MARCH 20 "I DON'T LIKE THAT WORD CURSED"

     WELL, poor Balaam is killed...and once again this confirms the idea in our previous reading, that God will use the wicked, but eventually He will judge them.   Balaam was the wicked one that was hired to curse Israel, but even Balaam turns around and says, "I cannot curse those whom God has not cursed" and we love that scripture, don't we! The problem is, we fail to read on because the people of Israel end up being cursed regardless, so in the end God's people are cursed. So if our aim is "not to be cursed" it is not enough to simply quote one random text from God's word but to understand the full idea of the story of Balaam.  Verse 15 to 16 goes on to tell us that Balaam could not curse them directly or by his own will, BUT Balaam thought of a better way to curse God's people, Balaam figured out that he could get them to curse themselves. "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the Lord in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the Lord's people".  This is such a big issue it is brought up by Jesus himself in the very last book of the bible, in Revelations 2:14, "Nevertheless I have a few things against you:  You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality."  Perhaps our greatest fear should not be a witch in some back room trying to put a curse on us, but rather our greatest fear should be the flesh that lives within, when we are tempted we are only baited by our own desires, James admonishes us in his epistle. Balaam realizes "I can't curse those whom God won't curse" so let's bait them, especially the men, by the desires that lurk within. Are we praying for people that have cursed themselves? Are we showing sympathy for brothers and sisters who are merely reaping what they have sown? He who sows to the flesh will he/she not reap, corruption!? You're greatest fear when it comes to being cursed should not be the invisible, it is actually a visible entity you should fear, it is the man, the woman that stares back at you every morning when you look int the mirror. He/she is the one that can curse you!!! When we fear what we ought, and fear not what we should not, then we can walk circumspect and with confidence that those those whom God has not cursed cannot be cursed".

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