The Daily Audio Bible

Balaam's third message from God

24 Balaam realized that the Lord wanted to bless the Israelites. So he did not use magic again to find out what the Lord wanted him to do. Instead, he looked towards the desert. ² When he looked, he saw the Israelite people. They had put up their tents in groups for each tribe. Then the Spirit of God came on him. ³ As a result, Balaam said, ‘This is God's message that he has given to Balaam, the son of Beor. It is the words of a man who understands what God is saying. ⁴ It is the message of a man who hears God's words. I am a man who sees a vision that God Almighty has shown to him. I lie down on the ground, but my eyes are open! I see this:

⁵ The tents where the Israelites live are beautiful! ⁶ They are like green gardens in a valley beside a river. They are like tall trees that the Lord has put there. They are like cedar trees that grow beside water.

⁷ God will give them plenty of rain. Their descendants will always have plenty of water. Their king will be more powerful than Agag. Their kingdom will be great.

⁸ God brought them out of Egypt. God fights for them like a wild bull. He will destroy the nations who are their enemies. He will break their enemies' bones into pieces. He will shoot his arrows at them.

⁹ The Israelites are like a lion. When it is asleep, nobody is brave enough to wake it. God blesses those who bless you, Israel. And those who curse you are truly cursed.’

¹⁰ When Balaam said that, Balak became very angry with him. He hit his hands together and he said to Balaam, ‘I asked you to come here and to curse my enemies, the Israelites. But you have blessed them three times! ¹¹ So go home now. I said that I would pay you very well. But the Lord has stopped me from giving you anything.’

¹² Balaam said to Balak, ‘I already said this to the men that you sent to bring me. ¹³ I told them, “I can only speak the message that the Lord tells me. I cannot do good things or bad things just because I want to do them. Even if Balak gives his palace full of silver and gold to me, I cannot do anything different. I have to obey the Lord's command.” ¹⁴ So I will now return to my own people. But listen! Before I go, I will tell you what these Israelites will do to your people in the future.’

Balaam's fourth message from God

¹⁵ Then Balaam spoke this message from God. He said, ‘This is the message of Balaam, the son of Beor. It is the message of a man who sees clearly. ¹⁶ It is the message of a man who hears God's words. The Most High God has shown me things that only he knows. I am a man who sees a vision that God Almighty has shown to him. I lie down on the ground, but my eyes are open! I see this:

¹⁷ I see a king who will come from among the Israelites. He will not come now, but at a future time. He will appear as king, like a bright star. He will knock down the leaders of Moab. He will destroy the descendants of Sheth.^{[a] 18} He will win against his enemies in Edom and Seir. The Israelites will become stronger.

¹⁹ A descendant of Jacob will become their ruler. He will destroy all the people who are still alive in the city.’

Balaam's final messages from God

²⁰ Then, in his vision, Balaam saw the Amalekites. He said, ‘Amalek was the most powerful of all the nations. God will destroy it now and for ever.’ ²¹ Then Balaam saw the Kenites. He spoke this message: ‘The place where you live seems strong and safe, high up among the rocks. ²² But Assyria's army will attack you. They will take you away as prisoners.’

²³ Then Balaam spoke this message: ‘It is very bad for you! Nobody can live when God does these things! ²⁴ Ships will come from the coast of Cyprus island. Their soldiers will attack Assyria and Eber. Then God will destroy them too.’

²⁵ After he spoke those messages, Balaam returned to his home. King Balak also left that place.

The Israelites worship false gods

25 The Israelites were staying in Shittim. The men began to have sex with the women from Moab. ² The women from Moab took Israelite men to watch them as they offered sacrifices to the gods of Moab. The Israelite men joined with the Moabite women to eat at their feasts. They also worshipped the gods of Moab. ³ The Israelites joined the Moabite women to worship their god, Baal of Peor. So the Lord became very angry with them.

⁴ The Lord said to Moses, ‘Take hold of all the leaders of these people. Hang them up during the day so that they die and people see them. Do what I tell you, so that I will no longer be angry against the Israelites.’

⁵ Moses told the officers of the Israelites, ‘Each of you, kill the men who have worshipped the god, Baal of Peor.’

⁶ Moses and all the people were at the door of the Tent of Meeting. They were weeping. While they were there, an Israelite man brought a Midianite woman into his tent. Moses and all the people could see them. ⁷ Phinehas, the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest, saw what happened. So he stood up among all the people and he took a spear in his hand. ⁸ He went into the man's tent. He pushed the spear through the body of the man and the Midianite woman. When he did that, the bad disease that was killing the Israelites stopped. ⁹ But 24,000 people had already died as a result of the disease.

¹⁰ The Lord said to Moses, ¹¹ ‘I am no longer angry with the Israelites. That is because of what Phinehas, the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest, did. He did not want the people to worship any god except me. Because of him, I did not kill all the Israelites. ¹² So you must tell him that I have promised that my peace will be with him. ¹³ That promise will be for him and for his descendants after him. They will always be priests. That is because he did not want the people to worship any god except me. He has removed the sin of the Israelites so that I could forgive them.’

¹⁴ The name of the man that Phinehas killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri. He was the son of Salu. Salu was the leader of a clan from the tribe of Simeon. ¹⁵ The name of the Midianite woman was Cozbi. She was the daughter of Zur. Zur was a leader of a Midianite clan.

¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁷ ‘Attack the Midianites and destroy them. ¹⁸ They have deceived you and they have become your enemies. They took some of you to worship their god Peor. They used Cozbi to make you do a wrong thing, and she was the daughter of a Midianite leader. Phinehas killed her on the day when the bad disease killed many Israelites at Peor mountain.’

Jesus is born

2 At that time, Caesar Augustus made a law. He told his men to count everyone who lived in the countries that he ruled.^{[a] 2} This was the first time that the Romans had made a list of everyone's names. Quirinius was the Roman ruler of Syria when it happened.

³ Everyone went to his own home town for the Romans to count them. ⁴ So Joseph went to his home town, Bethlehem. He was living in the town of Nazareth, in Galilee. Bethlehem was in Judea. King David had been born there, so Bethlehem was called the town of David. Joseph belonged to the family of David. That is why he went to Bethlehem.

⁵ Joseph took Mary with him so that the Romans could count them. She went because she had promised to marry him. She was pregnant.

⁶ While they were in Bethlehem, the time came for her baby to be born. ⁷ This was her first baby, and it was a boy. She put cloths around him. Then she put him in an animal's food box. She did this because the rooms for visitors were full of people.^[b]

Some shepherds leave their sheep to go and see Jesus

⁸ That night some shepherds were living out in the fields near Bethlehem. They were keeping their sheep safe. ⁹ Then an angel of the Lord appeared to them. A bright light from God shone all around them. That frightened them very much. ¹⁰ The angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. Listen! I bring you good news. This news will make everyone very happy. ¹¹ Something happened today in the town of David. Someone special was born. He is the one who will save you. He is the Messiah. He is the Lord. ¹² I will tell you how you will know this baby. You will find him with cloths around him. He is lying in an animal's food box.’

¹³ At that moment, a great crowd of angels appeared. They were praising God. They said:

¹⁵ After that, the angels went away and returned to heaven. Then the shepherds said to each other, ‘We should leave the sheep and go to Bethlehem immediately! The Lord God has sent his angels to tell us what has happened. We want to see this baby.’

¹⁶ So they went quickly to Bethlehem. When they got there, they found Mary and Joseph with the baby. The baby really was lying in a food box. ¹⁷ After they had seen the baby, they told everybody about him. They told them what the angel had said to them about him. ¹⁸ Many people heard what the shepherds said. They were very surprised. ¹⁹ Mary remembered everything that the shepherds had said. She thought about it all for a long time. ²⁰ The shepherds then went back to their sheep. As they went they praised God. ‘How great you are!’ they said to him. ‘How good you are! Everything that the angel told us was true! We have heard good news. We have seen very special things!’

Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the temple

²¹ When the baby was eight days old, it was time for the priest to circumcise him. His parents gave him the name ‘Jesus’. The angel had told Mary that they must give him that name. He told her that before she had the baby inside her.

²² Long ago, God gave Moses rules for his people to obey. One rule told people how to become clean after a baby was born. The time came for Mary and Joseph to do this. So they took the baby Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem to show him to the Lord.

²³ This is the rule which the Lord gave to his people: ‘The first male baby born to a woman belongs to me. So you must bring him to me. ²⁴ When you do this, also bring two special birds for the priest to kill.’ So that is what Mary and Joseph did.^[c]

²⁵ At this time, a man called Simeon was living in Jerusalem. He was a good man and he obeyed God. He had waited a long time to see the special person who would save Israel's people. The Holy Spirit was with him. ²⁶ The Holy Spirit had told him, ‘You will not die yet. You know that the Lord God has promised to send his Messiah. You will see him before you die.’ ²⁷ Now the day had come. The Holy Spirit told Simeon that he should go to the temple. Mary and Joseph were bringing the baby Jesus to do what God's rule said. ²⁸ Simeon went to them. He took Jesus and he held him in his arms. Then he thanked God. He said:

³⁴ Then Simeon asked God to be good and kind to Mary and to Joseph. After that, he spoke to Mary, the mother of Jesus. He said to her, ‘God has chosen this baby. Many people in Israel will become worse because of him. And many of them will become better again because of him. He will be like a sign that points to God. But many people will speak against him. ³⁵ This will show their secret thoughts about God. This will make you very sad, too. It will seem like a sharp knife is cutting into you. That is how sad you will be’.

This is for the music leader, and he should use special music.

David wrote this prayer when King Saul sent men to catch David at his house and murder him.

A prayer^[a]