Blessed by Promise, Not Performance
“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.”Numbers 23:19–20 (KJV)
Balak paid Balaam to curse Israel. It should have been easy. Israel had complained and rebelled through the whole wilderness. If God blessed people by their behaviour, there was plenty to work with.
Instead Balaam said, “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it?” And then, “Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.”
The blessing didn’t rest on Israel’s record. It rested on God’s word to Abraham. By the end, Balaam “saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel.” Paul tells us what that promise really was: “the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.”
If you are in Christ, your blessing rests on the same kind of word. Your bad week can’t reverse it. God has spoken, and he will make it good.
Read it yourself
Read Numbers 23:18–24. List what Balaam says God has not seen in Israel, and what he says is among them.
Do you feel more blessed by God on your good days than on your bad ones? What does Numbers 23:20 say to that?
Father, thank you that your blessing rests on your promise, not my performance. What you have blessed, no one can reverse. Amen.