Welcome to the love and context podcast engaging in unscripted conversations with your hosts Ben and Spencer
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Our mission is simple to explore the Bible through a powerful lens of love
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So buckle up and join us on the spiritual journey as we discover timeless wisdom
That is just as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago without further ado. Let's dive right in
Welcome once again to the love in context podcast. I'm Spencer. I'm not Ben. I'm Ben. I'm definitely not Spencer
Yeah, I was actually having a your wife and I were talking the other day and
And I think some reason I thought you were talking to the people were that are listening to like your wife and I were talking
Like somebody's gonna be real freaked out when you say that
No, your wife and I were talking the other day and the question came up of like how are you and Ben friends and
Like and really what I came down to is like well you both like to
She was like you both like to talk theology and like that was like all that she had
That's it. And I was like I was like well, there's other things are like too. But yeah, I mean I
Yeah, I can think of a few things. Yeah, we both like eating hot dogs around campfires
Do I like eating hot dogs? I feel like you eat this this guy eats so many hot dogs
like so he was he told me this at one point where he's like, it's like yeah, like I will just like eat a bunch of
hot dogs, so I brought brats to his house once and
And he ate I think it was like six. So well, there's more to this story. No, there's not that's literally all there is to the story
Oh, you're right. There is a there is more to that story
You also eat like an entire like thing of dried mangoes
So Ben brought the two things over to my house that I have no self-control around
Which is hot dogs roasting over a fire no self-control
I will eat those all day and I did eat like six in a bag of dried mangoes
I'm gonna ask Tara to make me like a comic so we can put on a t-shirt
That's like you with your beard like with hot dogs and like dried mangoes. I'm just like stuff smear all over your face
Oh, yes could be like I have no self-control. Yeah. Yeah when it comes to hot dogs and dried mangoes. It's like man. Oh
Man, that's a good that's gonna be an only for you shirt, but other people can buy it if they want
They're gonna be like what I don't get it
So yeah, yeah
so if you're here with us, you know that we're in the book of numbers and
You know that these intros are getting more and more ridiculous as we go on because we get more and more loopy
Oh, yeah, last week was fun. We had your dad on we did that was a lot of fun. We did he was great
Yeah, he was I was talking and I was like I should definitely let him close out this episode
Because he's got a lot of good things to say. Oh, yeah. Yeah, honestly
I was like I should be talking less and letting him talk more
But I know it's like not necessarily you're supposed to have the guests come on and talk through your entire podcast
You know like you ask some questions and things so yeah
We're gonna be in numbers
22 to start with through which which driver we go through he said 25 25
Yeah
so there's we're gonna be covering the story of a guy by the name of Balik and
Balaam and Spencer likes to point out that I spilt his name wrong and I said
Depends on who you ask because it wasn't originally written in English. So hmm
I'm just saying just saying so if you remember last week, we talked about the bronze serpent and Israel openly complaining to God. Mm-hmm
There's like hey, we're not having it here removes his hedge of protection and then these snakes come out
And then there's this broad thing that they have to look at to
Be saved every time that they would be bitten. Mm-hmm
Then out of that they go and they actually go and get into a couple of fights
Taking over some places that they need to go on attack and they just they please dressing God and they just throw them
Right. Mm-hmm. Like they're completely unstoppable and just a reminder who are these people? They're newly
Emancipated slaves. Mm-hmm
very little combat experience. Yeah, and yet these these places that are like
Combat powerhouses are just getting their butts handed to them. Why not because of them. Yeah, because of God. Mm-hmm
The Amorites actually were known to have some of the strongest warriors. Yeah of the time
And because of God Israel went in and just demolished them in battle
So they come and then there's this guy by the name of Balak
Who hears that the Israelites are in Moab and that they're they're on travel to the plains of Moab and they're camping at the Jordan
Right. Yeah, and he saw all that they had done to the Amorites
Well, here's the deal
Balak had just been terrified of the Amorites because the Amorites had been like handing him his butt for years
Mm-hmm, and then here come these upstart people who just completely whale on the Amorites. Mm-hmm
Now if a bully beats up your bully
That makes you nervous of the new bully. Uh-huh, right? Like so you'd be a little bit nervous about these guys. Mm-hmm
Like understandably you're like, hey
These guys just wailed on the people that I've struggled against for years
Like they didn't break a sweat. Yeah, so he goes and he and it says that Moab was terrified because they were so many people
Indeed Moab was filled with dread because of the Israelites
The Moabites said to the elders of Midian this horde is going to look up everything around us as an oxalus of the grass of the field
So Balak son of Zippor
Who was king of Moab at this time sent messengers to summon Balaam son of Bayor who was at Peor
Near the Euphrates River in his native land
Balaam said a people have come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the land
It has settled next to me now come and put a curse on these people because they are too powerful for me
Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land for I know that whoever you bless is blessed
And whoever you curse is curse
Okay
Foreman has some great teaching on this. So I'm just gonna once again reference Aleph beta
I think that is definitely worth checking out once again a reminder Foreman is an Orthodox Jew
So he's not necessarily going to connect to Jesus, uh-huh, but his understanding of Torah is really good. Yeah
He makes a lot of connections between Balak and two different figures in the Bible
One is Jethro
Which I find is a really interesting thing because it's if he's at zip or and by the way, the only other time we saw the name
Zippor mm-hmm was Moses's wife by the name of Zippor. Uh-hmm, right
from the same Hebrew roots and
Jethro comes to Moses
After they have just exited Egypt. They've come to a new land and he says look at all that the Lord has done
He recognizes God's hand and everything. Mm-hmm, right and uh, he compares
this this idea of
Jethro
And Balak but then he also goes and he compares Balak back to Pharaoh because what is Balak actually concerned about here?
Like some of these things do they sound familiar? He says people have come up
Covered they cover the face of the land. They're numerous. They're so
Numerous they're going to eat everything and they're going to be able to overpower me. Mm-hmm
So it's not like anybody else is concerned. We've seen in Torah
So Pharaoh back in exodus who lived in Egypt had that concern, right? Um, uh
He's like wow these uh, these
Those israelite people or these hebrews at the time. They are just growing so numerous
Right that like we can't contain them can't control them, right?
It was a fear factor of like we're gonna lose everything we have because they're just gonna wipe us out, right?
And so he says let's deal
Shrewdly with them. Yeah, and ultimately ends up with them being in captivity
But the whole thing is they're trying to manipulate it now
The invitation that for a foreman talks about is the invitation for balik is are you going to engage israel like jethro?
Yeah, where he says I see God's hand and we rejoice and we're happy for you
Or are you going to see God's hand like pharaoh did and try to oppression dill shrewdly now?
If you've read the story, you know where it's gonna go. Mm-hmm
But the invitation is there that is balik gonna be jethro or is it gonna be pharaoh?
Mm-hmm, and uh, I would actually argue that we get that invitation a lot
Oh we do every day like when we run into something and we see the hand of God on someone. Mm-hmm, right?
Are we gonna try to deal shrewdly to manipulate for ourselves?
Or are we going to elitist the hand of God on someone?
Are we going to try to deal shrewdly to manipulate for ourselves or are we going to elevate what we see God doing in someone? Yeah
Mm-hmm
A lot of armchair theologians like to throw stones at people who aren't doing who are doing active ministry. Mm-hmm
Right. Mm-hmm
People who are actually on the street loving people
Right. I think about I think about your sister actually. Mm-hmm
And your brother-in-law like they're on the street loving people inviting them to their house feeding them like when you step back and you're like
Hey
You have some bad theology and that makes you you know
Ineffective in ministry like listen if you're if you've never been on the street feeding somebody you have no position to talk
Right. That doesn't mean you're necessarily even wrong
But it needs means that you need to walk in their shoes and understand like the position of the gospel
Which is to actually love people before you actually have commentary on it
Mm-hmm. Well ministry is so much more relational than it is programmatic. Yeah, um, and we we've gotten away from that
Um, we've we're we're we at least in america
Um, I want to be specific there, but at least in america we've we've shifted to what's the programs we offer, right?
Right. What are the events you do and it's like well the events are nothing if you don't have relationships
Like if you don't have solid relationships with people in your community
Uh, if you if you're not out there reaching the people who need to be reached the events being nothing like it's
It's not a build it and they'll come thing. That doesn't work. Mm-hmm. It's jesus's command actually in
matthew 28 is go
Which is we often focus on the go and make disciples part
We need to also rewind one verse where jesus is like i've been given all power and authority
Now you say now go make disciples and by the way, i'm gonna be with you while you do this
All right, right. So you're not going out on your own. You're going with christ with you, right christ exactly
And so this this invitation
Is uh when you see god at work
Your invitation is are you going to recognize it and elevate it or you're going to try to deal shrewdly against it
Now I think that the tendency is we try to discredit a small piece of what somebody does and then try to discredit the whole
Mm-hmm when israel comes out of egypt. They weren't perfect
In fact jethro actually made a comment to moses. He says hey, you can't adjudicate all these rules
Like can't do it. So clearly everything wasn't running smoothly at that point
But jethro saw the hand of god moving. Mm-hmm
I think the invitation for us a lot of times is when we see the hand of god moving we draw that out of people
So there there is this invitation right that you've been talking about
Um, and sometimes what we want is we want ministry to look perfect. Mm-hmm, and it doesn't look that way
um in the reality that's just the reality of it and uh
Two things kind of stand out before we jump too much further and this is one have you ever asked yourself what?
Were moses's qualifications to lead a nation?
No, I have not asked myself that okay, but like
Um, but like but they weren't grand. They weren't grand. I mean, I mean you could argue that he was raised by both
Uh in hebrew culture and egyptian culture, so we would have had better education. So in that um
Aspect yeah, he was the most qualified. Yeah, he was the most qualified of an enslaved nation
Yeah, right
But there was still an enslaved nation still an enslaved nation and like if you were to look at moses's resume
You'd be like, yeah, this might be a little weak for this right? Right, but god said this is who I want
okay, the other thing that kind of stands out to me here is
Ministry is meant when we are leaning into the work that the lord has for us
It is meant to drive us to places where we are trusting him and it's going to feel uncomfortable, right?
um
and so a lot of times when I see churches who are like we have it put together our programs and they're living in this
comfortable space i'm like
To me, it's actually a bit of a red flag where i'm like, are you actually?
Are you actually doing the work of the lord? Are you actually putting yourself in a place where you're like hey?
We don't know how this is going to work
But we're going to trust that the lord's going to provide that he's going to leak well and with that
Have you ever run into a group of people where they're like, oh we agree about everything. I was like, that's weird
Yeah, like it feels like maybe everybody's not allowed to have an opinion. Yeah, everybody agrees about everything
Yeah, now I think if the church comes together and like we we around
If a church comes together and they say we rally around fundamental
things
Uh-huh loving god loving other people following jesus figuring out how to live in harmony with each other even when we disagree
Yeah, like those are things you can get behind but someone's like, oh, yeah, no, we agree on everything
And I think sometimes the uh, the dogmatic nature of the church is we want everybody to
Theologically think the exact same thing all the time and that's just not going to happen
No, like we go to a pentecostal church. You're not from a pentecostal background. You're from the free methodist
I i'm from a southern baptist background guys and I go to a pentecostal church
Uh, that makes me a baptist if you're keeping track
That's a pretty good phrase. Let's say is that a thing?
Well, I actually went to a non-denominational church in college. So I actually call myself a non-baptist
Yeah, yeah
Yeah, I i've
I've been a part. I've been a part or have helped out
Churches have been free methodist four square nazarene baptist assembly of god
Mm-hmm. I've even done work with catholic church before too. Right? Yeah
So what we do is we go when we look for jesus and we elevate that. Yeah
There are always going to be in every church that I go into there's going to be things I disagree with
Oh, yeah, right. So what i'm supposed to do as a follower of jesus is I go and elevate jesus
I teach people to obey what he commanded not what I think about what he commanded. Mm-hmm
Oh, yeah, man, I feel like i'm preaching to myself now
Yeah, so this invitation to balick is are you going to be a jethro?
Are you going to recognize the hand of god and elevate them?
Yeah, like because he could have just said hey israel. I see what god is doing with you
Why don't you come over here? We'll bless you on your way. Yeah
That's how he does. No
Instead he goes and gets guy by the name of balam
It actually says here for I know that whoever you bless is blessed and whoever you curse is cursed
Mm-hmm. Now let's play that lovely little game of where have I heard this before?
Genesis chapter 12 anyone sorry. I was gonna answer that I started laughing. Yeah, no, it's well
I mean, but you know you you've heard it before right and by the way guys
This is why you know your bible is really important
Like it's not an accident like so whether or not balick actually says this
Uh-huh, we take subscribe moses's authorship when moses writes this down
He wants you to connected back to something that's happening in genesis. Yeah, right
So the authors are trying to drive you to to this statement that whoever bless bless is blessed and whoever you curse is cursed now people we know
That god is the one who put the blessing then whoever blesses them is going to be blessed and whoever curses them is going to be cursed
It's not dependent on who is giving the curse, but who's actually receiving it. Mm-hmm
That if israel receives it, it's going to curse the other person
This actually has a couple other implications as well because one is oftentimes we take on the role of okay
Are we're going to bless and curse? Mm-hmm. It's like actually no
God's the one who blesses right right right and uh
And even though through the first part of genesis, you don't see god cursing and does mention that god will curse in genesis 12, right?
Um, so god's the one who blesses he's the one who curses and the question is are we actually working with those people who god has blessed?
And more to your point playing god on display. Yeah, because up to this point in torah
We've talked about is their job to put god on display the law to put god on display the royal priesthood to put god on display
The way they love to put god on display. Why?
So that when people bless them they're going to be blessed because they're brought into the kingdom of what god is doing
Yeah, right. Their job is to be a conduit of that blessing from god to humanity
Then when people interact with it, they go wow
There is a different way to live and I personally this is part of the reason that paul when he's when he in his writings
When he's like who am I trying to please god or man, right?
Right, right like he's like no i'm going to serve the god who blesses and curses. I'm not going to
Uh, i'm not here for the approval of man
All right
So we're going to go into a section of scripture here and i'm going to start asking questions and i'm going to do a lot of
Where have I heard this before?
And you're going to kind of help the listeners along because we've discussed this a little bit. Okay answers the bible. That's funny. Actually, that's really funny
So I said, okay, so the elders of moab and midian left taking with them the fee for divination. Okay, so they're bringing money
When they came to balem, they told him what balek had said spend the night here
Bale said to them and I will give report back to you with an answer that the lord gives me
So the moabite officials stayed with them. God came to balem and asked who are these men with you?
Right. So first off we want to point out god not afraid to interact with balem
Yeah, right
Balaam said to god balek son of zippor king of the moab sent me this message a people that has come out of egypt covers the face
Of the land now come and put a curse on them for me
Perhaps then I will be able to fight them and drive them away
Now god says to balam do not go with them
You must not put a curse on those people because they are blessed. Okay. So what was god's answer to balam?
No curse. Okay. So if uh if I was to play out, um
Son and daughter or a daughter and father relationship and denver comes to you and she says dad. Can I have a cookie you just said
No, okay
Because we're gonna come back to that
So the next morning balam got up and said to balek's officials go back to your own country for the lord has refused to let me
Go with you. Okay, pause. Is that what god said? No
It says that the lord has refused to let me go god didn't say anything about not going. He said you couldn't
Mm-hmm curse. Mm-hmm. Okay. This is why it's important to see this. So
Verse 14 so the moabite officials returned to balek and said balem refused to come with us
Okay, is that what balem said? No
Once again, not what he said. He said that the lord has refused to let him go
now one of the things that foreman points out is in the hebrew the implication is that
The words that are being used balem is telling them that he could be persuaded. Mm-hmm to go
Mm-hmm. He's asking for a little something something. Mm-hmm, right?
And it's evidenced by what actually hands up happening next says then balek sent other officials more numerous and more distinguished than the first
So now he's sending his fancy pants army to go with them
And he's okay that 20 bucks wasn't enough. Let's send 100 down. Right exactly see that works
So it says they came to balem and said this is what balek son of zippor says
Do not let anything keep you from coming to me because I will reward you handsomely and do whatever you say
Come and put a curse on those people for me
But balen answered him them even if balek had refused to let them go
He answered him them even if balek gave me all the silver and gold in his palace
It's interesting. He just notes that. Mm-hmm. He's still looking for a little something something
Uh, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the lord my god
Now that really sounds really good
But the whole point of bringing up all the silver and gold
Like the only reason you bring that up is so balek might be thinking right?
But
Now spend the night here so that I can find out what else the lord will tell me
That night god came to balem and said since these men have come to summon you go with them
But do only what I tell you okay now
daughter father again
Dad, can I have a cookie? No, I have 20 bucks. Can I have a cookie now? Yes
Like like so so balem comes in he's coming in and treating of the god again, he already knows the answer
Uh-huh
Right. Mm-hmm
He already knows the answer but he's trying to manipulate god into doing something here
right
Now foreman is actually going to connect balem to another character
He's going to connect him to abraham, which I think you already probably should see from the who you bless is blessed who you curse is cursed
Yeah, right. So it's already happened, but let's let's take uh, just take some of these stories. So
Balaam got up early in the morning. Mm-hmm. Where we've seen that before
Uh abraham when he went to sacrifice azik. Yeah, uh, he gets up early in the morning. He saddles his donkey
Where do you see that again abraham same story of them?
He went with the mobile officials and there was two of them interesting. So he has two guys that go with him
What happened in the story of abraham? There's two guys that go with him interesting. Yeah, but god was very angry when he went
Okay, so god has given uh balem instructions and he is uh going on the road
And so god has said no or to go
And now there's an angel who's telling him to stop standing in the way
I'm sorry, which story are we talking about?
Right now if somebody you're gonna really struggle to see this there's a lot going on in hebrew
Which is once again why I said you should go and check out some of the stuff from foreman
But these these stories are meant to work in tandem with each other
So balem gets up and he saddles his donkey and he says, you know, you would read this and you say well
He said that you can go ahead and go with them. I do only when I tell you
Well, god's already said no now balem is going intending to do whatever he wants because he wants to gather for himself
So why is god angry because balem is not actually listening to the intent of god
When abraham is uh when abraham is talked to by god, he says you need to go and sacrifice isaac
Do you hear abraham arguing with god? No
He goes now. He knows the character of god. He knows that god's gonna be different
He doesn't argue and he just stays he goes and he does exactly what he's supposed to do
And the angel lord comes and he stops him
This story is a little bit different in that balem knows what he should do and he's trying to manipulate god anyways
Which is the continuing story here
So it says here that the angel lord stood at the road to oppose him balem was riding on his donkey
And his two servants were with him two servants once again
When the donkey saw the angel lord standing in the road with the drawn sword in his hand
It turned off the road into a theater of the angel lord
Standing on the road with the drawn sword in his hand it turned off the road into a field and balem beat it to get it
Back on the road
Then the angel lord stood in the narrow pathway between the vineyards with the walls when the donkey saw the angel lord
It passed close to the wall crushing balem's foot against it. So he beat the donkey again
Then the angel lord moved on ahead and stood in the narrow place where there was no room to turn either to the right or to
The left when the donkey saw the angel lord it laid down under balem and he was angry and he beat it
with his staff
Then the lord opened the donkey's mouth and it said to balem. What have I done to make you beat me these three times?
He says well you've made a fool of me first of all, I think it's weird that he doesn't he's like why is the donkey talking?
You know like
He says you have made a fool of me if only I had a sword in my hand
I would kill you right now, which is ironic because that's exactly what the angel is gonna do
Am I not your own donkey which you have always ridden to this day?
Have I not been in habit of doing this? No, then the lord opened balem's eyes and he saw
The angel of the lord standing in the road with the sword drawn. He bowed low and fell face down
Okay, once again, hopefully you're seeing the connections between the story of isaac and abraham and the story of balek and the donkey
So now balen said to the angel he says I ascend I did not realize you were standing in the road and to oppose me
Now if you are displeased, I will go back
Right. So now he's acknowledging the angel lord said go with the men but speak only what I tell you
So balen went with balek's officials now
I think it's very clear from the implication of the text in the hebrew that balem had no intention of not trying to manipulate god's words
He's gonna do something different now. Yeah, because that's gonna end out real bad for him
So then balem comes to this area with balek and balek runs out and he's like, hey, didn't I tell you what was urgent?
What took you so long to get here?
I literally my donkey was laying down on me and the angel lord was trying to kill me
So, you know, I got some excuses
I mean, there's some pretty good reasons, uh
Why didn't you come to me? Am I not really able to reward you?
Once again, uh balek trying to figure out ways to bribe balem to do what he wants
Well, i've come to you now, but I can't say whatever I please I must speak only what god puts in my mouth
Then balen went with balek to kureth huzoth balek sacrificed cattle and sheep and gave balem and the officials who were with him
the next morning balem
A lot of b-words balek took balem to see ba mouth ball man
A lot of b-words and from there he could see the outskirts of the israelite city
Okay. Now he is going to have a total of seven messages
But I want to talk about the first three because uh balek ends up taking um balem to three different mountains
So can you pull up genesis 22? Yeah. Okay got it open. So in
genesis 22 the angel actually gives uh three different things
That he says are going to abraham is going to be blessed by can you read those in the text?
So genesis 22, this is us in uh verse 15
Then the angel of the lord called again to abraham from the heavens
This is what the lord says because you have obeyed me and not withheld your son your only son. I swear
By my own name that I certainly will bless you
I will multiply your descendants beyond numbers
Uh, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashores your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies
And though through your descendants all nations of the earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me
Okay, so he says three things there. He says your descendants you're gonna have ton of them
They're gonna be like stars in the sky dust on the field, right?
Uh, the second one is you're gonna have conquest over your enemies. Yes
The third one is you're going to be a blessing to your enemies
Yes, the third one is you're going to be a blessing to everybody around you. Yes, right?
So, uh at the end of balick's first message or balam's first
message
Listen to this
From the rocky peaks I see them from the heights I view them
I see a people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations who can count the dust of jacob or number
even a fourth of israel
Okay
Once again, you're seeing this connection back to abram. So then they go to another mountain
And his ending of his second message is this
There is no divination against jacob no evil omens against israel
It will now be said of jacob and israel see what god has done the people rise like a lioness
They rouse themselves like a lion that does not rest until it devours its prey and drinks the blood of its victims
Has power over its enemies, right? And his third message is
Is like a lion they crouch and lie down like a lioness who dares to rouse them
May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed
So you're starting to see why foreman is connecting this back to abraham and it's very clear from the text that that
The author is attempting for us to see something in balick and balam that is happening back in abraham. Yeah
What it what are you going to do when you're confronted with the word of the lord?
Are you going to obey god and walk in his ways?
Like abraham, or are you going to have an evil eye and try to manipulate for yourself like balam? Yeah
Who are you going to be?
Because your your role is to actually be a blessing to all nations
And you know, here's the deal if balam would just come and bless them without artillery emotives. What's the promise of genesis 12?
Uh that the lord will bless those who bless curse those who curse
So if he's going to be blessed for blessing man, he should just go bless the heck out of israel, right?
Because like he recognizes hey god's authority is moving here
the problem is I don't know that balam brignett necessarily recognize recognizes nor respects the authority of god because
It continues on and there's there's the fourth. There's the fifth
There's a sixth and there's a seventh message where he keeps going out and doing these different
Blessings that were supposed to be curses
now
Forman will actually connect balek back to pharaoh again in that pharaoh didn't recognize god as an authority figure
And he wanted to have control over what was coming on. And so god actually sends 10 plagues
For him to recognize the power and control that god has in the world. Yeah, right and in the story of balek
Now he has seven curses that he wants laid out that end up being seven blessings
Once again balek you are not in control
Who are you going to trust?
But they still go and they try to manipulate israel now this ends up ending very badly for balek and balam
Um, it talks about that later in scripture and we'll talk about that at some point, but I want to talk about the people of god
our role as kingdom of priests as
Gentiles grafted into a tree is to fulfill the same mission that we would be a blessing to all nations
Right through the redemptive work of jesus christ and powered by the holy spirit
We live lives that are different meant to put god on display
Right. This is what tor has been talking about the whole time. Yeah, it's what jesus is talking about in the future, right?
Uh a light that is on a hill cannot be hidden
Light by this very definition needs to be stuck out where everybody can see. Yeah, right
So our job is to put on display who god is and when we do that people are drawn to god, right?
So c.s. Lewis has that quote where he talks about
Jesus is the light but it's not necessarily jesus the light that's what he's seeing but but
By the light of jesus, he sees everything else around him. Yeah, like it's it's a really profound statement
It's like jesus as light and reflected into our lives is actually going to help people actually see life
Now john what we talked about last week is gonna say this is the verdict people see the light and they just like their darkness
But that is their choice our choice is to are we going to reflect the light or not?
Yeah, and if we are are we gonna throw a bushel on top of our light?
Are we gonna put it on a lamp stand so everybody can see?
And this is the question that is is sticking here with balick and balam now
There is a ton of things I could have gone into here. Yeah, right
But I think this is the most appropriate and probably the most dramatic for the christian life that we walk
At the beginning of the story you see balam and like he's clearly a guy who has communication with god. Mm-hmm
so what
What's going on? Like are you going to trust balam? Like you literally had a conversation with god
Are you going to trust him or not?
Well, even when we're in positions of authority in ministry
We can we can exploit that right? Um, and so
I mean there's gonna be things where people could even look at what we're doing and say well
Are they trying to exploit that like we got a merch store up, right?
Mm-hmm, like there's things like that where they're like, oh, well, they're doing this, but there's financial gain on the side of it
Side note will be very transparent with finances, but um
There's things that there's things ministers do to exploit that we read articles in the news all the time of
Stuff like that that happens. Um, and then oftentimes we're in shock. Like why would they do that?
We're like this actually isn't anything new. You see this in balam who's like, okay?
This is what the lord said, but what do you got to offer? Like do you have something that might entice me to?
Step into doing what the lord hasn't doesn't want me to do. Mm-hmm
Right, like do that. That is a little bit like too like real. Yeah
Yeah, yeah, and there's there's times where the Lord's like there's times where the Lord's like hey don't do this
There's times where he's like here's the direction. I want you to go. There's other times where the Lord's like hey wait
Yeah, and what I have found in the people I know and in my life is the times where the Lord's like says
Hey wait where I'm like, maybe there's something I can do while I'm waiting
I had a conversation with a friend of mine and they don't listen to the podcast or not and they may listen at some point
But it's so vague like they're not gonna
But they were commenting and they were talking about they're like, oh, yeah, I have a really good marriage
But I get really flattered when specific women like send me like direct messages and blah blah like all these different things, right?
I said dude, that's really questionable because I was like I have a suspicion you have no strong marriage. Mm-hmm because
If you're like, oh well
What am I what can I get out of this and I'm not getting out of this?
Right because that's that's a lot of people who are like, oh, I'm not getting out of this
I'm not getting out of this right because that's that's a lot of what like cheating and affairs and like these things come from
Is they they believe that they're they can get something else that they don't have in their marriage
Yeah, and it is the biggest lie in the world
If you're not getting in your marriage, you're not going to get in another relationship
It is a lie
All you're doing is you're exchanging your garbage that you have in one relationship ripping that up and then adding to it in another relationship
You actually have to figure this out between two people and to be fair
I want to I want to take a step real quick back and say that um,
We're not talking about relationships where both people aren't trying
Right because like we we've talked about this in the past with divorce like divorce happens when two people can't figure it out together
Right, um, or one person will is not willing to come to the table
I was like if the other person is not willing to come to the table and actually be in relationship
Like there's not a whole lot you can do about that. Both people have to want it. Yeah, right
Absolutely, but we have this this mentality in christianity and we're like, yeah, I love god
And one of something better comes along. Mm-hmm. And I know that like people would never say that out loud
But I seen church attendance during football season
Oh, you had to go there, huh? Oh I went well because i'm you know, you know, i'm a big I love football
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I love football. Oh, yeah
I was like, but if it's god in football, man, there's no question. No question. All right, no question
I I remember um, there was one time where a group of us we were going through
Is david pratt's book radical, uh-huh. Um, and um
Link in the show notes. Yeah david platts book radical
um, and uh
We were going through that and the question was asked like would you be willing to give up everything you have as the lord called you
somewhere else
And the amount of the thing that struck me in that conversation was the amount of pushback that we got from the group
Who were they were like, well, it's I mean the lord. I mean, there's nothing in the bible says who that we can't have nice things
I was like, well, correct. There's nothing in the bible that that's not the point though
The point is would you give that up if the lord said give that up? Yeah, it's it's a it's a hypothetical question
Yeah, it's a hypothetical like god is not asking you to give it up. But if he did yeah
And but the the thing that struck me was the amount of pushback people were like well that
Well, I mean this is something that lord's blessed me with why would I give that up in it?
And then the perversion of words that were used to say well, I have these nice things and the lord's blessed me with that
So like I don't need to give it up because it's a blessing from the lord
Well, he gives and takes away, right? So
Um, like he you might be blessed with that in that moment
But there might be a time where he says okay, I blessed you with that for that season of life
Now I want you to give that away, right?
Well, it's it's kind of like the height of hubris to be like
Oh, well, you know these things are so important that guy could never want me to go and do you know
X Y Z. I mean, it's kind of like the height of hubris when you're like, well, I'm like the pastor of the church
Why would I clean toilets because jesus washed feet? Uh-huh. That's why
Because moses fell face down whenever there were issues. Uh-huh
Like he didn't go and be like, oh, I'm too dignified to go get on my face before god
No, there was a problem and he got on his face before god. Uh-huh because it needed to be fixed
Uh-huh, right and he cries out. Yeah, and uh, you know
So one of the main reasons I brought up especially like in marriage like like cheating
relationships and those things is because if you actually take a look at at uh
numbers 25
All these uh blessings and the curses they don't matter when it comes to uh, israel because uh
The curses keep turning into blessings. So they do something else entirely. They send in a bunch of prostitutes
To lead them astray and israel falls to sexual sin and finds themselves in really bad positions. Mm-hmm, right
Uh, which by the way is going to be a reoccurring theme for a lot of israelite men. Mm-hmm, right
Um king david solomon. Well, it's already a reoccurring thing because you see that with tamar
Uh-huh tamar on the book of genesis. Yep. So it's already a reoccurring thing. Hagar and sarah. Yep, right
Uh, jacob and uh rachel and leah, uh-huh, right? Oh my word that that chapter is like
Genesis 30 anybody if you want to go read it go read it
It's just like what is going on here by the way, I think it's a good book
What is going on here by the way shout out to there is a um, there is a youtuber, uh
Instagram guy his name is god's best friend. Uh, and he does some fantastic skits and he has one about rachel and leah
And it's pretty great. Oh, it's like various where it's like, uh, yeah, it's real good. So just go check that out
He's very funny. Uh, yeah at this point in the story. This is already a reoccurring thing for israel
And it continues to be a reoccurring thing which by the way, this might be a good time to point out that hey
Um, jesus has freed you of your past sin, but it still is familiar
And you need to be ultra unaware of that because because otherwise it can come back to bite you even in the midst of the season
Of blessing. Yes. In fact often it's those things that we kind of find ourselves wrapped up in frequently
They get us the easiest. Mm-hmm, right? Yeah
Now ultimately later, uh balem it's going to talk about balem in the bible again
It actually talks about balem later in joshua 13
And it talks about how balem dies by the sword when they're actually retaking the land the mobat land later
So when joshua comes in and they're cleaning house, uh balem actually dies at that moment
now once again
Take a look at this entire nation and we talk about uh this provision of god
Are you going to trust the word of god now had moab balek balem all these guys recognized the authority of god
And responded to it. They would have had this option to say hey, we recognize what god is doing in your midst
We're going to bless you. Yeah, and then they would receive blessing
But instead they tried to curse and they got blessed instead. Yeah, and then they tried to lead them aside sexual sin
And a lot of the things that the moabites were doing were deplorable like we're not going to get into it
but like
Uh, I actually think i'm going to link an episode from marty solomon of the book of joshua because it's conquest and some interesting
It takes about like what was happening in the land
Like god doesn't just willy-nilly tell people to go in and clean house
There's a good reason why these things needed to be taken out and because they were awful
Uh, we've talked about the the worship of all we've talked about the worship of
Melek melek. Yeah, and like and then how how these things actually worked and then we're just talking about the tip of the iceberg
It gets worse
And uh, eventually god just says enough and he has to deal with it
Just to put this in really simple terms
As a parent like there's things i'm willing to let my kid endure so that they can learn struggle through
Uh, but there's also times i'm like enough. Yeah, we're taking that out
Yeah, like that is no longer going to be a part of your life
Yeah, so I have two boys
Who are foreign to and so they uh
Enjoy playing with each other for a minute
That's that's pretty good. Yeah, and I thought I was thinking you're gonna say like 10 seconds
Or so the bigger one has a hard time understanding how big he is and the younger one has a trouble understanding that
He's actually pretty heavy. Mm-hmm. Like he's a big kid. Both my kids are real big
and um
And so most of the time i'll let them kind of figure it out and i'm keeping an eye on the older to make sure he's not
Hurting the younger, right?
But then occasionally my older will do something like he'll grab the younger by the neck or something and i'm like, nope
Stop, we're done. Uh, right and I separate them because like now we're talking about something that could cause like serious damage
Right sometime and so god is uh, incredibly merciful. In fact, it says back in genesis that
God says to abraham he's like this is going to be your land, but you can't come and have it yet because their sin hasn't reached
full measure
Means that god still is trying to reach them reach them
Which by the way, um, this is a really important thing and I think we really want to stress because we've been going through torah
We talked about all nations all these different things god is working through one people group
This is not the only thing he was doing in the world at the time
God, uh, well, I mean it's very apparent here because we're in numbers 22 is where we spent most of the time today
And we're talking about god talking to balaam
Who is not an israelite? Correct? Who is not hebrew? He is he was not enslaved in the egypt
All right
And god was speaking to him
Yeah, so
One of the things we were talking about recently because going to a pentacostal church
Um, our our friend pastor nick was talking about when uh, the church goes into foreign countries
A lot of times we're like, oh well, we need to give them our church culture
No, you need to help them understand how jesus has always been present in their culture
Right. Uh, this is what paul does he says hey, I see that you're a religious people. Let me tell you about this unnamed god
Right now some people are really gonna struggle
They're like no you have to blah blah blah blah blah is like well some things are going to be cultural
And some things are going to be spiritual what we're doing is we're supposed to reveal jesus and allow him
To transform people's lives
One of the issues that we had in i'm gonna say colonial america
um
Great britain that that time when they were sending out missionaries and stuff is they were trying to make everywhere they went
Look like the british church look like the american church
Like when we go and plant churches in the philippines
They shouldn't look like the american church. They should look like the philippino church. Mm-hmm rallied around the same god the same jesus
Motivated by the same spirit, but meant to reach their people
Right. Yeah, and and for the church of america, don't think we're immune to this
We're actually the number one mission field for a lot of uh,
Asian churches in asia. Yeah are sending missionaries to the west coast of america. Yeah, like as one of their number one mission fields
So like if you're thinking a little like well we in the church of america have it figured out
We actually are to the point where we have other nations where christianity is illegal
Where where there is no freedom of speech stuff like that where they're sending missionaries over to us
To bring the gospel
You know, it's interesting also like a lot of a lot of the american church heritage comes through
Um the uk, which is a ton of really good stuff that came out of there. Okay
um
But the church was in africa long before that. Yeah
I actually heard like this guy was talking and they were talking about how uh christianity is a white man's religion
And this guy got up and he's from africa. He says christianity was in africa long before was in in the uk
Christianity was in africa long before it was in the middle east long before
It spread to the uk actually through the roman empire, right? Right? That's how it spread to the uk
But it actually didn't even get to england
Uh for quite some time after jesus's death. It is not it is not a it is not color specific
I don't know if you guys know this but the gospel is for everyone
right
And the second that you try to make it not for everyone you actually um, you start to
Step on the work of jesus. Yeah, I think one of the longest standing christian churches in the world is actually the egyptian church
Yeah, and that sounds about right probably probably from the egyptian eunuch. You know, yeah
Yeah
With that being said like all that being said what i'm pointing out is that god is already having a conversation with balem
And he's having an invitation once again with balem. Who are you going to trust and this invitation also has happened with balek
It's happened with pharaoh. We have seen all these stories over and over again. God is pursuing other people
Later in the text god's going to pursue other people. There's going to be this story of this
Guy with the skin disease that comes to see elisha
right and uh
And he bathes in the jordan seven times and is healed and he asks if he can if he can take some dirt
So he can worship god back where he came from right because he thinks god is located geographically. Yeah
And elisha's answer is super interesting because he's like yeah go ahead and take it
He doesn't try to correct his thinking. He says whatever helps you connect to the god of the universe
Right
Now I think that somebody could take what I just said completely out of context and way too far
Mm-hmm, but what we're trying to do is find jesus elevate him. Are we going to be jethro?
Are we going to be pharaoh? Yeah, are we going to be abraham or are we going to be balem? Yeah
That's our invitation. Mm-hmm. Torah is is starting to wrap up some of these stories next week when we talk about some of the stuff
That happens on the back end. I'm going to mention a story about gilead. I'm going to clue you in ahead of time
Connected to genesis 31 the story of
when
Jacob is fleeing laban. Mm-hmm. These stories are connected in in numbers
They're wrapping up a lot of these things that have happened early on and it's coming back full around to actually be completed
Yeah, god is showing his promises come to fruition and it's really important
We may not get super deep into it because I always think it's really good to give you guys some homework
Yeah
So I think that wraps us up for today. Yeah again, you can find us on pretty much any social media platform at this point
Um youtube all that we do have a merch store open
Uh with that said the merch store just so you guys know um any money we make from the merch store
We just fund back into missions
Um, we'll cover a few expenses for the podcast because there are some expenses that go into that
But outside of that, it's just getting funneled back into local missions
Um, so just uh, just in case you're wondering where your money's going and if that ever changes we'll also let you know
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah right now. Honestly, the reason we put up a merch store is because we just thought it would be fun
Yeah, yeah
Alright. Well next week. We're going to be wrapping up the book of numbers
And so uh, we will see here talk to you guys at that point. Yeah. Bye
That's a wrap for today's episode
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All right. Hold on. Don't all right me. I'm not. All right. I'm not already
I'm my great roll bends over here like let me adjust my mic again
You know what?
Balik sends balam you spelled pay like wrong by the way
Depends on who you ask
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Because i have stupid words
Podcast what was I saying?
Please tell me please tell me podcast