey. But they were miles across the wilderness now, almost to the promised land. Once more there was a rock, but this time, says God, you don't have to smite it, Moses. For this rock, and here we are on very firm ground for interpretation, one Corinthians ten— the rock that followed them was Christ, says Paul. All the way, behind the various rocks of the wilderness, was the great rock, source of all their blessing and refreshment, the pre-incarnate Christ. Once more, this rock in the wilderness would do to symbolize him. But there he was, even in those far off days, the rock that followed them was Christ. And with his people parched with thirst, you don't have to beat him to get his blessing out of him, do you? How do you get on in your prayers? When life goes tough and you feel you must have this answer to your prayers, how do you go about it? When you're in pain and difficulty and sorrow, when a loved one is ill, how do you go about getting after God. You don't have to twist his arm, do you? Well, my friend, just about here, I fancy there is a very big practical point, isn't there? I think as I stand here of acquaintances known to me in a far-off land. In their middle life, vigorous workers for God. Their son of some twenty-two years took cancer. They pleaded with God to heal him. The boy grew worse. They demanded of God that God heal him. They thought if they only prayed hard enough, God must heal him, and when the boy died, they told the undertakers not to put the lid on the coffin, for God was going to raise him from the dead. But of course he wasn't raised. They were left with a very severe problem. Oh, my brother and my sister, how often have I prayed like an old pagan gentile, feeling that if I only somehow could prevail with God, and I say it reverently, twist his arm, he'd give me what I asked for. Do you have to do that with God? Hasn't he blessed you? And the God that has blessed you with all spiritual blessings, can you not trust him? You don't have to beat him hard to get from him his current blessing, do you? When days are difficult, sometimes it appears to the believer that God has turned his face the other way and isn't looking, and doesn't hear. And so we come in the story to the kings. I haven't time now to point you the multitudinous reference to the kings of this country and that country that came out to meet Israel. One of them, his name was Balak, summoned Balaam. Come, he said, with your enchantments, with your divinations. One of the words he uses is, of course, the word Satan. For King Balak was thinking not now of physical arms. Ba- Barak of Moab was thinking somehow if he could tap the great spiritual powers of the heavens and bring them to bear against Israel, then he might triumph. And foolish old Balaam came along thinking that the God of Israel was another great spirit demon being that he might coerce by his magical powers against Israel. And here the two of them up to their nefarious tricks, using the very powers of heaven, if they could, the principalities, might, powers, and dominions against Israel. Israel were really in the battle, weren't they? Perhaps you'll have sympathy when you read that in the end they got tired. And the manner seemed to them to be light. And murmured against God. And God had to send servants. You say, whatever is happening, I know what God must show his people what is happening. The old serpent that bit them, ah, he may stand well, Manti, for the symbol of that old other serpent. But ever since Eden's day has bitten human beings and poisoned their minds against God. God could do better for you than this if he wanted to. Where is your God now? What doesn't hear your prayers? And in the moment of their weakness, they murmur against God. What was it? But the bite of the old serpent. And God will teach them a lesson. He has an answer to it. He has an answer that will quell that feverish poison in your veins, my brother, my sister. And it's easy for me to talk, isn't it? But in the day of pain and difficulty, when Satan works his old virus in our system yet and causes us to doubt the love of God, there is a place where you can get a holy serum against that kind of snake bite. Where is it, you say? Once more, it is Calvary. As Moses lifted up that serpent in the wilderness that whoever believes may have eternal life, so we too look. Here again, the pulse of eternal life, expelling the old poison. There on that cross, God's answer to Satan and all his poisonous slanderers against God. He who spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? The balm of life, the cure of worlds, the measure and the pledge of Of love. love. And so God brought his people through and healed their poison and brought them to triumph. You see, it will have to be your faith, my brother, my sister. God can't put you onto an interstellar spacecraft and whisk you off to heaven before you know where you are. You've got to walk the journey. It'll have to be your faith. And your faith under test. And there will come times when God can no longer featherbed you. And he must let you, like Job, be exposed to all the opposition of the enemy. You've not gone that way. Don't let it make you afeard. Oh, but sit down while the sun shines, while there's an oasis or two near at hand. Oh, my friends, sit down, do please, from time to time, and soak yourself in the sense of the blessing of God. So that when the bad days come, it will carry you through. And it doesn't depend on us in the end, does it? Well, let me tell you the last dramatic bit of the story. While Israel were encamped, and as far as I know, all unbeknownst to them, Barak started his nefarious tricks way up in those hills, had Israel been able to see it, but they couldn't. Way up in those hill- hills went Barak and Balaam to his high places. Try to engage in spirit warfare against Israel. To bring the very powers of the other world down on Israel's head to curse them. And then if God had grown weary of Israel, Israel would have perished forever. In the wilderness. Listen to the story. Here comes Master Bala, donkey. That is a thing of prophets and kings rode on, don't you love it, donkeys? They were thought to be high status. Here comes Balaam down the road. He's gonna earn a pocketful of money anyway. He's coming to curse Israel. Oh, listen and believe it if you can. The very angel of the law. Who's that, you say? That's the second person of the Trinity. The very angel of the Lord left his own seat in glory and came and stood in front of old Baden. Defying Baden to go any farther. Oh, oh, shout hallelujah. For all I know, my brother, my sister, at this moment, some dark fell power in those high places has got you in his sights, like one day Satan had Job in his. And will seek to curse you. If ever it happens, I tell you straight that the very second person of the Trinity, no less, will come and interpose himself between you and the enemy. For all his endeavor, Balaam found his work of cursing impossible and was made to proclaim as follows: How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? How shall I defy whom the Lord has not defied? No answer to the question. Any more than there is to that glorious passage that we take to our hearts time and time again from Romans chapter eight. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? When it's God who justifies. Think hard, think, think. Who can be imagined when God has justified you? Who and all God's vast universe will stand up and lay a charge against you? Suppose they did. Who shall condemn us? Think hard, my brother. When it is Christ, the blessed second person of the Trinity, who died for us, rose again, and at the very moment intercedes for us, who shall condemn us now? Since Christ has died and risen and gone above for us to plead at the right hand of God, who shall condemn us now? How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? With that security comes the secret of present triumph. Do you know Israel's vigor? Says Balaam to Barak, I'll tell you, sire Barak, like a lion up there, they crouched down ready to spring. Where did they, those wee pilgrims that we saw the other moment in their great distress, how all of a sudden have they become like lions? Well, you see, says Balaam, God isn't the man that he should lie, or the son of man that he should repent. If he started to work in them, he will finish that work, and it shall be said of them, what has God wrought, all the marvel of it. Take me, the weakest of you all. Can you begin to see that God has begun a work? You say, I see a little of it, sir. I hope you do. I tell you this, that he that's begun the work, he shall continue it until the day of the Lord. And when glory dawns and I'm there by his grace, all the comment of angels and humans shall be this. David, good evening, glory just fancied. Well, well, well. What has God wrought to get him there? Ah, yes, rightly so. Says Balaam, and as I heard them the other day, if my ears mistake me not, says Balaam, Barak, there's a shout of a king amongst them. You'll never, you'll never defeat them, Barak. Ah, yes, there was too. And there is with you. Let there be lords of the high places and principalities and powers in heavenly places against whom we must wrestle. Let them seem to get advantage from time to time, yet is it still true, my brother, there's the shout of a king amongst us, because in actual fact there is a king amongst us. And certainly he shouts the songs of triumph for us, even as we are on our way home to glory. When Balaam prophesied the first coming of Jesus Christ was still in the future, and Balaam saw it from afar. A star shall arise, he said, a scepter shall arise. And when he does it, that will be the end of enemies. Our blessed Lord has come and gone. We're in him, seated in heaven, and he with us, the shout of a king amongst us. But all the day when that star shall arise, that morning star, and the scepter is given him eternally. Eternally. And you shall be there. If you are a believer, you shall be there because of the great salvation and intercessions of Jesus Christ, your King. And by God's grace, I shall be there too. Let's give thanks. O God our Father, we thank thee for these ancient stories, because though they are so ancient, yet they ring true in our experience, and give us such delightful models of through which we may come to think about our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, and the wonder of thy grace towards us, and the reality of it, so that even now, while we look at things not seen but unseen, yet thy Holy Spirit makes them real to our hearts, and we are able to lay hold upon these eternal things. For the sense of thy blessing upon us tonight, for the sense that thy blessing is real. For the glorious triumph to know that thy purposes for us are so far advanced that we are seated with Christ and bound to him eternally, even while we journey here. For this we praise thee. Only Lord, when we come to the bad land and our faith is tested, O God, help us to honor thee and to sanctify thee, and not to murmur, but to trust. Yet for all we had no hope of ever arriving in thy presence, even now, were it not for our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, and for him now, the angel of God, the incarnate Son of God, our high priest and intercessor, for him and his eternal vigilance and his everlasting salvation, with all our hearts, now together we praise thee. And as we thank thee for these things, we thank thee for the gifts of food and drink given to us and prepared for us by kind friends. Thy blessing be upon it all, we beseech thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.