The Book of Numbers

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Balaam had Balak build "seven altars" and offer "seven oxen and seven rams," the trappings of sacrifice, hoping to bend God to a curse. But "the LORD put a word in Balaam's mouth," and it was blessing. In his first parable Balaam confessed the impossibility of his task: "How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied?" He saw Israel from the heights, "the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations," a people set apart, distinct, and countless as "the dust of Jacob." Then came the wistful cry of a man who saw the blessing but would not share it: "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!" Balak was aghast, "thou hast blessed them altogether," but Balaam could only answer, "Must I not take heed to speak that which the LORD hath put in my mouth?"

Gospel Focus

The first oracle proclaims the security of God's people: no one can curse whom God has blessed. All Balak's altars and silver could not reverse the divine blessing, for the blessing of God is not at the mercy of the enemy's schemes. Those who are the Lord's dwell under a favor no curse can undo. But the most sobering note is Balaam's own cry, "let me die the death of the righteous." He wanted the righteous man's end without the righteous man's life; he coveted heaven's reward while clinging to Balak's wages. It is a tragic and common wish, to desire a good death without a godly life, to want the destiny of the saved while refusing the surrender of the saved. But there is no righteous death apart from a righteous life, and no righteousness apart from Christ. Balaam saw the blessing from the outside and longed for it, yet never entered in. Do not be a Balaam, admiring the end of the righteous from a distance while your heart stays with the world. The death of the righteous belongs to those who have first received the life of the righteous, the life that is in Jesus Christ.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Balak tried again from another height, hoping a new view might yield a curse. But Balaam's second parable soared higher still into the truth about God: "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" Here is the bedrock: God does not lie, does not change His mind, does not break His word. And so Balaam confessed his helplessness: "I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it." The blessing was locked in by the very faithfulness of God. No amount of maneuvering by Balak, no new altar or better vantage, could move a God who does not change. What He had spoken over Israel would stand, because He is not a man that He should lie.

Gospel Focus

"God is not a man, that he should lie" is one of the great assurances of the whole Bible, and it undergirds every promise we rest on. Because God cannot lie, His promises are utterly secure: we have "hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began" (Titus 1:2). "All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen" (2 Corinthians 1:20). Even when we falter, "if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself" (2 Timothy 2:13). This is why the believer's security rests not on our changing feelings but on God's unchanging word. Balak learned the hard way that a blessing God has pronounced "cannot be reversed"; the enemy cannot annul what God has spoken over His people. Whatever God has promised you in Christ, salvation, keeping, an inheritance, He will "make it good," for He is not a man that He should lie. Anchor your soul there: the One who promised is faithful, and His word stands forever.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The second oracle reaches its height in a breathtaking word: "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel." This is astonishing, for we have just read chapters full of Israel's murmuring, rebellion, and unbelief. How can God say He sees no iniquity? Not because there was none, but because He looks upon His covenant people through the covering of grace and sacrifice, reckoning them as His own. And with it comes the source of their strength: "the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them." God's presence in their midst as King was their joy and their security. Balaam adds the summary that echoes still: "there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel... What hath God wrought!" No sorcery, no curse, could prevail against a people whose King was the LORD Himself.

Gospel Focus

"He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob" is one of the clearest Old Testament glimpses of justification. God did not deny Israel's sin; He chose, in covenant grace, not to reckon it against them, seeing them through the blood of sacrifice. This is exactly the gospel: "blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin" (Romans 4:8), for "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them" (2 Corinthians 5:19). In Christ, God looks upon us not as our sins deserve but as His grace declares, and "there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). If from the heights of Peor God beheld no iniquity in a murmuring people, how much more does He behold His blood-bought children righteous in His Son. And the ground of their security, "the LORD his God is with him," is fulfilled in Immanuel, God with us, the King in the midst of His people. The enemy's curses cannot touch those God has justified; He does not impute their sin, His King reigns among them, and no divination can prevail. Rest in this: covered by the blood, you stand before God without condemnation, and your King is with you.