Balak was much displeased with Balaam for what he uttered, and continued his attempts to get the people cursed. He took Balaam to another vantage point from which he could see the Israelites, hoping that he would curse them from there. Again Balaam went through his ritual, and notice that in the 15th verse Balaam said to Balak, "Stand here by thy burnt offering while I meet... yonder." The words "the LORD" are in italics in the King James Version, showing that they were added by the translators. They were not in the original Hebrew. Balaam did not here speak of meeting Jehovah, but of going to meet with some evil spirit. It was a typical act of occult diviners of that day. However, the Lord did meet Balaam and put the words in his mouth that he was to speak to Balak. Let us listen to what he has to say:
"Rise up, Balak, and hear; hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor: God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?" No, there would be no disannulling what God had said. As the poet has said:
"When once His word is passed,
When He has said, 'I will,'
The thing shall come at last,
God keeps His promise still."
Neither Balaam nor Balak nor all the hosts of hell could change God's decree concerning His people Israel; nor can "death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,... separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom. 8:38, 39. Every purpose and promise of God concerning us will be fulfilled; nothing shall fail of all the good things which the Lord has spoken.
Balaam then continues, "I have received commandment to bless: and He hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it." Evidently he would have reversed it if he could, but he had been warned most solemnly not to do so when he was withstood by the angel and reproved by the dumb ass. Satan and many ungodly persons would gladly curse the saints of God today, and there is a man coming who will "blaspheme... God,... and them [the saints] that dwell in heaven" in his rage, but all to no avail.
Balsam's first prophecy contained negative truth: God had not cursed the people, so Balaam could not. His second utterance gave positive truth: God had blessed them, and that could not be reversed. Just so we read in the New Testament of both negative and positive blessing; for example, John 3:16 says that the believer in Jesus shall not perish, on the one hand, and shall have everlasting life on the other.
Dear fellow-Christians, if God blessed Israel of old, how exceedingly more has He blessed us. It is good to stop and consider how many and great are our blessings. In Ephesians 1 we are told that we are blessed with "all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." There is not a saint, however feeble, who does not have every blessing God can give him, in Christ. May we have a deepened sense of how God has manifoldly blessed us, and that not all the evil designs and power of men and demons can affect these blessings.
Next Balaam says, "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel." What a statement! If Balaam had been down in Israel's tents, he might have heard them murmuring and complaining, but if God had not beheld iniquity, who is going to make Him do so? The enemy would gladly accuse them before God, but
"Though the restless foe accuses,
Sins recounting like a flood,
Every charge our God refuses,
Christ has answered with His blood."
It was not apparent in Old Testament times how God could behold a people like the Israelites and not see iniquity. Christ had not yet died, and the gospel had not yet been proclaimed; but there were those who had some sense of the forgiveness of God. "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man. unto whom God imputeth righteousness without saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." Rom. 4:6-8. In Old Testament times God looked forward to the work of Christ while He dealt in grace with those who had faith. Now He beholds the believer in Jesus as "clean every whit." More than that, He sees us in Christ, in His beauty.
0 that we saw one another more as God sees us. I am afraid that we often drop down to a lower plane when we think of our brethren in Christ. We see their crotchets. Sometimes their dispositions cross with ours, and we become annoyed and irritated, forgetting what they are in all their loveliness in Christ. Naturally we do see some things with them that are not very pleasant, but let us not forget that they see things in us which are not what they should be. May our eyes be open to see our brethren as God sees them, as those dear to Him, and precious to the heart of Christ. 0 to see one another from the "top of the rocks"!
To Balak's consternation, Balaam continues to enlarge on Israel's blessing: "The LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. God brought them out of Egypt; he bath as it were the strength of a unicorn. Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What bath God wrought!" vv. 21-23. God was with them, and God had acted for them, and He had wrought all for their blessing. What a blessed people they were! Strange that they should ever forsake Him and turn to other gods! But is it not stranger still that we who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, and have been accepted in the Beloved, should seek our satisfaction apart from Him whose we are?
By that time Balak was exasperated with Balaam, and said to him, "Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all." But if the enemy made God step in and speak for them, he must hear still more. Balaam replied, "All that the LORD speaketh, that I must do." Thereupon Balak made one more attempt to get the people cursed. What utter folly!
The first verse of chapter 24 is enlightening as to the character of Balaam. "And when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness." This lets us know definitely that he had merely been in the habit of seeking enchantments from Satan, and that his display of seeking God's guidance was a sham. Then Balaam spoke.
"Balaam the son of Beor said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said: he hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open." Chap. 24:3, 4. His eyes had been opened, but against his will. He heard the "words of God," and "saw the vision of the Almighty," and his heart was unchanged. How much more was his guilt than if his eyes had not been opened.
Then he says, "How goodly are thy tents, 0 Jacob, and thy tabernacles, 0 Israel! As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river's side, as the trees of lign-aloes which the LORD hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters." vv. 5, 6.
Balaam's third parable continues the advance noted in the two previous ones: first, they could not be cursed, for God had not cursed them; second, God had blessed them, and they would be blessed; third, they were to be seen in their beauty as trees of the Lord's planting. What an advance! Now God would tell their enemies of their beauty and loveliness, and all was the fruit of His doings. And when God tells how He has accepted us, He says, "accepted [taken into favor] in the beloved." How precious is that! Not accepted in Christ, though that is true, but accepted in that One in whom He delights. Nothing can be higher than that.
But poor Balaam had to say, "I shall see Him, but not now: I shall behold Him, but not nigh." How dreadful for a man to have his eyes opened and to resist the light and revelation. All such will assuredly see Christ as their judge one day, but then be banished from His presence. They, like Balaam, will have no part in the blessing which they witnessed for others.