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Youth Worship 26th July 2025 : How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?

Text: Numbers 23:1-12
26 July 2025

Title: “How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?”
Text: Numbers 23:1-12

INTRODUCTION

1. Balaam

a. He was chastised by the Angel of the LORD
b. His words to Balak
And Balaam said to Balak, “Look, I have come to you! Now, have I any power at all to say anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that I must speak.”
Numbers 22:38

2. Balak

a. He still hoped that Balaam would curse Israel for him
b. He took Balaam up to the high places of Baal to observe the extent of the people

THE WORSHIP OF BALAK AND BALAAM

1 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”

2 And Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 3 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps the LORD will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went to a desolate height. 4 And God met Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.”

Numbers 23:1-4

1. Elaborate and costly worship was offered by Balak and Balaam

a. Balak was to build seven altars
b. He was to prepare seven bulls and seven rams
c. Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar
d. Balak was to stand by his burnt offering and wait
e. Balaam would go to a desolate height, perhaps God would meet him

2. The silence of God in response to the worship offered

a. Balaam spoke to God about the worship that was offered
b. But there was no acknowledgement of the worship offered at all
c. This silence from God indicates that this worship was not accepted

3. Reasons why this worship was not accepted

a. The whole system of worship was wrong
b. God would not accept worship just because it is elaborate or costly
c. God would not accept worship from those who are wicked or perverse in their way

THE LORD PUT A WORD IN BALAAM’S MOUTH

5 Then the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 6 So he returned to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering,
he and all the princes of Moab.

7 And he took up his oracle and said…

Numbers 23:5-7

1. The LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth

“Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”

Numbers 23:5

a. The word put in Balaam’s mouth was not told to him ahead of time
b. The word would only be given when he returned to Balak

2. He took up his oracle

a. This oracle was the word of the LORD given to him
b. He could only take it up
c. He had no power to say anything outside the word
of the LORD Numbers 22:38

A WORD OF BOUNTIFUL BLESSING

1. The disclaimer from Balaam (personal)

7 And he took up his oracle and said:

“Balak the king of Moab has brought me from Aram,
From the mountains of the east.
‘Come, curse Jacob for me,
And come, denounce Israel!’

8 “How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?
And how shall I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?

Numbers 23:7-8

a. Balak had brought him here to curse Israel
b. He now saw that he could not curse whom God has not cursed
c. He could not denounce Israel when God had not denounced them

2. The declaration of blessing (from the LORD)

9 For from the top of the rocks I see him,
And from the hills I behold him;
There! A people dwelling alone,
Not reckoning itself among the nations.

10 “Who can count the dust of Jacob,
Or number one-fourth of Israel?

Numbers 23:9-10a

a. With physical sight, Balaam saw Israel’s present state
b. With prophetic sight, Balaam caught a glimpse of Israel’s future
i. Israel would be blessed on its own
ii. It would have no need to reckon itself among the nations
iii. Israel would conquer many nations, leaving “dust” in its trail
iv. It would be mighty and numerous
v. Not even one-fourth of Israel can be counted!

3. A personal statement from Balaam

Let me die the death of the righteous,
And let my end be like his!”

Numbers 23:10b

a. He wanted to die the death of the righteous
b. He wanted to be among the “blessed” in death
c. But this was not to be for Balaam
d. He would continue in wicked ways until his death cf. Numbers 31:8

4. Balak’s response to Balaam Numbers 23:11-12

a. Balak saw that Balaam had declared a bountiful blessing upon Israel from God
b. Balaam’s response
i. He had no power to speak on his own cf. Numbers 22:38
ii. He could only speak what the LORD had put in his mouth

RELEVANT LESSONS FOR US

1. Worship

a. Wrong systems of worship must be rejected
b. God will not accept worship from those who are wicked and perverse in their way

2. The Word of God

a. To learn to receive the Word of God as it is
b. Do not add to it, nor take from it cf. Deuteronomy 4:2

3. The Blessing of God

a. Once God has blessed, no one can curse or denounce it
b. When God blesses, we have every reason to be confident of the future