Who Will Speak for God?

Christians are to be reliable spokespersons for him:

While the office of prophet in the Old Testament was a specific one, and not all were called to it, there is a sense in which all believers today can have a prophetic sort of ministry. That is because the prophet was called to faithfully speak the words of God to others, and that is something we all can do as well.

Sure, I am not saying we will have inspired and infallible words to share, but we all should seek as much as possible to only say what God would have us say. Certainly this is true of the teacher or preacher, but all believers want to represent our Lord as accurately as possible.

With all this in mind, I want to look at four passages from the book of Numbers. The first deals with this idea of all God’s people faithfully representing our Lord. In Numbers 11:29 we read this: “But Moses replied, ‘Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’S people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!’”

This idea that all of us can and should have a prophetic-type ministry is worth keeping in mind. And the next three passages I want to share look at how one biblical character did seek to only say that which the Lord wanted him to say.

Balak, Balaam and the word of God

The story of Balak and Balaam in Numbers 22-24 might be known to some of you. If nothing else, the bit about the talking donkey might stick in your memory (Num. 22:21-41). The bigger story centres on Balak, king of Moab, asking Balaam three times to curse Israel. Instead, Balaam blesses Israel three times.

Each time Balaam does this, Balak gets increasingly angry. But the replies of Balaam in each instance are words all Christians can and should take to heart. Here they are:

-And the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but speak only the word that I tell you.” So Balaam went on with the princes of Balak. When Balak heard that Balaam had come, he went out to meet him at the city of Moab, on the border formed by the Arnon, at the extremity of the border. And Balak said to Balaam, “Did I not send to you to call you? Why did you not come to me? Am I not able to honor you?” Balaam said to Balak, “Behold, I have come to you! Have I now any power of my own to speak anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that must I speak.” (Numbers 22:35-38)

-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 answered and said, “Must I not take care to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?” (Numbers 23:11-12)

-And Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he struck his hands together. And Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them these three times. Therefore now flee to your own place. I said, ‘I will certainly honor you,’ but the Lord has held you back from honor.” And Balaam said to Balak, “Did I not tell your messengers whom you sent to me, ‘If Balak should give me his house full of silver and gold, I would not be able to go beyond the word of the Lord, to do either good or bad of my own will. What the Lord speaks, that will I speak’?” (Numbers 24:10-13)

This concern to only share what God wanted Balaam to share is something we all today can seek to emulate. Again, the biblical canon is closed, so we are not adding new inspired words, but we do want to be ambassadors who carefully and accurately represent our Lord to all we meet.

Let me add a bit of commentary here. Despite his refusal to curse Israel, it is not fully clear if Balaam is actually a good guy here, or more of a bad guy. Other biblical texts speak of him in a negative light, eg.: Numbers 31:16; 2 Peter 2:15-16; Revelation 2:14; etc. We might best describe him as a Gentile soothsayer. So he is presented as a mixed bag here.

But it is refusal to say anything other than what the Lord wanted him to speak that I am interested in. Of course this came only after he had his donkey refuse to go along with his original intention of being a gun for hire – of cursing Israel. He repented after that rather shocking episode, and finally got with God’s program.

His original intent, as a pagan prophet willing to go with the highest bidder, was to curse Israel for a price. So his motivations were all over the place, and he is at best an ambiguous character – sort of like we all are or can be! But at the end he ended up doing what God wanted to be done – pronouncing blessings on Israel.

And that can be comforting news for all of us. As Iain Duguid comments:

The central lesson behind the story of Balaam is the Lord’s determination to bless his people. No hotshot prophet will be permitted to curse God’s people, no matter how much he wants to, because the Lord has declared them blessed. Instead, his very attempt to curse Israel will itself be turned into another blessing. Israel was most likely unaware of this whole episode at the time when it happened. This is probably just as well, since the news that an international wizard was on his way to place them under a curse might well have sent them into yet another frenzy of worry and grumbling. Yet even had they been aware of it, they need not have worried. The Lord would turn the curse that they feared into a blessing.

 

Isn’t that a lesson we need to internalize as well? There are many dangers in life of which we are not even aware because the Lord extracts their sting before they even reach us. In other cases, though, we become aware of the rise of threatening thunderclouds, triggering panic in our hearts. Something or someone seems poised to ruin our lives once and for all. We need not be so easily afraid. As William Cowper put it in his great hymn “God Moves in a Mysterious Way”:

 

  Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
  The clouds ye so much dread
  Are big with mercy, and shall break
  In blessings on your head.

 

If the Lord has decreed our blessing, then nothing and no one can turn our blessing into a curse.

That should be of real encouragement to all of us. And even if the character of Balaam was uneven and far from ideal, his words (whether fully meant or not) are words we all should take to heart and seek to implement. We too should want to only say that which our Lord wants us to say.

All God’s people must think God’s thoughts and speak God’s words. In that sense, we can all be faithful prophets of God. We can all represent him aright. We can all let a lost world – and a confused church – know who it is that our God is, and what it is that he wants and expects of us.

All Christians should prayerfully aim to perform this prophetic sort of task on a regular basis.

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