Numbers 23:13-26; Unchanging God~ 20260705 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org
2026.07.05 Numbers 23:13-26; Unchanging God; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20260705_numbers-23_13-26.mp3
Balak king of Moab, out of fear and ignorance of God’s word, hired the renown sorcerer Balaam to curse God’s people; he said:
Numbers 22:5 ...“Behold, a people has come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the earth, and they are dwelling opposite me. 6 Come now, curse this people for me, since they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”
The Lord told Balaam
Numbers 22:12 God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.”
For Balaam, this was merely a step in the negotiation process. Balak sent a more prestigious delegation with a more irresistible offer, and Balaam sought a different answer from the Lord. He got his wish;
Numbers 22:20 And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, “If the men have come to call you, rise, go with them; but only do what I tell you.”
Balaam eagerly went on his way,
Numbers 22:22 But God's anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the LORD took his stand in the way as his adversary. ...
Three times his donkey turned away, three times she received a beating from her master.
Numbers 22:32 And the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me. 33 The donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, surely just now I would have killed you and let her live.” 34 Then Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood in the road against me. Now therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I will turn back.” 35 And the angel of the LORD said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but speak only the word that I tell you.” So Balaam went on with the princes of Balak.
Balak received Balaam with a feast, and the next morning brought him to Bamoth-baal, and made seven altars and offered seven bulls and seven rams, and Balaam went to a bare height to hear from YHWH. God sent him back with a message of blessing.
I cannot curse those that YHWH has not cursed. They are a people set apart, they are numerous as the dust, and Balaam expresses his desire to die the death of the upright and be identified with them in the afterlife.
Numbers 23:11 And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them.” 12 And he answered and said, “Must I not take care to speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?”
But he’s not giving up. He thinks maybe a change of scenery, a change of perspective, a different angle might change the outcome.
Blessings From Pisgah (Nebo)
Numbers 23:13 And Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place, from which you may see them. You shall see only a fraction of them and shall not see them all. Then curse them for me from there.” 14 And he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 15 Balaam said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering, while I meet the LORD over there.” 16 And the LORD met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus shall you speak.” 17 And he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the LORD spoken?”
Same procedure, different location. From the high place of Baal, now to the field of Watchers, to the top of a cleft. Pisgah is identified with Mount Nebo, where Moses went up to see the land from a distance before he died (Dt.3:27; 34:1). The goal is still the same; ‘curse them for me from there.’ Again YHWH graciously puts a word in Balaam’s mouth. ‘What has YHWH spoken?’
Numbers 23:18 And Balaam took up his discourse and said,
“Rise, Balak, and hear;
give ear to me, O son of Zippor:
19 God is not man, that he should lie,
or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
20 Behold, I received a command to bless:
he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.
21 He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob,
nor has he seen trouble in Israel.
The LORD their God is with them,
and the shout of a king is among them.
22 God brings them out of Egypt
and is for them like the horns of the wild ox.
23 For there is no enchantment against Jacob,
no divination against Israel;
now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,
‘What has God wrought!’
24 Behold, a people! As a lioness it rises up
and as a lion it lifts itself;
it does not lie down until it has devoured the prey
and drunk the blood of the slain.”
Ontologically Different
God tells us something about himself that we need to know. God is not a man, or a son of man. God is ontologically different than man. He is a different sort of being altogether. God is not a man, and he is not descended from man. Man is the pinnacle of God’s creation, but mankind was created by the uncreated Creator. Moses prayed in Psalm 90
Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
God has no beginning or end; he is the uncreated Creator of all that is. God said to Moses ‘I AM that I AM’ (Ex.3:14); Jesus said ‘before Abraham was I AM’ (Jn.8:58).
Balak is fixated on the threat of Israel, and assumes the gods can be manipulated to do what he desires. He needs to know who God is. God is essentially different than his creation. Humanity is dependent; God is independent. God does not change ‘I the LORD do not change’ (Mal.3:6); humanity is constantly changing; we are born, we grow, we die. We lie. We change our minds. We may have the very best of intentions, but circumstances which are out of our control prevent us from doing the thing we intended to do. There are no circumstances outside of God’s control; what he says he will do, what he speaks he will fulfill. God always fulfills his promises, and that is good news for us who have very great and precious promises in the gospel. He who promised is faithful; all God’s promises are ‘yes’ to us in Jesus (2Cor.1:20).
The Command To Bless
This is the first time that Balaam has admitted that he received a command to bless and not to curse. He admits that he is powerless to overcome God’s blessing; if God has blessed, and he has, that is the final word; it cannot be revoked, it cannot be overcome, overturned. God’s blessing is rooted in his own unchanging character. We have God’s word on it.
Imputed Righteousness
Verse 21 is surprising; He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel. In the last blessing, Balaam called them ‘upright’. If you’ve read Numbers so far, this should come as a shock. Numbers is a chronicle of the misfortunes and troubles of rebellious Israel. Grumbling, complaining, rebelling, rejecting God’s promises, rejecting God’s leaders, rejecting God’s promised land. A whole generation sentenced to die in the wilderness for unbelief. Defeat by enemies, lethal serpents, graves of craving, no food, no water, loathing God’s good gifts. How can God say he has not beheld misfortune, nor seen trouble seen in Israel? That’s pretty much all we’ve seen!
The Psalmist cries out in Psalm 130
Psalm 130:3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.
If God keeps record of wrongs, we are all in trouble. But God is a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, forgiving. Not only does he forgive us when we trust in Jesus, but he removes our transgressions from us as far as the east is from the west (Ps.103:12). He forgives, and he will remember our sins no more (Jer.31:34). Not only does he remove our sins from us, but he clothes us in the perfect righteousness of his only Son (Rom.4:6). By faith we ‘receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness’ (Rom.5:17). In Jesus we ‘become the righteousness of God’ (2Cor.5:21). I am ‘found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith’ (Phil.3:9), so that when the Father looks at me, he sees nothing but the perfect righteous record of Jesus Christ.
We’ve seen that God disciplines the one he loves. His purpose is holiness. But here we see that God doesn’t talk about the flaws of his beloved with outsiders.
Ephesians 5:25 ...Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
We’ve read the story, we see glaring issues that need to be addressed. But what God says to this pagan sorcerer, this outsider is ‘He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel’.
YHWH God is With Them
‘The LORD their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them’ (v.21). This is a powerful encouragement. God is not far off, blessing from a distance; he is with them, in their midst. ‘There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother’ (Pr.18:24); “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb.13:5)
The tabernacle was the tent of God, in the middle of the camp. The pillar of cloud and fire was a visible manifestation of the presence of God among them. Remember, at this time there was no king in Israel; God was their king in his royal tent, leading and directing them. God’s presence was with them. What an amazing and powerful comfort to have God visibly present among them. God encamped in the middle of the camp of Israel, ministered to by priests, protected by Levites, approached only through blood sacrifices.
Brothers and sisters, we have something better! We do not have the visible presence of God in fire and cloud, we have constant access through faith to the throne of grace! (Rom.5:2; Heb.4:16). We, believers in Jesus, are the temple of the living God (1Cor.3:16; 6:19). The triune God has taken up residence in us (Jn.14:23; Rom.8:9-11). Jesus has truly come to be Immanuel, God With Us! The victory shout of the King of kings is among us!
Wild Ox and Ravenous Lion
In Numbers 22,
Numbers 22:4 And Moab said to the elders of Midian, “This horde will now lick up all that is around us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field. ...
Balak feared the tongue of a domestic ox, but Israel’s God is much more dangerous than he anticipated! God is untameable; ‘He is for them like the horns of the wild ox’ (v.22). The picture is lethal, uncontainable, powerful. If we jump ahead to verse 24 The people are compared to a lioness and a lion on the hunt; ‘it does not lie down until it has devoured the prey and drunk the blood of the slain.’ This is much worse for Moab than an ox licking up the grass. Moab, by its spiritual act of aggression, has drawn the attention of the wild ox, the hungry lion.
No Sorcery Against God’s People
Balak had hoped to weaken Israel by cursing them; in verse 23 Balaam admits: ‘For there is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel’. What he has been hired to do is not possible. God has blessed them, and there is no way by the powers of the occult to overthrow God’s decree of blessing. Numbers 24:1 tells us that enchantment was what Balaam had been attempting in his curses turned to blessings. Divination is what he was hired to perform for Moab. In Deuteronomy 18, participation in these occult activities is comprehensively condemned as abominable to the Lord. No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed (Is.54:17).
What Has God Wrought!
Numbers 23:23 For there is no enchantment against Jacob,
no divination against Israel;
now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,
‘What has God wrought!’
What has God wrought? Stand in awe, in amazement, in worship. Bow the knee; look at what God has done! God took a Jacob, a manipulating thieving deceiving heel-grabber and made promises to him. He had it out with God, and God gave him a limp, and a new name; one who prevails with God, prince of God. God took a Jacob and made him into Israel; God takes sinners and turns them into saints; God made a way for sinners to be forgiven, for their sins to be remembered no more, look what God has done! God took slaves and set them free, he came to dwell among them, to be with them. Look what God has done! He led them through the wilderness, provided for their needs, promised to defeat their enemies before them, to give them a good land. Look what God has done! God viewed them as righteous, a righteousness not their own, righteousness credited to their account; look what God has done! Behold what God has wrought!
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2026.07.05 Sermon Notes
Numbers 22:13-26; Unchanging God
God is not a man
Psalm 90:2; Exodus 3:14; John 8:58
God does not change
Malachi 3:6; 2 Corinthians 1:20; Hebrews 10:23
God keeps no record of wrongs against those who belong to him!
Psalm 130:3-4; 103:12; Jeremiah 31:34
Rather he credits us with Christ’s righteousness
Romans 4:6; 5:17; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9; Ephesians 5:25-27
God is with us
Proverbs 18:24; Hebrews 13:5
we have access to the throne of God by grace
Romans 5:2; Hebrews 4:16
we are the temple of the living God
1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; John 14:23; Romans 8:9-11
No weapon that is fashioned against you will succeed
Deuteronomy 18:10-12; Isaiah 54:17
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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org