Slideshow image

“So Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab. But God’s anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary.” (Numbers 22:21-22, ESV)

Pastor Abel’s sermon on this passage is titled, “What’s Your Price?”

As I drove to church this morning, I looked out of my windshield and saw large white letters in the sky. Someone flying a plane had spelled the word “choose” right above me. I thought it was an interesting word choice. Out of all the words you could spell with an airplane, why “choose?”

The passage from Numbers this morning was, coincidentally, about a man who made a choice. Balaam chose to serve Balak, and his own greed for money and power, over serving and obeying the one true God.

In a way, the whole book of Numbers has been about this choice. Will the people of Israel choose God’s way, or their own? Choose to follow God, or their own appetites and desires?

A man named Joshua was there when Isreal made one such choice with disastrous results. The people could have obeyed God and entered the land of Canaan in Numbers 14, but they didn’t. Well eventually, Joshua would live long enough to lead the next generation of Israelites into the land. He was a man of God, of faith. He led the war against the Canaanites. The story of that conquest is recorded in the book of Joshua.

At the end of that book, when he was old and near death, Joshua once again stood before the people and offered them the choice he had witnessed time and time again in Numbers:

“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14-15, ESV)

Today, we have this same choice presented to us. Who will we imitate? Will we be like Balaam, pretending to serve God while we secretly follow our own greed, lust, and idolatry? Or will we be like Joshua, forsaking the false gods of this world, the idols of our hearts, and cling to the one true God? Choose today whom you will serve.

 

Further Study

  • What choice do you need to make today?
  • What is God calling you to give up so that you can follow him?
  • Book: Idols of the Heart by Elyse Fitzpatrick