Numbers 23:10-21
BALAAM went on with his parable, and said, “Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel?” Then he adds, “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!”
Alas, for the poor wretched prophet who loved the wages of unrighteousness; for he died as he lived. Later, when the victorious armies of Israel warred against the Midianites Balaam was slain along with them. For the most part men die as they have lived. If one would die the death of the righteous then let him live the life of the righteous.
Balak was greatly vexed at Balaam. Not only had the prophet blessed Israel but he himself had even uttered the wish that he might share their blessing at the end. “I took thee to curse mine enemies,” he said, “and, behold, thou Nast blest them altogether.... Come, I pray thee, with me unto another place.”
In Balak we see how lost was the knowledge of God among the nations. He thought God was like himself, or just another god like his own. To his darkened mind God was but a god of one particular people; He might be powerful in one place but in another place or circumstance another god might be more powerful than He. We find this in the history of the kings of Israel for on one occasion the Syrians said the God of Israel was god of the hills but not of the valleys.
How blest we are who know Him as the only true God, the Lord of heaven and earth, “the Creator who is blessed forever,” who has revealed Himself to faith in the Person of His beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, “to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
Balak would take Balaam to another point where he would not see all Israel, but just a part of them, and then he would curse them from there. As if that would make any difference. For God is not a man that He should lie, or the Son of man that He should repent. He will make good what He has spoken. Balaam had received commandment to bless; “and He hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.”
Evidently Balaam would have liked to reverse the decree of God, but he could not. Neither man nor all the powers of hell could change God’s purpose to bless Israel, and nothing can frustrate His purposes of blessing toward His people now. “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.” Rom. 8:38,39.
Balak then brought Balaam to the top of Pisgah. Again he offered sacrifices and went through his ritual, and again the Lord met him and told him what to say. Each time he rises higher and higher in expressing the fullness of God’s thoughts of blessing toward His people.
“He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel.” How could this be? The answer is found only in Christ. In those times God was looking forward to the work of Christ and so He could act in grace toward those who lived in faith. Now God sees the believer as cleansed by the blood of Christ, “holy and without blame before Him in love.” (Eph. 1:4.)
ML-05/05/1974