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Prophet for Sale Or Rent (Numbers 22:1-21)

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Prophet for Sale Or Rent (Numbers 22:1-21) Prophet for Sale or Rent BALAAM • PART 2 • NUMBERS 22:1-21 Baxter T. Exum (#1587) Four Lakes Church of Christ Madison, Wisconsin March 21, 2021 **COVID-19 SPLIT SERVICE** It is good to be with you this morning! I hope all of you have the elements for the Lord’s Supper, either from home or from the table in the back room, as John will be leading us in the prayers for the Supper right after we study the word of God this morning. And then, following the Lord’s Supper, Josh will be leading us in, “Living By Faith” (#400). Before we begin, I’d like to share a letter from an inmate who is enrolled in our Bible correspondence course program. These lessons we send out are a significant part of our budget, a number of our people are involved in this, and it is a great outreach opportunity. In Hebrews 13:3, the Bible tells us to, “Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them,” and that is what we plan to continue doing, if the Lord wills. What I’m about to read comes from Willie, at the Racine Correctional Institute. Among other things, he says this, In the letter I received from your church, it stated if I had any question or concerns, I could write in at this address with them. Well, I do have a question or two, and this is the reason why I’m writing in. My first question is: Is there a sister church of Four Lakes Church of Christ in Illinois (the Lake County area)? The reason I ask is because I am from Illinois (Waukegan), and when I get out I’m going back. I was looking for a home church and since I’m already working with you guys and or gals why change if I don’t have to? Also, I was wondering, would it be asking too much for someone to pray for me? I have been having a string of bad luck or whatever it is, but I lost my apartment, I lost my job, $2500 was taken from me by someone who I trusted, I lost my car, I was beat up, and I was sentenced to 14 years in the Department of Correction (6 years in and 8 years out) for selling a very small amount of drugs. I’ve been locked up for three years now, and all the money is gone, all the women are gone, no one seems to care. “Out of sight, out of mind,” is very true. I pray a lot, but my prayers seem to be forced and not as smooth as I think they should be. So, can someone please put me in their prayers? Page 2 of 8 We have responded with some information concerning the church down in Waukegan (where I’ve actually preached a few times through the years), but it seems the best thing we can do is remember Willie in our prayers today. And thanks to all of you for continuing to support this good work financially. I know we haven’t prayed specifically for our contribution as a church for nearly a year now, but as we give (online or by mailing our checks), some very good things are being done, and we need to be aware of this. As our tradition has been since the pandemic began, we have rearranged the sermon to include God’s plan of salvation at the beginning of each lesson instead of at the end. Whether you are joining us online, on the phone, or here in person, we want everybody to have at least a summary of God’s plan of salvation. The good news is: God loved us so much that he sent his only Son to offer up his life for us on the cross. He died, he was buried, he was raised up on the third day, and in response, we believe the message, we turn away from sin, we confess our faith in Jesus as being the Son of God, and then we allow ourselves to be buried with him in baptism, for the forgiveness of sins. At that point, we are born into God’s family, and the Christian life begins. And once again, we have an example. Just a few days ago, Kaylee Culler was baptized in Boiling Springs, South Carolina. Michael Grooms is the preacher there. And we share this by way of encouragement: What Kaylee has done this week, you can do this morning. If you have any questions, if you’d like to study together, please get in touch. This morning we begin a new series of lessons, based on a request from one of our Christian sisters here in Madison. I’ll put the contact information up here again, but as most of you know by now, much of what we study in sermon form goes back in some way to questions or comments from all of you. With 1189 chapters, the Bible is a huge book, there is no way for us to cover everything, and so all of you help me narrow it down, and I appreciate that. If you have anything we need to study in sermon form, please let me know. Several weeks ago, one of our sisters asked that we look into the story of Balaam and the donkey, and specifically, Balaam meeting with the king and God being angry with that, even though God seems to have given him permission. Well, a few weeks ago I started digging into this, and I suddenly realized why it has been so long since we’ve studied Balaam: The whole incident with Balaam is rather difficult to understand! As far as I can tell, I’ve never preached on Balaam and the donkey before, except for as a small part of another lesson on making decisions. And yes, much of what we find about Balaam does teach us something about making decisions. If you are contemplating a major life change (a new job, a move, a new relationship), if you are asking the question, “What does God want me to do?”, Balaam has something for you! But Balaam is an interesting and rather complex character, and references to this man are scattered all throughout the Bible (including one reference we looked at just briefly a few weeks ago when we studied Revelation). As far as I can tell, we have more than 60 references to Balaam throughout the Bible. One author has said that, “Like smoke, Balaam wafts through the pages of Scripture.” I would agree with that! I have seen a lot of wafting of smoke the past few weeks! Balaam is everywhere. So, I started with a Bible dictionary, then a Bible encyclopedia, then a concordance (to get the big picture), but most of the references to Balaam are found in four chapters in the book of Numbers – Numbers 22-25. So, I would invite you to be turning with me to Numbers 22. By way of background, we need to remember that the book of Numbers is a record of what happens during those 40 years when the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness. They escape as slaves from Egypt, they get the Ten Commandments, but due to a lack of faith on the part of 10 out of the 12 spies who were sent to scope out the Promised Land, God punishes them by causing them to wander for 40 years. This is a group of somewhere between 2-3 million people (very roughly the population of the entire city of Chicago). Well, toward Page 3 of 8 the end of these 40 years, as they get closer to the Promised Land, the surrounding kingdoms start getting nervous. I think we understand. Today, if we had a group the size of Chicago amassed right on the other side of the Yahara River down by the Beltline, we would start to get nervous as well. Who are these people? What do they want? We are about to be slaughtered! I’ll put a map on the wall up here and try to give a bit of a preview, some things to keep in mind as we get to our passage. As they make their final approach, they defeat a number area kings and camp out in the plains of Moab, right across the Jordan River from Jericho. So, this is it, and Balak, the king of Moab is getting nervous: I’ve got 2-3 million people camped out in my backyard; this is not good! He didn’t know this, but God had told the Israelites not to bother the Moabites and the Ammonites. They were descendants of Lot, and God had promised them the land they were on. The Israelites were just passing through. But, not knowing this, Balak is nervous, and his main concern is economic. Like a teenager coming home for spring break, these people are about to eat everything we have around here! By the way, this is the same conflict between Lot and Abraham’s people many years before this. Balak is worried that history is about to repeat itself. The land cannot sustain all of these people. In response to this fear, knowing that there is no way he can defeat the Israelites in battle, King Balak hires a prophet by the name of Balaam. And Balaam is a rather strange character. He comes from Pethor, near the river (most likely the Euphrates); so, he is nearly 400 miles to the northeast, and this man has a well-deserved reputation for cursing people, and his curses apparently work.
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