Limits

 

Limits

Limits – we’re used to them – speed limits, credit limits, menu limits, gas price limits…

Well, maybe not.

Did you know the bad guys have limits?

It would be nice, wouldn’t it? If the oppressors, the wicked, and the incompetent could only go so far and that was it. They’re done – game over!

Well, they do.

Take for example, Balaam. Balaam was a prophet or a seer – someone that could be hired for money to give a message from God. He wasn’t a real prophet like Isaiah or Ezekiel. He could be bought.

Balak was the king of Moab and he was afraid. Israel was on the move in the desert. They had conquered the Amorites and there were a lot of them. We know what he thought, “Now this horde will lick up all that is around us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field” (Numbers 22:4).

So Balak sent for Balaam and promised Balaam a rich reward if he would curse the Israelites. Now Balaam was willing, but God told him not to go.

The whole story is in Numbers 22-24 – you can read it yourself.

In the end, God allows Balaam to go but he can only say what God tells him to say – an angel of the LORD impresses this on him and so does a donkey.

So, Balaam goes to meet Balak on the high place.

Now down below the high place the Israelites had been having quite the time. You may remember that they were miraculously delivered from slavery, provided for in the wilderness with bread from heaven and conveniently delivered quail – a kind of heavenly DoorDash. They also had the visual presence of God – a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night – leading them and protecting them the entire time. Not to mention hearing God’s voice and receiving His Law. The Bible tells us the whole time they were wandering around in the wilderness their clothes and shoes did not wear out – all their needs were provided (Deuteronomy 29:5).

You would think they would have been a grateful bunch, right?

Well, you’d be wrong.

They spend that time in the desert whining and complaining and generally causing Moses to spend a good deal of time on his face asking God not to kill them and start over (Numbers 11-17).

Now what’s my point?

Well, when Balak asks Balaam to curse the Israelites, Balaam can’t because God has blessed them (Numbers 22:12). Balaam goes on to bless them four different times from the high places much to Balak’s annoyance and frustration (Numbers 23-24).

Now Israel was blessed because God promised their ancestor Abraham that a nation would come from him that would bless the whole world. They were chosen, delivered, and preserved because God keeps His promises. He is faithful.

Israel was playing the fool in the wilderness. They did not deserve God’s faithfulness. But they got it all the same along with His blessing.

God isn’t like us. He doesn’t change and He doesn’t lie. And He doesn’t give his chosen ones what they deserve.

So up on the high place all the power this world can work up can’t touch them.

God even controls the bad guys. They have limits – He only lets them go so far.

Let’s jump to Acts 12. The early church is growing and the religious leaders are pulling their hair out. Herod wants to impress so he kills James, one of Jesus’s ‘sons of thunder’. Then he puts Peter in prison, but the church was praying.

Angels let Peter out of prison, and the next time we see Herod he is dying a painful death for not giving glory to God.

So, what does this mean for us?

God is sovereign – He is in complete control – He rules – even over the ‘bad guys’.

If you believe that Jesus is God, came to earth as a man, died for your sins, and rose to live again victorious over sin and death – you’re His – chosen, delivered, preserved, and blessed (Romans 10:9-10).

Now does that mean that we won’t suffer? Does it mean that evil won’t appear to win? No – It does mean we have nothing to fear. God is in control.

No one knows what the future holds, but God.

He wants us to be faithful - like He is.

We know His chosen are His workmanship created for good works that he already prepared for us – We weren’t chosen for self-preservation (Ephesians 2:10).

Our times are truly in His hand (Psalm 31:15). Let’s be vessels He can use and bring Him glory (2 Timothy 2:21). For such a time as this.