"One Year Bible" Old Testament History Passage
Numbers 22:21-23:30
"Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it. He has not observed iniquity in Jacob. Nor has He seen wickedness in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a King is among them." Numbers 23:20-21 (NKJV)
Do you consider yourself to be a blessed person? Are you living the blessed life? It all starts with God! So many of us are trained to believe that it starts with us. We are trained to believe that we must EARN God's blessing. Corrollary to this belief is that if we must earn God's blessing, then we can also lose it or forfeit it.
When the adversary (Balak) in this passage sought to curse Israel, he ran into an obstacle. The pagan prophet Balaam found out that God had already blessed Israel and that blessing could not be undone! It could not be reversed. Whoever the Lord blesses is blessed indeed! THE BLESSING IS STRONGER THAN THE CURSE.
One might wonder however, "But can we not UNDO God's blessing through our disobedience?" In a temporal sense we certainly can limit the manifest sense of God's favor. But in the ultimate sense, God has determined to bless and therefore the blessing WILL GO FORTH.
Balaam comments on this when he says that God "has not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor seen wickedness in Israel" (vs. 21). This is the same people who not long before had produced the golden calf! This is the same people who had incurred divine discipline due to their grumbling. Yet God says that He has not observed iniquity in them.
God is not deluded about our condition. He sees us clearly. But, He does not see us the way we see ourselves. He sees us through the eyes of covenant love -- through the eyes of redemption. Though He may discipline and rebuke us, yet He sees us as BLESSED. He sees us as RIGHTEOUS. He sees us as COMPLETE. Now, how do we see ourselves?
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