Mar 5 (Daily reading: Numbers 23-25, NIV) Balak’s insistence brings to mind the attitude of the world today. Three times he asked Balaam to curse Israel; in other words, Balak wanted God to do what he wanted instead of what God wanted. How often we see unbelievers either deny outright God’s word or attempt to twist it to their own purposes. It is as Paul told the Romans, “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie” (Rom. 1:25); and to Timothy he described them as “having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:5).
Balaam’s answer to Balak is the proper Christian response to the world in which we live: “Did I not tell you I must do whatever the LORD says?” (23:26). And there are times when we will have to speak up and declare, along with Peter and John: “We cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Ac. 4:20, NASB). When you know the truth, you must speak the truth!
A compromised faith is an ineffective faith. Paul encouraged the Romans: “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think” (Rom. 12:2, New Living Translation). And James urged his readers to not be double-minded, but to “believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind” (Ja. 1:6).
Let us base our convictions on the Word of God, and then live by them!
– Al Gary
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