Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Mar 21 2019 - Numbers 22:36-23:12 – Balaam's oracle

Yesterday the Lord warned Balaam in the most dramatic fashion that if he continued to go with the messengers he must only declare over the Israelites the words that the Lord would give him.

When Balak heard that Balaam was coming he was both pleased but also angry; pleased to have secured (as he thought) the services of this powerful prophet, but angry that Balaam had taken so long in coming. The two men have very different understandings of the role of the prophet. Balak appears to think that the prophet's power resides entirely in him; he can pronounce a blessing or curse and those over whom it is pronounced suffer the consequences. Balaam, on the contrary, is only too aware that he has no power of his own – he is not a magician equipped with magic spells. If his words are to have any effect on those over whom he declares them, they must be the words that the Lord has given him. The power lies entirely with the word of the Lord.

Balaam seeks to explain this to the king saying, "I can’t say whatever I please. I must speak only what God puts in my mouth" (22:38). Nevertheless, Balaam wants to please the king and to secure a decent reward for his work. Therefore he hits on a plan to try to win the Lord around. He has the king's men build seven altars and together the king and the prophet offer a bull and a ram on each altar. Then the prophet goes off on his own to see what word the Lord will give to him.

When Balaam meets with God he declares, "I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram" (23:4). The prophet is hoping to have won over the Lord to Moab's side. But his words are brushed aside; all of these expensive offerings do not impress the Lord. Balaam is given the precise words that he is to speak over the Israelites in the presence of Moab's king.

Balaam's message for the king and for Israel is clear. The king may have persuaded him to come from the eastern mountains hoping that he would curse Israel but nothing can persuade Balaam to do so – he still remembers the angel with the drawn sword ready to cut him down. Balaam declares, "How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced?" (23:8). He then speaks of the special character of Israel as a great people who are unlike any other nation on earth. They are a righteous people, a people whom God declares to be his own. Balaam envies them and wishes that he could be numbered among such a people.

King Balak is not pleased with this oracle. He tries twice more to get Balaam to pronounce a curse over this people (see 23:13-24:13), but with the same result; Balaam can only bless this people whom the Lord has blessed and chosen to be the source of blessing for all nations on earth.

James Philip writes, "What we have in Balaam's prophecies is an uncovering of the divine plan of the ages … which underlies the whole redemptive history of the Bible, the plan of redemption fulfilled in Christ, but prepared for and foreshadowed down the centuries until the fulfilment of the time when he should come, to give himself as a ransom for the sins of many."

God cannot be diverted from his plan by the opposition of all the powers on earth (see Psalm 2), or by attempts to win him round by bribery. He is a God who is unfailingly faithful to his promises and purposes. The challenge for ourselves is not whether we can get God to come over to our side and endorse our plans but whether we are ready and willing to bow the knee to him and become aligned with his plans and with his people. This alone will secure his blessing and will make us the source of blessing to others. And, found in him, no one can take away the blessing that is ours.

Living God, we acknowledge that you alone are God and we stand amazed at your purposes running through the pages of Scripture and focussing in the birth, life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We gladly acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord and that he is the source of our righteousness in life and in death. Bless us, Lord, and make us a blessing.

Mar 21 2020 - Acts 17:1-34 – The truth shall set you free

After three weeks in Thessalonica, Paul’s preaching in the synagogue stirred up a riot that prompted the new believers to send Paul and Silas away to Berea. There we read, “The Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11). The message Paul was bringing them might have seemed strange, even contrary to what they had previously believed, but their main concern was to ask, “Is it true?” As Jews who believed in the Old Testament Scriptures, they set about searching those Scriptures to find out.

Jews from Thessalonica soon turned up, and Paul had to leave for Athens. There, Paul was greatly distressed to find a city full of idols. There seemed to be countless gods who received the worship on one group of people of another. Paul was concerned that these people, who seemed intent on placating the gods with their offerings, should hear about the living God who had revealed himself in the Lord Jesus Christ. Day by day Paul spoke in the marketplace to all who would listen.

There were many in Athens quite ready to give him a hearing; many enjoyed nothing so much as a good debate about new ideas. However, when Paul spoke of the resurrection – both the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and the coming day of general resurrection – those same people had no further time for him; they treated his words with scorn.

To the Athenians what Paul said seemed very strange. Instead of debating various ideas about God or the gods, he proclaimed that the God of whom they were ignorant, had revealed himself in the historical human life, death and resurrection of a particular person – a Jew. This seemed quite ridiculous to his hearers. The suggestion that this resurrected Jew would one day stand in judgment over them seemed both absurd and offensive. For all their professed desire to learn the truth they were unwilling to consider Paul’s claims. In the end, they were more concerned with ideas than with truth.

The Christian message is not merely a set of ideas to be debated but a fact of history calling for faith and response. The God who made the world and who cares for all that he has made has entered history in the person of Jesus Christ. His resurrection from the dead is the beginning of the new creation, an anticipation of that last great resurrection day when all creation will be transformed and restored to all that it was created to be. The good news is that in Christ we can begin to enter now into the life of the new creation, to live already the life of the age to come.

There are many today who are happy to debate ideas but who are scandalised at the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and the fact of his resurrection of the dead. Even in the churches there are many who are more eager to spend time in endless debate – even about the nature of the resurrection – rather than in living the resurrection life.

God calls us to search the Scriptures, seeking, by the help of his Spirit, to understand the purposes of God in Christ so that, through the power of that same Spirit, we might become part of those purposes.

Father God, Give me a concern for those around me who are fascinated by the spiritual but who do not yet know you. Give me the wisdom to know how to stand in their shoes, speak to them in their own terms and direct them to the God for whom they were made and whom they can know in Jesus. But keep me from foolish arguments and interminable debates. Rather, may the risen life of Jesus shine through my life in all I say and do.

Peter Misselbrook