Tag: denounce

48.d. “Wilderness” – 12.j. Balaam – “How can I curse whom God has not cursed?”

 

Num 23:4  and God met Balaam. And Balaam said to him, “I have arranged the seven altars and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.” And the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” And he returned to him, and behold, he and all the princes of Moab were standing beside his burnt offering. And Balaam took up his discourse and said, “From Aram Balak has brought me, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains: ‘Come, curse Jacob for me, and come, denounce Israel!’  How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced? For from the top of the crags I see him, from the hills I behold him; behold, a people dwelling alone, and not counting itself among the nations! Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!”

God spoke to and through someone as obviously corrupt as Balaam. This shows us that spiritual giftedness does not equal spiritual maturity or holiness of life. God spoke through a donkey in the previous chapter and now He put a word in Balaam’s mouth.  “Despite the pagan and unsavory actions of this ungodly man, the Lord deigns to meet with him and to speak through him. This is utterly remarkable. We often say that God will never use an unclean vessel. This is not quite accurate. God may use whatever vessel he wishes; the issue concerns what happens to an unclean vessel when God has finished using it for his purposes. It appears that such vessels are tossed aside, dashed on the road.”

When Balaam returned, Balak and all the princes of Moab were ready. They were ready to learn what their money bought them from Balaam. Come, curse Jacob for me, and come, denounce Israel: This was what Balak asked for. He wanted a spiritual curse against Israel so that they could be defeated in battle. Balaam or any other prophet could not curse Israel if God had not cursed them. Balak could not bribe God to curse Israel. Through Balaam God promised to bless Israel by making them a singular nation and blessing them with great size.

 Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my end be like his! Balaam was one of the many who long to die the death of the righteous yet have no desire to live the life of the righteous. The actual death of Balaam (Numbers 31:8) gives no hope for the fulfillment of this wish. His wish wasn’t wrong, but neither was it enough. (Guzik)

“Behold the vanity of mere desires. Balaam desired to die the death of the righteous, and yet was slain in battle fighting against those righteous men whom he envied.” (Spurgeon)

When a person sees and knows of righteousness and what it means in God’s eyes, it is important that they seek it with more than just curious words. 

32.m. “How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God”

 

Matthew 11:20 Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.”

 Jude 1:11   Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion.

 Ezekiel 3:6-7   not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to such, they would listen to you.  But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart

 Hebrews 10:26-31    For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,  but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.  Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.  How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?  For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

“Unresponsiveness to the voice of God is the characteristic of this generation, and will be its downfall.” (France)

It is not only western industrial nations that have had access to the gospel. Technology, computers, internet, websites, translations, radio, TV, etc…. leave no room for excuse. No other society has had access to God’s Word, (Scripture, Gospel of Jesus Christ) at their fingertips, yet they reject and deny it of any value for their soul.

“The people in the cities listed above did not attack Jesus Christ; they did not drive him from their gates; they did not seek to crucify him; they simply disregarded him. In the end, neglect will kill much more than persecution ever did.” (Barclay)

When I read, “But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.”, “ How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God”, “But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.” Here it is implied that there are in fact different degrees of judgment. Some will be punished more severely in the final judgment than others. In fact, those who were living out sin and doing all kinds of fleshly and worldly sinful things will be judged to some lesser degree than those who flat out know the offer of redemption and salvation but not only reject it they deny it any room in their heart for it.  God has opened their heart to the Gospel and they neglect, reject, and deny any need for it. 

It is not hard for me to understand and believe in heaven and hell. What is hard for me to understand is how a person whose heart and mind have been open to the need of salvation and have heard the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and have an understanding of heaven and hell and choose hell. Lost on us is an understanding of eternity. Eternal life or eternal hell. Separated from the love of God forever.  The busyness of life needs to be slowed down in most lives. Being too busy for giving thought to eternity just doesn’t make sense now and for sure will not in the future.

30.a. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

 

 

Matthew 3:1  In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’” Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

 Matthew 4:17   From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

 Matthew 11:20    Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.

 Matthew 12:41  The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

 Matthew 21:31-32    Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.  For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.

We can’t come to the kingdom of heaven unless we leave our sin – turn away from it – believe in Jesus Christ and have faith, trust, and reliance in His sacrifice on the cross for our sin.  We are born with a basic understanding of God. Rom 1:19  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

We have free will to choose to repent, believe, surrender, serve, follow, and obey Jesus Christ. Every single person is born into sin. We have a sinful nature. Try as hard as we might we will never be able to cleanse ourselves of this sin stain.  We can try to be good and do right, but all of our efforts apart from Jesus Christ fall short and do nothing to make us right before God.  The Judgment for sin is eternal torment in Hell. Without repentance from sin and faith in and obedience to Jesus Christ our destination is eternal hell. 

The light of the Gospel is life to the lost.  It gives them hope and faith in eternal heaven. Those, who’s have seen and securely taken hold of the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (believed in, trusted, rely on, cling to and repent). I am at a loss for words that can explain how the conversion, new birth, takes place upon repenting and believing in Jesus Christ.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. We are born again and the eyes to our hearts and minds are opened and we see right and wrong, good and bad, love and hate, peace and fear, mercy and anger ……. We see it through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Heaven and Hell await the free will choice that each and every person makes this side of eternity.