And Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you;
At Shechem, Joshua's last address lists what God did for Israel, not what Joshua did. Here the attack changes shape, from armies to a hired curse, and Balak's summons to Balaam raises a question Israel never knew was asked: can anyone put God's people under a curse?
Joshua's speech names one enemy after another — Egypt, the Amorites, now Balak.
Are there enemies? They only set in stronger relief the almighty grace of God acting in favour of His people. The Egyptian who had kept them in slavery is judged. Destruction overtook him in the Red Sea as he opposed their deliverance. The Amorite lived outside the limits of the Jordan and sought to block their passage; he is conquered. Balak is the subtle enemy. By means of Balaam he seeks to persuade God to turn His face away from His people. He is brought to confusion, and forced to hear blessings pouring out from the lips of the man he had called to curse.
Balak moved against a people who were under orders not to touch him.
When Balak, the king of Moab, saw "all that Israel had done to the Amorites... Moab was in great dread of the people." There was no need for Moab to fear Israel. God was not giving Israel the inheritance of the children of Esau or of the children of Lot (Deut. 2:5, 9, 19). The hostility towards God's people was not because of anything Israel had done, or threatened to do, to Moab.
Joshua says Balak rose up and fought. Long after, Jephthah, a leader of Israel, made a different point to the Ammonites:
He reminds Ammon of the animosity of Balak toward Israel when they came out of Egypt (Num. 22-24), but that he did not fight against Israel.
Balak's weapon was a hired mouth, not a drawn sword. The second half of the verse names it.
The whole contest happened on the hilltops of Moab, out of sight of the camp below.
It is worth watching the scene played out on the high places of Baal. There we see the great question at stake, we listen to the speakers, and we are let in behind the scenes on such an important occasion. How little Israel knew or imagined what was going on between the Lord and the enemy. They may have been grumbling in their tents at that very moment. God was setting out their perfection through the tongue of the greedy prophet.
Balak hired a curse. What he met was God's own answer on behalf of people who could not have answered for themselves.
It is God's right alone to declare the beauty, dignity, and perfection of His people, since He Himself gave them those things... and truly He does it in a way worthy of Himself, and never more wonderfully than when the enemy comes out to injure, to curse, or to accuse. So when Balak seeks to curse the seed of Abraham, the Lord's word is, "I have not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither have I seen perverseness in Israel"... He always puts Himself between His people and every tongue that would accuse them. He does not answer the accusation by pointing to what His people are in themselves, but to what He Himself has made them, and where He has set them.
The words quoted from Numbers 23:21 follow an older English Bible. The ESV reads, "He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel."
Balak did not stop at one attempt; he moved Balaam from place to place. The result was the opposite of what he paid for.
Hatred and unbelief think about circumstances. Balak, frightened by the sight of Israel, tries in the folly of unbelief to pull Balaam away from what he himself dreaded. Unbelief never considers the thoughts of the Lord, and the people were surely not hidden from Him. His persistence in seeking the curse enlarged the blessing; it is always so.
The same attack goes on today. So does the answer.
Satan works tirelessly to bring a curse against us, just because we are redeemed. God's enemy did the same in the history of His people: his aim was to curse them. We have to resist him, standing firm in the faith. His accusations are made to God, and God answers for us. Faith takes up the answer of God, as in Zechariah 3.
- Fear — Balak moved against Israel out of dread. Israel had done nothing to him, and God had barred them from taking Moab's land.
- Hire — he paid for a curse instead of drawing a sword. Jephthah later said Balak never fought Israel.
- Hidden — the real contest was between God and the enemy on the high places. Israel knew nothing of it, and may have been grumbling while God declared them perfect.
- Answer — God does not point to what His people are in themselves, but to what He has made them. He stands between them and every accusing tongue.
- Enlarged — each fresh try for a curse only drew out more blessing. The same attack on the redeemed goes on, and faith still takes up God's answer.
but I would not hearken unto Balaam, and he blessed you expressly, and I delivered you out of his hand.
In his farewell speech, Joshua repeats God's own words about Israel's past. Here God recalls a danger the people never saw: Balak, king of Moab, hired the prophet Balaam to curse them, and God turned the curse into blessing and rescue.
All this happened out of sight of the people it concerned. Balak and Balaam worked on the hilltops above the camp while Israel went about an ordinary day below.
Did Israel know how wonderfully God, their LORD, was defending their cause — and indeed His own sovereign right of grace against the enemy? No, they were unaware, resting at ease in their tents, while the battle was fought and won on the high places of Moab.
God may correct His own people in private. What He lets an enemy say about them is another matter.
How little did Israel know or imagine what was going on between the LORD and the enemy. They may have been complaining in their tents at the very moment when God was declaring their perfection through the mouth of the greedy prophet. Balak wanted Israel cursed; but, blessed be God, He will not let anyone curse His people. He may have to deal with them Himself, in secret, about many things. But He will not let anyone else say a word against them.
Joshua's account says only that God would not listen. Another passage of Scripture gives the reason.
Again and again Balak, king of Moab, tried to use these hostile influences against this people. He hated them as much as he feared them. But God stepped in every time. Truly it could be said of His people, "no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed." There was "no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel." The LORD their God turned the curse into a blessing for them, and why? "Because the LORD your God loved you" (Deut. 23:5). And that is always the great reason for God's intervention.
Israel never asked for this rescue. They did not even know they were in danger.
The great principle of the Balaam history is that God was the unrequested Guardian and Blesser of His people. The schemes of enemies go on, and Israel knows nothing of them, so Israel asks nothing from God. But He is active for His people out of His own grace toward them, and nothing escapes Him... Balak was seeking to bring the curse on Israel when God had said, "Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse you." So he was only bringing it on himself.
The words "he blessed you" understate what happened. The push for a curse ended by drawing more out of God than Israel had before.
The enemy's attempt did not simply make God repeat the same blessing. It drew out His activity, as it were, to bring out all the riches of His blessings. He carries out His own purposes according to His own will and thoughts.
That blessing reached far past Balaam's own day.
So God turned the curse Balaam intended into the most magnificent blessing ever spoken over the people of God. It reaches down to the last days, when Israel will be exalted under the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth.
In the verses just before this one, God recalls battles fought with weapons. Balaam used words instead, yet God ends both accounts the same way: "I delivered you."
And when weapons failed and the king hired the prophet to curse the nation, He adds, "I would not listen to Balaam. Indeed, he blessed you. So I delivered you out of his hand." Enemies may attack by force or by cunning. They may fight openly on the battlefield here on earth, or bring accusations against us in heaven. In all these things "we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."
Joshua is not giving a history lesson for its own sake. He retells what God did so it will change how Israel lives.
But God intervened, and Balaam's cursing turned to blessing for Israel, so that God delivered them from Moab (v.10). Such a reminder that God was for Israel should have been a great incentive to them to cling all the more firmly to the Lord.
- Unseen. The danger was real, and the people never knew it. God won the fight on the heights while they rested in their tents.
- Unasked. They asked for nothing, because they knew of no threat. God guarded them out of His own grace, not in answer to prayer.
- Loved. Scripture gives the reason God would not listen to Balaam: He loved them. That is always why He steps in.
- Enlarged. The attack did not just fail. It drew out fuller blessing than Israel had before, reaching to the last days.
- Response. Joshua retells all this so the people will cling to the Lord. The memory of what God did should shape what they do.