Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our reading titled No Cursing was written by Tim Gustafson.

William Shakespeare was a master of the insult,

a quality that actor Barry Craft adeptly leverages with his Shakespeare

insult generator. The clever book consists of obscure insults drawn from Shakespeare's plays.

For instance, you might disparage someone by saying, thou thrasonical, loggerheaded rampalian,

which is so much more creative than saying,

You brag a lot, and you're not very smart, you scoundrel.

Craft's light-hearted book is in good fun, but an ancient king of Moab tried to pay a mysterious prophet,

not merely to insult the Israelites, but to outright curse them.

Come and put a curse on these people, King Balak told Balam in Numbers 226.

Instead, Balam enraged the king by blessing the Hebrew people, multiple times.

One of his blessings included this prophecy in chapter 24.

I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. Clearly, the individual in view is not yet

on the scene, but just who is Balaam talking about. The next line holds a clue. A star will come out of Jacob. A scepter

will rise out of Israel. The star would one day lead wise men to the promised Christ child.

An ancient Mesopotamian prophet who knew nothing of the Messiah pointed the world to a future sign declaring his arrival.

From an unlikely source came not cursing, but blessing.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is from Numbers chapter 24 verses 10 through 19.

Then Balak's anger burned against Balam. He struck his hands together and said to him,

I summoned you to curse my enemies, but you have blessed them these three times. Now leave at once and go home. I said I would reward you

handsomely, but the Lord has kept you from being rewarded."

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