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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Eric Walsh

The Curse of the Culture

Okay, let's have a word of prayer as we go into our talk for today.

Father God, we thank you, Lord, for bringing us together in this place here at Loma Linda University in Southern California, Lord, today, and the Sabbath is just such a beautiful day, Lord.

We ask for your Holy Spirit now to fill this place, but not just this place, fill our hearts, our minds, and Lord, fill this message with truth and with love, as I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Our message for this Sabbath is entitled the curse of the culture.

The curse of the culture and I'll have the verses on the screen, but you can turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Numbers, the 22nd chapter.

Numbers chapter 22, or you can just read it from the screen.

The Bible says in Numbers chapter 22, And the children of Israel set forward and pitched in the plains of Moab on the side on this side of Jordan by Jericho and Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites and Moab was so afraid of the people because they were many And Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel.

And Moab said unto the elders of Midian, Now shall this company lick up all that are around about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field.

And Balak, the son of Zippor, was king of the Moabites at that time.

The Bible sets the stage that as the children of Israel are on the side of Jordan, just about to enter the promised land, 1 of the kings of Moab, Balak, looks out, he's perched very high above the plain, and he looks down and he sees the vast number that has become the children of Israel since leaving Egypt.

He's heard the stories of how Pharaoh was destroyed and how Pharaoh's armies were destroyed.

He's heard all that happened to them as they wandered in the wilderness.

And as they're coming to the promised land now, right at the border, he realizes that if Moab is not careful, the children of Israel will wipe them out.

And he begins to plot and plan how is it that we can destroy Israel before they get a chance to destroy us.

This man is afraid and so out of fear, out of his worry for his people, his kingdom, his power, he begins to work a plan to protect his people.

Numbers chapter 22 and verse 5, he sent messengers therefore unto Balaam the son of Beor to Pthor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt.

Behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me.

Now look at the message he sends to Balaam, the son of Beor.

He says in verse 6, come now therefore I pray you, curse me this people for they are too mighty for me.

Peradventure I shall prevail that we may smite them and that I may drive them out of the land.

For I want not, or better translated, I don't know, for I know, he's trying to say, that who you bless is blessed, and who you curse is cursed.

He says, I know that who you bless is blessed and who you curse is cursed.

We would argue a false prophet, but he looks for a prophet and he says, look, if you curse Israel before they come to get us, if you do that, we can protect ourselves, we can live, we can drive Israel out of the land because you have the power.

Your connection to God, ultimately, Balaam, is a power that we can use to fight, ironically, the power of God.

And this is, now, I can't go into the whole story, it would take too long.

But 3 times they take Balaam, and they try to get him to come back.

And this is where the Bible story comes from when they reach to Balaam and Balaam decides to follow them against God's will to go back to Moab to talk to Balak.

And as he's going back, this is the story with the donkey and the donkey speaks.

The donkey sees the angel, but Balaam doesn't see the angel and he strikes the donkey and finally the donkey speaks to him.

And the donkey says, you know, hey man, why are you hitting on me like this?

I mean, he didn't say it like that, But still.

God intervenes so many times, but then God actually allows him.

This is the second 1 because this 1 is the 1 I want to focus on.

If I had time I'd go through all 3 of them.

But this is the second time where he begins to say a prophecy for...

Balaam is trying to get him to curse Him.

Verse 20 of chapter 23 of the book of Numbers, he says, Behold, I have received commandment to bless, and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it.

In fact, if someone decides to curse someone who is a child of the living God, they have no power to curse or do anything to you unless God gives them an allowance to do it.

The only permission, And the 1 thing that's interesting with Balaam as a false prophet, if you want to call him a false prophet, is he actually does talk to God.

But obviously he's a corrupt false prophet, which has ramifications into the book of Revelation.

But when you listen to what he's saying, he's basically saying, look, I got a command from God to bless him.

Verse 21, he says, he hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob.

He can't curse them because he has not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither have he seen perverseness in Israel.

The Lord his God is with him and the shout of a king is among them.

He is actually prophesying that Israel is the anointed people through whom the Messiah would 1 day be born.

In fact, if you read the third of the 3 parables and prophecies of Balaam, he actually goes into detail speaking about Jesus.

And here he says, the shout of a king is among them, making it clear that there's something special.

1 of the things that's important and powerful when you look at these texts is that as the children of Israel are making their way to the Promised Land, Satan has to make a decision.

Satan decides he will destroy all of Israel.

Why is it important this far back in Israel's history to destroy Israel?

Satan understood if he could destroy Israel, Jesus would never be born.

As the woman is ready to give birth, what happens?

He understood, the devil understood the significance of the nation of Israel.

His mission was, if I can destroy Israel, corrupt Israel, whatever I need to do to Israel, I can literally stop the entire progress of the great controversy.

And why was it possible for Satan to actually do this?

And unless they were connected to God, a lot of their protection would disappear as soon as they became disconnected from God.

In fact, in the first 5 books of the Bible, you notice that there's no mention of the devil or Satan.

He's called, he's the serpent in Genesis and he's referred to in indirect ways like that, but there's no direct calling on Satan's name or the devil or Lucifer in all of the books of Moses.

And there are many people who surmise that God actually needed to make sure that they had a connection with him, a strong connection to God first, before he even introduced them to their enemy.

So the Bible, I mean, there's a war going on over the souls of the children of Israel, but don't get confused.

When you read about the children of Israel moving through the wilderness, coming out of Egypt, and taking over the promised land.

Every battle, every war that's fought isn't simply a battle for land, it's a battle for the hearts and souls of Israel.

If you lose the battle for the hearts and souls of Israel, you lose the great controversy.

Powerful stuff, all the way back in the Old Testament.

Now, the reason, I got to go back to the reason in verse 21, that they cannot be cursed because it's important.

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The Curse of the Culture

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