Chapter XX (2)

The chief interest in this scene turns upon its acknowledged and undeniable character as a type of Christ. The type (resemblance) includes two distinct points: the _lifting up_; and the _looking_ with its results of salvation. The evangelist John (3: 14, 15) has them both: “As Moses _lifted up_ the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be _lifted up_; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” In two several cases Jesus spake of himself as being “_lifted up_,” with manifest reference to this historic scene in the wilderness. “When ye have _lifted up_ the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he” (John 8: 28). “And I, if I be _lifted up_ from the earth will draw all men unto me.” That his readers might not miss his meaning, the Evangelist explains: “This he said, signifying what death he should die” (Jn. 12: 32). Hence it is plain that Christ recognized the brazen serpent as a special type of himself to the point of the manner of his death.――――It is not less so in the second point――_looking_, the condition of living. Nothing can better represent the simple act of faith than looking. In looking, there is a turning of the mind toward the object; and there is some degree of expectation. There _may be_ inexpressible longings. We must assume such longings in the case of the bitten, suffering, dying Israelite in the desert.――――So let sinners, stung with a terrible consciousness of guilt, borne down with a sense of want and woe and ruin, look with longing heart to the uplifted Lamb of God; yea to Jesus considered as lifted up in the agonies of a vicarious death――dying for us that we might live. There is life in such looking!

_Balak and Balaam._

In Num. 22–24 stands a very unique history. The two prominent characters are Balak, king of Moab, and Balaam, a renowned diviner, magician from the East.――――Moab, descended genealogically from Lot, was not among the doomed nations of Canaan, and had nothing to fear from the Israelites, provided only that she neither blocked their march nor seduced them into idol-worship. But Moab, both people and king, were “sore afraid of Israel because they were many,” and because they had smitten Sihon of the Amorites and Og of Bashan, and had taken possession of their respective countries. The near proximity of such a host, marching and encamping with military precision, fed as no other people in that wilderness were ever fed; invincible in arms when their God was with them, and bearing the prestige of victory over Pharaoh and Amalek and the Amorites, was very naturally the occasion of no small alarm. Balak had seen and heard enough to convince him that the unseen power of some God was in these strange facts of their history. Unfortunately he did not know enough of the true God――the real God of Israel to see that he could be none other than the One Infinite God, and therefore that resistance against him and his people was necessarily and utterly vain. His theology was doubtless of the type common among all the nations of antiquity, not blessed with the light of revelation, viz. polytheism――gods in unknown numbers; each nation having its own, one or many――so that the contest for mastery between hostile nations was supposed to turn on the question which had the mightiest gods for their help.――――With this theology, Balak’s policy was soon determined upon, viz. to send for the most renowned diviner of the ancient East, and match the prestige of his divination and of his curse against the blessings which the God of Israel was conferring upon his people. He understood well that the strength of Israel lay in the strength of her God. There was miracle there――superhuman aid coming in from a higher Power; and he had no idea of any thing which he could bring into the field against this save the most potent divination and magic. So he sent for Balaam to come and curse Israel.

Concerning Balaam; his residence, his previous and subsequent history, and his personal character, we have (outside of Num. 22–24) three references in the Old Testament and the same number in the New; viz. Num. 31: 8, and Deut. 23: 4, and Josh. 13:22:――2 Pet. 2: 15, 16, and Jude 11, and Rev. 2: 14. [The reference to both Balak and Balaam in Micah 6: 5 adds nothing to their history.] These passages locate Balaam among the Midianites (Num. 31: 8); in Pethor (Num. 22: 5); in Aram (Num. 23: 7); and in Mesopotamia (Deut. 23: 4). The Old Testament passages describe him as a soothsayer, practicing divination for reward. The New Testament writers go to the bottom of his character and represent him as “loving the wages of unrighteousness; rebuked for his iniquity, the dumb ass, speaking with man’s voice forbade the madness of the prophet” (2 Pet. 2: 15, 16). They speak of “going after the error of Balaam for reward” (Jude 11), and of him as one who “taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication” (Rev. 2: 14).――――Further, we are told (Num. 31: 8 and Josh. 13: 22) that he was found among the Midianites――enemies of God’s people, and slain with the sword.

The narrative by Moses (Num. 22–24) informs us very minutely how Balak sent and brought Balaam to curse Israel, but failed in every endeavor; how he plied him with munificent rewards and royal honors, but God would not let Balaam curse Israel, much as he might have wished to do so; how Balak took his man to one mountain summit and another and another to show him this strange people, superstitiously hoping to break the spell of his purpose to bless; but all in vain.

The history taken in whole shows that Balaam was a godless man; that he exceedingly desired to please Balak and get his money, but that God would not let him. His is perhaps a solitary case to show that the Lord can (when he pleases) give some really prophetic visions to an ungodly man, and yet hold him so firmly under control that no harm can come of a wicked prophet.

Some points in this case deserve special examination.――――In the passage (Num. 22: 9–35) it appears that God positively forbade Balaam’s going at all, yet that the second embassy, greater in number and of nobler rank and offering richer pay (v. 15) touched Balaam in his most sensitive point and made him long to go. So he told the men to tarry and he would see if he could get permission. According to the record (v. 20) the Lord said to him that night: “If the men come to call thee, rise up and go with them”; yet the real meaning must be――If you _will_ go, and if my prohibition avails nothing, go; but do when there according to my word. Balaam was glad to go; but “God’s anger was kindled because he went” (v. 22)――a fact which shows very clearly what sort of permission God had given him. It can not well be doubted that Balaam knew he was going, contrary to the real mind of the Lord; for when did the Lord ever give a real permission, and then kindle into anger because his permission was accepted? Or when did he ever leave an honest inquirer after the way of duty to follow his supposed permission and then take such offense as in this case at what was in its purpose true obedience?――――Yet while God always deals honestly with the honest inquirer after his will, he may sometimes, both in word and in providence, let men who love their own will better than his take their course and bear their own responsibilities. Such I take to have been the Lord’s policy in this case.

The record sets forth that God used the ass on which Balaam rode to “rebuke with man’s voice the madness of the prophet.” The ass saw what Balaam’s dull eye saw not――the angel of the Lord with drawn sword, heading him in his way――a fact strikingly suggestive of his dull vision in regard to comprehending the spirit of that apparent permission which the Lord gave him to go. Why did he not see that he was led on, not by God’s will, but by his own cupidity, his own intense and over-mastering covetousness? Alas for him; the eye of his ass could see what his cultured intellect could not discern――that God was squarely against him. It was moreover fully the Lord’s purpose, if Balaam _would_ go, to hold him back from Balak’s influence and compel him to bless Israel. This renewed, special charge on this point seems to have been one object in this remarkable meeting of the angel, Balaam and his ass.

Does any one ask――_How_ could an ass speak with man’s voice? Were real words uttered, words which any other ears within hearing could have heard as well as Balaam’s? Or was it simply a miraculous sensation upon his ear, having no cause whatever in the mouth of the ass?――――I answer: It is of small avail to push such inquiries. We can say wisely but two things:――(a.) That God could work a miracle as easily in one of these ways as in the other:――and (b.) Therefore the method which the description most naturally suggests is the most probable; viz. that the ass spake audible words, and Balaam heard them as men are wont to hear words audibly spoken.

* * * * *

The points of real prophecy in Balaam’s visions should be noticed.

Observe that in each case, before Balaam inquired of God he directed Balak to prepare seven altars and to offer upon each one bullock and one ram. The object in this seems to have been to propitiate the Lord and secure his favorable consideration. It is remarkable that Balaam, coming from the region of the Euphrates, should have these ideas as to the sacrifice of clean animals. The fact seems to show that the idea of animal sacrifices was revealed to the race in its infancy and that it prevailed extensively over the Eastern world.

The offerings having been made, Balaam retired to “an high place” (23: 3) as our version puts it, but really to a hill of bare, naked summit to await the Lord’s presence and word there. [Such a summit was chosen for its range of view]. The Lord came and gave him his word for Balak, put thus: “Balak, the king of Moab, hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the East, saying: ‘Come, curse me, Jacob; come, defy [in the sense only of curse, maledict] Israel.’ How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom God hath not defied”? [How can I gainsay the Almighty; how put my word against his? Balak asks this of me: I have no power to do it].――――“From the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo! the people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations.”――――From his naked mountain top Balaam saw their encampment spread out before him; there they were, a peculiar, secluded people, having neither political, social, or religious connection with any other nation under heaven. In this most salient feature of their case Balaam saw a symbol of their whole future history――dwelling alone, a scattered people, never reckoned as being of or like any other nation of the earth.――――Their great numbers also were prophetic of their prosperous future: “Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel”?――the reference to a “fourth part” coming of the fact that their encampment was in four parts, three tribes to each.――――His closing words are weighty: “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.”――――In interpreting these words I can by no means assent to the view of many commentators (largely German) who suppose Balaam had no ideas of a happy future life, it being as they maintain far too early in the progress of religious thought for any such ideas. They therefore restrict his meaning to a happy earthly life, prosperous even to its natural end in death.――――I have no faith in such interpretations. They do not come by any fair construction from the text. What Balaam said was: “Let my soul die the death of the righteous, and let my after destiny be like his.” After destiny――the afterpart of my existence, is the legitimate sense of the word here used.――――Besides, to pray that I may die of the same disease, at the same age, amid the same surroundings, as the righteous, is very tame, is a very insignificant blessing at best, and no sensible man could put his soul very earnestly into such a prayer. I see no reason why we should emasculate the prayer even of a Balaam in this style. Let us rather say that he prayed like one “whose eyes were open; who had heard the words of God and knew the knowledge of the most High and saw the vision of the Almighty” (24: 15, 16) as he himself said.――――As to toning down the sense of his words because their Christian construction would be so far in advance of the age, I can not accept the assumed fact that they were in advance of the age. I can not believe that Enoch, “walking with God” and translated to heaven knew nothing of heaven until he found himself there; or that Noah whose faith and whose preaching of righteousness breasted the wickedness of that whole generation had no thoughts as to the blessed world to come; nor that Abraham’s faith was limited to the hills and to the corn and wine of Canaan and had never an outlook of longing desire and assured hope of a “better country even an heavenly one” (Heb. 11: 16); nor that Moses, “esteeming reproach for Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt,” had _no “respect to_ the [future] recompense of reward.” The writer to the Hebrews reasons far better than the Neological critics as to the faith and the hopes of those glorious patriarchs. I find my sense of fitness and my convictions of truth far better met in his reasoning than in their speculations.

Let it be noted that Balaam spake as one versed in moral distinctions. He understood that the blessed future life falls to the lot, not of the wicked but of the righteous. When a man comes so near to God as he seems to have done in these hours, this distinction must be seen and felt.――――That this most appropriate prayer should have proved in his case utterly unavailing is a sad and mournful fact to which we must give some attention in its place.

Balak was by no means pleased with Balaam’s “parable.” Indeed he retorts sharply: “What hast thou done to me? I sent for thee and was to pay thee to curse that people, and now thou hast blessed them altogether”――with blessings and nothing else.――――But Balak proposes to try again. Perhaps if the great soothsayer shall see them from the top of Pisgah, he may get a different view and may utter the much desired imprecation upon them. The same process is gone through, of burnt-offerings and of withdrawing for a private interview with God; after which Balak eagerly inquires: “What has the Lord spoken” now? Has he changed his mind? Has he given you leave to curse the Hebrew people?――――The answer is pertinent and very decided, but not any more to his mind than the former:――“God is not a man that he should lie, nor 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? Behold, I have received commandment to bless; and he hath blessed, and I can not reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel; the Lord his God _is_ with him, and the shout of a king _is_ among them. God brought them out of Egypt; he has as it were the strength of a unicorn. Surely _there_ is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is _there_ any divination against Israel; according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought? Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion; he shall not lie down until he eat _of_ the prey, and drink the blood of the slain” (Num. 23: 19–24).

At this point of time Israel was on the threshold of Canaan. Sihon and Og had fallen. The spirit of a pure and vigorous faith in God was never more thoroughly national than in this generation. As between Moab and Israel, the contrast was never greater. God’s people as seen by his prophetic eye were on the eve of sublime victories. No enchantment or divination could have force against them. That was the era in their history when it might fitly become a standing exclamation:――“What hath God wrought”?

Worse and worse for Balak. Curiously his next effort is to shut Balaam’s mouth altogether. Since he can not get from him curses against Israel, he begs him to hold still and not bless them. “Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.”――――Balaam replied: “Did I not say to thee, All that the Lord speaketh, that I must do”?――――But Balak has not yet lost all hope. Perhaps it was of the Lord rather than of his hope however that he is in for another trial――this time “on the top of Peor that looketh toward Jeshimon.” Great faith he must have had in the prestige of new points of vision――of other mountain tops.――――The altars are set up; the bullocks and rams are offered as before. But in one respect the course of events changes. “When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went not as at other times to seek for enchantments, but set his face toward the wilderness;”――which seems to imply that on the two former occasions he had pursued his usual methods of divination to obtain messages from the spirit-world, but now changed his course, and simply turned his face toward the wilderness where the camp of Israel lay in full view before him. Now we read, not that the Lord “met him” and “put a word into his mouth” (Num. 23: 4, 5, 16), but that “the Spirit of God came upon him,” giving him prophetic visions in manner quite different from the preceding. His spiritual eye was now opened; what his natural eye had just seen as he set his face toward the wilderness (the camp of Israel), led his thought in these spiritual visions of Israel’s glorious future, and his imagery naturally came from the scenes still fresh in his mind. “How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel”! Exalted be thy kingdom; glorious thy king! His own great God brought him up from Egypt; befriends him still; will give him assured victory over all enemies in his own time! Blessed be all who bless thee; cursed be all who curse thee!

Balak is terribly enraged and bids Balaam flee and begone. Balaam with apparent mildness and undisturbed equanimity proposes to give Balak some further prophetic views of what Israel should do to Moab in the coming days. Again “he takes up his parable:” “I shall see him, but not now; I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a star out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth” (v. 17).

Who is “the star” and “the scepter” of this prophecy?――――The leading thought of the passage (vs. 17–19) and indeed of the entire prophecy to the end of verse 24 is _the supremacy of Israel_, and the fall of all powers hostile to Israel and to Israel’s God. The key-note is in the words: “_Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion_.” The prophetic future (as usual) is built upon the visible present, or perhaps more precisely, springs out of it――is suggested by it, and takes its phraseology and costume from it. The Lord forces the truth upon Balaam’s soul that this Israel whom he was called out from his Eastern home to curse could not be cursed to any purpose by any earthly divination or power because they were God’s own people, and it was his fixed purpose to bless them. To impress this great truth the more deeply, the Lord reveals to him in prophetic vision that this present fact is not transient but destined to reach into the remote future; that it is indeed only a _beginning_ of their supremacy――a pledge of a far more sovereign ascendency, to be manifested in future ages.――――With this view of the spirit of the prophecy, we must find here, not merely David in whom as the first conqueror of Moab and of Edom (2 Sam. 8: 2, 12, 14) these words receive the first palpable installment of their meaning; but yet more surely that greater Son of David whose scepter is to rule the nations with a rod of iron.

That this broad construction is the true one will appear yet more fully when we compare the use of the word “scepter” here with Jacob’s use of it (Gen. 49: 10); the “star” here with the “star in the East” (Matt. 2: 1) seen by other wise men [magicians] from Balaam’s own country; and not least, the fact that Edom and Seir became in the usage of later prophets symbolic names for the declared and malign enemies of Christ’s kingdom (See Isa. 34).――――“He shall smite the corners;” better the two sides of Moab, _i. e._ Moab from side to side, through and through, laying waste her whole country.――――The word “Sheth” (“all the children of _Sheth_”) seems to be used as a common, not a proper noun, the sense being――all the sons of tumult――all the men of war and strife. Her war-power he shall utterly break down. Edom and Seir――two names for one and the same kingdom, often affiliated with Moab, shall become the possession of their enemies and Israel shall outmaster them through her valor, and yet more through the might of her God――first fulfilled by David (2 Sam. 8: 14).

Of Amalek he said: Amalek was first among the nations to assail Israel (Ex. 17: 8–16); her end shall be utter annihilation. (See the notice of Amalek on Ex. 17).

Verses 21, 22, spoken of the Kenites, of whom Jethro and Hobab were the earliest representatives, are not without difficulties, yet their history places them in marked contrast with Amalek――friends, not enemies of Israel; and therefore suggests――not to say demands, a contrasted prophetic destiny. Placing themselves on the side of Israel, their dwelling-place was strong; their nest in the rocks. Keil translates the passage――“Durable is thy dwelling-place, and thy nest laid upon the rock; for should Kain [the Kenite] be destroyed until Asshur shall carry thee captive”?――the question in his view having the force of a negative: The Kenite _shall not_ be destroyed, etc. But it is not quite clear that the original words will bear this construction. It is however certain that the prophecy assures the Kenites, as friends of Israel, of long-continued prosperity.

Again Balaam “takes up his parable,” forcibly impressed with the fearful judgments God would send upon the enemies of Israel: “Who shall endure the day of such judgments on the guilty foes of God? Great powers from the West [ships of Chittim] shall sweep over the ancient Eastern empires and level them with the dust; and God will stand before the nations far down the ages as one mighty to protect his people and to overwhelm their enemies.”

Balaam’s oracles are expressed in the purest style of Hebrew poetry――such as few can read without a sense of its beauty and majesty. If read with a present sense of the moral status of this prince of diviners――of the conflict in his soul between the love of riches and honor on the one hand and some regard to the high behests of the Almighty on the other, we can not well suppress a feeling of sadness that one so gifted by nature and so favored of God with prophetic revelations, should, despite of all, have yet succumbed to the dominion of the baser impulses of his soul. His final record is dark and distressing. “He taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before Israel” and drew them into idolatry and fornication (Rev. 2: 14 and Num. 25). He cast in his lot with the Midianites, and (apparently) counseled them into the same infernal policy. Hence when the Lord in self-defense hurled down the sword of his people upon Midian and five of her kings fell, Balaam the son of Beor also was slain (Num. 31: 1–8). Thus he who so plaintively yet so pertinently prayed――“Let me die the death of the righteous,” met the death of the wicked. He had seen reason enough for the prayer: “Let my last end be like his”; and yet he “died as the fool dieth”――in arms against Almighty God. While in imagination and intellect he might have taken rank with the noblest of earth’s sons, yet through the baseness of his impulses and the greed of a covetous soul, he chose his rank among the meanest and utterly missed the immortality which seemed at one moment so nearly in his grasp! For awhile God held him to the utterance of lofty thought, and apparently of pure and resolute purpose. But no sooner was the Lord’s restraining hand lifted off than Balaam slumped into the mire of his selfish, covetous nature and went fast “to his own place”!

The question has been raised (more curious than useful) how Moses and the archives of Israel came into possession of these prophecies of Balaam. In answer it has been suggested that, failing to get the pay he expected from Balak, Balaam went to Moses and laid before him the contents of these chapters (Num. 22–24) with the hope of ample reward (which his covetous heart was loth to forego); but failing here also, left in disgust; threw himself into the arms of Moab and Midian; retaliated with selfish malignity upon Israel and Israel’s God, and of course hurried himself swiftly to his final doom.――――Let his example never cease to be a warning!