How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I denounce whom Jehovah doth not denounce?
Balak hired a prophet to curse Israel, and paid for altars and sacrifices to get it done. What came back was a question that handed the whole matter over to God.
Balaam is not saying the job is too hard for him. He is saying God has already settled it, and God told him so before he ever left home. One writer notes that two different names for God sit in the two halves of the line. What God said in private, Balaam must now say in public:
Balaam first states Balak's summons and his wish that he should curse Jacob and denounce Israel. Then he states that to curse and to denounce is impossible. God has not cursed him; He has not denounced him. In the original the name El, God, goes with Jacob, and Jehovah, the covenant-keeping God, goes with Israel. When Balak's messengers came to Balaam, God had said to him, "You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed." What God told him there in secret he must now speak here in public.
Balak's plan does not just fail. It produces the very thing he was trying to prevent. The curse he paid for turns into a blessing said out loud:
Balaam stated clearly what Balak expected. Then he had to say, "How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?" This should have been enough to break up the meeting. No success was possible. What followed proved it: the more the enemies of God's people tried to draw out a curse against them, the fuller and richer the blessing flowed.
Israel knew nothing about the plot against them. They asked for nothing and prayed for nothing, and God guarded them anyway. Balak's own words fell back on him:
The great principle of the Balaam history is that God was the unasked Guardian and Blesser of His people. The schemes of enemies go on, unknown to Israel, who therefore seeks nothing from God. But He is active for His people out of His own grace to them, and nothing escapes Him… Balak said, "He whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed." He was trying 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 just bringing it on himself.
Balaam was standing high up, looking down on the camp. That physical position pictures something: he is not seeing Israel as their neighbours saw them, but as God sees them — and that is the only reason a blessing is possible at all.
Here we get the answer to the great question: how can God bless a people who in themselves are stiff-necked and rebellious? He can bless them only as He views them from His own standpoint, from the point of His purpose, and with the work of His blessed Son in view. That work is the righteous ground on which He can bless man in a way that agrees with His attributes.
Timing explains Balaam's failure. He came too late: the evil state that a curse could fasten on had already been dealt with. One writer draws a line from that to where the believer stands today:
This also shows us why Balaam could not curse the people. He came after the evil state that the curse belonged to had, as a picture, been removed in death. He also came after the song of the springing well had been sung, and that song speaks of the Spirit. So Romans raises the same challenge: "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?" For those who are in Christ Jesus there can be no condemnation (verse 1), no accusation (verse 33), and no separation (verse 39).
What was true for a nation camped in the plains of Moab is applied by more than one writer to Christians now. The identity of the people has widened; the principle has not moved:
So Balaam was forced to say, "How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how shall I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?" If this is true of Israel, it is certainly true also of those who today are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. God will not allow them to be cursed.
- Settled — Balaam cannot curse, because God has not cursed. He can only say in public what God told him in private.
- Unasked — Israel never prayed about Balaam, because Israel never knew. God guarded them out of His own grace, unasked.
- Standpoint — God blesses a stiff-necked people only as He sees them from His own side. The righteous ground is the work of His Son.
- Backfire — Every new try to force a curse drew out a fuller blessing. The curse fell back on the man who paid for it.
- Yours — No prophet could reverse God's word over Israel. No accuser can reverse it for those in Christ Jesus: no condemnation, no accusation, no separation.
For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him Lo, [it is] a people that shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations.
Balak hired Balaam to curse Israel. Instead, looking down on the camp from a height, Balaam blessed them. He saw a people God had set apart for Himself. Two questions follow: what does it mean to "dwell alone," and why could no curse touch this people?
(The quotes below say "the top of the rocks." That is an older wording for "the top of the crags.")
Balaam's problem was not lack of will but lack of permission.
Even from the enemy's standpoint you can see that the people of God are different from other people. The curse he wanted to hurl dies unspoken on Balaam's lips. Jacob, the supplanter, cannot be cursed; and Israel, God's prince, cannot be defied. El, the Mighty One, has not cursed! Jehovah — the truth-keeping covenant God — has not defied!
Balaam sees Israel from a height, and where he stands changes what he sees.
Here we get the solution to the great question: how can God bless a people who in themselves are stubborn and rebellious? He can do it only as He views them from His own standpoint, from the point of His purpose. He also has the work of His blessed Son in view. That work is the righteous ground on which He can bless man in a way that matches His own character.
That same view changes how we treat one another.
If I look at the people of God "from the top of the rocks," I shall see them as God sees them. I shall see them clothed with all the beauty of Christ — complete in Him, accepted in the Beloved. This is what will enable me to get on with them, to work with them, to have fellowship with them. It lifts me above their points and angles, their blots and blemishes, their failures and weaknesses. If I do not look at them from this high, divine ground, I shall be sure to fix my eye on some little flaw. That will spoil my communion and cool my affection.
So what does "dwell alone" mean?
He states in the plainest way the great and certainly basic privilege of Israel. They were a nation called out to be alone with Jehovah and for Him. This is the basis of all their blessing. They were unlike all the rest of the world in this: they were set apart to be with Jehovah, the true God.
Does this make Israel better than everyone else?
Here we have Israel singled out and set apart to be a separate and distinct people. According to God's thought about them, they were never to be mixed in with the nations or counted among them — not at any time, on any ground, or for any purpose whatever. This is true of Abraham's literal descendants, and true of all believers now. God's people are to be separated to Him. Not because they are better than others, but because of what God is, and of what He would always have His people to be.
Being uncounted by the world sounds like loss. One writer answers that the emptiness is filled by a Guest.
If they are content to "dwell alone," and content not to be "counted among the nations," God Himself will come and live among them. What a wonderful word that is: "Judah became His sanctuary!" Here was a place where the Creator could find rest. All around, the waves of sin rolled over everything. And this is the positive side of separation.
Balaam spoke the truth under compulsion. What he later advised shows he understood exactly what he had said.
Under the compelling power of God, this evil man speaks of the people dwelling alone. But when he had the chance, he advised Israel's enemies to mingle with them. He knew full well what would happen if Israel were drawn into sinful ties with the nations around. Their witness to their God would weaken.
Centuries later, the words still hold.
Other races have merged, and their national identity has been lost. Israel remains distinct still, not counted among the nations, just as Balaam said.
- Alone by God's choice. God set Israel apart to be with Him and for Him. That standing is His gift and the basis of all their blessing, not a reward for being better than others.
- Alone, so no curse lands. Because God had not cursed them, Balaam could not; the verdict was already spoken from above.
- Alone, seen from above. God views His people from His own standpoint and purpose, with the work of His Son as the ground of blessing.
- Alone, so God moves in. Not counted among the nations, they have God Himself living among them. That is separation's positive side.
- Alone, and still standing. Balaam knew mixing would break the witness, and advised it. Nations have merged and vanished; Israel remains uncounted among them.
Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let my soul die the death of the righteous, and let my end be like his!
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Balak said to Balaam, What hast thou done to me? I took thee to curse mine enemies, and behold, thou hast blessed them altogether.
Balak paid for a curse and got a blessing. His protest here is the cry of a man learning that a prophet's words are not for sale. It raises the question the Balaam story exists to answer: who decides whether God's people are blessed or cursed?
Balak is angry and stunned. Stranger still, he does not send the failed prophet home. He asks for a second try from another hilltop.
Balak was astounded and indignant at what Balaam said concerning Israel. Balaam could only reply that he was in the hands of Jehovah. Do we wonder that Balak did not at once drive the prophet out of his territory? Sadly, flesh is always foolish and stubborn toward God (Rom. 1:22; Eph. 4:18). The king suggested that they go to another place and try again.
The new location came with a smaller view of Israel, as if seeing less of the people would make them easier to curse.
Was he so foolish as to think that if they took a more limited view of God's people that would make any difference? How very little these two men really knew of God!
"What have you done to me?" Balak asks, as if the outcome had been the prophet's choice. It was not. Balaam had every reason to want to curse Israel, and no power to do it.
God had committed Himself to bless Israel. So Balaam said, "Behold, I received a command to bless: He has blessed, and I cannot revoke it." Israel's blessing came from God, and Balaam had to announce it. If Balaam had the power to reverse God's blessing, he would gladly have done it. Balak's silver and gold were worth more in his eyes than the people God had blessed.
The bargaining on the hilltop happened out of Israel's sight and hearing. They never asked for protection; they never knew they needed it.
How little did Israel know or imagine what was going on between Jehovah and the enemy. They may have been complaining in their tents at the very moment when God was displaying their perfection through the mouth of the greedy prophet. Balak would gladly have Israel cursed; but, blessed be God, He will not allow anyone to curse His people. He may have to deal with them Himself, in secret, about many things. But He will not let anyone else speak a word against them.
Balak calls Israel "my enemies" — but Israel had been forbidden to attack Moab. He aimed his hired curse at a people God had promised to bless. The words fell back on him.
The great principle of the Balaam story is that God was the uninvited 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 to them, and nothing escapes Him... First Israel was forbidden to touch Moab. Next Balak says, "The one you bless is blessed, and the one you curse is cursed." He was seeking to bring the curse on Israel, though God had said, "Blessed is he who blesses you, and cursed is he who curses you." So he was just bringing it on himself.
The altars on the hilltop were built to buy a curse. The reason it never came lies in what those sacrifices represented.
But Balaam stood too near to the burnt sacrifice (Num. 23:6) to be able to curse them. The fragrance of what that sacrifice represented — the work of Christ — went up to God, who never fails to honour it. So the curse is changed into a blessing.
Balak would not quit. His stubbornness is the very reason each blessing came out richer than the last.
Hatred and unbelief think of circumstances... His persistence in seeking the curse enlarged the blessing; it is always so. He does not know God. And God could not just repeat the blessing already given, so He kept unfolding it further.
Commentators say the same protection covers more than Israel.
If this is true of Israel, it is certainly true also of those who today are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. God will not allow them to be cursed.
- Hired — Balak paid for a curse. The prophet was greedy enough to deliver it, but the words were never his.
- Unasked — God guarded a people who never asked Him to. They may have been complaining in their tents at that very hour.
- Unbreakable — the man hired to undo God's blessing could not take back one word of it.
- Rebounding — the curse aimed at God's people fell on the one who paid for it.
- Enlarged — each new try at cursing drew out fuller blessing. That same protection covers all who are redeemed by the blood of Christ.
And he answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that which Jehovah puts in my mouth?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Balak said to him, Come, I pray thee, with me to another place, from whence thou wilt see them; thou shalt see only the extremity of them and shalt not see them all, and curse me them from thence.
Balak hired Balaam to curse Israel and heard him bless them instead. So he tries a new tactic: not a new prophet, but a new viewpoint. Can moving the prophet change what God has already decided?
One writer sees a calculation behind Balak's choice of viewpoint:
Chapter 22:41 tells us that Balak brought Balaam to the high places of Baal to prophesy against Israel. Here he saw only "a portion of the people" (NASB). Balak wanted Balaam to think that Israel was not a large nation, so that he might curse them more safely.
That plan backfired:
Balak's first effort is to diminish them in Balaam's eyes — he would not have him see too much. This gives force to what Balaam says: "Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel?" The end camp was only the fourth part. The partial view did not diminish the greatness of the people. It only moved him to say, "If only the end is so much, what must be the whole?"
Commentators differ on what the new place was meant to show. Some read Balak as narrowing the view further. Others say the Hebrew points the other way, and that older English translations have misled readers:
In Hebrew, future and present are the same tense. With Keil, we need only read the present instead of the future: "you see only the outermost part of them," instead of "you shall see." From where he had been standing, he had seen only the outermost part of them. Now Balak is going to show him all. He thinks he made a mistake before, and that this was perhaps why he had not succeeded. Divination depended on what was before the eyes.
On this reading, the wider view makes the coming verdict unanswerable:
What force this gives to the announcement! Balaam is looking over the whole camp, from one end to the other: "God has not beheld iniquity in Jacob"! ... Balak might have said, "Balaam, you may see no spot there, but there are plenty elsewhere." Now it is impossible to say so. Look where you will: those whom God has justified cannot be condemned.
Behind the request lies a small idea of God, as if His mind depended on geography. One writer compares a later enemy of Israel who made the same mistake:
What low and contemptible thoughts both King and prophet had of their Creator! They imagined that such tricks and changes of position could completely change His mind about His people. The King of Syria and his advisers were just as stupid when they were at war with Israel in the days of Ahab. They said that the Lord was God of the hills, but not of the valleys. So if the Syrians fought on the lower ground, the victory would be theirs (1 Kings 20).
God had already told Balaam plainly that these people could not be cursed. That he moved on to a new hilltop anyway shows where his heart was:
Balak seems to have imagined that the huge numbers of Israel were the reason Balaam was afraid to curse them. Should Balaam not have said to him: "I cannot go on with this. The Lord has told me clearly, both in Syria and here, that the people cannot be cursed, for He has blessed them"? Balaam stayed with Balak and went where Balak wanted. That shows clearly that he would gladly have cursed God's people if it had been in his power.
Balak kept changing the conditions. He assumed the blessing depended on something in Israel itself. It did not:
At first Balak had evidently thought that if Balaam saw only a small number, he would count them as unimportant, and so curse them. Now he has to change his mind... Balak did not know why God blessed Israel. It was not because they were worthy of blessing. It was because they were His people, chosen by sovereign grace, and redeemed from sin and slavery by the Passover and the crossing of the Red Sea.
The next hilltop carried a fitting name:
The place of the second prophecy is the field of Zophim on the top of Pisgah. "Zophim" means "watchers," and Pisgah, with its wide view, was just the right place for them. It suits the purpose of God all the more to bring out His thoughts about His people.
- Move — Balak answers a failed curse with a change of scenery, not a change of heart. He assumes the verdict depends on the viewpoint.
- View — he first tried to shrink Israel in the prophet's eyes. The small part Balaam saw only made him wonder at the size of the whole.
- God — a new hilltop cannot change the mind of the Creator, any more than fighting in the valleys could.
- Ground — the blessing rested on God's choice and redemption, not on anything Balaam could see or count.
- Result — even with the whole camp in view, the verdict stands: those whom God has justified cannot be condemned.
And he took him to the watchmen's field, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered up a bullock and a ram on [each] altar.
From the high places of Baal, Balak heard Israel blessed instead of cursed. So he tries again: a new hill, fresh altars, the same paid prophet. The verse raises the question the chapter answers. Can a new view, or more sacrifices, change what God has said about His people?
Balak blamed the first failure on where they stood. So he moved the prophet and rebuilt everything.
Balak now took Balaam "into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah," and there he built seven fresh altars and offered a bull and a ram on each one. What low and shameful thoughts both king and prophet had of their Creator! They imagined that such schemes and changes of position could change His mind about His people. The king of Syria and his advisers were just as stupid when they were at war with Israel in the days of Ahab. They suggested that the Lord was God of the hills, but not of the valleys. So if the Syrians fought on the lower ground, victory would be theirs (1 Kings 20).
The mistake behind the move was not geography. It was the king's idea of God.
Balak still hoped that Balaam might be allowed to curse Israel. He had no idea of the faithful, unchanging nature of the living God.
The name of the field is not decoration. It marks a spot chosen for seeing.
"Zophim" means "watchers," for whom Pisgah, with its width of view, was just the right place. Balak knew all about this place, of course; and many a keen and jealous eye, no doubt, had watched the camp from there. All the more, this suits God's purpose of bringing out His thoughts about His people.
From the high places of Baal, Balaam had seen only the edge of Israel. Balak now corrects that, and in doing so hands God a wider stage than he intended.
From the place where he had been standing, he had seen but the outermost part of them; now Balak is going to show him all. He thinks he made a mistake before, and that this was perhaps why he had not succeeded. Divination depended on what was before the eyes. Balaam is now looking over the whole camp, from one end to the other. Think what force that gives to the announcement: "God has not beheld iniquity in Jacob"! How it would spoil this to suppose that Balaam had here only got a partial view! Balak might have said, "Balaam, you may see no spot there, but there are plenty elsewhere." Now it is impossible to say so. Look where you will: those whom God has justified cannot be condemned.
Balak's first calculation had failed. His second rested on a mistake about why God blesses at all.
At first Balak had clearly thought that if Balaam saw only a small number, he would think of them as insignificant, and so curse them. Now he has to change his mind. If a small number could be blessed, perhaps Balaam would decide that a large number was less likely to deserve blessing. Balak did not know why God blessed Israel. It was not because they were worthy of blessing. It was because they were His people, chosen by sovereign grace, and redeemed from sin and slavery by the Passover and the crossing of the Red Sea.
The sacrifices repeat the first set: seven altars, a bull and a ram on each. Writers see human religion at work here.
This is how man — the flesh — would try to propitiate God. Is there anything more offensive to Him?
The number of altars is the giveaway, and it points to what Balaam believed.
God allowed only one altar of burnt offering (Ex. 27:1; Heb. 13:10), for the altar speaks of Christ, the only way of approach to God. But Balaam believed in "many gods and many lords" (1 Cor. 8:4-5).
Israel had no idea any of this was happening. That is exactly the comfort of the scene.
The moment any enemy or accuser enters the scene, the Lord places Himself in front to receive and answer the accusation. His answer never rests on what His people are in themselves. It rests on what He has made them through the perfection of His own work. His glory is linked with them, and in vindicating them He maintains His own glory. He places Himself between them and every accusing tongue.
- Move. Balak shifts Balaam to Zophim on Pisgah, imagining a change of position could change God's mind about Israel.
- Motive. The move exposes a man with no idea of God's unchanging faithfulness, or why God blessed Israel — by sovereign grace, not merit.
- Machinery. Seven altars and fresh sacrifices are human religion at work. God's own way of approach was a single altar, pointing to Christ.
- Magnitude. The wider view backfires. With the whole camp in sight, the verdict "God has not beheld iniquity in Jacob" covers every part of it. Those God has justified cannot be condemned.
- Mediator. Behind the scenes, God steps in front of His accused people. He answers on the ground of His own work in them, not their record.
And [Balaam] said to Balak, Stand here by thy burnt-offering, and I will go to meet yonder.
Balak's first try to have Israel cursed has failed, so he moves the prophet to a new hilltop and builds fresh altars. Two questions follow: can a change of place change God's mind, and whom was Balaam going out to meet?
Moving the ritual to the top of Pisgah was Balak's idea of a fix. One writer calls this a low view of God, and compares it to a later enemy who thought God's power stopped at the hills:
Balak now took Balaam "into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah." There seven fresh altars were built, and a bull and a ram were offered on each one. What low and shameful thoughts both king and prophet had of their Creator! They imagined that such schemes and changes of position could completely change His mind about His people. The king of Syria and his advisers were just as stupid when they were at war with Israel in the days of Ahab. They suggested that Jehovah was God of the hills, but not of the valleys. So if the Syrians fought on the lower ground, victory would be theirs (1 Kings 20).
Balak moved Balaam to a spot with a fuller view of the camp. There his sentence breaks off. English versions, including the ESV above, add "the LORD," but the Hebrew does not:
It seems Balak tried to make Israel look fewer and weaker in Balaam's eyes. He first took him to a place where he could see only a part of them, the outermost part, a fourth of the people. When that plan failed, Balak took Balaam to Pisgah, where the view was more complete. Here Balaam tells Balak to stand by the burnt offering while, he says, "I go to meet." The King James Version says "the Lord," but that word does not appear in the original. In Hebrew it reads, "I will go to meet — over there."
Another writer hears in this the speech of a man who has lost his bearings:
He tells Balak, "Stand here by your burnt offering, while I go and meet — over there." He does not seem to know whom he was going to meet. It is all the most thorough and perfect confusion.
Balaam was not looking for the LORD at all. One writer draws comfort from what happened next:
The words "the Lord" should not have been put into the King James Version of Numbers 23:15. Balaam said to Balak, "stand here by your burnt offering while I meet over there." He did not go to meet Jehovah; he did not wish Him to cross his path again. Numbers 24:1 says plainly that he went "to look for omens"; but Jehovah, in His love to His people (though they were unworthy), would not allow this. So He stepped in a second time, and met Balaam... It is immense comfort to our souls to note these divine activities. The God with whom we have to do delights to "stand between us and the foe."
The name of the place Balak chose works against him:
The place of the second prophecy is the field of Zophim on the top of Pisgah. "Zophim" means "watchers," and Pisgah, with its wide view, was just the right place for them. Balak knew all about this place, of course, and no doubt many a keen and jealous eye had watched the camp from there. All the more, as we have seen, it suits the purpose of God to bring out His thoughts about His people.
Balak waited by his burnt offering for a better answer. He did not get one:
Whatever Balaam's purpose was in raising his altars, he had to learn one thing. No amount of sacrifice could make God change His mind. "God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind" (Numbers 23:19). God could count Israel as His chosen people, quite apart from what they were in themselves. So "He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel." God viewed them in the light of His purpose. Not all the altars and sacrifices — whether to Jehovah or to the spirit Balaam consulted — could change God's purpose to bless those He had chosen.
- New place. Balak disliked the blessing, so he tried a new hilltop and more altars — as if a change of scenery could change God's mind.
- Vague word. Balaam says only that he will go and meet "over there." The name "the LORD" is not in the original. One writer calls the whole scene perfect confusion.
- Wrong appointment. He was not seeking Jehovah at all but omens, and had no wish for Jehovah to cross his path again.
- God intercepted. In love for an unworthy people, God met him anyway and put His own word in his mouth — He delights to stand between His people and the foe.
- Fixed blessing. From the field of "watchers," with the camp in full view, God brought out His own thoughts about Israel. No altar and no sacrifice could move His purpose to bless.
And Jehovah met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus shalt thou speak.
Balak has moved Balaam to a new lookout on the top of Pisgah and built seven fresh altars. He hopes a change of place will change God's mind about Israel. Instead, God meets the prophet a second time and hands him words he never wanted to speak.
Before he withdrew, Balaam told Balak he would go and meet "yonder," naming no one. (The ESV supplies "the LORD" here; commentators note those words were added by translators.) One writer reads that vagueness as evasion:
He does not claim to be going to meet Jehovah; he only says, "I will go to meet yonder." The prophet would have been glad to meet his familiar spirits at the meeting place, but instead, "The LORD met Balaam." Balaam had chosen to ignore the plain command of Jehovah about His people. Now he must be the unwilling instrument for announcing His thoughts about them.
Balaam had no wish to meet God again. God stepped in anyway, and one writer explains why:
He did not go to meet Jehovah; he did not want Him to cross his path again. Numbers 24:1 says plainly that he went "to look for omens"; but Jehovah, in His love for His people (unworthy as they were), would not allow this. So He stepped in a second time and met Balaam. He put a fresh word in his mouth and said, "Go again to Balak and speak thus." It is a great comfort to our souls to notice these actions of God. The God we deal with delights to "stand between us and the foe."
A word "put in the mouth" leaves the speaker no say in what he says. Balaam had once reported only part of what God told him. This time he could not hold anything back:
Back with Balak, Balaam has to speak the word that God had put in his mouth. This time God will not let him keep anything back. He had told only part of the truth to the leaders of Moab, when God commanded him not to go with them and not to curse His people. Now he must speak all that God has given him. What he says takes the form of a parable or proverb. It is a revelation from God, and it points forward as prophecy.
The message Balaam carries back corrects Balak's idea of God. Balak thought God could be talked round:
Balak had no proper idea of who God is. So Balaam told him, "God is not man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind." This was a lesson both Balak and Balaam needed. Because they could change their minds to suit themselves, they thought God was the same kind of being as they were.
That is why the second try fails just as the first did. One writer carries the comfort further:
Now it is impossible for God to lie, as Titus 1:2 tells us. His word stands: when He speaks, He makes it good. God's blessing rested on Israel, and no power of the adversary that Balaam could use could reverse it. The blessings given to the church are far higher than those given to Israel. So as we think about the spiritual and heavenly blessings that are ours in Christ, let us rejoice in the assurance these verses give.
The word God gives is not about how Israel was behaving in the camp below. It shows Israel as God Himself sees them:
Here we find ourselves on truly high ground, and on ground as solid as it is high. This is, in truth, "the top of the rocks" — the pure air and wide view of "the hills," where the people of God are seen only in "the vision of the Almighty." They are seen as He sees them, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that. All their flaws are hidden from view, and all His beauty is seen upon them.
- Met. Balaam went out hoping for a familiar spirit, not for God. God met him instead and stopped the second try as He stopped the first.
- Guarded. God stepped in because He loves His people. He "delights to stand between us and the foe," so the door Balaam wanted was shut.
- Compelled. A word put in the mouth leaves nothing to the speaker. Balaam had once held part of the truth back. Now he must deliver all of it.
- Unchanging. God is not a man who lies or changes His mind. So the blessing He has already spoken cannot be reversed.
- Seen. From the heights, God describes Israel as He sees them, not as they were behaving. Writers apply the same assurance to believers blessed in Christ.
And he came to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt-offering, and the princes of Moab with him; and Balak said to him, What has Jehovah spoken?
Balaam has just met God a second time on Pisgah, where the king of Moab waits beside fresh altars with his princes around him. The king's question sounds reverent, but he had wanted this prophet to curse Israel.
Balak stands by his burnt offering again, but on new ground.
Balak now took Balaam "to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah," and there they built seven fresh altars and offered a bull and a ram on each one. What low and shameful thoughts both the king and the prophet had of their Creator! They imagined that such tricks and changes of place could completely change His mind about His people. The king of Syria and his advisers were just as foolish in Ahab's day. They said Jehovah was God of the hills but not of the valleys, so the Syrians expected victory if they fought on lower ground (1 Kings 20).
Before this verse, Balaam told Balak to wait while he went off alone. What happened out of sight explains the message he brings back.
The words "the Lord" do not belong in the older English translation of Numbers 23:15. Balaam said to Balak, "Stand here by your burnt offering while I meet over there." He was not going out to meet Jehovah. He did not want Him to cross his path again. Numbers 24:1 says directly that he went "to look for omens." But Jehovah loved His people, unworthy as they were, and He would not allow this. So He stepped in a second time, and met Balaam. He put a fresh word in his mouth and said, "Go again to Balak and speak this way." It is an immense comfort to our souls to notice these divine activities. The God with whom we have to do delights to "stand between us and the foe."
So Balaam comes back to Balak carrying words he did not choose.
The place-name carries its own message, and Balak was not hearing the answer alone.
There, at the "Watchman's field," Jehovah was indeed watching over His beloved people. He put a word in Balaam's mouth, and Balaam had to speak it to the man who wanted him to curse God's people. Balak was not alone; his princes were with him as witnesses to what the God of Israel thought of His people. Balaam claimed to be the Lord's servant, and Balak asked him what the Lord had spoken. So he had no excuse. He himself admitted that the message through Balaam came from Jehovah, the God of Israel.
Balak names the LORD, yet he is not waiting on God — he is hoping for better news. One writer sets him beside Cornelius, a man who invited Peter to Caesarea and then listened.
Balak's question when Balaam returned to him was remarkable: "What has Jehovah spoken?" But we know he was not willing to accept whatever Jehovah might choose to say. His hope was that the second message would be more favourable to Moab than the first. What a delightful contrast is the attitude of Cornelius and his friends! Peter went to them in Caesarea at their invitation, and they told him: "You have been kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord." (Acts 10:33) Such an attitude of soul brings blessing.
A person can ask what God has said and still be no better for the answer.
Balaam's reply is not another excuse about being unable to curse. It is a statement about who God is.
He returns to Balak, but this time he does more than confess that he cannot curse. There is a commanding power in his reply: "God is not man, that He should lie." The word Balaam uses here — "El" — expresses absolute Deity. This sets man in sharp contrast with God in His essential Being. Blessing — our blessing through grace — depends on what He is.
One writer draws out the difference between God and people:
Men lie to one another, but God is altogether different. Men may change their minds, because they do not know where their own commitments will lead; but God knows the end from the beginning and has no need to change His mind. What He had said to Balaam and through Balaam, He would carry out; He would accomplish every word.
- Position. Balak changed the place, the altars and the view. He imagined new scenery could change God's mind about His people.
- Protection. Balaam went off hoping to find omens. God met him instead, because He delights to stand between His people and their enemy.
- Publicity. The princes of Moab stood there as witnesses. Balak's own question admitted the message came from the God of Israel, so he had no excuse.
- Posture. Asking what God has said is not the same as accepting it. Balak wanted a better answer; Cornelius wanted the answer.
- Permanence. The reply moved from Balaam's weakness to God's nature. God does not lie and does not change His mind, so He will carry out every word He has spoken.
Then he took up his parable and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear! hearken unto me, son of Zippor!
Balak's first attempt to get Israel cursed has failed. He moves Balaam to a new spot and asks again what the LORD has said. The answer opens with a command, not a curse: the king must stand up and listen.
Older translations render this phrase "took up his parable." That wording can mislead a reader today.
The Old Testament often uses the word "parable" for figurative language where no actual parable is told. So Balaam "took up his parable," Numbers 23:7, 18, and Job "continued his parable," Job 27:1; 29:1.
The reason a second discourse exists is that Balak thought a different view of Israel would produce a different verdict.
This setback did not stop Balak. He suggested they go to another place to see the armies of Israel: "You shall see only a fraction of them and shall not see them all. Then curse them for me from there." Was he so foolish as to think a more limited view of God's people would make any difference? How very little these two men really knew of God!
The summons names the king himself. Other men heard it too.
Balak was not alone; his princes were with him as witnesses to what the God of Israel thought of His people. Balaam claimed to be the Lord's servant, and Balak asked him what the Lord had spoken. This left him without excuse. He had admitted that the message through Balaam came from the LORD, the God of Israel.
Balak had asked his question expecting a softer answer the second time. He got a rebuke instead.
What an awful rebuke this was to unbelieving Balak. He had surely expected a change in the mind of that God whose aid and help Balaam was to call upon. Maybe he thought that God would give way after a second asking. Maybe He would let Balaam speak a kinder word, as He did when Balak's princes first came to him. Instead, Balaam shouts to Balak to rise and listen, with an awful commanding voice — for so it must have been. Now Balak hears that God's promises to Israel are unchangeable. Nothing can ever reverse them.
Balaam has more to say this time than he did the first time.
Balaam continued: "Behold, I received a command to bless: He has blessed, and I cannot revoke it." This is a step beyond his first message. "God has not cursed"; now he passes from the negative to the positive. "He has blessed" — but his added words were venomous: "and I cannot revoke it." He would gladly have done so for reward. But how delightful to our souls to hear the enemy of God's people confess in public that he cannot reverse God's grace towards His chosen.
Balak is commanded to listen, and he does listen — and gains nothing. The difference between his posture and a believing one is set out plainly.
Balak's question when Balaam returned was remarkable: "What has the LORD spoken?" Yet from what we know of him, he was not willing to accept whatever the LORD chose to say. His hope was that the second message would be more favourable to Moab than the first. What a delightful contrast was the attitude of Cornelius and his friends! They had invited Peter to Caesarea, and when he came they said: "You have done well to come. So now we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord" (Acts 10:33). Such an attitude of soul brings blessing.
- Rise — the man Balak hired orders the king to his feet; the king who paid for a curse becomes the audience for a blessing.
- Hear — "taking up a parable" means figurative speech, not a story with a hidden meaning; Balaam speaks only what God commands him to say.
- Named — "son of Zippor" makes it personal, and his princes stand by as witnesses, so he has no excuse.
- Unchanged — a new place and a narrower view of Israel change nothing. Balak hoped a second asking would soften God's mind. Instead he hears that nothing can reverse the promise.
- Unmoved — Balak hears and gains nothing. Cornelius and his friends gathered to hear all that God commanded. The command to hear blesses only those willing to accept the answer.
God is not a man, that he should lie; neither a son of man, that he should repent. Shall he say and not do? and shall he speak and not make it good?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Behold, I have received [mission] to bless; and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
Balak paid Balaam to curse Israel, but the prophet must bless instead — and that blessing cannot be taken back. So what does a people's blessing rest on, if not on how they behave? (Older translations, quoted by the writers below, read "I cannot reverse it.")
This is Balaam's second try, and his words go further than the first time.
Here Balaam goes further than he did in his first message. Then it was "God has not cursed"; now he moves from the negative to the positive: "He has blessed." But his added words carry poison: "and I cannot reverse it." He would gladly have reversed it for a reward. What a delight to our souls, to hear the enemy of God's people confess in public that he has no power to reverse God's grace towards His chosen ones.
The verse before it says God is not a man that He should lie. That is the ground on which this one stands.
In this majestic message, Israel's blessing and safety do not rest on Israel at all. They rest on the truth and faithfulness of Jehovah. "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind." This puts Israel on safe ground. God must be true to Himself. Is there any power that can stop Him from keeping His word and His oath? No. "He has blessed; and I cannot reverse it." God will not reverse the blessing, and Satan cannot.
Balak keeps moving Balaam to new viewpoints. One writer sees a bigger dispute behind the scene on the hills of Moab.
Balak may take Balaam from place to place to look the people over, but God lets the prophet speak from only one point of view — what they are in the eyes of God. Remember, God is answering the enemy. What is happening on the high places of Moab is a dispute between Himself and the useless power of Satan. He has His own way of speaking to His people, and His own way of speaking about them in front of the enemy. It is a sweet and precious privilege that His people get to hear how He speaks of them. Such is our God. Our blessing depends on what He is.
This second message does more than shield Israel. It shows how God accounts for a people with a bad record.
Balaam said he had received a command to bless, for God had blessed Israel and Balaam could not reverse it, much as he wanted to. More than this: "He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor has He seen wickedness in Israel." God had disciplined Israel severely for their disobedience and rebellion. Yet He tells Israel's enemies that He had not seen iniquity in Israel. Why? Because God saw them as sheltered by the blood of sacrifice… The first prophecy sees Israel as sanctified; the second adds that they are justified.
The two names he uses matter as well.
Notice too that he used the natural name Jacob ("Supplanter") as well as the name of grace, Israel ("prince with God"). This shows God's grace in justifying the ungodly.
Why was the curse never allowed to land? Moses later gives the answer, and writers apply it to believers now.
But can our failures change God's purposes of grace toward us? Will He stop loving us, erase our names from the book of life, and throw us back where He found us? Blessed be His holy name, NO! He chose us in Christ before the world was made… He has washed, sanctified, and justified us, and has sealed and anointed us with the Holy Spirit. All this must stand for ever, for God is faithful, whatever His people may be. In His righteous government He may discipline us, just as He disciplined Israel long ago, but He will never abandon His purposes of grace. "The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable" (Rom. 11:29). Listen to Moses in Deut. 23:5: "the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loved you."
- Commanded — Balaam is not offering an opinion; he is under orders. The blessing came from the heart of God, not from the prophet. Neither Balak's money nor Balaam's greed could bend it.
- Grounded — the blessing holds because God does not lie and does not change His mind. Israel's safety rests on His character, not on their record.
- Positive — the first message said God has not cursed; this one says He has blessed. First sanctification, then justification: God sees no iniquity in Jacob, because He sees them sheltered by the blood of sacrifice.
- Public — God says this in front of the enemy. The very man hired to curse them announces what God thinks of His people.
- Irreversible — God will not reverse it and Satan cannot. The reason lies further back still: He turned the curse into a blessing because He loved them.
He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen wrong in Israel; Jehovah his God is with him, and the shout of a king is in his midst.
Balaam came to curse Israel. Instead God made him say what He Himself sees when He looks at His people, at a time when they were at their worst. How can a holy God look at a sinful people and say He sees no iniquity in them?
(The writers below use an older English translation. It reads "iniquity" and "perverseness" where the ESV has "misfortune" and "trouble.")
God is not speaking to Israel here. He is speaking about Israel, to someone who wanted them destroyed.
We must remember that God is answering the enemy. What is taking place on the high places of Moab is a controversy between Himself and the futile power of Satan. He has His own way of speaking to His people, and He has His way of speaking of them in the face of the enemy. What a sweet and precious privilege, that His people may hear how He speaks of them!
This is not a claim that Israel behaved well. It is about where God's eye rests.
Only on the ground of the grace that justifies could God call them what they were not. He saw them even now as what He would make them through the Saviour. This is what is before His mind. Clearly, God cannot justify sinners unless He blots out what they are and brings in what they are not. How can this be? Justification comes through another alone. Only in this way has God "not beheld iniquity in Jacob." It is not that He denies it; nor that there was no iniquity on their part, for indeed there was. "Neither has He seen perverseness in Israel." It is a question of what He looks at.
Something stood between God's eye and the people's sin. It also explains how He could discipline the very people He refused to condemn.
God compels Balaam to say, "He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither has He seen perverseness in Israel." Balaam says it at a time when they were as perverse as they could possibly be in themselves. But the blood was on the mercy seat. God's eye rested on that blood, which spoke to Him of a perfect sacrifice for sin. So He would not allow the enemy to curse His people, or even to accuse them. He still disciplined them for their faults, as a people who ought to have been as holy in their ways as in their standing before God. All this was a picture, and imperfect under the law. But now it is completely and eternally true that God does not charge sin to those who are under the shelter of the blood of Christ.
In the first oracle Balaam could only say God had not cursed them. Here he says God has blessed them — and no one can argue God back into looking at what He has removed.
It is not merely that they are a separated people dwelling alone; they are a justified people, having the Lord their God with them, and the shout of a king among them. "He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither has He seen perverseness in Israel." The enemy may say, "There is iniquity and perverseness there all the while." Yes, but who can make Jehovah behold it, when He Himself has been pleased to blot it all out as a thick cloud for His name's sake? If He has cast it behind His back, who can bring it before His face?
Being cleared of charges is not the whole story. God clears His people so that He can live among them.
"The LORD their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them." The distinguishing mark of the people of God is that He is in them and among them. Wherever this is not the case, the saints show utter feebleness. It is a blessed truth that God has forever saved and justified His children. But He did it so that He may "dwell among them."
One writer reads the word the ESV gives as "trouble" as "labour," and finds its answer in the sound at the end of the verse.
When Balaam's unwilling lips said that God "has not beheld labour in Israel," the word used is "labour" — what perverseness produces — and not "perverseness" itself. Balaam then shows how this comes about, when he says that not only is "the LORD their God with them," but also "the shout of a king is among them." That ringing shout of loyalty which welcomes the King is indeed the jubilee cry which proclaims liberty to the worn-out worker. No rest but in "the shout of a King!" Would that our hearts knew it better, and echoed it with the joyous songs that fit it! A King! our King!
This truth does not make sin a small thing. It tells the believer where he stands while the Spirit still judges the evil within.
When we apply this to ourselves, we must clearly separate two things. One is the judgment of the Spirit of God within us about the evil of the flesh. The other is the testimony of the Spirit about what we are before Him in Christ. We often find the soul judging itself rightly, yet forgetting the ground on which it stands before God. That resting place of faith is what He has done for us in the Lord Jesus.
- Blessed — God would not let the enemy curse His people, so the hired curse never had a chance. He spoke these words to the enemy, not to Israel.
- Blotted — He does not deny the iniquity. He blots it out, and He will not even let the enemy accuse the people He has justified.
- Blood — His eye rests on the sacrifice on the mercy seat. That never stops Him disciplining the people He refuses to condemn.
- Beside them — God justifies His people so that He can live among them. Where He is not among them, His people are weak.
- Blast — the shout of a King in the camp is the cry of liberty and loyalty, the mark of a people who know who reigns over them.