Hey, this is Shelby and Scott.

Today we're talking through Numbers 22 through 24.

Scott, at the very beginning of Numbers, you said that Numbers is a wild book.

And you specifically mentioned Baylam.

So here, I'm expecting a wild episode, just to be honest.

We're here at Baylam. Yeah. I mean, you've got a wild episode, just to be honest. We're here at Bailam.

Yeah. I mean, you've got these three chapters that just feel like, why are we talking about

this guy? And so it's like, okay, so just real quick, you know, 22-1 talks about Israel

encamping at Moab, and they're going to stay there for the rest of numbers and for the rest

of Deuteronomy. But then the focus shifts away from them to focus on this pagan prophet,

Bealem. And it's cool, though, you start to get a glimpse into the fear that the surrounding

nations have of the Israelites. So, Balik has heard about Israel's victories, which we saw about yesterday. And so he

hires this prophet, Baylam, to curse Israel so that then he can defeat them in battle. And, you know,

it's funny, on a cursory read, for me at least, Baylam doesn't sound like that bad of a guy. Like,

he seems generally obedient to the Lord. He says true things about God and true things about Israel. But we are meant to see him in a pretty negative light here. Like for example, the text seems to paint him as a greedy man. If you paid careful attention to some of the details. But then later biblical passages like 2nd, Jude, Jude,

and Revelation all portray him just in a very, very negative light. And plus, we'll get to this,

but he played a role in causing the Israelites to turn against God in a scene that we're going to

look at tomorrow. Nevertheless, though, God uses them here in this moment. And again, we have to read Balaam's message going back to the Abrahamic promises.

So back in Genesis 12, God promised to make Abraham into a great nation, give them the land

of Canaan and to bless all the nations of the earth through them.

And also in there, it says that God will bless those who bless Abraham and curse those who curse Abraham.

And so all those promises play a major role in the messages that God gives to Bala in today's chapters.

...