Numbers 22: Baalaam

Now Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites, and Moab was terrified because there were so many people. Indeed, Moab was filled with dread because of the Israelites.

The Moabites said to the elders of Midian, “This horde is going to lick up everything around us, as an ox licks up the grass of the field.” So Balak son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at that time, sent messengers to summon Balaam son of Beor, who was at Pethor, near the River, in his native land. Balak said: “A people has come out of Egypt; they cover the face of the land and have settled next to me. Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are too powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the country. For I know that those you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed.”  Num 22:2-6 NIV

We forget just how powerful we believers appear to the world and then wonder why they treat us as they do.  Regardless of how we feel or how we see ourselves, they sense the power that is God living in our lives and it scares them.  The world senses, and rightly so, that should God choose to do so, their lives would be turned upside down, the world as they know it destroyed, just as the world of the Amorites and Moabites was.  The enemy toys with them and gives them the false impression that they can wage war against God and win, that they can curse God's people out of existence.  If that were true, it would have been done centuries ago, but it is not true and will never be.  Since the Children of Israel followed Joseph to Egypt, empires and civilizations have vanished, leaving nothing behind but a few crumbling monuments, but, God's people are still alive, the gospel is still alive, God is still on our side.  People have summoned various Baalam's through the centuries to curse God's people, but it has all been in vain.  God's people have survived, the Baalam's have not.