Heralds Digest

  “Now therefore, flee to your place. I said I would greatly honor you, but in fact, the Lord has kept you back from honor.”” Numbers‬ ‭24:11‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ It is no longer news that honest honour is unfashionable in our fast-paced world. Where dignity, fame, and respect are measured strictly by net-worth, it is obviously difficult for anyone to do better than Balaam. And for those who are still holding ground on good character, how long can anyone restrict the devil’s blackmail strategy, as adopted by Balak here? The deceitfulness of riches, professional elevation, and career progression have always been used by the enemy of human souls to engage them on a collision course against the Lord. But, is it really true that “ the Lord has [always] kept [His children] back from honour”? Yes and No! Yes, from dishonest honour; and No, from honest honour. God did try to keep Balaam from dishonest honour, until he finally lost out the hold on God…to gain the dividends of greed. Whereas, the true...

  “Then Balak said to Balaam, “Please come, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.”” ‭‭Numbers‬ ‭23:27‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ The experience of Balaam with Balak underscored the simplicity of a sincere pleasing of God. Why many find the pleasing of God complicated is simply on a note of insincerity. When Balak took Balaam on the third insincere voyage of finding ‘what pleases God ’, Balaam couldn’t pretend the absence of clarity on the mission. Obviously, ‘what pleases Balak ’ is that the Israelites may be cursed for him and not God. Sincerity in life, family, career, and mission is born on the altar where personal pleasing is laid. Otherwise, all ceaseless pursuits of the will of God are aimed at a perverted pleasing. Like Balaam, perverts are only excited to make sacrifices only when the mission is aligned with their own personal pleasing. At this point, Balaam actually said to Balak, “ Build for me here seven altars, and prepare...

  “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Do not fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand, with all his people and his land; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.”” Numbers‬ ‭21:34‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ One of the major deliverables of bullies is fear. Wherever their activities are entertained, the thoughts of inherent potentials in their targets are suppressed even before the possibilities are even conceived. Even though the children of Israel obviously have potential to overrun the people of Bashan (like they recently did to the people of Ammon), they were only thinking of commutation and not confrontation. Whereas, King Og wore his bully cap to intimidate the Israelites towards forgetting their God-inspired potentials; and rather buy the pill of fear. With a carefully sold-out game of fear in believers’ affairs, even the most recent stories of conquest are completely forgotten…to buy the merchandise of bullies and naysayers. And just like the...

  “Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”” Numbers‬ ‭20:12‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ When the scriptures say  “ So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God ”, we can be sure of a degrading implication of hearing by the word of men on believers’ faith.  Believers are called to take responsibility for God’s satisfaction and honour, based on how we respond to words received from the Lord; and not how the world and the expectations of men are pleased by the actions of faith. Using the experience of Moses at the water of Meribah for an example, God didn’t say Moses and Aaron don’t have faith; but that their faith fell short of His expectations for honour before the faithless children of Israel. In the believer’s journey of faith, either at home, offices, and in society, we are constantly surrounded by people...

  “And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped.” Numbers‬ ‭16:48‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ While the judgement of God against Korah, Dothan, and Abiram revealed the danger of pride in every service stand, the favour of God that followed Aaron’s selfless stand teaches the secret of fruitfulness in believer’s life and ministry. The privilege of service given to the tribe of Levi had just intoxicated the fallen servants and their followers, attracting the wrath of God upon the entire congregation. Whereas, inspired by his obedience to the leadership of Moses, Aaron took the challenge to stand in the gap with an atonement service to the Lord. The fact that the plague was stopped, immediately after this selfless stand, shows that God is mostly and always pleased by every stand that prevents His wrath from falling upon the wicked. Little wonder, Aaron’s services and ministries received the favour of heaven from this time onward. Therefore, if we consistently stand in the gap a...

  “Then Moses said to him, “Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”” ‭‭Numbers‬ ‭11:29‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ Excellence breeds excellence, but there is always a break when the spirit of jealousy and suspicion operates with zeal. Joshua was up with this kind of negative energy until he was checked by his mentor, Moses. “ Are you zealous for my sake? ” was the helpful check against the negative spirit of jealousy and suspicion over the manifestation of the work of the Spirit of God in the lives of Medad and Eldad. Oftentimes, we are overzealous to suspect the manifestation of the works of the Spirit of God in the lives of others. Whereas, we should always say to ourselves “ Who am I zealous for in this instance, God or someone else? ”. The danger of zealousness for someone else, other than God alone, is the presentation of our vessel for the infilling of the negative spirit, like jealousy, hatred, anger, deceptio...

  “And it shall be, if you go with us—indeed it shall be—that whatever good the Lord will do to us, the same we will do to you.”” ‭‭Numbers‬ ‭10:32‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ The relationship between Moses and Hobab, his brother-in-law, teaches believers the principle of living for the great commission by an absolute faith in God. There are too much pressure in trying to reveal the goodness of GOD on the account of our own personal goodnesses. While the conception of living by example is a fundamental necessity, it is absolutely insufficient to bring about a genuine conviction in people, without their own personal faith in God. After Moses’ request for Hobab to ‘Come with us, and we will treat you well’ was rejected, he goes ‘if you go with us—indeed it shall be—that whatever good the Lord will do to us, the same we will do to you ’. This was an invitation for Hobab to step up his own personal trust in God, just as Moses had demonstrated. It turned out that even the children of Israel, that had res...