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West End Seventh Day Adventist Church

Eric Walsh

Satan’s Not So Secret Weapon

Our message this Sabbath is entitled, and you can go to the next slide here, the enemy's not-so-secret weapon.

Father God, We thank you for this opportunity to study your word and to deal with this sensitive but important topic.

Satan does not want this to go well, Lord.

He really does not want this topic expressed.

So right now, Lord, we claim the blood of Jesus Christ.

We ask for an extra portion of your Holy Spirit that he would beat back the enemy.

And help us, Father, now as we study your word to be able to do as the theme of the day is, that we would grow and put away old ways.

This is our prayer in Jesus's precious and holy name.

All right, you guys can move forward with me up there.

We are gonna go to the book of Numbers, chapter 22.

Now, this story actually takes place just after they have left Egypt and they've gone into the wilderness.

They're only a few days out of captivity.

And so now they are at the border of the promised land.

Hundreds of years of slavery and oppression have now come to a point where not only have their captors been vanquished, but they are on the brink of promise and prosperity.

Numbers 22 and verse 1 says, and the children of Israel set forward.

It is greatly understood when you look at the story of Rahab the harlot, that she understood which side she needed to get on just by what she heard about God's people.

Verse 4, and Moab said unto the elders of Midian, now shall this company lick up all that are around about us as the ox licks up the grass of the field.

And Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites that time." So the king of the Moabites says, listen, If we let these people do what they've done to the Amorites, what they did to Pharaoh in Egypt, if we just keep letting them do that, they are going to destroy us.

We are not gonna go out like everybody else.

And in verse 5, the Bible says, Numbers 22 and verse 5, the Bible says, he sent messengers, therefore unto Balaam, the son of Beor, to Pithor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people, to call him saying, behold." Look at this.

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

He said, listen, there's a people that have come out of Egypt.

They are so many, they cover the face of the earth.

Verse 6, he says, come now therefore, I pray thee.

Look at what he asked Balaam, the false prophet, to do.

Curse me this people, for they are too mighty for me.

Peradventure I shall prevail, that way we may smite them and that I may drive them out of the land, for I want that he whom...

I know that he whom you bless is blessed and who you curse is cursed.

So he calls the prophet to put a curse on the people of God.

Now, most of you know this from Sabbath school, cradle roll going all the way back.

At the end of this chapter, something interesting happens.

As Balaam is on his way to Balak, against God's advice, he gets into an argument with his donkey.

Now you know you've messed with God the wrong way when you're arguing with a donkey, and the donkey wins the argument.

When he finally gets to Balak, Verse 8 of Numbers 23, I'm gonna jump through this quick so we can get where we're going.

Balak is telling Balaam, you gotta curse him, you gotta curse him.

Verse 8 of Numbers 23, he says, How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed?

Or how shall I defy whom the Lord has not defied?

My grandmother's from a place in Jamaica called Bethel Town, Jamaica.

And my grandmother would tell us stories of how, as a Christian, the women who did obia, That's the form of voodoo they do on the island of Jamaica.

How the women who did Obeah would try and come against her.

But when they would try and my grandmother would pray, whatever they wanted to happen to my grandmother would happen to them.

Who can count the dust of Jacob and the number of the fourth part of Israel?

Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his.

And Balak said unto Balaam, what have you done?

I took you, snatched you up, offered you all this honor and prestige and position.

I offered it to you that you would curse them.

I took you to curse my enemies and behold, you have blessed them all together." His response is powerful.

Verse 12 of number 23, and he answered and said, must I not take heed and speak that which the Lord has put in my mouth?

We got folk now that say they on God's side and they can't put God's word in their mouth.

Behold, I have received commandment to bless and he has blessed.

Somebody in here is wondering what's going on wrong with their life.

Let me submit to you that if God blesses you, ain't no power in the universe can reverse it.

Now, let me tell you why this protection was on Israel.

Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel.

The Lord his God is with him and the shout of a king is among them." Now, I wish I had time for us to go through all of numbers 22, 23, 24.

What was happening is when God's people came out of Egypt, out through trial, the Red Sea represents baptism.

They came through as if they had been washed by God into the wilderness.

They were so in tune with God that the Bible says there was no iniquity, meaning there was no deliberate, chronic, recurring sin in Israel.

Then it says, neither have he seen perverseness in Israel.

It says, and the shout of a king is among them.

This is a prophecy to the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Numbers 23 and verse 23 says, "'Surely there is no enchantment that's against you.

"'There's no obia, no voodoo, no santeria you can do "'against God's people.

"'Neither is there any divination against Israel.

According to this time, it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, what has God wrought?

Something drastically changes in the story.

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Satan’s Not So Secret Weapon

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