Always be suspicious when someone wants to limit your field
of vision. Your ability to make right
judgments is always limited by the scope of the information you receive as
input data. Balak again has an outcome
in mind, Balaam pronouncing a curse on Israel, and seeks, by allowing the
prophet to see only a fraction of the army and people, to manipulate him to
comply with his wishes. Balaam isn't
prophesying today based on the input of his eyes, they have already failed him
once when he didn't see the Lord right in front of him. This day's prophecy will be based on the words
the Lord puts into his mouth and that will be blessing for Israel. Balak has to decide if he will listen and
heed the warning given. Do the words of
Balaam sound familiar to you? "All
that the Lord says, that I must do."
They are the same words the nation spoke to God in Exodus 19 when He
offered them a chance to become His covenant people. Why would Balaam say the same thing?
The parable of the wedding guest is obvious isn't it? Early in His ministry Jesus told parables
that confounded the people as well as the disciples, they required
explanation. As He approaches the end,
the parables become incredibly clear to all.
In yesterday's parable the people knew the ending on their own and the leaders
knew it was about them. Today, it is
equally clear that the wedding guests are the nation whom the Lord has invited
to the feast but who can't be troubled to actually attend, they have taken Him
for granted. No one would act in such
ways towards a king unless they had disdain for him. His response is to be gracious to simply
anyone passing by that his son's wedding feast be observed and celebrated. When he arrives, he finds one of the guests
has refused to don the wedding garments, has simply decided to dishonor the
host. Either we come to the feast God's
way, covered in the blood of Jesus, or we will not remain.
God is asking you to limit your field of vision. Can you trust Him enough to know that if you
comply with His request that you will make good judgments? It is the same thing He has always asked of
us, beginning in Genesis 3, continuing at Mt Sinai, and now in Jesus. We are to set our minds fixedly and completely
on the things of the spirit and not the flesh.
Most, if not all of us have spent a good bit of time fixing our gaze on
the things of the flesh so we can make a decision to limit our attention to the
things of the spirit knowing that we are making a wise decision. We have to choose now what is truly good and
evil. In Jesus we have seen the only
good man who has ever lived. Can we set
our eyes and ears on Him? We, like the
nation and like Balaam, need to decide if we will do all the Lord says. Fixing our eyes and ears on Him alone is the
best way to live into that commitment.
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