Keep Asking For What Shouldn't Be, and Sure Enough, You'll Be Worse Off.

Numbers Chapter 24: Two More Oracles of Balaam

Numbers 24:1-25

Day 77. Eleven weeks of “Please stay at home” and “physical distancing”. It’s old hat now. People in the U.S. are more concerned about the racial riots and the opportunistic looting than they are about Covid-19. No one tells all the truth, and no one knows all the truth. We stick closer to where we know the Truth is recorded and continue our study in Numbers. There are some beautiful words in this chapter.

The Passage

24 When Balaam saw that it ^[a]pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go as at other times to ^[b]seek omens but he set his face toward the wilderness. ² And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel ^[c]camping tribe by tribe; and the Spirit of God came upon him. ³ He took up his ^[d]discourse and said,

“The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,
And the oracle of the man whose eye is opened;
⁴ The oracle of him who hears the ^[e]words of God,
Who sees the vision of ^[f]the Almighty,
Falling down, yet having his eyes uncovered,
⁵ How fair are your tents, O Jacob,
Your dwellings, O Israel!
⁶ “Like ^[g]valleys that stretch out,
Like gardens beside the river,
Like aloes planted by the Lord,
Like cedars beside the waters.
⁷ “Water will flow from his buckets,
And his seed will be by many waters,
And his king shall be higher than Agag,
And his kingdom shall be exalted.
⁸ “God brings him out of Egypt,
He is for him like the horns of the wild ox.
He will devour the nations who are his adversaries,
And will crush their bones in pieces,
And shatter them with his arrows.
⁹ “He ^[h]couches, he lies down as a lion,
And as a ^[i]lion, who ^[j]dares rouse him?
Blessed is everyone who blesses you,
And cursed is everyone who curses you.”

¹⁰ Then Balak’s anger burned against Balaam, and he struck his ^[k]hands together; and Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have persisted in blessing them these three times! ¹¹ Therefore, ^[l]flee to your place now. I said I would honor you greatly, but behold, the Lord has held you back from honor.” ¹² Balaam said to Balak, “Did I not tell your messengers whom you had sent to me, saying, ¹³ ‘Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything contrary to the ^[m]command of the Lord, either good or bad, of my own ^[n]accord. What the Lord speaks, that I will speak’? ¹⁴ And now, behold, I am going to my people; come, and I will advise you what this people will do to your people in the ^[o]days to come.”

¹⁵ He took up his discourse and said,

“The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,
And the oracle of the man whose eye is opened,
¹⁶ The oracle of him who hears the ^[p]words of God,
And knows the knowledge of the ^[q]Most High,
Who sees the vision of ^[r]the Almighty,
Falling down, yet having his eyes uncovered.
¹⁷ “I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near;
A star shall come forth from Jacob,
A scepter shall rise from Israel,
And shall crush through the ^[s]forehead of Moab,
And ^[t]tear down all the sons of ^[u]Sheth.
¹⁸ “Edom shall be a possession,
Seir, its enemies, also will be a possession,
While Israel performs valiantly.
¹⁹ “One from Jacob shall have dominion,
And will destroy the remnant from the city.”

²⁰ And he looked at Amalek and took up his discourse and said,

“Amalek was the first of the nations,
But his end shall be ^[v]destruction.”

²¹ And he looked at the Kenite, and took up his discourse and said,

“Your dwelling place is enduring,
And your nest is set in the cliff.
²² “Nevertheless Kain will be consumed;
How long will Asshur ^[w]keep you captive?”

²³ Then he took up his discourse and said,

“Alas, who can live except God has ordained it?
²⁴ “But ships shall come from the coast of Kittim,
And they shall afflict Asshur and will afflict Eber;
So they also will come to destruction.”

²⁵ Then Balaam arose and departed and returned to his place, and Balak also went his way.

Footnotes

a.     Numbers 24:1 Lit was good in the eyes of

b.     Numbers 24:1 Lit encounter

c.     Numbers 24:2 Lit dwelling

d.     Numbers 24:3 Lit parable, and so throughout the ch

e.     Numbers 24:4 Lit sayings

f.      Numbers 24:4 Heb Shaddai

g.     Numbers 24:6 Or possibly palm trees

h.     Numbers 24:9 Lit bows down

i.      Numbers 24:9 Or lioness

j.      Numbers 24:9 Lit shall

k.     Numbers 24:10 Lit palms

l.      Numbers 24:11 Lit flee for yourself

m.   Numbers 24:13 Lit mouth

n.     Numbers 24:13 Lit heart

o.     Numbers 24:14 Lit end of the days

p.     Numbers 24:16 Lit sayings

q.     Numbers 24:16 Heb Elyon

r.     Numbers 24:16 Heb Shaddai

s.     Numbers 24:17 Lit corners

t.      Numbers 24:17 Another reading is the crown of the head of

u.     Numbers 24:17 I.e. tumult

v.     Numbers 24:20 Lit to destroying

w.    Numbers 24:22 Lit take

Thoughts on the Passage

The first thing that strikes me here is that Balaam finally gets it, but only when he realized that God would do nothing other than bless Israel. Twice before Balaam had actually tried to bring up a curse on Israel but failed. And thus, he doesn’t bother to look for ‘omens’ that might perhaps tell him otherwise. An omen is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change, according to Wikipedia. People in ancient times believed omens brought a divine message from their ‘gods’.  Omens like that don’t work for God’s people and have no place in our lives. Balaam finally accepted there was to be no change in God’s thinking on, and blessing of, Israel. No further ‘enchantments’ were necessary.

So, with that knowledge or resolution, Balaam tells Balak how wonderful and blessed Israel is. He says his eyes have been opened and he hears the words of God. He predicts the glorious future of Israel (verse 7) and how successful they will be over their enemies (verse 8). And then comes the oft-quoted verse 9b, “Blessed is everyone who blesses Israel, And cursed is everyone who curses Israel.” Even today in 2020, some world leaders use that verse’s promises to dictate their position as either an ally of Israel’s or her enemy.

When Balak hears this, he is furious. In verse 10, we read that “he struck his hands together”. Robert Jamieson tells us that the smiting of the hands together is, among Oriental people, an indication of the most violent rage and ignominious dismissal. And in Ezekiel 21:17 and 22:13, we see that God used those very words to describe what He does in His anchor. Not sure who used it first – God or Balak, and/or from whom the Orientals got it.

Balak sends Balaam back to his own place. And he attributes to God the fact that Balaam would not get the ‘great honor’ that Balak was going to give him if he did what Balak was asking for. And Balaam stands up and reminds Balak what he had told his messengers – that no amount of reward would have had allowed him to say anything other than what God had told him to say. Before he goes, Balaam wants to share with Balak what Israel will do to his people. David Guzik says that there was no need for preparation for this prediction or oracle (the 4^th), it was a freebie since Balak had already said he wouldn’t pay him anything.

In this oracle, Balaam is prophesizing the coming Messiah and sees Him as a Star and a Scepter (verse 17). The prophesy is that the Messiah will do to all nations what God is about to do to the neighboring nations of Israel.

Balaam says Israel will crush the Moabites and their allies, and ultimately destroy their city. He also tells of the destruction of Amalek and the Kenites, as well as other states. In the process, he asks a question that all of us must at one time or another address – “Alas, who can live except God has ordained it?” Jamieson says the intent here is to remind us that few shall escape the desolation that God may have in store for the enemies of His people and His enemies. So the simple answer is, contrary to all who have tried, “no one”.

First, Balaam failed to curse Israel; then Balaam actually blessed Israel; and now finally, Balaam curses Balak. Each time things got worse for Balak. He should have known when to stop asking for something other than what God had already decided. It’s a lesson we need to learn. We can’t be asking for things that are against God’s will and against His Word. If we do, we can expect that things may very well get much worse for us.

Matthew Henry tells us that in verse 24, the “prophecy looks as far forward as the Greeks and Romans, for theirs is supposed to be meant by the coast of Chittim (Kittim). . .. Both Greece and Italy lie much upon the sea, and therefore their armies were sent forth mostly in ships.” He goes on and says that Balaam’s oracle prophesized:

·       (1.) That the forces of the Grecians should humble and bring down the Assyrians, who were united with the Persians, which was fulfilled when the eastern country was overcome, or overrun rather, by Alexander.

·       (2.) That theirs and the Roman forces should afflict the Hebrews, or Jews, who were called the children of Eber; this was fulfilled in part when the Grecian empire was oppressive to the Jewish nation, but chiefly when the Roman empire ruined it and put a period to it. But,

·       (3.) That Chittim, that is, the Roman empire, in which the Grecian was at length swallowed up, should itself perish for ever, when the stone cut out of the mountain without hands shall consume all these kingdoms, and particularly the feet of iron and clay, Dan. 2:34. Thus (says Dr. Lightfoot) Balaam, instead of cursing the church, curses Amalek the first, and Rome the last, enemy of the church. And so let all thy enemies perish, O Lord!

  

The story ends with Balak not getting to defeat Israel and Balaam not getting his money that he greedily desired. Balak at least recognized where Israel was getting her strength from – her strength was spiritual, and it came from God. Guzik says we too need to be aware of that very power and its source. We need to foster the nourishment of our spiritual strength as individuals by walking closer with the Lord. Let’s not let Balak’s perception about God be better or greater than ours.

Finally, another note of interest. Balaam was supposed to return to his place (verse 25) which was Mesopotamia, but appears from Numbers 31:8 that somehow, he got stuck in the land of Midian and was killed there. Maybe, just maybe, if he had gone home as was his intention, things would have turned out differently for him. Maybe, just maybe, if we had . . . [you fill in your own blank] . . . things would have turned out differently for us.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.