God’s Word for You
Numbers 23:25-30 If you can’t say anything not nice…
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, November 23, 2021
25 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all! Do not bless them at all!” 26 But Balaam answered Balak, “Didn’t I say to you that I must do everything the LORD says?”
Once again, Balak erupts in despair. His words, “Do not curse them at all! Do not bless them at all!,” are his way of saying, “If you can’t find anything not nice to say, don’t say anything at all!” Better to be silent than to bless them! But Balaam’s answer remains the same: I have to say what the Lord gives me to say.
By this point, Balaam is almost as strong a preacher as Paul, except that he will fall completely away and die in unbelief, pain, and blood. What a terrible tragic man is Balaam! He belongs in a list of great tragedies, alongside Hamlet, MacBeth, and Carmen. Imagine a play or opera about the Israelites on the plains of Moab in which the part of Moses would have no lines to speak or sing! Balaam does all of the preaching, enough of the sinning, and in the end he makes his own terrible mistake, and falls.
Balaam’s Third Message
27 Balak said to Balaam, “Come on, I will take you to another place. Maybe God will agree to let you curse them for me from there.” 28 Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the wasteland. 29 Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” 30 Balak did just as Balaam had said and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.
Balak hadn’t learned his lesson yet. He was game to try another place, another sacred mountaintop. This time they moved to the high peak known as Peor. The word Peor means “opening,” and it’s likely that the location, also called “house of Peor (Hebrew Beth-Peor, Deuteronomy 3:29, 4:46) was called Peor because of an opening or good mountain pass that was there. The deity, “Baal Peor,” was named for the location (that is, the location was not named after a deity, as is sometimes claimed). Later, Moses’ body would be buried “in the valley opposite Beth Peor” (Deuteronomy 34:5).
“Maybe,” Balak reasoned, “God will agree to let you curse them from there.” It’s hard to tell whether Balak’s “maybe” is still hopeful or not. Ancient magic sometimes required a number of attempts, and he might have been resigned to go through with this for seven tries in all. The Hebrew word translated “maybe” is ‘ulai, and here we have a question: Does Balak’s “Maybe” (‘ulai) express hope, or not? We will need to look at the word in two ways, grammatically, and theologically.
1, Grammatically, there might be hope behind Balak’s “maybe.” ‘Ulai is equally common in the earliest books of the Old Testament (Genesis 16:2) as it is in the last books to be written, including Ezekiel 12:3 and Zechariah 11:5. It occurs in history (2 Samuel 14:15), prophecy (Isaiah 47:12) and poetry (Job 1:5). But it occurs not even once in the Psalms, nor in Proverbs. Its King James Version equivalent, “peradventure” (as in “peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die,” Romans 5:7) is no longer common today, but we are content with “maybe” or “perhaps.” The point I am trying to illustrate is that there is nothing in the word ‘ulai itself that expresses confidence or hope, but only an uncertainty. The context determines whether there is any hope, and here we cannot say that there was none at all.
2, Theologically, there was no hope at all that God might change his mind. It didn’t matter which mountaintop Balak chose. Over in Canaan, Mount Zion did not yet have a temple; at this time the city that was once the seat of the great Godly priest-king Melchizedek was now the home of the heathen Jebusites. Back here in Moab, the gods that were not gods at all (Jeremiah 2:11) but are demons (Deuteronomy 32:17), would be no help. No magic or dark devilish power can scrape or scratch God’s impenetrable glory. A pagan like Balak might think that the local Baal made the mountain bright, but God’s sovereign eye is supreme in nature as in all other things (Genesis 16:13).
God’s supreme power is often described as his omnipotence. The omnipotence of God is “the boundless power of God’s will to do everything” (Hoenecke II, p. 163). This power has no limits. Without burdening the reader about the errors of modern, rationalistic theologians, permit me to state this again emphatically: The power of God has no limits. This is the answer to every stupid, silly, and sophomoric question that tries to fold God into a little handkerchief to be stuffed into a pocket. He is almighty. He cannot contradict his essence, but this does not limit him. Indeed, to contradict his essence (for example, to be less than holy or almighty) would absolutely limit him in the same way that every creature is limited and fails to be divine. For every great and powerful thing that God has done, he can do more. There is no limit to his greatness, just as there is no limit to his holiness, or to his compassion and love.
So, our supreme God has forgiven our sins. Take this truth, that your sins are forgiven (1 John 2:12; Psalm 32:1), and contemplate what it means that this was done by the one who is all-powerful and who cannot be assailed or overturned. The victory over your sins stands forever, so that you will stand forever with Christ in paradise.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.