Blessing or Curse

Did you have a week where you felt that everyone was against you, and all the traffic lights were red? Did you feel, in the words of the song, that “if it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all”? Do you sometimes feel that you are under a curse, perhaps because of your sin, or your family background? Then think about what God does here in Numbers 23:

1. God establishes His sovereign blessing for you, trumping all curses.

King Balak thinks that if he does what Balaam asks him to do (build seven altars and offer bulls and rams on them), and if he enables Balaam to get a proper perspective on the size of the Israelites (v. 13, 27), and if he pays him lots of money, then Balaam will do his bidding and curse Israel for him, and his problems will go away.

But that doesn’t happen; in fact, no matter what he does, no matter where he positions Balaam, no matter what he pays him, Balaam cannot curse Israel; he can only bless them! Look at:
7 Then Balaam uttered his oracle: “Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel.’ 8 How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the LORD has not denounced?
11 Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!”
12 He answered, “Must I not speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?”
Balaam: 20 “I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it.”

You see, no one can thwart God’s purposes. When God promises to bless a people, He will bless them. If God says He will do something, then He will act upon that and bring those plans to fruition. As we read in v. 19: “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?”
God established His sovereign blessing for Israel, and that blessing trumped all possible curses.

Israel is owned and blessed of God. He has not cursed them, for they are delivered from the curse of the law; he has not defied them, nor rejected or abandoned them, though mean and vile. Though the enemies of God’s people may prevail far against them, yet they cannot curse them; that is, they cannot do them any real evil… for they cannot separate them from the love of God in Christ, Rom. 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Likewise, God has established His sovereign blessing for you, and that blessing trumps all possible curses that anyone tries to put on you, whether from Satan or from the enemies of the church.

Isaiah 54:14-17 “In righteousness you will be established: Tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear. Terror will be far removed; it will not come near you. 15 If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing; whoever attacks you will surrender to you. 16 “See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its work. And it is I who have created the destroyer to work havoc; 17 no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the LORD”

God has established His sovereign blessing for you, and that blessing trumps all possible curses that anyone tries to put on you. Remember that when you are tempted… when you are tried and weak… when you feel defeated… when you hate yourself.

2. God confirms His timely blessing upon you, to give you courage.
Think about the setting here: Israel is camped on the east bank of the Jordan River, and is about to enter into the Promised Land. But the land is full of giants, strong armies, and walled cities, and Israel does not have a professional army, nor siege weapons to bring down those walls, nor a home base to operate out of. If you and I were Israelites back then, we would probably be a bit fearful and concerned about our prospects.
So what does God do to encourage them? Well, He could have sent Moses a message; or He could have appeared in a vision; or He could have performed some miracle. But instead, what God does to give His people courage is that He confirms the blessings He made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob through a pagan prophet, who has been hired to curse Israel!
In other words, just when Israel needed encouragement, just as they are poised to begin their conquest of the Promised Land, God provides them with courage from a most unexpected source: namely, their enemies!