We read from the Word of God now as part of our worship of Him from Numbers chapter 22. Numbers chapter 22. And the children of Israel sat forward and pitched in the plains of Moab on this side Jordan by Jericho. And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. And Moab was sore afraid of the people because they were many. And Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel. And Moab said unto the elders of Midian, Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field. And Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at that time. He sent messengers therefore unto Balaam, the son of Beor, to Pathor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come out of Egypt. Behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me. Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people, for they are too mighty for me. For adventure I shall prevail, that I may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land. For I want not that he whom thou blessest is coerced, and he whom thou cursest is cursed.' And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the rewards of divination in their hand, and they came unto Balaam, and spake unto him the words of Balak. And he said unto them, I lodge here this night and I will bring you word again as the Lord shall speak unto me.' And the princes of Moab abode with Balaam. And God came unto Balaam and said, What men are these with thee? And Balaam said unto God, Belak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, hath sent unto me, saying, Behold, there is a people come out of Egypt, which covereth the face of the earth. Come now, curse me them. Peradventure I shall be able to overcome them and drive them out. And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them. Thou shalt not curse the people, for they are blessed. Balaam rose up in the morning and said unto the princes of Balak, get you into your land for the Lord refuses to give me leave to go with you. And the princes of Moab rose up and they went unto Balak and said, Balaam refuses to come with us. Balak sent yet again princes, more and more honorable than they. And they came to Balaam and said unto him, Thus saith Balak the son of Zippor. Let nothing, I pray thee, hinder thee from coming unto me, for I will promote thee unto very great honor, and I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me. Come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people. And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do less or more. Now therefore I pray you, tarry ye also here this night, that I may know what the Lord will say unto me more. And God said unto Balaam at night, came unto Balaam at night and said unto him, 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. And Balaam rose up in the morning and settled his ass and went with the princes of Moab. And God's anger was kindled because he went. And the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him. And the ass saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand. And the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field. And Balaam smote the ass to turn her into the way. But the angel of the Lord stood in the path in the vineyards, a wall being on this side and a wall on that side. And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she thrust herself against the wall and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall. And he smote her again. And the angel of the Lord went further and stood in a narrow place where was no way to turn, either to the right hand or to the left. And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, She fell down before Balaam. And Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff. And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee that thou hast smitten me these three times? Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me, I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee. And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou wast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? Was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay. Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand, and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face. And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? Behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me. And the ass saw me and turned from me these three times. Unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee and saved her alive. And Balaam said unto the angel of the Lord, I have sinned, for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me. Now therefore, if it displeased thee, I will get me back again. And the angel of the Lord said unto Balaam, Go with the men, but only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak. So Balaam went with the princes of Moab. So far we read from God's Word. The point of our text is very simple. You cannot curse what God blesses. You cannot. You cannot contradict God. And now you remember in Genesis 12, when God came and for the first time established His covenant with Abram, then a part of the blessing that God gave to Abram was, I will bless those that bless thee, and I will curse those that curse thee. These are blessed of God. Three things follow. First, Billak is afraid because of the blessing he sees resting on Israel. He's afraid of them. Envious. Jealous. filled with fear, because he sees God's blessing on them. Even though his fear is groundless, because in Deuteronomy 2, we read that God had specifically told Moses, you may not fight against Edom, but you may not fight against Moab either, because he's a descendant of Lot. So, Moab, Edom, and the children of Ammon, You may not fight against. So they had no reason to fear the Moabites. But as you read the beginning of this chapter, they were very afraid. And their fear, though sometimes like ours, groundless, still was so great because of their jealousy at seeing God's blessing on Israel. Secondly, the point that we made at the beginning, when it is God's pleasure to have grace, an attitude of favor that is the source of a blessing, whether it be on the nation, on a church, or on any one of His individual children, then nobody can do anything to curse them. Talk about kicking against the precks. Like Jesus said to Saul, Paul, you touch one of the least of these, my little ones. You touch me. When we get angry with one of those for whom Jesus died, When we damn them, then we're touching something that God blessed. And we can't do that. We cannot damn them. It's impossible. The third thing to learn from this is that this kind of a history, this incident in the history of Israel is very similar to the history of Esther. There, then, and now, the children of Israel are totally oblivious. They do not know that this is happening. They're just making their moves as God brings them ever closer to the promised land. They are totally unaware But even though it takes place within the realm of God's universe, but far from them, that's all under God's control. And these heathen, working together to do something against God's people, cannot do it. That's why we've taken as our theme, God's protection of His blessed people. God's protection of His blessed people. And then I point you again to that last part of verse 12. Thou shalt not curse them. And we could even say, Thou cannot curse them, because they are blessed. Now think of the Salta numbers, where it's brought to us as individuals. You as an individual may know that you are an elect, promised eternal life. You are blessed. Not sometimes blessed and sometimes not. No, the nature of the eternal and unchangeable election of God is that eternal and unchangeable attitude of God. He is blessing you. You are blessed. You may go through life saying, I am blessed. Kosher. I'm blessed! And then I don't care what anybody can do. They're just pieces of dust. God's protection of His blessed people. First of all, Balec's fear. Secondly, Jehovah's protection. And finally, Jehovah's purpose. Billak, the king of Moab, son of Pithor, was looking for a way to be able to remove that nation of Israel. He had just watched Israel destroy the kings of the Amorites, giants, Tremendously defensible cities. They took them all. They moved into them. They occupied them. Israel was there. And now they're right next to Moab. He knows that just military action, that which the Amorites tried, is not going to work. So he wants them cursed. By Jehovah. Every nation of the world knows that Jehovah is their Israel's God. So to do whatever he can to get them cursed. He's not going to use his gods. He's going to use Israel's gods. That's the way he's thinking. I'm going to get Israel's God to curse them. Where can he get somebody who has influence with Israel's God? Balak believes that God is fickle. His gods were, so the God of Israel must be. He believes that Balaam, a supposed prophet of Jehovah, can be bought. So he's going to find him and bring him there. Just to show you the great measure that he will go to in order to get Balaam to curse Israel, just on your maps, measure how great a distance it is from Moab. to where Balaam lived. Verse 5 says he lived by the river. That's always called the way the scriptures refer to the river Euphrates. The knowledge of Jehovah, where Melchizedek and Abraham had come from, was in the region of Ur on the river Euphrates. At its closest point from Moab, the river is 600 miles. where Ur is, is approximately a thousand miles. Billak will not let anything stand in the way of his desire to overcome Israel by getting Jehovah to curse them. He'll give half his kingdom, all the riches he can, in order to convince Balaam and then Jehovah to curse Israel. So much for Balak. What about Balaam? Balaam must have been known in that day as a prophet of Jehovah. He lived where the knowledge of Jehovah was not yet obliterated, wasn't gone totally, but it was contaminated. It certainly was corrupted, the knowledge of Jehovah was. He lived where that knowledge was used by him for the wages of unrighteousness." Balaam is referenced in Scripture in two other places. The first, or one of them rather, is in the book of Revelation, in chapter 2, in the letter to the church at Pergamos, in verse 14. When Jesus writes to the church at Pergamos, One of the things that he has against Pergamos, that congregation, that Christian church, is because they had in their midst one who holds the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things, offer sacrifice to idols, and to commit fornication. Now, only just know that Balaam is referenced in Revelation 2. The incident that's referred to in Revelation 2 is an incident that we'll come to in later chapters in numbers. The other place that references Balaam is in 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2. In talking about the false prophets, that's how chapter 2 begins, that will arise and bring false doctrine against the church, he talks about the false prophets. He describes them in verse 14 this way, "...having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls, and heart they have exercised with covetous practices, cursed children, which have forsaken the right way and have gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bozar, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but was rebuked for his iniquity." the dumb ass speaking with man's voice for bad the madness of the prophet who loved the wages of unrighteousness." What Balaam was motivated by was his desire for fame, for power, and for riches. that he was totally ungodly is evidenced in chapter 24 and verse 1 where we read that he strove to use enchantments. So Balaam, whose very name means destroyer, had a reputation that he used the knowledge of Jehovah to bring curses on people. That was his reputation. Balak says, that's the guy I want. And I don't care what it's going to take to get him. I need him to come here to curse Israel. If they're cursed, then I'll be able to defeat them. So, posing as a religious prophet, his reputation wide, Balak twice sends an envoy to Balaam to try to get him to come and curse Israel. The first one comes with all kinds of breaches and promises of more. Playing the role, Balaam says to these messengers from Balak, Why don't you bed the night, and I'll find out what God wants me to do." Never happened before, but he's got the role to play. The Scriptures don't tell us, but he had to be very surprised when God did come. God's answer to him was, What men are these? Sounds just like Adam and Eve. Not my fault, it's their fault. Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, hath sent unto me, saying, Behold, there is a people come out of Egypt, which covereth the face of the earth. Come now, curse me them. Peradventure I shall be able to overcome them and drive them out. Now that he's getting a conversation with God, and God is telling him what to do, all of the other desires that he had, and he would have gone with them in a split minute, but he had to play the role. He had to say, I got communication from Jehovah. Then when God does communicate with him, God says to him, no, for they are blessed. He sends them away. He doesn't dare go. comes back with, again, 600 miles on foot, maybe camel, taking long time. But so fervent was the desire of Balak to get them cursed, and so fervent was Balaam's desire to have riches and fame, that here goes another group. More noble princes, more riches, Billick thinking if God is fickle can be persuaded, so can his prophet. Maybe he held out because he wanted more from me. So here you are, more, come. God comes to him the second time at night as he plays that card again. Well, I've got communication with God, spend the night, let me see what he says. Now, He had just said in verse 18, If He would give me His house full of silver and gold, I cannot go against the word of the Lord my God, my God, to do less or more. I pray Thee, Terry, tonight. All because He really wants to go. He wants the reward, the wages of unrighteousness. You want an example? that it's worse when God lets you have your way, than when you don't get your way, you've got one here. When you get what you want, and God doesn't stop you from doing that which is wrong, then don't forget Balaam. God's protection of His people isn't swords. It isn't high mountains, like Psalm 121 seems to point out in the beginning question. Do we look to the hills from whence cometh our help? Our help doesn't come from hills. Our help doesn't come from swords. Our help doesn't come from knowledge. Just from our ability, our willpower. Our help comes from Jehovah who made heaven and earth. And what more do you need if you've got the Creator of heaven and earth? And the favor of God. If you have the blessing of God, then you have everything. You may have your house taken away by those who are persecuting you for righteousness' sake. You may be very, very ill. You may be 120 pounds on your deathbed. You may have the loss of all kinds of things. You may have a very hard way to walk. But if you have God's grace, if you know that God says of you, they are blessed. She is blessed. He is blessed. If your sense and certainty of that eternal and unchangeable election of God is there in you, then you focus on that. The devil wants you to look at everything else. But God's attitude is not evidenced in things. That's why we deny common grace. God's attitude is not evidenced in things. God's attitude is evidenced in His truth and what He says of you and what He's done for you in Jesus Christ. And having that, nothing can hurt you. They are blessed. The blessing of God is that tremendously powerful creative word. God speaks and it's true. Now, be ready to listen for the Aaronitic blessing at the end of the service tonight. Hear it. Jehovah bless you and keep you. powerful, creative Word of God that is a Word that expresses His favor, His love, His grace that is so powerful, it forms a protection, but it goes within and it makes changes within, regeneration, consciousness of justification, sanctification. Powerful Word of God He blesses. And nothing can keep us from the glory that He has promised for us. Nothing. If you have His blessing, you have everything. When God blesses, then you are uncursable. God uses Balaam to demonstrate just that. So he says to Balaam, I'll let you have your way. But don't ever forget that what God says to Balaam in verse 20 is also explained by what we read in verse 22. God's anger was kindled because he went. He went without God's approval. And when the dumbass spoke, 2 Peter 2, verse 16, it was to condemn what the Scriptures call the madness, the madness of the prophet. And the madness of Balaam was this, for the sake of some things here on earth, I'm going to try to curse them. Even though God says they're blessed, I'm going to do whatever I can to curse them." That's madness. That's the folly of unbelief. That's the blindness of thinking that God is fickle and He will change His mind, or He has changed His mind, or He can have His mind changed. That madness is self-deception. And so, to show him and us how mad Balaam is, God has a dumbass, an ass that cannot speak, a dumbass talk to Balaam. This is how absolutely foolish Balaam is. and anyone who tries to speak against any one of God's children. standing in his way. Now where the representatives and the princes of the Midianites and the Moabites were, the Bible doesn't tell us. And where the two servants were may be trailing behind, but here goes Balaam on his ever faithful ass, on his way on this long journey, this mission to get rich in fame and power in order to curse Israel. Standing in the way. is the angel of Jehovah. Notice the name. Not an ordinary angel. Not even like Michael and Gabriel, the highest in the rank of angels. But the angel of Jehovah is the Old Testament representation of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the angel of Jehovah, is the one that God would send because of His love. Now, let's get the order straight. God doesn't love us because He sent Jesus. He loved us. That's why He sent the angel. Jesus, the angel of Jehovah, is because of the love of God. Romans 5. The manifestation, the evidence, what commends the love of God is the willingness of Jesus to die for us. Now, this angel of Jehovah is the one that God promised would crush the head of Satan. And he would! Now, if that angel of Jehovah has the ability to crush the head of Satan, think twice, three times, maybe a hundred times before you start dwelling on the grudge you have against one of God's children, especially the least of these, His children. The angel of Jehovah is on their side and he has a sword drawn to deal with anyone who would want to bring a curse against his people, his blessed people. So this angel of Jehovah displays the purpose of God to bless, to protect, His people. The donkey sees the angel. The human is blinded by his madness. He can't see what the donkey can see. These people are blessed. This is the evidence of God's blessing. He's got a sword drawn against anyone who wants to curse one of His own. And you want to go forward? You want to go through that? You can't. First, the ass goes into the field, gets off the path, and he goes into the open field, because there's that angel of Jehovah with the sword drawn. Further on, there must have been some vineyards because there were stone walls, not narrow, but pretty far apart. And there's that angel of Jehovah. And to get around that angel of Jehovah and to heed the taps and maybe even the whips of Balaam, the ass goes so tightly to get away from that angel and his sword. Not for him, but for his master. that he ends up going against the wall and crushing Balaam's foot. Finally, further on, the path is so narrow that the donkey just lies down. He's not going to go any further. He can't. And Balaam is smiting, beating this dumb ass. blindly. And when he does that, it becomes increasingly impossible for him to avoid God's anger. Even the ass can see that Balaam is not going in the right way. God humbled Balaam. not unto salvation, but he humbled Balaam. And notice, the first question that God has for Balaam is, why did you smite the ass? God's concern for an animal is brought up to Balaam. You're unjust. Now, God's not into green, the way all we hear today. But God knows every one of His creatures. And if you do something against one of His creatures that's faithfully serving you, that's on the record too. And if His concern is for the gods, the Creator of heaven and earth has concern for that ass, then He raises that question to Balaam. How much more for you? You're beating this. You want to curse My people who are blessed? You want to try to go through the drawn sword of the angel of Jehovah, of Jesus? One of the most astounding parts of this whole history, this record, is that Balaam expresses absolutely no surprise when God appears to him twice at night. And he shows absolutely no surprise when the dumbass speaks. And he even answers him. He answers the donkey. And then God opens his eyes. And he sees the angel. And then he becomes afraid for himself. And just like we saw, you can say, like Pharaoh did, I have sinned. So Balaam says, I have sinned, but there's no sorrow for God. There's no sorrow that I've displeased my Maker, and then for us our Redeemer. He acknowledges it, but there's no godly sorrow here. None at all. Because, listen to him, he still wants to go. Isn't it obvious? But remember, he's mad. Isn't it obvious? That after God says, why have you smitten the ass three times? Behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me. Thy way is perverse before me. Isn't it clear? So when Balaam says, I have sinned, for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way. Now therefore, if it displeases thee, I will get me back. How much plainer does God have to make it that it displeases him? So no sincere sorrow on the part of Balaam. None at all. When God is teaching, Balaam. But Balaam's not going to get it. He's going to go on. He's going to do everything he can to curse. Three times. And when he fails to be able to curse them, then he's going to do what he can to advise Moab and the Midianites to make Israel curseable. If he can't get God to curse them, then he was going to make Israel curseable. And he succeeded seemingly in doing that. But if Balaam is not going to see it, then I ask you and me, do you see it? Do you see the folly of burying a grudge? Do you see the folly of wanting to get even? the folly of rejoicing when a fellow saint is down and hurting? Because it's them, and I don't like them anyway? Do you hear, do we hear God say, they're blessed? And when you shut them out of your life, when you refuse to love them, when you refuse to help them and care for them, when you refuse to pray for them. I've blessed them and you are bucking against me. You're kicking against the prick. So, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" God said. Jesus said. God is filled with anger against those who are foolish enough. And that's what it is. It's the folly of madness. Spiritual madness. And I've got an old man that's capable of doing that. And that's part, to put it together with what we had this morning, that's a part of me that I've got to keep putting off. Now let's look at the positive side. When God says, you're blessed, then understand what that means. Go through life, not challenging it, not doubting it, because remember, God doesn't bless those who are worthy, who've earned the blessing. The blessing comes because He wants to, because it's His good pleasure to do so. Because He says, I want you to be a vessel of mercy, to display the power of My mercy. And My mercy is going to bless you. Because mercy is this, that deep-seated well within the bowels of mercy, the deep-seated desire of God to bless. And God doesn't just desire and it not happen. Now remember what that blessing is. That blessing is not, hey, everything is great, I've got my health, I've got wealth. No, the blessing of God is simply that attitude that He has toward His own in Christ. And them He loves. I think it was the second song, or maybe the first song that Paula played after we sang. Wonderful is the love of Jesus. What more do I need? That's what we have to have. That's how we have to live. It has to be that great that it overcomes all the afflictions of this life to know. I hear God say, they are blessed. Amen. Our Father, we pray Thy blessing, that blessing that we've just talked about may come upon us in a rich and powerful way, that we may not doubt that blessing, and that we will then know that even if things are outside of the scope of our knowledge on the other side of the world, Thou art making everything happen for our good. Truly, we may know all things work together for our good because nothing can separate us from thy love, nothing. So may we live in that consciousness more and more for Jesus' sake, amen.