We're going to Numbers chapter
24 and we'll read from verse 1. And when Balaam saw that it pleased
the Lord to bless Israel, he went not as at other times, this
is the third time that Balaam blessed the children of Israel
when he was supposed to be cursing them, he went not as at other
times to seek for enchantments, but he set his face toward the
wilderness. And Balaam lifted up his eyes,
and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their
tribes, and the Spirit of God came upon him. And he took up
his parable and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and
the man whose eyes are open hath said, he hath said, which heard
the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty falling
into a trance, but having his eyes open, how goodly are thy
tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel. As the valleys are
they spread forth, as gardens by the river's side, as the trees
of lyne aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees
beside the waters. He shall pour the water out of
his buckets, and his seat shall be in many waters, and his king
shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. God brought him forth out of
Egypt. He hath, as it were, the strength
of a unicorn. He shall eat up the nations,
his enemies, and shall break their bones and pierce them through
with his arrows. He couched, he laid down as a
lion, and as a great lion who shall stir him up. Blessed is
he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee. And
Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam. And he smote his hands
together, and Balak said unto Balaam, I called thee to curse
mine enemies, and behold, thou hast altogether blessed them
these three times. Therefore now flee thou to thy
place. I thought to promote thee unto
great honour, but lo, the Lord hath kept thee back from honour.
And Balaam said unto Balak, Spake I not also to thy messengers,
which thou sentest unto me, saying, If Balak would give me his house
full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of
the Lord to do either good or bad of mine own mind. But what
the Lord saith, that will I speak. And now, behold, I go unto my
people. Come, therefore, and I will advertise
thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days. And he took up his parable and
said, Balaam the son of Behor hath said, and the man whose
eyes are open hath said, he hath said which heard the words of
God and knew the knowledge of the Most High, which saw the
vision of the Almighty falling into a trance and having his
eyes open, I shall see him, but not now. I shall behold him,
but not nigh. There shall come a star out of
Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite
the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth. And
Edom shall be a possession. Seir also shall be a possession
for his enemies, and Israel shall do valiantly. Out of Jacob shall
come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth
of the city. And when he looked on Amalek,
he took up his parable and said, Amalek was the first of the nations,
but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever. And he looked
on the Kenites, and took up his parable, and said, Strong is
thy dwelling place, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock. Nevertheless
the Kenite shall be wasted, until Asher shall carry away the away
captive. And he took up his parable, and
said, Alas, who shall live when God doeth this? and ships shall
come from the coast of Shiddim, and shall afflict Asher, and
shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish for ever. And Balaam
rose up and went and returned to his place, and Balak also
went his way. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this fulsome reading again today. Now, I probably don't need to
repeat the circumstances of Balaam's blessing the children of Israel. Beyond saying that Balak had
hoped this soothsayer, Balaam, would curse Israel, but God warned
Balaam on pain of death that he must say only what God told
him to say. And the purpose, it appears,
is that God is twofold. First, that God is using Balaam
to reveal his purpose of judging the Canaanite nations for their
sin. while also fulfilling his promise
of returning the land of Canaan to Abraham's posterity, so that
the nations of Canaan would know that it was God's punishment
that Israel came in and took their lands from them. Now, we
have seen how Balaam, on two earlier occasions, uttered some
amazing statements concerning God and his people. We've noted
how these statements applied both to the current time and
situation when Balaam spoke and as Israel was, as it were, gathering
on the plains of Moab and ready to enter into the land of Canaan,
gathering there at the borders of Canaan and preparing for battle. But like all of scripture, we've
also had a more spiritual and messianic application for the
whole Church of God's elect in all ages. so that we've been
able to see in the statements such as, let me die the death
of the righteous and let my last end be like his, which tells
us that there is a righteousness to be had with God and it is
a very desirable thing to have. Or we heard Balaam saying, God
is not a man, that he should lie, neither the son of man,
that he should repent. From which we learned that God
is a spirit, sovereign and holy in all his ways. We learned that
God hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen
perverseness in Israel, that the Lord his God is with him,
and that the shout of a king is among them. that there is
a justification with God and there is a way of salvation by
grace. So it's these statements that
show us something of the wonder of this revelation that God gave
to Balaam. And now Balak takes Balaam a
third time onto a mountain, it's called the Mountain of Peor,
in the vain hope that he finally might do what Balak asked him
to do and curse Israel. but this was not to be as we've
seen from our reading. Balaam can only speak what the
Lord allows and what the Lord directs. And to Balak's dismay,
Balaam looks out over the children of Israel in their tents, in
their encampments from the mountain vantage point that he has and
he declares, How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles,
O Israel. Now this was perhaps a reference
to the layout and the order of the Israelite camp as it was
pitched in the valley below. It was pitched, we learned this
from the beginning of Numbers, according to a pattern that God
had established. But the reference of Balaam seems
to look at the size of the camp and the structure and the arrangement
and the impressiveness, even the fearsomeness of the camp
and simply declare to Balak, you're not going to be able to
defeat this people. But he doesn't stop there. He
discerns more than what he merely sees with his eyes. He appreciates,
according to God's revelation to him, that there is a glory
in this camp. There is a fruitfulness, there
is a blessedness in this camp. There is power, there is energy,
there is success, there is triumph in this camp. The enemies of
this people will not prevail, but they will be destroyed."
And this must have been a devastating prediction for Balak to hear. But yet there was more. Balaam
goes on to say, he crouched, he laid down as a lion, and as
a great lion, who shall stir him up? Balaam was saying, what
you see when you look out over these tents, when you look out
over this camp, what you see is like a great lion. But it's merely lying down. Just wait. If you think that
this looks impressive, just wait until that great lion stands
up. Because none will be able to
stand against him. And just so that Balak fully
understood the situation, God placed it in Balaam's mouth to
tell him, blessed is he that blesseth Israel, and cursed is
he that curseth the people of God. You, Balak, brought me here
to curse Israel. In doing so, you have cursed
yourself and condemned your people with you. Balak was angry and
he warned Balaam to flee quickly from his presence. But Balaam wasn't done yet. He
continues. there shall come a star out of
Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. Out of Jacob shall
come he that shall have dominion." These were the words of God placed
on Balaam's lips, speaking more than just the immediate things
of the forthcoming conquest of Canaan by the children of Israel.
but of things that were yet afar off, even things to do with the
Messiah, Jesus Christ. Balaam knew that this was not
imminent that he was speaking about, but afar off. Nevertheless,
it was with Jacob and Israel that God's blessing lay. Moab
and the Canaanite nations would fall before the Lord's chosen
people. because it was out of this people,
Israel, that Christ the Messiah would arise. The star and the
scepter is the Lord Jesus Christ. Here are a couple of quick applications
that we can take from these words of God by Balaam. First one is
this, God's elect people dwell in goodly tents. And we're not
just talking about the tents of skins and material that the
children of Israel dwelt in so long ago back in the wilderness
and back in the times of the promised land. We're talking
about the Lord's people, His elect in every age. We are a fruitful, a powerful
and a blessed people. Because what is said of Israel
then is true of the church now. Now it may be hard to believe
and harder still to see And indeed for any one inhabitant of the
camp of Israel, it's impossible to know except that the Lord
reveals it to us. We see only a few tents around
about us, a few of the Lord's people around about us. but Christ
has adorned his bride with goodly robes and spotless garments. He has made us beautiful in Christ. He has ordained that we shall
bring forth much fruit, though individually we may not see the
evidence of it. The truth is, as it was in the
day of Samuel, men look on the outward appearance, but God looks
on the heart. And when the Lord God gives a
new heart, a new life, he fills it with blessed things and with
beautiful things. The Lord's people dwell in goodly
tents. And here's another application
that we can draw from the words of Balaam. The church of Jesus
Christ is like a lion crouching down. You look at it and you
think to yourself, it doesn't appear to be very significant. But the truth is that it does
not appear what it will yet be like. Balaam saw what God would
accomplish with and by the children of Israel. He saw that Christ
would arise amongst them, that Christ would come from them for
the saving of the Gentiles and the establishing of the kingdom. And now they were crouching down. Until that time when the Lord
Jesus Christ would come, it was like they were a crouching lion.
But soon the Lion of Judah would rise among them and be revealed
in all his power and glory. The Lord saves men's souls. The Lord saves the souls of men
and women and boys and girls. And sometimes the Lord hides
his people away so that we cannot take comfort from the great number
or the size or the power or the influence of the church. But
that doesn't mean to say that there is not a power amongst
us and there is not a strength in the gospel that we preached.
We preach. In that day, When Christ shall
reveal His church, it will be like Him. It will be all glorious. We will be like Him who is the
Lion of the tribe of Judah. Balak lifted up his hand against
the Lord's people and Balaam said to him, blessed is he that
blesses the Lord's people, cursed is he that does them harm. and
this still holds good today. I try to encourage the Lord's
people not to be afraid when it appears that we are being
assaulted or persecuted or challenged or troubled or hurt. It really
isn't so. If the Lord allows men and women
to take advantage of his church, it's only so that their judgment
will be greater. And anyway, all they can take
is our material wealth, and we usually value that too highly
anyway. They cannot touch our spiritual
wealth. They cannot touch our godly inheritance. And similarly, those who help
the Lord's people in times of trouble shall be rewarded for
their kindness. The Lord said to his disciples,
Whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name,
because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall
not lose his reward. And the Lord will defend his
little ones. Paul says in Romans chapter 12,
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. For it is written, vengeance
is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. The Lord will bless
those who bless his people, and he will curse those who curse
his people. And lastly, let me just say this
quickly. Balaam understood that there
shall come a star out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise up out
of Israel. And some liken that to David. But really, the highest fulfilment
is to see the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, in this prophecy. A star to bring light to those
who sit in darkness and salvation to those that dwell in sin. A scepter to rule with power. This is God, through Christ,
gathering his kingdom from the ends of the earth according to
his covenant purpose. grace. Christ came from amongst
the Jews but he rules over all those whom God calls by the preaching
of the gospel into the kingdom to trust in him. In a short time
Balaam would be dead. He joined forces with the Midianite
king and he was slain by the sword. But what a wonderful testimony
of divine truth this man spoke at God's direction. God could
make a donkey speak truth. He could make stones cry out
to his praise. In the New Testament he caused
Caiaphas to honour Christ's work. But even though Balaam spoke
highly of God, in his heart he was a stranger to grace. Let
us not be content merely to know about the marvellous things of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us knock on heaven's door. Let us ask and seek to truly
and spiritually learn of Christ through the gift of faith which
God alone gives. May it be so, for his name's
sake. Amen.