Numbers 23 - God's Faithfulness

This is an interesting chapter that really speaks to the consistency of God and man's inability to trust it. Balak has asked Balaam to curse the nation of Israel and Balaam tells him to make his sacrifices and he will speak to God and come back with God's answer, which he does and instead of cursing the nation of Israel, God sends Balaam with a blessing. Balak asks Balaam to try again and Balaam comes back with this message:

 ¹⁸ This was the message Balaam delivered:
   “Rise up, Balak, and listen!
      Hear me, son of Zippor.
 ¹⁹ God is not a man, so he does not lie.
      He is not human, so he does not change his mind.
   Has he ever spoken and failed to act?
      Has he ever promised and not carried it through?
 ²⁰ Listen, I received a command to bless;
      God has blessed, and I cannot reverse it!
 ²¹ No misfortune is in his plan for Jacob;
      no trouble is in store for Israel.
   For the Lord their God is with them;
      he has been proclaimed their king.
 ²² God brought them out of Egypt;
      for them he is as strong as a wild ox.
 ²³ No curse can touch Jacob;
      no magic has any power against Israel.
   For now it will be said of Jacob,
      ‘What wonders God has done for Israel!’
 ²⁴ These people rise up like a lioness,
      like a majestic lion rousing itself.
   They refuse to rest
      until they have feasted on prey,
      drinking the blood of the slaughtered!”

 Now you would expect Balak to hear and receive this word, but thew chapter ends with him asking Ballam to try yet again.

Have you ever been like Balak and asked God to do something repeatedly that God is refusing to do? I have to admit that I have, In fact I spent many years begging God to change a piece of who I am. I had no peace over it until\, I finally came to understand that God has spoken and I had been created as God had planned and I accepted all of who God made me to be. Balak, is in the same position, He is in fear of the Israelites and lacks peace, He can either accept that they are protected by God and work with God and find peace, or he can continue to ask God to curse them, which God has made it clear won't happen.

So why do we fight with God like this? Why don't we take the answer that God gives us and live by it and embrace it as true, We are a stubborn people for sure and maybe their is a piece of us that is arrogant to believe that we can influence God and change God's mind. But the truth is that God is faithful to God's promises.

The next time God has given a clear answer and you don't like it, consider Balak and the lack of peace he is living with. Would you be better off making peace with what God has said and finding peace in the circumstances....undoubtedly yet. Consider saving yourself grief and trust God is who God says God is and that God's will be faithful to God's promises.