I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule without understanding which must be curbed with bit and bridle or will not stay near you. God is faithful to instruct us. He does that through his word. So we're gonna turn there to Numbers chapter 22. And the very first verse. of this chapter, then the people of Israel set out and camped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho, is an important milestone in this book of Numbers, but in the whole life of Israel. They have spent 40 years since they've come out of Egypt and they are now right on the brink, it says, just across beyond the Jordan at Jericho, just across from Jericho, poised to go in and take the land. And they've recently defeated two Canaanite army, two Amorite kings. And this is the beginning of the last of the book. This is the largest section in the book here at the plains of Moab to the end. And the next several chapters are a unit in that that includes some wonderful prophecies of the Messiah. So with that little bit of background let me ask you to stand so that we can pray. We're not going to read the whole chapter but a part of it here, Numbers 22. Again, our Father, we thank you that you promised to instruct us how blessed and privileged we are when a good teacher, a great teacher, commits himself or herself to instruct us and to think that you, the source of all wisdom, say, I will instruct you and teach you and counsel you the way you should go. We thank you for that and for your word and spirit through which you do it. and pray now that we might not be stubborn, deaf to your voice and your leading, unteachable, but rather through your spirit, give us ears to hear, hearts to believe, and grace to apply, all for Jesus' sake, amen. Brothers and sisters, hear God's word beginning again in Numbers 22. I've already read verse one, so I'm gonna pick up at verse two. And Balak, the son of Zippor, saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. And Moab was in great dread of the people because they were many. Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel and Moab said to the elders of Midian, this horde will now lick up all that is around us as the ox licks up the grass of the field. So Balak, the son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at that time, sent messengers to Balaam, the son of Baor at Pethor, which is near the river in the land of the people of Ammah, to call him, saying, Behold, a people has come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the earth, and they are dwelling opposite me. Come now, curse this people for me, since they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I should be able to defeat them and drive them from the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed." So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand. They came to Balaam and gave him Balak's message. And he said to them, lodge here tonight and I will bring back word to you as the Lord speaks to me. So the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam. And God came to Balaam and said, who are these men with you? And Balaam said to God, Balak and the son of Zippor, king of Moab has sent them to me saying, behold, a people has come out of Egypt and it covers the face of the earth. Now come, curse them for me. Perhaps I should be able to fight against them and drive them out. And God said to Balaam, you shall not go with them, you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed. Brothers and sisters, this is God's word. Amen. Please be seated. To curse or not to curse. That is the question, at least it was the question for Balaam as Balak, the king of Moab, sought to have him do it. Balak had heard about the way that the Israelites had defeated the Canaanites and then Zion and Og, these two Amorite kings. And as he and apparently the Moabites lived up in the mountains, as he looked down in the valley on the plain and saw the hosts of Israel spread out, he was terrified, convinced that he didn't have a chance, and so as a result he sought an apparently world-class blesser and curser. One commentator said a maledictorian, a malediction is a curse, and described Balaam as a maledictorian. And I mentioned last week, we found archaeological references to Balaam in the ancient Near East. And so there's independent confirmation of his existence and his reputation. somebody. They travel 400 miles to solicit His services to come and curse Israel. And the upshot is going to be that the Lord has blessed them and nobody, not even Balaam, can curse them. And yet we're still on the front end of the story at this point. Last week we looked at two points briefly that Balak's words to Balaam prove that blood is not always thicker than water. The Moabites and the Midianites were related to the Israelites. They were distant cousins, and instead of counting upon showing some familial unity, they joined together, Moab and Midian, to try to get Israel cursed. And secondly, we saw that God's words to Balaam show that he is faithful to his people and his promises. When Balaam says, he wants me to curse them, God said, you shall not go with them, you shall not curse the people for they are blessed. And so how the Lord had told Abraham back in Genesis 12 that he was going to bless him and his seed and they would be blessed. So that's where we have come so far. We're gonna spend most of our time tonight on the third point, Balaam's words to Balak, or in this case, not Balak directly, but to his emissaries who he sent, show that pious words can mask a wicked heart. Balaam uses a lot of God talk in this section. Verse 7, ìThe elders of Moab and Midian departed with fees for divination in their hand. They came to Balaam and gave him Balakís message. And he said to them, ìLodge here tonight. Iíll bring back word to you as the Lord speaks to me.î And you notice in the text In our English versions the LORD is in all caps. This is the personal covenant name Yahweh or Jehovah, the distinctive name of Israel's God. And Balaam uses that name, not just the generic word for God, but the particular name for Israel's God. Now this is his business, and he's good at it. And no doubt he knows that Israel serves Yahweh, and so he mentions that and says, I'm gonna talk to Yahweh and check it out. So the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam, and God came to Balaam and said, who are these men with you? Balaam said, Balak the son of Zippor has sent them, and he goes through, they want me to curse Israel. And God said to Balaam, you shall not go with him, you shall not curse them, for they are blessed. So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princess of Balak, go to your own land for the Lord has refused to let me go with you. Now he doesn't say that God has refused to let me curse them, that he himself has said that they are blessed and that I cannot, all he says, as far as it goes, but he only gives them part of the message, God has said, I can't go with you. And so the princes of Moab rose and went to Balak and said, Balaam refuses to come with us. Once again, Balak sent princes more in number, more honorable than these. So this is a larger and a more dignified entourage. And they came to Balaam and said to him, thus says Balak, the son of Zipporah, let nothing hinder you from coming to me. I will surely do you great honor. Whatever you say to me, I will do. That's what we would call a blank check. Come curse this people for me. Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the Lord my God." Now it's interesting here, he uses covenantal language, not just the Lord, but the Lord my God, to do less or more. So you too, please stay here tonight that I may know what the Lord will say to me. And so he uses a lot of God talk here. And then later on, and we'll look at this briefly in a minute, but you're already familiar with the situation with the donkey and the three times that the donkey prevents Balaam from being killed by the angel of the Lord. And then Balaam finally sees the angel. Verse 34, Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, I have sinned. For I didn't know that you stood in the road against me. Now, therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I'll turn back." And so we see here this man, and he is a mysterious figure using a significant amount of God talk on the face of it. It sounds pretty good. I'm going to ask the Lord what I should do. I can't do anything except what the Lord tells me. I'll check with the Lord. My God, I've sinned. and yet it's made clear that in his heart, in Balaam's heart, money was his God. Now, the scriptures subsequently say that, subsequent events are gonna show that, and in 2 Peter 2.15, Peter talking about false teachers in his own day, they follow the way of Balaam, the son of Baor, who loved gain for wrongdoing. But I think even in the text, in Jude 1, 11, again, speaking of false teachers, they have walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error. So these two New Testament writers, both are very specific that Balaam was in it for the money. But I think there are hints of it even in the text. Now again, I grant you, it's not as clear as we might like, but I think there are some hints that are borne out later. Back in verse 13, after the first time he's consulted the Lord, Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princes, go to your own land for the Lord has refused to let me go with you. I noted he didn't say anything, the Lord has forbidden me to curse and the Lord just said I can't go with you. So the prince of Moab rose and went to Balak and said he refuses to come. So once again, Balak sent princes more in number and with this blank check, whatever you ask me, I'll do. It sounds like he interpreted that as a negotiating tactic. He's just trying to drive up the price. And so he bites, he sends back and makes, in some respects, a higher offer. And then they come back the second time, and Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, he doesn't say, look, I've already told you. The Lord has said, I can't curse, I can't go with you. He says, stay here tonight and I'll know what more the Lord will say to me. I'll try again, maybe this time I'll go. And interestingly, and here again, this is admittedly a mysterious passage. There's different interpretations or understandings of exactly what's going on and why. God came to him and said, if the men have come to call you, rise, go with them, but only do what I tell you. And so this time the Lord, or God, it's not by His personal name, but presumably it is the Lord, told him, so Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab. Again, he's going, and you get the impression he was really hoping that he would be able to go. Let me try again, and this time, God says, you can go, but only say what I say. He hasn't said, look, it's useless for me to go with you. I can't curse the people. He's eager to go and hoping that somehow, apparently, he can cash in on this deal. Now, as I said, we'll see more of that as it plays out in coming chapters, but a couple of points. and I'm gonna spend most of the time here on application, Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can understand it? And this I think is a remarkable example of a deceitful heart. Jesus said, this people honors me with their lips, their heart is far from me. Balaam was pretty good at God talk. And yet it seems there are hints here, and it's clear as we go on that he didn't know the Lord. He's gonna actually advise the Moabites a different way of how they can trip up the Israelites. The deceitfulness of the heart, how it's possible for people sometimes, especially some people are glib talkers, some people are quick and they quickly get the ideas and so on, when it's not necessarily real. And on the one hand, beloved, we're to exercise judgments of charity to others, but it's a certain caution about taking other people's God-talk at face value too readily and quickly. There is a place for judgment of charity, but there's a place to ask and observe. Are they walking their talk. Another thing I think it shows us in contrast is the beauty of Jesus' integrity, the perfect integrity, the wholeness of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was always perfectly whole. What he said, what he did, what men saw, if they understood correctly what they were seeing and hearing was a perfect expression of what was in his heart. Love for God and love for his neighbor. Even David, a man after God's own heart, and that's high praise indeed, sinned. We know of several occasions, supremely the worst was with Bathsheba. That's where we started in Psalm 32. tonight, celebrating the reality of forgiveness, but it was necessary because he'd committed not only lust and adultery, but murder and deception, all in that one terrible sin, a man after God's own heart, but not with perfect wholeness the way our blessed Lord Jesus was. And as we reflect on that dichotomy, there's a difference between hypocrisy and inconsistently. All of us are inconsistent at points. None of us is perfectly whole. We don't always operate with perfect consistency. We say and do things that are inconsistent with what we believe and with what we really are. A hypocrite is somebody who is wearing a mask. It comes from a Greek term, a theater term in the Greek that meant to wear a mask and is pretending to be something very different, the opposite. Think wolf in sheep's clothing. But this shows us also the nature and beauty of true Gospel holiness and sanctification. God is making His people whole. That's one of the glorious things that Jesus does. The Gospel doesn't just forgive us, hallelujah that it does, our sins and our failures, our contradictions of what we are what we should be, what we want to be, what God tells us to be. It forgives us, but part of what the Lord is doing is changing us from the inside out to make us more and more whole, to enable us to be on the inside what we should be, loving the right things, thinking in terms of truth, and then to reflect that outwardly. That's the process of sanctification. And it'll be completed one day in glory. Now, Howard doesn't have his resurrected body yet. He's not arrived, but he's way ahead of us. He's got a sinless soul. He loves all the right things. and so will each one of us. But even now, God's moving us in that direction, that deceitful heart change and being made new. It shows us the necessity and the glory of the new birth. Jesus said, don't marvel that I said you must be born again. You shouldn't be surprised. If you really understood yourself and human nature, you wouldn't be surprised. I say, not that I highly recommend it. You must be. And we saw in 2 Corinthians 5, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has passed away. Everything's become new, a change so profound. that everything's being renewed. And so we see, as we see this man, Balaam, so adept at sounding good on the outside, when in reality, he's trying to find an angle to see if he can, in fact, cash in on Balak's gracious offer ourselves. but how in the gospel of Jesus Christ, God is dealing with our problems to make us more like Jesus in his glorious integrity and beauty and holiness. And so it is an encouragement, a challenge as well to be sure that our own faith is deep and genuine, not merely verbal. Again, remember David's words in Psalm 51, after he'd gone in to Bathsheba, and murdered Uriah. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me." Against you, you only. Have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight? And again, David had, in fact, sinned against Bathsheba and against Uriah, to be sure, but he says, in comparison, ultimately, my sin against you is far greater, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Lord, you are right when you condemn me. I can't argue, I can't make any excuses. That's why I plead only your mercy and grace. And then think of the prodigal son who said to his father, I've sinned against heaven and before you, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. You know, Pharaoh could say the words, I sinned against the Lord. In Exodus 9, he said that to Moses and Aaron, I sinned against the Lord. Saul could say that. Judah said it to the high priest, I've sinned, I've betrayed innocent blood. But here we see the real depths of a heart that really sees its sin as it is in relation to God and casts itself upon Him. And the last point, I think, as we think about these things, beloved, is the absolute necessity and the glorious sufficiency of God's grace to do this. God can and will and is doing this for every one of His children. changing us from the inside out, making us whole, making us like Jesus Christ, the perfect man, what we were created to be and what we will be. One day, Philippians 1.6, Paul says, I'm sure of this. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. And we can rejoice in that and be confident, hopeful. that he, having begun it himself, the only one who could begin it, will continue it and bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. So that's the one I wanted to particularly major on. I think on the one hand, it should be sobering and challenging that pious talk can coexist with a wicked heart, but it doesn't have to, it shouldn't, and by God's grace in our lives, it should be just a reflection as we speak about our faith in the Lord, a reflection of what He has made us and is making us and will one day make us perfectly. Very briefly, the last point, the donkey's words to Balaam show that one jackass can sometimes help another. You see here, the donkey saw the angel of the Lord and avoided him three different times. And, you know, we can read that. I'm not sure that it's necessary, but if you read the rest of the text, three different times, Balaam was riding on the donkey, his two servants were with him. The donkey, this is verse 23, saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand. The donkey turned aside out of the road and went into the field. Balaam struck the donkey to turn her into the road. Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards with a wall on either side. And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pushed against the wall and pressed Balaam's foot against the wall, so he struck her again. Then the angel of the Lord went ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam and his anger was kindled and he struck the donkey with his staff. So the donkey saw the angel three times and each time avoided him and saved Balaam. And not only that, after that, Verse 28, the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey and she said to Balaam, what have I done with you that you've struck me these three times? And Balaam said to the donkey, because you've made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you. And the donkey said to Balaam, am I not your donkey in which you've ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way? And he said, no. And then, only then, the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam. And he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword, and he bowed down and fell on his face. The angel said, why have you struck the donkey? I've come out to oppose you. And then he says, the donkey saw me, turned aside. If she'd not turned aside for me, surely just now I would have killed you and let her live. And then Balaam says, I've sinned. For I did not know you stood in the road. If it's evil in your sight, I'll turn back." That if may be significant too. So the donkey saw the angel and saved Balaam three times. And then the Lord enabled the donkey to speak to his jackass of a master twice. And the master spoke back to him. That's another strange part of the story that Balaam didn't say, But he just answered him, at least as far as the story reads, and talked right back to him. 2 Peter 2.16, it says that he was rebuked for his own transgression. A speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. So that's interesting. Peter here says that the prophet, he calls Balaam a prophet of some kind. and describes what he was involved in as madness, which then the Lord restrained through the donkey. And just two quick applications, brothers and sisters. The miraculous and the supernatural are part of the warp and wolf of Scripture in the Old and New Testaments. We just can't get away from that. The miracles, the Bible is full of supernatural events, both testaments. Now there's a rich variety of ways God is very creative in how he reveals and exercises his power for his glory and his people's blessing. In this case, letting the donkey see the angel of the Lord and turn out of the way three times and then letting him speak twice. But again, I've quoted the New Testament also gives full credence to it, it happened. It's a miracle, and we don't have to be apologetic. We may scratch our heads about certain things we don't understand completely, but there's no need to doubt that it actually happened as it's written to us. And then my last application is let us all beware of being jackasses ourselves. We saw earlier in Psalm 32, I will instruct you and teach you the way I should go. I'll counsel you with my eye upon you. Do not be like a horse or a mule without understanding, which has to be curbed with a bitten bridle. It calls us to have a teachable, tractable, attitude, hearts that are quick to take the Lord's guidance and instruction. Psalm 119, blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart. you've commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. May God give us hearts that are quick to hear his voice in his word and walk in his way. So, Balak's words to Balaam prove that blood is not always thicker than water. Balaam's words to Balak or to his emissaries show that pious words can mask a wicked heart. God's words to Balaam show that he is faithful to his people and his promises and the donkey's words to Balaam show that one jackass can sometimes help another. 2 Peter, 2 Peter is one of three New Testament books that refer to Balaam and this situation. I've already quoted what it says in chapter 2. In chapter 3 Peter says, "'Count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him. as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. And then he says, there are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. It's noteworthy that Peter refers to Paul's letters as scripture. He equates what Paul wrote to the other Scriptures. But my point here is, he says, there are in them some things hard to understand. That's true not just to Paul, but it's true of other parts of God's Word. There are parts that are mysterious, hard to understand. That shouldn't surprise us if it really is God's Word. We shouldn't be surprised if there are parts of it that are beyond us. It should challenge and encourage us to be careful, diligent, believing, and not to be ignorant and unstable, that's what he says, and then to twist them, because that can have profound and destructive results. Now this passage is a text that has its mysteries and difficulties, but the main point is clear. God loves and blesses his people, and nothing and no one can change that. May that glorious fact always sustain and strengthen our faith and fuel our thanksgiving and praise, amen. Please stand for prayer. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word, so rich, so full, so varied, Thank you for this passage, which in some respects, we would have to say is entertaining. And at the same time, mysterious and perplexing. And yet we thank you for all the parts of it that may have us scratching our heads. The essential message is not only so clear, but so wonderful. You are a God of grace, of covenant faithfulness, who bless your people. How we thank you for Jesus Christ, in whom all your promises are yes and amen. And that nothing, not even our own sin, can change or undo that. We bless you and praise you, in Jesus' name, amen.