Numbers 22 | Becoming the Donkey of the Day.

This is City Post Church. We're about three things.

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Christ. A small church plant in Fort

Worth, TX who decided to do things a little differently.

Adoramos Ajesu Cristo. I love City Post because of the

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for light to push back darkness. This is City Post podcast.

If you guys have your Bibles, we're going to be in Numbers

Numbers 22 · chapter mention

chapter 22 today. Numbers 22.

Numbers is in the Old Testament, first five books of the

Scriptures and not too many people kind of go to Numbers.

But man, there's going to be a great little fight between a

prophet named Balaam and a donkey, a talking donkey.

Donkey. I think of Shrek every time I

read this story, you know, like the talking donkey.

It's, it's a, it's, it's incredible, man.

What's wild is like, you know, this series of Fight Club, we've

been looking at fights in the Bible when people just fight

each other, like David, Goliath and Esau and Jacob and so forth.

And the one thing that I'm beginning to realize more and

more is at the battle, the fight is not even against the foe, but

it's against the flesh. And every time we read these

stories, like like what the song just said, like God, like we're,

we're fighting a battle that God's already claimed victory

over. And I love something that pastor

gave said a few weeks ago that he was like, Satan's the only

one who fights from defeat. Like he knows he's not going to

win. So he's he's coming from a

position of being defeated and God is victorious.

So we are should be come from a position of victory and our

battle inside inside of us is against our sinful nature and

our flesh. And what we're going to see

today is that there is a prophet and men as all sorts of jacked

up and God still uses him to fulfill his purpose and his

ways. So if you think that you have to

be perfect for God to use you, you're wrong.

We're all flawed. We're all jacked up, and God can

still use us because of Jesus Christ.

So I'm going to pray for us. And then we're just going to

jump into this story because the cowboy games at noon and we got

to catch it. All right, so let's pray.

So Jesus, thank you for everything that you've done.

Lord, thank you because you are victorious by the cross and the

resurrection. Father, I pray that with

everything happening that you help us to focus on your word,

that you help us to focus on the scriptures this morning, that

you teach us something, Lord. So God, help us just to focus on

you for these few moments. Lord, help me, Father, to

remember everything that was studied.

Help me to speak only what you would like and help us see

Christ and everything in your name we pray.

Amen. Amen.

Hey, so I'm just going to go ahead and speed us up here

because this is a a wild story. The prophet Balaam.

If I would say Balaam, many of you would probably be like,

who's that Many of us have not really heard about this guy.

Balaam is actually mentioned in eight books of the Bible.

His name is meant his name appears in scriptures 59 times.

It's a lot. So there's something about him

that scripture continually brings up.

The problem is it's not always good, which we're going to see

here. You know, there's a saying

there's an author at William Guenard.

He says none sink so deeply into hell as those who come so near

to heaven because they fall such a great distance.

And we're going to see that with Balaam today.

So real quickly catch up to the story, there's a king of the

Moabites, his name is, his name is Balak.

And King Balak is he has a little bit of a problem on his

hands. So his Kingdom is set up east of

the Jordan River. And as he is getting up one day,

he sees this large, massive crowd, this this nation that

shows up on his borders. So King Balak doesn't know what

to do because all these people are amassing to the border to

the tune of about 3 million. And those people happen to be

the Israelites. So the people of God show up.

But like, he's, he's seeing this, he's a little bit freaked

out. He's hearing the stories of the

children of Israel conquering Chahon and dog.

He knows these rulers have been defeated.

God has given these rulers to the people of Israel.

They have a lot of momentum. And Kim Balak is like, man, how

do there's no way that I could use conventional warfare to take

these folks out. 3 million. So if I were to get my army, we

would get crushed. I'm going to need a weapon of

mass destruction. I'm going to need some kind of

supernatural thing in order to stop the people of Israel from

taking over my folks, the Moabites.

What am I going to do? How am I going to do this?

So he comes up with this brilliant idea.

He's like, you know what? If I could get a prophet of

their God to curse them, then it would stop them from coming to

our people. So he calls the international

prophet that is well known to everybody named Balaam.

Now we don't see the story of Balaam.

We don't really know where he's from.

We don't know his background. We do know that he is extremely

popular. Now a little bit of Balaam's

background and I have to do this so that way the story makes

sense. So Balaam to his people in in

Hebrew it's called the baru BARUA baru.

Now the barus are Oracle priests, right?

So they give oracles and prophecies, but it could be a

blessing or it could be a curse. And this is kind of what people

know them for. They're able to manipulate the

gods little G with spoken words. So if they confess something,

then it happens, like speaking into existence.

There's nothing new under the sun.

False prophets did that all the time and but rules would come in

and that's what they would do. They're like, I could talk to

these deities, I could talk to gods, but they also believed

that they were able to hear the will and the purposes of God by

phenomenons and signs. So they would drop like an oil,

a drop of oil and water and see it dispersed.

And then they would look at it and be like, this is the seasons

that are coming. Or they would look at the clouds

and be like the clouds represent famine and your town is going to

be destroyed by just by looking at the clouds.

They would even go and look at cattle and sheep and stare at it

and be like this is what gods are telling us.

Your sheep represent AB and C and like they would just use all

of these. That's what they believed.

Unfortunately, Balaam believed that the God of Israel fell into

all those other deities. But what he's going to find out

real fast that you can't manipulate God and that God is

not only going to communicate to him, he's going to communicate

through him for his will and his purposes.

So this is where we're at. Balak is like, go get Balaam.

I need some help they bring him and let's start in verse 10,

right? So Numbers chapter 22, verse 10,

Numbers 22:10

Balaam said to God, Balak son of support, king of Moab, send me

this message. A people that has come out of

Egypt covers the face of the land.

Now come and put a curse on them for me.

Perhaps then I will be able to fight them and drive them away.

Verse 12 look, but God said to Balaam, do not go with them.

Did God say yes or no? No, do not go with them.

Why you must not put a curse on the people because I already

blessed them. What God is saying and and just

a little heads up, you know, like what God blessed can't be

cursed. You can't curse what God has

blessed. And listen, the reason why God

bless the Israelites is not because of their behavior.

The Israelites Jack it up time and time again.

They go and they worship idols. They go and do exactly what God

tells them not to do. They are not the best people in

the world. The reason why God blesses them

is because there's something called the covenant and God made

a covenant with the Israelites that those are His people.

And because God makes a covenant with something, there is nothing

that can break it. And God is telling Balaam's like

no, you can't curse them because I blessed it.

Sorry bro. So the answer is no.

And I think what you and I are going to learn is that sometimes

God does say no. And we don't like that.

Our human nature, the way that we, we are wired, we don't like

hearing no. When my girls come and ask me

for ice cream for dinner, I say no.

And you know what they do immediately?

They go ask Mama. Why?

Because they don't like hearing no.

And then when Mama says no, you know what happens to some of our

kids? They throw tantrums and they

kick and they scream and they yell and they don't understand.

And then you're like, hey, stop. I'm going to have to.

There's going to have to be a punishment.

And guys, listen, we do the same thing spiritually.

God says no, we don't want to hear no.

We throw spiritual temper tantrums and we run off and God

has to pull us back somehow. So God says no.

And look how Balaam responds, because at the first he's like,

yeah, I got to tell him. So what does it say?

He says the next morning, verse 13.

The next morning, Balaam got up and said to the Balak's

officials, go back to your own country, for the Lord has

refused to let me go with you. Oh, and by the way, they're

about 500 miles apart. So this isn't like overnight

telephone tag. This takes time.

So the Moabite officials returned to Balak and said

Balaam refused to come with us. Then Balak sent the officials.

He's like, hold on now. You don't refuse the king.

He's like, I got to send more important people.

So verse 415, he's like, I'm going to send numerous and more

distinguished. I'm going to send the Princess

now. Then the first ones and they

went to Balaam and look, look at this time, they're like, this is

what Balak, son of support says, do not let anything come for

you. I mean, keep you from coming to

me because I will reward you handsomely and do, if you do

whatever, I'm sorry. If you do what I say, come and

put a curse on these people. So what does the king do?

I got a blank check for you. So like he's like, I got a blank

check. You're about to get rewarded

really generously if you come and put a curse on these people.

Now instead of Balaam saying no, the Lord has already spoken.

He already told me no. It's kind of enticing.

Look what he says in verse 18. But Balaam answered him, Even if

Balak were to give me some gold and silver in the in his palace,

I could not do anything great or small to go but beyond the

command of the Lord. My God.

Now spend the night here so I can find out what else the Lord

will tell me. What is is Balaam doing?

He's fishing. Hold on a second.

Balak never mentioned gold or silver.

He just said I'm going to reward you handsomely.

And what Balaam is like handsomely, huh.

Maybe if I had some silver. Maybe if I had some gold from

the palace, I might be able to change God's mind.

Pretty much what he's saying is that yesterday's price is not

today's price. It went up.

Now that I know what the king is willing to offer, my price just

went up. And Balaam.

We see a little bit of a clue here of the issues with Balaam

the prophet, and the issue is greed.

Greed has taken him over. We see this all through a New

Testament. New Testament says that Balaam

is a man filled with greed. You'll see like the way of

Balaam or the doctrine of Balaam, and there's all these

scriptures that back that up. I mean, we even see like what

Esau, Esau was willing to give up his birthright for instant

gratification. That's an issue of greed and

pride and selfishness. Even like Judas.

Judas sold Jesus out for 30 pieces of silver immediately he

wanted greed. We even see like the the story

of the prodigal son where the prodigal son goes to the father

says I want my inheritance. When now because all of us

struggle with this, we fight this spirit of Balaam.

Everything's well, greed and we want all of this our way.

We don't want to hear the word no from God when it comes to our

greed and our selfishness. God already said no.

Let me spend the night. Maybe I could, you know, change

his mind a little bit. Now here's where it gets

interesting that we see the story with Balaam because in

verse 20 it says that night God came to Balaam and said, since

these men have come to summon you, go with them.

But do only what I tell you. Wait a second, Didn't God just

say don't go? And now you're saying go like,

like, which one is it? It's confusing and really when

I, when I read in, when I, when I study this, it's kind of same

thing. Like remember when Judas,

they're sitting around the table and he's about to go betray

Jesus and Jesus looks at him, he goes, hey, whatever you're going

to go do, go do it quickly. What Jesus is, is doing is Jesus

is saying, listen, I see what you're doing.

I agree and I approve of your actions, not because of your

sin. He's like, I agree and approve

because it is fulfilling the Father's will, God's pleasing

and perfect will for me to go to the cross.

This is a part of God's will, so go ahead and do it.

Same thing here. God sees Balaam, He knows his

heart, He knows his motives, He knows that Balaam is not going

to do exactly what God tells him to do.

So he says, you know what if they ask you to go, go and do

it. Why?

Because it's going to fulfill my purpose and my will.

So knock yourself out, Balaam. And I think there's a lesson for

us here. So point number one, that

there's a time to pray, but there's also a time to move.

Balaam is buying time. Balaam heard the voice of the

Lord. The Lord said no.

Balaam should have had his little happy butt going home

immediately, but he doesn't. What does he do?

Let me just linger around. Let me see.

Let me ask the Lord a little bit more guys.

We do this because we don't want the, the hero.

No, we see this in the New Testament when Paul, Paul prayed

3 times. Lord, take this away from me.

Lord, take this away from me. Lord, take this away from me.

I was like and finally God's like, no, like my grace is

sufficient for you. We fight God and listen.

How do we know when God says no that we're doing the right

thing? Because a lot of us know it in

our spirit, but we disguise it with religious jargon.

We say things like, I'm going to keep praying.

I'm going to keep praying. Like no, like it's time to move.

God already gave you the answer, it's time to go.

And I believe like God gives us three things to help us

understand. He gives us His Word, He gives

us His Spirit, and He gives us His people.

How do I know like that? God, I look at His word.

If I'm struggling with a decision that I have to make, if

I'm struggling, whether I should accept the job or not, whether I

should get a relationship with somebody or not, whether I

should go here or there, whatever it is, I go to God's

Word first. If His Word does not match up

with the decision, then the answer is no.

There ain't no twisting this thing around.

You don't get to define and decide what God's Word says.

So if I look at His Word and it's crystal clear, that's the

answer. Well, Ricky, it's still like I'm

still kind of split. OK, let's ask the Holy Spirit.

Do you have peace in your heart? Has the Spirit revealed some

things to you? Have you been praying?

Have you been seeking the Lord on this?

The Holy Spirit with the peace that he brings will help you.

And then finally, the people of God.

You need to have some really strong, mature Christians in

your life who are able to see things that you cannot see.

Those are called blind spots. Don't go to your play cousin.

Don't go to your friends. I don't know you ever.

No, like I'm talking about people who know the Lord and

spend time with the Lord. You go to them and you talk to

them and you ask them like, what do you see?

So when you have those three things that that helps you make

your decision. And I think sometimes when we,

we just man, we buy into the whole like Christianese and

we're like, I'm just going to pray some more.

I'm going to pray about them like enough God told you it's

time to move. For Balaam, it was time to move,

but he didn't. Balaam just hung out, 'cause

Balaam had a motive. He knew what he wanted.

So what we also hear when God says, hey man, if these men ask

you, go with them. And sometimes God allowing you

to do what you're not supposed to do is actually God's wrath,

not his blessing. And we see that in Romans

Romans 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. Because whenever you're in your

sin and you refuse to to give that up, God's going to allow

you to be inside of that because that thing is never going to

fulfill you. We talked about this few weeks

ago with idols. You want an idol, you could have

your idol. You're going to become that idol

and it's going to destroy your life.

And it is God's grace that he pulls you out of that.

Balaam is falling into this. And then look at verse 21.

Because Balaam man it like God's like if they go with them, but

just do what I tell you. And Balaam's like, OK, God,

right? And then verse 21, Balaam got up

that morning, saddled his donkey, and he went with the

Moabites officials. So he's like, let's go, let's

get up early, let's get a fresh start, let's get this thing on

the road so I can get paid. And then verse 22 is that God

was very angry when he went. But hold on God, didn't you tell

him to go? You see, the thing was, the

voice of God was so clear to Balaam, and Balaam still

rejected the voice of God. And God knew his heart and God

knew that he wasn't going to do what he asked them to when he

got there. So it says that God was angry

with him, and the Angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose

him. Balaam was riding on his donkey,

and his two servants were with him.

So Balaam's traveling, he sees an Angel of the Lord.

And what's wild is verse 23. The donkey saw the Angel of the

Lord standing in the road, and with a sword drawn in his hand,

it turned off the road into the field.

Balaam beat it to get back on the road.

How in the world does a donkey see the Angel of the Lord, but a

prophet of God can't see him? Aren't you a baru?

Aren't you a seer? Isn't this what you do?

Because disobedience will cause you to miss what God is trying

to do in your life and God is trying to stop him.

God's translate, don't do this. Where else do we see an Angel of

the Lord with the shield? After Adam and Eve sinned and

they got sent out of Eden, God's protecting that.

God is trying to stop them. And I think it's so interesting

that they that God uses a donkey with Balaam.

You know, the number one characteristic of a donkey is

stubbornness. When you ask anybody about a

donkey, they're, they're used for working, but they are the

most stubborn animals in the world.

Balaam is being like the donkey and the donkey is being like

Balaam. The donkey is seeing the Angel

of the Lord. That's exactly what Balaam

should be doing. But instead Balaam is like, I

don't know what's going on and he's being stubborn and he's

beating up on that donkey's fighting this donkey and the

donkey's like there's an Angel there.

I better not go. I'm going to die.

It's like role reversal, and God is trying to help Balaam out

here. So he beats them up and they

change course. But it gets worse.

Then the Angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path through the

vineyards with walls on both sides.

Then the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord and pressed close to

the wall, crushing Balaam's foot against it.

So he beat the donkey again. Then the Angel of the Lord moved

on ahead, and he stood in the place in the narrow place where

there was no room to enter, either on the right or on the

left. When the donkey saw the Angel of

the Lord, it laid down under Balaam, and he was angry, and he

beat it with his staff. Three times the Angel of the

Lord standing right there, and three times Balaam beats this

donkey up. Not much of a fight.

The donkey should have punched him, but he does it.

Why is it so terrified? Why is the donkey so terrified?

When you look at angels in the scripture, guys, angels are not

like little babies floating around in the sky.

Psalms one O 3 it says angels bless the Lord who excel in

strength. There's a story in Isaiah 3736

that talks about how Hezekiah he prays cause the Assyrian camp is

at their doorstep and they're freaking out.

So God sends an Angel and the next day the Angel goes through

the Assyrian camp and he puts down 185,000 soldiers to the

back. Isaiah 3736 And then Jesus tells

Peter, when Peter takes out his knife, starts cutting people's

ears off, she says, hey Peter, don't you think I could call

72,000 angels to come and defend me?

One Angel could take out 185,000 soldiers.

Imagine what 72,000 can do. Because angels are strong or

terrifying. They do the will and work of the

Lord and then listen when Jesus comes back and the scrolls are

opened up, you know who's going to roll that out?

Angels. Angels are.

This is a terrifying thing, but then also we have to look at the

sovereignty of God here. God's sovereignty.

He is powerful and authoritative to the extent of being able to

override all other powers and authorities.

I'm going to say that one more. Again, when we talk about God's

sovereignty, He is powerful and authoritative to the extent of

being able to override other powers and authorities.

And if you think that using a donkey is strange, understand

the sovereignty of God. All he's doing is using his

creation. And God will use this to help

Balaam understand what he's doing wrong.

And God said no. And Balaam is being disobedient.

And I want you to pay attention because I, I feel like I've

experienced this before. I'm going the wrong way.

I told me already I don't want to listen.

So what does Bailey the first thing that happens the donkey

goes a different direction and listening live and we're being

disobedient. Don't be surprised when doors

close and you're and things start turning into different

directions. God is warning you in God's

grace and mercy and love. He's, he's trying to stop you

from going somewhere that is destructive and that's outside

of his will. So he's trying to change your

direction. But we're stubborn.

So what does the donkey do next? He wounds him.

Don't be surprised when God wounds you.

There's going to be some things that hurt in life, some things

that are removed from life, some relationships that are done,

some, some areas that God Yanks you out of man.

It wounds our heart, it wounds our soul, it wounds our pride.

And then the last thing, because he continues to go, God shuts

that thing down. What does it say?

The donkey just lay down, It's over, it's done.

It stops working when things are not working.

Maybe God's not in it. Maybe God is like, this is not

the direction I want you to go. It's not purposeful.

And then something crazy happens.

This is when the Shrek comes through, right?

Verse 28, it says then the Lord opened the donkey's mouth.

I thought this was pretty cool and it said to Balaam, what have

I done to you to make you beat me these three times?

And what's even crazier than the donkey, donkey is that Balaam

has a conversation like this is normal.

He answered The donkey, you have made a fool of me.

If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right

now. And the donkey said back, Am I

not your own donkey, which you have always written to this day?

Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?

And he said no. Out of all the years that you've

written me, have a donkey ever spoken to you?

Is this normal? No, now before you guys are

like, man, Ricky, that's crazy. Y'all talk to your pets.

Y'all be telling your pets everything about the day, about

what teachers did about work like they're looking at you like

I know I'll help you. Your pen ain't gonna open its

mouth and be like, well, this is the issue.

This is what's wrong. Would you talk to that's cool.

But when we read a story like this, we're we're so quick to

look over it like it's not normal in human nature.

We see these things bleed through and God uses the donkey.

The donkey is not some mutation. It's not some supernatural

creature that has a spell on it. No, God is just using his

creation to speak to Balaam the same way that God can use

anything in our lives to speak to us.

He could use strangers, He could use non believers, He could use

teachers, He could use a clerk at 711.

He could use anything to relay a message to us.

And that's what He's doing here because we know when we come to

sovereignty, nothing can successfully stop any act or any

event or design or purpose that God intends to certainly bring

about. God can use anything.

God uses his donkey to talk to Balaam to help Balaam realize

that what he's doing is a massive mistake.

And it doesn't take until Balaam admits it.

Like man, this is not normal. This has got to be from God that

he realizes. And then God opens his eyes to

the Angel. Also, one more little thing

about Balaam. We know greed is his issue, but

I also want us to look at how Balaam answers him where he says

if I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.

Those are not words that a prophet uses which shows the

wickedness inside of his heart. Actually, like these kind of

cruel words, like before and after the time of Balaam, the

ungodly have threatened to kill God's messengers for telling the

truth and seeking to hinder the evil of the ungodly.

It is the ungodly who speak this way.

It is the ungodly that's like, I'm going to kill you for being

truthful. I'm going to kill you for

talking about Christ. It's not the prophets of God.

It is the ungodly that do that. And Balaam is showing his cards

here. He's showing his heart.

And in verse 32, the Angel of the Lord asked him, Why have you

been your donkey these three times?

I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless

1 before me, Balaam said to the Angel of the Lord, I have

sinned. I did not realize that you were

standing in the road to oppose me.

Now if you are displeased, I will go back.

The Angel of the Lord chose Balaam.

He's like, listen, like you're beating this donkey.

I'm standing here because your path is reckless.

The the direction that you're going is not good.

Actually, a better translation is perverse.

Your past, your path is perverse.

You're going the wrong way in a harsh manner.

You're not only going the wrong way, you are breaking furniture

as you're leaving. It's not it's not going to end

well for you. You are doing the wrong thing,

Balaam, and I'm trying to stop you.

I'm trying to oppose your path. Now.

Second Peter 215 we see that Balaam is tied to the

disobedience of God, and his disobedience comes from his

greed. God told him not to go.

He went. God told him, don't say

anything. I'm going to, you know, say only

what I'm going to say. And Balaam was like, that's not

going to happen. So God steps in that love. 33 He

says this, he goes, The donkey saw me and turned away from me

these three times. And if you, if you had not

turned away, I would have certainly killed you by now and

spared the donkey. How crazy is that?

You would have been a dead man, but the donkey would have lived.

That's pretty sad for a prophet of the Lord.

Which leads me to a point #2 that we need to understand God's

know is just as important as God's.

Yes, when God says no to something, it's because of His

divine will and purpose for your life.

He's trying to guide you because He has this amazing plan.

So when he says no, it's not like, Oh well, you shut it down.

No, He, he's trying to help you understand that there's

something so much bigger in life for you.

We focus so much on the yes of God that we forget about the

Nos. And God's no is just as vital.

It's just as important, and it's just as worthy of worship than

His yeses are. Some of us only pray and

worship. We get excited when God gives us

what we want, but can you keep that same energy when He

doesn't? God is good all the time.

His sovereignty is real and he and He wants to help us and

drive our lives. Even we see here that a great

example of Balaam. Balaam said to the Angel of the

Lord, I have sinned. When Balaam realized that he was

wrong, he admitted it. He said I have sinned.

And he goes, listen, if you are displeased, I will go back.

Now I will say this, it's pretty easy to confess when you have an

Angel standing in front of you saying I'm going to kill you and

let that donkey live. And sometimes that's what it's

going to take for some of us who are stubborn to get to a place

where you've lost everything to say, OK, God, I've sinned.

I'll go back to to what you've called me to, you know, even

Jude chapter one, verse 11, 'cause the error that that

Balaam showed error because of his prophets, because of the

prophets, he wants to get paid. He was willing to disobey God

and curse God's people for money.

So how do we wrap this thing up here, 'cause 35 says the Angel

of the Lord said to Balaam, no, go, go with the men, but speak

only what I tell you. So Balaam went with Balak's

officials. Now that Balaam realized what's

happening, he's like, OK, I, I better pay attention.

I better do what God said. Jesus me point #3 Something that

we need to remember is that God's judgment is expressed in

giving people over to their sin that they desire.

So as we're going and we still don't listen to God, we still

doing our thing, God's going to give you over to that.

And that is His judgment, not His blessing.

But the great news is that even in our sin, He still is going to

use us for His will and His purposes, which is the kind of

God that we serve. Now let's end this thing.

When Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him

at the mobile town on the Arnon border at the edge of the

territory. This is verse 36, now 37, Balak

said to Balaam. Didn't I not send you with

urgent summons? Didn't I tell you to hurry up?

Why didn't you come to me? Am I not going to get you paid?

I'm going to reward you. Well, I have come to you now,

Balaam said. You know, political, but I can't

say whatever I please. I must speak only what God puts

in my mouth, because if not, this Angel is going to Take Me

Out. He realizes the power and

sovereignty of God and he submits to the will of God.

Then Balaam went with Balak to create Hazuth, which is the

eastern side of the city. It's a really high altitude.

And Balak sacrificed cattle and sheep and gave some to Balaam

and the officials who were there with him.

And the next morning Balak took Balaam to Baal.

And from there he could see the outskirts.

He could see the outskirts of the Israeli, Israeli camps.

And the reason why Balak has this place because what they

believed is that the higher you go to God, the better it is for

you. If I could be closer to God, the

highest place, then I'm closer to him.

And we believe and he believes that.

And as he's standing there, and I'm just going to Fast forward

for times sake, Balaam gives 4 oracles.

He tells Balak what God tells him to say, and he's overlooking

the city with Jesus to our last points.

Because even in our brokenness, even in the things that are

jacked up, the cross emerges. So we are so so Balaam he's not

really following Christ and Balak wants something against

the people of God. And in all of this is is not

looking like it's going to end well.

And in all of our pain and all of our disobedience, the one

thing that comes to the surface is the cross.

Jesus. God gives an answer, a response

in Christ. So the four oracles, I'm just

going to say these real quickly that Balaam gives Balaic.

So this is Balaam speaking. Number one is I cannot curse

what I've blessed. I'm not going to curse Israel

because I've blessed them already.

The second Oracle is what I've blessed.

I'm not going to change my mind because I'm God, I made a

covenant, so I blessed the Israelites, but I'm not going to

change my mind. Regardless of what they do #3

Israel will be blessed, and anyone who blesses Israel will

be blessed, and anyone who curses Israel will be cursed.

But then I want us to look at this.

Look at Numbers 24. Numbers 24, Balaam gives an

Oracle that the Lord provides. So in all of this verse 17, he

says, I see Him but now, but not now.

I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob, a

scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of

of Moab, the skulls of all the people of Surf.

Edom will be conquered, sire, his enemy will be conquered, but

Israel will grow strong. A ruler will come out of Jacob

and destroy the survivors of the city.

What God tells Balaam to tell Balak is that there's one

coming. There's a scepter.

There's a star coming out of the line of Israel, out of the line

of Jacob. And that star that he's talking

about is the Messiah of the world.

And here's what's crazy, because even in all of our troubles,

even in all of our pain, even in all of our disobedience, we need

to remember that the Messiah, the promised Messiah came and he

lived a perfect life and he went to the cross and he died.

He gave his life, He was buried, and he rose from the grave for

you and for me. But here's even something even

crazier. The Bible says they were at the

highest place. They could see the outskirts of

the camp. And I was like, man, why is this

so important? Because the camp of Israel is

designed a certain way. The camp, all 12 tribes are put

into 4 camps. And then in the center of that

camp and the Tabernacle is where the presence of the Lord lives.

So on the. East side of the camp.

Is the camp of Judah and Judah is the largest 1 so Judah

stretches a lot longer than on the north side is the camp of

Dan. On the West side is Efrain and

then on the South side is Reuben.

And if you put all. This together and Balaam is.

Standing there and he looks like Balaic and he says listen,

there's somebody greater coming. Y'all want?

To see what the camps look like, go ahead, Carla.

Put it up this. Is what Balaam would have seen.

It's a cross all the camps. Grab together.

The presence of the Lord right there.

And Balaam is giving a prophecy and he says, no, no, there's a,

there's one that's coming that's greater.

There's, there's a, there's a star that's coming.

And listen guys, his name is Jesus.

He's the one that's. Here, he's the one.

That's coming. We see the cross.

In the Old Testament. But we also see.

The cross in our hurt. We see the cross emerge in our

disobedience. We see the cross emerge in our

pain. We see the cross emerge

everywhere. Why?

Because he is God's answer to the chaos.

How do we fight? We let Jesus do it.

We let his presence and we go to the cross.

So guys, as we close today, I know there's.

Some of us in this. Room and are going through it

right now whether it's pain, whether it's a disobedience

whatever it is. I just want to let you know that

there is a cross and that cross of Christ brings healing.

It represents forgiveness. It represents hope go to the

cross. We're going to pray for us.