Amen. Glory to God. Let us go before the throne of grace, and we're going to get into this word.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day, God. We thank you for your presence, Lord. We thank you for your anointing, God, for it's your anointing that destroys the yoke. Lord, we pray that in this time of sharing in your word, God, that you would just saturate every word that goes forth, God. I pray that our hearts are good ground to receive your word, Lord, and that you are glorified in every interaction, every question, God. Let people be free, oh Lord, to seek your wisdom, for your word said, if any of us lack wisdom, let them ask God for wisdom. Let them ask God for wisdom. Let them ask God for wisdom. Ask of God who gives so freely, so freely. Pour out your wisdom. Pour out your glory. Pour out your anointing. We pray it be so in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah.
So as Pastor Devin said, we are entering into this sermon series, this podcast series, Bible Gone Wild. I know that there are more familiar passages that we preach, and a lot of times different denominations use something called a lectionary. A lectionary kind of sets forth the calendar for the preaching and teaching, and they have very specific passages. And even in the lectionary, they'll ignore certain passages just because they're hard to preach. These are passages that are dark, that may even seem profane. They just, they're not brought up in Bible study, they're not brought up in the lectionary just because they're a little bit hard to dig into.
And Minister Terrence last week, if you didn't hear the word last week, you missed the word. I encourage you, go back, watch it. It's on YouTube. It's on our Facebook. But he preached a lot about myth-busting and what's not in the Bible. So be prepared. He set us up perfectly. Be prepared for these next few weeks. We'll be preaching about what is in the Bible. Amen. And the Bible contains certain accounts, as Pastor Devin said, like why is this even in Holy Scripture? What's the point of this narrative?
But when you look at your own life, I know there are things that you wish you could avoid, right? Things that you wish are just not documented, that are glossed over, that nobody even wants to mention again. But if we tell the whole story, that if we're true about what happens in our life, our sincere and authentic testimony, someone might be blessed by what you've gone through. Amen? Amen. Because the Word of God says they overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. And so everything that we experience, we can really see it reflected in the Word of God.
2 Timothy 3:16 says that all Scripture is inspired by the Word of God. And it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the believer may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. And that phrase inspired by God, certain translations, they write it as God breathed. It's called the Theos Numptos, meaning that God breathed, kind of the same imagery you would get from in Genesis, when God breathed into Adam, the Rurach in Hebrew, the Numa in Greek, that he breathed life into Adam. Think of it as God breathing life into every single word. Amen? That it's not just God inspired, but God breathed life into these words.
So whether it is poetry in the Bible, historical narrative, wisdom literature, narrative accounts, prophetic books, the Gospels, the Epistles, all of it is full of God's breath. Amen? So 2 Timothy is not maybe referencing specifically to the canonized accounts that we have. But it's speaking to that as God has breathed life into these words, God can breathe life into your own life. Amen? Amen.
And so I'm going to highlight one specific account and then we're going to open it up. And again, as Pastor Devin mentioned, you can email questions. I don't know if the QR code is still up. It is. You can send us questions because I'm going to talk about a passage that is a bit weird to me, but it's the story of Balaam and the donkey. I don't know if anyone's familiar with that. I see a couple of head nods. A couple of people are looking like, I don't know what you're talking about. But Balaam, I keep saying Balaam, but I believe it's pronounced Balaam. Balaam is found in Numbers 22. So if you have your Bibles, we're going to go through Numbers 22.
And last month, I believe a month or so, Pastor Devin went through the book of Acts and was like reading the whole chapter because sometimes you can't just take certain parts out. You need the context. Amen? Amen. I had a former pastor tell me, text without context is pretext. Meaning that if you take and kind of cherry-pick a scripture out of the context of it, then you are presuming your own agenda. You have your own pretext and your own agenda of the scripture. So you need to situate the word in the context of the scripture.
So we'll be reading all through Numbers 22. And I'm not going to read it verbatim because I know folks' attention span, Pastor Terrence went over this last week. We got a short amount of time in our attention span. So I'm going to give you the cliff notes, the spark notes, the TLDR, too long, didn't read version of Numbers 22. So what happens? You have Balaam, who's the king of the Moabites, was terrified of the Israelites and sent word for Balaam to curse the Israelites. Then Balaam sends messengers to Balaam to come with him back to Balaam. But Balaam tells them, you know, stay the night while I will be with you. And Balaam tells them, you know, wait to hear from the Lord.
So down in verse five, God tells Balaam not to go. So Balaam tells Balaam, hey, I can't go. The messengers go back. Then Balaam says, you know, I'm going to bring more messengers. I'm going to send people who are more distinguished, more honorable, and I'm going to send a whole bunch of gifts, too. Second round, he's going to come back with me and curse these Israelites. And so Balaam says again, you know what? Can you stay a while? And I'm going to wait until you hear from Elohim.
And so God tells Balaam, you know what? Go with the men. This is in verse 15. And as Balaam goes, he's commissioned by God to go with the men. God sends an angel in his path to stand as an adversary against Balaam. Now we're down at Numbers 22, verse 22. His donkey that he's riding on sees the angel with a sword, and he goes in a different direction. This happens three separate times. And by that third time, the donkey sends Balaam down a path that ends up like scraping his leg up against this kind of wall, this barrier of the vineyard.
So Balaam is mad. Every single time the donkey sends him in a different direction, he hits and beats on the donkey. Every single time. It happens three separate times. Finally, by the third time, God gives the donkey the ability to speak. This is where the weird part comes in. Right. Very weird. Someone's like, yeah, y'all can talk back to me. Very weird. And she, the donkey is a female donkey. She doesn't tell him to stop, but she questions him, what have I done to you to be hit three times? And Balaam doesn't freak out that the donkey's talking to him, but he responds. Is it because you made a fool out of me? And if I had a sword, I would have killed you.
To which the donkey, which again is an animal that does not have the ability to speak, is speaking because God gave him the ability to speak. And Balaam is like, I don't have the ability to do so. Replies and says, have I not been your donkey since you were young? Have I ever acted like this? Balaam, full conversation with an animal. Responds to the animal's question and says, no. God finally reveals the angel to Balaam, who is now astonished that there's an angel, repents. And then the angel of the Lord gives Balaam the same instructions that God gave previously. Go with the men, speak only what I have. And Balaam, the angel of the Lord gives for you to speak. And instead of cursing the Israelites, Balaam speaks blessings on them. And this happens throughout Numbers 23 and Numbers 24.
And I know I don't have a lot of time to go deeper into the text, but I'm going to hit a couple of points here that kind of stuck out for me whenever I read this passage. Because I always hear about this donkey talking, but I don't really understand, like, why is the donkey talking? What's happening in this scripture? Because there's some things that are going on here. And if I had the time to go deeper, but I don't, but I want to highlight that the King Balak is terrified of the Israelites. The Israelites were people that were enslaved, that were oppressed, and now have grown so plentiful and powerful that this king is terrified of them. And he is so terrified of them that he seeks out Balaam to speak curses on him.
Now, Balak, his name means destroyer. The destroyer is terrified of the people of God. And the people of God are terrified of the people of God. And the people of God are terrified of people of God who were once oppressed are now so powerful that he's like, you know, I got to send word for somebody to curse these people because I can't overtake them. And a commentary I read said the Israelites were too numerous to confront militarily. They must be weakened spiritually. That there are this group of people who were previously oppressed, previously enslaved in Egypt, now have grown so powerful that Balak said, I can't fight them naturally and physically. I have to go spiritually and weaken them.
So they go to Balaam. And I want to talk a little bit about Balaam. I can't go too deep into him either, but he's neither an Israelite nor a Moabite. He is not a Hebrew. He is not a prophet of God. But he's someone that Balak recognizes having some kind of spiritual power. That there's a word of him that whoever Balaam curses, whoever Balaam blesses, they're cursed. Whoever Balaam blesses are blessed. And Balaam himself, if you see like the introduction of him, this is in Numbers 22 and I think verses 3 and 4, it describes him as someone who's of the Ammonites. Again, someone who's not an Israelite, not a Hebrew. Yet he is constrained by Elohim. He says, I'm not going to speak of myself, but I'm going to say and do what God would have me to do.
He's not a man of God, yet he is obedient to God. Balaam does not speak of his own authority, but he only speaks what God allows him to speak. Now, another thing I want to just kind of highlight here is the use of messengers in this passage, right? So we have a few different messengers happening in Numbers 22. There are the messengers sent by Balak to Balaam that come with gifts and under the authority of Balak. And then Balaam is a messenger who initially was sought after to curse the people of God, but ends up blessing them because he's sent by God to give a blessing. Then you have the angels.
So if you were a part of Bible study, our last semester Bible study, we talked about the spiritual world. We talked about angels and angels are what? For those who were in Bible study, just quick knowledge check. Messengers of God, right? So we have the angel was the messenger of God who was sent as an adversary. And then you have the donkey, which I would argue is also a messenger. Because she brought a message to Balaam even before she spoke a word. She tried to message Balaam to steer away from danger, right? That three separate times she attempted to safeguard him because that angel had a sword. She could see it. An animal could see something that a prophet could not.
And so without her even having the ability to speak anything, she's trying to send a message that the path that you're going on is dangerous. And so God gives her the ability to speak. Why? Because God is not going to silence those who are on the receiving end of violence. God empowers the donkey to speak out. Why are you hurting me? Because there's no suffering in silence, but audibly with her voice. The donkey refused. Refuses to be abused and she speaks out. Why are you hurting me when I've been so faithful? So the donkey is an amazing messenger in this passage.
And when I look at this scripture and I was looking at commentaries and I was looking at paths like the sermons and times I remember hearing people talk about this message, they always focus on, of course, the very fantastical, absurd idea of an animal speaking, right? Because in the Bible, there's not so many times that you have an animal talking. There's only two times. There's this. There's time and when else? And whenever if anybody can think back, when is the animal speaking in the Bible? The serpent, right? Genesis.
So you have the serpent speaking and you have this donkey speaking, and that is pretty like weird and fantastical, right? But to me, the wild part is God telling Balaam to go with the messengers and then God gets mad, right? So we have God saying in verse 20, if men have come. If men have come to summon you, get up and go with them, but do only what they tell you to do. Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the officials in Moab. And then verse 22, God's anger was kindled because he was going. Does that feel weird to y'all? Or am I the only one that feels a little bit like this is wild? Like what's going on?
It seemingly feels like Balaam is being punished for following God's instructions. Balaam is doing what God told him to do. And yet God says an angel with a sword to block him. That's the wild part to me. That's the Bible going wild for me. Not just the donkey. I'm kind of like Balaam, okay? Donkey's talking, whatever. But you told me to go. And I went. And now you sent an angel with a sword against me.
And I kept reading the scripture trying to figure out why it bothered me so much. Because there are often times where I feel like, God, I'm doing what you said do. God, I thought I heard you, right? And I'm going. And I'm going down the path because at first Balaam didn't want to go. When he sent the first messengers, God said, don't curse the Israelites. Don't go with them. Bet. I'm not going. And he even tells the king, you can give me your entire house and all of your riches. I'm not going against what Elohim said. But then Elohim gives him permission to go. And then he is stopped by an angel.
Lord, I'm following your will, but I'm struggling. I'm fighting. And I can't clearly understand why I'm not going. I'm not making progress when I'm doing what you told me to do. Why would God tell Balaam to go and then send an angel to stop him? I wrestled with this all week long. And then I was in the library and I was reading all these different commentaries. And there was one commentary that just had one sentence in it and didn't kind of refer back to this at all. But it says, there are times when there seems to be a strange change of mind by God. And each instance when God does indeed. I want the individual to go on this journey, but it seems as though God has an issue to settle with first.
That God gave him permission to go, but there's something that God needs to settle with Balaam. What could it be that God has to settle with Balaam? See, Balaam said, I will declare whatever the Lord told him. This is Numbers 22 in verse eight. He said to him, stay the night. I will bring back word. And just as the Lord speaks to me, I will speak to you. So then when the first messengers came, stayed with them, God told Balaam verbatim, you shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people for they are blessed. But what did Balaam tell the messengers? He said, the Lord refused for me to go with you. He omitted the part, you shall not curse the people for they are blessed.
Why would Balaam omit that part? God trusts Balaam to truly declare everything. Everything that God wanted him to declare when Balaam couldn't even tell the messengers that the people of Israel were blessed. God had to work something out in Balaam because God knew that he was going to declare blessings upon Israel, upon the people of God. But if Balaam couldn't declare these blessings to the messenger, how could Balaam declare these messages before the destroyer? He had to work some things out.
And so even though Balaam was obedient and left with the men, Balaam still had. He had to work some things that needed to be worked out. And by verse 34, God had worked those things out in Balaam and he repented. He said, I have sinned, not just for beating the donkey, but I have sinned. For I did not know that you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now, therefore, if it is displeasing to you, I'll go home. I was following your will, but I was also an adversary because I wasn't completely obedient. So I'll just go back home. But the angel of the Lord gives him the same charge. Go with the men. Speak only what I say to you to speak. Remember, God's charge hasn't changed. He just wants to change something within you.
Balaam goes on to declare his oracles when he goes forward before Balak and declares these blessings upon Israel. What is his second oracle, his second blessings upon Israel? He says, God is not a man that he should lie or mortal that he should change his mind. This is coming from the prophet who thought that God may have changed his mind about his charge. This is coming from the person that God sent an angel to oppose him. He says, God does not change his mind. What he's promised, will he not do it? What he's spoken, will he not fulfill it? God is faithful. The book of James says there's no variation or shadow of turning within him. If he spoke it, will he not do it?
We must continue in the will of God because the charge has not changed. He's just supposed to change something within you. You can live out your full purpose and will in God if you're willing to stay on the path and stay obedient to what God has called you to do. Know that God's just working some issues out. Amen. So that you are ready to fully declare the word of the Lord. Amen.
I think it's important to include all of these kind of intense, fantastical, ridiculous stories. Because I don't know about y'all, but my life is kind of ridiculous too. Yeah. I mean, I've been in shenanigans. I've experienced certain things that are wild that if I said it, I don't know if y'all would believe it. Right? And so I think some of this is, of course, like literary device. Right? Folklore and the way of telling stories in the Hebrew ancient world. Right? You think about the word that we have here. It is written. But most of these stories were told orally. Right? And so they're kind of passed down and spoken words. But they're spoken word of lived experiences.
And when we talk amongst ourselves. Right? When you get on the phone or you're in your group chat texting, we're telling the story. Right? Of what happened in our life. And so I think these stories and accounts are included in the Bible because our own lives are intense. Our own lives have experiences that may be dark, that may be overwhelming, that may be depressing. So you see depression. You see people with suicidal ideation. You see folks who are struggling, who are going through in the word of God to show that our experiences are not, we're not alone in them. We're not isolated. That you have Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. The word of God in Hebrew says that we don't have a high priest that was not tempted in the same ways that we were.
So Jesus, when he walked this earth, he experienced the fullness of humanity. So I think the Bible has to reflect the fullness. The fullness of humanity. That's so good. And so we can't ignore even the hard scriptures because we can't ignore the hard parts of our own life. I think we put so many constraints on God. God, if we truly believe that God is Alpha and Omega, if we truly believe that God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent creator God, if we truly believe that the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof, the fullness thereof, then we will recognize that God can use and God can speak through so many different folks that you may have counted out.
That you may have disregarded that. What is the prophet Elijah was fed by ravens, by animals that are typically scavengers. That's what it's for. Amen. Bless God. The ravens are typically scavengers. And so those scavengers fed the prophet and the man of God. So just like ravens, there are typically scavengers, animals that God can use the donkey speaking to Balaam and Balaam not being a Hebrew, an Israelite or a prophet in the same way as Elijah or Ezekiel, God can speak through so many different people who are obedient and yielding to God's authority, because that was the special part about Balaam that while he was neither a Moabite like Balak, nor was he an Israelite, he constantly said, I can only do what Elohim allows me to do.
And he specifically used the name of God that the Hebrews use. Yeah, he didn't use the God of Baal. He didn't use another reference to any other God. He called God Yahweh. He called God Elohim over and over. He's referencing God of the God of the Israelites and the Hebrews. He's like, I'm constrained by him. So while I may not be of those people, I'm obedient to what God has for me to do. And so you could trust what was coming forward because he was listening to God, have an audience with God and speaking directly what God would have him to speak, even though he was not of the household of faith, as it were, of Israelites.
That is a good question. Very good question. Yes. Discernment is so necessary and key. Praying for God to give clarity to his word and his messengers. Right. So, yes. And a lot of commentary speaks of this, that the donkey. And the reason why Balaam hit her was because you're making me out to be a fool. Like I'm supposed to be following these people and you keep putting me all these different pathways that I'm not supposed to be in. But Balaam couldn't see what the donkey could see. And so it is important to pray for discernment when you are seeking a word of God from whatever vehicle or man of God or woman of God who's speaking.
So whether it's you're watching something on YouTube, you're going to another church. You're going to a revival. It is important to pray for discernment and wisdom. Amen. Right. Amen. Because there may be folks who completely cannot see because God's not allowing them to see because that's the other thing. God did not allow Balaam to see the angel. Nor did the donkey reference the angel. The donkey is just questioning why are you hitting me? So Balaam couldn't see the angel until God gave him the ability to see the angel. And so some of these folks that you're trying to seek a word from can't see what you're going through. Don't have the ability to see. Don't have a word for you because God has not given them the ability to do so.
And so that discernment piece is really praying and seeking for God's wisdom and who you should be sitting under so that you're sitting under someone that God has given them that ability to see clearly and accurately what is going on and see what's going on spiritually to be able to speak the word of God accurately in your life. So I think discernment is really key. Wisdom is really key. And what's also important is just to seek God for wisdom. To seek God for yourself. So many of us are seeking a word from somebody else when God has a direct line to you. Amen. Amen. And God speaks to me in ways that are very unique to Shiana. That I don't need to go running around to so many different and I'm a churchy person.
Listen, if somebody in revival, I'm going. If my friends are pastors of churches, if they got church, I'm going. When I'm home and I'm watching RT online, I'm also watching four different services too. Because I'm like, well, I'm at home. I might as well just click on their service. And so I am someone who loves church, who loves hearing the word of God preached. Amen. But I also recognize that God wants to speak to me directly. Amen. That God wants to have a personal relationship with you. And that God can speak directly and reveal things to you. And so praying that God would give you ears to hear clearly, a heart to receive, a mind to obey, eyes to see. Just praying for that clarity and praying for ways to sense God's will and sense God's voice in your life directly.
That you don't always have to go through a prophet because you may end up going to someone like Balaam who did not see what was on the road ahead but the donkey could. Yes. So absolutely. That word, yeah, contradiction. Because it does feel like that God changed his mind and that God contradicts. Or even what I end up doing. I'm not questioning God. I'm questioning myself. Like, did I hear you clearly? Like, a lot of times I'm just like, okay, God, you are holy. Yeah, maybe I'm off. You are awesome. Maybe I'm off of what's going on with me because I thought I heard you say. Right? And so I'm feeling like there's a contradiction within me internally.
And I think oftentimes people see that conflict or that tension in Scripture and do think it as a contradiction of God. But as you saw in the Scripture, the charge never changed. It was always go with the men and say anything. That's exactly what I told you to say. That's it. And what was interesting to me and what I highlighted earlier was that Balaam initially did not say all that God said. So there was something that was hindering Balaam being fully obedient, hindering Balaam being fully maybe confident to speak boldly. And I think along that way, God was able to get his attention and work that out within him.
So that when he was before Balaam the destroyer, he was able to declare these blessings over and over and over again. And I think in my own life that there have been times where I have taken jobs and I'm like, okay, amen. This is an amazing work opportunity. This is awesome. And then I get there and quite literally I'm in the pits. Like it is horrible situations. Like it is a struggle on every single hand. And I'm thinking, okay, God, why do you have me? Why am I here? Why am I in this situation? And I truly believe that it is God working something out in me and God allowing me to shine my light sometimes in dark places when I'm in those situations.
And God working out my faith. Do I really trust God? Because, okay, I trust you for this job. But do I trust you to help me navigate the conflicts I'm having on my job? I trust you to provide for me. But do I trust you to give me the strength? Do I trust you to give me the insight and the foresight to do my job well? And so I think God truly is that old song that says something on the inside working on the outside. That even though I'm going in God's will and I'm feeling all this internal turmoil, but that something on the inside needs to happen, right? That working, that struggle, that tension needs to happen so that I can truly walk in the will of God and walk in the will of God fully.
So even though I'm in his will and there's conflict and there's struggle and there's strife, I know that there is even greater on the other end, right? I have to pray and ask God for what he's trying to teach me. Pray and ask God for understanding, right? That the Bible speaks of getting wisdom, but Proverbs says, get wisdom, but in all thy getting, get understanding. So God, what am I supposed to understand in this conflict? What am I supposed to understand in this tension? Because I thought I heard you right. And I'm doing your will, but I'm facing a lot of roadblocks. And a lot of times we think those roadblocks are the enemy. And it could be, right? There's spiritual warfare.
Again, we talked about this in the last Bible study series. But we always think it's the enemy. But what if it's God? Like that was an angel sent by the Lord. So really praying, God, where are you in this? What am I supposed to be getting out of this? And Lord, is the charge the same? Show me how I'm supposed to stay on your wisdom. Stay in your will. Stay in your will. Stay on the right path. Stay on the right path. And I promise you, God will answer your prayers. It said, ask and it shall be given, right? Seek and you shall find. Knock on the door, it shall be opened. And a lot of times we use those scriptures to think of like physical things or material things.
But truly, ask and seek. Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled. Ask and seek God. What am I supposed to be doing? Is the charge still the same, Lord? What would you have me to do? What are you having me to learn in this? What am I supposed to do? Is this praying and seeking for that wisdom? I think the reframe is, because the initial thought is I'm being punished by doing God's will. Yeah. And I think there has to be a way to do that. You're reframing that you're not being punished. You're not being punished. You didn't do anything wrong. You're okay. You're in God's will. You're not being punished.
Because internally, the reaction is, I did something wrong. I'm wrong. I'm a failure. I'm being punished. That's the internal dialogue that's happening, right? But I think the reframe is, God, I know I hurt you. Grant me the grace to learn, to grow, to repent, to do what you want me to do. To turn away from, to walk more accurately in your will so I can fully fulfill the word of God, fully fulfill the purpose and plan that you have for me, right? That there, and I always preach and talk about grace because we think of grace as just a kind of like a one-time thing or that we can fall from grace. But again, if you fell from it, it's not grace, that's kindness.
That's right. If you feel like you let God down, you can't. You can't because you never held God up. That grace is there to carry and keep you through. That when Hebrews says, boldly go before the throne of grace and ask for grace to help in the time of need. In the time of need. That grace can help, help hold you together as you're trying to navigate being in God's will. Because in God's will, there will be roadblocks. That trying to live uprightly before God is a struggle. That trying to be in God's will and do what God have you to do. There will be oppositions and adversaries, right? And so this is not an easy walk, but this is a grace-filled walk. That it is a walk with God that one, you're not alone because you have a good shepherd.
And two, you have grace and mercy. David talks about grace and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. So that even when I mess up, God's mercy is upholding me. God's grace is carrying me. And so even if I feel upset and frustrated and tired, but I will not what? I will not weary in well-doing because I know I shall reap if I faint not. And so I may encounter these roadblocks, but if I am being humble before God, asking and seeking his face, asking and seeking for wisdom, I know his grace will carry me through. I don't have to do this perfectly. I don't have to walk up before God wholly because I know I'm already a mess, but I can lean on his grace. I can lean on his mercy. Amen.
That is a really good question. Thank you, Mimi, wherever you are. And so there's a lot with Balaam and I probably can't get into all of it. I encourage you maybe afterwards we can talk through some of the commentaries and things that I've read. And so Balaam is not just mentioned in Numbers 22. Balaam is mentioned throughout the Bible. Numbers 31 and 8, he is killed with the rest of the Moabites, all the Moabites kings. He's slayed with all of them. Balaam is a villain throughout the rest of the Bible. In Revelations and 2 Peter, Balaam is referenced as a false prophet in the New Testament. And what most commentaries believe there's either two Balaams and or it's the same Balaam and he just went awry.
Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. So to kind of break down a little bit more of the lore of Balaam, the backstory of him. So where he is from, he is from a certain area that worship the God Baal Peeth. And so people associated his power with the God Baal Peeth. And so that's kind of how King Balaam kind of like, okay, we know he's powerful because he could curse people, he can bless people. And a lot of people associated his power from where he was from, which is like the Ammonite region, and Baal-Piath was the god of that region.
But if you look at Numbers 22, he does not reference Baal-Piath. He doesn't reference any other god but Elohim and Yahweh over and over again. If I look at the literal, the Septuagint, which is the Greek of the Hebrew Bible, or if I look at the actual Hebrew language, it is always referencing the Hebrew names of God, Elohim, El, and Yahweh, Y-H-W-H. People kind of land on two sides of this, of that he had power under being, like he was known as a sorcerer and a divinator, and then he had power under Baal-Piath, but God spoke to him and used him for the people of God, specifically in Numbers 22, and then he kind of maybe backslid into his old ways of sorcery under the guise and the spiritual darkness and powers of Baal-Piath.
That's what I would say the consensus of biblical scholars say, and or there's just two different Balaams. That's another story. And or the other thought is if you get into some of the biblical scholarship of source criticism, some folks believe like this passage, this kind of story of Balaam was kind of like interjected in between two other stories. So, again, it may be two separate Balaams, and this story was just kind of added to kind of give context to the Israelites having victory.
Come Numbers 31. Oh, yes. Yes. Time and season is everything and time that I have to constantly remind myself because I'm a very impatient person. God moves beyond the confines of time. Amen. That what does the scripture say? Psalms like a day is like a thousand years, right? And so time and season is very important to really discerning God's will and discerning what God would have you to do. And so I think kind of the question is speaking to, all right, you're doing God's will and you might still be struggling, but how do you kind of maintain your hope and recognizing that this is just for an appointed time, right?
That this is just for an appointed time, that due season, that harvest season, it feels like it's going to take forever to get there. But I think back to some of the things that the old saints would say of like, when you're going through, that's just it. You're going through, right? This is not an eternal place, right? This is not a hard stop, but it is just a pit stop. You are actually supposed to be moving, having forward movement through. So even though you may not feel like it, you may not feel like it. You may not recognize it, but we can also lean on the testimonies of others and the testimonies of our own lives, right?
That if I look at the testimonies and the word of God, 40 years, amen, in the deserts seems like a really long time. I've been on this earth for 40 years, yet they were 40 years traveling through the desert. That if I look at the Bible, we're waiting to have children, right? That they waited years and decades before Hannah, waited years and decades. You look at a Rachel and Leah, you look at all these different folks who had to wait until they actually reaped their harvest. I think of my own life of different things that I was praying for, that I was fasting for, that I was believing God for, and that I was in the middle of struggling with.
And then everything changed within, it seemed like overnight, but I know it wasn't overnight, right? You know that there were days and weeks of struggle and travailing to get to where I am. And today, and so I lean on trusting, not just my track record, but trusting God's track record, that I listen to the testimonies of others, that I listen to my elders, my brothers and sisters in Christ, and what they've gone through, and recognizing that, all right, in just a little while, he that shall come will come. Yeah. Amen?
That I know that it's hard, that it is easy to lose hope, it is easy to grow frustrated, it is easy to question and to try and change directions because things aren't happening quick enough, but we saw what happened with Abraham, who was waiting forever for Sarah to conceive, and they changed direction in what happened, right? They ended up taking advantage of Hagar to try to expedite things. So timing is everything. Time is, I'm just going to be honest, it sucks. It's a struggle when you're waiting, right? Because you have to yet live life, right? You're yet trying to figure things out.
But we also have to trust God's timing. My, my, my. Trust God's timing. Yes. Yes. So I have a few thoughts. The initial thought was kind of getting to the account. I was reading all these different commentaries trying to see if anyone kind of talks about this, and none did. But I kind of lean on the, you know, we call it seminary kind of hermeneutical liberties of saying, and there's a Jewish tradition of called a midrash. A midrash is where you kind of fill in the gaps of the story. And so I'm going to fill in the gaps of the story for Balaam and say, Tim, you're going to be able to do this.
To me, I think he omitted it out of fear. You have somebody called Balak the Destroyer calling for you to do something that you know God is saying don't do. And so instead of saying, well, he actually wants to bless them, let me just say God said I can't go. My mama said I can't spend the night. You know what I mean? It's one of those kind of moments of like, I just, I can't go. Right? Yeah. To me, because I also wrestle with fear with myself, that it's this hesitation. Of like, all right, God, I'm obeying you. But if I fully lean in and say what you told me to say, I don't know what the response is going to be.
So let me just omit that part. Let me just kind of keep that close to the chest. And yeah, I'm saying as much of what you told me to say. I gave like the summary of what you said. You told me I couldn't go. So I'm just telling them that. And that should suffice. That should be enough. And sometimes I feel like we follow God with just enough. Like, that's just enough. God, I didn't do the thing you told me not to do. So that should be enough. But did you do fully what God told you to do? Right? So maybe I'm avoiding certain, you know, situations. But did I fully lean into what God's instructions were?
And the Bible, the second part to that question is like, how do you kind of like know there's things you got to work on in your own heart? The Bible speaks of the heart. I think it's in Jeremiah. Like, the heart is a deceitful thing. Who can trust it? Right? I'm not saying that you can, do you need to second guess your gut or your own understanding? But the Bible says, the Bible speaks of like leaning not fully to your own understanding. Our understanding is amazing. We have brilliant innovation, blessed gifts of God of intelligence and wisdom. But we can't lean fully on to our own understanding.
We can't lean fully on our feelings. Right? Feelings are authentic, but feelings are not accurate. Feelings are just feelings. We can acknowledge them. We can honor them. We give space for them. But they are not accurate information. Because there are times where I am irritated. I'm irritated and angry. But really what I am is fearful and scared. There are times where I have to dig down to the other emotions that are at play. Because they may raise to the surface as I'm sad. But really when I dig down, I'm dealing with shame and guilt. And so I can't really rely on feelings and heart as accurate information. They're just feelings.
And they are honest and they're authentic. And I can acknowledge them. But I also have to pray the prayers of the Psalms. Because David often said, search me, oh God. Search me because you know me. That I think I may know me. And I think I have a good understanding of Shiana. But God, you made me. God, you know me. Search me because you know me. Show me any errors or any ways in which that I am outside of your will. Show me my intentions. There was a prayer that I prayed. People talk about like, oh, Sierra's prayer. Like, what is she doing? Sierra prayed to get with her husband. But someone joked about that. I was like, oh, what was the prayer that you prayed to be with Will?
And I was like, honestly, I wasn't really praying about Will. I was praying about Shiana. And I said, Lord, show me my intentions in this relationship. God, show me me. Show me what am I trying to get out of this relationship. And show me are my intentions aligned with your will. And so there are times where we can reflect back and think like, yes, our feelings are great and we know that we're following God's will. But praying. And again, this all goes back to your own individual relationship with God. Praying, God, show me. Search me because you know me. Show me my intentions. Show me the ways in which you would have me to walk even fully more into your will. Show me you, Lord. Show me where you are in this.
Because sometimes when you're struggling, it feels so isolating and so lonely. God, where are you in this? But if I truly believe that God is omnipresent, if I truly believe that he'll never leave me nor forsake me, then I know that no matter where I am, I can ask him, God, tell me where you are in this. And I believe God is faithful and will honor those prayers. Yeah. So when I was studying and preparing it, a lot of the commentaries kind of highlighted the different messengers in Numbers 22. And I kind of just touched on them briefly that you have. The messengers from Balak, the messenger of the angel of the Lord. Balaam is a messenger.
And then the donkey is the messenger. And what was interesting, all of those messengers, what is highlighted in some of the commentaries that I was reading was about the authority in which they were sent. And that when you think about messengers. Most of the time we're thinking about the message that they're proclaiming, the message that they're bringing, but truly, I think we need to reflect under by which authority where they sent that Balak was sending messengers by his authority, but his authority was still very limited. Yeah, he was given all these gifts and he was sending distinguished messengers, but even Balaam said, you can give me everything you own and you can send all the people you want to send. I'm not going against a greater authority, which is Elohim who sends me.
And so what I found to be interesting is that God as the alpha and omega, God as being omnipotent, God as being the all authority of the messengers, like that's whose message that we need to lean into and listen to are the messengers that are sent on the authority of God. Amen. That God gave even the donkey the ability to be a messenger because God gave her the ability to speak. And so I think not just focusing on the message of the messenger, but really question who sent them. By which authority were you sent?
Yes. Dear Heavenly Father, we give you glory, honor, and praise. We acknowledge you, O God. We acknowledge your grace and your mercy, God. Your grace that is everlasting. Your mercy that endures forever, Lord. Your grace and your mercy that covers. And keeps us as we walk in your path of righteousness. O Lord, we thank you that you are faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. That as we confess before you, O Lord, the ways in which we have omitted parts of our testimony. The ways in which that we have walked outside of your will. The ways in which, O God, we've edited our lives and compartmentalized. God, we confess it before you.
And we thank you that you're faithful and just to forgive us. That we're free even now, God. Free from guilt. O God. For there's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. Free from shame, O God. Because there's been shame that's been holding us back from telling the whole story. But God, we are free from that shame today. For whom the Son sets free is free indeed. So God, I thank you, O Lord, that we will go boldly before. Hallelujah. We'll go boldly before the people of God. We'll go boldly in our homes. And boldly in our families. Boldly on our jobs. And declare the works of the Lord. Hallelujah. We will declare how you, O God, are the center of our lives. Declare how you, O God, have been our deliverer. Our redeemer. Our reconciler, O God.
We thank you, Jesus. That it's in you that we live, move, and have our being. So now, Lord, as we leave this place. We never leave your presence, O God. But you're going before us. Laying pathways straight. O God, you're undergirding us behind us, O Lord. And keeping us, O God. Until we meet again. We'll forever give your name. Glory, honor, and praise, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.
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on Aug 11, 2024
