Would God that such people, of whom there are too many, would take
St. John's warning and buy of the Lord gold tried in the fire--the
true gold of honesty--that they may be truly rich, and anoint their
eyes with eye-salve that they may see themselves for once as they
are.
But what does this story teach us concerning God? For remember, as
I tell you every Sunday, that each fresh story in the Pentateuch
reveals to us something fresh about the character of God. What does
Balaam's story reveal? Balaam himself tells us in the text, 'God is
not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should
repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it?'
Yes. Fancy not that any wishes or prayers of yours can persuade God
to alter his everlasting laws of right and wrong. If he has
commanded a thing, he has commanded it because it is according to
his everlasting laws, which cannot change, because they are made in
his eternal image and likeness. Therefore if God has commanded you
a thing, DO IT heartily, fully, without arguing or complaining. If
you begin arguing with God's law, excusing yourself from it,
inventing reasons why YOU need not obey it in this particular
instance, though every one else ought, then you will end, like
Balaam, in disobeying the law, and it will grind you to powder.
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