Numbers 23:13-30.
PERHAPS, thought Balak, who did not have God in his mind at all, if Balaam goes to some other place he can curse the children of Israel as I want him to do. So he takes him to another height, where only a part of the people can be seen. Again seven altars are built, and cattle and sheep are slaughtered on them,’ as at the first place to which Balaam was taken by Balak.
Balaam, saying, “Stand here by thy burnt offering while I meet yonder,” went away to seek an enchantment (chapter 24, verse 1) —not to meet God, for the words, “the Lord,” in italics in the fifteenth verse should be left out. But God met him again, and gave him what he was to say to Balak, when he should get up to make his speech against the people of Israel. Wonderful words these were that Balaam was used to tell, speaking of God’s purposes and His interest in the people He had formed for Himself, but telling too of Balaam’s bad character, and the coming judgment of God’s enemies.
Man might tell lies, but God would not. He would not, like men, say one thing and do another. He had not seen iniquity in Jacob or perverseness in Israel. God had justified them, and Satan had no power to speak against them. Enchantments and divinations were without power against the people of God, and in a day close at hand, they would drive out their enemies before them. This and more, Balaam told Balak, who of course was very displeased. Yet he proposed to have Balaam try again to curse the people.
ML 04/20/1924