{"id":4565,"date":"2021-06-22T04:00:06","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T09:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/?p=4565"},"modified":"2021-06-26T05:19:24","modified_gmt":"2021-06-26T10:19:24","slug":"the-torah-of-balaam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/the-torah-of-balaam\/","title":{"rendered":"The Torah of Balaam&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4560 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/balak2.gif?resize=143%2C182&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"143\" height=\"182\" \/>In our Torah portion this week (i.e., <a href=\"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/Scripture\/Parashah\/Summaries\/Balak\/balak.html\">Balak<\/a>), we read how Balaam intended to curse the Israelites, but God \u201ctook hold of his tongue\u201d and made him bless the people instead&#8230; It is encouraging to realize that despite the repeated failures of the Israelites in the desert, the LORD never let go of his people&#8230; Indeed, as the story of Balaam reveals, if a spiritual enemy should secretly arise to curse Israel, God would take the sorcerer &#8220;by the tongue&#8221; to evoke God\u2019s blessing instead (Deut. 23:4-5). As Balaam himself later confessed: &#8220;there is no sorcery (i.e., <em>nachash<\/em>: \u05e0\u05d7\u05e9) against Jacob; there is no divination (i.e, <em>kesem<\/em>: \u05e7\u05e1\u05dd) against Israel&#8221; (Num. 23:23). Unlike scheming Balaam, who was willing to say whatever people wanted to gain temporal reward, God is &#8220;not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind&#8221; (Num. 23:19, 1 Sam. 15:29). Whatever the LORD has promised he will invincibly perform: His word is full of integrity and truth: &#8220;The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever&#8221; (Isa. 40:8). Amen. The God of Israel is forever faithful in his love, and no one can overrule his desire (Num. 23:20; Rom. 11:29; Isa. 40:13). You can trust in your promised future, friend. As it is written: &#8220;No weapon fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD (\u05d6\u05d0\u05ea \u05e0\u05d7\u05dc\u05ea \u05e2\u05d1\u05d3\u05d9 \u05d9\u05d4\u05d5\u05d4) and their vindication from me, declares the LORD&#8221; (Isa. 54:17).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Hebrew Lesson:<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4570\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/num23-23a-analysis.gif?resize=449%2C547&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"449\" height=\"547\" \/><\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-4565-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/num23-23a-jjp.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/num23-23a-jjp.mp3\">https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/num23-23a-jjp.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/Blessings\/Blessing_Cards\/num23-23a-lesson.pdf\">Num. 23:23a Hebrew lesson page (pdf)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In our Torah portion this week (i.e., Balak), we read how Balaam intended to curse the Israelites, but God \u201ctook hold of his tongue\u201d and made him bless the people instead&#8230; It is encouraging to realize that despite the repeated failures of the Israelites in the desert, the LORD never let go of his people&#8230; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hebrew-reading-practice","category-torah"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4572,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4565\/revisions\/4572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}