<\/p>\n
\nNum 22:15<\/b>\u00a0<\/a><\/span>\u00a0Once again Balak sent princes, more in number and more honorable than these.\u00a0And they came to Balaam and said to him, \u201cThus says Balak the son of Zippor: \u2018Let nothing hinder you from coming to me,\u00a0<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for I will surely do you great honor, and whatever you say to me I will do. Come, curse this people for me.\u2019\u201d\u00a0But Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, \u201cThough Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the LORD my God to do less or more.\u00a0So you, too, please stay here tonight, that I may know what more the LORD will say to me.\u201d\u00a0And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, \u201cIf the men have come to call you, rise, go with them; but only do what I tell you.\u201d\u00a0So Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Balaam said the right words. He told his guests, the elders from Moab and Midian (Numbers 22:7<\/span><\/a>) to return without him. Though Balaam told his guests to go, he said it in a way that told them that Balaam\u00a0wanted\u00a0to go, but God wouldn\u2019t let him. The message from Balaam was, \u201cGo back to your land<\/b>. I would really like to go with you, but God won\u2019t allow me.\u201d It was as if Balaam told them, \u201cGod doesn\u2019t want me to do this, but I can be persuaded.\u201d The message would be clear to King Balak. The response of Balak shows that Balaam effectively communicated the message, \u201cGod told me no, but perhaps you can persuade me.\u201d King Balak sent messengers\u00a0more numerous and more honorable<\/b>, with the promise of greater reward. No longer did they merely carry with them\u00a0the diviner\u2019s fee\u00a0of\u00a0Numbers 22:7<\/span><\/a>; now they also brought a promise of great riches. Balaam refused to decisively put away a temptation the first time it came to him. Now the temptation came back to him stronger than it was before.<\/p>\n
\u00a0We can imagine Balaam\u2019s tone of voice and expression when he said this. With a sense of longing, Balaam found a way to suggest a big offer from these richer messengers of Balak. \u201cBalaam\u2019s words echo the reality that he had indeed had an encounter with the God of Israel, through which the true Elohim had confronted and revealed himself to the pagan diviner. Yahweh God of Israel will use whatever means he desires to reveal himself to humanity.\u201d This was proof that Balaam continued to entertain this sin. There was no need to seek God again when the will of God was clear both from his moral conscience (which troubled him from the beginning) and from the clear revelation of God.<\/p>\n
We can say that God did\u00a0not\u00a0change His will. God had clearly spoken His will, and Balaam had decisively rejected it. Now God prepared Balaam for judgment, to both test and reveal the wickedness of Balaam\u2019s heart. We know that sometimes, God says \u201cno\u201d to the prayers of His people, because He loves them. But sometimes God also says \u201cyes\u201d to the desires of the wicked because He will judge them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cHe was first forbidden, and afterwards commanded to go. The only explanation that is satisfactory is that, while attempting to maintain an external obedience to this supreme will of God, his heart was lusting after the riches offered to him by Balak.\u201d\u00a0 God\u2019s word to Balaam,\u00a0rise and go with them<\/b>\u00a0was no more evidence of God\u2019s approval of Balaam\u2019s greed than the words of Jesus to Judas in\u00a0John 13:27<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(What you do, do quickly) were an approval of the actions of Judas. (Guzik)<\/p>\n
I wonder how many times we court sin with thoughts of:<\/p>\n
\n
- If God wants me to stop He will show me<\/li>\n
- God\u2019s Word does not specifically say not to do this<\/li>\n
- I\u2019ve not been convicted of it so it must be ok<\/li>\n
- Confusing worldly wisdom and Godly living<\/li>\n
- I\u2019m good in many areas of my life, this one thing is not so bad<\/li>\n
- I don\u2019t hurt anyone by doing it<\/li>\n
- It is accepted and tolerated by others<\/li>\n
- I\u2019ll stop for a new years resolution<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Clearly, when our hearts and minds are worldly focused there will be greed, pride, jealousy, hate, anger, bitterness, fear, lust, and tolerance of what is neither God honoring or right in His eyes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Num 22:15\u00a0\u00a0Once again Balak sent princes, more in number and more honorable than these.\u00a0And they came to Balaam and said to him, \u201cThus says Balak the son of Zippor: \u2018Let nothing hinder you from coming to me,\u00a0\u00a0for I will surely do you great honor, and whatever you say to me I will do. Come, … Continue reading “47.z. “Wilderness” – 12.e. “Come, curse this people for me.””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11110,12494,3809,17361,76,17360,17359,17358,8659,7101,11111,17343],"class_list":["post-176436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers","tag-balaam","tag-balak","tag-command-of-the-lord","tag-curse-this-people","tag-god","tag-great-honor","tag-hinder","tag-honoable","tag-moab","tag-princes","tag-silver-and-gold","tag-zippor"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176436"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176464,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176436\/revisions\/176464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}