Join host Sharon Knotts as she explores the ancient tale of Balaam, a prophet with a covetous spirit, who was hired to curse Israel but instead delivered a blessing. Learn how this seemingly paradoxical prophecy foretold the coming of a star and a scepter—symbols of a future Messiah who would illuminate the path for countless generations. The episode reveals how this ancient promise was fulfilled in the birth of Jesus, the true guiding light in a world filled with darkness.
Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I’m Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And today’s Word is rich with intrigue. Get ready to be blessed as we examine the nuances in the boomerang story of Balaam’s prophetic star. We’re going to begin this morning in the book of Numbers chapter 24. Amen. And we’re going to have a Christmas story this morning. You’re probably thinking to yourself, well, now, Sister Sharon, if we’re going to have a Christmas story, why are we going to the book of Numbers? Well, you’re going to see in chapter 24 and looking at verse 15. And he took up his parable and said, Balaam, the son of Beor, hath said. Now this is Balaam speaking. And he’s saying, I’m Balaam, I’m the son of Beor, and this is what I’m going to tell you has happened to me. I am the man whose eyes are open have said. He has said which heard the words of God. And knew the knowledge of the most high. Which saw the vision of the almighty. Falling into a trance. But having his eyes open. This is the true definition of a vision. A vision is you’re not asleep. You’re awake. Your eyes are open. But yet you see nothing. this picture before you and so what balaam is saying and he you notice he keeps repeating he wants you to know you can trust this word that i’m giving to you i have knowledge of the most high and i saw this vision of the almighty and this is what the vision is verse 17 i shall see him but not now I shall behold him, but not nigh. There shall come a star out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel and shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Shef. So we want to zoom in on Balaam for a moment. First of all, Balaam was a prophet. He was a descendant of Abraham through his nephew Ishmael, through Abraham’s son Ishmael. So Balaam came out of the lineage of Ishmael, which was, of course, Abraham’s son by Hagar, the Egyptian. And that’s how he was related to Abraham. Now, what is going on here? He had been hired by King Balak of Moab. And Balak was a wicked king. And Balak hired Balaam. Don’t get your guys mixed up. Balak hired Balaam to put a curse on Israel. This was the time when Israel was in their wilderness journey, having come out of Egypt, traveling through the wilderness on their way to Canaan, the promised land. And the easiest route for them to travel would have been for them to go through Moab. But the king of Moab said, no, you’re not coming through my land. Israel offered to pay them for the water they would drink and their animals would drink, for the grass that their animals would eat. But Balak said no. And keep in mind, the Moabites and the Israelites are also related one to another. Because the Moabites came out of Lot. Who was Abraham’s nephew. And remember at the time of Sodom and Gomorrah. When God sent the angels to get Lot and his wife and two daughters out of the city. Because God was going to destroy the city for their sodomy. Don’t be afraid to say amen. That’s what the Bible says. And on the way out. They were told, whatever you do, don’t look back. See, no matter what you’re going through, don’t look back. But we know that Lot’s wife looked back and she was turned into a pillar of salt on the spot. Now, these two young girls went with their father and they went and hid in another place in a cave. Now, these girls had grown up in the most wicked cities on the planet. Why would God destroy them if they weren’t the most wicked beyond redemption? And they had grown up and they were saturated with all of the perverse sexuality that was around them. A lot of sodomy and probably just a lot of promiscuous in general. This is how they had grown up. We’ve got a generation today growing up that they are just saturated with all of that on TV. It’s been normalized and that’s what they’re growing up with. So what do you think of Jesus Terry’s the next generation will be? All right, Sharon, you’re getting there off and you’re chasing a rabbit. The thing is, is when they got in that cave with their father, they thought they just saw their mother. She turned into a pillar of salt and they thought to themselves, I can imagine. I’ll read their minds. The world is coming to an end. Because the world that they lived in was coming to an end. And fire and brimstone was falling down. And they may have thought this is the end of the world and we’re the only ones left. So we need to do something. We need to have babies so that we can continue the human race. They got their father drunk. And they both slept with their father. And they both got pregnant. One boy was Amnon and one was Moab. So now we go all of this time down the road, hundreds of years later, and Moab is a great nation. And let me say this, I believe as distasteful as that was, what I just told you about Lot and his daughters, to me it only validates the truth of God’s word. Because if I was going to make up the Bible, I wouldn’t put that story in there. I mean, if I’m going to make up a Bible for everybody, it’s going to know this is the word of God. I wouldn’t have put that kind of thing in there. But the fact that it’s in there is because the Bible is true. Amen. And so now we have Moab. They’re actually Israel’s cousins. But they said, no, you can’t come through our land. And not only they just say no, and they forced Israel to go another way, a longer way. That should have been the end of it. But no, King Balak said, I want you to curse them. And he got the prophet Balaam. And Balaam, this may sound like a paradox, but I want you to understand that Balaam was a prophet who spoke the truth. Now, he was evil because he had a covetous spirit. Because Balak paid him good money to curse Israel. And when it failed the first time, and it failed three times. And when it was failing, Balak came back and sweetened the pot. He said, I’m going to give you more money, but you’ve got to curse them. And Balaam spoke truth. He said to Balak, I cannot curse what God has blessed. I can only say what God tells me to say. And God tells me they are blessed. But because Balaam had such a covetous spirit and wanted that money so bad, he kept trying. He kept trying. Three times he tried. Amen. Until God had to make his donkey talk to him. Amen. And then he opened his eyes and let him see the angel that was getting ready to kill him. So then Balaam said, all right, all right, I’ll go and tell him what thus says the Lord. And we just read what thus says the Lord. And no doubt when Balak went up on the mountain to look down on the camp of Israel. That was spread out with the tabernacle in the middle. And all of the Israelites spread out with their different tribes. And if he would have seen the men as they came out of their tents. And had on their prayer shawls. And they were praying to God. And he saw them. this vision came to him and he said a star shall rise out of jacob and a scepter shall rise out of israel amen this was the prophecy that he spoke and i want you to notice in your bible raise your hand if it’s true in my bible star and scepter are capitalized And that’s unusual. It doesn’t make any sense. Oh, but it does. Because when you capitalize a thing or an object, you personalize it. It’s called personification. It’s when you turn a thing into and make it like a person. For instance, we might say, and death was walking the highway that day. And someone might capitalize the word death. And make it like you know the person of death came and walked the highway that day. So this is personified. And that means something very significant. It’s talking about a person. This star is not just a star. It’s a person. And this scepter which you know was the golden rod that the kings had that was his authority. It’s a person. And this is the vision that Balaam saw. He said, I see a star. Capital S-T-A-R. The Hebrew word is Kakav. And it means the northern star. The most northern star. It is referred to as the guiding star. And we also refer to it as Polaris. How many have heard Polaris? Why? It’s a polar star. It is the star that is due north. It’s the star that never changes. Sailors for thousands of years sailed the oceans and discovered new lands following the steady light of that northern star. no matter if the winds blew and the waves raged and storms came and battered them all over the place, they were able to find their way by following the accurate direction of that North star. It’s always accurate. It’s always due North. Amen. Well, now let’s talk about the star of, Jacob the Messiah Jesus he is the true guiding light that shines in this world of such perverse darkness and evil he is the true light that guides us to God Almighty and the scripture says that God dwells in the Mount of Congregation in the sides of the north and Amen. And I say to you, no matter how lost you are in sin, no matter how far in darkness your life has taken you, I want you to know that Jesus is the true star that shines in the darkness that will lead you safely home. Hallelujah. No matter how many storms come in your life, no matter how your vessel may be tossed and driven, all the… Storms of the world that we’re in. I want you to know that Jesus is the guiding light. That will guide us safely home to the Father’s house. Hallelujah. That’s why he’s called the star. Glory to God. In John 1.9, John wrote about Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah. He was the true light. Amen. Which lights every man that comes into the world. Now I have to think about that for a moment. Because I see a whole lot of darkness out there. I see a lot of people in darkness. I see a lot of people filled with darkness. And I see that those who are the lights are much fewer in number. Amen. And yet it says that Jesus is the true light that lights every man that comes into the world. And that says to me that everyone has some sort of spark within them. Something in them tells them that there is a God. There is a creator who created them for a purpose. But not every man receives that saving light. Amen. Not every man does. In fact, Jesus said in John the third chapter, he said that men love darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds are evil and they don’t want to come to the light because the light manifest what you are. They want to stay away from the light because it shows their deeds are evil and they’re not willing to give them up. But everyone that’s in the light and loves the truth, he says, comes to the light that their deeds may be shown what they are, that their works of truth and righteousness. And that’s why sometimes people do not like you, although you have never done a thing to them. And they just don’t like you on your job or wherever. It could be people in your own family. And they really don’t want to be around you. Why? Because you are light. And when you’re around them, that light convicts them. And they don’t want to be convicted. Because they’re not ready or willing to give up their darkness. Alright, that was a free sermon, okay? Getting back to Balaam’s prophetic star. So he prophesied this way back when Israel was still in the wilderness. But now in the New Testament, who was the first one to call Jesus the star? Anybody want to guess? No guesses? Yes. okay all right i’ll tell you that it’s in the christmas story will that help you will that help you to guess anybody want to guess who nope no shepherds didn’t call him the star okay all right i guess i’m gonna have to tell you okay Gabriel first showed up in the Christmas story. To whom? Not to Mary. You people better come to the play. That’s all I got to say. No, he didn’t show up to John either. John wasn’t even born yet. All right, thank you, Zacharias. John’s father. How many remember him? Who was he married to? Well, thank you. Finally, I might give you a gold star. Oh, did she? Charlotte had it. Okay. She just didn’t speak up loud enough for me to hear because all the rest of you were too busy giving wrong answers. All right. You know, I never embarrass people. I just like to see, you know, what you’re thinking. Okay. So anyway, Gabriel showed up to Zacharias, who was a priest. And he happened to be his turn to be in the temple to burn the incense. And while he was in the temple doing his job, which he only got to do twice a year. Twice a year. He was of the course of Abiah. And Abiah got to serve. Two times a year. And this was one of the times. And it was Zacharias turn. Which was I’m sure. He was very excited about. And there he is doing his job. Burning the incense. And here shows up an angel. And the angel tells him. You and your wife are going to have a baby. Now he was old. And his wife Elizabeth was old. Well past the time of childbearing. And she had been barren their whole married life. And said you’re going to have a baby. You’re going to have a son. He’s going to be a prophet. Not just any prophet. But the prophet of the Lord. To prepare the way for his Messiah to come. And you’re going to name him John. And we know that when Zacharias heard this. He was so full of doubt and unbelief. Now that really gets to me knowing he was a priest. But he was so full of unbelief. He basically said, you know, how is that going to happen? I’m old and my wife is old. And of course we know that that unbelief really triggered something in Gabriel. And he took a little bit of leeway. And God didn’t stop him. And he said, you know what? I’m Gabriel. Amen. I stand in the presence of God. I’m not just any angel. There are a lot of messenger angels. But I’m the one that reports directly in the face of God. And he sent me to give you this wonderful news. But you don’t believe it. Well, it’s going to happen. I’m going to read his mind. If it were up to me, I’d go find somebody else. But God really loves your wife, Elizabeth. She’s got to be the mama. He said, you know, since you don’t believe me, I’m zipping your lips and you won’t be able to speak until that baby’s born. And so we know Zacharias went home and in short order, Elizabeth became pregnant. And for nine months, Zacharias couldn’t speak a word. If he had anything to say, he had to get out the chalkboard. And Elizabeth was running around the house getting ready for a baby. Amen. And she was painting the room and putting up the curtains and getting stuff together. She was practicing her lullabies. Sleep in heavenly peace. And Zacharias couldn’t say a single word. How would you like it, husbands, if when your wife was pregnant, you could not speak the whole time and you could only listen to her and not answer back? That is something to think about, isn’t it? Finally, the baby is born. All the family come to the house because it was circumcision day and they would have named the child officially. And the family said, what are you going to name him, Elizabeth? She said, John. They said, John? Nobody in your family is named John. Aren’t you going to name him after his father? And before she could say anything, God unzipped Zachariah’s lips. And Zacharias said, oh no, his name is John. And then he took off prophesying. So for that we need to turn to Luke chapter 1. And we’re not going to read the whole prophecy because it’s quite lengthy. But I want to go to the middle of the prophecy in Luke 1. Looking at verse 76. This is Zachariah. He just got his lips unzipped now. He’s under the anointing here folks. And he said in verse 76. And you child. Shall be called the prophet of the highest. Capital H if you please. For you shall go before the face of the Lord. To prepare his ways. To give knowledge of salvation. Unto his people. By the remission of their sins. Through the tender mercy of our God. Whereby the day spring from on high. Has visited us. To give light to them that sit in darkness. And in the shadow of death. To guide our feet. In the way of peace. So Zacharias called. The one that John was going to proclaim. The Messiah. The son of the highest. He called him the day spring from on high. And the day spring. Refers to the first rising light of day. The dawn. Amen. And Peter took it up in 2 Peter 1.19. And he said. The day dawn. And the day star. Shall arise in your hearts. There’s just so many layers to this story. You know, you’ve got the Balaam story, and then now you’ve got John, Father Zacharias saying, and then we’ve got Peter saying, the day star shall rise in your hearts. Now, when Balaam was talking and Zacharias was talking, they were referring to the legitimate, absolute person of the Messiah, Jesus. Amen. But Peter now is way past the coming resurrection and ascension of Jesus. And now he’s speaking to the saints of God. The born again ones. And says the day star is going to rise in your heart. How many got that? And I say to you. If the day star is inside of me. I better be shining. I’m going to be shining. If the day star has risen in my heart. I’m going to have a light. Amen. And I don’t want just that song, Jesus gave me a little light. I want a big light. We need big lights in this day we’re in. Amen. And Jesus said in Revelation 22, 16, now this is the risen Jesus, the Lord of glory, the Lamb of God that we preached about last week. Jesus said, I am. Yeah. The bright and morning star. Hallelujah. Because he arose on the darkness of the world in that day. In the time of the Old Testament. When the world was dark and they had so many gods that people were serving. They’d already been through all the Greek time of civilization and all their gods. jupiter and all of them and now they had the romans and all their gods pretty much the same gods just different names and let me just go one further the same demons that they were worshiping but in all that darkness god sent the star of jacob The bright and the morning star. Hallelujah. And shone on the darkness of that world. And the world has never been the same since. And when you and some of you were in the world in darkness. In perverse sin. In great darkness. The bright and morning star. Shown on the horizon of your life. And brought you out of darkness. Into the. Marvelous light. Of Christ. Hallelujah. We’ve been translated out of the kingdom of darkness. Paul said in Colossians 1.13. Into the kingdom of God’s dear son. The bright and the morning star. Hallelujah. And that star shone on the darkness of the world. Amen. Amen. I trust you’re being inspired by the remarkable account of Balaam’s prophetic star. We have all heard about Balaam and his talking mule, but were you aware of the stunning messianic prophecy Balaam spoke over the Israelite camp in the wilderness? He was hired to curse them, but every time he opened his mouth, blessings came out. And the third time he pronounced a prophetic parable of a kingly star that would rise out of Jacob. And 1,500 years later, wise men from the East followed that very star to the infant King of Kings. Balaam’s prophetic star is available on CD and MP3s. To purchase the CD by mail, send a minimal love gift of $10. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request SK225. Or go online to soundoffaith.org to order on CD or MP3s. But to order by mail, send your love gift of $10 or more to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request SK-225. Till next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
