Let's turn in our Bibles to Numbers chapter
21.
Now, the children of Israel have been in
the wilderness for about 39 years, and they
are now beginning to make their move towards
the Promised Land.
We're coming down to the end of this
long sojourn in the wilderness.
Miriam is dead, Aaron is dead, and most
of those who came out of Egypt who
were 20 years old at the time they
left Egypt are now dead.
And as they are moving now towards the
land, they have, you remember, circumvented Edom.
Now, they're coming up on the eastern side
of the land itself, not coming directly through
the southern part of the land of Israel,
up through Hebron and that area, but they're
going clear around.
In fact, they went around Hebron.
I mean, they went around Edom and are
circling in and coming in above, actually, the
area of Galilee, the Golan Heights area, up
in there.
They made a big circle around and they're
going to come in to the land from
the eastern part, from about the Dead Sea
north, approximately.
In fact, when they make their first initial
thrust into the land, it will be at
Jericho, which is just north of the Dead
Sea region.
But they've encircled Edom and now are coming
towards the land and they are dealing then
with the Moabites and the Amorites who lived
up in that northern area.
The southern part was Edom, north of Edom
was Moab, north of Moab were the Amorites.
And so, they are circled clear around and
coming in from another direction.
It must have been quite a journey with
that many people, well over a million and
a half people.
It surely was an interesting experience.
And when King Arad, the Canaanite which dwells
in the south, heard that Israel came by
the way of the spies, then he fought
against Israel and took some of them prisoners.
And Israel vowed a vow unto the Lord
and said, if you will indeed deliver this
people into our hand, then I will utterly
destroy their cities.
So, the Lord hearkened to the voice of
Israel and delivered up the Canaanites and they
utterly destroyed them and their cities and they
called the name of the place Hormah.
And they journeyed from Mount Hor by way
of the Red Sea to compass or to
circle the land of Edom and the soul
of the people were very discouraged because of
the way.
It was a hard route.
It was a long way around rather than
coming directly into the land and it was
discouraging for them because of that long route
encircling around Edom.
So, they were smitten by these Canaanites and
they said, God, you just help us and
we'll totally wipe them out.
And God helped them and they wiped them
out.
And now they made this big compass circling
around Edom, not passing through Edom, coming up
the rift valley by the Dead Sea, but
passing clear around that thing.
Now the people spake against God and against
Moses and said, why have you brought us
out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
For there is no bread, neither is there
water, and our soul loatheth this light bread.
Now again, they are complaining against God.
Why have you brought us out of Egypt
to die in the wilderness?
We have no bread.
We have no water.
And we're sick of this manna, this light
bread.
Now as we pointed out this morning, in
every circumstance of life there are things that
you can complain about.
I'm sure that if you want to, you
can find something to gripe about in any
situation that you face.
So also, in every situation that you face,
you can find something to be thankful for.
And there are people who in every situation
are looking for that for which they can
gripe.
And there are those people that in every
situation, they are looking for those things for
which they can give thanks.
In other words, there are people that are
always looking on the good side, and there
are people that are always looking on the
drab side of life.
People who are chronically complaining, people who are
chronically giving thanks.
It becomes a pattern of a person's life.
Now it is God's will that your pattern
be that of thanksgiving.
In everything give thanks, for this is the
will of God concerning you in Christ Jesus.
And God wants you to live a thankful
life.
God wants you to appreciate what He has
done for you.
Now, it is true that manna became no
doubt a very monotonous thing.
It wasn't very flavorful.
It was sort of a mild, bland food.
But yet it was extremely nutritious.
All that they needed to sustain them was
in it, as far as vitamins, minerals, and
so forth.
It was an excellent food.
It was angels' food according to Psalm 72
or so.
He fed them with angels' food.
And yet, the people chose to complain instead
of to give thanks.
Oh God, You're so good.
You haven't failed.
The manna is there every morning.
Lord, You've supplied us all the way.
You've sustained us, Lord.
You've been so good to us.
No.
Oh, this stuff.
I'm sick of it.
Manna, manna.
And people are that way.
And God, in judgment because of their complaining,
sent fiery serpents among them.
They were all so deadly.
And as they would bite the people, the
people would go into convulsions and die.
And they realized that it was a judgment
of God because of their complaining.
They came to Moses and they said, we
have sinned in that we have spoken against
God and against You.
There was a confession of their sin.
That's always important.
The Bible said, if you seek to cover
your sin, you're not going to prosper.
But whoso confesseth his sin shall be forgiven.
You try to hide your guilt.
You try to deny your guilt.
God can't do anything for you.
But if we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us of our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Now, there are sometimes when people confess sins,
but it isn't really a true confession of
their heart.
Pharaoh said, I sinned against the Lord.
But he went back and did the very
same thing over again.
Here the people said, we have sinned.
They recognized that their complaining was a sin.
That God's judgment had come upon them.
Moses, pray for us.
Ask God to help us.
And so Moses prayed.
And instead of God just ridding the snakes
out of the camp, God said to Moses,
now make a brass serpent.
Put it on a pole and set it
up in the middle of the camp.
And it shall come to pass, whenever a
man is bitten by a snake as he
is dying, if he will look at this
brass snake on the pole, he'll be healed.
So God let there be something that the
people could do.
In other words, you can live or die.
It's your choice.
Living is very simple.
All you have to do is look at
this snake, this brass serpent on this pole,
and you'll be healed.
You'll live.
Dying is very simple too.
All you have to do is not look,
and you're going to die.
Someone said, what must I do to be
lost?
Nothing.
Just keep living like you are.
Doing the things you do.
And you'll be lost.
What must I do to be saved?
All you have to do is look at
Jesus Christ in faith, in trust, believing in
Him.
Salvation is very simple.
And so, Moses made this brass serpent, put
it on the pole, and it came to
pass that as the people were bitten by
these snakes, if they would look upon this
brass serpent, they would be healed.
They would live.
And thus, God gave an interesting foreshadowing of
the cross of Jesus Christ.
The serpent is always a symbol for sin,
because Satan came in the form of a
serpent in the Garden of Eden.
Brass is always a symbol of judgment.
They confessed we have sinned.
The brass serpent on the pole was a
symbol that your sin has been judged.
Now, if you'll just look at the brass
serpent, the place where your sin was judged,
you'll be healed.
Later on in Hezekiah's day, the people had
made this brass serpent.
They kept it.
It was an interesting artifact.
And they kept it as they journeyed into
the land and as the judges and kings
through all this period, they kept this brass
serpent.
And at the time that Hezekiah was king
over Judah, the people were worshiping this brass
serpent.
They had made an idol out of it.
They were covering and offering prayers before it,
worshiping the brass serpent.
What does it indicate when a person begins
to worship an idol?
Number one, it indicates that he has lost
his consciousness of God's living presence.
I'm no longer conscious that God is present
with me.
Thus, I am looking for something that will
remind me of the presence of God.
And so I get some kind of a
little reminder, a memento, some kind of an
image or whatever that can remind me of
God's presence.
But the fact that I need an object
shows that I've lost the consciousness of the
presence of God.
Number two, it indicates that somehow deep inside,
I am longing for that which I have
lost.
I'm longing for a meaningful relationship with God.
I'm longing for a meaningful consciousness of God.
And thus, I am setting up reminders, things
that can bring my attention and my mind
to the fact of God's presence.
Thus, it is always a sign of spiritual
deterioration or degradation.
And at the time that Hezekiah became king,
he took this brass serpent that Moses had
made and he broke the thing in pieces
because the people were bowing down, worshiping and
praying before it and all.
And he broke the thing in pieces and
he said, Nehushtan!
Dummies!
It's not a god.
The Nehushtan means a thing of brass.
It's not a god.
All it is is a piece of brass.
You know, it's tragic when people begin to
worship a building or begin to worship objects.
We had a church one time in which
we were remodeling the platform and we decided
to remodel the pulpit.
I was going to build a new pulpit.
And this lady came up and said, Brother
Smith, oh, you can't replace that pulpit.
Oh, brother so-and-so made this and
oh, there have been so many anointed sermons.
Oh, it would be terrible if you didn't
make that pulpit.
Oh, you know, on and on.
And oh, I knew that there was going
to be a church split because we wanted
to replace the pulpit.
Churches split over the dumbest things because people
are so dumb.
They get attached to things because
they've lost the consciousness of God's vital presence
in their life.
Oh, I remember the sermon that was preached.
Oh, it was so powerful.
And the pastor held on to that pulpit
and his knuckles were white and the anointing
of God was on him.
Oh, don't get rid of the pulpit.
Well, the pulpit was ugly.
And we were modernizing the whole...
Well, it was the ugliest platform you ever
saw.
Just old-fashioned ugly broken down chairs.
And the whole thing was just ugly.
So we wanted to modernize the whole thing.
Got some nice modern chairs.
And so, I built a new pulpit, but
I built it right around the old one.
Used the old one as a base and
I just put new wood around it and
modernized it and all.
New design to it.
And it matched the rest of the platform
then.
And this woman came to church and just
about had apoplexy when she saw the new
pulpit.
She came storming up to me, eyes flashing.
She said, I told you that that pulpit
couldn't go.
I said, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Come here.
I want to show you something.
And I took her around and I showed
her behind the pulpit.
Here's the old ugly pulpit.
You know, everything was there.
It's still the same pulpit.
I just built around it.
And it sufficed her.
Oh, praise the Lord.
We've still got our pulpit.
Nahushtan!
Take an axe to it.
It's just a thing of wood.
There's nothing holy about it.
It's just an old broken down piece of
furniture.
People get attached to the...
Oh, that's where I accepted Jesus.
Oh, you can't do anything to that church,
you know.
It was interesting when we were in the
little sanctuary a block away.
And we had grown to the place where
we were going to have to move.
And so, the only thing we could do
is put up a big old circus tent.
And so that's what we did.
Put up the circus tent out here.
And people were going around saying, oh, I
hope we don't lose this neat, warm feeling
when we move into a tent.
Oh, that tent.
I don't know.
I just hope we don't lose this beautiful,
beautiful feeling that we have when we move
into a tent.
After two years in the tent, and this
church building here was completed, they're saying, oh,
I hope we don't lose this beautiful, warm
feeling in the tent when we move into
a building.
As though it were a building or a
tent.
The beautiful, warm feeling comes from the love
of Jesus Christ working in our hearts and
in our lives.
And we could be meeting out on the
grass or down at the beach.
Anywhere.
And that neat, beautiful, warm feeling would be
there because the beautiful, neat, warm feeling isn't
in the building.
It isn't in furniture.
It's in the hearts of God's people.
And it's sad when people lose that consciousness
of God or begin to equate the presence
of God to a place, to a building,
to an artifact, to a piece of furniture,
or to a brass serpent or something else.
Hezekiah wisely broke that thing in pieces and
said, no, it's just a thing of brass.
It's not a God.
Now, if you go to the St. Ambrose
Cathedral in Milan, Italy, you can see the
glued together pieces of brass and the people
going up and offering their prayers and kissing
the glass cover and so forth again.
Because according to their story, someone picked up
the pieces and now they've got it on
display and they're using it again.
Nehushtan.
But more important, in the New Testament, Jesus
tells us the true significance for this brass
serpent lifted on a pole.
For when Nicodemus came to Him at night
and sought the way of salvation, Jesus said,
Nicodemus, there's only one way, man.
You've got to be born again.
Nicodemus said, born again?
What do you mean?
I'm an old man.
I can't go back to my mother's womb
and be born a second time.
What do you mean born again?
Jesus said, Nicodemus, there are two births.
One physical, one spiritual.
And that which is born of the flesh
is flesh.
That which is born of the Spirit is
spirit.
Don't be uptight because I tell you you've
got to be born again.
But how can these things be?
And Jesus, in answer to the question of
how can a man be born again, how
can these things be, answered Nicodemus and said,
For as Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, so must the Son of Man
be lifted up that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have eternal life.
That's how a person is born again.
By looking to the Lord Jesus Christ as
He was lifted up on His cross and
see that there God has judged my sins.
And Jesus bore the judgment of God for
my sins.
As the brass serpent was the symbol of
sin being judged, it was looking forward to
God judging man's sins upon the cross.
And God laid upon Him the iniquities of
us all.
And He bore the sins of the world.
And there God judged the sins of the
world on the cross of Jesus Christ.
And now you who are dying because of
this deadly affliction of sin, all you have
to do to live is to look to
the cross of Jesus Christ and see that
God has judged your sin and believe in
Him.
So the brass serpent on the pole in
the wilderness was looking forward to the judgment
of sin upon the cross when Jesus would
be lifted up there upon the cross and
bear once and for all God's judgment for
man's iniquities.
And so, the children of Israel set forward
and pitched at Obad.
And then they were now starting this journey
on around, and it tells of various places
where they were camping.
Verse 14, and it said, Wherefore, it is
said in the book of the wars of
the Lord.
Now, that's an interesting book.
I've never read it.
And I suppose it's been lost and we
probably won't find it.
But there's a missing book.
The book of the wars of the Lord.
But did you know that the Lord had
wars?
And what He did at the Red Sea,
the brooks of Arnon and so forth.
And so they came on around and they
went to Beer.
Now, the word Beer means well.
B-E-E-R.
It's well.
Beersheba is a well.
They just came to Beer, the well.
That is the well that the Lord spoke
to Moses about.
And He said, Gather the people together and
I will give them water.
Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, oh
well, within my soul.
No, they didn't sing that part.
So, here's where you got the lyric for
that song.
Spring up, oh well.
And they encouraged the people to sing unto
it.
Sing unto that well.
And the princes dug a well.
And the nobles of the people digged it
by the direction of the lawgiver with their
shovels.
And from the wilderness, they went to Matanah.
And then on to the top of Mount
Pisgah, from which they were able to look
over the land that God had promised as
they were now in the country of Moab.
Now, Israel sent messengers to the king of
the Amorites asking for permission to pass through
his land as they did to Edom.
The king of Edom refused.
He came down to meet them with his
army, but because the Edomites were actually relatives
to them, they just went away peaceably and
went all the way around Edom.
But they weren't really related to the Amorites,
and so when the king Sihon of the
Amorites came out with his army, Israel smote
him with the edge of the sword and
possessed the land from Arnon to Jabok, even
unto the children of Ammon, for the border
of the children of Ammon was strong.
So they took over the area that was
being possessed by the Amorites.
Now, this is from the area east of
the Sea of Galilee, north of Moab.
And Jabok comes into the Jordan just south
from Galilee.
And so that area of the present-day
Golan Heights, but not up as far as
Syria, on the eastern side of the Sea
of Galilee was the area where the Amorites
dwelt.
That is the land that the children of
Israel conquered.
And later, part of the tribes settled in
that land.
It's great cattle country.
And the Reubenites, the tribe of Reuben, were
great cattlemen and also were the tribe of
Gad.
And so half of the tribe of Gad
and the tribe of Reuben settled and remained
permanently.
Well, as permanent as the Israelites remained, they
remained though on that eastern side of the
Jordan River and settled that area up in
there.
Israel took all the cities and dwelt in
all the cities of the Amorites.
In some of the major cities, Hezbollah, which
was one of the major cities.
It was actually the capital city of the
area of the Amorites.
And so they declared their victory and so
forth in sort of a song or proverbs.
And so then they turned and they went
by the way of Bashan.
And the king of Bashan came out to
meet them with all of his people.
And the Lord said to Moses, Fear him
not for I have delivered him into your
hand and all of his people and his
land.
And you'll do to him just like you
did to Sion the king of the Amorites.
And so they smote him and his sons
and the people and there was none left
alive.
And they possessed his land.
So they're beginning to possess that land there
on the northern end of Israel and on
the eastern banks of the Sea of Galilee
and the Jordan River.
And so the children of Israel set forward
and pitched in the plains of Moab, moving
now south from this position, on this side
of the Jordan River or on the eastern
side of the Jordan River by the city
of Jericho.
And Balak, the son of Zippor, saw that
Israel, all that he had done to the
Amorites, and Moab was very afraid of the
people because they were many.
And Moab was distressed because of the children
of Israel.
And Moab said to the elders of Midian,
Now shall this company lick up all that
are round about us as the ox licks
up the grass of the field.
And Balak, the son of Zippor, was the
king of the Moabites at that time.
And so he sent messengers unto Balaam, the
son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by
the river of the land of the children
of his people, to call him, saying, Behold,
there is a people that has come out
from Egypt.
Behold, they cover the face of the earth.
They abide over against me.
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 we may drive them out
of the land.
For I know that whom you bless is
blessed and whom you curse is cursed.
And so the elders of Moab, with the
elders of Midian, departed with the rewards of
divination in their hands.
And they came to Balaam and spake to
him the words of Balak.
And he said unto them, Stay here tonight,
and I will bring you word again.
And the Lord shall speak unto me.
And the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam.
And God came to Balaam and said, Who
are these men that are with you?
And Balaam said unto God, Balak, the son
of Zippor, the king of Moab, has sent
them unto me, saying, Behold, there is a
people that has come out of Egypt which
covers the face of the earth.
Come and curse me, them, that I might
be able to overcome them and drive them
out.
And God said unto Balaam, Listen, thou shalt
not go with them.
Thou shalt not curse the people for they
are blessed.
So that's God's direct command.
Now, this guy Balaam, interesting character.
It would definitely appear that he was a
prophet of God, though he was not from
Israel.
That God did indeed speak to him.
In fact, some of the most remarkable prophecies
of the Old Testament came out of the
mouth of Balaam.
What was his background?
How is it that he knew God and
was able to relate to God in such
a special way?
I don't know.
It would seem that he was used to
creating enchantments or curses, and that's actually what
the king wanted him to do is to
create some kind of a curse against these
people.
Now, he had a reputation for power in
putting curses on people.
And so the king sent the rewards of
divination.
In other words, when you go to a
prophet to seek advice from God, you'd always
take some kind of a gift for the
prophet.
That was the custom of the day.
Even in Israel, that was a custom.
Going to the prophet, you'd take a gift
for the prophet and ask him to seek
the Lord for you.
But it was always customary to take a
gift for the prophet.
And so the king sent these messengers with
a gift, with a command that he would
put a curse on these people that had
come out of Egypt and were now bordering
his land.
For I know whomever you curse is cursed,
whoever you bless is blessed.
So Balaam sought the Lord and the Lord
said to him, don't go to the king
and don't curse these people.
God's direct command to Balaam.
And so Balaam rose up in the morning
and he said to the princes of Balak,
you better go home, for the Lord refuses
to give me permission to come with you.
So the princes of Moab, they went back
to Balak and they said he won't come.
He said the Lord won't let him come.
And so Balak the king sent back more
honorable princes, men of greater stature as far
as the government was concerned.
And the king said, don't let anything keep
you from coming, for I will promote you
to great honor and I'll give you whatever
you want.
So come and curse these people.
So now more important princes, offers of you
write the check or you name the price.
I'll do wonderful things for you.
I'll promote you to great honor and I'll
do anything you ask.
But don't let anything keep you from coming.
So Balaam answered the servants of Balak and
said, if Balak would give me his house
full of silver and gold, I cannot go
beyond the Word of God to do any
less or to do any more.
So he said, wait tonight, and I'll find
out what the Lord will say unto me.
Now I can imagine that this night, Balaam
was really laying it upon the Lord.
Lord, please.
Because he was thinking about these great rewards
that had been offered to him by the
king.
All this loot.
Man, he was really drooling.
Lord, you know, I'll be good.
I promise.
But let me go, Lord.
Just let me go.
Please, Lord, let me go.
I assume that this was the case because
the Lord gave him permission to go, but
yet when he went, it wasn't God's will
for him to go.
And I do believe that it is possible
for us to enter into a gray area
of what is termed the permissive will of
God.
Yes, God will permit you to do it,
but He doesn't want you to do it.
And I believe that a person can zero
in right in the heart of God and
the direct will of God for his life.
You can be right on dead center with
God's will for your life.
And I think that there is a gray
area that you can get over into which
God will permit you to do it.
But it isn't really His direct will.
He isn't really pleased with it.
But you've insisted, you're pressuring, you're forcing, you're
whining, you're crazy.
Ah, go on then, you know.
Oftentimes your kids, you know, they've laid it
on you like that.
And you say, okay, go ahead and go,
but you really don't want them to.
You're so tired of hearing them gripe and
whine and complain.
Get out of here, go ahead, go on.
Tired of hearing you complain.
And so, I assume that this was the
case because God said, all right, go.
And God said to Balaam at night, if
the men come to call thee, rise up
and go with them.
But the word which I shall say unto
thee, that shalt thou do.
So Balaam rose up early in the morning,
saddled his donkey, and went with the princes
of Moab.
And God's anger was kindled because he went.
God was angry with him for going.
Now, God expressed His direct will in the
beginning.
Don't go with them.
Don't curse these people.
That was God's direct will for His life.
But he was going off into an area
God permitted him to go, but God was
angry with him for going.
Leaving the place of the center of God's
will.
I think that it is possible for a
person to do that.
But out of the center of God's will,
you can run into all kinds of problems.
All kinds of adversities.
And before he had gone very long, very
far down the road, an angel of the
Lord stood in the path with a drawn
sword, ready to take off his head.
But fortunately, his donkey saw the angel, though
he didn't.
And so the donkey turned off the path.
And Balaam took his stick and hit the
donkey and got it back on the path.
And they were going through a vineyard, and
in those vineyards they have rock walls along
the pathway to keep people from going over
and picking grapes.
And so he's going between these rock walls
past these vineyards, and the angel of the
Lord stood in the path again.
Balaam didn't see him, but the donkey did.
And the donkey sort of tried to edge
over against the wall and got Balaam's leg
pinned up against the rock.
And he beat that poor little donkey again.
And so again, he got him going down
the road, and the third time the angel
of the Lord stood in the path, but
this time there was nowhere for the donkey
to go.
So he just sat down.
And Balaam began to beat him again.
And God opened the mouth of the donkey.
Now to me, it is an interesting thing.
The great pride that some people have because
God has spoken through them.
God spoke through me.
You know, like you're something super special because
God spoke through you.
It is true, God still speaks through donkeys
today.
And that should deflate anybody who thinks there's
something special and something really glorious.
People ought to bow to them because God
speaks through them.
God opened the mouth of the donkey, and
the donkey turned to Balaam and said, Hey
man, do you think it's right beating me
these three times?
Look, have I ever done anything like this
to you before?
Haven't I always been a good little donkey?
Balaam said, you bet your life I'm doing
right.
If I had a club, I'd kill you,
you rotten beast.
Boy, talk about being mad.
That's really being mad when a donkey talks
to you and you talk back to him.
Instead of being just dumbfounded, you know, if
a donkey talked to me, I just, you
know, huh?
He was mad.
He wished he could kill that donkey at
this point.
It's amazing how out of tune and out
of sorts we get when we're out of
God's will.
You know, we're wanting to do our own
thing and God puts a block in the
way and boy, we become angry.
We become upset because God is blocking this
which I've got in my mind to do.
You get out of the will of God
and you can really get out of sorts
in every area of your life.
Your whole life just gets out of sorts
completely.
And so, at this point, God opened the
eyes of this prophet and he saw the
angel of God standing there with a sword.
And the angel spoke to Balaam and said,
You better be thankful for that dumb little
donkey you've got.
Because had he not turned aside, I would
have taken off your head.
Balaam said, Oh, I'll go right home.
I'll turn around and go right back home.
And the angel said, No, you've come this
far.
You know, it's in your heart to go.
You go ahead and go, but you just
make sure that you don't say any more
than what God tells you to say.
And so, Balaam went on to the king.
And so, the king brought Balak up into
a high mountain where he might overlook all
of Israel camped down there in the valley.
They came to Kirjath-Huzoth, the city of
the streets, literally.
And so, Balaam said to the king, Build
me seven altars here and I'll offer sacrifices
unto God.
So, they built seven altars and he offered
seven oxen and seven rams.
And Balaam said to the king, Now you
stand here and I'm going to go up
and maybe God will speak to me.
And whatever God shows me, I will tell
you.
And so, he went to a high place
and God met Balaam.
And Balaam said to him, I've prepared seven
altars and I've offered upon every altar a
bullock and a ram.
And the Lord put a word in Balaam's
mouth and said, Return to Balak and tell
him this.
And so, he returned to him and he
was standing by the burnt sacrifice with all
of the princes of Moab.
And so, Balaam took up this parable and
he said, Balak, the king of Moab, hath
brought me from Aram out of the mountains
of the east saying, Come, curse me Jacob
and come, defy Israel.
How shall I curse whom God hath not
cursed?
Or how shall I defy whom the Lord
hath not defied?
For from the top of the rocks I
see him and from the hills I behold
him and, lo, the people shall dwell alone
and shall not be reckoned among the nations.
And who can count the dust of Jacob
and the number of the fourth part of
Israel?
Let me die the death of the righteous
and let my last end be like his.
And the king said, Hey, why have you
done this unto me?
I've brought you to curse my enemies, not
to bless them.
And Balaam answered and said, I must take
heed to speak that which the Lord has
put in my mouth.
Now, this one part of this prophecy is
interesting.
He said, May I die the death of
the righteous and let my last end be
like his.
It's an interesting thing how many people want
to die the death of the righteous, but
they don't want to live the life of
the righteous.
They think of Christianity as something that is
good to die by.
Well, I wouldn't want to die any other
way, but it's something that's great to live
by.
And yet there are people that aren't so
interested in living a life of righteousness, only
dying.
Let my last end be as his.
I want to die the death of the
righteous.
If you want to die the death of
the righteous, then you better live the life
of the righteous.
So, Balak said, He said, come and I'll
show you another place.
Because you didn't see all of them here.
There's another part of them.
Maybe you can curse this part over here.
And so he took them to the top
of Mount Pisgah.
And there again they built seven altars.
And they offered seven rams and seven bullocks,
one on each altar.
And so Balaam went to meet the Lord.
And the Lord met Balaam and put a
word in his mouth and said, Go again
to Balak and tell him this.
And so he said, Rise up, Balak, and
hear.
Hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor.
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?
Now this is a very interesting Scripture, but
it is even more interesting in its context.
What is the context?
The context is that God has spoken His
blessing upon the nation Israel.
Now He's trying to get God to turn
and to curse the people that God has
blessed.
And God is not a man that He
should lie nor the son of man that
He should repent or should change.
Hath He not spoken, and shall He not
do it?
The immutability of God's Word.
He doesn't change.
He's not a man.
If God has declared His blessing, His blessing
shall come.
That's the context.
But it is a very important Scripture that
declares to us the nature and the character
of God.
Because there are some passages of Scripture in
the Old Testament that from the passage you
might infer that God changed His mind in
a situation.
But God is not a man that He
should lie nor the son of man that
He should change.
God's purposes remain steadfast and sure.
Now, there are times when it appeared that
God changed.
God said to Jonah, go down and warn
Nineveh.
I'm going to destroy the place in 40
days.
And Jonah went down and preached to the
Ninevites and they repented in dust and ashes.
And God forestalled the judgment.
Had they not repented, they would have been
destroyed in 40 days.
Because they repented, God gave them an extension
of time.
But God knew all along He was going
to give them the extension of time.
We have extreme difficulty in thinking as God
thinks.
For a little while this afternoon, I watched
SC playing Washington.
I wasn't really excited about it.
In fact, I was so unexcited I finally
turned the thing off because I knew what
the score was.
The final score that is.
I knew who was going to win.
I looked at that game today entirely different
from what I would have looked at it
yesterday.
Rather exciting game yesterday.
But today it didn't have nearly the excitement
because it was all a replay.
So, I know the score.
I know what's going to happen.
I know what's going to be the result.
Oh, they just got penalized five yards.
Oh, no.
Oh, that's alright.
White's going to, you know, bust through in
the next play.
So, you don't get all shook and upset
because of the penalty.
You know that Garcia is going to catch
the pass in the end zone.
And it's a thing where you're watching it,
but it's a funny thing because you're not
really getting too much into it because you
know exactly what the result is going to
be.
Now, this is the way that God looks
at our lives.
In Psalms it says we spend our lives
like a tale that has been told or
a story that's already told.
We spend our lives like a rerun.
God, knowing the end from the beginning, looks
at us knowing what the effect and the
result of every step I take is going
to be.
Every move, every decision.
God already knows the end result of it.
And there are times when it looks from
my angle, Oh, the Lord's changed on this.
Alright.
No, He already had that in mind.
And He knew that from the beginning.
My attitude towards it has changed.
My perspective has changed.
But God remains the same.
God is not a man that He should
lie, nor the Son of Man that He
should repent.
So, those scriptures said, and it repented God
that He created man.
It is only looking at God from a
human standpoint and trying to define the actions
of God with human language, which is impossible
to do.
Because God dwells in a dimension that is
so totally outside of our time zone and
our space dimension that we don't even have
words to describe the activities of God.
Thus, we have to use words that we
have, but they are very limited and do
not truly describe the full actions of God.
If He is God, He cannot change.
Hath I not spoken, and shall I not
make it good?
The old I have received a commandment to
bless, and He has blessed, and I cannot
reverse it.
For He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob.
Oh, help us!
What do you mean?
He just sent the fiery serpents among them
two weeks ago, or two months ago, whatever
the case was, because they're complaining, Hey, isn't
that a neat God?
He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob.
It isn't because there wasn't iniquity in Jacob,
but it's because God chose not to see
it.
That is what David was talking about when
he said, Oh, how happy is the man
to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.
Now, we hear told of Santa Claus that
he's making out a list and checking it
twice and going to find out who's naughty
and nice.
And a lot of people picture God that
way, making out His list.
But God has no list for me of
evil.
Oh, how happy is the man to whom
the Lord doesn't impute iniquity.
That account was destroyed.
God said that He did not see any
iniquity in Jacob.
That to me is glorious.
That's grace.
That is God's grace because it was there.
But God chose not to see it even
as He has chosen not to see the
iniquity of those who are believing and trusting
in His Son, Jesus Christ.
But we'll leave that to Romans 2 to
deal with as we move along and get
there later.
But I think that's a fabulous Scripture.
Neither is there any divination against Israel.
According to this time, it shall be said
of Jacob and Israel, what God hath wrought."
When you see what God has wrought, people
are going to say, what God hath wrought.
As God brings the people in the land,
establishes the nation, they're going to say, oh,
look what God has wrought.
I love that.
I love that whole concept.
Look what God has wrought.
That's the neat thing about Calvary Chapel is
that men can't put a finger on the
success of this place.
God's chosen to use a nobody and a
bunch of nobodies to do a beautiful work.
And people come around, the scholars and the
geniuses all come around and try to analyze
it and figure out what's happening and why
it's happening and classify it and codify it
and everything else.
And they walk away scratching their heads.
They can't figure it out.
Preachers go away and say, man, I can
preach a better sermon than that.
I'm much better looking than he is.
Why don't I have success?
Isn't that neat?
They just can't figure it out.
You can only say what God hath wrought.
Choosing again the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise.
Just to put them in total consternation and
confusing them.
Doing a work that only He can
receive praise and credit and glory for.
And I absolutely love it.
What God hath wrought.
Interesting verse there.
The prophet said there's no divination, no enchantment
that can be used against them.
And I want you to know this, that
as a child of God, there is no
charm, enchantment, divination, or hex or anything else
that people can put on you that will
have any effect.
Now, there are a lot of times people
get worried because there are people with psychic
powers, great psychic powers.
They can bend nails and kind of stuff
like this with their psychic powers.
And they can put curses and hexes on
people.
And sometimes they go, oh my, you know,
I've been praying and maybe they're going to
put a hex on me.
No.
The Scriptures declares Isaiah 51 No weapon that
is formed against thee...
54.
Thank you.
I was close.
No weapon that is formed against thee shall
prosper.
And every mouth that is raised up against
thee thou shalt condemn.
For this is the heritage of the age
of the children of the Lord.
What is the heritage?
No weapon formed against you can prosper.
There is no divination, no enchantment, no hex
that can be put on you that will
have any effect at all.
Because you're God's child.
And because God has chosen to bless you
as His child, it can't be reversed.
There's no curse or hex that anyone can
put on you.
And the prophet recognized it.
There's nothing I knew.
There's no divination against Israel.
Behold, the people shall rise up as a
great lion and lift himself up as a
young lion and shall not lie down till
he eats of the prey and drinks the
blood of the slain.
And Balak said to Balaam, Look, if you
can't curse them, then don't bless them.
In other words, if you can't say something
bad, don't say anything.
And so Balaam answered Balak and said, Didn't
I tell you that all that the Lord
speaks to me I must do?
And so Balak said to Balaam, Now, come
on, I'll bring you to another place.
Maybe God at that point will curse them.
So Balak brought him to the top of
another mountain, Peor, that looks towards Jizmom.
And Balaam said to Balak, Build me seven
alders.
And they went through the same routine.
So when Balaam saw that it pleased the
Lord to bless Israel, he didn't even go
up as the other times before the Lord
to seek the face or to seek for
enchantments.
But he just set his face towards the
wilderness.
And Balaam lifted up his eyes and he
saw Israel abiding in their tents according to
their tribes.
And the Spirit of God came along.
He saw the camp, the people abiding there,
the tabernacle in the middle, and the people
around about it.
And Balaam the son of Peor 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 my eyes
being open, how goodly are thy tents, O
Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!
As the valleys are they spread forth, as
gardens by the riverside, as the trees of
Linalos, which the Lord hath planted, and as
the cedar trees beside the waters.
He shall pour the water out of his
buckets, and his seed shall be in many
waters, and his king shall be higher than
Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted."
Of course, the king and kingdom looking ahead
in prophecy to Jesus Christ.
God brought him forth out of Egypt and
he hath, as it were, the strength of
a unicorn.
And he shall eat up the nations, his
enemies, and shall break their bones and pierce
them through with the arrows.
He couched and he lay down as a
lion and as a great lion.
And who shall stir him up?
Blessed is he that blesses thee and cursed
is he that curses thee.
And the king's anger was kindled and he
clapped his hands together and he said unto
Balaam, Look, I called you to curse my
enemies and you've altogether blessed them these three
times.
Now you better flee to your own place,
for I thought to promote thee to great
honor, but lo, the Lord hath kept thee
back from honor."
I was going to make you a great
man, but the Lord has kept you from
that.
You know, there is an honor that it
is well that you be kept from.
The rewards of unrighteousness.
I was going to promote you to great
honor, but the Lord, ah, that's the honor
you don't want, I'll tell you.
The honor that the Lord holds back.
And Balaam said to Balak, I told your
messengers that if you would give me your
whole house full of silver and gold, I
cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord
either to do good or bad of my
own mind, but what the Lord has said
I will speak.
And now I'm going to my people and
I will advertise thee what the people shall
do.
And the people in their latter days.
So I'm going to tell you one more
thing.
And so he prophesied once more concerning Jesus
Christ.
And it's a beautiful prophecy concerning the Lord.
Verse 16, He has said, which heard the
words of God and knew the knowledge of
the Most High.
He saw the vision of the Almighty falling
into a trance, but having his eyes opened.
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,
or a kingdom, 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, and 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 shall perish forever.
Amalek is always in the Scripture a type
of the flesh.
I don't have time to go into this
tonight, but when we get to the book
of Esther, we'll deal with Amalek, the type
of the flesh.
But this is God's word against the flesh.
It's going to perish forever.
The flesh life is going to perish forever.
God's instructions to Saul concerning Amalek was what?
Wipe it out utterly.
That is God's continual commandment concerning Amalek, concerning
your flesh.
Wipe it out utterly.
If you don't destroy it, it can destroy
you.
Paul said, If we by the Spirit do
mortify the deeds of the flesh, we shall
live.
The flesh life.
We're not to give place to the flesh
or to the flesh life.
Walk after the Spirit and you'll not fulfill
the desires of your flesh.
So, the parable against Amalek is a very
important parable.
As God declares the end of the flesh
life, it shall utterly perish forever.
Then he looked on the Kenites and took
out the parable and said, Strong is your
dwelling place, and you have put thy nest
in a rock.
Nevertheless, the Kenites shall be wasted until Asher
shall carry thee away captive.
And he took the parable and said, Alas,
who shall live when God is doing this?
And the ship shall come from the coast
of Shittim and shall afflict Asher and shall
afflict Eber and shall perish forever.
And Balaam rose up and went and returned
to his place and Balak also went his
way.
Now you think, Oh, goody, goody for you,
Balaam.
Good man.
No, unfortunately.
Balaam said, I shall see, but not now.
I shall behold, but I do not believe
that Balaam will share in the kingdom of
God.
Though he was a prophet of God indeed,
but he allowed greed to master his heart.
The king had offered all of these rewards.
Balaam sought God that he might go.
And when God wouldn't curse him and the
king said, Alright, that's too bad.
You go home.
I called you to curse them and you
blessed them.
I was going to give you great honor.
I can't.
Now, Balaam, greedy for the rewards that had
been offered by the king, began to give
to the king evil counsel.
And in the 31st chapter of Numbers, we
are told in verse 16, Behold, these caused
the children of Israel through the counsel of
Balaam to commit trespass against the Lord in
the matter of Peor.
We'll get to that in the next chapter
here.
The thing that happened there at Peor.
But what happened, happened as the result of
the advice that Balaam had given to King
Balak, because he was greedy for the rewards
that the king was offering.
So, in the book of Jude, in the
New Testament, the book of Jude we are
commanded, and the central message of the book
of Jude is keep yourself in the love
of God.
And we are given examples of three persons
who failed to keep themselves in the love
of God.
Korah, Cain, and Balaam.
And of Balaam it's said, because of his
greed, his desire for the riches that the
king was offering, that they have gone the
way of Balaam, and it's referred to as
the way of Balaam, who for reward for
the greed that was there, the desire for
the riches, prostituted himself to the king.
He was bought off.
In Revelation 2, as the Lord deals with
the church of Ephesus, no, I beg your
pardon, it must be the church of Pergamos.
God said to Pergamos that they had there
those who held to the doctrine of Balaam.
Verse 14, chapter 2, I have a few
things against thee, because thou hast there them
that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught
Balaam to cast a stumbling block before the
children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto
idols and to commit fornication.
So, the doctrine of Balaam, idolatry and spiritual
fornication that Balaam set the king Balaam up
to do.
Now, it doesn't tell us right in, immediately
in our text that this is what happened,
but by looking at other Scriptures, now we
understand the next chapter and what is brought
out in this next chapter.
In 2 Peter 2 and in verse 15,
Peter also makes mention of Balaam and he's
talking about the false prophets.
There will be many of them.
False teachers who privately will bring in damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord.
And many will follow their pernicious ways by
reason of whom the way of truth is
evil spoken of.
And through covetousness shall with feigned words or
deceitful words make merchandise of you.
Every religious system or every so-called prophet
of God who seeks to make merchandise of
you through deceitful words is a false prophet
and you can tell them easily they are
using these deceitful words to get you to
support them.
And I believe that every computerized letter sent
out by these men is guilty of feigned
words.
Dear Charles, I have a friend that was
here this week, an editor of Christianity Today,
and he said they get the same computerized
letters.
It says, Dear Mr. Today, I've been thinking
about you this past week.
Is everything alright today?
Now, please go out and borrow $25 and
send it to me because I'm desperate.
Those are feigned words and the purpose is
to make merchandise of you.
The Bible classifies them as false prophets.
What is feigned words?
It's saying something you don't really mean.
Oh, all of you beautiful children, I love
you.
You don't even know me.
How can you love me?
Feigned words.
Fair speeches.
Seeking to make merchandise out of people.
Now, among these false prophets, Peter warns us
that actually they are much like Balaam.
Verse 15, which have forsaken the right way
and are gone astray following the way of
Balaam, the son of Bosar, who loved the
wages of unrighteousness.
The guy loved the wealth.
False prophet.
Taking the monies and using it for his
own enrichment.
Prostituting his ministry.
And so he advised the king this way.
He said, look, Balaam, I can't go into
a little spiritual trip and bring a curse.
God won't allow me to do that.
But these people, their strength lies in the
fact that they worship one God.
And God honors them.
And God has taken them as His people.
But the God that they worship is a
very jealous God.
And if they start worshiping other gods, then
His wrath will come upon them.
And He'll destroy them.
So here's what you've got to do.
Take a lot of the beautiful young girls
that are here.
And send them down and let them flirt
with the young guys.
And let them entice the young fellows into
acts of fornication.
And when they get them all involved in
these kind of acts, then let the girls
bring out their little gods and say, look,
these are the gods that we worship.
Do you want to see how we worship
these gods?
And their gods were worshiped in sex acts.
Many of the pagan religious systems, the actual
sex act was a part of the worship
of the goddess Venus and Aphrodite and some
of these other pagan gods.
And in the sex act itself were spiritual
rites of these religions.
So, let us show you how we worship
our gods.
And so the king followed the advice of
the prophet.
And that brings us into chapter 25.
And as Israel was abiding there at Shittim,
and the people began to commit whoredom with
the daughters of Moab.
And they called the people into the sacrifices
of their gods.
You see, they got the young guys and
said, come on, go with me to the
sacrifice of my god.
And the people did eat and they bowed
down to their gods.
And Israel joined himself unto Baal Peor, or
the Lord of Peor.
Peor was the name of the mountain there.
And the anger of the Lord was kindled
against Israel.
And the Lord said unto Moses, take all
of the heads of the people and hang
them up before the Lord against the sun,
that the fierce anger of the Lord may
be turned away from Israel.
In other words, cut off the heads of
these guys that are doing it.
Hang them up in the sun that my
anger might be turned away.
And Moses said to the judges of Israel,
slay every one of his men that were
joined to Baal Peor.
Every man that joined in those rites.
And behold, one of the children of Israel
came and brought unto his brethren a Midianite
woman in the sight of Moses and in
the sight of all the congregation of the
children of Israel who were weeping before the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Here these guys were weeping and repenting before
God for what was done.
And here comes this guy in with a
prostitute.
Right there where they could all see him.
Into his tent.
All excited and all.
And so Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, he
actually was the grandson of Aaron.
When he saw it, he jumped up and
grabbed his javelin and went over to the
tent and thrust the guy through and the
woman through.
Both of them in their tent.
And so the plague was stayed from the
children of Israel.
But those that died of the plague were
24,000.
So, Balaam was successful in bringing a curse
in a secondary way.
And by his advice to the king, he
laid a stumbling block before God's people so
that when Moab was conquered and the Midianites
were conquered and they were slain, Balaam was
slain with them.
Now God said because of Phinehas' heroic deeds
and righteous deeds in the killing of these
people, this man and this woman, He said,
I am going to give to Phinehas the
son of peace and the priesthood will come
through his family.
The covenant of an everlasting priesthood because he
was zealous for his God.
And he made the atonement for the children
of Israel.
And so it gives us the name of
the man and the woman.
He was of the tribe of Simeon.
Now in chapter 26, we again have the
tribes numbered off.
Now remember, this is at the end of
the 40 years of wandering.
At the beginning of the 40 years of
wandering, they numbered the tribes.
And now at the end of the 40
years of wandering, they numbered the tribes again.
And it is interesting to compare the number
of people at the beginning and at the
end.
And actually, there's a total loss of people
of about 2,000, approximately 2,000 less
at the end of the 40 years of
wandering.
But some of the tribes, they were really
wiped out, really decimated.
Other of them actually grew in number through
the wilderness wanderings.
Towards the end of the chapter, in verse
59, we get a little history of Moses'
family.
His father's name was Amram.
His mother's name was Jochebeb.
She had three children, Moses, Miriam, and Aaron.
And it gives you a little history of
Aaron's family, the two sons again that died,
Nadab and Abihu, who offered the strange fire
before the Lord.
And now that generation has passed away.
There's no one left except for Moses, of
course, is still alive, and Joshua and Caleb.
But all of those that came out of
Egypt who were 20 years old or older
have now all died with the exception of
these three men.
Moses is soon to die before they go
into the land.
Chapter 27, we have the beginning of a
woman's lib organization.
Then there came the daughters of Zelophehad, the
son of Hefer.
Now what had happened is that the dad
had seven daughters but no sons.
And as they were dividing off the land,
they were giving the sons the portions.
The oldest son would get the portions over.
And so these gals said, hey, now wait
a minute.
It's not fair.
We have equal rights, you know.
And our dad didn't have any son.
If you don't give us any land, then
my father's name will die in Israel.
So Moses said, well, we'll take it before
the Lord.
So the Lord says, these gals are right.
Give them the inheritance of the family.
And so they won their case.
And the daughters of Zelophehad received the inheritance.
So God's with you gals.
And He's looking after you.
And you've got a just cause.
But unfortunately, these radical women are taking it
far beyond God's.
You know, I mean, there is that which
is right, but then there is that taking
it beyond and far beyond what God ever
intended.
So balance is such an important thing.
So He gave the law then of the
inheritance.
If there is no son, then it goes
to the daughters.
If there are no daughters or sons, then
it goes to a man's brothers.
If he has no brothers, then it will
go to his father's brothers.
And if his father has no brothers, then
it comes to the next of kin, whoever
is closest in the family to him.
Now the Lord said to Moses, get up
to the Mount of Barim and see the
land which I have given to the children
of Israel.
And when you have seen it, there also
you'll be gathered to your people as Aaron
your brother was gathered.
For you rebelled against My commandment in the
desert of Zin in the strife of the
congregation to properly represent Me at the water
before their eyes.
That is the waters of Meribah in Kadesh
in the wilderness of Zin.
So Moses, get up the mountain.
You'll get the look at the land, but
then you're going to die.
You're not going to be able to go
in because of your misrepresenting of Me there
at the water of Meribah, the waters of
strife.
Moses said unto the Lord, Let the Lord,
the God of the spirits of all flesh,
set a man over the congregation.
Now this is an interesting little verse.
Let the Lord, the God of the spirits
of all flesh, set a man over the
congregation.
From this little verse, the Mormons have developed
their whole doctrine of the eternal spirit of
man.
That you actually existed in heaven.
Your spirit existed there in heaven.
And then God made a body for you
and put your spirit in it to see
whether or not you could become a god
by becoming a Mormon.
And you have no memory of your preexistence
in heaven, but all of you preexisted in
heaven as spirits.
But there was no way of telling up
there whether or not you'd be good or
bad, so He put you in a body
and let you prove yourself down here.
And if you become a good Mormon, wear
your underwear and all, then you will be
God.
And you and your wives that are sealed
to you can go to some planet and
you can have your own little kingdom that
you can watch over and you'll be God
over that planet and you can develop it
however you wish and so forth.
So, that whole doctrine, it comes out of
this one little verse.
I really don't see it in this verse.
Let the Lord, the God of the spirits
of all flesh.
But it doesn't say anything about the spirits
preexisting with God, being in heaven before or
anything.
He's just the God of the spirits of
all flesh.
Set a man over the congregation, which may
go before them, which may lead them out,
which may bring them in, that the congregation
of the Lord will not be like sheep
without a shepherd.
And so the Lord said to Moses, Take
Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in
whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand
upon him.
And set him before Eliezer the priest and
before the congregation, and give him charge in
their sight.
And thou shalt put some of thine honor
upon him, that all of the children of
Israel may be obedient.
And he shall stand before Eliezer the priest,
who shall ask counsel for him after the
judgment of the Urim from the Lord.
Now the Urim was a little thing that
the priests wore, a little pouch of some
kind, that they sought counsel from God through
the use of the Urim and the Thummim.
Lights and Perfections is what the words Urim
and Thummim mean.
And some believe that there was just a
little pouch and it had a white stone
and a black stone.
And that when they would ask the Lord
a question, the priest would say, now God,
show us which one.
And he would pull out a stone.
If it was a white stone, God would
say yes.
Then they'd ask the next question.
And they'd mix up the stones.
He'd pull out a stone again.
And they would get yes-no answers.
So it was sort of a 21-question
kind of a thing where you get yes
-no answers to then ascertain the will of
the Lord.
Now, God had a more direct relationship with
Moses.
God said, hey, there's no one like this
before or after.
Where I really speak to the fellow as
sort of a face-to-face.
I mean, direct speaking in a very powerful
way.
Now Joshua, who is to lead the people.
He is to come before Eleazar the priest
who will inquire of the Lord in questions.
David, so often, would go to the priest
and inquire, shall we go into battle against
them?
And then what time of the day shall
we start the battle?
And they would ask all of these questions
of God in order to determine the will
of the Lord.
And it was oftentimes determined by the priest
inquiring and by the use of the Urim.
These lights and perfections.
So, just what the Urim and the Thummim
actually is is not told us.
That's what people surmise that it was.
But exactly, we don't know.
Surely it wasn't a pair of glasses by
which you can read hieroglyphics when you put
them on.
Hocus Pocus.
So, Moses did as the Lord commanded him.
He took Joshua and set him before Eleazar.
And before all the congregation, he laid his
hands upon him and gave him the charge
of the Lord as he was commanded.
So, Joshua laid his hands upon him signifying
that Joshua was now to begin to take
Moses' place as the leader of the people.
Now in the 20th chapter, God sort of
reiterates some of the commandments concerning the sacrifices.
Every day of the year, they were to
offer two lambs as a sacrifice unto the
Lord.
One lamb in the morning.
One lamb in the evening.
One during the morning oblations or prayers.
Another during the evening oblations or prayers.
And so, twice a day at least, there
were these two lambs that were offered.
And the smoke would go up with the
prayers of the people as the sweet-smelling
incense before the Lord.
And they would offer daily in the morning
and evening, a lamb.
That was just a daily year.
You know, every day of the year, this
would occur.
However, on the first day of the month,
then they were to offer more animals on
the first day of every month.
They were to offer two bullocks, one ram
and seven lambs of the first year without
spot.
And then they were in the Passover time
to offer the animals, the goats and all
in the Passover time.
And then also for the firstfruits or Pentecost,
He gives them the orders of the animals
that were to be offered during that period.
So, chapter 28 deals with the sacrifices, the
type of animals, the type of drink offering
and meal offerings that were to be offered
to God daily and then annually on special
occasions.
And so, just sort of a repetition of
some of the earlier commands that we had
in Leviticus.
Just sort of reinforcing that which He had
commanded earlier.
So, next week we'll finish the book of
Numbers as we get into chapter 29 and
we'll begin there and finish the book of
Numbers next week.
Shall we stand?
Now, I realize that some of you may
have come to church tonight in order that
you might get saved.
And that's a good idea.
And so, you can go back to the
prayer room at this time and some of
the pastors will go back there and meet
with you and pray with you and lead
you into a real relationship with Jesus Christ.
So, if you came tonight in order that
you might get saved, don't get disappointed.
And don't go home without being saved.
So, just go on back to the prayer
room at this time as soon as we're
dismissed and the pastors will meet with you
there.
May God bless you and just give you
a beautiful week.
May you experience, really, the living presence of
the living God within your life.
Not needing any relics, but just be conscious
of the nearness of God and of God's
great love.
Wherein He loves you.
He loves you so much that He doesn't
see anything wrong with you.
Isn't that neat?
Man, that's more than my wife loves me.
And she loves me an awful, awful lot.
Oh, so glorious to be walking with the
Lord and serving Him.
May God just fill your life with joy,
praises and thanksgiving all week long.