February 24, 2022

Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!”
 
Then he [Balaam] spoke his message:
 
“Arise, Balak, and listen; hear me, son of Zippor.
God is not human, that he should lie,
not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill?
I have received a command to bless;
he has blessed, and I cannot change it.”

Numbers 23:11, 18-20

Devotional

Dear friends, resist the urge to be confounded by our readings from the book of Numbers this week. God’s story is in here! 
 
Here’s the situation. You’ve got a king named Balak, and he REALLY wants to get rid of the Israelites. He calls for his trusted prophet, Balaam, to curse them. But Balaam has had an encounter with the living God (Numbers 22:21-41), and he refuses to curse God’s chosen people. King Balak keeps trying to show Balaam the swarm of Israelites and tries to change Balaam’s mind by having him view the swarm from many different locations. Yet Balaam continually tells Balak that these people are blessed, protected—there is nothing he can do to change that. And with each message he delivers to the king (seven of them!), Balaam becomes more certain, more articulate, and more invested in the truth of God’s presence.
 
We see in these chapters that God has loving intentions for His people. He offers complete protection for generations of those who love Him and makes promises He will keep and will NEVER change, no matter how often we fail Him. The apostle Paul later wrote about that sure power in his letter to the Romans, chapter 8:35-39:

 

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
 
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
 
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The identity of the long-ago children of Israel is our identity. We believe in the living God who loves us. We belong under the wing of His protection and under the everlasting covenant of His blessing. Today, give praise to this great God of all creation who will allow nothing to stand in His way of loving us.

For Reflection

How is God standing in your path today, redirecting you for His glory?
 
How is God showing His hand of blessing on you today?

Prayer

God, I know I grumble sometimes. I know I ignore You and act in an unappreciative manner. I can be reckless and hasty. There is no reason You should bless a fickle child like me. But You are my maker. My heart is Your home. And because You are the creator of all things, You have chosen to claim me and bless me. Thank You, O loving God! Thank You for Your act of saving in Jesus Christ so that I will never be separated from You. Amen.