As a Remnant we have the status and authority to block curses and disasters (Numbers 22:1-14)
We just read Numbers 22, but the content we’ll be talking about extends to Numbers 23 and 24 as well. The time period of Numbers 22, is around the 41st year since the Israelites left Egypt. This means that it’s about the time that all the soldiers that were eligible to fight from the first generation are too old to fight now, and the next generation is rising up to be the soldiers. Among the first generation, there were only leaders like Joshua and Caleb. So now, after they had spent 40 years in the wilderness around the same area, God is allowing them to go into the land of Canaan.
But in this process of going through the land of Canaan, they had to pass through multiple lands. But God specifically told them not to disturb the three nations of Moab, Ammon, and Edom. The reason is because the Edomites were the descendants of Esau. God gave a promise to Esau that, “I will give you this land,” God was fulfilling the Word He gave as a promise long ago. The first two tribes are the descendants of Abraham’s nephew Lot, and the children that he had with his two daughters.
In today’s passage, we read about Moab. The king of Moab is Balak, and we also heard about a prophet named Balaam. Last week, we heard about the Amorites and the Amorite king. The Israelites completely destroyed these two kingdoms and now, they’ve come to Moab. There was a promise that the Israelites would not touch the Moabites, however, the king of the Moabites made a decision that he could not possibly allow the Israelites to come any closer, because they saw that millions of people of Israelites just destroyed the other two tribes.
Maybe if they were in a mountainous region, they would be able to hide the numbers but in Numbers 22:1, it says they were on the plain of Moab, and once they crossed over the Jordan, they would see Jericho. Right now, the Israelites are organizing themselves to cross over the Jordan to go into Jericho. But the problem here is that in this final front, they are passing the Moabites and the King Balak and the Moabites are terrified of the Israelites and their huge numbers . And of course it’s rightful because he is the king of the Moabites, he is terrified and filled with dread.
The reason is because he had the thought that the Israelites were such a huge crowd that they would trample over the Moabites. That’s Numbers 22:4, they’re so afraid, “This horde is going to lick up everything around us, as an ox licks up the grass of the field,” just as they did to the other two tribes. This is the characteristics of the non-believers that are living. If someone does not have God and becomes king, they cannot live their lives boldly. The Israelites had not even hinted or tried to attack the Moabites, but from his experience and from the rumors he was hearing, he reached the conclusion that he was going to be destroyed.
This is a non-believer who does not have God, but it’s even more so for the commoners. People shake if their opponents have larger numbers. If the other person has something that seems physically bigger than what I have, I’ll count myself out first because unbelievers separated from God are their own god; they cannot escape from themselves. The king of Moab could not escape the land of Moab. That’s all unbelievers.
If you believed in God, you would be able to transcend the Moabites and believe in God instead, but these people couldn’t do that. Because of that, every nation has to have enough strength to be able to fight against and overcome their enemies, but they look at the number of Israelites and say, “We cannot fight!” The way you look at everything is that, if someone is physically stronger than you, you’re going to be filled with fear.
This is what’s happening in the world today. There’s no nation that can fight against America, not even the truth or anything else can stand in the way; nothing can stand against this power. This is the characteristic of people who are living separated from God. So, the Moabites are desperate to make their people successful so they can live well eternally, in other words, they have to have success, but it looks like they’re going to fail because of the Israelites, so from their perspective, there is no answer.
That’s when they called the elders and they had an idea, that’s the content of Numbers 22:5. “If we bring a prophet to curse the Israelites, we may be able to overcome them,” so they look for a famous prophet, Balaam. So the officials come with a lot of money and visit prophet Balaam and they deliver the message from king Balak, “The king needs you to curse the Israelites so that the Moabites may be victorious over the Israelites.”
So, Balaam said to them, “Stay here one night and I will pray and tell you what the LORD tells me.” When Balaam prays to the LORD, the LORD responds to him with His Word. Numbers 22:9, “Who are these men with you?” Do you think God is asking because He really doesn’t know? God is the One Who knows everything, why would he ask this question. He is pointing out those who don’t have the covenant, “These people do not have the covenant. The people who do not have the covenant have found you to curse and to strike down those with the covenant. Do you know what you’re doing right now?”
Numbers 22:11 says, “A people that has come out of Egypt covers the face of the land,” this is how popular the Israelites were, “Now come and put a curse on them for me, perhaps then I may be able to fight them and drive them away” this is the method of non-believers if they cannot fight their own way, then they have no choice but to depend on the power of gods or spirits through religions or idols.
But God said to Balaam in Numbers 22:12, “Do not go with them. You must not put a curse because that are blessed.” God is saying, “that the Israelites are blessed so don’t curse them because even if you do, it will be useless.” It’s the same people, there is no difference between the people; they’re all people and they’re all descendants of Abraham, but there’s only one difference: are they the chosen people of God or not?
In other words, are you the descendant of Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob, or not? Are you within the family line that was promised in Genesis 3:15, or are you outside of that? You must be someone within the lineage of Abraham through the covenant of Jesus Christ will be born in order for you to receive the blessings that were promised to Abraham. These people weren’t chosen by God because they demonstrated some kind of ability, but they simply believed in the covenant of Jesus Christ who is to come, and even that is by God’s grace, they were blessed.
If these Israelites did not believe in the true God, they would have to fight. No matter what, the Moabites would have to destroy the Israelites through some political or religious efforts to maintain their hegemony. This is the image of everyone living in the world today. No matter what, because I don’t have enough power to win, I have to win by using all these strategies and methods and having political alliances and religious powers.
However, God watches over the people of God who believe in the covenant of Christ. The Israelites never said a single word to the Moabites, the Moabites are just scared by themselves and they were creating this ruckus by themselves. If you receive an answer, then the darkness in your field will recognize that, and the unbelievers will know, they will be afraid, “Oh, that is someone who is with God.”
God told Abraham, “Go to the land I will show you,” the land where Jesus Christ would come. God promised to send Jesus Christ to this earth through the lineage of Abraham, so He is telling them to go to the land of Canaan. It seemed like God was talking about the land of Canaan, but He was actually talking about Jesus Christ. The geographical location is important simply because people had to live there, however, we are living in a time schedule where Jesus Christ has come to earth and must be relayed and testified to the rest of the world.
If you understand God’s covenant well, then you’ll realize you’re already blessed, regardless of your efforts or abilities. What is religion? Religion is thinking that “I’m only blessed when I’m doing something that’s aligned with God.” There are many people who live a religious life that way, it means they don’t know who they are, so the devil uses that. “That’s right, you’ve never been aligned with God,” so your own religious thoughts are being used by the devil. Even though we’ve already received the blessings, I say to myself, “I can’t do this. I’ve never done anything for God.”
These thoughts will make a person lose hold of their blessings, but God promised Abraham, “You will be a source of blessings, and through you, all nations on earth will hear this gospel.” God promised an incredible blessing. If you correctly and accurately understand God’s Word, you’ll be liberated from your own life. If you do not understand, then you will continuously be bound by yourself so that you can’t understand.
God promised to make you into a source of blessings but we don’t believe it. God says, “I have called you as the one who will deliver this blessing of the gospel to all 237 nations,” but you say, “How could someone like me do that?” You have little faith. Not only that, but the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion to devour those with unbelief as in 1 Peter 5:7.
If you realize God’s Word, you’ll realize there’s nothing for us to do, but because we don’t understand God’s Word, we live with our own thoughts and our own worries. “Whoever curses you, I will curse,” you don’t know who you are. “I will bless those who bless you.” This is what God tells Abraham in Genesis 12, but He repeats this in Numbers 22. What’s important is that you know who you are. Once you believe in God, you become a source of blessings as a child of God.
Now, your new direction in life is going towards the land of Canaan where Jesus Christ will be spread to the rest of the world, go into this gospel. Then, you can watch and see that anyone beside you trying to block the proclamation of the gospel will be blocked by God. It doesn’t matter whether they try to hire another prophet or not; it’s all in God’s hands. If you correctly understand the gospel, you’ll be liberated from yourself. If you do not understand properly, you’ll constantly be bound by your own thoughts.
You lived so diligently but that’s not enough. You keep on doing a lot of different things but it’s not going to cut it. You have to know who you are. Through Jesus Christ, I’m a source of blessings, a child of God. We have been given this incredible status and authority, we’ve been given the authority to conquer the world, and on our behalf, God is promising to block the curses and to bless. Through Balaam’s mouth, God is testifying to these people that the Israelites are blessed by God, “Don’t even think about cursing them.”
But the first generation wasn’t able to believe that, they lived so diligently without believing it. Because of their disbelief, they passed away in the wilderness. We need to hold onto this covenant of the land of Canaan and enjoy it. We need to enjoy the true rest God gives us, but instead, we’re always shaking in our worries because the standard is “me.”
We look at our environment and it’s so pitiful, we look at our abilities and conclude, “I have no strength.” So you may be correct, but it’s because you’ve lost hold of the true spiritual you. Once you have the Exodus, all problems have already been finished. You need to have the experience of faith regarding this covenant in order to become someone mature, as in our pulpit message in Hebrews 5.
You have believed in Jesus Christ and have received salvation by grace, but if you never experienced this gospel as your own, then you’re always going to be bound in your self-centeredness, always caught up in scars living by yourself like that. The only way to experience it is if you believe, and if you don’t believe, you simply pray to receive faith. Don’t pray for unnecessary things, but pray for God’s Word, the prayer that God desires the most.
Everything was finished, everything was finished in Egypt. Now, God is guiding us perfectly so we have no choice but to go into the land of Canaan by guiding us through the pillar of cloud, fire and giving us the Tabernacle. The problem is, they had no feeling or emotion regarding the Exodus, and because it becomes so weak, they go back into their old nature with which they lived while in Egypt. If we don’t have water, we say we don’t have water; if we don’t have this, we complain about not having that, even though God has supplied all our needs.
It means we have forgotten who we are, it means we have lost hold of the covenant. Because we don’t know who we are anymore, we’re confused about whether we need to go to Canaan or to go back to Egypt. As we live in this world, we get confused whether we should be living diligently to eat and survive, or diligently towards world evangelization. So, we live so diligently but we collapse in the field because of our unbelief.
Don’t you think God is warning us to not do that? If you properly understand God’s Word and say “amen” to that, you’ll be liberated from yourself, then God will say that these people have received blessings. “Don’t touch a hair on their head,” why is that? Because, who can block the ones who will carry out God’s covenant of going into Canaan? The saved people of God head towards God’s covenant of world evangelization then who can block them? But if you’re going there to make money, people will interfere from all over.
You keep living your life in the direction of eating and living, so every time you fall into unbelief, the darkness attacks you. Even if you think about this for one second or one minute, you’ll receive the answer. Are you going to rely on your diligent effort? It means you’re relying on yourself. Are you going to rely on success? Success cannot stabilize you. Once you face a disaster, that success is over. Do you think all the ideologies and philosophies and the knowledge you have will keep you secure? Once the devil comes in and attacks, you’ll be broken.
Are you going to trust and rely on money? What happens if you don’t have money? What will you do if God gets rid of your money? You’re relying on things that don’t have any value; these are not things to believe in. We must believe in God’s unshaking covenant but because you believe in baseless things, you’re always shaking.
We trust in our own experiences and knowledge, but we shake because we’re not the truth. Something may have been true back then, but it’s not true now. It may have been true back in the world, but not now. The circumstances in which that was true back then are no longer true now, so we’re not holding onto anything of substance so we have no choice but to shake and fall. We must hold onto the covenant God promised us in order for God to guide us, then the answers will be in our business and there’s no need for us to fight against the Moabites, it is for the covenant that God will give us the answer, and protect us, and it’s for that reason that God blesses the next generations, too.
Anything you have to earn with your own diligence cannot be maintained. If you’re working so diligently in the wilderness to try and educate and discipline your kids, and to make a living for yourself, you may be able to accomplish those things, but that is a life that will crumble. For example, there were venomous snakes that attacked the Israelites; who’s going to block that? “We just have to plant a good church,” but what’s going to happen if there’s a bunch of venomous snakes that destroys your entire family and community? God must block that.
As we’re living our lives, God must block the curses and disasters for us, and that promise is the promise of Christ. It is the promise that we’ve already been liberated from all curses and disasters. It’s a promise that has already destroyed all authority of the devil, and Christ is the promise that He is with us now through the Holy Spirit. Those who believe in this are the children of God.
Now, they are the royal priesthood, they’ve been given the authority to proclaim this marvelous light, so we may conquer with it. We destroy the kingdom of Satan with this. That is how our studies and businesses should take place, but if we’re relying on something baseless, everything will be destroyed and nothing will remain, these things that don’t even make sense.
You’re saying things that make no sense. Quickly come into the covenant. Stop putting your heart to rely on things that have no choice but to be destroyed. Then, the power of God’s throne will follow you.
These people who came to find Prophet Balaam said, “Let’s go,” but Balaam said, “I’m not going to go with you.” So, the officials of Moab took the message back to the king“The prophet isn’t going to follow us,” so they bring even more higher officials and more money, and then Balaam says to Balak, and it doesn’t say this in the Old Testament, but in 1 Peter 2:15, it says, Balaam was tempted by money, “he loved the wages of wickedness.” It may be hard to see this in the Old Testament, but in 1 Peter 2:15, it is referring to the second time the king of Balak went to Balaam and the prophet didn’t have to go and the Lord told him not to, but he did because of the grand sum of money, and God got really mad.
Balaam is taking his donkey and is riding to the land of Moab with officials, so God is mad and blocks the donkey’s path with an angel. This is the content of the second half of Numbers 22. The donkey is going towards Moab and sees the angel of the LORD and gets shocked. Because this donkey was so startled because of the angel in front of him and was surrounded on all sides, he crashed Balaam into the wall. This donkey was frightened three times, and God gave the donkey the ability to speak.
The donkey says to Balaam, “I’ve served you my whole life, have I ever acted like this before? Why do you think I’m acting like this today?” That’s God using the mouth of a donkey to tell Balaam to not go. God had already told Balaam not to go to Moab, but he was so tempted by his greed for money that he went anyway.
So God said, “Now that you’re already going, just go, but only deliver the words I will tell you.” So, Balaam goes to the King of Moab. Imagine how excited and eager King Balak must have been, “Now that we have this famous prophet Balaam to curse the Israelites,they will be cursed, and we will be able to overcome!” From that point on, he receives God’s Word from the prophet. The king asked the prophet to set up these altars, and God prophesied this way three times.
God said three times, “You cannot curse them,” so King Balak of Moab is facing a big problem. The Israelite people are numbering in the millions, they destroyed the Ammorites and they are on their way to the Moabites, and so he’s trembling now. That’s an unbeliever. It doesn’t matter how much they succeed, they’re still afraid whether they succeed or not. Whenever they see anything big, they’re afraid, “Am I going to be destroyed because of that?” That’s why they keep having to build the Tower of Babel. They build it again, they get scattered. That’s the life of all unbelievers.
The unbelievers look at this, does it make sense that they would say, “It’s okay”? It just means they don’t know who they are; it just means we don’t understand God’s covenant. If you look at yourself, and then you look at Christ, you will know who you are. If you look at Christ and look at unbelievers, you’ll realize that no matter how diligently they live, it’s a futile life. It doesn’t matter how highly they succeed or how high they climb with their abilities, they’re always afraid of being destroyed. The fact that they are separated from God itself means that they are living with fear. Then it doesn’t matter whatever they do, they can never escape this.
Only when the true rest and peace of God come into us will our fears go away. In other words, only when we believe in God’s covenant will our fears disappear. What is the covenant that those who are saved must hold onto? You must know who you are. If you look at yourself just physically, you’re looking at yourself without the covenant.
Who are you through Christ? I am a descendant of Abraham, a source of blessings, a child of God. In your heart, you’ll always say, “So what? Have you accomplished anything? Do you have anything? You say you’re a child of God, but what have you actually done? You have no skills, power, or money.” That’s how Satan will constantly grieve you. “What have you done with your life, exactly?” Satan continually makes it so that you don’t know who you are. It may seem like you have a great sense of conscience, but it’s actually unbelief.
Jesus Christ has died on the cross to take all the curses and disasters for me, I have no more curses. He resurrected in 3 days and now He is with me forever as the spirit of God and life. I am now a child of God who is with me for eternity. I am a source of blessings, a child of God who will save this region, my family line, and the 237 nations. People begin to change with this faith. It doesn’t matter how much you know, if you don’t believe it, then you will keep on having works of disbelief.
Prayer is continuously acknowledging this. If you don’t know these mysteries, you’ll keep asking for things, but we don’t have to do that because we’re children of God. In all the fields, your schools and your jobs, God has without a doubt prepared people who are to receive salvation. People don’t receive the gospel because of your persuasion. Unbelievers are trapped under Satan’s authority, stuck in the 12 states of the unbeliever, but can only be freed with the gospel that you have.
Holding onto that covenant and going into your field is what it means to go into the land of Canaan. But if we lose hold of that covenant to save them, and we just go into our business to make money and survive, we’re going back to Egypt. Then the results for that person will be destruction after wandering the wilderness for 40 years. In other words they will spend their entire lives worrying about eating and their going to be destroyed with nothing taking place.
However, if I go into the field holding onto the covenant, destroying Satan’s kingdom and establishing the kingdom of Jesus Christ then things will be blessed even if I don’t do anything. It means we gain God’s blessings that follow us, this is a person who is holding onto the covenant in their field. But most people lose hold of the covenant. That’s why they live their lives completely bearing all the resentment, complaints, and disbelief. As they live their lives, they are going to have things like cancer because of the stress. We have to quickly escape from that.
It doesn’t matter how much you try to calculate by yourself, that’s just your own manipulation; it has nothing to do with God. It doesn’t matter how much you struggle, if you lost hold of the covenant, you lost hold of everything. Without a doubt, you must have faith. Even if there’s nothing we see, we must go into our field holding onto the faith of the covenant, that there will be people here who will receive salvation, and be raised up as disciples.
We have the faith that we’ve received salvation, but we don’t have faith in the covenant that God has prepared for us in the field so we’re always being attacked by our disbelief. The Israelite people were also saved, so they had the faith, but they didn’t have the faith regarding the covenant of conquering the land of Canaan.
So, what’s going to happen? All they cared about was living a good life as they did in Egypt. Other people were succeeding, so they have to chase after success. Success isn’t the covenant, so you keep on holding onto things that’s not the covenant “I want to live a better life than other people” that’s not the covenant. It is conquering your field with the world evangelization that breaks down the devil. That’s the purpose for which Jesus Christ will be with us with all authority in heaven and on earth.
You must begin every single day with this covenant. As soon as you wake up in the morning, may you confirm who you are in Christ. You need to go into your field with the faith in God’s covenant, that here in this field, God has prepared those who will receive the Gospel and who will stand as disciples. That’s prayer, enjoying this is prayer. But if you lose hold of this covenant, you’ll have to pray for unnecessary things, asking for God to work upon your business today.
You’ll live exactly like a nonbeliever, “Please protect our expenditures from leaking out too much,” but if you do the work God desires, God says He will take care of everything for you, “You will live in houses that you did not build and eat from vineyards you did not plant.” The Israelite people were following the covenant and nothing could stand in their way because God resolves everything for them.
On the other hand, unbelievers have to struggle and think their lives are over if they foresee a tiny problem because their standards are themselves. “If something doesn’t work out for me, everything is ruined. If someone is stronger than me, then I fail.” That’s the thoughts of the King of Moab. These are the thoughts that successful unbelievers have.
But you and I must not live a life like these religious people. We must live with Jesus Christ God given us, the solution to all problems. Nothing is a problem. For us, as we go on this path of the covenant journey of saving the region, the family, the churches, 237 nations, 5000 unreached people groups, God provides everything, and the works will only arise for those who believe. No matter how much we do, if we do not believe, we will only have the works of unbelief.
Prayer
So, I hope the blessing of God may be upon you so you may restore the faith in the covenant today and that Jesus Christ, the High Priest, will be the center of all your thoughts and heart. Let us pray together at this time, let us pray for our fields. Let us pray for all the people whom God has prepared in all the fields to rise up as disciples, the non-believers prepared to receive the gospel, and may the people who are in need of healing be brought back to the church through me.
Our second prayer topic, there are two more days for the RU classes. We’re thankful we’re able to use our sanctuary for RU. And I told this to you on Sunday, but the church isn’t about what I want. If you think, “The church should be a tight knit family where we only have a few spoons,” that’s just your family, but this is for world evangelization.
God has given us a church and the church building for world evangelization, to use for RU and anything else. We must have a Temple Construction God prepares so this may continue for the next generation. This is what God has done, then we confirm the works of faith for those who have faith. Let us pray together for RU and Temple Construction. Let’s pray for the multiethnics and the remnants who are physically weak or sick.
This week, I was praying. We do the Young Adult regional church on Thursdays at 6pm and there are a few people who can’t make that time. There’s a young adult in Nigeria and Kenya who wants to join, and he has to wake up at 4am in the morning. And I realized there’s no need for us to do that, because if we adjust our time to 10pm in our time, that would be 8am his time, so we can make it later. If we do that, then maybe he would be able to join our training more easily.
There’s another young adult in the Karen tribe, who says he cannot join because he has work, so it would be good if he’s able to join and meet later on Thursdays, so it’s not much of a change in our thoughts, but it takes a few days for these thoughts to develop. That’s just how humans are, because we have to train people in God’s Word. So I hope you will keep praying this way. Either way, the Word must be relayed.
If someone doesn’t follow God’s Word, they are not a disciple. It doesn’t matter how much they pretend to be, they’re not a disciple. A disciple is someone who only follows the Word of Christ, and if they don’t follow the word of Christ, you can understand that they are not a disciple. The disciple we think about and the disciple Jesus thinks about is very different because the disciple Jesus thinks about only follows Jesus’ words. But in terms of what we can do, we can be more considerate in terms of the timing.
For the young adult regional church, we can keep it at 6pm the way it is, but just one person who needs to interpret can come at a later time, because in the future, there will be several more people. Either way, in this online age, it is the great conditions to do the best evangelization. The Word of God’s covenant must go properly into Africa to break the disasters; otherwise, no matter how diligently they try on their own, they cannot have continuation. So at this time, let us pray for our missions field. Let us pray for Africa, Central and South America, Navajo, Mongolia, Karen, and the 237 nations and the 5,000 people groups.
So as we were listening to the lecture from RU, he had quite a revival in Korea, and I was wondering what God really was trying to tell us. There were a few messages God really put into my heart. The speaker said the same thing as I say, “Finish everything in the morning.” You need to go out into the world already having concluded everything you’re going to do within today’s Word, today’s prayer, and today’s evangelism ms. If you’re not able to do that, then nothing is working out, and it doesn’t matter how much you wander around the covenant, because you’ll crumble that day. Your life is an accumulation of todays, so that’s why your today is so important.
Remnants, you must be certain . There’s nothing else you’re doing, you’re just holding onto the covenant of God, then you will know. Think about what God has given to you in advance, for example, the people you’ll meet today will be the ones you’ll relay the gospel to, and God has prepared everything for that. Then, there’s no reason for me to say to do early morning prayer or not.
The disciples will rightfully do it. If you do it because I tell you to do it, it doesn’t mean anything, because if you don’t your life will not work out. If you guys are working and you can’t come out to the church, then I hope you’ll without a doubt have summit time at home in the morning because God gives you your covenant in advance and fulfills it.
God, we thank You. We thank You for calling us as the people of the covenant and the source of blessings. We believe You will bless us to be the ones to save the land of Canaan, the 237 nations, the 5000 unreached people groups, the region in our family line. We pray that wherever we go that we will find the God-prepared disciples, and may we live the lives of conquerors who move the people in the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God.
Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, and the indwelling, working, guidance, and communion of the Holy Spirit, be upon all the people of God, the mutliethnic people, and the remnants who desire to live the work of conquering, with world evangelization, upon all their businesses and studies, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen.