Stay Grateful For Gods Care. Numbers 22 (Lesson in Numbers)
Let me give you a outline of the book of Numbers so everyone will be up to date with what's going on and what Gods message is in this book.
There are many messages in the book of Numbers.
Book of Numbers is the journey when Gods people were held in Egypt and God caused plagues to come upon the land. So Pharaoh the king freed Gods people and by the leadership of Moses and Aaron ...God sent them on a journey to a land that God had promised them....Canna
The name numbers comes from God organizing His people into the 12 tribes they belonged to....or families ....out of the tribes there were a little over 600,000 soldiers (men 20 years and older) so an estimate of all Israelites is around 2 million that were in held in Egypt.
Numbers has an important spiritual lesson for Christians.
Canaan was a land of battles and blessings, as the Christian life is today.
Israel’s sins in the wilderness was unbelief...not that they wasn't save because they had been delivered from Egypt by the blood of the Lamb.... they did not trust God’s Word.
Instead of claiming Canaan by faith, they wandered in the wilderness in unbelief that God would hold to His promise.
Canaan is not a picture of heaven. But it is an illustration of our spiritual inheritance in Christ....our walk with Him until we reach that promise land.
But, we must go through trials...troubles...sickness and death..
But we trust Him to be with us...to protect us and sometimes we miss that...or most of the time.
It's by faith...that we trust Him to hold to His promises....it's by faith that we trust Him to give us strength to carry on.
It's by faith in Jesus that saves us...faith that He forgives us ..faith that we receive Him.
We can wander in the wilderness while we are here....it's not that we are not saved but we miss the abundant life that He promised by our unbelief in His protection and trusting Him.
The book of Numbers has many lessons from God on how we are to trust Him and we are going to look at a few today.
Numbers 22:4 And Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at that time.
5 He sent messengers therefore unto Balaam the son of Beor to(PEE-THOR)Pethor, which is by the river of 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:
6 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 wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed.
King of the Moabites sent for Balaam. Apparently this prophet was well known in that entire land.
Balak wants to hire him to come and curse the children of Israel. Gods people had poured into the area by the Jordan River and Balak wanted them out of that land.
It was a few hundred miles to get the message to the prophet Balaam..a few hundred for him to come....but you could imagine it took Gods people several days also to settle down because there were around 2 million of them and the king was afraid of them.
The people in Moab were intimidated by the Israelites and resentful. ......some will always be resentful toward Gods people and Gods word....but are we to quit? We cant force ourselves on others but, when we pray for them ..the power of God comes over them.
******God brings good where some intended evil
Numbers 22:31-35 (KJV)
31 Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face.
32 And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me:
33 And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive.
34 And Balaam said unto the angel of the LORD, I have sinned; for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me: now therefore, if it displease thee, I will get me back again.
35 And the angel of the LORD said unto Balaam, Go with the men: but only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak. So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.
God changed ol Balaams mind about casting a spell on the Israelites.....this is a great insight into the spiritual world
How God protects us when we don't realize it.
Like I have always believed...it's not the spiritual world that is unusual...it's us.
Without God we would be weak and variable to Satan and his demons.
>>>>How has God protected you and you realized it later?
**God never ceases to care for His people******
Numbers 23:19 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?
20 Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.
21 He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.
22 God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.
23 Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!
(23:7-12 to see the first prophecy )
Here is what God had told Balaam to do...to bless them instead of cursing them.
God is not some lying man or like a human to
If God has bless someone...there is nothing any human can do to change that.
Romanss 8: 31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
...in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us
We may run around in the wilderness ..thinking that we can't hold on to God...but, it is not us holding on to God...it is Him holding on to us.
Love in Christ Jesus, Ronnie Miller www.themillersbiblestudy.com
