Numbers 23 - 24

Numbers — Steve Gregg

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Numbers 25 - 27

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Numbers 23 - 24

NumbersSteve Gregg

In his analysis of Numbers 23-24, Steve Gregg delves into the intriguing story of Balaam, a diviner from Mesopotamia, highlighting the power of Yahweh's word over money and the limitations of demonic influence. Gregg emphasizes the cautionary tale of Balaam's involvement in the occult, warning against seeking trouble through such practices. He examines Balaam's encounters with the spirit of God and the significance of his blessings and curses for Israel. Additionally, Gregg explores the prophetic mentions of future nations and the potential role of Assyria in later times.

Transcript

Yesterday, we were introduced to Balaam, the son of Baor, a man of Mesopotamia who is described as a soothsayer or a diviner. But he's definitely an enigmatic character, a mysterious character, because he seems to be a mixture of true prophet and false prophet. And he makes reference to Yahweh frequently in his talk and actually refers to his God as Yahweh.

I mentioned that diviners in Mesopotamia made it part of their business to know the various religions around them because they were hired in many cases to come and do special enchantments and spells and so forth that required their having some savvy about the various deities locally observed in the areas where they might be called upon to work. And perhaps he knew of Yahweh through that means. But really, it's hard to imagine how he could have known about Yahweh through that means because Yahweh had simply revealed himself through the deliverance of Israel from Egypt 40 years earlier.

And those who knew Yahweh were pretty much confined to that region where the Israelites were wandering around. It is true that Yahweh's exploits against Egypt had the rumors had traveled into Canaan because the people of Jericho were trembling over it. And so were the others that the Israelites encountered.

But still, Mesopotamia is another 360 miles further north than that. And that Balaam up there would have heard about the exploits of Yahweh in Egypt or even if he had that he would have come to have any real knowledge of the ways of Yahweh's kind of a stretch. And it's possible that since Abraham himself had come from Mesopotamia and that was essentially the cradle of civilization after the flood that knowledge of Yahweh had simply survived there in the area.

Although the many of the nations had gone after other gods and change their religions, it's possible that there was still a surviving memory of Yahweh in the region where civilization had begun after the flood. Because Noah's family knew about Yahweh and that Balaam simply really did consider himself to be a follower of Yahweh, but really without any real revelation such as God had given Israel. So he practiced sorcery and divination and so forth, but still considered himself a man of Yahweh, of God, of the true God.

It's hard to say. We're not given any information to know why or how he came to be associated with Yahweh, though he was not a Jew and he was separate from the Jewish people where Yahweh was revealing himself during this period of time. Furthermore, the man had motives that were not good.

Now, that's not I mean, that seems strange to us because he seems to talk such a good ballgame. He seems to talk so religious, so pious. He mentions, you know, no amount of money to dissuade him if Yahweh doesn't give him permission to do a certain thing.

And he sounds very heroic in his spiritual convictions. But at the same time, we read in the New Testament that he was motivated entirely by greed and that he was trying to seek ways to do an end run around Yahweh when Yahweh would not let him curse the people. And we don't we don't pick that up very clearly in the narrative of Numbers chapters 22 through 24, which is the story of Balaam all the way through.

He seems to be quite submitted to Yahweh, quite agreeable to do what Yahweh says. In fact, he four times prophesied in the presence of Balaam, the king of Moab, who hired him to curse Israel. And every time, seemingly fearlessly, Balaam blesses Israel.

And when Balaam objects, Balaam continues as well. I told you I can't say anything except what Yahweh tells me to say. Now, whether this was sheer loyalty to Yahweh on Balaam's part or actual inability is hard to know, because we find that God actually puts the words in Balaam's mouth.

It says that in verse five of chapter 23, the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth. And in verse 12, he mentions the Lord has put this word in my mouth. I must speak what the Lord has put in my mouth.

On the other hand, we read in chapter 24, verse one, that until that point he had been using sorcery. It says now in Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel. He did not go as at other times to seek to use sorcery.

So in the first two oracles that he gave, he used sorcery. And yet God put a word in his mouth. There are two times in chapter 24 when Balaam describes himself as the one who falls down with his eyes wide open.

That would be in chapter 24, verse four. At the end of that verse, it says the utterance of him who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, who falls down with eyes wide open. And likewise, the same phrases in the same chapter, verse 16, the utterance of him who hears the words of God and knows the knowledge of the most high, who sees the vision of the Almighty, who falls down with his eyes open wide.

Now, this reference to him falling down is interesting in the King James version. And as near as I can tell, only in the King James version, they rendered it falling into a trance. And that is entirely possible that he had possibly when the spirit came upon him, he may have fallen down and gone into a trance.

This would be true with certain occultic prophets. I mean, we have in modern times Edgar Cayce, the sleeping prophet who prophesied in his sleep. And trance states are not uncommon in certain occult practices.

And even probably even in some true prophets, Ezekiel, it would appear may have gone into trances at times. And so we really can't say that God would never put a prophet into a trance. But if he indeed did fall into a trance on these occasions, then he really didn't have any control over what he was saying.

He would go and use enchantments to go and use sorceries and and God would show up. Now, what we have to understand here is that not not that God honors a pagan prophet who uses sorcery, but that God overrides. The spirits that are behind a pagan prophet using sorcery, that God is sovereign over them.

I had a friend who before he was a Christian was in jail for some small crimes related to drugs that he had committed. And Christians from a Baptist church visited him in jail, visited the prisoners and witnessed to him and he would argue with them and so forth. And he was into the I Ching, a Chinese form of divination, and which is about casting hexagrams and so forth.

And they told him that that was a demonic thing and he did not believe them. But after they were gone, he cast a hexagram, the I Ching, and and inquired. I don't know how I don't know how the I Ching works.

I've never used it. I'm not sure exactly how one gets information from it. But he said that he asked whether it was true what the Christians said.

And and the answer he got back from the I Ching was, yes, it's true what they said. And so it would appear that either the demons are forced to acknowledge Christ or else God himself just breaks through when a man is using something that's ordinarily a demonic device that God simply overrides it and gets his word across through it. Just like when Saul went to the witch at Endor to bring up Samuel, ordinarily it's not possible or at least not permitted to contact the dead through witches.

It's something it's not called practice of the Bible forbids and which most Christians really believe cannot be done. Most Christians believe that if you try to contact the dead, what you're getting is a demon impersonating the dead person. The Bible doesn't specifically tell us that, but there is reason to believe that could be true.

But in any case, although it was an occultic means of contacting the dead, God overrode it and sent Samuel. Samuel actually did show up and prophesy to Saul. I heard a person tell me that they were before they were Christian.

They used to use the Ouija board regularly and seemed to really contact some kind of a spirit that communicated through the Ouija board. And then they got saved and after they got saved, they tried to use the Ouija board again and it didn't work. It just didn't happen.

Cursor didn't move. And so this person asked Ouija, why is it that you're not communicating with me anymore? And then the thing did begin to move and and spelled out the words because you have the blood on you. But you see, there are demonic means of divination and the demons don't always lie.

The demons are not trustworthy. Their testimony often will include lies, but they don't always lie. When the demons spoke to Jesus, they told true things.

They said, you're the son of God. We know who you are. You're the Messiah.

You're the son of the highest. That was true. When Jesus asked the demons name, he said, my name is Legion for many.

That apparently was true. Demons don't always lie. And sometimes just as Jesus was a juror in the name of the living God to speak the truth in court.

I imagine that the demons are forced to speak the truth when God twists their arm or puts them under oath, as it were, in his own way. So that even if Balaam was a man who was accustomed to doing sorcery and maybe even receiving messages from demons, that God, in this case, for Israel's sake, overrode those methods and spoke anyway. And it may be that it may be that Balaam did go into a trance and was and God put words in his mouth that he didn't have any control over, which means he wasn't really being all that courageous to defy Balak.

It's rather he didn't have any power to do anything else. He was out of control. The phenomenon of God working through Balaam in this situation against Balaam's wishes, even would seem to be an illustration of what it says in chapter 23 in one of his oracles, in his second oracle, verse 23, he says, this is chapter 23 and verse 23, for there is no sorcery against Jacob, nor is there any divination against Israel.

Now, you see, Balaam had hired Balaam to to bring sorcery and divination against Israel and in under inspiration, Balaam says that can't be done. God will not allow that. And that's encouraging to us as well.

You know, I mean, if God is on our side, who can be against us? Even the demonic powers. You know, this story of Balaam is an interesting and unique one in the book of Numbers and that there were no witnesses to it in Moses camp. The other the other stories in Numbers, Moses himself could have recorded with his own from his own eyewitness experience.

He was there, but he wasn't here. No Jew was here. As far as we know, the only people present in this story hearing these prophecies of Balaam were Balaam and Balak and whatever Moabite and Midianite attendants were there with him and the two servants of Balaam that came from Mesopotamia.

There were no none of the people of Israel there. And yet this story somehow managed to get into the hands of the Israelites. In all likelihood, there was some kind of a scribe present who took down what Balaam said and it entered into the annals of, you know, Moabite in the Moabite records.

And when they were conquered by Israel later, they apparently retrieved them when they did fight the Midianites in Chapter 31. Moses at that time knew what Balaam had done. It's possible that some Moabites who feared Israel actually came down to Israel and reported this story to them.

That may have been the source of their information. We don't know where it came from, but it's a unique story in the sense that it is not a story that Moses himself witnessed. But must have come to him by report or through maybe formal records kept by the Moabite king and his courts.

But it's unique in another sense, too, because we find Israel engaged in battles and God, their protector against people like well, like the like Og and Sion, the Amorite kings on the east of Jordan or the Canaanites that they met earlier. That God is now protecting them, God is fighting for them against physical enemies. But this story shows that God also defends them against spiritual attack, because what was being brought against them here was not a physical harm, but what was intended was spiritual harm, a spiritual curse upon them.

And God protected them against that. Apparently, Balaam had the reputation of when he cursed somebody, they were really cursed. I don't know how it is that certain men would have such powers.

In all likelihood, he was an agent of a demon rather than of Yahweh, although he said he was a follower of Yahweh. The fact that he is divination and sorcery doesn't encourage me to think he was a man really regularly in touch with the real God or used by the real God. But there may have been a powerful spiritual force behind him.

If so, God simply overruled it and stepped in just as he did with the witch of Endor and brought Samuel up. Remember, the witch of Endor was surprised to see Samuel come, although she was ostensibly. Hired to bring Samuel up when Samuel actually did appear, she screamed and was frightened because she didn't expect that she expected, perhaps her familiar spirit to show up instead.

Anyway, the the phenomenon of God speaking through the occult means and through the occult practitioner is a mysterious thing. And yet we this story shows that God is on Israel's side, not only to protect them from physical enemies, but even against spiritual harm and guarding them even against the attempts of sorcerers and all of that. Now, how does that you know, how is that related to us? I personally think that we do not have to fear sorcery.

We don't have to fear demons unless we ourselves are compromising with them. I mean, if we're getting involved in the occult, then we're asking for trouble. We're letting our guard down.

But if we're just seeking to follow God, we don't have to worry about how many witches or warlocks are out there trying to cast spells on us. It may be that we will feel the effects of them at times and have to rise up against them and wage a warfare, but we can defeat them. That's what the spiritual warfare of the Christian includes as well as other things.

And that is that when the demons come, that we resist the devil and he flees from us. And so we see this even true in the Old Testament when God wishes to protect Israel, because at this particular time, they're not worshipping demons as they sometimes did. Then even the demonic powers of a powerful sorcerer cannot harm them.

Now, we read chapter 22 where Balak sent his messengers to Balaam initially and asked him to come and Balaam consulted God and God said, no, don't go. They're not these people cannot be cursed. They're blessed.

Balaam turned down the first offer and the money involved. And the messengers went back to Balak and he was not content to have that answer. Apparently, he had great confidence in Balaam and thought that Balaam was his only hope.

And so he offered him any kind of honor that he would wish to name his price and he would pay it. And Balaam says, well, let me ask God again. Now, Balaam should have done that because God already let him know what his will was, but Balaam wanted the money.

And so he's hoping to get permission to do what he knew was wrong. And God gave him permission to do it, but was angry when he went. And that, frankly, is something that we should be mindful of that a lot of times God will give us our request.

But with it, leanness of soul or who give us permission to do the thing he knows we're going to do. We're going to keep asking once he's already told us no. Once he's already revealed his will, if we keep trying to get him to change his mind, he may just do it.

He doesn't really change his mind, but he goes ahead and gives us permission to do the thing that's going to be harmful. And this would have been harmful to Balaam because there was an angel sent to stop him and even to kill him if he proceeded too far. But his donkey was smart enough to lie down under him and eventually speak to him.

And then Balaam saw the angel of the Lord and the angel of the Lord told him, go ahead and go, but only speak what I tell you to speak. And so he arrived and we saw at the end of chapter two that he arrived in Moab and was put up for the night, given some a good dinner and a place to stay. And the next morning it was time to go out and curse Israel.

And we see in the last verse of chapter 22, which should be the first verse of chapter 23, if the chapter divisions made more sense in this case. So it was the next day that Balaam took Balaam and brought him up to the high places of Baal, that from there he might observe the extent of the people. It was understood somewhat superstitiously that if you were to curse somebody, it's better to get a view of them to be looking at them when you utter curses.

Apparently, there'd be fewer obstructions to your curse, reaching them if there was a clear line of sight like, you know, radio beam or something. Then Balaam said to Balak, build seven altars for me here and prepare for me here seven bowls and seven rams. This was done at every location, whether these seven bowls and seven rams were being offered to Balaam or to Yahweh or to some other spirit.

We're not exactly told. After all, they were they were looking. They were located at the high places of Baal and the high places would be where the altars of Baal were.

Generally, the pagans tended to build their shrines on the highest mounds or the highest elevations they could find to honor their gods. So this place, the high place of Baal was chosen for the vantage point that it provided the view. But it was also the place where there are altars to Baal and whether the seven altars were built probably to Yahweh and animals were offered on them.

But, of course, God only wanted sacrifices to him offered on the altar in the tabernacle. So this was not exactly something that was following God's instructions. And Balak did just as Balaam had spoken and Balak and Balaam offered a bowl and a ram on each altar.

But since neither of them were Levites, these sacrifices could hardly be considered to be all right. Then Balaam said to Balaak, stand by your burnt offering and I will go. Perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me and whatever he shows me, I will tell you.

So he went to a desolate height and God met Balaam and he said to him, I have prepared seven altars. I have offered on each altar a bowl and a ram. So Yahweh put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, return to Balaak and thus you shall speak.

So he returned to him and there he was standing by the burnt offering and he and all the princes of Moab. And he took up this oracle and said, Balaak, the king of Moab, has brought me from Aram, from the mountains of the east. Come, curse Jacob for me and come denounce Israel.

How shall I curse whom God has not cursed and how shall I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced? For from the top of the rocks, I see him and from the hills I behold him. There are people dwelling alone, not reckoning itself among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob or the number of one fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous and let my end be like his.

Then Balaak said to Balaam, what have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies and look, you have blessed them bountifully. So he answered and said, must I not take heed to speak what Yahweh has put in my mouth? Now, obviously, he's saying under inspiration, essentially, that he can't curse these people because God has not cursed or denounced them. Actually, God had denounced them on various occasions.

And had even made all of their ancestors die in the wilderness because of their evil deeds. But vis-a-vis Moab, who is now trying to bring charges against Israel, God had nothing against Israel. God did not see any fault that Israel had committed against Moab, that Moab should be able to bring a case against them to God.

And notice, he says in verse nine that they are a people dwelling alone, not reckoning itself among the nations. That's exactly what God intended for Israel to be not reckoned among the nations. Yes, certainly one of the nations of the earth, but not among them in the same category.

But a special people, a unique, a holy people set apart for God. Likewise, we Christians are a holy nation, a peculiar people and not really reckoned among the nations. We belong to various nations.

We're born in different nations where we have passports and birth certificates and things like that that show our citizenship. But our real identity is that of being in the people of God. We are the kingdom, the followers of Jesus Christ, and therefore not really part of the nations in the same sense.

You see, if you're not a Christian, then the highest loyalty you ought to have would be to your nation. Because you're obliged to be, first of all, your nation provides you with protection and sustenance and so forth. The government is that which gives security to its citizens.

Also, your neighbors and your family and your extended family are part of your nation and no, you know, your nation is where your loyalty should be if you don't have a higher loyalty. But the highest loyalty of the Christians to God and God is sometimes at odds with the nation. And therefore, Christians are, in a sense of people who are not reckoned among the nations.

We live in the nations, but our real loyalty is elsewhere. And although we might be good citizens of the countries we live in and law abiding and not troublemakers, yet our real loyalty is not to those nations, but to the king of kings. And so there's a sense in which God's people are not reckoned among the nations, although they are a holy nation themselves.

When he says who can count the dust of Jacob or number one fourth of Israel, of course, he's thinking rhetorically. The idea is that there's so many of them, even to number a quarter of them would be exhausting, maybe even impossible. And when he says, let me die the death of the righteous and let me be my envy like his.

This is just a you know, this is just a way of saying that these people are really blessed. I wish I could be like them. I wish I could die the death that they are going to die.

Sadly for Balaam, he didn't. He died the death of the wicked. He actually died in battle.

In a war of retaliation and vengeance that Israel brought against Midian and against Balaam himself because of what he eventually did to bring a curse on the people of Israel. But he expresses a wish to die a righteous man's death. But he's not a righteous man, unfortunately.

And he didn't die a righteous man's death, but he died an evil man's death. Verse 13 says, Then Balaam said to him, Please come with me to another place from which you may see them. You shall see only the outer part of them and shall not see them all.

Curse them for me from there. Now, not entirely clear how Balaam was thinking about this. OK, it's not working for you to see the whole nation.

So let's go to another place where you can just see part of them. Maybe he's saying, OK, maybe Yahweh won't let you curse the whole nation, but maybe he'll let you curse part of them. If you could just be part of maybe God will allow a curse on part of them because that might be good enough.

Remember, Balaam was afraid that the children of Israel so totally outnumbered him that if it would come to battle, which he assumed it was going to, that they would outnumber and overwhelm him. But maybe if part of them could be destroyed by God or cursed by God, then that would that would give Moab the edge they need if it came to blows between the two nations. So he brought him to the field of Zothem to the top of Pisgah and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar and said to Balaam, stand here by your burnt offering while I meet with Yahweh over there.

Then Yahweh met Balaam and put a word in his mouth. And so go back to Balaam and thus you shall speak. So he came to him and there he was standing by his burnt offering and the princes of Moab were with him.

And Balaam said to him, what has Yahweh spoken? Then he took up this oracle and said, rise up, Balaam, and here, listen to me, son of Zippor. God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent. Has he said and will he not do it or has he spoken and will he not make it good? Behold, I have received a command to bless.

He is blessed and I cannot reverse it. Now, this business is God a man that he should lie or some a man that he should repent. Here we see in the poetic parallelism of the Middle East, the man and son of man are simply parallel ideas, identical ideas.

God will not repent means he will not change his mind about this. He's not a man who can be persuaded by begging or by bribery or whatever, like some men can to change their position. God has said, I'm going to bless these people and he can't be his mind can't be changed about this.

He says, for there is no sorcery. I'm sorry, I'm a little ahead of myself. Verse 21, he has not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor has he seen wickedness in Israel.

Now, that's a strange statement because God has found a great deal of iniquity and wickedness in Israel. But apparently what he means is with reference to any quarrel that Moab might have with Israel. God doesn't see any thing that Israel has done to aggravate such a quarrel.

God doesn't see Israel as guilty of anything that that God should listen to Moab bring in a complaint or a curse against Israel for. Certainly, Israel has had its share of iniquity and wickedness and God has seen it. But that's all bygones now.

That's now in the past. At this moment, Israel is behaving. God is on their side and he sees no reason for Moab to have a quarrel against them because Israel has done nothing wrong to Moab or even at this point in time, at the present time, even to God that God would wish to bring a curse.

Yahweh is Yahweh. His God is with him and the shout of a king is among them. Now, we know that Israel didn't have an earthly king, so this king must be a reference to Yahweh because it's parallel again with the Lord, his God Yahweh is with him.

The shout of a king is among them. God is shouting his victory shouts among Israel as their king. God brings them out of Egypt.

He has strength like a wild ox or even more than that. But a wild ox is the strongest animal that they could imagine, like in Yahweh, too. That's the problem when you try to think of something to like in Yahweh, too.

When the Israelites came out of Egypt and sang their song in Exodus 15, it said, who is like you? Oh, Yahweh among God's who is like you? And the answer is nobody is like him. And the reason that God, I mean, one reason that God did not permit them to make graven images is because a graven image of necessity limits God to something. You make an image of a bull to represent how strong he is.

Well, he's stronger than a bull. And he's got a lot of characteristics different than bulls have. You know, one one item that you can make an image of might in some small way represent one feature of God, but it wouldn't be adequate.

It would be limiting and therefore should not be attempted. But the pagans did make images of bulls and eagles and goats and fish to worship. And they did so trying to select some feature of those animals that that is admirable and to attribute it to their deity.

Here, Balaam says that God's Yahweh strength is like that of a wild ox. Probably if it was up to him, he would make an image of an ox to represent Yahweh. That would be something that would be a mistake.

For there is no sorcery against Jacob, nor is there any divination against Israel. It now must be said of Jacob and Israel, Oh, what God has done. Look, a people rises like a lioness and lifts itself up like a lion.

It shall not lie down until it devours the prey and drinks the blood of the slain. Now, of course, that's exactly what Balak is afraid of, that Israel is going to rise up and eat Moab. But, of course, as we pointed out earlier, Israel had no designs upon Moab.

God had forbidden Israel to destroy either Moab or Ammon. Both of them descended from Lot. Both of them, as it were, brother nations to Israel.

And God was, although the Moabites and Ammonites were wicked and pagan, God was not intending to judge them at the hands of Israel. And so Israel was not really posing a threat to Moab. But Moab thought they were.

And when Balaam says that Israel is like a lion going to rise up and not lie down until it devours its prey and drinks the blood of the slain. Of course, that prey is the Canaanites on the other side of the Jordan from Moab. But Balak doesn't know that.

Balak said to Balaam, well, neither curse them at all nor bless them at all. OK, first I want you to curse them and you bless them. Now it's enough just that you don't do anything.

You know, you're blessing them. Why don't you just be silent now? Don't say anything because you're blessing them. It's OK if you don't curse them.

Just don't bless them either. So Balaam answered and said, did I not tell you, saying all that you always speaks to me that I must do. Then Balaak said to Balaam, please come, I will take you to another place.

Perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me there. Balak is a slow learner. So Balaak took Balaam to the top of Peor that overlooks the wasteland.

Then Balaam said to Balaak, build me here seven altars and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams. And Balaak did as Balaam had said and offered a bull and a ram on every altar. Chapter 24.

Now, when Balaam saw that it pleased Yahweh to bless Israel, he did not go as at other times to seek to use sorcery, but he set his face toward the wilderness. Now, Balaam is a slow learner, too. God had already told him before he left his home that he didn't want to curse Israel.

But now, after these two oracles where he's apparently been using sorcery of some sort previously, he changes his mind because he notices God wants to bless Israel. That seems like that should have been obvious to him before this point. And Balaam raised his eyes and saw Israel encamped according to their tribes and the spirit of God came upon him.

This is the first and only time it mentions the spirit of God coming upon him, though it may be that we're to understand that this was happening on the other occasions when God was putting words in his mouth. Maybe not. Maybe because he was using sorcery before.

It wasn't like he was filled with the spirit, but simply as the demons who normally spoke through him sought to speak, that God made them speak words that were a blessing to Israel. God put those words in his mouth, but it's a different expression than the spirit of God came upon him. The spirit of God coming upon a man is what the Bible in the Old Testament commonly uses that expression for a prophet who receives an oracle directly from God.

And so there may be something slightly different in the nature of the way that this came to him because the wording is different. But what exact difference there is and what is significant is would be very elusive for us to try to describe and understand, I think. Then he took up his oracle and said, the utterance of Balaam, the son of Baal, the utterance of the man whose eyes are open, the utterance of him who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, who falls down with his eyes wide open, open wide.

How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings, O Israel, like valleys that stretch out like gardens by the riverside, like aloes planted by Yahweh, like cedars beside the waters. He shall pour water from his buckets and his seed shall be in many waters. His king shall be higher than Agag and his kingdom shall be exalted.

God brings him out of Egypt. He has strength like a wild ox. He shall consume the nation's his enemies, they shall break their bones and pierce them with his arrows.

He bows down, he lies down as a lion and as a lion who will rouse him. Blessed is he who blesses you and cursed is he who curses you. Now, a few things here, I mean, most of this is self-explanatory, I would think it talks about how Israel is going to have victory over their enemies.

But in verse seven, it mentions his king shall be higher than Agag. And here it seems to predict not a reference to Yahweh as the king, but the future kings of Israel. Possibly a reference to David.

I think there's a later reference to David in the fourth oracle, although we might take it to be of Jesus. Although what is true of David can also be true of Jesus and maybe a double fulfillment. But the point is that Agag, we know, was the king of the Amalekites.

That is, at a later time in the days of David and Saul. Because even before David came to power in the days of Saul. Samuel, the prophet, told Saul to go and defeat the Amalekites.

And he went out and fought them and defeated them. But he brought Agag, the king, alive back as a captive. Now, the problem with that was that was hundreds of years after this.

And therefore, some people say there's an anachronism here, a placing of Agag in the wrong chronological place historically. But it's really not a serious problem. There have been many countries that have had kings by the same name as each other.

In fact, they deliberately named them after previous kings. I mean, I guess there might be a King Charles the fourth or something or a Henry the eighth or a Louis the 16th or something, you know. That's because there's lots of Louis and lots of Henry's and lots of Charles.

It's very common for certain kings to be given the same name as earlier kings. It's also a possibility that in Amalek, all the kings were called Agag. Just as it is possible that many or all the kings in some of the Philistine cities were named Abimelech or all the kings of Egypt were called Pharaoh.

So there's no need to see an anachronism here. An anachronism is where something is placed in its wrong historical or its wrong chronological place. And some people accuse the narrative of having that problem here.

It seems to me like a cheap and foolish criticism. Another thing in verse nine, speaking of Israel saying he bows down, he lies down as a lion and as a lion who aroused him. That should sound somewhat familiar because when Jacob was blessing his 12 sons in Genesis chapter 49 and he was blessing Judah, particularly in verse 9, Genesis 49 9. He says these exact words about Judah.

And obviously, a lion is a majestic beast that is not is not threatened by anything. And it's very confident and very dangerous. And to liken Judah to the lion, as Jacob did, or Israel to the lion here is simply, of course, to say that he's not going to be threatened by his enemies.

He'll be he'll he'll dominate the theme wherever he is. He can lie down when he wants to. He can get up when he wants to.

No one's going to make him like the five thousand pound gorilla. Where does it sit? Wherever he wants to. So does a lion.

It lies down when it wants to lie down. It gets up when it wants to lie down. Everyone wants to get up.

And that's what he's saying. It's just interesting. The use of the same words Jacob used, which raises questions had Balaam was Balaam familiar with the material in Genesis with the blessings that Jacob had given? Or is it merely that the Holy Spirit inspired both utterances? We're not specifically told that Jacob was inspired by the Holy Spirit when he gave his utterances about his sons in Genesis 49.

We're just told that he blessed them and said these words. We typically accept the words since they are recorded in Scripture as being inspired words. So the Scripture doesn't tell us they were.

However, these words are inspired because the Spirit of God came on Balaam when he spoke them, which makes it kind of interesting. It certainly seemed to suggest that Jacob's words, which are identical, had also previously been inspired by the Holy Spirit when he proffered over his sons. And then, of course, the last part of verse nine, blessed is he who blesses you and curses you, curses you, is also familiar.

God has spoken those words to Abraham right at the very beginning when God first called Abraham and made what we call the Abrahamic covenant with him. It was one of the promises God made in Genesis chapter 12 and verse three that whoever blesses you will be blessed or curses you will be cursed. It was repeated by Isaac when he was blessing Jacob disguised as Esau.

That is when Jacob I mean, when Isaac thought he was blessing Esau, but was in fact blessing Jacob, who was disguised as Esau. In Genesis 27, 29, he made this same blessing, whoever blesses you will be blessed, whoever curse you will be cursed. Again, one wonders, was Balaam aware of those things that God had said to Jacob or was this coming just strictly out of the Holy Spirit's awareness? Obviously, he was filled with the Spirit on this occasion and processing probably beyond his certainly beyond his natural knowledge.

And so we see God repeating through this pagan prophet the things that God had said verbally to Abraham himself. And no doubt here because Balak was seeking to curse Israel and so was Balaam. Balaam just couldn't do it, but he found a way to do it later on.

But he should have been warned by his own words. Those who curse Israel will be cursed. Verse 10, then Balaak's anger was aroused against Balaam and he struck his hands together.

He didn't strike Balaam, though I'm sure he was tempted to, but he struck his hands. He was so angry to strike something. And Balaak said to Balaam, I called you to curse my enemies and look, you have bountifully blessed them these three times.

Now, therefore, flee to your place. I said I would greatly honor you. But in fact, Yahweh has kept you back from honor.

So Balaam said to Balaak, did I not speak to your messengers whom you sent to me saying, though Balaak should give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word that Yahweh, the word of Yahweh. To do either good or bad of my own will, but what Yahweh says that I must speak and now, indeed, I am going to my people. Come, I will advise you what this people will do to your people in the latter days.

OK, so I OK, I'll accept this discharge. But before I go, I'll give you some information you might be interested in hearing. Another prophecy, the fourth prophecy.

Then he took up his oracle and said now every time so far. Before he began to speak, we were told he took up his oracle. Same expression, for example, chapter 23, verse seven.

He took up his oracle and said that was the first oracle. His second oracle is, it says in number 2318, then he took up his oracle and said. And those were the times when he was using divination, apparently in sorcery, but in chapter 24, when he didn't use sorcery and the spirit of God came upon him.

Chapter 24, verse three says, then he took up his oracle and said. Here we have the same expression. He took up his oracle and said, but we don't read that God put these words in his mouth.

We don't read that the spirit of God came upon him. We just have him offering his oracle. It's possible that it was just the spirit of God was still upon him from the previous one.

And this was a continuation. It had been interrupted by Bailax protests, but Balaam wasn't done and says, well, listen, just a little more. I'll tell you, there's more to this coming.

And so we're not told really the source of this oracle, except we're to understand, I suppose it is still coming from the spirit of God as the previous one. The utterance of Balaam, the son of Beor, the utterance of a man whose eyes are open, the utterance of him who hears the words of God and knows the knowledge of the most high, who sees the vision of the almighty, who falls down with eyes opened wide. I see him, but not now.

I behold him, but not near. So he's looking into the future. A star shall come out of Jacob.

A scepter shall rise out of Israel and batter the brow of Moab and destroy all the sons of tumult. And Edom shall be a possession. Seir, which is the mountains where Edom lived, also his enemies shall be a possession.

While Israel does valiantly out of Jacob, one shall have dominion and destroy the remains of the city. Now, he introduced this prospect by saying, I will show you what Israel will do you people in the latter days. Latter days just means later than the days they're living in.

And this particular oracle speaks of somebody out of Israel battering Moab and battering Edom too. And it was David who did that. And this is apparently a prophecy about David.

But we have seen enough in the scriptures to know, especially in our studies of the New Testament, that David is a type of Christ. And what is said of David is very often also true of Christ, the second David, the greater David that would come from his roots. And therefore, it's not difficult to see this as a messianic prophecy as well, although in all likelihood, the destruction of Moab and Edom is spoken of here is literal, brought about by the literal king that rose in Israel, which was David.

But in many of the later prophets of the Bible, the victories of the Messiah, which we know to be spiritual victories over the nations of the earth, including modern nations, they're described in the prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel as if they are destruction of ancient nations that actually were gone even before Jesus arrived. Edom, for example, was extinct as a nation before Jesus was born. And yet in Isaiah, Edom seems to be mentioned as as well as Assyria and certain other ancient nations as being among those that the Messiah would conquer.

But we know that the conquest of the Messiah are spiritual conquest and the nations that he conquers are those that really exist, not ancient nations that are extinct. This is just the way the prophets would describe in terms relevant to their own vocabulary and their own understanding of the world. Things that would actually somewhat be somewhat different, but in principle, the same, just as David would batter Moab and Edom and bring them into submission.

So the Messiah, we know now whether this is referring to the Messiah or not could be disputed. But we do know that the Messiah is striking the nations with the rod and with a sword out of his mouth and making conquests over his enemies and so forth. And that the enemies of Israel, the ancient nations now extinct, would be used as a picture or a type of the spiritual opposition to the kingdom of God, which is overcome by Christ through his warfare through the church.

That is not unheard of in the later prophets and may not be unheard of here. This may be, in fact, the way we should understand it. Prophets about David and the greater David, who would come later and do greater works than that.

Verse 20, then he looked upon Amalek. Now, I'm not sure if Amalek's camp was visible from that vantage point where he was or what, but he looked toward Amalek and he took up his oracle and said, Amalek was first among the nations, but shall be last until he perishes. Now, first doesn't mean chronologically the first nation to exist, but it does mean that he had a prominent position.

It was a powerful nation, but he'll be brought down to the last bottom rung of the ladder, as it were, until he perishes. Then he looked on the Canaanites. By the way, Amalek was defeated in the days of Saul after David's time.

So it would appear that verses 17 through 19 would be fulfilled in David and verse 20 fulfilled in David's predecessor, Saul. So it's around the time of David and Saul that is this is talking about. Then he looked on the Canaanites and he took up his oracle and said, firm is your dwelling place and your nest is set in the rock.

Nevertheless, kind shall be burned. How long until Asher carries you away captive? Now, Asher is the ancient name for Assyria, which at this point in time was not a significant power at all, but later did become a very powerful entity. After the time of David, it was the nation that carried off the northern kingdom of Israel about 100 years or more.

I mean, about over 100 years after David's time. So the nation that is said to fall prey to Assyria here is the Canaanites, about whom we don't know much, except that the Canaanites elsewhere in the Old Testament are spoken of as being on friendly terms with Israel. We never read of the Canaanites being enemies of Israel.

In fact, Hobab, the brother in law of Moses, is somehow associated with the Canaanites. And there doesn't seem to be any reason why some kind of imprecation against the Canaanites would be called for. Except, of course, the fact that they were on good terms with Israel in the only times we read of them doesn't mean they weren't evil at some other time.

I mean, all nations have their evils. And so it may be that the judgment upon the Canaanites is totally unrelated to the times when they had interaction with Israel. They may have been evil at other times.

Verse 23, and he took up this oracle and said, Alas, who shall live when God does this? But ships shall come from the coast of Cyprus and they shall afflict Asher, that is Assyria, and afflict Eber from which the Hebrews came. And so shall Amalek until he perishes. Now, the ships from Cyprus.

Cyprus in the Hebrew is the word Kittim, K-I-T-T-I-M, Kittim. And its original meaning was the island of Cyprus. But in the Bible, it seems to in the in Jewish usage and apparently in Balaam's usage, too, who is not Jewish, it came to mean something further than that.

You know, if you look westward into the Mediterranean from Israel, Cyprus is out there. Beyond Cyprus were other countries that were coastal countries, the Mediterranean, and the word Kittim came to refer to anything from beyond there. It's possible that seafaring marauders who came from places further west toward Israel.

Would often stop in Cyprus for provisions or whatever we know that Paul was on his trip to Rome on my ship, his ship stopped at Cyprus for a while. And it's it's it may be at Cyprus is a common stopping point to get new provisions and water and so forth aboard. And so that when invaders came from other places further west toward Israel, they may have actually come from Cyprus as they may have stopped in Cyprus on the way.

Just like it used to be that if you flew from Los Angeles to almost anywhere in Asia or to Australasia, you could count on stopping in Honolulu and changing planes. And people who came from those areas to the West Coast stopped in Honolulu. And we could say that they came from Honolulu, but really they came from further out than that.

They just all came through Honolulu. The reason I mention this is because Cyprus or Kittim actually is used in other parts of the Bible for definitely not for the island of Cyprus. And actually, in First Maccabees one one, which is an apocryphal book, but a historical one, Kittim is used to refer to the Greeks.

And in Daniel chapter 11 and verse 30, the ships of Kittim apparently are the Roman fleet. So Rome and Greece and other coastal Mediterranean countries further west than Cyprus are known in ancient biblical literature to be referred to as Kittim. And scholars usually think that this verse 24 is referring to the Romans coming.

So that he's really this almost like a chapter from Daniel where Daniel sees one kingdom after another coming. It's unusual for such specific prophecies to be given. That show the succession of different kingdoms, this talks about apparently David, Saul and David afflicting the Amalekites, the Moabites and the Edomites.

And then we have the Assyrians coming and reaching regional prominence. And then they are afflicted by the ships of Kittim. Now, Kittim could be Greece, as it is in Maccabees, or it could be Rome, as it is in Daniel chapter 11.

But it was actually Greece before Rome that came and conquered the area. But it may look beyond actually, it seems to look beyond Babylon, who conquered Assyria and beyond Persia and beyond Greece and goes all the way to Rome. And the way that Rome conquered that region afterwards.

And that brings us to the end of Balaam's prophecies. Balaam arose and departed and returned to his place. Balak also went his way.

Now, Balaam returned to his place, but apparently not back to Mesopotamia. Apparently he had a place, you know, rooms maybe in the local Motel 6 or something in Moab. That's wherever he was staying locally is where he went back to, because we know he was still around in chapter 25.

We don't read of him in chapter 25, but he is the mastermind behind the disaster that happened in chapter 25. So we're told much later in chapter 31. Now, if you would wonder and you don't know how it is that Balaam managed to collect his fee, the wages of unrighteousness.

He came up with an alternate plan. He found that every time he tried to curse Israel, God didn't let him do it. But he knew enough about God is the God of Israel to know that if Israel would fall into idolatry and worship other gods, then Yahweh himself would find occasion to curse them.

And therefore, the problem was that at the time that Balaam was trying to curse them, God so God could see no iniquity. In Jacob, nor any wickedness in Israel, according to chapter 23, verse 21, and therefore no sorcery or divination to be brought against Israel. 2323 says, but if on the other hand, iniquity could be found in Israel, if they could be made to worship idols, then God would be able to and would would be disposed to curse them.

Balaam knew this much, so he apparently counseled Balaam. We don't read of him counseling Balaam, but in Revelation 214, we're told that he did counsel Balaam to put a stumbling block in front of the children of Israel to get them to commit fornication and to worship idols. We see this in Revelation 214.

Revelation 214, Jesus said to the church of Pergamos, I have a few things against you because you have there those who hold the doctrine of the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balaam to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things, sacrifice the idols and to commit sexual immorality. So Balaam taught Balaam to stumble Israel into idolatry and into fornication. Now, where did the writer of Revelation get that? Well, directly from Jesus.

Jesus spoke those words. But we do have one hint of this and only one hint of it in Numbers itself. And that is much later in Numbers chapter 31.

After God instructs the Israelites to go and engage in a war of vengeance against the Midianites and Moabites for what was done here. It says that the Israelites spared some of the women of Midian and brought them to Moses and in Numbers 31, 15 and 16, Moses said to them, have you kept all the women alive? Look, these women caused the children of Israel through the counsel of Balaam to trespass against Yahweh in the incident of Peor. And there was a plague among the congregation of Yahweh.

Now, the incident in Peor is that which we will read about when we come back from a break in chapter 25. That was when Midianite and Moabite women came into the camp of Israel, seduced the Israelite men into not just sex, but ritual sex. That is the normal forms of worship of some of these pagan deities involved orgies.

And, you know, it's of course, fornication itself is unclean. But in the Bible, under the law, they wouldn't have been put to death for just committing fornication. They'd have to just marry the girls.

But these women were leading the children of Israel into idolatry and ritual sex as part of the worship of Chimash in all likelihood, who is the god of the Moabites. And this is what brought the curse upon them. And we're told in Numbers 31, 16, that they did this through the counsel of Balaam, which is why Revelation 14 affirms that it was through the counsel of Balaam.

We're told that he actually counseled Balak to use this stratagem. And that's interesting because that means that he was still trying to work for Balak and get the fees that God would not let him get through the normal means. And so we're going to find in Chapter 25 that this happens.

The women of Moab and Midian come and they lead Israel astray. And there is a judgment that comes upon them. A plague comes on Israel.

And so Balaam did bring a curse upon Israel, even though he was not able to verbally curse them. Let's take a break and we'll come back to that story next time.