Are you ever concerned that you’ve done enough or been good enough to receive God’s blessing? Do you ever wonder if God’s feelings are ultimately against you until you’ve done your part to reverse a curse? Do you find yourself on the fence, straddling between blessing and cursing, hoping you’ve filled up your pockets with enough good choices to fall in the right direction?
Consider the interactions between Balak, the King of Moab, who desires to curse God’s people, and Balaam, the prophet, whom the king pays to carry out the cursing:
Balak to Balaam in Numbers 22…
”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.” —Numbers 22:6
Balaam is summoned and paid by the king to curse God’s people. And yet as the story is told, that over and over God sends a message to Balaam. “Don’t try to curse my people!”
Still, he keeps trying. And even though he encounters roadblocks along the way (ex: even his own donkey), he still “accidentally” announcing blessing on God’s people.
Balak is not impressed.
“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.’ And he (Balaam) answered and said, ‘Must I not take care to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?’” — Numbers 23:11-12
These attempts to curse God’s people happen again and again and each time, they become blessings.
At one point, Balaam acknowledges his predicament.
”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? Behold, I received a command to bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.” — Numbers 23:19-20
Unfortunately, though Balaam is unable to curse them, God’s people still walk away from blessing. In Numbers 25, they worshiped Baal, the god of the Moabites, and God’s blessing is put on hold.
In the book of Revelation, Jesus brings up these two quirky characters to initiate judgement to the church of Pergamum.
There were those in the church who followed the kind of false teachers that reminded Jesus of Balaam and Balak. False teachers that led people away from blessing to worship other gods, like the people of Israel did in Moab.
But the mention of their names is more than just naming a spirit of false teaching. Balaam and Balak point to how a ministry of cursing is at odds with the God who blesses and cannot lie.
God cannot lie. There is no division in God.
God is the God who can’t go against God’s self.
God will not ultimately curse, because God’s everlasting promise is blessing.
Unlike Balak, God is not looking to ultimately defeat us and drive us from the land.
And even though we try and curse others, God‘s blessing will eventually have its way in them. It just means the route of blessing won’t go through us.
It just means the route of blessing won’t go through us.
And if we fall into the false teaching of welcoming this cursed way of thinking on us or pass on the curse toward others, we need to repent back to God’s way of blessing.
If we do not, we will receive God‘s judgment — in the form of TRUTH coursing as a sword from his mouth.
“These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword.” — Revelation 2:12
If we do not hear these words and repent, God’s judgment (or salvation) will come to us so that His blessing will have its way in us.
“Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.” — Revelation 2:16
It’s not that God is the one who is conflicted on whether or not to bless or curse. It’s us. We are the ones who so often choose to receive or pass on the cursing.
God’s not the one who needs to repent. We do.
Why make this blessing harder for our brother or sister? Why resist this blessing for ourselves? Might this be the heart of God’s corrective judgement?
Why consume a diet of destructive cursed living when the God who wants to bless gives us the manna bread that lasts forever? (Revelation 2:17)
Why make a cursed name for ourselves, when he wants to give us a name that he’s had for us since the beginning? (Revelation 2:17)
We only straddle the fence of blessing and cursing because we are sitting in Balak’s kingdom rather than hidden in Christ, at God’s throne.
The prophet reminds us God cannot lie. And Jesus comes to us as revealed Truth, inviting us toward the way of blessing that will prevail and not fail.
Repent from the way of destructive cursing and LIVE OUT the way of assured blessing.
This is one way you live the life of the Overcomer.