I invite you to take your Bibles once more and turn to the book of Numbers. Numbers chapter 22 is where we're going to begin. We're going to cover this morning chapters 22, 23, and 24. I'm going to read chapter 22 in its entirety and then the first 12 verses of chapter 23. This is a familiar story, at least to many of us, of the prophet Balaam and his talking donkey. And lest the children think I misspoke, yes, it is a talking donkey. And we're going to talk about the talking donkey this morning. Numbers chapter 22, beginning in verse 1. This is God's word, and so let us again give our attention to its reading. Then the people of Israel set out and camped in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan at Jericho. 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 Beor at Pthor. which is near the river in the land of the people of Arnau, 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 shall 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. And 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, the son of Zippur, king of Moab, has sent 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 shall be able to fight against them and drive them out. God said to Balaam, You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed. So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princes of Balak, Go to your own land, for the Lord has refused to let me go with you. 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 and more honorable than these. And they came to Balaam and said to him, Thus says Balak, the son of Zippor, Let nothing hinder you from coming to me, for I will surely do you great honor, and whatever you say to me, I will do. Come, curse this people for me. But 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 to do less or more. So you too, please stay here tonight that I may know what more the Lord will say to me. And God came to Balaam that night and said to him, if the men have come to call you, rise, go with them, but only do what I tell you, So Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab. But God's anger was kindled because he went. And the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him. And the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey turned aside out of the road and went into the field. And Balaam struck the donkey to turn her into the road. Then the angel of the Lord stood in the 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 into 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 laid down under Balaam, and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff. Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times? And Balaam said to the donkey, Because you have made a fool of me, I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you. when the donkey said to Balaam, am I not your donkey on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way? And he said, No. Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed down and fell on his face. And the angel of the Lord said to him, Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you, because your way is perverse before me. The donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, surely just now I would have killed you and let her live. Then Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood in the road against me. Now therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I will turn back. And the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, Go with the men, but speak only the word that I tell you. So Balaam went on with the princes of Balak. When Balak heard that Balaam had come, he went out to meet him at the city of Moab on the border formed by the Arnon at the extremity of the border. And Balak said to Balaam, did I not send to you to call you? Why did you not come to me? Am I not able to honor you? Balaam said to Balaak, Behold, I have come to you. Have I now any power of my own to speak anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that must I speak. Then Balaam went with Balaak. And they came to Kiriath-Hazath. And Balaak sacrificed oxen and sheep and sent for Balaam and for the princes who were with him. And in the morning, Balaak took Balaam and brought him up to Barmath-Beal. And from there he saw a fraction of the people. And Balaam said to Balaak, Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams. Balaak did as Balaam had said, and Balaak and Balaam offered on each altar a bull and a ram. And Balaam said to Balaak, Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me, I will tell you. And he went to a bare height, and God met Balaam. And Balaam said to him, I have arranged the seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram. And the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak. And he returned to him. And behold, he and all the princes of Moab were standing beside his burnt offering. And Balaam took up his discourse and said, From Aram Balak has brought me, the king of Moab, from the eastern mountains. Come, curse Jacob for me, and come, denounce Israel. How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced? From the top of the crags I see him, from the hills I behold him. Behold, a people dwelling alone and not counting itself among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his.' And Balak said to Balaam, What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them. And he answered and said, must I not take care to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth? The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, we come this morning to a very familiar story in the Old Testament, one that is often brought up in Sunday school classes, one that we might remember from our youth, and one that if we stop and think really hard about it, we probably have a doubt or two. I want to remind you where we are in our story. Remember, we've been working our way through the book of Numbers, and we have followed Israel from obedience to disobedience. And not just disobedience once or twice. The first ten chapters of Numbers really lay out Israel's obedience. All that God had told them, they did. Whether it was counting, whether it was camping, whether it was moving through the wilderness, they obeyed the Lord. But then we began to see cycle after cycle of disobedience. And as scholars lay out the book of Numbers, as you outline it, there's three cycles of disobedience. And we're close to the end of the third cycle. We'll be coming to that end in just a couple of weeks. But all throughout this, we have seen Israel in their unfaithfulness before God. They have rebelled against God because of the food, because of the water, because of the giants, over and over again. It seems that Israel does not want to trust the Lord. And as we worked our way through the chapters, we have seen that this wasn't just the people of Israel, but even the leadership struggled with obedience to God. Aaron and Miriam rebel against Moses. Moses himself strikes the rock twice instead of speaking to it, and is forbidden from entering into the promised land. But in spite of all of that, we saw last week how there was grace, grace in the wilderness, as the people are learning slowly, but surely, to trust the Lord, to repent of their sins, and to experience even the first victories of the conquests we looked at last time. They feared giants in chapters 13 and 14, but by the end of chapter 21, they were giant slayers. As I said already twice, this next section in Numbers is rather interesting and has given challenge to generations of pastors, scholars, and believers alike. It's an odd story. It's odd at least for this reason. Moses isn't present. Israel is only looked at from a distant. This is a story about Israel, but it doesn't really involve Israel. There is no discussion with Moses between Balak or even Balaam discussing anything with anybody in Israel. It's about them, but other than the inspired word that they would have learned later, they don't know what is going on. They don't interact with Balaam or Balak. It's a funny story. After all, there is a talking donkey. And oddly enough, the talking donkey is the wisest one in the story. That's the humor of it. It's only the second story in scripture with a talking animal. I'm sure you all know the first, the serpent. And I think that there is good reason to make a connection between the two of them, between these two stories. And we'll talk about that. But it's really a profound story. It speaks of God's faithfulness to his people. After all, we've just gotten through chapter after chapter after chapter of disobedience, of grumbling, of, pardon me, of complaint, of outright rebellion against God. And yet, here is the chance. Wipe them out. Curse the people. And yet, God says, no. I have blessed them. Beloved, this story teaches us something very important about God's Word. It's that His Word will stand. What He says will come to pass. That is guaranteed. And this is good news to us. For even when we wrestle, even if we are faithless, Paul tells us, He remains faithful. I want us to consider this story this morning, this text, and I've broken it down before you, and we're going to move beyond what we've actually read. So the first point is really looking at chapter 22. The second point begins with the first oracle, but then goes into the rest, and I'll read some summaries of those so that we have them before us. And then I want us to think thirdly of just the purpose of this story. What is this story doing in Scripture? What is it doing here in the book of Numbers? And how does it help us, encourage us, What does it remind us of? So first we begin with Balak and his summoning of Balaam in chapter 22. It's fairly straightforward. It begins with Balak's fears, doesn't it? We read there in verses 1-4 that he sees something. He sees the people of Israel. He saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. Remember, they had defeated the Amorites. And the Amorites were considered a stronger, mightier people. But here comes Israel, wandering in the wilderness. Not a fortified army. This is not made up of just warriors. And yet they defeat the Amorites because God fights for them. And Balak understands this. He understands that the Lord is on Israel's side. And so he wants to find a greater God. A greater God that can defeat the God. of Israel. That's the goal. He wants to find a God that will curse Israel. Well, there's a very familiar part of this story. Remember, he's frightened because they've come out of Egypt. They seem to be enormous in number. It says that the 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, this is, I guess, a reminder to us of God's promise to Abraham over and over again. It talks about how his descendants will be mightier and more numerous than the sand on the seashore. greater in number than the stars in the sky. As Abram, in the middle of the night, happens to be out, and God calls him to look up and to look down, and to see these illustrations of how many, how numerous his descendants will be. Well, this story is in part to show that that is coming true. That in spite of the fact that Israel has suffered great loss, great loss, an entire generation of loss, Nevertheless, God is faithful. God is fulfilling His Word. Now Balak himself, just by way of reminder, Moab, the people of Moab, there's a relationship between them and Israel. Moab is one of the sons of Lot, who had two children, it's in Genesis 19, by his two daughters after Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. And so there's a bit of a scandal as far as that's concerned. But there's a relationship between Israel and between Moab. Moab itself, the word Moab, it just means of or from father. That's where they get the name of that son in Genesis 19. And so he comes to Balaam. He seems to know something about this man. And I was doing some research and kind of trying to sort of put Balaam into the story. A little bit like Melchizedek. You remember Melchizedek in Genesis 14. He just kind of appears, but he knows the Lord. He comes out and he's the priest of God Most High. Balaam is kind of like that. He just sort of is this character that we don't hear of before. He doesn't belong to Israel, but he seems to know Yahweh. As a matter of fact, he refers to Yahweh as his God. Now that presents us with a little bit of challenge, because I don't think that Balaam himself actually trusts in the Lord. This is what I think is going on, and I know that I'm kind of bringing these things together to talk a little bit about Balaam's foolishness. Balaam was a professional cursor. That was his job. Probably was trained through generations and it was his job to know all the various gods. And by knowing all the various gods, knowing the customs and things like that, studying inter-religious faiths and things like that, he would know how to curse particular people. This is why I think this. Because in archaeology, and this is stepping outside of scripture, but they uncovered these writings on the wall that talked about Balaam and his ability to curse. not on the basis of Yahweh, but on the basis of other gods. And so there's extra-biblical sort of corroboration that this person had this kind of a job. And so his job was to know what would be required to curse the people. And so Balaam seems to know something of Yahweh. That's the term that's used, the Lord Yahweh. Every time you see your capital L-O-R-D in scripture, that means it's the covenant name that God reveals in Exodus chapter 3, I am who I am. That's the term where we get Yahweh from. And he seems to know something about this. He knows about these people and he wants to use, he wants to manipulate God and curse them. Now this is what's going on, as I understand it. Moab, the king of Moab, Balak, sends the princes and everybody to Balaam. Balaam has this dream and God actually speaks to him. He says, what are these people doing here? And he warns him. It's not going to work. Don't do it. Do not go with them. He says that they are blessed. He says it's not going to happen. He's not going to curse them. And indeed, as we know, although God does not reveal this at this time, there is no greater God to appeal to. One of the things we tend to forget as we read through scripture is it was sort of understood that the gods were territorial at that time. It was the god of the Midianites, the god of the Amorites, the god of the Moabites, and everybody kind of had their own little deity going on, and Israel, and so it was thought that their god was just another regional god. Which is why whenever God identifies Himself as the Lord of Heaven and Earth, He's basically claiming all the regions. There's no God higher than Him. And so Balaam is warned, do not go. But then he goes. You see, they come back. They bring even more money. And Balaam has this interesting saying. He says, even if Balak were to give me all the silver and gold in his house. Now, we might think that that sounds very pious, as though he's actually saying, no, no, no. There's no way. There's not a single amount of money that you could offer to me. I actually think he's naming his price. He's saying, that's how much it's going to cost you. all the silver and all the gold that you have in your house. The reason why I think that is because in, if we go back to the book of Genesis, where Abraham is sort of going, and if you remember when, it's in chapter 25, when Abraham is going to bury Sarah, he wants to buy this field at Machpelah, and the person says, you know, well what is $400 between you and me? That actually is him naming his price because Abraham turns around and weighs out that much money and gives it to him. Okay, and plus the rest of scripture will come back and judge Balaam for this moment because he desired money. So this is the man that is foolish. He seems to know enough to get him into a lot of trouble. And so he decides to... So God allows him to go. He's been told not to go. He's been told that there's no point in going because God has blessed them and he will not curse them. He says, you shall not curse this people. Balaam seems to still want to go. And so God allows him to go. Now, there's something here that we could kind of think about, about first causes and second causes, and how God is angry with Balaam because he does the very thing that God tells him to do, but it's not the thing that he told him first. And so I know that opens up lots of questions. I want you just to think about that and just know that God is still in complete control of what's going on in this story. But the humor in the story, of course, comes out because the donkey is the smartest one. The donkey is the one that sees the Lord, sees the angel of the Lord, which is often used to refer to a pre-incarnate Christ. It is the angel of the Lord, identified with the Lord himself, with a sword drawn, ready to kill Balaam. And the donkey, of course, tries to stop. The first time goes into a ditch. The second time pushes into a wall. The third time just stops and just sits down. And each time Balaam is angry, he strikes the donkey, not once, not twice, but then continually strikes. And then the donkey says, Why did you hit me? Now, to me, the humor in the story is not that the donkey talks to Balaam. It's that Balaam talks back to the donkey. Never do we see anything in scripture where Balaam sits back and goes, whoa! That's weird. No, he just carries on and explains why it was he wants to beat and potentially kill this donkey. And then his own eyes are opened and he sees his foolishness. He sees that he's just been playing around with this idea or this thought of the Lord. But there is the angel of the Lord's sword drawn, ready to execute him. And so Balaam seems to pull back. He's not going to go. But the angel of the Lord says, no, go, but only say what I tell you. You see, this leads me to believe that even when Balaam goes and decides, when the Lord allows him to go, that he has in mind to curse Israel. And that's why the angel of the Lord appears. He will not obey God's Word. And so he's warned this third time that he must speak the Word of God. And that brings us then to the oracles. And the oracles are interesting in and of themselves. They build. They build. They begin with just blessing. Look at the first oracle with me. There's sacrifices that are made. God is called upon. He's met the Lord. He says in verses 3 to 5 of chapter 23, Balaam said to Balak, stand beside your burnt offering and I will go. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet me and whatever he shows me, I will tell you. and he went to a bear hide and God met Balaam. Now we don't know exactly what that looked like, what form that took, maybe it was just a spiritual experience, we're not sure. But he met Balaam and he puts words in Balaam's mouth. Now the one who has come with the only intention of cursing Israel is going to be forced to bless them. Is going to be used of God to speak a blessing. Indeed, he says, it's in verses 6-10, and I won't read the entire thing again, but he comes to the point where he says, How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced? From the top of the crags I see Him, from the hills I behold Him. Behold, a people dwelling alone and not counting itself among the nations. Essentially, what Balaam is saying is he sees that Israel is set apart by God. set apart from the world, set apart from all the other nations. And so he speaks the word of the Lord. And that word is a blessing upon the people. And make no mistake, it might not sound like a great blessing to us, but Balak recognizes what it is. He gets angry at Balaam, doesn't he? What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them. but it's going to get worse, or worse for Balak, better for Israel. Attempt at curse after curse becomes blessing after blessing. The second blessing is recorded therefore in chapter 23, verses 13 through 30. But it really intensifies the blessing. Look at verse 21. He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel. The Lord their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them." Now, Israel doesn't have a king right now. There's no David. There's no Saul. There's no Davidic or any kind of promise even yet. We haven't even come to Deuteronomy chapter 17 where the king is promised. Who is the king among them? Who is the one that shouts among them? It must be none other than the Lord Himself. What Balaam is seeing, what he is proclaiming, is that God Himself is the One who leads them. Look at verse 24, Behold the people, as a lioness it rises up, as a lion it lifts itself. It does not lie down until it has devoured the prey and drunk the blood of the slain. Now, the blessing intensifies. It moves from being a people set apart to now being a conquering people. A people with a King. And Balaam responds, verses 25 and 26 of chapter 23, Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all. Don't say anything! Stop talking about Israel! But Balaam answered Balak, Did I not tell you all that the Lord says that I must do? And then he asked for a third oracle. A third oracle in chapter 24, beginning in verse 1, When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go as at other times to look for omens, but set his face toward the wilderness. And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe. And the Spirit of God came upon him, and he took up his discourse and said, The oracle of Balaam, the son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eye is opened, the oracle of him who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty falling down with his eyes uncovered. How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel, like palm groves that stretch afar, like gardens beside a river, like aloes that the Lord has planted, like cedar trees besides the waters. Water shall flow from his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters. His king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted." Once more we see the blessing, the blessing spoken with regard to Israel, their size, their encampments, the water. Now, that struck me as I was reading through this and thinking about this. Water has been a source of, well, discontentment, but discontentment over water has been a source of sin and disobedience for Israel. And yet here we see the blessing of God is that they're going to overflow with this water. And look down in verse 9, the end of verse 9, after it speaks of his king breaking the bones and piercing them and so on. It says, blessed are those who bless you and cursed are those who curse you. That should bring to our minds the promise. This is Genesis 12, verses 1-3. I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you, I will curse. This is the basic promise to Abraham, that his descendant, his seed, will bless the nations. And here we see that Balak, in his foolishness, has attempted to go against the Almighty's promise. his blessing of his people. And so he becomes cursed. In fact, that's really what the fourth oracle is all about. And it picks up in verses 10 and following of chapter 24. Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam. He struck his hands together. And Balak said to Balaam, I called you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them these three times. Therefore, now flee to your own place. I said, I will certainly honor you, but the Lord has held you back from honor. And again, Balaam begins to speak. He begins to have yet another oracle. It begins in verse 15, but if you follow it down where he finally begins to see, it's the oracle of Balaam, the son of Beor, and it says, I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, It shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth." And it goes on to judge Edom, Seir, Amalek, Kenite, Cain, all the Moab princes that he brought with him. It's as though Balaam looks at them all and says, this one who is rising will destroy all unrighteousness, will destroy all those who are wicked. The language that he uses here is Absolutely striking. It's absolutely striking because it points both backward and forward. Backward, it reminds us of the promise in Genesis chapter 49, where Jacob is blessing his sons. And one by one they come to him, and he speaks to Judah. He speaks to Judah and he says this, Judah is a lion's cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down, he crouched as a lion, and as a lioness, who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples." You see, Balaam sees in this fourth oracle, He sees Christ. He sees the One who will rise out of Jacob. He sees the star, the One with the scepter. We've moved now from beyond any notion of an earthly king, now to a heavenly, glorious King, who reigns over His people, who will ultimately destroy all of their enemies. The fourth oracle brings us then to understand that Balaam's story, this story of Balaam and Balak and his donkey, it's not just for Israel. It's for us. It's for us, beloved, because we're the ones who are under that king. That star has indeed risen. The scepter is in his hand. As Psalm 2 says, the nations better beware, because he will crush them when he returns. The purpose of Balaam's story then first is a warning. It's a warning just in Balaam himself. See, I said there's a connection, not just because there's talking animals in Genesis 3 and in this story. Yes, there's a serpent in Genesis 3. There's a donkey in this story. And as a matter of fact, they seem to play opposite roles. In Genesis 3, the serpent is tempting Eve. Here, the donkey is trying to talk sense into Balaam. But nevertheless, there is a similar warning in both stories. You see, in Genesis 3, the serpent asks Eve, did God really say? And she changes the Word of God. But Balaam's error is an error of omission. He removes from God's Word. God had said, do not go with them. because they are blessed, and you cannot curse them. And when Balaam goes and reports back, what does he say? He says, I just can't go with you. God won't let me do it. He doesn't tell them the rest. And as a matter of fact, the reason why he doesn't tell them the rest, and the New Testament picks up on this, I think, very, very well, in 2 Peter and in Jude, and it talks about Balaam's error, how he loved money. The reason why he doesn't tell them the rest is because he wants more. And so it's a warning to us to heed the Word of God. The Word of God, children, that we hear read every single week or in your homes. The Word that we ourselves read and we understand. The Word that we hear proclaimed each and every week. This is God's Word to us. We must listen to it. That's also a reminder to us, a reminder as these curses, or they're supposed to be curses, they become blessings, they intensify, and the promises remind us that God's plan wasn't about a nation in the Middle East after all. Just as we learned in Hebrews 10, it was always pointing forward to Christ, the once for all sacrifice. So here, we know that the King that is being spoken of, the scepter that will rise out of Jacob, could not be King David. It must be Christ, the great and mighty King. After all, He Himself says that He is the root and the descendant of David. He is that bright morning star. Revelation 22 and verse 16. The purpose of Balaam's story is a warning. It's a reminder to us. But it's also an encouragement to us. Think about Israel's situation. We know they have not been faithful to the Lord. We know that they have grumbled against God, not once, not twice, but time after time after time, they have turned against the Lord. And yet, God's Word will stand. It is not about what Israel will do. It is about what God has promised. His Word will stand. Their struggles in faith did not negate God's promises. He promised Abraham that his descendants would inherit that land. And sure enough, they did. And yet we know that Abraham himself was looking forward to a city whose designer and builder is God Himself. Not Jerusalem on earth. Jerusalem, the golden. God's Word will stand, beloved. The story of Balaam and Balak remind us that though we struggle, though we find ourselves doubting God from, I want to say time to time, but it's probably more often than that, isn't it? We struggle, but it's good news. It's good news that God's Word stands. Because the truth is that we have one who is far wicked than the king of Moab who seeks us. 1 Peter 5.8 tells us, Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But God has blessed His people. God has blessed, and He cannot curse them. Which means the sufferings and the trials that we face in this life, indeed, as God's Word tells us, are for our good. Because they come from our good God. He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? The Apostle Paul, at the close of Romans chapter 8, reflecting upon the greatness of the blessings that are ours in Christ, He says, I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Beloved, here's the truth that we learn from Numbers, chapters 22 to 24. And as I said, we're not done with Balaam yet. He has one more trick up his sleeve that we're going to come to in chapter 25. But these chapters teach us of the unshakable certainty of God's blessing upon His people in Jesus Christ. The grounds of His blessing to you, beloved, is not based upon you. It's based upon Him, upon His unchanging and unshakable goodness. And so there are challenges in this chapter, in this story. There's a challenge to us to believe these things. There's a challenge to us to rejoice in these things. And there's a challenge to us to trust. to trust that our God is working all things together for our good and for His glory. Let's pray.