Obedience to the word of God

Obedient To The Word
THU Evening Prayer Reflection 07/02/20
The Prophet Balaam as I remember was stopped by God when his donkey saw an angel of the Lord and could not move. This situation made him realized that God’s power can overrule anything. This time, he was ready to listen to God’s instruction despite his own will. There was too much at stake, God was also involved. The question was: “Should he bless or curse Israel?” We read the OT with caution because its setting is far removed from ours. People do things with a particular motivation that modern man may not truly understand. I began with a quest to listen to the story. Evidently there is an expectation that with the right conditions, the wicked should lose and the righteous is set to win and live. This story of Balaam the prophet of Israel dealing with Balak, King of Moab is indeed peculiar. Balak brings an unusual request to the prophet Balaam to curse his enemies the Israelites. He may have bribed him so that he can curse Israel, but what he didn’t know is that God had given instructions to Balaam to say only what the Lord tells him. God could not curse Israel. V23 There is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel. Then when Balak realized that Balaam wasn’t going to curse Israel, this is hilarious, he says: well, if you are not going to curse them then don’t bless them at all! Does this sound familiar? Is this something our hearts would do about the people we don’t see eye to eye?
Balak knew about the God of Israel and how powerful He is, so he wanted to use this against them. Balaam is certainly teaching us something. Say the word of God as is. Let us not read our own stuff in it or wish it to agree to our stuff. It is true that most of our wishes may not line up with God’s will, that’s why we study the scriptures, evaluate our motives and pray together so to discern God’s will. Rom 12:2 So that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable and perfect. So sometimes, it may hurt us to realize that the truth is against our position, our desires, our strong convictions, how do we react to that? May be at times we rebel like the King of Moab Balak! We expect God to listen to us and answer a list of our requests, few of which may or may not surprise others: (1) God, I wonder if you could proceed and annihilate all my enemies! Pfew! Did you hear that? God help us! If God had to make us listen to our thoughts aloud, we would be doomed! Jesus taught us to love our enemies. They are all God’s creatures, He knows how best to handle them, God is probably frustrated with them more than we are. I am being vicious! Jesus asked forgiveness on behalf of those who were crucifying him.
(2) Lord can you make me younger forever? Is this the standard desire in the world? To stay here young? The Bible tells us that gray hair is like a crown, a reward, splendor, glory. Prov 16:31. If we review a list of things, we truly desire, we may be shocked that priorities are inverted or mixed up. God might not be in the center of such requests. In that case, we need to re-acquaint ourselves with Jesus of Nazareth in the same way that Nicodemus did that night. Begin again, go and discover God anew. Be born a second time, from God. Seek things from above,
Let the Holy Spirit of God guide you!
Be blessed!

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