Numbers 24.
BALAAM was now sure that it was no use for him to try to get enchantments; God was going to bless His people, and Satan would not be allowed to curse them. The Spirit of God came on him, making this address of Balaam’s the most remarkable of the three.
With open eyes, he said, he saw the vision of the Almighty, and he heard the words of God. And, wicked man that he was, he tells what God thought of His people out there in the wilderness, not yet in their land. Balak was angry, as well he might be, for he had called Balaam to curse his enemies, and he had three times blessed them. He told Balaam to go back to his home without the honors he had intended to give him, but Balaam reminded him, of what he had said at the first, that he could only speak that which was given him to say. He now went on to tell Balak what the people of Israel would do to the people of Moab later, and in telling this, Balaam pronounced his own doom:
“I shall see Him (God) but not now; I shall behold Him, but not nigh.”
These speeches of Balaam cover the whole purpose of God regarding the people He loved, beginning with their separation from the world of the ungodly, and ending with the coming of Christ.
ML 04/27/1924