Feb 6 (Num 23-25)

Numbers 23

Balaam is standing on a hill and looking over the camp of Israel. If we read the instructions God gave Moses to set up the camps, Balaam would be looking at a giant cross! God was watching over His people in view of the cross! How cool is that?!?

Numbers 24

Balaam gives three prophesies, and the third one is the most interesting...it's about the star of Bethlehem!

I see Him, but not now.
I behold Him, but not near.
A Star shall come out of Jacob,
A Scepter shall rise out of Israel. ~ Num 24:17

God is showing Balaam the event of the birth of Jesus...God in human flesh!

He is also showing us that Jesus is the Messiah. How do we know that? Because the scepter is the authority to perform capital punishment. Jacob prophesied this regarding Judah:

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes. And to Him shall be the obedience of the people. ~ Gen 49:10

The word Shiloh means Messiah or Savior. When Rome took control of Jerusalem (around 6 A.D.) and didn't allow the Jews the authority of the scepter, the priests tore their clothes and wept...they thought God's Word was broken! The scepter had been removed before the Messiah had come to save them!

But what they didn't know, was a little boy was learning the carpenter trade from his Dad, Joseph, in a town called Nazareth!!!

Numbers 25

Balaam knew that he couldn't curse God's people, so he told Balak how to conquer them...to have them disobey God and be unprotected. Since we're teaching this to little children, I usually just tell them that Balaam had the Jews act against God's commands, and God put a plague on the people in His anger.