Pray For Faith to Enjoy God’s Covenant and Blessings (Numbers 24:10-25)
Reference verses: Gen. 49:10; Ex. 17:14, 16; 1 Chron. 4:41-43
Until last week, we read up to Numbers 24:9 and today, we will share the grace of God from Numbers 24 onward. The content we read is the saved people of God, the Israelites, are about to go into the land of Canaan to conquer and fight the war according to God’s covenant, but there was a nation next to them, Moab, that is so afraid of the Israelites attacking them so the king hired a prophet Balak to curse them three times, but the prophet only blessed them because God blessed the Israelites. The land of Moab was filled with unbelievers who were outside of God’s covenant.
The characteristic of unbelievers is that they live their lives with their own strength because they don’t have the guaranteed seal of God’s power watching over them. Human beings were originally created to be with God, with God’s blessings, but because of Genesis 3 human beings disobeyed God and all of creation was cursed. The people of the covenant who held onto the word of God’s promise, Genesis 3:15, the offspring of the woman, were on their way to fulfill God’s covenant when they met Moab.
It doesn’t matter how strong these unbelievers are, but they are living their lives separated from God’s blessings, so they rely on human strength. Because there are millions of Israelites passing by them, they are afraid. If they were more powerful than the Israelites, they wouldn’t be afraid, but because they were lesser in number, they were filled with fear.
That’s the state of living as an unbeliever. No matter how strong or powerful you may be, unless God’s strength comes upon you, you have no choice but to live in constant fear. So, they had no choice but to practice idolatry and shamanism by asking Prophet Balaam, in other words, an idol-worshiping shaman, to curse their enemies. It’s the same thing going on today where people use transcendental meditation to try to make themselves stronger and try to ward away or cast off any curses. But because they’re already spiritually separated from God in a natural state of curses, the problems will go into their mental, physical, and family problems, all the way to the society and the nation.
So, there are people like the Moabites living in America today. They live with their own strength, and when they can’t overcome something, they’re filled with fear, and in order to try to solve that problem they go towards religion or transcendental meditation. But because they’re already spiritually separated from God, the further they go into that the more they will be ensnared, and that’s the state of people who live separated from God because they’re not children of Christ.
But there’s no reason for the people of the covenant, who have salvation, to see these people and be afraid, because we know one day they will collapse, and they’ve already collapsed. People with the covenant will see the people in the world with these eyes.
The Moabites called Prophet Balaam to curse the Israelites three times but each time, all the times God blessed the Israelites instead of cursing them. Prophet Balaam gives this final prophecy and God speaks through this shaman or fortune-teller to say the words of what will happen in the future. So, from Numbers 24:15 onward, God is giving his word to a fortune teller what works God will do in the future.
There are a lot of people who receive the message to believe in Jesus Christ through a fortune-teller, and they say, “You’re someone who should believe in Jesus Christ; you shouldn’t come to this fortune-teller’s house.” Because there is no one to evangelize to this person God will even use a fortune-teller to send them to church. If you lose hold of the blessing of evangelism, that’s only a loss to you, but the person God has prepared to save, He will save through other means.
God fulfilled the promise exactly as God promised through Abraham. “Go to the land I will show you” they are going to the land of canaan very soon and while the Israelites were following that promise, their enemies are trying to curse them, and God blocks that and changes them to blessings instead. It’s not a matter of accomplishing something with our own strength; God works because of His covenant.
But if you don’t know that, you’re going to struggle and try to accomplish something with your own strength, then you’re going to turn into something similar to an unbeliever. “Go into the land I will show you. I will make you into a source of blessings, I will bless those who bless you and those who curse you I will curse” God promise is being fulfilled exactly today, they try to curse the Israelites 3 times, and the Moabites were cursed instead, so the way we fight against the world is not with flesh and blood. All we do is go forward holding on to God’s covenant then God moves, but what happens if you don’t know this? Then you’ll have to fight on your own. That’s the way of living for an unbeliever.
Then it’s very hard to live a walk of faith when it’s a religious or legalistic life. It’s not about whether you have to live a more holy or better life, but you’re living with faith in God’s covenant. It is faith in God’s promise. Then, you will have the works of faith taking place. Legalistic people say, “You have to live according to God’s Word,” but we cannot so we’re oppressed. But God says, “Believe in the covenant, the covenant of the land of Canaan, and I will be with you,” and God will fulfill His promise through you.
“I will make you into a great nation,” and there were millions of Israelites going in to conquer Canaan, and these were the things that happened to fulfill God’s promise exactly. Galatians 3:28 says if you believe in this covenant then you are a descendant of Abraham to inherit this promise. The inheritance God gave as a promise to Abraham is your inheritance. Now Christ has come as the King of Righteousness and the King of Peace to fulfill that promise. Now, it’s no longer through just the physical Jewish peoples, but God fulfills His Word with those who have God’s covenant. We are the spiritual descendants of Abraham, and that’s the time schedule of God’s blessings upon us now.
What happens if you don’t know this? Then you’ll live a religious life where you just live a regular, diligent life with religion on top. Then you’ll keep trying to live a life centered on yourself. God gave us His covenant and fulfills it through those who believe in it.
But if someone doesn’t believe in that, they say, “I have to keep God’s Word.” If you want to conquer the land of Canaan, then you have to go out with faith, but there’s some people who go out of the main blessing of the covenant and instead hold onto the side branches. There are people holding onto different beliefs such as, oh you have to have a good personality, you have to have a nice attitude, or a good smile, you’re saying the things Buddha would say and you bring that into the church. If you want to do something like that, it’s better for you to become a confucian monk. But they’re so many people who live religiously and legalistically, holding onto the Word of God while missing the whole point.
The result is obvious because they won’t be good enough and no one else will be good enough so they’ll always be disappointed, because there’s a covenant God gave us. Our only hope is in the word God is carrying out. There’s no hope in what humans do; everything humans do results in despair, “When will this person’s attitudes change to be better?” It’s not going to change; God will only allow this person to change when you’re within God’s covenant. Your inner person can only be changed by God’s grace.
But many people live their walk of faith that isn’t based on faith in the covenant, but it’s based on religion and legalism, and they think they’re right you shouldn’t be like that, that’s not what Jesus gave us. What Jesus Christ gave us is that He finished everything; we can’t do it with our strength . Your ethics and morality is not our goal, if it is, then you should believe in Buddha. If you want to get some kind of transcendence, you should learn about that from a monk. It’s not about that.
You need to be liberated from the authority of sin, Satan, and hell. “Oh, now that we have escaped from those problems, we should work on our spirituality, personality, and attitude,” then you’ve completely missed the point, then you won’t be able to enjoy anything and no one else either. If you’re a child of God, you should enjoy the blessings of God, but you get rid of all God’s blessings and only worry about how to live your life? That’s a pain. You live your walk of faith and try to survive with things that don’t even make sense.
If you have become a child of God, you should enjoy the blessings at the appropriate level. You should be enjoying the blessing about the fact that God is with you. If you want to change something, you cannot. When God looks at you he thinks your personality and ethics are dirty. In fact, we have to have the righteousness of believing in Jesus Christ cover over all of us. But the Jewish people tried to cover their actions with themselves with their actions of goodness, but those are the most wicked kinds of people, they try to reveal their own righteousness and reveal the righteousness of humans. They shove Christ into a corner and reveal the righteousness of humans, and that’s why Christ cannot be revealed. The devil is looking around for people like that to attack and deceive them.
You have to live your walk of faith correctly, in other words, you have to hold onto the promises of God well. Then you’ll realize it’s not about your personality but the covenant of God transcends your personality to work through you. “Pastor, does that mean if I believe in Jesus, I shouldn’t have a good personality?” Your good personality is an additional benefit that follows after you’re holding onto the covenant in faith; it’s not your goal. But there are a lot of people who keep giving messages, talking about holiness and sanctification, then they have to pretend they’re something that they’re not.
What does it mean to be holy? Then you try to act all holy and slowly say, “Holy.” Holiness and sanctification is simply following after Jesus Christ and the spirit of Jesus controlling me. If you’re not rooted in the gospel, you cannot become holy. People can be nice originally, there’s a spy from North Korea and their face was completely Korean, you can tell from this person’s faith that they’re South Korean, but how could they be a South Korean refugee?
So, North Koreans only let out people who look like South Koreans. He just looks like a regular person you’d see in a Korean village. So, he’s showing us how to kill people and showing us crazy things, so how can we tell the difference between people? Is it based on their face, what they look like? This person just looks like an average South Korean person, but within them, they have the desire to kill people.
Later on, this person was taken captive, he looked like a Korean before, but he left looking even more like a Korean. He would tell people the method to kill others, just stab people with a pen in the throat, and everyone was shocked.
What does it mean to have a faith that believes in Jesus? Looking at a monk, do they have the face that believes in Jesus? But people are under a misconception. They have a preconception of what it means to believe in Jesus Christ and what it sounds like, you have to sound holy, so it makes no sense, but God tells us that all humans are sinners. God says all have fallen short of the glory of God. There’s nothing for us to debate, whether it’s legal or ethical or moral or not.
By the faith of believing in Jesus Christ, God covers over our sins and transgressions, and that’s how we’re regarded as righteous. The Israelite people are not regarded by God as righteous because of their actions and goodness, but it is because they believe in the covenant of God so He blesses them and protects them.
The important content comes from Numbers 24:17, “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 forehands of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth,” and Sheth is another name for Moab. So, Prophet Balaam is someone who’s demon possessed, but he received the spirit of God to prophesy the word of God which is a continuation of Genesis 3:15, “a scepter will rise out of Israel,” it’s talking about the son of man coming from Judah, it means the Messiah will come through this tribe of the Israelites, and the Moabites will all be wiped out.
Is it because the Isrealites had such great personalities? Is it because they had great military skill? God said He would do this work for the people of the covenant to fulfill His covenant. This is already prophesied in Exodus 39:10. It says right here. Numbers 24:18, “Edom will be conquered; Seir his enemy will be conquered, but Israel will grow strong.” Seir conquered Edom so they’re essentially the same place.
Numbers 24:19, “A ruler will come out of Jacob and destroy the survivors of the city.” These were all God’s Words that had already been testified, but God is repeating Himself through this prophet in order to give his word to the king of the Moabites.
Numbers 24:20, it talks about the Amalekites, they were the first tribe that harassed the Israelites after the Exodus from Egypt. This was Exodus 17, the Amalekites came and blocked the Israelites, it’s exactly according to God’s Word: I will bless those who bless you, and those who will curse you, I will curse.
Whenever the Amalekites were completely wiped out, they were dwindling during the era of David and Saul, but they were completely wiped out during the reign of Hezekiah. That happens in 1 Kings 4, King Hezekiah wipes them out, God’s Word is fulfilled exactly. God fulfills the Word for those who hold onto God’s Word and promise exactly.
Numbers 24:21-22 talk about the Kenites, “Kenites will be destroyed when Asshur takes you captive,” and these words would be fulfilled in 1000 years. Numbers 24:23, “Then he uttered his oracle: ;Ah, who can live when God does this?’” Numbers 24:25, “Then Balaam got up and returned home and Balak went his own way.” The people who have nothing to do with God are bound to go their own way.
Unbelievers are separated from God and are destined to wander and suffer in their own way and then go to hell. Jesus Christ has come onto this earth and completely fulfilled the prophecies in the Old Testament, and now every single person who believes in Jesus Christ is a person of God’s covenant. It doesn’t matter if they’re Jewish, Greek or Gentile, whoever believes in Jesus Christ is the descendant of Abraham, and everything is finished.
All our problems come because of the problems of sin, Satan, and hell. Sin is being centered on people and one’s own thoughts. That in itself is a state that is bound to be worked upon by evil spirits. Why do you and I suffer in the field? Because we work according to our thoughts. Whatever you do according to your thoughts will be followed by demons. Because we’re children of God, we must go with God’s Word, and God is bound to give His Word to His children.
When you face a problem, where did this problem come from? It was rightful, it had no choice but to come, and it was necessary to come right now, and it’s simply a revelation of all the things within you. God has allowed this, and you must find God’s plan there. What could be a problem? If you’re facing a problem, there’s no need to resent anyone else, because the thing that was bound to happen is just here now.
If you have cancer, it didn’t come from out of nowhere, all of a sudden. Your spiritual and mental state were constantly in this state, and the cancer was revealed at this time. But even before that point, the cancer was progressing, unseen to your eyes, so just because you didn’t see it doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. It was progressing because you’re constantly stressed and worried, because you’re separated from God and the result is rightfully cancer. The only difference is that now you’re diagnosed by a doctor that you have cancer.
But what should the people of God’s kingdom do? You must find God’s absolute plan. You must quickly restore the spiritual and fundamental reason. You were constantly in a state of spiritual disbelief until your physical and mental state resulted in this, so the only way to get fundamental healing is that, at least now, stand spiritually before God’s Word.
God allowed this to happen, then God has a method. Either God will call you away or He still has a plan for you. It’s the same with your business. Why does your business get destroyed? You were in a constant state that had no choice but to be destroyed, “It was because of COVID,” that’s not true, there were many businesses that did well during the pandemic. You were constantly maintaining the state that has no choice to result in this, a state that was independent of God’s promise. You didn’t even have any abilities, but you were in a state that relied on your own abilities until this resulted. Then what’s the solution? To pray a lot? THat’s the same as a Buddhist, that’s not it. You have to go back to the covenant, that’s God’s plan. You have to go back to the covenant and begin anew.
While you focus on the covenant, God has to give you the answer of conquering Canaan, God has to give you the answer of living in the house you didn’t build, a vineyard you didn’t plant. If you are struggling to get those things, that’s not the answer. The walk of faith for children of God is very good, nothing could be a problem for us. What could possibly be a problem? God allowed this problem so He gives you His Word in the midst of that problem.
Unbelievers don’t believe in God so they have to look for the answer themselves, so they act like the Moabites and later, they just fall into despair and go commit suicide. Ultimately, all the Moabites were destroyed. The people who don’t have God are already spiritually destroyed. But why is it that the people of the covenant are looking at these people who are collapsed on the inside and are shaking because of this outer power which they package themselves?
We are the children of God, you say the kids don’t have faith, but why would children of God not have faith? There’s nothing greater than being a child of God, because if you believe in Jesus Christ, then you become a child of God, then that’s plenty enough. What faith are you talking about? “I am a child of God,” then there are these blessings that are fitting for a child of God. They’re looking for a foolish faith because they don’t know about the real blessings.
Their families raise their children with legalism, so even if they are children of God, they can’t enjoy it because they think they have to earn it with legalism. We were never meant to enjoy the blessings of being a child of God with our bood actions, but simply by the grace making us his children, we can enjoy them naturally. If we fall over, we have no choice but to do that because we are still children of God. You shouldn’t hear this as a joke. If you think of this as just words of comfort, then it’s a big problem. If you want to accomplish something with your actions, there’s not a single example of that in the Bible.
If you believe in Jesus, you’re a child of God and God takes responsibility for His children. It’s not that children of God never fall, even if they fall, they hold onto the covenant. Even in a fallen state, God will follow us around and give us his covenant and blessings. The reason we keep getting stuck is because we are stuck in our legalism, that we have to earn things with our good actions. We have no choice but to be like this. Even still, by Jesus Christ, God considers us righteous and made us His children.
You all have children, and it’s not as if you’re going to kick your children out of the house because of what they do. If a child thinks they have to earn their parents’ love or do something good to receive benefits, that’s a weird kid. But if there’s a child of God, there’s a word fitting for children of God. There’s a separate role and position set apart for the children of God, and that’s being the spiritual prophet, priest, and king in God’s Kingdom, and you have to enjoy it to the point you can stake your life on this status.
You say you’re a child of God, but you live your life as low as a non-believer, worried about how to make a living, how you’re going to eat, those are the prayer topics and concerns of Gentiles who haven’t received salvation and aren’t with God. But children of God seek God’s Kingdom. There’s a difference between us and the children of the earth. 1 Peter 2:9 says the children of God are God’s spiritual prophets, priests, and kings.
Everything follows the king, and you have to enjoy this. But if you’re thinking, “I have to impress God with my ethics, morals, and actions,” legalism is based on the standards of the world. What’s important is who I am, I am a child of God, a citizen of God’s kingdom who has been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. Im’ not such a low level individual, that I will worry about the things to eat on this earth, I will hold onto the mission. I’m establishing God’s kingdom and doing world evangelization. The Israeltie people held onto that covenant and God took care of everything else.
If, instead of holding onto God’s covenant, the Israelites decided to fight the Moabites themselves, that’s how everyone dies, people who go to a church that doesn’t have a Gospel center, will end their lives in the introduction. They spend their entire lives saying “This person is a problem,” and trying to fix the problem, but if you leave them alone God will work accordingly. For us, we enjoy with faith the mission to make disciples of all nations. “May every work I do be used as an instrument to make disciples to save all nations.” Then, the work of making disciples of all nations is bound to continue to take place. While you do this and don’t ask for anything, God will naturally fill your business and job to do His works.
Go to all nations and heal them because they’re spiritually and mentally diseased without knowing the gospel. If this is something doctors could do, why would Jesus have told us to do it? This is not something doctors can do, this is a spiritual problem so doctors cannot heal it. The doctors themselves cannot solve their own problems. If this was something possible for a president, they could do it, but it’s not. There is no kind of policy or politics that can be made to solve spiritual problems.
That’s the reason God entrusted this work to us separately, so we can do this work, set apart. That’s the authority we have. Even the president has authority but we receive the authority when we are doing his work. The authority of God is established on earth through us. “Feed my lambs,” as you raise the remnants and the next generation, God fulfills His Word. This must realistically and actually become your covenant.
Those who did not hold onto the covenant wandered in the wilderness for 40 years and died without seeing the conquest of Canaan. Simply put, they spent their entire lives worrying and struggling over eurie studies and work, “Why is it working? Why is it not working out?” and then they die, these are people who don’t believe in God’s covenant. God has given incredible blessings and the authority of being a child of God, but you throw those away and you live like an unbeliever.
These people will be completely enslaved by Satan, the world, money, and success. THose are the people of the Old testament. God told us to not be a church like that. People like that are completely enslaved by the world. We have been given all the status and authority that allows us to change and save this world, but we let go of all of it. Everything has already been given to us within Jesus Christ, but we lack faith so we let go of all of it. It doesn’t matter how much you struggle and try, because God gave you everything but you don’t know it so you don’t get it.
By Jesus Christ, God has changed me to be a righteous person. I’m just righteous now. Even though my acts are so sinful, because of Jesus Christ, God regards me as righteous. May you not lose hold of God’s covenant because of your actions. Accurately speaking, we are sinners but we’re righteous. Our capabilities have no choice but to sin, but Jesus Christ has covered us all with His righteousness so we are righteous, but unbelievers are destroyed because they are sinners. They are destroyed as a result of their actions because the righteousness of God is not with them, but we have received that blessing.
Now, we hold onto this covenant and go into our field every day, to do what? You’re not going there to eat and survive, but if you think that way, you’re going to live your life in the field, losing hold of God’s word completely irrelevant to the covenant. Today, you are working, looking forward to how God’s promise will be fulfilled in your field, and as you simply do that, God is bound to work upon your studies and work.
Though you make so many mistakes, God has to cover up for your mistakes. There’s no way we can succeed with our own cleanliness and diligence. The Israelites didn’t even know the Moabites were going to attack them, God has to protect them. Just like us, there will be enemies that are attacking our work and business and God has to protect us. The reason God would protect our work is because we have the faith to relay that covenant through us.
Then, all the blessings that God gives will be greater the more you hold onto God’s covenant. People also chase after the blessing of their children, but if you’re simply following the covenant, God has to work to give you that blessing for the sake of God’s covenant. There are people in the world that are killing others and committing sucide for material possessions but as we are following God’s covenant you have to receive the evidence of God giving you those answers. Now, because God is continuously giving you more inner strength, you’ll have more leisure, whereas before you were always feeling pressed, now you’re able to smile. Before, you were looking so ugly, but this is how God has to guide you because you can’t do it with your own strength.
God fulfills the covenant through you in this way. The Temple Construction to fulfill God’s covenant. This entire world is covered with buildings, but what building are we talking about? The Temple that fulfills God’s covenant, I hold firmly to this, then God is bound to work upon us and we enjoy it in advance. No reason to debate whether it will work or not, because we hold onto God’s promise in advance and enjoy it because it will be fulfilled. We see what will happen in advance to all nations, the 237 nations, and we work forward. What’s going to happen to our church in the future? God is going to work with the covenant we hold. Do we have to do something well? What good could we possibly do?
There’s a lot of people who leave here because they hate to see how people pretend to be good. If God’s Holy Spirit works, then things happen beyond our imagination. We must enjoy this covenant in faith every morning, prayer is not something you do, and when you go out into the field, you enjoy and confirm the covenant in your field. Then, instead of being stressed out by the things that happen at your job, you have the faith and enjoyment of the Covenant and are able to overcome the environment of your job. Then, studying and working are no longer labor, but it’s an instrument to fulfill God’s covenant.
It’s no longer about praying, “Give me this, give me that,” but if you hold onto God’s covenant, God will give you everything you need, and God desires to give you evidence that we may stand as witnesses of this. The covenant does not get relayed through words, but it gets relayd to the next generations through evidence. Yes, relaying the words isn’t bad, but you have to have the evidence. If you have faith, you’ll have the works of faith.
Look at the Israelites, they went into Canaan, and then they made a commemorative monument with the rocks they collected from the bottom of the Jordan River, so God is bound to give us the evidence so that the next generation will see the works that God has done. We are the people of the covenant, nothing happens based on our efforts or actions. It must be the work of God that is the greatest blessing of God’s people. May you restore this blessing as well and restore the blessing of the covenant being fulfilled.
Prayer
Let us pray holding onto the Word God gave us together. Jesus Christ, the King of righteousness and King of Peace has called us as the children of God to declare this covenant. May we live as the main figures of God with this covenant. Let us pray.
Our next prayer topic, this week RU is continuing, and let’s also pray for the missions fields. In particular, the Karen people, and let’s also pray for the African countries Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, and let’s also pray for South America. I received Word from Assistant Pastor Kim Su Yo that there’s a couple from Brazil who will move here, and they speak four different languages English, Korean, Brazil and one other language and there’s a nurse who will receive the gospel, and so let’s pray for them to receive the gospel, as well as Gregory Kim, who came to our church on Sunday, he met another women, and delivered the way of salvation to her so let’s pray for them to receive the gospel, and God’s working according to God’s time schedule. Let’s pray together for the missions field and the multiethnic people.
Today I received prayer requests for two people. Pastor Yoo Tae Son’s first son is not doing well, we used to spend a lot of time together, so keep him in our prayers because ultimately they’re in God’s plans. Secondly, Paula St. John’s husband, Peter, a Vietnam veteran, and after an incident from that war, he became disabled. He comes from a prominent family, his father was a doctor, and he prides himself in being a US Marine, so they’ve been requesting our prayers, but he’s back in the emergency room. Paula St. John said she’ll lead the children’s orchestra once her husband gets well again.
In terms of Pastor Yoo Tae son it seems that one of the elders should reach out to the pastors and say we are praying for them because they actually heard it was terminal. So, the pastor actually put it on the chatroom for pastors, when a parent hears that there’s no hope, that’s all they see, so please pray for them. It’s not just so we can talk about whether someone is sick or not, but we may have one heart in prayer for them. Let’s pray for these two things.
Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unlimited love of God, and the filling, guidance, and communion of the Holy Spirit, be upon all the people of God, the multiethnics and the remnants, who wants to hold onto the promise and covenant of God, and upon all their businesses and all their schools, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen