Watchman on the Wall

Josh Davis: Welcome to Watchman on the Wall, a daily outreach of Southwest Radio Ministries and swrc.com. God is still on the throne and prayer changes things. Today, we'll listen to archaeologist Clayton Van Huss as he shares the prophecy of the star and the scepter from Israel.

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Ask most Christians about the prophet Balaam, and they'll tell you about his talking donkey. But there's an ancient prophecy that Balaam uttered that stretches to the final chapter of the Bible. Standing atop Mount Nebo, archaeologist Clayton Van Huss weaves biblical insight with historical background as he describes Balaam's prophecy of a star and a scepter.

Greetings, friends. What comes to mind when you hear about the prophet Balaam? He's recorded for us in the book of Numbers and mentioned other places in Scripture. Most of us think instantly about Balaam and his talking donkey. You know, this is a literal, actual biblical account. It's not a made-up fairy tale story. It's a miraculous intervention of Almighty God trying to shake this prophet awake, trying to get him to come to his senses.

You see, he was hired to prophesy against Israel, to pronounce a curse upon them. But instead, he pronounces a blessing. And in his prophetic blessing, he utters a prophecy about a star and a scepter that will echo down through the ages and ultimately find its fulfillment in the very last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22.

Now, I don't want to give too much away about this fascinating teaching because on today's Watchman on the Wall episode, we're going to hear from Clayton Van Huss. Clayton is an archaeologist and Bible scholar, and he does a wonderful job tying together Bible prophecy with the archaeological evidence. What is a star in the biblical world? What is this scepter? And how do we see that at work in history and in archaeology? And how does that connect to Jesus and its ultimate prophetic fulfillment? So Clayton is going to explain this. What you're going to hear is from our brand-new "In the Land" Bible teaching series. It was filmed on location in the Holy Land. Clayton is standing atop Mount Nebo, a biblically significant site in the life of Moses, in the life of Balaam, and elsewhere in Scripture. It's in the modern-day country of Jordan. The visuals are stunning, and we're going to listen to the audio of Clayton Van Huss teaching this significant prophecy from Numbers 24:17.

Clayton Van Huss: I'm so glad that you've joined us for our "In the Land" prophecy conference. I'm Clayton Van Huss, and I want to talk to you today about a star and a scepter, about a prophecy in the Old Testament. Now, we all love Bible prophecy, and oftentimes when we think of Bible prophecy, we think about the future. We think about things that are going to happen, maybe in our lifetimes, maybe somewhere down the road. And so we talk about that a lot. We're excited about it. We're interested.

Sometimes we forget that the Bible is full of prophecy that has been fulfilled. And I think that if we look at that prophecy in the Bible, the things that have happened, the things that God said would happen and then did happen, we can have hope and confidence in the things that he says will happen that we look forward to. I come here, across the river to the land of Israel, and I dig in the summers at the site of Tel Shiloh. That's ancient Shiloh in the Bible. That's where the tabernacle stood and the Ark of the Covenant sat for over 300 years.

God has given me the opportunity to come and dig through the land with my own hands. It's one thing to come to the land and to see the sites. It's another thing to come here and to be able to put your hands on things, to be able to pick up a piece of an oil lamp from the Iron Age near where you think the tabernacle might have stood. And then you remember the story of a little boy who was there, a prophet during the Iron Age, and he heard his name called one night audibly. Did he get up and light a lamp? This little piece that I'm holding, is that a piece of Samuel's lamp? These are the things you think of.

But this is how real the Bible is. We can see the context of the Bible. And where we're standing today is a very important spot in the Bible. This is Pisgah. This is Mount Nebo. This is where Moses came up from Shittim. He came up and he looked out over the land and God allowed him to see the land. Even though he was not allowed to enter it, he saw from the north to the south. He saw all the way to the west to the Mediterranean Sea. God showed him the land that the people of Israel would enter.

There was another prophet who came up this mountain. He came up a bit before this happened, not long before. But this prophet's name was Balaam. We don't know a whole lot about Balaam. We're not sure exactly what his nationality was. We believe he was a Moabite. We are in Moab. This is the land of Moab. We have the land of Ammon north, and of course, we've got Edom to the south. But this is his home, probably. Some people speculate he may have been an Israelite because he did prophesy through Yahweh, God of Israel.

Some of the interesting things about Balaam; we do find record of him, epigraphical record in the archaeological finds here in the country of Jordan. There was an inscription found that we sometimes call the Balaam, son of Beor, inscription. And if you remember in the Bible, Balaam's father was named Beor. So we find an inscription. It's on plaster; it's painted. It was on a building probably about 600 years after the time of Balaam. And this inscription is a record of the Book of Balaam. So obviously, there was a tradition of Balaam existing.

So what is in the Book of Balaam? Very similar to what we see in the Bible. Balaam is hired to pronounce curses in the names of gods. Probably the god he's most associated with in the Book of Balaam is Chemosh. He is the god of Moab. So that's another reason we look and say he probably was a Moabite. But he pronounced curses on people in the names of multiple gods. So in the archaeological record, we have a remembrance of Balaam from a later time. But he's there. So he was hired by the Moabites to curse Israel.

Israel had been wandering in the wilderness down to the south, and they had come through here on the east side of the Jordan River, on the east side of the Dead Sea. And they had been fighting different Amorite tribes. They had been fighting and securing the east of what would become their land. And so the Moabites, they were scared. So they hired Balaam to come here and to pronounce curses on Israel. Of course, we all know the story, and probably the most memorable part of the story we all remember: Balaam and his donkey.

And how he rides his donkey and he doesn't see what his donkey sees. The angel of the Lord stands in the path. And the donkey won't go any further, and Balaam is beating his donkey, and he's upset at his donkey. And the Lord opens the mouth of the donkey, and the donkey tells him, "Can't do this." And then Balaam's eyes are opened, and he sees the angel of the Lord and he knows. So the Lord tells Balaam that he will not pronounce a curse, but to go ahead and go with the king of Moab, with Balak.

So he does. And he starts at the high places. What's a high place? That's exactly what it sounds like. Sometimes it's a mountaintop. Sometimes it's just a step on the ground, a little tiny platform, maybe a few inches high. It's a bamah. It's a place that's raised above other places. This is where your gods are. This is where you put your idols. This is where your kings sit. And kings at the time were often thought of as divine, right? And that's something we're going to talk about in a minute, is a divine king, because that is a huge part of the story of Balaam that is often missed.

So Balaam comes up here to the high places and he tries to curse the Israelites, but instead a blessing comes out. The king of Moab is upset, and he brings him up here to Mount Nebo, to Pisgah, where he can look out. Now, you can't see it because it's kind of below a hill, but down here in the Jordan Valley behind me is a site called Tall el-Hammam. I have friends who dig there. Many of them think that they are digging the site of Sodom. And that may well be. But one thing that almost all archaeologists agree on about the site of Tall el-Hammam is that it is the city of Shittim.

You remember the Israelites camped at Shittim before crossing the Jordan River. Just right down here below me, this is the camp of the Israelites. So he comes up here to this mountain and he looks, and he tries to pronounce a curse. So what Balaam then does is he moves because the Moabites are becoming angrier. So he moves to the next mountain over. This is Mount Peor. So he gets up on Mount Peor and he looks down and he can see the city of Shittim. And he makes a very interesting prophecy. It's found in Numbers 24:17. This is oftentimes called the Balaam Prophecy or the star and the scepter prophecy.

"I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob. A scepter shall rise out of Israel and batter the brow of Moab and destroy all the sons of tumult." That's interesting. A star shall come out of Jacob. A scepter shall rise out of Israel and batter the brow of Moab. When we think of a scepter, we think of a shiny, jewel-encrusted golden stick, right? And the king holds it and it's his little symbol of power. Well, to the Moabites and to the ancient people of the Late Bronze Age, the scepter was something else.

Yes, it was a symbol of authority wielded by a king, but it was a weapon. We would call it a mace. It's a stick, and on the end of it is a rock. It's a very simple weapon. Later on, the rock would become bronze or iron, and of course you see knights of old and sometimes today you see ceremonial maces. But a mace at this time was also called a rod. And I think of the rod of Aaron with this. Could the rod of Aaron have been a mace? It fit within the Ark of the Covenant, right? I think of the rod of Jonathan when he reached and dipped it in the honey.

We don't know exactly what these rods were, but what we do know is that a scepter, especially in this case, is a mace. You'll see images of the pharaoh of Egypt, several pharaohs, and they're holding their enemy by the hair with one hand. And with the other hand they have a mace raised over their head to smash the skulls of their enemies. The god Baal, we read, of course we all know of Baal, right? This is Baal, Baal Hadad up north or several Baals. Oftentimes we see him, he's a smiting god. He has one foot forward. He has a lightning bolt in one hand and he has a mace in the other.

That's his symbol of authority. And he's going to use that to smash his enemies. So this prophecy tells us that whatever is coming out of Israel, coming out of Jacob, this is going to smash the brow of Moab. So we understand there that the scepter is a mace. But that is the symbol of a king. So the star, the star is oftentimes overlooked. The star is often said to be that this one who is coming will be a shining one. He'll be bright. He'll be seen. And yes, this is all true. But really, a star was understood in context by the people of Moab, by the Israelites, by any of the ancient people in the Late Bronze Age, a star was understood to be a deity.

This goes back to Mesopotamia. We see in cuneiform writing there's a certain symbol. And if you see it before a name, you know that it's a divine name. Could be the name of a god, could be the name of a priest, but something to do with the heavens. Why does the symbol have something to do with the heavens? Well, this symbol is called a Dingir. The Dingir is an eight-pointed symbol with cuneiform wedges, but it represents a star, an eight-pointed star. And this is an interesting thing. In my digging, in my research as I'm working on projects archaeologically, we do come across stars in the land of Canaan.

Specifically, we come across the star of Astarte. She's known in the Bible as Ashtoreth. She is the Queen of Heaven. She also comes out of Mesopotamia. She is Ishtar, Inanna. She would go on to become Aphrodite, Venus, and of course the morning star is her symbol, right? She has this eight-pointed star that's a very recognizable symbol in the material culture of the Canaanites and the other people around. So what is this star that's coming out of Jacob? It's the Messiah. Numbers 24:17 has long been understood to be a messianic prophecy.

In fact, during the second Jewish revolt, Shimon Bar Kokhba; Bar Kokhba was his name, but it wasn't the name he was born with. It was a name that was given to him by rabbis. Shimon Bar Kokhba means Shimon, the son of the star. Well, who's the son of the star? He was believed to have been the Messiah until he was defeated by the Romans. They thought that he was going to be the savior of the land. He wasn't. Because the savior of the land had already come. The star that was talked about by Balaam, the scepter that was talked about by Balaam, he had already come and they had sacrificed him.

They had put him on a cross and he had risen from the dead. He conquered death. And he rose again. He ascended to heaven. And of course, I'm talking about Jesus Christ, the Messiah. So we can see all the way back, around 1400, this prophecy was made. And 1400 years later, Jesus was born. Interestingly, the Magi saw his star in the east. And there are many people who believe this star that the Magi saw, that they followed to Bethlehem, goes back to Numbers 24:17, that they knew that passage, that they understood that the Messiah would be a star. He would be the star out of Jacob.

So the people of the lands, they believed in many gods, multiple gods. Gods here, gods there, and they were territorial. But how many gods does Israel have? They have one God, their God Yahweh. So this star, this divine person coming out of Jacob, has to be that Yahweh. He has a scepter. He's a king. He's a ruler. He is Messiah. So all the way back, the enemies of Israel tried to pronounce curses, but instead blessings were pronounced and a prophecy was made that out of Jacob will come a star and a scepter. That prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And we can look at that prophecy; we can look at God's fulfillment, God's reliability, God's goodness to us in telling us the truth. And we can look at the prophecies that he has given us for our future and we can rest assured that he will fulfill those as well.

Josh Davis: Friends, you've been listening to archaeologist and Bible scholar Clayton Van Huss as he has been unpacking that powerful prophecy from Numbers chapter 24, verse 17, the star and the scepter. This was filmed on location in the Holy Land. Mount Nebo is in modern-day Jordan. And what you've just listened to is part of a video teaching brand-new resource from Southwest Radio Ministries. It's called "In the Land." Five teachers, over 90 minutes' worth of teaching, and it's filmed in 4K digital video. I know the audio alone does not do it justice. The visuals are stunning. We were able to capture some wonderful vistas, and Clayton's episode that you've just listened to is no exception.

The visuals are absolutely breathtaking on top of that high vantage point where you can look over into the Promised Land and see throughout the Jordan Valley almost all the way to the Dead Sea and just gaining that perspective. It's just professionally filmed and edited to the very best of our capabilities, and friends, we are proud to bring this to your hands. We hope that it'll be a spiritual blessing to you. It's called "In the Land," and you can order a copy of the DVD or the digital download by going to our website, swrc.com. Up at the very top, you'll see a search bar. You can just type in those three words, "In the Land," search for the series, and you'll see two options come up on your screen.

One is for the DVD product; the other is for the digital download. And we are excited to be able to bring you this digital download because that means you don't have to have a product shipped to you. As soon as you complete your purchase, you'll get an email and it will give you instructions on how to download the videos, and you can start watching it right away, instantaneously. And so that'll be a tremendous blessing to you because we have on this series not just Clayton Van Huss, but we also have Pastor Larry Spargimino. We have Larry Stam, whom we'll hear from on tomorrow's Watchman on the Wall episode. We have a teaching from Micah Van Huss as he explores the answers to many mysterious Bible questions. And then I had a part in this as well, filming from the red rock fortress of Petra. And talk about stunning visuals; my goodness, Petra does not disappoint. That's for sure.

We encourage you to pick up a copy of the DVD or the digital download by going to swrc.com. You can also give us a call and order the DVD over the phone. Our phone number is 1-800-652-1144 and just ask for "In the Land." I know it'll be a blessing to you. You know, Clayton was talking about that Numbers 24:17 prophecy. And I know we just have a few minutes left on today's episode, but I would like to make a connection to the New Testament and to the finished work of Jesus Christ and even to prophecies yet to be fulfilled.

If we look in Revelation chapter 22, which just happens to be the very last chapter of the Bible, we see Jesus clearly saying that he is the fulfillment of this Numbers 24:17 prophecy. Look at Revelation 22, verse 16. Jesus said, "I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning star." The root and offspring of David; what's that a reference to? Jesus' right to the eternal throne, the messianic lineage that was promised to King David, that a descendant of King David would rule upon his throne forever. And it wasn't just promised directly to King David; it was reiterated generations later through the prophet Isaiah in describing in chapter 9 how that Jesus would rule on that very throne.

And so there we see the fulfillment of Numbers 24:17, the scepter, the ruler, the one who would sit on the throne. Jesus said, "I am the root and the offspring of David. I am the one and hold the scepter always." And then he says, "And I am the bright and morning star." There it is, the star and the scepter fulfilled in the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment. And when he returns and when he rules and reigns on the throne of David forever, then he will fulfill this very prophecy.

Well, the very next verse in Revelation 22 is an invitation. It's the Bible's last invitation. And the verse tells us, "And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come.' And let him that heareth say, 'Come.' Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." Friend, there's the final invitation from Scripture. It says the Spirit, speaking about the Holy Spirit, and the bride as the church, we're saying come. The Holy Spirit is ministering in people's souls right now, helping them to understand the urgency of the hour. As the church, the body of believers, our job is to get out the good news of Jesus Christ as we tell people, "Come. Come to the Lord. Come to Jesus and find forgiveness for your sins."

And let him that hears say, "Come." In other words, when you hear that message and you receive that message, your job is to go and share that message with others. Let him that is thirsty come. Are you thirsty today? Is that something that the Lord is speaking to your heart about? Maybe you've been searching for truth and you've tuned in to Watchman on the Wall. And friend, I want to tell you, God loves you today and he wants you to know him and he wants you to be saved this very day. The invitation to you is to come to the one who is the star and the scepter, the one who is the fulfillment of the Numbers 24:17 prophecy.

Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. It's not just for a select group of people; it's for whosoever desires it. They can take of that water of life freely. If the Spirit is speaking to your heart today, don't turn away from the one who is the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And friends, if you've got questions about that or if you're just beginning your journey with Jesus, reach out to our ministry. We would like to give you some resources and some prayers and encouragement to help you on this wonderful journey with Jesus. And please don't forget to check out the "In the Land" video series. This wonderful project is available at swrc.com or by giving us a call at 1-800-652-1144. Lord willing, on tomorrow's episode, we'll be hearing more about this "In the Land" series featuring teaching from Larry Stam. Until then, may the Lord bless you and keep you.

What happens when you open God's word in the very place where biblical history unfolded? The brand-new "In the Land" collection from Southwest Radio Ministries brings the Bible to life like never before. First, experience the all-new "In the Land" DVD, featuring breathtaking on-location teaching from Israel and Jordan by Dr. Larry Spargimino, Josh Davis, Micah Van Huss, Larry Stam, and Clayton Van Huss. Then, dive deeper with "The Abraham Proclamation," where Dr. Larry Spargimino examines God's everlasting covenant with Israel and why it still matters today. Finally, explore "Petra in History and Prophecy" by Noah Hutchings, revealing the fascinating history and prophetic significance of one of the Bible's most remarkable locations. Together, these three resources will deepen your understanding of Scripture, strengthen your faith, and help you see today's headlines through the lens of Bible prophecy. Order the "In the Land" collection today at swrc.com or call 1-800-652-1144. That's swrc.com or 1-800-652-1144. Don't miss out on any of the important topics and information that is shared on Watchman on the Wall. Make sure you subscribe to our free email newsletter. Sign up today for the free email newsletter. Friends, if you have a prayer need, would you let us pray for you? We consider it an honor to pray with you. Prayer requests come in from all over the country through the mail, on the phone, and now through a special email address: prayer@swrc.com. That's prayer@swrc.com. Or you can always just give us a call: 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. Tomorrow, Larry Stam will go "In the Land" and explain how despite what we see around us, everything is not falling apart. Watchman on the Wall is a production of Southwest Radio Ministries and is supported by faithful listeners like you. To learn more, visit swrc.com.