Week 54, Day 4: Held back from honor
Today’s Reading: Numbers 24:1-25
Some thoughts from today’s reading…
Balaam has now blessed Israel three times. Balak’s anger burned against Balaam. He struck his hands together and told him to flee to his place. Balaam seems to have learned the lesson from the angel of the Lord that he must speak only the word of the Lord. And now he is in trouble with Balak. Balak tells him that he would have greatly honored Balaam but God has held him back from honor (11). Sometimes people are more concerned about receiving honor from man than from receiving honor from God. People sometimes view God’s commands as keeping them back from pursuing “honor” or esteem. What they miss is that God’s commands do keep us to a certain track. His commands are a light to our path, guiding us and directing our steps. So yes, His commands direct us away from certain things and “keep” us away from certain practices. But we should always recognize that God knows what is best for us, what will be for our good. And we need to recognize that we do not need to be worried about receiving honor from man. So many get caught up in being praised or “patted on the back” by others that they let go of keeping God’s commands. Soon you see prominent preachers willing to “bend” or teach more leniently in order to be more popular. Or Christians are willing to do underhanded, corrupt practices at work to make their boss happy.
After chapter 25 we start to go away from hearing about Balaam so much. If this was all that was said about Balaam you would think that he has held to his principles and only said what God had spoken to him. But when you consider what we mentioned in 2 Peter 2:15 and Jude 1:11, something went wrong with Balaam. Verse 25 says Balaam rose and returned to his place. So it sounds like Balaam left. But we will see Balaam still around and mentioned in chapter 31:8 & 16 and he has a direct hand in what happens in chapter 25. I think that it is interesting that we find out about some of Balaam’s actions and motives by other passages or references later. The text at this point seems to focus on the words of blessing directed toward Israel.
Question: What other areas of life might someone choose to set aside the commands of God in order to receive honor from man?
Popularity: unranked [?]