God’s Word for You

Numbers 23:7-12 Balaam’s first oracle

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, November 19, 2021

7 Balaam took up his oracle. He said:

Balaam’s oracles follow a distinct pattern, perhaps worthy of study or at least noticing. The content is what interests us the most, of course:

  From Aram, Balak has brought me.
  Balak, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains, said,
  “Come, curse Jacob for me.
  Come, denounce Israel.”
  8 How can I curse someone God has not cursed?
  How can I denounce someone the LORD has not denounced?

Balaam declares where he came from: Aram in the north, the land of Mesopotamia. He came by the request of Balak of Moab, not because he himself wanted to come. Balak hired him to curse Israel, but Balaam asks: How can I curse those that God has not cursed? He speaks through understatement, because what he really means is, How can I curse or denounce those whom God has blessed?

  9 Yes, from the rocky peaks I see him.
  From the hills I look at him.
  Look! A people that dwells apart,
  that does not consider itself to be one of the nations.

Balaam describes his perspective. Balak had taken him up to a mountain peak where they could see the edge or outskirts of the camp (Numbers 22:41). From this bird’s-eye-view, Balaam has a new perspective on God’s people, both figurative and literal. Israel was not spreading out, mingling with other people. They were remaining together, as a united people, as God had commanded them. For Balaam, this was strange. Why would they be “a people that dwells apart”? They had conquered territory—more than one hundred miles of it—eight hundred furlongs of tillable soil and pastureland with forests, groves, vineyards, springs and oases, and yet this people grouped itself in a well-ordered military-style camp, with row upon row of tents. For the moment, they were content to leave the conquered land unoccupied. What might they be waiting for?

  10 Who can count the dust of Jacob,
  or number even a fourth of Israel?
  May I die the death of the righteous!
  May my final end be like his!

Even viewing only the outskirts, Balaam could see that the tribes kept together within the nation, and that this was a vast nation, far outnumbering any of the groups they faced. Balaam’s view of Israel was quickly changing from curiosity to envy. When God blessed Abraham, he said:

    “I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth,
    so that if anyone could count the dust, then your
    offspring could be counted” (Genesis 13:16).

Balaam might think that he can see about a quarter of the nation, asking, “who can number even a fourth of Israel?” The sheer size of the group was staggering to him, and we should remember (he has already reminded us) that he is not just anyone, but a soothsayer from the River, a man who is used to moving in royal and imperial circles, who has seen great battles and palace intrigues, and now, to such a man, the tents of Israel—one side of the encampment (probably the eastern group: Judah, Isaachar and Zebulun, Numbers 2:5-9)—was uncountable to him.

Balaam cried out about his own life. Seeing the people of God made him think about what was missing in his world. He said, “May I die the death of the righteous!” (a common funeral text). This was a man who ached to be part of God’s people and who realized that he was not a part of it. He shares this with the sorcerer Simon who was baptized by Philip (Acts 8:12-13) but became jealous of the miracles done by Peter and John and who tried to buy their power, so that Peter warned him: “You are full of bitterness and you are captive to sin” (Acts 8:23). Balaam was even given the word of God to deliver (Luther: “Balaam really had the word of God and blessed Israel” LW 4:186) but did not himself listen carefully to the gospel and did not have faith.

11 Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have just blessed them.” 12 Balaam answered, “Don’t I have to speak accurately whatever the LORD puts in my mouth?”

The king was not pleased with his hired prophet. Balaam gives an honest answer, an answer he will repeat over and over: I have to say what the Lord gives me to say. This is also true of preachers and teachers today. We might use our own creativity or abilities to deliver a message, but the message must be the word of God. This is why I might use a text outside the Bible (apocrypha, Church fathers, or ancient inscriptions) to help define a word or explain a subject (as I am about to do), but I would prefer to stay within the confines of the text of the Bible. When I was a young man, I wrote a few short stories, some poetry, and even music. I dreamt of trying my hand at a novel, but said goodbye to all that, because none of it gave me the delight, the satisfaction, the joy, or the growth of simply meditating about the Word of God. There is not a branch in the forest of God’s Word that I have not grabbed and given a good shake, and there are few trees left that I have not climbed and in whose branches I have not taken a good long nap. I have learned the twigs and roots and the patterns of the leaves, I have seen sun and moon, rain and snow, childhood and advancing maturity from this forest of God’s holy Word. I have been able to see both its forest and its trees, so to speak, and I would not trade it for all of Balaam’s treasures and vantage points. Better to live as we Christians live, down in the camp, among the tents of the true Israel of God: those who believe and are baptized. “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16). Living a life in faith and seeing the end of one’s life in the same faith is truly what “dying the death of the righteous” is all about. We know our place with God. We are confident about it, because we confess our simple faith in Jesus Christ. What better assurance could there be than the empty cross, knowing that Christ our great high priest has completed his sacrifice for our sins? When Israel’s high priest finished his autumn offerings on the day of atonement, sprinkling blood upon the Ark to signify the payment for sin that God’s Son would one day pay from his own veins, he would come out of the inner room, and the people of Israel would shout and sing and fall with their faces to the ground, and the priest in his robes would stand as a reflection of the coming Son of God, “like the morning star among the clouds, like the moon when it is full, like the sun shining upon the temple of the Most High, and like the rainbow gleaming in glorious clouds, like roses in the days of the first fruits” (Sirach 50:6-8). If those glowing words describe the human high priest, sinful himself and merely standing in for Christ, how much more glorious will Christ be! All we can do is remove the comparative “like” from the description, and there he is: the morning star (2 Peter 1:19), the full moon (Isaiah 30:26), the sun in all its glory (Malachi 4:2); he is the rainbow of promise (Genesis 9:13; Revelation 4:3), and the rose that blooms where there are otherwise only thorns (Song of Solomon 2:1).

We do not want to live and die among the tents of today’s false Israel, the Israelites of Jacob’s line and blood who reject Jesus and who look for another Savior, a Savior who more and more of them equate with the dust and dirt of Canaan and not the Son of God. They are the Israel “who pursued the law of righteousness, but have not attained it” (Romans 9:31), because they pursued righteousness as if it were by works and not by faith (Romans 9:32).

No, we live and die within the true Israel, not burdened by the yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1), but lifted free from the bondage of sin by our Savior Jesus. We who trust in Jesus are truly those who dwell in tents apart from the nations, the people of the living God who die the death of the righteous, and will rise again to everlasting life.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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