And Balaam saw that it was good in the sight of Jehovah to bless Israel, and he went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness.
Balaam was hired to curse Israel, and the curses kept coming out as blessing. Now he stops hunting for omens, turns toward the wilderness, and looks down at the camp.
Balaam kept telling Balak to wait by the altar while he went off to meet God. This verse says what he was really going out to find. One writer treats it as the solution to a puzzle:
Balaam pretended that the sacrifices were to Jehovah. He said to Balak, "Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps the LORD will come to meet me." We learn in the first verse of the next chapter what Balaam really sought. This is the key that unlocks the puzzle for us. He was not seeking Jehovah's presence, but enchantments. That is, he sought the spirit or spirits he was familiar with, and his sacrifices were for them.
(The ESV says "omens." The older wording these writers use is "enchantments.")
Balaam's danger was not open paganism. He wrapped dealings with demons in the name of the God of Israel. His own wording exposed him:
Why the word "perhaps"? Did God ever refuse to meet a soul that sincerely sought Him? Why this language of uncertainty? It was pious cant. When he turned aside to "a bare height" Balaam had no wish whatever to meet Jehovah. His one desire was that Jehovah would let him alone, so that he could do what Balak wished and earn his reward. Numbers 24:1 tells us definitely that he went "to seek for enchantments," which means he was trying to get through to the demons he was used to dealing with.
He stopped because nothing had worked. The reason lay outside his skill:
Balaam used enchantments himself. Yet he had to confess, "Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel."... If there was no natural power to overcome the people of God, neither was there any diabolical power that could prevail against them.
But giving up the practice is not the same as repenting of it:
Balaam was now fully convinced that it was useless to turn aside any more to seek enchantments. He had proved by experience that the power of Hell is of no use against the power of God, and that nothing could turn His heart away from the people of His choice. This should have produced in him a broken and contrite spirit, but sadly it produced no such effect!
Balaam tried again, and God blocked him. The same writer draws comfort from that:
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 seek for enchantments." But Jehovah, in His love for His people (although they were unworthy), would not allow this... It is an immense comfort to our souls to notice these divine activities. The God we have to do with delights to "stand between us and the foe."
Two things change at once — what he stops doing, and where he looks:
Balaam sees at last that God is set on blessing. He yields to the power of God, no longer goes out after enchantments, and the Spirit of God comes upon him... Notice here that this is not a look ahead to Canaan, nor Israel in their permanent homes. Balaam turns his face towards the wilderness and sees Israel living in their tents. There the Spirit sees them, and declares the beauty and the order of the people in the eyes of God.
Another writer raises the obvious objection:
It is not what will be true in the future Canaan that he is speaking of, but what is true of the people of God here and now, in the wilderness... He says, What! with all their miserable sins, sorrows, and quarrels? Yes, for God sees the things that are not, as He had already refused to see the things that were — their iniquity and perverseness. Let anyone stumble at it who will: we glory in it!
God does not stop at clearing His people of sin:
When we have any matter completely cleared before God from all question of sin, it is not His way to stop there. As we know, freedom follows for the Christian, quite apart from what he once was. He is free to enter into the positive enjoyment of two things: the place of blessing in which he stands, and God Himself, now truly known in Christ.
- Exposed. This verse is the key to everything before it. What Balaam called "meeting the LORD" was really a hunt for omens.
- Disguised. He hid dealings with demons under pious talk about the LORD.
- Defeated. He stopped because he had failed, not because he repented. No power of hell can prevail against God's people.
- Guarded. Israel lived in their tents while God stood between them and the foe.
- Beautiful. With sin cleared, the Spirit describes the people as they are now, in the wilderness — and they are lovely to God.
And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel dwelling [in tents] according to his tribes; and the Spirit of God came upon him.
Balaam set out to curse Israel and found he could not. Here he turns toward the wilderness, looks down on Israel camped tribe by tribe, and the Spirit of God comes on a man who never wanted to bless them.
Balaam is not walking among the people when he sees them. He is up on the hilltop, looking down.
But Balaam set his face "toward the wilderness" — why? Because the children of Israel were still in the wilderness. The wilderness was not Canaan, but Israel was there. The world is not heaven nor the glory, but the church is there now. While the church is in the wilderness, the Spirit of God can take up the parable and show what the church is in God's eye. So here, Balaam is not walking through the tents of Israel, or he would have heard the murmurings and discontent of Israel. He is not in the camp. He has gone up to the top of the hill. Looking at them with God's eye, what does he see? Israel abiding in their tents according to their tribes.
The Spirit coming on Balaam is not a sign that Balaam was right with God. Commentators return to this again and again as one of the most sobering facts in the chapter.
Notice how remarkably the Spirit of God works here. Balaam is not regenerate, and he is linked with the enemies of God, and yet the Spirit puts a word in his mouth and compels its utterance. That word is as true as any that inspiration ever uttered — blessedly true — and yet spoken by the unwilling lips of a wicked man! What an illustration of the mighty, irresistible power of that Spirit, and what a joy to know that the power is for us and not against us. Alas, poor Balaam! He may speak by the Spirit, but be a stranger to the Spirit.
The same danger reaches past Balaam. We can speak about holy things and stay cold toward them.
We must pause here and put a question to our own hearts. Is it not possible for us to "see" in an intellectual way, and even to speak of the precious things of God, without our own hearts being moved by them? As we read God's Word and come to understand its teaching, let us exercise our hearts and consciences. Then the truth may get a firm hold of us, and shape and influence our lives.
The phrase describing how Israel camped is not a throwaway detail. Their positions were assigned, not chosen.
What order! Balaam saw Israel abiding in tents "according to their tribes." Our God is a God of order. When the Lord Jesus fed the five thousand, He did not let them drop down on the grass as they pleased. He said, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each" (Luke 9:14). Jehovah Himself planned Israel's camp in the wilderness. He arranged the tribes around the Tabernacle in four groups of three, each under its own banner (Num. 2). In the same way, God has placed every member in the body of Christ. He supplies each one from the endless resources of the Head in heaven, giving all that is needed for the blessing and growth of the whole. "God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as He chose" (1 Cor. 12:18).
Where the ESV has Israel "camping," older translations read that Israel was "abiding in his tents." The word for tents carries the sense of covering, and that is where one writer finds the reason the curse failed.
Why could Balaam not curse God's people? The secret is found in Numbers 24:2, where Balaam "saw Israel abiding in his tents [covered] according to their tribes." Again, "How lovely are your tents [covered], O Jacob" (v. 5). The people were stubborn and rebellious, but in the picture they were covered. So Balaam, the false prophet, had to speak truth against his own will, because he had received a command to bless.
Balaam's opinion of Israel had nothing to do with the outcome, and neither did Israel's opinion of themselves.
The great question is not so much what the enemy may think of God's people, or what they may think about themselves, or what they may think of one another. The real, all-important question is: what does God think about them? … God sees us, thinks of us, speaks about us, and acts towards us according to what He Himself has made us and has done for us. He deals with us according to the perfection of His own work. "Onlookers may find many faults"; but as regards our standing, our God sees us only in the comeliness of Christ; we are perfect in Him.
- Sight — From the hilltop Balaam sees what God sees. Inside the camp he would have heard only murmuring.
- Spirit — The Spirit came on him with irresistible power, yet he stayed a stranger to the Spirit. Speaking by the Spirit is not the same as knowing Him.
- Order — God arranged the camp Himself, tribe by tribe. He places each member in the body of Christ the same way.
- Covering — The tents speak of a covering. No curse could touch the people, because in the picture they were covered.
- Verdict — The enemy's view settles nothing, and neither does the people's view of themselves. God sees them in the perfection of His own work.