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Chosen no: R-5322 a, from: 1913 Year. |
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A God-Fearing Bad Man
--NOVEMBER
2.--NUMBERS 22:1 TO 23:10.--
"A
double-minded man is unstable
in all his ways."--James 1:8.
AFTER the Israelites had entered Canaan and were fully recognized as God's holy nation, it
would appear that all dealings between God and the Gentiles were discontinued.
Before that, apparently men of faith in God were more or less recognized by
Him--for instance, Abraham, Job, Melchizedec and Balaam--the latter
constituting the central figure of today's lesson. Balaam lived on the Euphrates River,
in the country which Abraham left when he came to Canaan.
He was known far and near as one whose messages either for good or for evil
were sure to come to pass. In other words, he was considered an oracle.
When the king of the Moabites perceived the
Israelites conquering all with whom they battled, he greatly feared them, even
though they had not molested the Moabites. He conferred with the ruler of the
Midianites, and then sent messages four hundred miles to the Euphrates
to get Balaam to come to pronounce a curse against the Israelites. A
considerable reward was offered.
The Prophet Balaam inquired of the Lord whether
or not he should go on this mission. The reply was, No; Israel was
blessed of the Lord, not cursed. Balaam gave the decision, and the messengers
returned. Balak was all the more insistent and sent fresh messengers of higher
station, intimating higher rewards. Balaam knew the mind of the Lord on the
subject, but was a money-lover and somehow hoped for a chance to get some of
the rewards of unrighteousness. In response to this second inquiry, whether or
not he could go with the men, he obtained permission to go.
It was on this journey that Balaam was reproved
by his ass. An angel of the Lord stood in the pathway, in a narrow place where
the ass, seeing the angel, could not pass him. Balaam's eyes not being opened,
he saw not the angel. The ass, being beaten, remonstrated. Even this miracle
did not stop Balaam's money-lust. He coveted the wealth, and would do anything
in his power to obtain it--merely stopping where he must.
Balaam was received by Balak, king of Moab, with
honor. He directed that altars be built and sacrifices be offered to God. He
would have a form of godliness, even while desiring to do contrary to the
Divine will, which he already knew. The sacrifices offered, he began his
prophecy, which the king hoped would be a curse, but which was really a
blessing, the words being Divinely inspired. As wrote St. Peter, "Holy men
of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." (2
Peter 1:21.) The king complained that instead of a curse would come a
blessing. Balaam remonstrated that he had said from the beginning that he would
be powerless to utter anything except the Divine message.
The disappointed king, fearful of Israel, sought
the exercise of black art in some manner against them. He took the Prophet to
another viewpoint and urged the curse of at least this many of the host. Altars
were built again; sacrifices were offered again. And again the hoped-for curse
instead of blessing did not come. Getting desperate and angry, the king
insisted that at least a portion must be cursed, and led the Prophet to another
standpoint, from which a still smaller wing of the host of Israel was
visible. But here again the results were blessings, not curses--for the third
time.
A
DOUBLE-MINDED MAN
The double-mindedness of the Prophet, Balaam,
was abundantly manifested by his course, as we have examined it. He wished to
be a Prophet of the Lord and to speak His Word in His Name; but he also wished
riches, and the honor which would accompany them. He wished for what God's
providence had not seen best to give him. Right and wrong--God's way and the
way of riches --both were before him. Which would he choose with all his heart?
He chose neither one. He tried to have both--to be a servant and mouthpiece of
God, and to gain the rewards of an opposite course.--2
Peter 2:15,16.
Alas, how many in every age have had the Balaam
spirit! Jesus warned against this spirit, saying, "Ye cannot serve God and
mammon." How many have found the Master's words true! How many have found
that the Lord would reject from His counsels and His fellowship those who
regard iniquity in their hearts; and who, if they would not love to serve it,
at least would love its rewards. Let us remember that God looketh upon the
inward parts--the heart. Let us remember how it was written of Jesus:
"Because Thou hast loved righteousness and hast hated iniquity, therefore
God, even thy God, [R5323 : page 297] hath
anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."--Psalm 45:7.
In God's dealings with our Redeemer, He has exemplified
the principles of His righteous Government. A double-minded man is unreliable
in every way--not pleasing to God, not acceptable to Him.
THE HEART
WITH THE TREASURE
The Master said, "Where your treasure is,
there will your heart be also." Those who set their affection chiefly upon
earthly things can with difficulty avoid the snares that go with them. Balaam's
only safe course was in heart loyalty to God. Knowing the mind of the Lord on
the subject, he should have delighted himself therein, and should to the
fullest have rejected every overture looking in an opposite direction. The
nobles who took King Balak's second proposition should have been kindly, but
firmly, told that the Divine will was the law of Balaam, the Prophet; that he
would not for a moment consider anything to the contrary of the Divine will;
that money, wealth and honors as inducements to a course of opposition to God's
will would be an insult. Let us each apply this lesson in life's affairs. Let
God be first in our hearts, as well as in our words and acts.
But if, overtaken in a fault, Balaam had gone so
far as to start on the journey with the hope of somehow gaining the evil
reward, he should have been thoroughly aroused by the incident of the ass. Even
an ass knew better than to attempt to go contrary to the Higher Power.
Evidently the greater reasoning power and courage of humanity above that of the
brute may be used to great advantage.
We see that Balaam's heart was wrong. He still
continued to be a Prophet, but was ceasing to be a holy Prophet every minute
that he toyed with the tempting wealth, the reward of unrighteousness. Alas,
how his mind was debased, debauched, by the love of money! While outwardly he
still remained loyal to God in that he would not utter a false message, yet
inwardly his harmony with God was gone. The infection, from being a mere speck
of a wish for the money, spread rapidly until it swallowed up everything noble
and true in the man. The rot or blight which started in his heart, like the
blight at the core of a beautiful apple, spread until nothing remained but the
outward form.
The professed man of God groveled in the mire of
sin in his desire to obtain Balak's proffered wealth. He said to the king, The
reason I am not permitted to curse Israel is that they are blessed of
the Lord; but I will explain to you that the Lord's blessing is with them
because they are His consecrated people, in covenant relationship with Him,
seeking to obey His Law. The only way in which you could bring a curse upon Israel would be
by tempting them to disobedience to God.
Guided by Balaam, King Balak communicated with
the leading people of the Midianites, and urged that their wives and daughters
should apparently fall in love with the Israelites, and introduce them to the
sensuous religious rites practised by Midian. In proportion as they would
succeed in ensnaring the Israelites into sin and idolatry, in that proportion
the curse of Israel's Law
would fall upon Israel.
How sad it is, and yet how true, that knowledge is a dangerous thing to those
who misuse it! How true it is today that none can make so successful tools of
Satan as those who have some knowledge of God!
GOD
PERMITTED THE LESSON
God could have hindered all those evil
machinations, as He could hinder evil deeds and evil plans today. But He
allowed matters to take their course, and a great lesson thus to be taught--for
then as well as for now and intermediately. The scheme was successful. Some of
the leading wives and daughters of the Midianites attracted some of the leading
men of Israel
to adultery, and to idol worship and orgies. Forthwith a plague started amongst
the Israelites, according to their Covenant with God at Sinai, Ebal and
Gerizim.
God's Covenant with Israel was that while they would be
loyal to Him and His Law, their enemies could not prevail against them. They
should be His people. They should be blessed in their every temporal interest.
But if they would neglect His statutes and engage in idolatry, He would bring
upon them various plagues. This course not only would punish them for their
wrong doings, but serve as a lesson, a warning, to restrain them from excesses
such as were common amongst the heathen.
We must remember that the death of thousands of
Israelites on such occasions was the whole penalty for their sin. They did not
drop into a hell of eternal torment, but merely fell asleep, to await the
better Day of Messiah, the Antitype of Moses, when they will be awakened from
the sleep of death and be brought to full, clear knowledge of those things
which, at very most, they then enjoyed only in a typical way.
Not only did God punish the Israelites according
to the terms of their Law Covenant, but He also punished the Midianites and
Balaam. Under Divine direction Moses called for a thousand armed men out of
each of the tribes. This army completely wiped out the Midianites as a nation,
including Balaam, the Prophet, who, to secure the rewards of his nefarious
advice, had evidently remained to oversee the work of iniquity.
Our glorified Redeemer, in His last message to
the Church, foretold that some of His followers would imitate Balaam and, for
earthly advantage, put a stumbling-block in the path of the brethren. The
intimation is that the harlotry and false worship would be on a higher plane
than that which stumbled Natural Israel--even as everything in this Christian
Dispensation is antitypical.
BALAAM'S
WONDERFUL PROPHECY
Several passages in Balaam's prophecy are very
striking in their fulfilment. For instance:
"For
from the top of the rocks I see him,
And from the hills I behold him;
Lo, it is a people that dwell alone
And shall not be reckoned amongst the nations."
* * *
"Blessed be every one that blesseth thee
And cursed be every one that curseth thee."
* * *
"I behold Him, but not nigh;
There shall come forth a Star out of Jacob,
And the Sceptre shall rise out of Israel.
And One out of Jacob shall have dominion."
Surely we see fulfilled the declaration that Israel shall be
separate from all other nations. What other nation of that day remains a people
of preserved identity?
How true the statement that those who have
cursed, or injured, Israel
have brought injury upon themselves! As we scan the whole field of the world,
we find that every nation which has dealt harshly with Israel has
received severe chastisement or blight. On the contrary, Great Britain and the United States, nations which have
blessed the Jew, have in turn received great blessings.
The lines referring to Messiah's Kingdom are
equally true. The Sceptre did rise out of Israel. The One who is to have the
dominion of earth is of Jacob's posterity, according to the flesh. As the
bright and morning Star, He is leading on to a glorious sunrise--the dawning of
the Messianic Day, which is to scatter earth's night and to bring blessings
instead of the curse.
W.T. R-5322a : page 296
- 1913r