Numbers 22:41-23:1-26 NKJV
41 So it was, the next day, that Balak took Balaam and brought him up to the high places of Baal, that from there he might observe [a]the extent of the people.
23 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”
2 And Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 3 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went to a desolate height. 4 And God met Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.”
5 Then the Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 6 So he returned to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab.
7 And he took up his [a]oracle and said:
“Balak the king of Moab has brought me from Aram,
From the mountains of the east.
‘Come, curse Jacob for me,
And come, denounce Israel!’
8 “How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?
And how shall I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?
9 For from the top of the rocks I see him,
And from the hills I behold him;
There! A people dwelling alone,
Not reckoning itself among the nations.
10 “Who can count the [b]dust of Jacob,
Or number one-fourth of Israel?
Let me die the death of the righteous,
And let my end be like his!”
11 Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them bountifully!”
12 So he answered and said, “Must I not take heed to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth?”
Balaam’s Second Prophecy
13 Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from which you may see them; you shall see only the outer part of them, and shall not see them all; curse them for me from there.” 14 So he brought him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
15 And he said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering while I [c]meet the Lord over there.”
16 Then the Lord met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Go back to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 17 So he came to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab were with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the Lord spoken?”
18 Then he took up his oracle and said:
“Rise up, Balak, and hear!
Listen to me, son of Zippor!
19 “God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
20 Behold, I have received a command to bless;
He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
21 “He has not observed iniquity in Jacob,
Nor has He seen [d]wickedness in Israel.
The Lord his God is with him,
And the shout of a King is among them.
22 God brings them out of Egypt;
He has strength like a wild ox.
23 “For there is no [e]sorcery against Jacob,
Nor any [f]divination against Israel.
It now must be said of Jacob
And of Israel, ‘Oh, what God has done!’
24 Look, a people rises like a lioness,
And lifts itself up like a lion;
It shall not lie down until it devours the prey,
And drinks the blood of the slain.”
25 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all!”
26 So Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Did I not tell you, saying, ‘All that the Lord speaks, that I must do’?”
Going back a little bit in this story, Balak had told Balaam to curse the Israelites so that they would not take over Moab. But God told Balaam not to curse them because He blessed them; Balaam was to speak only what God commanded him to speak – a blessing, not a curse. Balaam repeated this to Balak a few other times in the narrative. In Numbers 22:18, Balaam said, “I could not go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more.” He reiterates that he nis bound to speak only what the Lord gave him to speak – nothing more, nothing less.
In the rest of the narrative, Balak repeatedly pleads with Balaam to curse the Israelites. In the process, Balak offers Balaam honor, sheep, oxen, and brings him to several choice places in Moab from which Balaam can see the surrounding Israelites and have pity on Moab. But each and every time Balaam refused to capitulate and repeated his previous saying, “All that the Lord speaks, that I must do!”
Even though Balaam was not a prophet in Israel, and even though He disobeyed God and ultimately went with the princes of Moab, the Lord used him in a powerful way as he exemplified the truth of God’s Word that was not to be spoken against. God had blessed Israel, and Balaam ultimately did not bend under Balak’s pressure and bribes to curse God’s people, even though he was sorely tempted.
May it be that your pastor never capitulates to the tempting world around him but uncompromisingly preaches and teaches God’s Word faithfully and administers God’s Sacramental gifts according to Holy Scripture. In this you will continually be fed and nourished by them and remain strong in the one faith unto life everlasting. Let us pray: Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may always hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of Your Holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of life everlasting, which You have given us; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord. Amen.