Speak God's Blessing to Come

For the past few weeks, I’ve been studying Old Testament passages where the Spirit of God comes on people. As we are being prepared by God to actively receive and take possession of his best for us, I am reminded of Balaam, the famous diviner who had been hired by the king of Moab to curse Israel soon before it took possession of the Promised Land. It says in Numbers 24:1-2 that when Balaam ‘turned his face toward the wilderness… and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, the Spirit of God came on him’ and compelled him to speak blessing instead. I am particularly struck by verses 5-7 of Balaam’s blessing:

How beautiful are your tents, Jacob,
your dwelling-places, Israel!
Like valleys they spread out,
like gardens beside a river,
like aloes planted by the Lord,
like cedars beside the waters.
Water will flow from their buckets;
their seed will have abundant water.

God had provided the people of Israel with all the food and water they needed during the previous 40 years in the Sinai wilderness, but it was still a barren and lifeless place to live. When they took possession of the Promised Land, Balaam prophesied that they would flourish like the gardens, trees and crops planted by the land’s prized water sources.

God has provided our church with everything we’ve needed these past few challenging years, but he also desires to bring us to a place of flourishing. May the Holy Spirit not only give us eyes to see and hearts to believe what he has for us, but also mouths to speak of God’s blessing to come. The story of Balaam (and the story of creation in Genesis 1!) make it clear that spoken words have power, and we invite you to pray out loud and praise him out loud for all the good he has done for us and all the good he has planned for us.