The Undeviating Question by Oswald Chambers
Lovest thou Me? (JOHN 21:17)
Peter declares nothing now (cf. Matthew 26:33-35). Natural individuality professes and declares; the love of the personality is only discovered by the hurt of the question of Jesus Christ. Peter loved Jesus in the way in which any natural man loves a good man. That is temperamental love; it may go deep into the individuality, but it does not touch the centre of the person. True love never professes anything. Jesus said – “Whosoever shall confess Me before men,” i.e., confess his love not merely by his words, but by everything he does.
Unless we get hurt right out of every deception about ourselves, the word of God is not having its way with us. The word of God hurts as no sin can ever hurt, because sin blunts feeling. The question of the Lord intensifies feeling, until to be hurt by Jesus is the most exquisite hurt conceivable. It hurts not only in the natural way but in the profound personal way. The word of the Lord pierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, there is no deception left. There is no possibility of being sentimental with the Lord’s question; you cannot say nice things when the Lord speaks directly to you, the hurt is too terrific. It is such a hurt that it stings every other concern out of account. There never can be any mistake about the hurt of the Lord’s word when it comes to His child; but the point of the hurt is the great point of revelation. (From My Utmost for His Highest Classic Edition)
1 Bil'am said to Balak, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare me seven bulls and seven rams here." 2 Balak did as Bil'am said; then Balak and Bil'am offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 3 Bil'am said to Balak, "Stand by your burnt offering while I go off; maybe ADONAI will come and meet me; and whatever he shows me I will tell you." He went off to a bare hill. 4 God met Bil'am, who said to him, "I prepared the seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 5 Then ADONAI put a word in Bil'am's mouth and said, "Go on back to Balak, and speak as I tell you." 6He went back to him, and there, standing by his burnt offering, he with all the princes of Mo'av, 7 he made his pronouncement: "Balak, the king of Mo'av, brings me from Aram, from the eastern hills, saying, 'Come, curse Ya'akov for me; come and denounce Isra'el.' 8 "How am I to curse those whom God has not cursed? How am I to denounce those whom ADONAI has not denounced? 9 "From the top of the rocks I see them, from the hills I behold them yes, a people that will dwell alone and not think itself one of the nations. 10 "Who has counted the dust of Ya'akov or numbered the ashes of Isra'el? May I die as the righteous die! May my end be like theirs!" 11 Balak said to Bil'am, "What have you done to me?! To curse my enemies is why I brought you; and, here, you have totally blessed them!" 12 He answered, "Mustn't I take care to say just what ADONAI puts in my mouth?" 13 Balak said to him, "All right, come with me to another place where you can see them. You will see only some of them, not all; but you can curse them for me from there." 14 He took him through the field of Tzofim to the top of the Pisgah Range, built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar 15 Bil'am said to Balak, "Stand here by your burnt offering, while I go over there for a meeting."16 ADONAI met Bil'am, put a word in his mouth and said, "Go on back to Balak, and speak as I tell you." 17 He came to him and stood by his burnt offering, with all the princes of Mo'av. Balak asked him, "What did ADONAI say?" 18 Then Bil'am made his pronouncement: "Get up, Balak, and listen! Turn your ears to me, son of Tzippor! 19 "God is not a human who lies or a mortal who changes his mind. When he says something, he will do it; when he makes a promise, he will fulfill it 20 Look, I am ordered to bless; when he blesses, I can't reverse it. 21 "No one has seen guilt in Ya'akov, or perceived perversity in Isra'el; ADONAI their God is with them and acclaimed as king among them 22 "God, who brought them out of Egypt, gives them the strength of a wild ox; 23 thus one can't put a spell on Ya'akov, no magic will work against Isra'el. It can now be said of Ya'akov and Isra'el, 'What is this that God has done?!' 24 "Here is a people rising up like a lioness; like a lion he rears himself up -he will not lie down till he eats up the prey and drinks the blood of the slain." 25Balak said to Bil'am, "Obviously, you won't curse them. But at least don't bless them!" 26 However, Bil'am answered Balak, "Didn't I warn you that I must do everything ADONAI says?" 27 Balak said to Bil'am, "Come, I will take you now to another place; maybe it will please God for you to curse them for me from there." 28 Balak took Bil'am to the top of P'or, overlooking the desert. 29 Bil'am said to Balak, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare me seven bulls and seven rams." 30 Balak did as Bil'am said and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
1 When Bil'am saw that it pleased ADONAI to bless Isra'el, he didn't go, as at the other times, to make use of divination, but looked out toward the desert. 2 Bil'am raised his eyes and saw Isra'el encamped tribe by tribe. Then the Spirit of God came upon him, 3 and he made his pronouncement: "This is the speech of Bil'am, son of B'or; the speech of the man whose eyes have been opened; 4 the speech of him who hears God's words; who sees what Shaddai sees, who has fallen, yet has open eyes: 5 "How lovely are your tents, Ya'akov; your encampments, Isra'el! 6They spread out like valleys, like gardens by the riverside, like succulent aloes planted by ADONAI, like cedar trees next to the water. 7 "Water will flow from their branches, their seed will have water aplenty. Their king will be higher than Agag and his kingdom lifted high. 8 God, who brought them out of Egypt, gives them the strength of a wild ox. They will devour the nations opposing them, break their bones, pierce them with their arrows. 9 "When they lie down they crouch like a lion, or like a lioness - who dares to rouse it? Blessed be all who bless you! Cursed be all who curse you!" 10 Balak blazed with fury against Bil'am. He struck his hands together and said to Bil'am, "I summoned you to curse my enemies. But here, you have done nothing but bless them - three times already! 11Now you had better escape to your own place! I had planned to reward you very well, but now ADONAI has deprived you of payment." 12 Bil'am answered Balak, "Didn't I tell the messengers you sent me 13 that even if Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I could not of my own accord go beyond the word of ADONAI to do either good or bad? that what ADONAI said is what I would say? 14 But now that I am going back to my own people, come, I will warn you what this people will do to your people in the acharit-hayamim. 15 So he made his pronouncement: "This is the speech of Bil'am, son of B'or; the speech of the man whose eyes have been opened; 16 the speech of him who hears God's words; who knows what 'Elyon knows, who sees what Shaddai sees, who has fallen, yet has open eyes: 17 "I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not soon -a star will step forth from Ya'akov, a scepter will arise from Isra'el, to crush the corners of Mo'av and destroy all descendants of Shet. 18 His enemies will be his possessions -Edom and Se'ir, possessions. Isra'el will do valiantly, 19 From Ya'akov will come someone who will rule, and he will destroy what is left of the city." 20 He saw 'Amalek and made this pronouncement: "First among nations was 'Amalek, but destruction will be its end." 21 He saw the Keini and made this pronouncement: "Though your dwelling is firm, your nest set on rock, 22 Kayin will be wasted while captive to Ashur." 23 Finally, he made this pronouncement: "Oh no! Who can live when God does this? 24 But ships will come from the coast of Kittim to subdue Ashur and subdue 'Ever, but they too will come to destruction." 25 Then Bil'am got up, left and returned to his home; and Balak too went his way.
1 Isra'el stayed at Sheetim, and there the people began whoring with the women of Mo'av. 2 These women invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, where the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 With Isra'el thus joined to Ba'al-P'or, the anger of ADONAI blazed up against Isra'el. 4 ADONAI said to Moshe, "Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them facing the sun before ADONAI, so that the raging fury of ADONAI will turn away from Isra'el." 5 Moshe said to the judges of Isra'el, "Each of you is to put to death those in his tribe who have joined themselves to Ba'al-P'or." 6 Just then, in the sight of Moshe and the whole community of Isra'el, as they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting, a man from Isra'el came by, bringing to his family a woman from Midyan. 7 When Pinchas the son of El'azar, the son of Aharon the cohen, saw it, he got up from the middle of the crowd, took a spear in his hand, 8 and pursued the man from Isra'el right into the inner part of the tent, where he thrust his spear through both of them -the man from Isra'el and the woman through her stomach. Thus was the plague among the people of Isra'el stopped; 9 nevertheless, 24,000 died in the plague. 10 ADONAI said to Moshe, 11 "Pinchas the son of El'azar, the son of Aharon the cohen, has deflected my anger from the people of Isra'el by being as zealous as I am, so that I didn't destroy them in my own zeal. 12 Therefore say, 'I am giving him my covenant of shalom, 13making a covenant with him and his descendants after him that the office of cohen will be theirs forever.'This is because he was zealous on behalf of his God and made atonement for the people of Isra'el." 14 The name of the man from Isra'el who was killed, put to death with the woman from Midyan, was Zimri the son of Salu, leader of one of the clans from the tribe of Shim'on. 15 The name of the woman from Midyan who was killed was Kozbi the daughter of Tzur, and he was head of the people in one of the clans of Midyan. 16 ADONAI said to Moshe, 17 "Treat the Midyanim as enemies and attack them; 18 because they are treating you as enemies by the trickery they used to deceive you in the P'or incident and in the affair of their sister Kozbi, the daughter of the leader from Midyan, the woman who was killed on the day of the plague in the P'or incident."
14 Then Yeshua called the people to him again and said, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand this! 15 There is nothing outside a person which, by going into him, can make him unclean. Rather, it is the things that come out of a person which make a person unclean!" 16 Some manuscripts include verse 16: "Anyone who has ears that can hear, let him hear!" 17 When he had left the people and entered the house, his talmidim asked him about the parable. 18 He replied to them, "So you too are without understanding? Don't you see that nothing going into a person from outside can make him unclean? 19 For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and it passes out into the latrine." (Thus he declared all foods ritually clean.) 20 "It is what comes out of a person," he went on, "that makes him unclean. 21 For from within, out of a person's heart, come forth wicked thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, arrogance, foolishness... 23 All these wicked things come from within, and they make a person unclean." 24 Next, Yeshua left that district and went off to the vicinity of Tzor and Tzidon. There he found a house to stay in and wanted to remain unrecognized, but keeping hidden proved impossible. 25 Instead, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit in her came to him and fell down at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, by birth a Syro-phoenician, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. 27 He said, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's food and toss it to their pet dogs." 28 She answered him, "That is true, sir; but even the dogs under the table eat the children's leftovers." 29 Then he said to her, "For such an answer you may go on home; the demon has left your daughter." 30 She went back home and found the child lying on the couch, the demon gone. 31 Then he left the district of Tzor and went through Tzidon to Lake Kinneret and on to the region of the Ten Towns. 32 They brought him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment and asked Yeshua to lay his hand on him. 33 Taking him off alone, away from the crowd, Yeshua put his fingers into the man's ears, spat, and touched his tongue; 34 then, looking up to heaven, he gave a deep groan and said to him, "Hippatach!" (that is, "Be opened!"). 35 His ears were opened, his tongue was freed, and he began speaking clearly. 36 Yeshua ordered the people to tell no one; but the more he insisted, the more zealously they spread the news.37 People were overcome with amazement. "Everything he does, he does well!" they said. "He even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak!" (Complete Jewish Bible).
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