Bereans Corner
Bereans Corner
Thru the Bible - #139-Numbers 24 - The Prophecies From Peor
Welcome to Berean's Corner, the podcast where we go through books of the Bible chapter by chapter and verse by verse. Wherever you are in the world, thank you for joining. Grab a glass of water, a cup of coffee or tea and let's. Thank you for joining me. It is good to be with you, as always. Open your Bible to Numbers, chapter 24. We are continuing this journey with Balak and Balaam and the title of today's lesson is the prophecy from Peor.
Speaker 1:Let's look at it and see what these two are up to today. Numbers 24, and let's read numbers 24.
Speaker 2:now, when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not resort to sorcery as at other times, but turned his face toward the desert. When Balaam looked out and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, the Spirit of God came upon him and he uttered his oracle, the oracle of Balaam, son of Beor, the oracle of one whose eyes see clearly, the oracle of one who hears the words of God, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who falls prostrate and whose eyes are opened. How beautiful are your tents, o Jacob, your dwelling places, o Israel. Like valleys, they spread out, like gardens beside a river, like aloes planted by the Lord, like cedars beside the waters. Water will flow from their buckets. Their seeds will have abundant water. Their king will be greater than Agag. Their kingdom will be exalted. God brought them out of Egypt. They have the strength of a wild ox. They devour hostile nations and break their bones in pieces With their arrows. They pierce them Like a lion. They crouch and lie down like a lioness. Who dares to rouse them? May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed.
Speaker 2:Then Balak's anger burned against Balaam. He struck his hands together and said to him. I summon you to curse my enemies, but you have blessed them these three times. Now leave at once and go home. I said I would reward you handsomely, but the Lord has kept you from being rewarded. Balaam answered Balak, did I not tell the messengers you sent me? Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything of my own accord, good or bad, to go beyond the command of the Lord, and I must say only what the Lord says. Now I am going back to my people, but come, let me warn you of what this people will do to your people in days to come.
Speaker 2:Then he uttered his oracle, the oracle of Balaam, son of Beor, the oracle of one whose eye sees clearly, the oracle of one who hears the words of God, who has knowledge from the Most High, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who falls prostrate and whose eyes are opened. I see him, 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 Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth. Edom will be conquered. Seir, his enemy, will be conquered, but Israel will grow strong, a ruler will come out of Jacob and destroy the survivors of the city.
Speaker 2:Then Balaam saw Amalek and uttered his oracle Amalek was first among the nations, but he will come to ruin at last. Then he saw the Kenites and uttered his oracle your dwelling place is secure. Your nest is set in a rock, yet you Kenites will be destroyed when Asher takes you captive. Then he uttered his oracle Ah, who can live when God does this? Ships will come from the shores of Ketim, they will subdue Asher and Eber, but they too will come to ruin.
Speaker 1:Then Balaam got up and returned home, and balak went his own way all right now the last time we were together we looked at how balak was trying to get balak to curse israel, but the sovereign lord kept Balaam from doing any evil towards Israel. Today we are looking at Balak still trying to get Balaam to look down on Israel to curse them from the top of Peor. Just to get a reminder of that, I'm looking back at Numbers 23, verses 27 and 28. That says then Balak said to Balaam please come, I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will be agreeable with God that you curse them for me from there. So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the desert, and Balaam said to Balak build seven altars for me here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here. Balak did just as Balaam had said and offered up a bull and a ram on each altar. Now we will look at this chapter 24 and we will break this down into seven parts. The first part Balaam saw what pleased the Lord. We see this in verse 1. Then Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel. He did not go, as at other times, to seek omens. Rather he turned his attention towards the wilderness. Remember, balaam is a devilish prophet for hire. So the word omens Hebrew 5172, nakash means an enchantment tells us that he would do evil things to get his quote, unquote visions. So we know this from listening to, from reading on him before that he would go and get these visions. But this is telling us right here how he actually got his visions. Now we know there are times, there have been times in this chapter, where the Lord has spoke to him or the Lord had put something in his mouth. But that's just to give us an idea and a reminder of who Balaam actually is. Part two the spirit of God came over Balaam. We see this in verse two the spirit of God came over Balaam. We see this in verse two Balaam raised his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe and the spirit of God came upon him. Then he took up his discourse and say okay, sorry about that, I went a little too far, and the spirit of God came upon him. I'm sorry, I should have stopped there. I'm using actually one of my different Bibles today with the small numbers, so sometimes the verses sneak up on us. So we see there the spirit of God came over Balaam.
Speaker 1:Then, part three the oracle of Balaam. We see this in verses three through nine. Then he took up his discourse and said the decoration of Balaam, the son of Peor, so the son of Beor, and the decoration of the man whose eyes is open, the decoration of him who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the almighty falling down, yet having his eyes uncovered. How pleasant are your tents, jacob, your dwelling places, israel, like valleys that stretch out, like gardens, a river like aloes planted by the Lord, like cedars beside the waters. Water will flow from his buckets and his seed will be by many waters and his king shall be higher than Agag and his kingdom shall be exalted. God brings him out of Egypt. He is for him like the horns of the wild ox. He will devour the nations who are his adversaries and will crush their bones and smash them with his arrows. He crouches, he lies down like a lion and like a lioness. Who dares to row, who dares to rouse him. Bless is anyone, everyone who blesses you, and curse is everyone who curses you. That's key, right there. Blesses everyone who blesses you and curse is everyone who curses you. Now let's be clear here. This is Balaam talking. This is Balaam's oracle, given by God. God has put the words and is about to speak and he is talking about Israel, and he's talking about Israel at that pleasant time. Blesses everyone who blesses you and curses everyone who curses you. Let's remember that, remember. We also remember who's talking and who they're talking to. Which brings us to part four.
Speaker 1:Balak responds. We see this in verses 10 and 11. Then Balak's anger burned against Balaam and he struck his hands together. And Balak said to Balaam I called you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have persisted in blessing them these three times. So flee to your place now. I said I would honor you greatly, but behold, the Lord has held you back from honor.
Speaker 1:So Balak is very angry here. Let's look, let's look back at verse 10, what it said he struck his hands together. In other words, he clapped his hands hard together. He's upset, he's not, he's not happy with Balaam. He's telling Balaam look, man, why did I bring you here? I brought you here, I told you that I would give you these blessings. I will put money in your pocket. I would give you pretty much. I gave you pretty much a blank check, but yet the Lord is keeping you from being blessed. Now. It's interesting.
Speaker 1:Earlier in these chapters, balak kept saying well, let's see what the Lord says. He's acting as if he really wants to hear what God has to say. But when it's not going his way, he's getting upset and he's, and he's saying, he's blaming God, saying God is the one who's stopping you from being blessed. And he's telling Balaam look, man, you know, let's just part, and you, just, you go your own way. Which brings us, which brings us to part number five.
Speaker 1:Balaam responds back to Balak, and we see this in verses 12 to 14. Balaam said to Balak did I not in fact tell your messengers whom you have sent to me, saying remember, he sent these messengers to balaam a couple of times if balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything contrary to the command of the lord, either good or bad, of my own accord. What the lord speaks, I will speak. So. So now behold, I am going to my people. Come, and I will advise you of what this people will do to your people in the days to come. So Balaam is like you know what dude it is what it is. You know, I'm going to get up, I'm going to take my stuff up, I'm going to go back to my people. You can go to your people, but before I go, let me tell you what's going to happen, which brings us to part number six, the final vision of Balaam to Balak. We see this in verses 15 to 24, and we're going to break it down as we go.
Speaker 1:First, the oracle visions. We see this in verses 15 to 16. Then he took up his discourse and said the decoration of Balaam, the son of Beor, and the decoration of the man whose eyes is open, the decoration of him who hears the words of god and knows the knowledge of the most high, who sees the vision of the almighty falling down, yet having his eyes uncovered. The next part is a real man vision. I'm sorry, not a real man vision, a real man. We see this in verse 17. I see him, but not now. I look at him, but not near.
Speaker 1:A star shall appear from Jacob, a scepter shall rise from Israel and shall smash the forehead of Moab and overcome all the sons of Shep. Now he's talking about a real man there. The man would come in the future and he would come from jacob's line. So that is what's going on here. Next, he would take possession, uh, by his scepter. We see this in verse 18. And edom shall be a possession seer. His enemies also will be a possession. While israel performs valiantly the next part, a scepter ruler will have dominion and destroy the enemy, the enemy remnant. We see this in verse 19 one from Jacob shall rule and will eliminate the survivors from the city. So that's so. We see that the enemies will be destroyed. They will destroy the, the remnant. One from Jacob shall rule and will eliminate the survivors from the city. Next, all enemies will be destroyed. We see this in verses 20 through 22.
Speaker 1:And he looked at Amalek and took up his discourse and said Amalek was the first of the nations, but his end shall be destruction. And he looked at the kidnight and took up his discourse and said your dwelling place is enduring and your nest is set in the cliff. Nevertheless, cain will suffer devastation. How long will Asher keep you captive? The next part you can only live if God ordained it. We see this in verse 23. We see this in verse 23. Then he took up his discourse and said oh, who can live unless God has ordained it? Very clear what Balaam is saying there God ordains who comes, who goes, who lives, who dies. And they're only going to survive if the Lord ordains it. Next we see nations coming from the west and the east will come in but will be destroyed. Notice verse 24. But ships shall come from the coast of Kittim and they shall oppress Asher and oppress Eber, so they also will come to destruction. So nations are going to come from the west and the east, but they will also meet their destruction.
Speaker 1:Which brings us to part seven. The two go their own way. We see this in verse 25, which ends the chapter. Now, this is after Balaam had just given his oracle. Then Balaam arose and he departed and returned to his place and Balak also went on his way. So at least we see that Balak went with his mouth shut, because Balak has been doing a lot of talking. He has been upset with Balaam. Pretty much the whole time that Balaam has been here he's been upset with Balaam. But now the two go their own way. Balaam gave this last oracle which was given to him by the Lord. It wasn't of his own accord or his own mouth. It was given to him by the Lord and he gave it to Balaam and then he went. He got up to go his way and then Balak went back his way. Okay, that brings us to the end of Numbers, chapter 24.
Speaker 1:As I mentioned, this is absolutely one of my favorite stories, sections of scripture in the Bible. This you know back and forth between Balak and Balaam, it goes to show you what it's like when there's a man who wants to be against god's people. But remember who the lord is for. He's for and no matter what the enemy tries to do, god's man, his people, his woman. They are going to come out, and that was the case here. Balak brought balaam here to curse israel, and balaam did not curse israel. He said that this is not something that I can do by my own hand, because the Lord has spoken to me and has given me these things what to do and what not to do.
Speaker 1:All right, I hope, as always, that you learn something, that you got something from this chapter in Numbers. As always, continue to pray for me as I continue to go through and chop through these scriptures, bringing you the word of God, as I continue to learn along with you, and I am praying for you as well. I appreciate each and every one of you very much, appreciate you coming in here, appreciate you listening, appreciate you sharing, and we could continue to grow this thing together. That is all for now, god bless. Thank you for listening to Berean's Corner. We appreciate you joining us as we dive into God's word and seek biblical truth together.
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