You Have Blessed My Enemies

Saturday, July 18, 2015
Num 23:1-12 NIV 

1 Balaam said, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me." 2 Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 3 Then Balaam said to Balak, "Stay here beside your offering while I go aside. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet with me. Whatever he reveals to me I will tell you." Then he went off to a barren height. 4 God met with him, and Balaam said, "I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram." 5 The LORD put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, "Go back to Balak and give him this word." 6 So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the Moabite officials. 7 Then Balaam spoke his message: "Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains. 'Come,' he said, 'curse Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel.' 8 How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the LORD has not denounced? 9 From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them. I see a people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations. 10 Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my final end be like theirs!" 11 Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!" 12 He answered, "Must I not speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?"

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) After Balak took Balaam up to the high places of Baal, what did the prophet tell the Midianite king to do and how did the king respond? (v.1-2)
2) What else did Balaam say to Balak and where did the prophet go after leaving the king's side? Why? (v.3)
3) What did the prophet tell the Lord and what did the Lord do to Balaam? (v.4-5)
4) What did Balaam do and say after leaving the Lord's presence? (v.6-10)
5) What did Balak say in response to the message given him? (v.11)
6) How did Balaam respond to the king? (v.12)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
7) Do you know of any individual(s) who have attempted to curse those whom the Lord has blessed? If so, what was the outcome?

LIFE LESSONS
8) If God is for any individual, or group of individuals, no one and nothing can curse what He has blessed.
9) "Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!"