Balak, King of Moab, took Balaam to
three different viewpoints of the Israelites camped out below. He
hoped that Balaam would curse them from there, instead he blessed
them. He blessed them, because God took hold of him and wouldn't
allow him to curse them. Balaam wanted to curse them, because he
wanted the riches King Balak promised him, but God wouldn't
tolerate it. And as we saw last week, God wouldn't allow them to
'twist His arm', so to speak. God doesn't change His mind through
people trying to manipulate Him. He will never allow that. But
interestingly enough there are a couple of instances in
the Bible where God did change His mind, concerning things.
In the first place, let's look at
the instance in King Hezekiah's life. He became deathly ill and God
sent Isaiah to tell Hezekiah that he was going to die. Hezekiah was
devastated and cried out to the Lord:
"Remember, O Lord, how I have
always tried to be faithful to You and do what is pleasing in Your
sight." 2 Kings 20:3
God saw his tears and heard his
prayer and added fifteen years to his life.
Another example is where God was
very angry with the Israelites for worshiping the golden calf. He
told Moses:
"I have seen how stubborn and
rebellious these people are. Now leave Me alone so My anger can
blaze against them and destroy them all. Then I will make you,
Moses, into a great nation instead of them." Exodus 32:9, 10
But Moses pleaded with the Lord not
to do it. And God withdrew His threat and didn't bring the disaster
against the people.
Given these two examples it would
seem that God does change His mind sometimes. He didn't change His
mind with Balak and Balaam, because they didn't repent and humble
themselves before the Lord and they also didn't ask a humble thing
of Him. They wanted to curse His nation and God wouldn't allow it.
God loved Israel and wouldn't agree to have curses spoken over
them.
But in the other two examples God
did listen to the humble pleadings of His children. He does listen
when we pray, that is why prayer is so powerful. He does extend a
hand when we need it. He is patient and He is kind. He will listen
to our requests and He will do what is best. He will do what is
best, not only for us, but for His Kingdom as a whole. We need to
remember that we are part of a whole, we are part of the Body of
Christ, His Bride. We are not supposed to function individually,
but as a group, serving God. And He will do what is best for the
group. He will do what is best for the new creation within each of
us. We might not always understand, but we can know that He works
to our best interest. Our part to play is to pray. There is power
in it, more than we can know, as we've seen in the examples above.
But then we need to leave it in God's capable hands. He truly knows
best.
Father, we have so many requests.
We have so many things we wish can be different and we do not
always understand why things don't work out the way we want it to.
But thank you that we can know that You know best and we can rest
in Your presence. Amen