Hey Bible Readers I'm Tara-Leigh Cobble and I'm your host for The Bible Recap [Music] yesterday Balaam and his donkey arrived on their journey to meet belock king of Moab it was an ancient belief in Canaanite culture that you could speak things into existence so balak hired Balaam to curse the Israelites because he was afraid they would defeat them and take the land of Moab but at their first stop God gives Balaam a word to speak about Israel and much to balak's dismay it's a blessing in 23 9 Balaam references Israel's set apartness calling them a people dwelling alone and not counting itself among the Nations the lock doesn't like the sound of this so he says let's take a look at them from a different angle maybe you'll see something worth cursing then but the same thing happens Balaam can only pronounce blessing in 2320 he says his words don't have the power to undo what God has done our words may have an impact but they can't overrule the plan of God nothing is weightier than his will and not only does Balaam know that now but in 24 1 we also see that through this experience he abandons the sorcery he has relied on and learns to seek God's face instead but it's only temporary but for now the spirit of God was empowering his words not evil spirits but balak is still not satisfied of course and he's like third time's a charm let's go do this again but how about this time you don't say anything good or bad he's really grasping at straws here but again Balaam has nothing but good words and in fact words that are terrifying to block because they go against everything he was hoping to hear he says he shall eat up the Nations his adversaries and shall break their bones in pieces yikes but Bailey reminds him that he can only say what God tells him to say and in fact his third blessing closes with the words spoken to Abraham by God roughly 700 years earlier blessed are those who bless you and cursed are those who curse you which ultimately means god is pronouncing a curse on balak himself as well the thing he was aiming for turned back on him the lock is furious but also helpless striving is cumbersome exhausting work during this whole scenario Baloch tries bargaining manipulation stalling and threatening these three instances in the wilderness between Balaam and balak remind me of the three times Satan tempts Jesus in the wilderness and nothing budges either time for all blocks fear control manipulation bargaining negotiating stalling and threatening for all his mountain climbing altar building and animal sacrificing balak did not budge the will of God for all it costs in frustration and effort striving still only results in the pre-ordained will of God after getting stiffed for his work Balaam closes out with the final Oracle about Israel highlighting some military victories that will take place then we cut back to the Israelites at the bottom of the mountain where Balaam had been prophesying and what are they up to idolatry naturally this is reminiscent of when Moses was up on Mount Sinai with God and the people were in the valley worshiping their jewelry here though the men are LED astray by the Pagan ladies not gold and they end up worshiping false gods specifically the God by all we'll find out later in chapter 31 that Balaam was behind all of this scheming and using the women to entice the Israelites into idolatry probably in an effort to reverse the blessing on Israel maybe there was money involved the enemy is tricky you guys he knows what we want and uses it against us and against our own hearts even though Balon was behind this Israel is still responsible for the fact that they gave in to the Temptation and God's response to Israel's idolatry is to have the chiefs of the people killed first then God orders the judges to kill those among their people who have broken their Covenant with him they're about to enter the promised land soon and God doesn't want them to bring any of this impurity into the land with them one guy in particular the son of a chief brings a woman the daughter of a midianite chief into his tent in front of everyone and I immediately thought of that phrase we learned recently sinning with a high hand that's what this felt like belligerent arrogant Shameless sinning as a result of all this God sent another plague as well people are dying left and right and maybe Phineas Aaron's grandson remembered what his grandpa did the last time this happened how he intervened by bringing out the incense and it stopped the plague so Phineas takes a spear and stabs them both through and the plague stops but not before 24 000 people die as a result of all this idolatry God honors Phineas for his righteous anger for his high view of God's holiness and we end today with God commanding Israel to strike down the midianites Israel can't be left alone for a minute or their hearts will turn aside the false gods and God knows it and he wants more for them what was your God shot today where did you see God's character on display I was dumbstruck by some of the things he said about Israel through the words of Balaam specifically in his second Oracle in 2321 tell me if you recognize the people God's describing here because I sure don't he said he has not beheld Misfortune in Jacob nor has he seen trouble in Israel the word translated Misfortune here is almost always translated as iniquity and righteousness and wickedness elsewhere in scripture and the word trouble has similar possible translations so in Hebrew this verse could quite possibly read he has not beheld iniquity in Jacob nor has he seen wickedness in Israel I don't know what kind of rose-colored glasses God is wearing but I want some right the thing is God has seen these things in them he's not blind remember all those times he wanted to kill them and he's not stupid it's not that he forgot about that stuff and he's not a liar he's not just trying to make it sound nice So What on earth is he talking about here this is what love sees love has eyes that see beyond our actions and Beyond even our hearts and especially God's love because even a thousand years prior to Christ's death his future blood paid for their present sins his death covered them God is Not constrained by time he invented it he's both outside of time and inside it so he's already in the future where his stiff-necked children have been perfected and restored he can pronounce these things as true because to him they already are Wicked rebellious whoring after false gods and still his love seeks us out and draws Us in to the deeper Joys not the fleeting ones as his Spirit remakes us because just like our God who sees more in us than meets the eye we can access that same kind of Truth too I believe if you dig deep past the surface of all your unmet longings and your temporary fixes and your open wounds and your wild frustrations you will find it underneath all our fleeting desires our hearts know he's where the joy is you've heard us mention D group a lot and you've probably seen it in our logo but you may not know what it is D group stands for discipleship group and it's the partner Ministry of the Bible recap TBR is where we come to read the Bible and D group is where we go to study the Bible D group meets in homes and churches around the world and we also have online D groups each year D group does four studies that are 12 weeks long each we like to have two studies that are deep dives into a specific book of the Bible like genesis or John and two studies that focus on a specific theme or theological topic from scripture like the fruit of the spirit or the trinity if reading the Bible has made you want to study the Bible great we love doing both and we want to invite you to join D group visit mydgroup.org forward slash join to find out more info we've also linked to it in the description box [Music]