Thru the Bible - #139-Numbers 24 - The Prophecies From Peor

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Berean's Corner, the podcast where we go
through books of the Biblechapter by chapter and verse by
verse.
Wherever you are in the world,thank you for joining.
Grab a glass of water, a cup ofcoffee or tea and let's.
Thank you for joining me.
It is good to be with you, asalways.

(00:36):
Open your Bible to Numbers,chapter 24.
We are continuing this journeywith Balak and Balaam and the
title of today's lesson is theprophecy from Peor.
Let's look at it and see whatthese two are up to today.
Numbers 24, and let's readnumbers 24.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
now, when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to
bless Israel, he did not resortto sorcery as at other times,
but turned his face toward thedesert.
When Balaam looked out and sawIsrael encamped tribe by tribe,
the Spirit of God came upon himand he uttered his oracle, the
oracle of Balaam, son of Beor,the oracle of one whose eyes see

(01:27):
clearly, the oracle of one whohears the words of God, who sees
a vision from the Almighty, whofalls prostrate and whose eyes
are opened.
How beautiful are your tents, oJacob, your dwelling places, o
Israel.
Like valleys, they spread out,like gardens beside a river,
like aloes planted by the Lord,like cedars beside the waters.

(01:51):
Water will flow from theirbuckets.
Their seeds will have abundantwater.
Their king will be greater thanAgag.
Their kingdom will be exalted.
God brought them out of Egypt.
They have the strength of awild ox.
They devour hostile nations andbreak their bones in pieces
With their arrows.
They pierce them Like a lion.

(02:13):
They crouch and lie down like alioness.
Who dares to rouse them?
May those who bless you beblessed and those who curse you
be cursed.
Then Balak's anger burnedagainst Balaam.
He struck his hands togetherand said to him.
I summon you to curse myenemies, but you have blessed

(02:34):
them these three times.
Now leave at once and go home.
I said I would reward youhandsomely, but the Lord has
kept you from being rewarded.
Balaam answered Balak, did Inot tell the messengers you sent
me?
Even if Balak gave me hispalace filled with silver and
gold, I could not do anything ofmy own accord, good or bad, to

(02:57):
go beyond the command of theLord, and I must say only what
the Lord says.
Now I am going back to mypeople, but come, let me warn
you of what this people will doto your people in days to come.
Then he uttered his oracle, theoracle of Balaam, son of Beor,

(03:19):
the oracle of one whose eye seesclearly, the oracle of one who
hears the words of God, who hasknowledge from the Most High,
who sees a vision from theAlmighty, who falls prostrate
and whose eyes are opened.
I see him, but not now.
I behold him, but not near.
A star will come out of Jacob.

(03:41):
A scepter will rise out ofIsrael.
He will crush the foreheads ofMoab, the skulls of all the sons
of Sheth.
Edom will be conquered.
Seir, his enemy, will beconquered, but Israel will grow
strong, a ruler will come out ofJacob and destroy the survivors

(04:02):
of the city.
Then Balaam saw Amalek anduttered his oracle Amalek was
first among the nations, but hewill come to ruin at last.
Then he saw the Kenites anduttered his oracle your dwelling
place is secure.
Your nest is set in a rock, yetyou Kenites will be destroyed

(04:27):
when Asher takes you captive.
Then he uttered his oracle Ah,who can live when God does this?
Ships will come from the shoresof Ketim, they will subdue
Asher and Eber, but they toowill come to ruin.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Then Balaam got up and returned home, and balak
went his own way all right nowthe last time we were together
we looked at how balak wastrying to get balak to curse
israel, but the sovereign lordkept Balaam from doing any evil
towards Israel.
Today we are looking at Balakstill trying to get Balaam to
look down on Israel to cursethem from the top of Peor.

(05:13):
Just to get a reminder of that,I'm looking back at Numbers 23,
verses 27 and 28.
That says then Balak said toBalaam please come, I will take
you to another place.
Perhaps it will be agreeablewith God that you curse them for
me from there.
So Balak took Balaam to the topof Peor, which overlooks the

(05:34):
desert, and Balaam said to Balakbuild seven altars for me here
and prepare seven bulls andseven rams for me here.
Balak did just as Balaam hadsaid and offered up a bull and a
ram on each altar.
Now we will look at thischapter 24 and we will break
this down into seven parts.

(05:56):
The first part Balaam saw whatpleased the Lord.
We see this in verse 1.
Then Balaam saw that it pleasedthe Lord to bless Israel.
He did not go, as at othertimes, to seek omens.
Rather he turned his attentiontowards the wilderness.
Remember, balaam is a devilishprophet for hire.

(06:19):
So the word omens Hebrew 5172,nakash means an enchantment
tells us that he would do evilthings to get his quote, unquote
visions.
So we know this from listeningto, from reading on him before
that he would go and get thesevisions.
But this is telling us righthere how he actually got his

(06:42):
visions.
Now we know there are times,there have been times in this
chapter, where the Lord hasspoke to him or the Lord had put
something in his mouth.
But that's just to give us anidea and a reminder of who
Balaam actually is.
Part two the spirit of God cameover Balaam.
We see this in verse two thespirit of God came over Balaam.
We see this in verse two Balaamraised his eyes and saw Israel

(07:03):
camping tribe by tribe and thespirit of God came upon him.
Then he took up his discourseand say okay, sorry about that,
I went a little too far, and thespirit of God came upon him.
I'm sorry, I should havestopped there.
I'm using actually one of mydifferent Bibles today with the
small numbers, so sometimes theverses sneak up on us.

(07:23):
So we see there the spirit ofGod came over Balaam.
Then, part three the oracle ofBalaam.
We see this in verses threethrough nine.
Then he took up his discourseand said the decoration of
Balaam, the son of Peor, so theson of Beor, and the decoration
of the man whose eyes is open,the decoration of him who hears

(07:43):
the words of God, who sees thevision of the almighty falling
down, yet having his eyesuncovered.
How pleasant are your tents,jacob, your dwelling places,
israel, like valleys thatstretch out, like gardens, a
river like aloes planted by theLord, like cedars beside the
waters.
Water will flow from hisbuckets and his seed will be by

(08:06):
many waters and his king shallbe higher than Agag and his
kingdom shall be exalted.
God brings him out of Egypt.
He is for him like the horns ofthe wild ox.
He will devour the nations whoare his adversaries and will
crush their bones and smash themwith his arrows.
He crouches, he lies down likea lion and like a lioness.

(08:28):
Who dares to row, who dares torouse him.
Bless is anyone, everyone whoblesses you, and curse is
everyone who curses you.
That's key, right there.
Blesses everyone who blessesyou and curse is everyone who
curses you.
Now let's be clear here.
This is Balaam talking.
This is Balaam's oracle, givenby God.

(08:50):
God has put the words and isabout to speak and he is talking
about Israel, and he's talkingabout Israel at that pleasant
time.
Blesses everyone who blessesyou and curses everyone who
curses you.
Let's remember that, remember.
We also remember who's talkingand who they're talking to.
Which brings us to part four.
Balak responds.

(09:10):
We see this in verses 10 and 11.
Then Balak's anger burnedagainst Balaam and he struck his
hands together.
And Balak said to Balaam Icalled you to curse my enemies,
but behold, you have persistedin blessing them these three
times.
So flee to your place now.
I said I would honor yougreatly, but behold, the Lord

(09:32):
has held you back from honor.
So Balak is very angry here.
Let's look, let's look back atverse 10, what it said he struck
his hands together.
In other words, he clapped hishands hard together.
He's upset, he's not, he's nothappy with Balaam.
He's telling Balaam look, man,why did I bring you here?
I brought you here, I told youthat I would give you these
blessings.
I will put money in your pocket.

(09:53):
I would give you pretty much.
I gave you pretty much a blankcheck, but yet the Lord is
keeping you from being blessed.
Now.
It's interesting.
Earlier in these chapters, balakkept saying well, let's see
what the Lord says.
He's acting as if he reallywants to hear what God has to
say.
But when it's not going his way, he's getting upset and he's,
and he's saying, he's blamingGod, saying God is the one who's

(10:13):
stopping you from being blessed.
And he's telling Balaam look,man, you know, let's just part,
and you, just, you go your ownway.
Which brings us, which bringsus to part number five.
Balaam responds back to Balak,and we see this in verses 12 to
14.
Balaam said to Balak did I notin fact tell your messengers

(10:34):
whom you have sent to me, sayingremember, he sent these
messengers to balaam a couple oftimes if balak were to give me
his house full of silver andgold, I could not do anything
contrary to the command of thelord, either good or bad, of my
own accord.
What the lord speaks, I willspeak.

(10:54):
So.
So now behold, I am going to mypeople.
Come, and I will advise you ofwhat this people will do to your
people in the days to come.
So Balaam is like you know whatdude it is what it is.
You know, I'm going to get up,I'm going to take my stuff up,
I'm going to go back to mypeople.
You can go to your people, butbefore I go, let me tell you
what's going to happen, whichbrings us to part number six,

(11:16):
the final vision of Balaam toBalak.
We see this in verses 15 to 24,and we're going to break it
down as we go.
First, the oracle visions.
We see this in verses 15 to 16.
Then he took up his discourseand said the decoration of
Balaam, the son of Beor, and thedecoration of the man whose
eyes is open, the decoration ofhim who hears the words of god

(11:40):
and knows the knowledge of themost high, who sees the vision
of the almighty falling down,yet having his eyes uncovered.
The next part is a real manvision.
I'm sorry, not a real manvision, a real man.
We see this in verse 17.
I see him, but not now.
I look at him, but not near.

(12:03):
A star shall appear from Jacob,a scepter shall rise from Israel
and shall smash the forehead ofMoab and overcome all the sons
of Shep.
Now he's talking about a realman there.
The man would come in thefuture and he would come from
jacob's line.
So that is what's going on here.
Next, he would take possession,uh, by his scepter.

(12:28):
We see this in verse 18.
And edom shall be a possessionseer.
His enemies also will be apossession.
While israel performs valiantlythe next part, a scepter ruler
will have dominion and destroythe enemy, the enemy remnant.
We see this in verse 19 onefrom Jacob shall rule and will

(12:49):
eliminate the survivors from thecity.
So that's so.
We see that the enemies will bedestroyed.
They will destroy the, theremnant.
One from Jacob shall rule andwill eliminate the survivors
from the city.
Next, all enemies will bedestroyed.
We see this in verses 20through 22.
And he looked at Amalek and tookup his discourse and said
Amalek was the first of thenations, but his end shall be

(13:12):
destruction.
And he looked at the kidnightand took up his discourse and
said your dwelling place isenduring and your nest is set in
the cliff.
Nevertheless, cain will sufferdevastation.
How long will Asher keep youcaptive?
The next part you can only liveif God ordained it.

(13:33):
We see this in verse 23.
We see this in verse 23.
Then he took up his discourseand said oh, who can live unless
God has ordained it?
Very clear what Balaam issaying there God ordains who
comes, who goes, who lives, whodies.
And they're only going tosurvive if the Lord ordains it.
Next we see nations coming fromthe west and the east will come

(13:57):
in but will be destroyed.
Notice verse 24.
But ships shall come from thecoast of Kittim and they shall
oppress Asher and oppress Eber,so they also will come to
destruction.
So nations are going to comefrom the west and the east, but

(14:19):
they will also meet theirdestruction.
Which brings us to part seven.
The two go their own way.
We see this in verse 25, whichends the chapter.
Now, this is after Balaam hadjust given his oracle.
Then Balaam arose and hedeparted and returned to his
place and Balak also went on hisway.
So at least we see that Balakwent with his mouth shut,

(14:42):
because Balak has been doing alot of talking.
He has been upset with Balaam.
Pretty much the whole time thatBalaam has been here he's been
upset with Balaam.
But now the two go their ownway.
Balaam gave this last oraclewhich was given to him by the
Lord.
It wasn't of his own accord orhis own mouth.
It was given to him by the Lordand he gave it to Balaam and
then he went.
He got up to go his way andthen Balak went back his way.

(15:04):
Okay, that brings us to the endof Numbers, chapter 24.
As I mentioned, this isabsolutely one of my favorite
stories, sections of scripturein the Bible.
This you know back and forthbetween Balak and Balaam, it
goes to show you what it's likewhen there's a man who wants to
be against god's people.
But remember who the lord isfor.
He's for and no matter what theenemy tries to do, god's man,

(15:28):
his people, his woman.
They are going to come out, andthat was the case here.
Balak brought balaam here tocurse israel, and balaam did not
curse israel.
He said that this is notsomething that I can do by my
own hand, because the Lord hasspoken to me and has given me
these things what to do and whatnot to do.
All right, I hope, as always,that you learn something, that

(15:49):
you got something from thischapter in Numbers.
As always, continue to pray forme as I continue to go through
and chop through thesescriptures, bringing you the
word of God, as I continue tolearn along with you, and I am
praying for you as well.
I appreciate each and every oneof you very much, appreciate
you coming in here, appreciateyou listening, appreciate you
sharing, and we could continueto grow this thing together.

(16:10):
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