The Blessings on God’s People

In the last session we looked at the deadly effects of sin with its ultimate consequence being separation from God forever. We are all sinners, but just as God made a way for the Israelites to be saved from the consequence of their rebellion, God has made a way for us to be saved from ours. Just as the Israelites repented of their sin and looked to the bronze snake in faith to be healed, we look to Jesus, who died on the cross, to be saved from the consequences of sin.

God is faithful to keep His promises to bless His people. Because God is faithful, we can trust that He will keep His promises to us as well, even in the midst of our unfaithfulness.

Session Outline

++1. God blesses His people by delivering them (Num. 23:19-23).

++2. God blesses His people by keeping His covenant promises (Num. 24:5-9).

++3. God blesses His people by providing a conquering King (Num. 24:17-19; 1 Cor. 15:25-26).

Session in a Sentence

God is faithful to keep His promise to unconditionally bless His people.

Christ Connection

Balaam could not curse God’s people but blessed them instead and proclaimed God’s faithfulness. Balaam’s blessings ultimately were realized centuries later in Jesus. Jesus is the conquering King who fulfilled God’s covenant promises and delivered His people from sin and death.

Interact: Ask group members the following question.

What are some promises we might hold on to but never use?

(the offer of a friend for help in a time of need; roadside assistance; insurance benefits; product coupons; product rebates)

page 29 (DDG) Crowfoot received a lifetime railway pass that he likely never used.

During the late 1800s, the Canadian government wanted to construct the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to unite the country from coast to coast, but doing so required land from some Native American territories. In 1883, when the Blackfoot Confederation of tribes retaliated against the railroad, a Native American chief named Crowfoot, a spokesperson for the Blackfoot Confederacy, negotiated with the government for compensation of land elsewhere. In recognition of Crowfoot’s statesmanship, the CPR vice-president awarded him with a lifetime railway pass in 1887. Crowfoot wore this pass on a chain around his neck for the rest of his life, though he most likely never used it. 1

God’s promises are designed to give us a sure and steadfast hope in life. We aren’t to hang God’s promises around our necks like ornaments and never use them; instead, we are to hang our lives on God’s promises. They have eternal significance, and God will be faithful to fulfill every last one of them. Therefore, even today as we wait for Him to fulfill them, we can live in the reality of their fulfillment that is to come.

Because God is faithful, we can trust that He will keep His promises, even when we might be unfaithful.

Point 1: God blesses His people by delivering them (Num. 23:19-23).

Let me give you the timeline leading up to Balaam’s second oracle before reading the passage for this point.

· Near the end of their wilderness wandering, the Israelites were led to the east side of the Jordan River, across from the promised land. They sent messengers to King Sihon of the Amorites asking permission to pass through their land, but they were met with an army in response. The Israelites defeated them and took possession of all their cities. Then they headed north and King Og of Bashan came out to attack them. The Lord also handed him and his land over to the Israelites (Num. 21:10-35).

· Turning south, they camped in the plains of Moab across the river from Jericho. King Balak of Moab was afraid of the Israelites because of their numbers and their success over the Amorites, so he wanted to hire Balaam, a diviner from Pethor, to come and curse them so he could defeat them in battle (22:1-6).

· After some interesting events, including the angel of the Lord and a talking donkey (read in the DDG), Balaam arrived with the intent to speak as the Lord directed him. His first oracle did not curse the Israelites but blessed them instead, much to Balak’s consternation. Undeterred, Balak took Balaam to another place where he could look out over the Israelites, and God gave the diviner a second oracle to share (22:7–23:18).

Read: Numbers 23:19-23 (DDG p. 30).

19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? 20 Behold, I received a command to bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it. 21 He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel. The Lord their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them. 22 God brings them out of Egypt and is for them like the horns of the wild ox. 23 For there is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel; now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel, ‘What has God wrought!’

DDG (p. 30) It was impossible for Balaam to curse the Israelites—because God had promised to bless them.

In Balaam’s second oracle, we are reminded that God does not lie and He does not renege on His promises. Ever. Therefore, it was impossible for Balaam to curse the Israelites because God had promised to bless Israel.

The Lord is steadfast and faithful in His commitment to His people because He is unchanging.

If God were anything less than one hundred percent faithful to His word, He would not be God.

He would either not be true or not be powerful enough to keep His word; He would be just like us—flawed and weak. But...

While we are like Him, created in His image, He is not like us.

Commentary: Though we were created in the image of God, we are, of course, not completely like Him. God is completely holy and perfect (Isa. 6:3). God is the Creator of the universe. With a word, He created all things, and with a word, He can bring the most powerful of nations to nothing (Isa. 40:17). He changes the seasons and establishes kings and removes them (Dan. 2:21).

God’s plans are best, so all that He says, He will do, and every promise He has made, He will keep.

Interact:Ask group members the following question.

How should knowing that God is unchanging encourage us to trust Him more and live more faithfully?

(we know that He is with us no matter what because He said He will never forsake His children; we can believe that He rewards those who seek Him and His will by faith; the promise of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus is a certainty on which we can build our lives)

Voices from the Church

“God’s grace and faithfulness are stronger than those who would hurt us … There is no greater power than the one we have in Jesus. If your life is hidden in Christ, you have no reason to fear any curse from anyone because God has all power.” 2 –Africa Study Bible

DDG (p. 30) The Moabites were right to be afraid, only they were afraid of the wrong thing—God was the One who delivered His people.

The Moabites feared the Israelites, thinking they had delivered themselves from Egypt and defeated the Amorites. It was not the Israelites, however, who should have caused them to tremble but rather God who delivered the Israelites.

God displays His immeasurable power to all the world though His people who are weak and sinful.

He does so with the goal that all the world will recognize that there is nothing and no one greater than our God and therefore praise Him.

Point 2: God blesses His people by keeping His covenant promises (Num. 24:5-9).

After God denied Balak’s request a second time, Moab’s king took Balaam to yet another location, the top of Peor, hoping that Balaam might curse the Israelites from there (23:27-28). Balaam, however, perceived that God desired to bless Israel, and the Spirit of God came upon him (24:1-2). He began the third oracle by describing both Israel’s current state of blessing and the future blessings they would enjoy.

Read Numbers 24:5-9 (DDG p. 31).

5 How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel! 6 Like palm groves that stretch afar, like gardens beside a river, like aloes that the Lord has planted, like cedar trees beside the waters. 7 Water shall flow from his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters; his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. 8 God brings him out of Egypt and is for him like the horns of the wild ox; he shall eat up the nations, his adversaries, and shall break their bones in pieces and pierce them through with his arrows. 9 He crouched, he lay down like a lion and like a lioness; who will rouse him up? Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse you.”

DDG (p. 31) God’s protection and provision for the Israelites were a fulfillment of His promises, even though they were not yet in the promised land. God’s faithfulness to His promises applies to all those who are in Christ by faith, even when we have not yet received His full promise for us. No matter your circumstance, please remember that God is still faithful; He will establish and fulfill all His word.

While the Israelites rested in the wilderness, they were likely unaware of Balak’s repeated attempts to curse them. God, though, was aware and He was working on behalf of His people to protect and preserve them, as He had promised. Even in the wilderness, where the Israelites were forced to wander for forty years because of their unfaithfulness, God had blessed them and given them all they needed in abundance. Just as God was with the Israelites, providing for them and protecting them in the wilderness, He is with us as well.

· The rest and ample provisions that the Israelites enjoyed in that moment were not the true rest and the greatest provisions God had in store for His people. God’s present provision for His people anticipated their future abundance. He had promised to give the Israelites rest in the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey (Ex. 33:14). Because all of the promises of God are as sure as the rising sun, the Israelites could trust that God was going to do what He said He would do. The rest and provisions they enjoyed on the east side of the Jordan River were only shadows of the substance that was to come.

· As God’s people in Christ, we also can live confidently, knowing that God’s promises are sure and that He is the One working now to fulfill all He has promised to us in Christ (1 Pet. 1:3-5 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”).

Ask group members the following question.

How should God’s faithfulness to protect and provide for His people address our temptation to worry about the needs of tomorrow?

(we do not need to worry because God is faithful to take care of our needs; God is able to take care of our needs even when we don’t know what we need; if God is able to provide and protect, then we can be content in whatever situation we find ourselves in)

DDG (p. 31) God is faithful despite any and all who would try to curse His people and frustrate His promises, even ourselves.

Three times Balak attempted to bribe Balaam into cursing the Israelites, and each time Balaam responded with the Lord’s blessing for His people. Not a person or a thing in this world can stop God’s promises (Rom. 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”).

In fact, anyone who tries is cursed, for God is like a lion lying down ready to crush anyone who attempts to come against Him and His children. No one can stop God from being faithful to us, even ourselves. Our faithlessness can’t stop the promises of God from being fulfilled (2 Tim. 2:13 “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.”).

Fill in the blanks: DDG (p. 31).

God Is Faithful: God’s faithfulness means He keeps His word and always fulfills His promises. God’s faithfulness is demonstrated in His fulfillment of the promises He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We reflect God by keeping the promises we make to Him and to others.

Essential Doctrine “God Is Faithful”: God’s faithfulness means He keeps His word and always fulfills His promises (1 Cor. 1:9; 2 Tim. 2:13; 1 Pet. 4:19).

God’s faithfulness is demonstrated in His fulfillment of the promises He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The apostle Paul linked the attribute of “faithful” to God’s coming through on His word: “He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thess. 5:24).

We reflect God by keeping the promises we make to Him and to others.

Ask group members the following question.

What should our response to our sin be, knowing that God’s promises are secure no matter what?

(we should quickly and openly confess our sin and ask for forgiveness; we should resist and fight against temptation and sin in order to honor the One who saves us by faith in Christ; we should keep our promises to God and others to reflect our faithful God)

Point 3: God blesses His people by providing a conquering King (Num. 24:17-19; 1 Cor. 15:25-26).

It was not Balaam who refused to curse the Israelites but rather God, and this God who was not done with the Israelites was not done with Balak yet either. He had a fourth oracle for Balaam that looked into the future, past the conquest of the promised land to a time when God would provide a king for His people.

Read Numbers 24:17-19 (DDG p. 32).

17 I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth. 18 Edom shall be dispossessed; Seir also, his enemies, shall be dispossessed. Israel is doing valiantly. 19 And one from Jacob shall exercise dominion and destroy the survivors of cities!”

DDG (p. 32) This passage foretells of a coming king who would conquer the Moabites: David.

Balak’s plan for Balaam to curse the Israelites had not worked. This was a victory, yes, but it was not the victory God’s people needed. The Israelites would need to battle the Moabites at some point, and God chose that one day He would provide a king for His people—David—to bring them this victory. David would be the first fulfillment of this fourth and final oracle from God through Balaam, but he would not be the last.

It would be a while before God fulfilled this promise, but God would eventually provide the Israelites with kings to lead them and conquer their enemies.

But no king God raised up was completely faithful to Him, and their failures to be faithful affected the entire nation.

· Saul, the first king of Israel, disobeyed God twice early on in his reign by making an unlawful sacrifice (1 Sam. 13) and not completely destroying the Amalekites as God had commanded (1 Sam. 15).

· David, a man after God’s own heart, succeeded Saul and would be the greatest king to reign over Israel. When God spoke through Balaam of the future defeat of the Moabites at the hands of a king of Israel, He was speaking of King David (2 Sam. 8:1-12). But as good as David was for Israel, he was not the perfect king God’s people needed. He committed adultery and murdered a man to try to cover it up (2 Sam. 11).

· Solomon, the wisest king ever to live, eventually abandoned his wisdom, accumulated a multitude of wives from other nations, and then worshiped their foreign gods (1 Kings 11).

· Rehoboam chose to listen to foolish counsel, which split the kingdom in two (1 Kings 12).

· Then a series of kings ruled over the divided kingdoms, many of whom were wicked, and some exceedingly so (e.g., 1 Kings 14:9; 16:25; 16:30), eventually leading to exile from the promise land.

Each of these kings was a lamppost illuminating a core truth for the Israelites: They needed someone far greater than even the greatest king they could imagine. They needed a true King, an obedient King, a perfect King—and so do we.

DDG (p. 32) Balaam’s fourth oracle points to David but also past him to Jesus.

David was a great king, the promised conqueror of the Moabites, but because of his own sin, he would not be able to provide God’s people with the greatest victory they truly needed, the victory over the greatest enemies of sin and death.

So one day, God would send another king—Jesus—the perfect, sinless Savior who would crush sin and death on behalf of His people. This fourth oracle from Balaam points to David but also past him to the One whose birth would be heralded by a star and who is the “descendant of David, the bright morning star” (Rev. 22:16 ““I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star.”” ).

· Jesus lived the perfect life that we were supposed to live and died the death that we were supposed to die. The King of kings offered His perfect life in exchange for our sin-stained souls so that His righteousness might be credited to us (Rom. 3:21-26 “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”). In the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, God has begun to put all things under the feet of Jesus, securing salvation for all who live by faith in Him.

Read 1 Corinthians 15:25-26 (DDG p. 32).

25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

In 1 Corinthians 15:25-26, Paul quoted Psalm 110, a psalm of David, to remind the church in Corinth of the promise of God for a conquering king ultimately fulfilled in Christ. Christ will destroy all of His enemies and reign forever. God has made a promise, and He will not revoke it, neither does He lack the power to bring His promise to pass. In the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, God has secured the victory over sin and death that no one else could attain. The promise of eternal life through our King, Jesus Christ, has been made and kept.

Even though we still live in a broken and sinful world as broken and sinful people, God will be faithful to us.

He has given us eternal life with Him, in the future, life unhindered by sin forevermore.

My Mission

In fear, Balak called upon Balaam to curse the Israelites in the wilderness so that he could successfully attack them. However, God had promised to bless the people of Israel, so Balaam couldn’t curse them. Instead, Balaam blessed the people and shared prophecies of God’s future blessings for the nation, which are ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection have secured eternal life for all who believe in Him. God has blessed those who believe with hope through Jesus and calls us to go and be a blessing to the world around us. The greatest way for us to bless others is to share with them how they can receive the same blessing of salvation from sin through faith in Jesus Christ.

DDG (p. 33),

Because we have received God’s faithful blessings out of His kindness and grace, we have the opportunity to reflect God through our own lives to the world around us, ultimately by sharing how others can experience God’s greatest blessing of salvation through Christ.

· What steps can we, should we take in belief that God is faithful to His promises to bless His people?

How can we respond to our present life circumstances in such a way that it reflects our God of promise?

· How can we together to bless your community in the name of Jesus?

· How can we use God’s blessings and His promises to share the gospel with unbelievers?

Close in prayer:

References

1. Daniel Rose, “Blackfoot Confederacy Displaced to Make Way for the Railroad,” Toronto Ward Museum, July 30, 2018, http://www.wardmuseum.ca/myarchive/oiselibrary/rose.

2. “Numbers,” in Africa Study Bible (Oasis International, 2016), 193.

3. Anastasia Boniface-Malle, “Numbers,” in Africa Bible Commentary, gen. ed. Tokunboh Adeyemo (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006), 196.

4. Roy Gane, Leviticus, Numbers, in The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2015) [Wordsearch].

5. R. Dennis Cole, “Numbers,” in CSB Study Bible(Nashville, TN: B&H, 2017), 242-43, n. 23:25–24:9.

6. Abraham Saggu, “Numbers,” in South Asia Bible Commentary, gen. ed. Brian Wintle (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2015), 195.

7. R. Dennis Cole, “Numbers,” in CSB Study Bible, 243, n. 24:15-19.

8. Richard L. Pratt Jr., I & II Corinthians, in Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: B&H, 2005) [Wordsearch].

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