21 February

Bible in 365 Days

Numbers 23-25              

Numbers 23

The first of Balaam's prophecies was uttered in the midst of strange surroundings.

Sacrifices were offered to heathen gods, while Balaam turned aside to inquire of Jehovah. The result was that we have in his prophesying the first of a series of utterances concerning Israel which are among the most sublime in the whole of Scripture. In this first we have a central declaration, Lo, it is a people that dwell alone.

It constitutes a vision of the nation as separated from others because of the divine attitude toward them. The prophecy ended with a sigh which shows how profound was his conviction of the high privilege of the nation . . . . Let me die the death of the righteous, And let my last end be like his!

Balak now took Balaam to another point of vision. The result was a prophecy which gave yet another view of the people. Of this the central statement is . . . Jehovah his God is with him,

And the shout of a King is among them.

Thus the people were seen as governed and guided by God and therefore victorious. The burden of this second utterance was the certainty that all the purposes of God must be accomplished when God Himself was King in the midst. The reading of this chapter should conclude at verse twenty-six, as the next section leads to that which follows.

Numbers 24

From the closing sentences in chapter twenty-three we learn that Balaam was taken to yet another place of vision, from whence he looked on the desert. The Spirit of God came upon him and again he uttered only the things which God would have him speak. Here the indexing statement is, How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, Thy tabernacles, O Israel!

Thus there was given to him the vision of a people victorious and prosperous.

The progressive note of these utterances is self-evident. First, there was revealed a people separated to God, dwelling alone. Second, they were seen as a people governed by God. Finally, they were seen therefore as a people victorious.

All this lead to the fourth and final prophecy of Balaam, the principal note of which is: There shall come forth a star out of Jacob.

Thus the far-distant movements of the divine economy were for a moment laid bare to his vision. He beheld a Person shining as a star, swaying a scepter, and conquering as He goes.

The last word having been spoken, Balaam left Balak and went to his place. Having failed to curse the people of God, he set himself to injure them. As John says in his Apocalypse, he "cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication" (Revelation 2:14). How fearfully he succeeded is shown in the subsequent story.

Numbers 25

The influence of Balaam is revealed in what is now recorded. The words of Jesus in His letter to the Church at Pergamum, quoted in our last note, are closely connected with the statement with which this chapter opens. "The people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab: for they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods; and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods."

This action would appear to have been one of simple neighborliness.

Tarrying in the vicinity of the Moabites, they attended their sacrifices and bowed down at their worship.

In doing this they were violating the principle of Balaam's first vision of them as a people dwelling alone. It was an act of rebellion against God and so a corruption of the Covenant.

The account of the action of Phinehas the priest is a revelation of how one man in loyalty to God and jealous for His honor may stand against the false attitude of a people. Phinehas dared to refuse to take part in these false conventionalities and visited with immediate and terrible punishment the two notorious wrongdoers. His action stayed the plague and saved the nation.