Bible in 90, Day 12: Can’t Touch This!

Numbers 21-32

*image courtesy of demordian at www.sxc.hu

One of my favorite Old Testament stories was in our passage today – the story of Balaam’s Donkey.  This one is especially fun to bring up around small kids or teenagers who don’t know their Bible!  As comical as the story of a donkey who was both more spiritually aware, and more in control of its own mouth than its owner can be, the real comedy takes place right after this part of the story of Balaam.

So, King Balak hires him to put a curse on Israel.  Seems simple enough, I mean this guy apparently has some spiritual authority of some kind!  (What bothers me about Balaam is whether or not this guy was a genuine believer in the one true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  I mean, he does call Him the Lord my God!)  But he’s smart enough to know that he can only speak what the Lord tells him to.  So, he goes up on the mountain, does some special ceremonies, and opens his mouth to try and curse the Israelites and out flies a blessing!  Balak is dismayed, but not as dismayed as he’s about to be when Balaam blesses them three more times!  He even begins prophesying about powerful rulers to come from Israel!  In the end, Balaam goes back home to his people and Balak is left with an enemy that has now been blessed four times by their God.

You can’t touch the people of God!

“If God is for us, who can be against us?”  When Paul wrote this, he was not saying that believers would not have enemies.  What he was saying is that it doesn’t really matter who is against us, they’re no match for God!  He also told us that there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ.  If God does not condemn us, who can?!  If God is for us, who can be against us?  Even those who try to curse us may end up being used of God to bring us blessings.