 Alright we will get started, so last week we started off on the doctrine of God, we just had an introduction, we looked at the proof and evidence that is generally offered for why we believe that God definitely does exist, we looked at some scriptures, we also looked at the traditional arguments that are included in your notes about the evidence for the existence of God and then very briefly we moved into a discussion of the qualities of our living God, so we looked at his self existence, we looked at his eternal nature and we kind of started to touch upon the infinite nature of God, so we looked at how God is all powerful omnipotent, we looked at how he is all knowing which is omniscient and today we will continue into the omnipresence of God that is God is present everywhere, so this can be deeply assuring because wherever we go, whatever circumstances we may be facing, we can be sure that God is there with us, so his presence everywhere can be very deeply assuring, the other side of the coin would be you cannot escape from God, wherever you go to hide from God you can never really hide because his presence is everywhere, let's look at a scripture which talks about his omnipresence Psalm 139 verses 7 to 10, if we can have someone read out for us Psalm 139 verses 7 to 10 either here in the class or online, where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence, if I ascend into heaven you are there, if I make my bed in hell, behold you are there, if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me, yes so we see that the assuring portion of this aspect of God is that he is everywhere, wherever we go he will be with us to help us to guide us to support us, but here it looks as though this person is trying to flee from God's presence, he's trying to escape from God's presence and so in verse 7 he says, where can I flee from your presence, if I go up to the heavens you're there, if I make my bed in the depths you are there, so he says wherever I go I cannot escape from you, so it almost looks as though God is coming after you chasing you even though you're trying to get away from him, so this of course would apply to someone who is maybe disobedient and does not want to follow the command which the Lord has issued to him and of course the example that would come to our minds is of Jonah who also tried to run away from God but wherever he ran he could not escape from God but then the beautiful thing that we see, we did not cover this point last time right, we did not okay, alright so yeah so when we see, when we look at verse 10 we see that it says the reason that God is chasing after us is not to destroy us rather it says even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast, so the reason the Lord chases after this person even though that person is trying to flee from God, the God is chasing after that person not so much to bring judgment or to destroy but to guide the person to hold him fast with his hand, so the heart of God, the intentions of God are always good, so this is a God that we can trust completely, we can be so safe and secure in His presence, if we are living righteously we can have the assurance that He will be there to help us, guide us, protect us, if we are trying to escape from Him because we are living in wrong, we do not want to follow Him and we have gone away from Him, even then we can have this assurance that the reason that He is coming after us wherever we go is because He wants to turn our life around, He wants to help us, He wants to bless us, He is the one person in His omniscience, His all knowing nature who knows exactly the kind of personality that you have, so He knows what is best for you, so because of our fallen nature, all of our personalities have got corrupted to some extent, when God originally planned our personality types, we were meant to be perfect, we were supposed to be perfect representations of that particular personality type that God has given us, but because of the fall, all of our personality types got corrupted, modified to an extent, which is how the weaknesses in those personality types came out because of the fallen nature and God knows how to restore us, how to restore those corrupted portions of our personality so that we can be perfect in Him and we can have a peaceful, joyful life because sometimes our mind tells us that, okay, if I can live in this way, I would be happy, but the God of God who is omniscient knows what will actually lead to your happiness and peace, so He is just trying to change us, modify us, transform us so that we can become our ideal best, so we may think we know what is best for us, but He who is omniscient, all knowing and who is willing to come after us wherever we go, because of His omnipresence, He knows best and He has the power to change and transform us because He is all powerful, omnipotent, so even as we trust these three aspects of who He is, Lord, you are all knowing, all wise and Lord, you are all powerful, so because of this, I choose to submit to you, I choose to trust in you and I will do whatever you're asking me to because you know what is best for me, for my particular kind of nature, for my particular personality, the one who knows it all will be able to help us, He will be able to use His power on our behalf, but we must be willing to cooperate with Him. When we do that, He will be able to use His omnipotent power to guide us, help us and change us into what we are meant to be, so this is the God that we worship, it's such a secure experience to be under this sovereign, beautiful God. Now we will look at the other aspect of our Lord, that He is a spirit being. Now John 4.24 is where it says, God is spirit, which is Jesus speaking here and Jesus says, God is spirit and His worshippers must worship in the spirit and in truth. Now if you look at the Bible, there are so many descriptions of God where you have something called an anthropomorphism being used. Human descriptions are used to describe someone who is divine. So an anthropomorphism is basically a human term that is being used to describe God in human terms. For instance, it talks about the right hand of God, which is there to fight for us, but in reality, God does not have a right hand or a left hand because He is a spirit being. A spirit being is not restricted and confined to one particular place and it's not restricted to one particular shape because He is a spirit being, He can be everywhere at the same time. So He does not actually have a hand or a leg or a nose because the term long suffering in the Hebrew language that literally is a long-nosed God because the term that was originally used by the Hebrews, it meant that you have a short nose, a short nose burns and gets angry where it turns red with anger very fast. But someone with a long nose, it takes a long time for that nose to become red with anger. So that's the Hebrew term that is actually used over there. So these are all expressions, human expressions which are used so that humans can understand these different aspects of God. So when they talk about the hand of God, when they talk about the face of God, it does not mean that God has a hand or a face. He is a spirit being. So we should not take these terms literally. There's this beautiful blessing which we pray over ourselves in Numbers chapter 6 verses 25 to 26. If any one of us could read out that please. Numbers 6, 25 to 26. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Now see this, we know that God is a spirit being. He does not have a physical face but the human descriptions which are used over here, it helps us to picture God in that manner. We literally see his face turned towards us rather than turned away from us in anger. We picture him in our mind as his face turned towards us in love and compassion. He's smiling over us. So these human descriptions help us to understand him better but we are not supposed to take these terms literally and think that oh God has a physical body and he can only be in one place at one time. Rather we accept the fact that what Jesus said is true and that God is spirit that he is everywhere and because he is everywhere his worshipers would have to worship him in spirit and in truth. Now there are three Bible passages where it seems to suggest that God has got some kind of physical form. How are we to understand those particular verses? We would actually read all the three verses. So you know if you can keep your Bibles open and be alert so that you can turn quickly to those scriptures and read them, you know we can kind of pick up our pace a little. So Isaiah chapter six verse one, what does it say? Isaiah six verse one. Isaiah chapter six verse one, in the year that King Eusea died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple. Isaiah says here that he saw the Lord with his eyes and it also talks about the train of his robe, you know the long piece of cloth which hangs from behind. That's the train of the robe. For instance, nowadays in the present day culture when the bride she wears a veil, that would be the train of her veil. So the veil I mean it begins on the top of her head and it trails all the way behind her and maybe you would even have a couple of children holding it up. So that would be the train of her veil. So when it talks about the train of his robe, it's talking about that. So it seems to indicate that there is a physical body, you know because you would have to wear a robe, you would need to have a body to be in. So how would we understand we accept the fact that Jesus said that God is spirit but here Isaiah is seeing somebody who is wearing a robe which means he is in a physical body and he says I saw the Lord, that's the term that he uses. He says I saw Yahweh is what he is saying. Let's look at another verse. Ezekiel chapter 1 verse 27. Ezekiel 1, 27. Oh it's a rather sluggish class today. No one is alert. Yeah, if we can pick up the pace please. Ezekiel 1, 27. Also from the appearance of his waist and upward I saw as it were the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it and from the appearance of his waist and downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire with brightness all around. In Ezekiel 1, 27, Ezekiel is having a vision in the same way Isaiah did and here he sees God seated on a moving chariot and the chariot seems to be carried by these beings which are moving the chariot and taking it somewhere and here he says I saw what appeared to be like a person you know so it's not like an actual person but something which has a shape and so he's just trying to describe the God who was seated on that throne and he says I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal so which means it's talking about a waist you know a human I'm not a human but rather a shape an actual physical shape and then let's also look at Daniel chapter 7 verse 9 where it talks about the ancient of days and the way he is described Daniel chapter 7 verse 9 Daniel chapter 7 verse 9 I was still thrown were put in place and the ancient of days was seated his garment was white as snow and the hair of his head was like pure wool his throne was a fairy flame it wheels a burning fire okay so it talks about how the hair of his head was white like wool so is God a spirit being or does he have hair which is white as wool you know so what we can just conclude from this is that maybe what Isaiah saw and what Ezekiel saw and Daniel are maybe looking at that one aspect of the trinity which we know has assumed a physical form so that would be Jesus throughout eternity because Jesus is also eternal just like God the Father and God the Son so maybe every time someone actually sees some kind of physical manifestation of God maybe what they're actually seeing is the that one aspect of the trinity that one person of the trinity is what maybe they are looking at because Daniel 7 speaks about how his hair was you know white like wool and then when Jesus is described in Revelation chapter 1 verses 14 to 16 again over there that's the description which is given about him so if we can you know turn to this verse Revelation chapter 1 verses 14 to 16 if someone can read out Revelation 1 14 to 16 Revelation chapter 1 verse 14 his head and hair were white like wool as white as snow and his eyes like a flame of fire was 15 his feet were like fine brass as if refined in a furnace and his voice as the sound of many waters was 16 he had in his right hand seven stars out of his mouth went a sharp to a sword and his count countenance was like the sun shining in its strength all right so most probably whatever Isaiah and Ezekiel and Daniel and in fact John over here in the New Testament what they're all seeing is probably just the one person of the trinity Jesus because Jesus chooses to assume a physical form so that one day he can come down and be with us you know so but the other two persons of the trinity are most definitely in spirit form so which is why Jesus says you know no one has seen him except the Son you know this invisible infinite God Jesus says no one has ever seen the Father except the Son so what Isaiah has seen what Ezekiel has seen cannot be God the Father so most probably what all these people have seen is the one person of the trinity Jesus who is physically manifested to us sometimes you know when God wants to communicate with humans regarding something he may choose to appear in a human form so because God is spirit Jesus says he must be worshiped in spirit and in truth so we have this John chapter 4 passage which discusses this so this is a discussion which Jesus is having with the Samaritan woman here is a woman who's had a very unfortunate past she has been abandoned by a number of husbands none of them wanted her all of them used her and discarded her without even having any respect for who she is now maybe partially it was her own fault as well maybe she maybe her character was not good so maybe because of that the husband's you know left her we do not know the details but the point is that yeah there was a lot of stigma attached to this lady but in her heart she is interested in spiritual things which is why she starts talking about those matters when she sees that here is a man who is speaking to her respectfully who is willing to you know treat her like a human being and she opens her mouth and she begins to talk about spiritual matters and so she says to him in John chapter 4 verse 19 I can see that you are a prophet you know because he is able to tell things about her so she begins to understand that oh you know he must be a man of God and so she has a question that she wants to ask him so she says to him in verse 20 you know our ancestors all of us Samaritans we have always worshipped on which mountain is that Mount Gerizim yeah Mount Gerizim is where we have always worshipped but then you know you Jewish people you say that you should actually worship in the Jerusalem temple so who do you think is correct now if you still remember your Old Testament survey which we did we talked about how it was during it was after the exile when they come back when the Israelites come back from Babylon at that time the people who have already settled down in the land and have occupied that entire area of Samaria and all the surrounding regions they are following a form of of Judaism but they have added their own pagan customs to it so it's no longer the actual you know the mosaic faith which Moses passed down so it's become a kind of mixture so when you have Ezra and Nehemiah bringing the exiles back okay Nehemiah does not bring them back Ezra brings them back so when Ezra and Nehemiah ministering among the exiles who have returned they say keep yourself separate from these Samaritans their faith is a mixed faith it's not pure so do not get sucked into that maintain your purity by holding on to what Moses has taught so from that time on there's a distinction made between the Samaritans and the Israelites so this lady who I know has been following the Samaritan faith she says what do you think who is correct where do you think we should actually worship and then Jesus very plainly speaks and he says you Samaritans worship what you do not know we worship what we do know for salvation is from the Jews so Jesus plainly says to her you guys have holding on to her faith which was passed down by your ancestors and they're not really sure what they're following you don't really know the actual true mosaic laws and the mosaic traditions which were originally given by Yahweh your religion is all mixed up we on the other hand Jews we have held on to the truth so we are aware of what is true so right now we know the truth the Samaritans do not know the truth yet a time is coming and has in fact now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the spirit and in truth for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks so the Lord is not very much interested on whether you're worshiping him in an actual church building that was constructed or you're just worshiping him in a school hall you know which you have rented on the Sundays for him it's not the place where you are worshiping that is important what is very important to him is you know what with what kind of a heart you are worshiping him is it a truthful heart which really honors him or is it a hypocrisy which you come and act out on Sundays so for him it's the those who are worshiping in spirit and in truth whose spirits are in alignment with his spirit he would he enjoys such worship so it does not really matter to him whether you're worshiping in a beautiful cathedral with all paintings on the ceiling or whether you're just worshiping him you know in a tin shed which some believers have you know constructed temporarily so what matters to him is the attitude with which the truth with which you are worshiping him so we are we kind of tend to forget about this nature of God where he is a spirit being and where he is present everywhere on Sundays we are very careful because we come to the church and so we are very aware that he is present but what about when we go to the office what about when we are hanging out with friends so at that time we kind of don't realize that he's still as present in those settings as he was present in the church so when we go to the church you have some churches where you know people will actually remove their footwear and then enter the building it is their way of saying Lord we are aware that we are in your presence when you go to the office you do not remove your footwear once upon a time when they had those ancient computers we actually used to remove footwear and enter the computer room now of course all that's you know obsolete so yeah when you go to the office you do not remove your footwear you just walk in but God is still very much present over there so we believers are called to worship him in spirit and in truth because the Father is seeking such worshipers so when we go to the office on Sunday on Monday sorry not on Sunday or Monday when you go to the office on Monday are you a worshipper in the office are you talking in a way which will honor the Lord or are you also stabbing your boss behind his back you know everyone gathers together and the favorite topic is oh the boss and how rotten he is how are you when you open your mouth what are you saying about the boss are you worshiping the Lord in spirit and in truth because that matters when you when you gather together and not your friends place a whole bunch of you and you're just having fun what kind of you know when your friends are cracking jokes what kind of jokes are you laughing at if somebody cracks a cheap joke joke are you laughing at the joke if you are then you're not worshiping your Lord in spirit and in truth you're partnering with the world and with the worldly ways which are coming out of the mouths of your friends what are you watching together as a group you know so that also is worship the Father is seeking people who will worship him in spirit and in truth so we this this aspect of who he is his being everywhere makes us realize that wherever you are you are in his presence to use a very simple example because it just happened last week very recently you know in the night I have some chores which I'm supposed to do in the kitchen and by night I'm tired and usually when I go and do those particular things that I need to do in the kitchen there's a lot of banging of dishes and complaining and grumbling and all of that and my you know I mean I'm not married I'm a single person I stay with my parents my parents are used to that behavior of mine they have accepted it but last week you know the Lord brought to me a scripture from Ephesians where it says do all things without grumbling and disputes I had never really looked at that verse and I've read that verse a lot of times but I've never it is Ephesians of Philippians I can't remember but anyway that verse just came across and I and I realized oh when I go to the kitchen in the night and I'm tired the way I do that work which I do over there can either be an act of worship or it can just be an unpleasant duty that I'm doing because I have to do it and that thought hook it today onwards when I go in the night to the kitchen it's going to be an act of worship a small step like that but I think it releases something in the spiritual realm because the father is seeking those who will worship him in spirit and in truth and he's present everywhere so wherever he's present you're conducting him yourself in a way that will honor him and glorify him I think these little little things matter a lot I think they they are very very big and important in the spiritual realm in the physical realm it really doesn't matter but in the spiritual realm I think these things matter so you know let's remember that our Lord is a spirit being and he's seeking longing for true worshipers who will worship him in the spirit and in truth now moving on to other aspects of who our God is the thing about the living God Yahweh is that he is a unified whole you know WHOLE a unified whole as in every aspect of him it matches and it is in harmony with all the other aspects of who he is there are no two aspects of his nature which are clashing with one another because when it comes to us humans we see that right I can be so loving and friendly on one day but on another day I can be quite nasty if I allow my sinful nature to come forward so my anger and my love those two sides of who I am can clash with one another but God every aspect of who he is including his love and anger are in harmony there's no clash because you see when I'm when I'm all loving and friendly I'm portraying myself as a very nice person on the other hand when I show my other other side of me and I'm all angry that shows a different side of my character but our God has got only one single unified character so when he's acting in love who he is comes out and when he's acting in anger that same character of who he is comes out there is no clash between any two aspects of his nature so let's actually you know reflect a little bit upon this you know if you want to go to Deuteronomy chapter 9 where you see an example of the anger of God being displayed so in Deuteronomy chapter 9 that's basically where you have Moses going up to the Mount Sinai to you know receive the 635 commandments which the Lord is going to be giving you know those are the covenant commandments God is entering into a formal contract a formal treaty with with human beings and so he lays down 635 things which they need to follow to be part of that covenant with him so God is honoring these people by choosing to enter into a contract with them even though they're not perfect people he's honoring them by doing this and so while Moses is up there on the top you know talking to God about these things what are these people doing down here they get into sin you know they go back into their idolatry and so at that time God says in his anger in Deuteronomy 9 verse 13 okay if someone could read out for us maybe 13 and 14 yeah Deuteronomy 9 13 and 14 please. Furthermore the Lord is saying I have seen these people and indeed they are a stiff-necked people let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out the name from under heaven and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than the. So the Lord says these are a stiff-necked people again that word stiff neck is a Hebrew term it basically talks about a person who's not willing to bend his neck and submit and accept correction he keeps his neck stiff and straight and says no I know what to do I live in this way I don't want to bend so God is talking about that aspect of who they are he's talking about how they are a stiff-necked people who are not willing to understand what a privilege he's giving them they're not willing to humble themselves and change their ways so he says if that is going to be their attitude I'll make a covenant with you Moses you know so I will make you into a great nation you know because these people are rejecting what I am offering and so at that time in verse 18 is when you know Moses he again falls down prostrate before the Lord and it says that he fasts for 40 days and 40 nights now we are all familiar with how when he goes up on Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights he does not eat he does not drink because God is divinely sustaining him but not everyone is very familiar with his other 40 days so imagine after those 40 days are up there he's now come down over here and again he is going into a time of serious intercession and fasting for another 40 days and nights he's doing this because God is expressing his righteous anger and this is what Moses says to them in verse 19 I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord for he was angry enough with you to destroy you but again the Lord listened to me and he also says the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him and then he says but at that time I prayed for Aaron too so here we see God's anger being shown against the Israelite people because they have chosen to reject his covenant so he is very much in the right they are in the wrong even though he's offering them a privilege they do not appreciate the privilege which was being given to them okay so his anger which is expressed over there in that particular case is righteous anger what about his anger against Aaron? Aaron being a leader should have represented God, leaders are meant to represent God because God is not physically down over here you know to lead the people he has appointed humans people who are supposed to represent him and represent his values his principles Aaron instead of representing the Lord what did he do? He allowed the people to do what they want when the people came to Aaron and they said you know give us an idol who can lead us back he should have stood over there and said no this is not honorable God is giving us a great privilege by making a covenant with us so let's hold on let's wait and see what God says next instead of doing that instead of representing God he chose to lead these people into idol worship what if he had given them a stern talk and you know really scolded them and lectured them and made them get on on their knees you know and humbled themselves then all the things which happened would not have happened so Aaron failed to be a good leader and therefore God's anger was directed against him so in both the cases where God expressed his anger it was an anger which was correct it was an anger which was justified so the anger of God will always reflect his true character the love of God will also reflect the same true character there are no two sides to God there is only one side and that one side is always righteous always holy always good and correct there are no two sides to him so we can't say you know you can't get up one day and say oh today God is showing me his bad side no God is always the same he is always you know he's always loving he's always just he's always righteous okay so he's a unified whole in his nature which is why in Ezekiel chapter 33 verse 11 you have those words which talk about the anger of God and the love of God you know there was somebody online was about to read out for the last verse if you would like to you know online if you could read out for us Ezekiel chapter 33 verse 11 Ezekiel 33 11 please say to them as I leave says the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and leave turn turn from your evil ways for why should you die for house of Israel such beautiful words God is crying out and he's saying turn turn from your evil ways why will you die people of Israel you see his anger of God is filled with his love he must express his you know righteous anger and punish evil but there's no joy or pleasure in it at all rather in his anger is crying out and saying why don't you turn why do you want to die I don't want to kill you so God's nature has got only one side is always righteous is always loving is always holy there is no there's no crookedness of any kind in our God so in that sense you know God has an unchanging nature so people talk about the I mean this is just you know what people say they say the Old Testament God was an angry God and they say the New Testament God is a God of grace and mercy that makes no sense there is only one God one living God and he was the same in the Old Testament and he is the same even in our New Testament times what has changed is the covenant based on which we are able to relate with him in the Old Testament it was the Old Covenant the mosaic covenant so he related with human beings on the basis of that covenant in the New Testament he has introduced a different covenant and so now humans relate with him on the basis of this new covenant he has not changed at all it's just that for two phases of the history of time he chose to introduce two different covenants so in the Old Covenant it was all about it was a two-sided covenant God said I will keep my part if you keep your part and the people miserably failed to keep their part on the on the other hand in the New Covenant he says whatever is required for your salvation I have now fulfilled it through Jesus Christ now from your side all you need to do is just repent and choose to trust in me and allow me to change you into a new person are you willing to accept that so he has not changed his love has not changed it's just that in the Old Testament he used a covenant where the law was being used to show people how rotten they are because still they come to an understanding of how helpless they are in their own strength they will not realize that they need a savior so the entire Old Covenant all those years under which the people lived under the Old Covenant those were the years you know Galatians talks about this in great detail it talks about how the law was introduced to show people that on their own they can never meet his standards they need a savior so Galatians chapter 3 verse 19 Galatians chapter 3 verse 24 you know that that entire chapter it shows the people you know Paul is explaining this to his readers he explains to them why that Old Covenant was necessary so he tells them as long as that law was there the law kept you under under some control at least to some extent you know you stayed within some boundaries because the law was placed upon your heads and the law showed you how helpless you are and so finally when the when the correct time came the God appointed time came Jesus was able to come and Jesus declared and said if you follow me you don't need to keep the law anymore I will save you I will transform you and so with Jesus the new covenant began so throughout it all God's nature never changed he's always been the same God it's just the covenants which changed according to the plan and timing of God okay so maybe if we could have someone read out for us Malachi chapter 3 verses 6 to 7 Malachi chapter 3 verses 6 to 7 or I am the Lord I do not change therefore you are not consumed or sons of Jacob yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them return to me and I will return to you says the Lord of hosts but you said in what way sir thank you those two verses were enough for our particular context so in God sees so this is the very last you know book prophetic book which is being written out for the people of Israel and so in this very last book of the Old Testament God is declaring again and he's saying either Lord do not change so therefore because you know I'm an unchanging God you descendants of Jacob are not destroyed by now after so many years of the way you have been living I should have finished you off but because I'm an unchanging God of love because I'm an unchanging God of righteousness therefore even after so many years I have still not destroyed you and I'm still waiting and I'm saying if you return to me I will return to you you know so in fact the Lord does return right I mean you have Jesus coming next after the time gap in between Malachi and the coming of John the Baptist after the time gap you finally have Jesus coming to them he returns to them yet again with one more offer of salvation and deliverance okay so God's nature is definitely unchanging which is why we have this Balaam story which brings out who our God is maybe we would need to you know reflect a little bit on what happens over here Balak was the king of what was he was he an Amalekite Moabite can't seem to remember I don't have it in this particular verses over here but anyway he is one of those aites Balak the king of something so this Balak wants to wants Balam a prophet to place a curse upon the Israelites okay so he hires him pays him a large amount of money he says yeah no he says after you finish cursing I'll pay you the amount of money so yeah so Balam is supposed to place a curse upon the people and Balam says I'm unable to place a curse on them because the living God has decided to bless them which is what you find in Numbers Numbers chapter 23 verse 11 if we could have someone read out for us Numbers 23 11 the story brings out you know some an aspect of who our God is so yeah we're kind of you know spending a little time looking at this Numbers 23 11 Numbers chapter 3 verse 11 then Balak said to Balam what have you done to me I took you to curse my enemies and look you have blessed them bountifully so Balak is very very upset because every time Balam opens his mouth instead of speaking curses he speaks blessings over the people so Balak says why are you doing this Balam says what can I do I'm supposed to be a prophet so whatever God says I have to say it I don't have a choice and God is making me bless them instead of cursing them I'm unable to help it and so then if you were to look continue looking in verses 19 and 20 of the same chapter this is what he says verses 19 and 20 if you could read out verse 19 God is not a man that he should lie nor a son of man that he should repent has he said and will he not do or has he spoken and will not will he not make it good verse 20 behold I have received a command to bless he has blessed and I cannot reverse it okay look it says over here so this is a Balam who is actually a greedy prophet not really a follower of the true God and even he cannot change God's nature so he says God is not open that he should lie God has promised these people this Israelites that he's going to bless them and that is why he's blessing them I cannot curse them as well when God has said that he's going to bless them it says does he does he speak and then not act does he promise and not fulfill you know so he says this God once he has decided that he would do something he's unchanging so therefore he is blessing them and so God cannot be changed God is unchanging which is why finally Balam you know in his greed and in his human evil trickery he decides he's human God cannot be changed but these Israelites can be changed right now they're living righteously so according to the mosaic covenant they are under God's blessing now God's nature can't be changed God is unchanging God has promised I will bless you as long as you follow me so the trick is if you can make the Israelites stop following him then they'll be open to attacks you know purses can be placed upon them satan can attack them satan will have a foothold in their lives and which is why you know in Revelation chapter 2 is where we get to know how the story ended in Revelation chapter 2 verse 14 we get to know that Balam gives this advice to the king he says if you can make these people stop being faithful to their God then you know I can bring curses upon them so they are the the Moabite women they come and they start tricking the Israelites into marrying them and following their false gods and so they end up in idolatry and sin and then only then God is not able to cover them and protect them anymore because they have broken their part of the their side of the covenant then you know all kinds of bad things start happening to them because they have now exposed themselves to the harm of satan so God's nature did not change at all it was the people who chose the Israelites who chose to change and they brought you know all kinds of suffering upon their heads so yeah I think we will take a break and when we come back we will dwell further on these things thank you