That night God came to Balaam and said, "If these men have come to ask you to go with them, get ready and go, but do only what I tell you."

"But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not obey me.

So I let them go their stubborn ways and do whatever they wanted.

So I will bring disaster upon them---the very things they are afraid of---because no one answered when I called or listened when I spoke. They chose to disobey me and do evil."

You asked for a king and for leaders, but how can they save the nation?

In my anger I have given you kings, and in my fury I have taken them away.

I am your God, the one who rescues you from all your troubles and difficulties, but today you have rejected me and have asked me to give you a king. Very well, then, gather yourselves before the LORD by tribes and by clans.' "

It's the dry season, isn't it? But I will pray, and the LORD will send thunder and rain. When this happens, you will realize that you committed a great sin against the LORD when you asked him for a king."

and they said to Samuel, "Please, sir, pray to the LORD your God for us, so that we won't die. We now realize that, besides all our other sins, we have sinned by asking for a king."

Then Moses said, "It is the LORD who will give you meat to eat in the evening and as much bread as you want in the morning, because he has heard how much you have complained against him. When you complain against us, you are really complaining against the LORD."

"No pupil is greater than his teacher; no slave is greater than his master.

So a pupil should be satisfied to become like his teacher, and a slave like his master. If the head of the family is called Beelzebul, the members of the family will be called even worse names!

"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."

Now, his own people hated him, and so they sent messengers after him to say, 'We don't want this man to be our king.'

Now, as for those enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and kill them in my presence!' "

I am telling you the truth: no slaves are greater than their master, and no messengers are greater than the one who sent them.

Remember what I told you: 'Slaves are not greater than their master.' If people persecuted me, they will persecute you too; if they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours too.

But they will do all this to you because you are mine; for they do not know the one who sent me.