How goodly are thy tents, Jacob, and thy tabernacles, Israel!
Balak hired Balaam to curse Israel, but from the heights above the camp the prophet blessed them instead. What did he see from up there, and why is God's view of His people so unlike the view at ground level?
The man who said these words was not a believer. The quotes below follow an older translation, which reads "goodly" where the ESV reads "lovely," and "tabernacles" where it reads "encampments." One writer uses him as a warning that the Spirit can work through someone who is still lost:
A person may share in the Holy Spirit — that is, take part in His workings — without necessarily having received the Holy Spirit who lives in the saints. In them He is the seal of their faith and redemption. It was by the Holy Spirit that Balaam looked down from the heights on the beauty of the camp of Israel. He rejoiced and exclaimed, "How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, and your tabernacles, O Israel!" — and yet what followed shows that he was not a child of God.
Where Balaam stood decided what he saw. Ground level would have given him a very different report:
Balaam is not walking through the tents of Israel, or he would have heard the grumbling and discontent of Israel. He is not in the camp; he has gone up to the top of the hill, and, looking at them with God's eye, what does he see? Israel settled in their tents according to their tribes.
Balaam's blessing opens with the tents, not with the people living in them. One writer traces those coverings back to the tabernacle itself:
Read his whole third parable carefully and you will see that Balaam begins with the coverings of the people before he speaks of the people themselves. In Exodus 26 the instructions for the tabernacle and its fittings describe its layers by three names: the tabernacle (v. 6), the tent (v. 12), and the coverings (v. 14). All these things spoke to God of Christ, whose personal perfections cover His people and secure every blessing for them. How suggestive, then, are Balaam's words: "How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, and your tabernacles, O Israel!" Sadly, the unhappy man was incapable of appreciating the sweetness of what he said.
Human eyes saw shabby desert dwellings. God saw something else — and learning to see as He sees changes how you treat other believers:
Suppose one had gone down to examine those tents and dwellings. In the sight of man they might have looked "black as the tents of Kedar." But looked at in the vision of the Almighty they were "goodly," and whoever did not see them that way needed to have "his eyes opened." If I look at the people of God "from the top of the rocks," I will see them as God sees them: clothed with all the loveliness 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, to rise above their rough points and angles, their blots and blemishes, their failures and weaknesses.
God's holiness and His verdict never clash. The same writer holds both together:
In the very next chapter Israel fell into terrible evil. Did that change God's verdict? Surely not. He judged and disciplined them for their evil. He is holy, and He can never approve in His people anything contrary to His nature. But He could never reverse His verdict about them... the moment an enemy comes out to curse or accuse, He stands in front of His people and says, "I see no iniquity" — "How goodly are their tents."
Balaam saw a camp gathered around the God who lived among them. One writer carries that straight over to today:
God had deep pleasure in viewing His people gathered around Himself, as He dwelt in their midst. It is the same today. God dwells among His people; they are a "dwelling place for God by the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22); and it is with deep delight that He views His own as gathered around the Lord in the assembly.
One objection remains, and the writer meets it head-on:
Do you think that such views of God's grace will feed a spirit of lawlessness? Far from it! We may be sure we are never further from that terrible evil than when we are breathing the pure and holy air of "the top of the rocks"... And the only true and effective way to raise the standard of moral conduct is to keep resting in this most precious and calming truth, that God sees us perfect in Christ.
- Height — Balaam speaks from the hilltop, not from inside the camp. At ground level he would have heard only grumbling.
- Covering — He praises the tents before the people. Those coverings picture the perfections of Christ, which cover His people and secure their blessing.
- Verdict — What man calls black, God calls lovely. The difference is not in the tents but in whose eyes are open.
- Defence — God disciplines His people for their sin. But the moment an accuser appears, He stands in front of them and says He sees no iniquity.
- Effect — Living in that verdict does not loosen conduct; it lifts it. It also teaches you to bear with the faults of other believers.
Like valleys are they spread forth, like gardens by the river side, Like aloe-trees which Jehovah hath planted, like cedars beside the waters.
From the heights, Balaam looked down on a camp of tents pitched on bare desert sand. What he spoke was a picture of watered valleys, planted gardens, fragrant trees and cedars.
The scene in front of the prophet and the words he spoke do not match. One writer explains why.
Balaam spoke not only of the order of the children of Israel, but also of their beauty and fruitfulness... Balaam set his face towards the wilderness. What he would in fact have seen was many tents pitched round a tabernacle in the middle of the bare sand of the desert. That was a dreary enough sight in itself. What Balaam saw, however, was no mirage of the desert; it was the vision of the Almighty. The trees planted by the river spoke of refreshment, fruitfulness and beauty.
Each image says something of its own about the people camped below. Older translations open the verse with valleys spread out rather than palm groves, and the writers quoted here follow that wording.
They are spread out low, as the valleys are. But all the streams of the hills water them. That is the law of nature, and God's own ordering: the streams serve what lies low. The next picture brings out this thought more fully. They are "like gardens beside a river" — yes, gardens planted by the LORD Himself, with aloes, rare and sweet-smelling plants from far lands, or with cedars, which Scripture elsewhere calls the grandest things in nature, with a leaf that never fades.
In a desert, water is the last thing anyone expects to find.
I believe all the glories of Christ are connected with the rivers of living waters. Everyone who believes can say, in one sense, "God has made us like the aloes and cedar trees beside the waters." Every stone might be baking hot, with not a drop of water to cool it. But there is one place in the wilderness where there was not only a drop, but rivers of living waters.
God had already said He saw no iniquity in Jacob. This picture goes further.
What a blessed picture this is! And could we be happy to see them stunted, dishonouring the Lord? The glory of Christ is at stake, for His character should show in us. Paul says to the saints at Corinth (not, you ought to be, but), "You are a letter from Christ, written with the Spirit of the living God." No, I must grieve when I find in them what is contrary to their beauty in Christ. They are "like aloes," and like "cedar trees." It is not merely that God has not seen iniquity in them — He has seen beauty.
Balaam spoke from the top of the rocks. One writer makes that height the test of how we treat God's people.
If I am looking at the people of God "from the top of the rocks," I shall see them as God sees them. That is, clothed with all the beauty of Christ — complete in Him — accepted in Christ, the Beloved. This is what will let me get on with them, work with them and have fellowship with them. It lifts me above their points and angles, blots and blemishes, failures and weaknesses. If I do not look at them from this high, divine ground, I shall surely fix my eye on some little flaw. And that flaw will completely spoil my communion and cool my affections.
Commentators press the verse in two directions. One holds that it shows what grace does for believers now:
Balaam does not speak of what they were to become in Canaan. He speaks of what God saw them to be while they were still in the wilderness. So it is a lovely picture of what grace does for the Christian and the church now. No doubt it is a vision only for faith. But it is a vision for open eyes, not shut ones, as it says here. It is no illusion, no heated human imagination of what they are going to be. It is what God sees, and delights to let us see by faith, in His people here below.
Another holds the words open for a literal fulfilment still ahead:
This has not yet come true. Israel is still living in miserable huts, far from being like gardens by the riverside, or aloe trees and cedars beside the waters. But the prophetic eye sees it all done. Balaam's vision leaps over centuries to the time of the end, when Israel's unbelief has ended.
- Position — Balaam spoke from the top of the rocks. From the ground the same camp is only tents on sand. Where you stand decides what you see.
- Planting — the gardens, aloes and cedars are the Lord's own planting, not Israel's work. Streams water what lies low.
- Provision — cedars stay green because they stand beside water. In the desert God gives not a drop, but rivers.
- Portrait — God does more than find no fault. He sees real beauty: the character of Christ in His people.
- Practice — look at other believers from that height and you can work with them. Look from below and one flaw spoils everything.
Water shall flow out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in great waters, And his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted.
Balak paid Balaam to curse Israel, and Balaam instead described a nation overflowing with water and a king above the strongest ruler of the day. The verse looks past the tents in the wilderness to a throne, and asks when such words come true, and in whom.
The picture is of a container so full it spills. That fullness is not meant to stay with the one who holds it.
Those who are drawing on the infinite resources of God have something to give to others. They take in more than they can hold. So Balaam says, "Water shall flow from his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters." If Balak had understood what he was hearing, he would have had no fear of Israel. The people were meant to be a blessing to all the nations. They were to spread the knowledge of the one true God, and to share His wonderful grace with others. Israel has never yet risen to this.
The blessing is Israel's own as well, not only something they pass on.
Material prosperity and spiritual blessing await Israel. They will also be the means of blessing to others, and with no stingy hand. "Water shall flow from his buckets" is a figure that shows the lavish abundance of the blessing. Wherever the Israelite goes, he carries blessing.
The second clause widens the map. The waters stand for peoples, so the promise spreads outward.
"Water shall flow from his buckets" (v.7) reminds us of the "rivers of living water" that flow from within a believer (John 7:38), for the blessing of others too. So Israel will be a source of refreshment for all the nations in the Millennium. "His seed shall be in many waters." The waters speak of the Gentile nations (Rev. 17:15). So the descendants of Israel will spread an influence of great blessing over the whole world.
The verse measures Israel's king against Agag. So who was he?
Agag was the title of the kings of Amalek, probably a general title, like the title Pharaoh, king of Egypt. (1 Sam. 15:9, 32; Num. 24:7)... Amalek descended from Esau, through Eliphaz. (Gen. 36:12, 16)
The name itself carries a claim to height, which is exactly what the comparison overturns.
In this picture of fullest blessing, we cannot miss Israel's supremacy over Amalek. We have seen what Amalek stands for (Ex. 17). In the earlier prophecy, the meek King of Israel meets the restlessness of the flesh, and His rest-giving yoke conquers it. Now, as the direct result, Amalek's king comes down. Simonis gives the meaning of his name as "very high," which seems to fit the sense best. Israel's King is higher than the highest. And is not self-exaltation the very thing that gives free rein to the lusts of the flesh?
Israel's later kings answer the words in part, but not to the full height of them.
Israel had no king, and would not have one for many years to come. Even so, it could be foretold that "his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted." The Spirit of God who had come on Balaam was looking forward to the coming of Messiah. He would not only be higher than Agag, the king of Amalek, "the first among the nations." He would be King of kings and Lord of lords. There was a partial fulfilment of this prophecy in David and Solomon, but the Lord Jesus is the One the Spirit of God has in view.
Notice the change of tense. Balaam speaks of the camp as it is now, and of the throne as still to come.
Then, besides this, there is strength. "His king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted."... Notice the difference: the tents "are" lovely now, but the king "shall be" higher than Agag. The people did not yet have a king. Their visible blessing in power had not yet come. Their exaltation was to be a future thing in the land.
Yet the beauty was real while they were still camped in the desert, and that is where the lesson turns personal.
Balaam is not speaking of what they would become in Canaan. He speaks of what God saw them to be — indeed, what God let him see them to be while they were still in the wilderness. It is therefore a wonderfully lovely picture of what grace does for the Christian and the church now... No doubt it is a vision only for faith; but it is a vision not for closed eyes, but for open eyes, as it says here.
- Source. The water is not Israel's own. They draw on the infinite resources of God.
- Overflow. The buckets spill on purpose — the figure speaks of lavish abundance, not a careful ration.
- Reach. "Many waters" points to the nations; the blessing travels outward until the whole world feels it.
- King. Agag was the royal title of Amalek, and the name means "very high." Israel's King is higher than the highest — seen in part in David and Solomon, in full in Christ.
- Kingdom. The tents were lovely already, but the throne was still to come. God shows His people what He sees now, and what the world will see later.
God brought him out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of a buffalo. He shall consume the nations his enemies, and break their bones, and with his arrows shall smite [them] in pieces.
Balak sent for Balaam to curse Israel. Instead the prophet traces the whole strength of the nation back to the God who brought them out of Egypt. If their power is not their own but His, who can stand against it?
The verse opens by naming where Israel came from. One writer calls this a refrain the prophecy keeps coming back to, because the name Israel only carries power if it rests on that foundation.
Yet "Israel" is a name of power; but to make that power real, we must come back again to the foundation. So here the refrain of redemption comes back, with its results.
Glory is coming to this nation. At that very moment, God reminds them of what they once were.
While this glory is coming, God reminds the people where they came from. The same words come back from the second prophecy (23:22), where they go with God not looking on iniquity, and with Israel kept safe from every spell — there too with power against their enemies. But here, in this third prophecy, there is not only victory over the enemy in battle, but the complete conquest of the "nations his enemies." God would not have them forget that He brought them out of Egypt. However high they rise in glory and power, they were once a nation of slaves. God is the source of all good, clothing with beauty and endowing with power.
Balak had told Balaam that a people had come out of Egypt. He never said who brought them. This verse repeats the fact and names God as the one who did it.
The repetition surely stresses that Israel were under the care and protection of God. They had not come out of Pharaoh's bondage by their own strength. When Balak sent for Balaam he had said to him, "Behold, a people has come out of Egypt" (22:11). God wanted Balak to understand that His all-powerful arm had brought them from Egypt. He had freed them from the bondage of Pharaoh, and had cared for them all through their wilderness journey.
Older translations call this animal a "unicorn"; the ESV has "wild ox". It was not a fanciful creature but an animal Israel knew, and two things about it mattered.
Nothing in Scripture shows that the animal had only one horn. In fact Deut. 33:17 speaks of "the horns of a unicorn" (see margin), and it must have been some animal the Israelites knew well. Its great strength and wildness are its main features: no one can put it to farm work, as they could the tame ox.
Balak was listening to all this. To take on Israel meant taking on something no man handles alone.
It was hopeless for Balak to oppose Israel, for he had, as it were, the supreme power and strength of the buffalo; God had given him strength like that of this very powerful animal. By repeating this, God left Balak in no doubt: he could no more hope to defeat the people of God than he could meet the charge of the buffalo single-handed.
The second half of the verse looks forward. It promises victory over enemies still ahead, and one writer sees it reaching far beyond Balaam's day.
Balaam's final parable is about the victorious power of the people of God, when Christ takes His place at their head… Balaam paints a vivid picture of the power of God as it acts for His chosen people, and in them… For the second time he points back to the great deliverance from Egypt. The God who broke the power of the enemy at that time will break the power of even mightier foes in the coming day (Micah 5:8).
Balaam drew the conclusion himself. Standing in front of the king who had sent for him, he said why he would not touch Israel.
I dare not meddle with them, Balaam says; I have too much understanding of what they are, to do so; they are connected with God, with His strength and power.
- Foundation. One act holds up everything else: God brought Israel out of Egypt. Every promise of power in the verse rests on that.
- Gift. The strength is not their own. God's arm brought them out of Pharaoh's bondage. He clothes them with beauty and gives them power.
- Picture. The "wild ox" (older versions say "unicorn") stands for strength and wildness. No one can harness it for work, and no king could meet its charge alone.
- Reach. The same power that broke Egypt will break mightier foes in the coming day. That is when Christ takes His place at the head of His people.
- Result. Balaam's own verdict: I dare not meddle with them — they are connected with God, with His strength and His power.
He stooped, he lay down like a lion, and like a lioness who will stir him up? Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee.
Balaam was paid to curse Israel. Instead his third speech pictures a nation like a lion that has eaten and lain down, and it warns anyone who would disturb that lion. Where did these words come from, since the speaker never wanted to say them? And how far does the blessing and cursing reach?
Balak thought a hired prophet could hand out blessing and cursing at will. He never saw that the rule already ran the other way.
First Israel was forbidden to touch Moab. Next Balak says, "He whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed." And he 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 just bringing it on himself.
Nothing here came from Balaam's own heart. He was a tool in God's hand.
We must remember that in all this Balaam could no more resist the power of God working on him and through him than his donkey could stay silent earlier. We must not suppose that there was the smallest measure of real sympathy with what God was doing. The whole event was God's power at work, despite all that could be done against His people. He acted so because He would confound the enemy who turned to Satan's power to bring a curse on Israel.
Neither half of the verse is new. Balaam is repeating two much older promises.
In Numbers 24:9 Balaam was forced to repeat two ancient prophecies about Israel. Jacob said of Judah in Genesis 49:9: "Judah is a lion's cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?" The LORD said to Abram in Genesis 12:3, "I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse." So the God of Israel confirmed His word through the lips of a determined enemy!
A crouching lion is not a tired lion. This picture reaches to the end of history.
After devouring the prey the lion lies down. God brings rest to Israel after the defeat of all their enemies. So He promises, "Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease, and none shall make him afraid" (Jer. 30:10). No nation will want to stir up Israel's anger all through the thousand years of peace. Even at the end of that time, nations will come together in hostility against Israel. Israel will have no need to fear, because God will destroy their enemies with fire from heaven (Rev. 20:7-10).
The lion picture does not stop with the nation. It reaches a Person: the Lion of Judah, who opens the book of God's purposes.
David's throne is to be lifted up from the dust, and Judah's long-delayed hope is to open into fulfilment. It is strange that critics and commentators can see, in the Lion of Judah opening the book of God's purposes, only the general truth of Christ on the throne ruling the course of events. The clear reference ties Judah's Lion to Judah taking the prey, and then crouching with a strength that no one will dare to provoke.
The last clause has a track record. Nations have tested it.
In attempting to curse the people of God, both were judged by God. It has been the same all through Israel's uneven history. Nations that have interfered with God's people have not done it without cost. God may have used nations, like Assyria, as the rod of His anger to discipline His people, but in imagining they could act as they pleased in this, they brought God's judgment down on themselves.
Looking forward, the same principle sorts the nations at the end.
The blessing of all nations, as we have seen, is bound up with the blessing of Israel because they are the LORD's people. So Balaam closes his parable with the words of God to Abraham. Matthew 25 gives the fulfilment. There the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory. He separates the nations one from another by how they treated one of the least of His brothers, the children of Israel.
- Compelled. Balaam had no sympathy with his own words. God's power overruled an enemy hired against His people.
- Confirmed. Both halves of the verse repeat older words: Jacob's blessing on Judah, and God's promise to Abram. A hostile mouth sealed them.
- Couched. The lion has eaten and lain down. That pictures rest after every enemy falls, with no one left willing to disturb it.
- Crowned. The same lion language runs on to the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He takes the prey, then settles in a strength none will provoke.
- Counted. Blessing and cursing are not idle words. Nations that touched Israel have paid, and the Son of Man sorts the nations by how they treated His people.