Behind the Scenes

October 23, 2011 19th of Kingdomtide

How Great Thou Art: Wilderness Lessons Fall Sermon Series in Numbers

Psalm 97, Numbers 22: 1-6

"Behind the Scenes"

Today's sermon is our third in the fall sermon series in Numbers called, “How Great Thou Art: Wilderness Lessons." Today's sermon, entitled “Behind the Scenes,” takes a look at the story of Balaam, and focuses on how God is at work in the world.

Over the last two weeks we have been reading about the ancient Hebrews. We have talked about the origin of these people, how they were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We have surveyed their movements from their 400 years of slavery to their escape from Egypt through the Red Sea, led by God's chosen leader, Moses.

These people, when they were rescued from slavery, were mainly a ragtag group of slaves who were distantly related with tribal and family associations. In the beginning they were neither a community nor a nation, and neither had they much experience with Yahweh.

As we have looked at them and the stories in the book of Numbers, we have discovered a couple of things about them. First thing was that they had made a covenant with God to be God's people. And God had entered into a covenant with them to be their God (Exo 19: 5-9). Because they were now considered to be God's people, set apart in a position of holiness, they had to learn how to be holy (Lev 11:45).

We have seen in our study of Numbers that God used Commandments, sometimes called laws, to help the Hebrews to be conditioned, or learn how to be holy. Not something easy to do, so secondly what we learned about the Hebrews, is that rebellion against God seemed to be a part of their DNA. From time to time, they longed to go back to Egypt, back into slavery, where the cotton was high and the livin’ was easy.

Okay, last week we got up to about chapter 11, so let me do a little back story to bring us up to date to where our reading is for today. We talked a little bit last week about the ways the Hebrews continued to rebel against Moses and God. How it all began in a very small way, the complaining about the dreary, same old, same old manna that they always had to gather each day, and ended up with their refusal to enter the Promised Land, and going completely against God's plans for them.

As the Hebrews continued to wander in the wilderness, God continued to condition them to be holy. There were more rebellions, more consequences. Even Moses became rebellious, when he disobeyed God (Num 20:11).

Their wanderings took them from place to place, from the Red Sea to Mt. Sinai eventually bringing them to the wilderness of Kadesh. (This spot was in the plains of modern day Jordan on the east side of the Jordan river, across the river from modern day Israel.) As they journeyed they went through the land of the Edomites and Moabites. Apparently God wanted them to avoid battles if possible, at least until they were in the land of Canaan, the land God had promised them. Therefore God prevented them from entering into any battles with this people group. Instead, when the Hebrew people prepared to past through their lands they requested and were granted safe passage. (Just as a side note Edomites were their distant cousins, descendants from Jacob's brother Esau.)

However when they came to the land of the Amorites, the Amorites would not let them pass through and went up against the people of God. God was with them and the Hebrews trounced the Amorites, killing most of them, and occuping their lands and cities. And that is where we are today: Numbers 22:1 – 6.

Read Scripture: Numbers 22:1 – 6.

So now the Hebrews have arrived in the land of Moab. The people of Moab had heard about what the Hebrews had done to the Amorites, and they were afraid of this great hoard. Even King Balak was afraid of them, and he did not want to go up against them. So he devised another plan. He called upon the sorcerer whose name was Balaam to come to Moab to curse the Hebrews. He hoped that perhaps with a curse upon them, it might be possible to turn them back.

Balak sent emissaries to Balaam asking him to come and curse the Hebrews, but Balaam refused to come because he had heard from God that he was not to place a curse on the Hebrews.

So it was this guy Balaam? Well, not a lot is known about him. Obviously he was a man whom the people believed had powers, the ability to curse or to bless. We know that he was a non-Israelite from the from one or another Eastern religion. He is mentioned in 2 Peter 2:15, as a greedy, “mad” prophet, apparently because he was a prophet for hire. Balaam would have been in the same category as the Magi who came to visit and bring gifts to the Christ child.

Somehow Balaam did have the ability to hear from God because when the messengers came from Balak, he refused to go…well immediately anyway. After continued requests and promises from Balak, Balaam did agree to travel to Moab on the condition that Balak understood that he could only say and do what God told him.

So Balaam saddled up his donkey and off he went. Most of us know the story of what happened on the journey. As Balaam was riding a long, suddenly his donkey turned off the path and ran into an adjacent field. Balaam was angered by his donkey's sudden and odd behavior, so he whipped him until he got back on the road.

Little further on the journey, Balaam’s donkey shied away from something unseen and scrubbed Balaam’s leg against a rock wall. Balaam was really angered by that move, and so he whipped his donkey again. Even further along when they came to a narrow place, the donkey simply laid down in the road. By then Balaam was very angry and once again whipped his donkey, and said to him, “if I had a sword with me, I would kill you right now!”

It was then that God's actions, which were happening behind the scenes, were revealed to Balaam. The donkey spoke up…that's right the donkey spoke, and he asked Balaam to be sensible. “Am I not your donkey that you have ridden all your life, and have you ever seen me act this way?” To which Balaam had to answer, “no.” As Balaam stood there scratching his head, the Bible says God revealed to him what was going on behind the scenes. He saw the angel of the Lord, standing in the way, sword drawn, and Balaam was so frightened he fell to the earth face down in the dust.

Balaam’s donkey had been able to see behind the scenes. The donkey was able to see God at work when everybody else could not. That happens in churches sometimes doesn't it? The humble servants will be the ones who are communicating with God, noticing God at work behind the scenes, and behaving appropriately to what they are seeing and hearing from God. I wonder how many times they get hit and kicked about because of what they are doing, what they are saying and how they are acting?

This story is an example of God working behind the scenes to protect the Hebrew people, and also to bring God's plan for them to completion. God is always at work, often behind the scenes to accomplish God's will for God's people.

The Bible is filled with stories of people whose lives are affected by God's work behind the scenes: the stories of Esther, Ruth and Boaz, David, the shepherd boy who became king of Israel, and Jonah, to name a few. We can be certain that when it comes to the people of God, God’s got our back.

God acts like a divine coach. Through God's Holy Spirit we are given our instructions for how to play this game of life as God wants us to. At times God reveals to us what's going on behind the scenes like God did with Balaam, but most often God's actions are hidden from us.

I am reminded of being at a finance committee meeting at another church. We had just looked at the finances and realized that we were behind over $4000. The discussion in the meeting centered on how in the world we could to come up with the money to pay all the bills we had. So we prayed about the short fall, and then the committee planned on informing the congregation the next Sunday about the need. Also we agreed that I would preach a sermon series on stewardship in the near future.

The next Sunday came, and at the end of the worship service the chairperson of the finance committee followed the plan to tell the congregation about the financial needs. As people were filing out, the treasurer rushed up to me and said, “You won't believe the offering we had this morning.” It was $4,600, more than enough to cover the church’s short fall. The offering was collected before the chairperson’s speech!

I came to know where the money had come from. It had come from a young couple who did not know anything about the shortfall. The family had just sold a house and was tithing on the profits of the sale. I was ecstatic to see how God had been working behind the scenes to fill the need we had. Our prayers were answered…even before we prayed!

But of course, some people are skeptical even when God’s work is plainly revealed. I was so excited to tell the finance chairperson about God’s blessing, that I immediately called him when I got home from church. Well, he said, “That’s nice. I’m sure they must have found out about our need.” No “God is great!” No “praise the Lord.” No “thank you Jesus”…just a, “That’s nice.” I wonder what would have happened to Balaam if he had looked at the angel of the Lord and said to his donkey, “That’s nice.”

Such a way of looking at the obvious works that God is doing is like when the disciples watched Jesus feed the 5,000, and yet their hearts were hardened and they couldn’t understand that God was at work (Mar 8:14-21). Or after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead and still the people could not see the works of God…plainly done before them (John 12: 37-40). I’m convinced that it takes a certain kind of humility to see the work of God, and I am convinced it takes courage of conviction to proclaim them.

I wonder how many of us here worry needlessly. I wonder how often we pray and seek God about a certain issue, and continue to fret, complain, and remain anxious about things. At times like those we need to remember the lessons we are learning from the wilderness.

God has got our back. God is always behind the scenes securing our eternal future and working God’s will in the earth as it is in heaven.

I encourage us today to trust God. I encourage us to believe that God is behind the scenes, and God is there for us even when we are unable to see what God is doing.

From the book of Ecclesiastes we hear these wise words believe to be written by King Solomon:

(From the Message Bible)

Here’s something that happens all the time and makes no sense at all: Good people get what’s coming to the wicked, and bad people get what’s coming to the good. I tell you, this makes no sense. It’s smoke. So, I’m all for just going ahead and having a good time—the best possible…When I determined to load up on wisdom and examine everything taking place on earth, I realized that if you keep your eyes open day and night without even blinking, you’ll still never figure out the meaning of what God is doing on this earth. Search as hard as you like, [and] you’re not going to make sense of it. No matter how smart you are, you won’t get to the bottom of it…[so] I took all this in and thought it through, inside and out. Here’s what I understood: The good, the wise, and all that they do are in God’s hands...^{^[1]}

I believe Solomon’s wisdom serves us well today. Trust God, and stop trying to figure everything out. Just remember. God has got your back! Amen.

^{^[1]} Eugene H. Peterson, The Message : The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 2002), Ec 8:14–9:1.