Month: February 2021

86. Prosperity and Abundance

Numbers 24:5, 6 How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river’s side, as the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters.

This is the third time Balaam blessed Israel. In this verse the Lord paints a picture of fertility, prosperity, and abundant growth. This is a fairly common prophecy of the Messianic Age. When Messiah comes there will more fertility and abundance than even in the Garden of Eden. However, it will be spiritual prosperity and abundance. Jesus brought wellbeing and prosperity to the hearts of all believers in Christ. While Balaam views the encampment of Israel physically from the mountain, the Spirit of God shows him the glories of God’s people and how spiritually verdant and beautiful they are.

This promise of spiritual prosperity applies to the NT believers in Christ in picturesque images. The very tents, plain and simple though they appear, are beautiful. To the eyes of faith the dwellings of God’s people are “goodly,” beautiful and lovely because the Lord is dwelling there with His people. The valleys that God’s people are farming and cultivating are like gardens by the side of the river. When the Lord comes to dwell in a land He makes it lovely because He lives in the residents dwelling there. The aloe trees and cedar trees beside the waters are lush and verdant. The believer who meditates on the Word of God is “like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does he prospers. [Psalm 1:3].”

Christ has restored Paradise to the hearts of those who believe in Him. The Thief said, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” The kingdom and paradise is the same thing: it is the Spirit of God living and ruling in our hearts by faith. The promise says that we who believe in Jesus are living in such a paradise right now in the spirit, and One Day we will live in the Eternal Paradise in physical reality. Enjoy the goodliness and beauty of the tents and valleys and rivers and trees today. It is joy forever.

85. The People Dwell Alone

Numbers 23:9 For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.

The Lord promises that we, His people, will dwell alone. Although this sounds like a strange promise and not a pleasant one, it really is a peculiar blessing. The Jews were a peculiar people with strange customs and an odd religion; their religion and their way of life were not in conformity with the world. They looked different, they acted different, their god was invisible, and they lived alone and unique in the world; they were not counted as a regular nation among the nations.

But in a deeper and a more important and an eternal way the same is true for the Christians, the NT believers in Christ. The promise is for us also: we are alone in the world. We do not conform to the world’s ways. We do not look and act and talk and think the way the world does. Now in actual, real life, day to day living Christians don’t always appear alone and different than their worldly neighbors, but God sees a peculiar, unique, strange, odd, and different looking people than humans see. We are called out of the world and we are alone and separated from the world. Christians truly are different, even though we don’t always act like it. The “world” clings tightly to all of us, but down deep in the heart we are holy, separated unto the Lord, not reckoned among the heathen.

It was Balaam who spoke this promise over the people of Israel. He was hired by King Balak of Moab to come and curse Israel on the plains of Moab, but he could only speak the words God gave him. And God gave him words of blessing instead of cursing. “Dwelling alone” is a curse if it means being separated from God, but it is a blessing if it means being separated from the world and all sin and evil. This is the meaning of God’s words through Balaam. It is a blessed promise to be different. We are alone, separated, and we are not afraid to act like it. The promise affects behavior. We are not conformed to the world, but transformed by renewal.

84. Earth filled with Glory

Numbers 14:21 But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.

God promises to fill the entire earth with the glory of the Lord. This promise is repeated several times In the Bible. This may not literally come true until the creation of the new heaven and new earth described in the Book of Revelation. But in the spiritual realm that we can’t see it is coming true, for the Gospel has gone out to the entire world, to the ends of the earth. And when earth people believe the gospel glory fills their souls and angels rejoice. We don’t see it and we won’t see it until it all becomes visible in the next age.

But the promise is being fulfilled in the spiritual realm all over the earth, and it will be completely and visibly fulfilled at the Second Coming of Christ when He comes to judge and set up the new heaven and new earth. This is as certain to take place, as it is certain that the Lord lives. This promise means that our efforts to witness, evangelize, preach the gospel, and support mission work will not be in vain. Every small or large witnessing effort will bear fruit. People will be saved and come into the kingdom of God from the kingdom of darkness. The glory of the Lord within the newly saved people is visible to the Lord, and He rejoices daily. Because we believe this promise we are moved and willing to contribute to church work and mission work as long as God gives us means and opportunity.

The promise causes our hearts to rejoice with the angels of heaven when even one sinner repents and turns to the Lord. The promise stirs our hearts with excitement when we dream about this becoming reality. Just imagining what the earth would look like when it is filled with glory stirs the imagination and makes us glad.

83. Pardon

Numbers 14:19 Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now. And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word.

Moses asks the Lord for pardon for the people as he intercedes for them. And the Lord does pardon. He did pardon. And He will pardon. However, that generation was still denied entry into the Promised Land, though their sin and rebellion and disbelief were forgiven. The Lord promises to do the same for us, pardon.

The Lord will pardon our iniquity according to the greatness of His mercy. God’s mercy is truly great; it is longer and wider and deeper and higher than we can comprehend. Moses pleads for pardon on the basis of God’s great mercy. It is not earned or merited, and it certainly isn’t fair. God promises to pardon us according to the greatness of His mercy. He has forgiven in the past, and such mercy continues into the future. 

Pardon means, “It never happened.” Justified means “just-if-I’d never sinned.” Forgiveness means, “I forgot.” This is how God regards us, and our sins, in Christ. Outside of Christ, however, there is no forgiveness, no mercy, no pardon, no life, and no hope. The grace, mercy and love of God for sinners caused Him to send the Son into the world and give Him over to death to earn forgiveness and mercy for all.

The Lord answered Moses, “I have pardoned according to thy word.” God listened to Moses and answered His prayer. We don’t know if the Lord would have forgiven the people without Moses’ intercession, but we do know for sure that He did pardon them after Moses prayed for their forgiveness. And the same promise will result from our prayers for the forgiveness of others who “trespass against us.” Life and peace flows on the river of forgiveness. So the Lord promises.

82. Mercy Forgives Sin

Numbers 14:18 The Lord is long-suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

The character of the Lord is mentioned several times in the OT with similar words. Here the descriptors are patient, merciful, and forgiving, but also just. Being just and holy means that the Lord cannot just clear the guilty and let them go. The guilty must be punished. No one “gets away with it,” ever. The sins of the fathers carry through for several generations. This most likely means that the particular sinful tendencies of persons carry through the next generations. The DNA in inherited. 

However, the Lord can break generational bondages through Word and Spirit. Mercy trumps justice. Forgiveness clears the guilty. God can “clear the guilty” by justly punishing our sins upon His innocent Son on the cross. This Great Transaction does not clear the guilty; it simply transfers the guilt from us to Jesus.

It is the patience, mercy and forgiveness in God that motivates and enables God to send His own Son to bear the punishment of our sin and guilt. By doing so the Lord can and does graciously and mercifully forgive all sin. It is the faithful love of God that dominates His personality and His actions. He can do al this forgiving without compromising His holiness and justice, for Jesus took the just punishment for our sin upon Himself.

The promise is that God will be “long-suffering.” He suffers long with our sinfulness and rebellion. He won’t give up on us. He keeps on relentlessly working on us to turn us to Him. Every day He waits by the gate looking for us to turn. And He turns us.

The promise is that God will show “great mercy.” His mercy is so deep and never-ending that we can hardly believe that He will be merciful again. But He is. “Great” means inexhaustible.

The promise is that God will “forgive iniquity and transgression.” The Lord has not only forgiven us for the whole of our life when we were baptized and believed, but He daily and richly forgives all sins to me and all believers in Christ continually.

Moses could intercede for the people with these words, reminding himself of the nature and character of the Lord God. After Moses’ prayer God did forgive, but they were banished to the desert for another 38 years.

81. Lord will give the Land

Numbers 14:8 If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.

The promise repeated so many times is this: The Lord will bring us into the land and give it to us because He delights in us. “It is your father’s good pleasure (delight) to give you the kingdom.” The Land of milk and honey is the spiritual kingdom of God. Jesus brought it in; we enter into it by repentance and faith in the gospel. The kingdom is within us and it is eternal. It will become physical and tangible to us one day when Jesus comes at the end of the age. The land “flowing with milk and honey” is a metaphorical description of luscious fertility, ample abundance, and glorious beauty. If we could see the Kingdom we would certainly agree. Holiness and Love is truly glorious and beautiful. “Milk and honey” tastes good and is pleasant to the senses while it is also nourishing and healthy.

The beauty of this promise is that the Lord brings us into the Kingdom and gives it to us. This is all of grace; it is God’s doing. Then we are told to possess what God gives; this is faith that receives the promises of the Word. And the further good news is that the Lord gives us the faith to believe it. And so we possess what God gives. “Whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.” This is the Promised Land, the eternal Kingdom of God, the very life of God Himself, His holiness and His love.”

In Jesus Christ we have everything we could ever hope for and more than we can even dream of. But how do we know if the Lord delights in us, or not? We know when we look at the cross of the crucified Savior and the tomb of the Risen Lord.

80. See God’s Word

Numbers 11:23 And the Lord said unto Moses Is the Lord’s hand waxed short? Thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.

The Israelites had been eating manna every day, and they were still complaining that they didn’t have any meat to eat. The miraculous manna was boring! But boredom is, indeed, a big problem for most people. This was one of the many times (10x) they complained in the wilderness. The people still wanted to go back to the slavery of the world, back to Egypt where at least they had food. Complaint stems from unbelief, unbelief that the Lord knows what He is doing in His provision and care for His children of the family, His sheep of the flock.

So the Lord relents and promises to send flocks and flocks of quail, so many quail that they will be overstuffed and the meat will rot in their teeth. He says to Moses, “You will see whether or not my word will come to pass.” This is not a promise per se, but it is the basis of all God’s promises: His word will happen as He promises. Sometimes He must show us that He is God and He keeps His word.

“See whether God’s Word will come to pass.” God promises to always answer our prayers, but not always for physical wants in this present world, but surely always, without fail, for the deeper, more important, eternal, spiritual needs we pray for. But for our blind and deaf hearts He will sometimes do something that we can see, like provide an abundance of quail. “See, why didn’t you trust Me? I am not powerless. I will do what I say. Wait and see that I am good.”

God’s word will always come to pass, just not always in the way we expect nor in the time we would like. But all spiritual blessings will definitely come about in good time. And sometimes the Lord is gracious and sends us a token in the physical world that we can see, so that we can believe that all His promises will come true. “These signs are written (in John) so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and believing have life in His name.” This is the purpose of the miracles of Jesus (and of the quail). They were signs pointing to a greater spiritual good (so was the quail). Believing is seeing; believing is Life. God says, “Come and see, I am giving you so much life you cannot handle it all. But here, have some quail.”

79. God Speaks Good

Numbers 10:29 And Moses said unto Hobab, the son of Raguel the Midianite, Moses’ father in law, we are journeying unto the place of which the Lord said, I will give it you: come thou with us, and we will do the good for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel.

Moses invites his father-in-law to come with them to the Promised Land. The Lord will give it to us and we will do good there, and you will enjoy the benefits of God’s promised blessings with us. The invitation is extended to us as well, we who are not physically descended from Israel. Our Promised Land, which our Lord is giving to us to possess, is the Kingdom of God. Jesus brings it to us and invites us in. The Land comes into our hearts and lives, and God does good to us in that kingdom.

The promise is based on the Lord speaking good concerning us. God promises good things, great blessings and spiritual abundance and fruitfulness. He gives us the Kingdom to enjoy forever, and all of it is good. The Lord speaks good to us. God’s words are blessings and good things for us, for what He says actually happens and what He promises actually comes true. The Lord has spoken good; the Lord is speaking good about us all the time; and He will speak good about us forever.

The Lord says good things about us, and He promises to forever say good things about us. No matter what you think of yourself or what others think of you, God is always thinking good thoughts about you. He can say good things about you because you have Jesus Christ inside you; God sees Him living in you and He is well pleased with Him, and so with you. He sees good in you (in the Jesus-in-you) and so He can say good things about you. You are beautiful to God, good and pleasant in His eyes.

I need this promise so that I can honestly say good things about Jesus, who lives in my heart and makes me good. There is a beauty to holiness that is too glorious for human eyes. But we believe God’s Word: He says He sees it. We believe what God sees and says, not what we see and what humans say.