2021-01-31
Pastor Jonathan Falwell
In the book of Numbers, God is preparing His people for the fulfillment of His promise to them. Yet, God’s people are impatient, skeptical, disobedient and rebellious. Sounds familiar.
Numbers 11:1 CSB “Now the people began complaining openly before the Lord about hardship. When the Lord heard, his anger burned, and fire from the Lord blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.”
Their complaints seemed to be unending:
- Numbers 11 Hardship
- Numbers 11 Food
- Numbers 12 Moses
- Numbers 13-14 The Promised Land
- Numbers 16 Moses and Aaron
- Numbers 20 Water
- Numbers 21 Food and Water
But throughout the rebellion, the complaining, the criticism, God remained faithful to His promise.
Numbers 23:7-10 CSB Balaam proclaimed his poem: Balak brought me from Aram; the king of Moab, from the eastern mountains: “Come, put a curse on Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel!” 8 How can I curse someone God has not cursed? How can I denounce someone the Lord has not denounced? 9 I see them from the top of rocky cliffs, and I watch them from the hills. There is a people living alone; it does not consider itself among the nations. 10 Who has counted the dust of Jacob or numbered the dust clouds of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright; let the end of my life be like theirs.
Numbers 23:17-24 CSB So he returned to Balak, who was standing there by his burnt offering with the officials of Moab. Balak asked him, “What did the Lord say?” 18 Balaam proclaimed his poem: Balak, get up and listen; son of Zippor, pay attention to what I say! 19 God is not a man who lies, or a son of man who changes His mind. Does He speak and not act, or promise and not fulfill? 20 I have indeed received a command to bless; since He has blessed, I cannot change it. 21 He considers no disaster for Jacob; He sees no trouble for Israel. The Lord their God is with them, and there is rejoicing over the King among them. 22 God brought them out of Egypt; He is like the horns of a wild ox for them. 23 There is no magic curse against Jacob and no divination against Israel. It will now be said about Jacob and Israel, “What great things God has done!” 24 A people rise up like a lioness; They rouse themselves like a lion. They will not lie down until they devour the prey and drink the blood of the slain.
Numbers 24:5-9 CSB How beautiful are your tents, Jacob, your dwellings, Israel. 6 The stretch out like river valleys, like gardens beside a stream, like aloes the Lord has planted, like cedars beside the water. 7 Water will flow from his buckets, and his seed will be by abundant water. His king will be greater than Agag, and his kingdom will be exalted. 8 God brought him out of Egypt; He is like the horns of a wild ox for them. He will feed on enemy nations and gnaw their bones; he will strike them with his arrows. 9 He crouches, he lies down like a lion or a lioness—who dares to rouse him? Those who bless you will be blessed, and those who curse you will be cursed.
1. Regardless of what others might say, if God is for you who can be against you
Numbers 23:8 How can I curse someone God has not cursed? How can I denounce someone the Lord has not denounced?
- We may be constantly under attack, but if we are focused on God’s will and plan for our lives, nothing can stop us and nothing can destroy us
Romans 8:31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
2. Regardless of our disobedience, God can always be trusted
Numbers 23:19 God is not a man who lies, or a son of man who changes His mind. Does He speak and not act, or promise and not fulfill?
- Even when we stray from God’s ideal, which we will, God still is on our side
3. Regardless of the ugliness of our actions, God still sees beauty
Numbers 24:5-6 How beautiful are your tents, Jacob, your dwellings, Israel. 6 The stretch out like river valleys, like gardens beside a stream, like aloes the Lord has planted, like cedars beside the water.
- God never stops seeing us for who we are, people He loves and people for whom Jesus died
4. Regardless of our past, God has secured our future
Numbers 24: 7 Water will flow from his buckets, and his seed will be by abundant water. His king will be greater than Agag, and his kingdom will be exalted.
1 Peter 1:3-4 Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.