1. 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.
2. And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes; and the spirit of God came upon him.
3. And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said:
4. 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:
5. How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!
6. 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.
7. He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted.
8. God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows.
9. He couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a great lion: who shall stir him up?
Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee.
10. And Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together: and Balak said unto Balaam, I called thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times.
11. Therefore now flee thou to thy place: I thought to promote thee unto great honour; but, lo, the LORD hath kept thee back from honour.
12. And Balaam said unto Balak, Spake I not also to thy messengers which thou sentest unto me, saying,
13 If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the LORD, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; but what the LORD saith, that will I speak?
14. And now, behold, I go unto my people: come therefore, and I will advertise thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days.
15. And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said:
16. He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:
17. I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.
18. And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies; and Israel shall do valiantly.
19. Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city. (Numbers 24:1-19)
We come now to the third and fourth prophecies of Balaam. He had come to see that God was not permitting him to compromise, and so now he determined to go through with all that God required of him, at least for the moment.
The third prophecy, in vv. 5-9, is prefixed by the statement in vv. 1-4 that Balaam now discarded all the occult rites whereby he had previously sought power and control over God. Until now, we had not been openly told that he had made such attempts, but all men, in every age, who seek to control God resort to some kind of method whereby they hope to twist God’s arm. Now, with his eyes fully opened in the religious sense, Balaam for the moment recognized that God controlled him, not he, God. All false religions, whatever names they bear, are marked by this hope, somehow to control God. Some have in the Christian era repeatedly formulated doctrines of the church which in effect have as their purpose to channel God through their institution. This is a form of idolatry.
Balaam’s words begin with a glowing description of Israel. The encampment is viewed from on high, the lovely trees and waters within and around Israel’s location. This is taken as a sign of its future, a blessed one (v. 5-6). Then Balaam speaks of Israel’s posterity or seed, as pouring out by the bucketfuls: “...his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted.”
Abraham had been told that his posterity, meaning those sharing his faith, would be as the stars, innumerable (Gen. 15:5). Both predictions look at God’s faithful people in every age, past, present, and future.
The strength of God’s people will be like that of a unicorn, that is, a wild ox or buffalo. They shall totally destroy their enemies, crushing them as though they were nothing before them.
God’s people are also compared once again to a great lion, whom no one in their right mind will arouse (vv. 8-9).
Then, Balaam says, of the Israel of God, the true Kingdom of God in every age, “Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee” (v. 9). God’s Kingdom is that by which men and nations stand or fall. We are given the key to the theology of blessing and cursing in Genesis 12:1-3:
1. Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, and unto a land that I will shew thee:
2. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
The first premise of God’s statement is the requirement of obedience. A break must be made with his family and past in terms of doing the will of God. God’s calling of Abram was an act of sovereign grace; Abram’s response had to be obedience.
Second, given this obedience, God will build His Kingdom on Abram’s faith and make of him a great nation, into the Kingdom of God. Faithful Abram and his faithful seed shall be a blessing to all the world. Abram’s seed is Christ (Gal. 3:16), and in Christ, “they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham” (Gal. 3:9).
Third, all families or nations of the earth shall be blessed by Abraham’s seed, Christ, and He shall be the premise in terms of which all men and nations are blessed or cursed.
At this point, we have the great error of Israel, past and present, and of many churches. Rabbi Raphael Pelcovitz has written, of vv. 17-20, that earlier editions of Sforno’s commentary on the Torah dropped his statement. He writes:
We assume that the censor removed the commentary on these verses because it was considered too harsh an indictment of the Christian world’s treatment of the Jews, and depicts too vividly the revenge that Israel will take of them at the end of time.147
Within recent weeks, I have heard of churches making similar condemnations. Because the church is called the body of Christ in Scripture, these false churches make some very ungodly conclusions. First, they assume that, because they bear the name of a church, this makes them the body of Christ. There can be a vast difference between a name and reality. Second, even where the church is truly Christ’s body, it is still not Jesus Christ. Third, the premise of cursing or excommunication is not the church, nor our relationship to it, but Christ and our relationship to Him. To go beyond this is idolatry, and it begs for God’s curse.
Balak was very angry with Balaam but was afraid to touch him. He therefore ordered him to
“flee thou to thy place” before Balak’s anger led him to rash actions (v. 10-11). He was afraid of
“bad luck” if he moved against a seer. Balaam reminded him that he had been told that only the words God gave could be spoken.
Balaam, possessed by God, delivered now a fourth prophecy in vv. 15-19. His eyes were now fully open, Balaam said; i.e., God was giving him a vision of what would happen through Israel (vv. 15-17). The center of the prediction is vv. 17-19:
17. I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.
18. And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies; and Israel shall do valiantly.
19. Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city.
Because out of Israel, and some time in the future, (“not now”), a great King shall arise out of Israel, no nation shall be able to stand before Him. He is called a Star, an ancient sign of kingship, and a “Sceptre,” the sign of rule and dominion. Therefore Moab, Edom, and all Israel’s enemies shall be destroyed, and the Kingdom of the great King will alone remain. This
prediction clearly centers on Christ, as even the ancient Hebrews recognized. As E. W.
Hengstenberg pointed out,
How widely this opinion was spread among the Jews, is sufficiently apparent from the circumstance, that the renowned pseudo-Messiah in the time of Hadrian adopted, with reference to the passage under review, the surname Barcochba, i.e., Son of the Star. From the Jews, this interpretation very soon passed over to the Christians, who rightly found a warrant for it in the narrative of the star of the wise men from the East.148
It is an interesting sidelight on the history of this false messiah, Bar Kochba, Son of the Star, that his military successes were great, and his fanatical followers were fierce fighters. Rome then adopted a strategy that destroyed Bar Kochba’s regime. He had minted attractive copper coins and placed a high value on them, as though they were gold and silver. Rome counterfeited Bar Kochba’s coins, flooded Israel with them, and thereby broke his regime economically and then militarily.
Hengstenberg said, with respect to the Star out of Jacob,
The Messianic character of the prophecy being thus established, it will be impossible to misunderstand the internal relation between the star of Balaam and the star of the wise men from the East. The star of Balaam is the emblem of the kingdom which will rise in Israel. The star of the Magi is the symbol of the Ruler in whom the kingly power appears concentrated. The appearance of the star embodying the image of the prophet, indicates that the last and highest fulfillment of his prophecies is now to take place.149
We know, of course, that the wise men came from the East to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?” (Matt. 2:2).
It is important now to return to the question of blessings and curses. Again citing Hengstenberg, he very tellingly observed, “The lot of every people corresponds to the nature of their God.”150 Our present condition, and that of the whole world, corresponds to the nature of our humanistic gods. The world crisis of our time can be traced to this fact. Men have over the centuries had false gods, bad religions, and warped theologies, but perhaps rarely have people been more earnestly dedicated to furthering evil as though it were the highest good.
John Roberts has observed, “Acceleration is the one obvious overriding trend in modern history.”151 Because of that fact, the false gods of our time have attained a wider influence than normally would have been the case.
This will only bring upon them all the more rapidly the judgment of Almighty God.