"And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” 2 Balak did as Balaam had said. And Balak and Balaam offered on each altar a bull and a ram. 3 And Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever he shows me I will tell you.” And he went to a bare height, 4 and God met Balaam. And Balaam said to him, “I have arranged the seven altars and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.” 5 And the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 6 And he returned to him, and behold, he and all the princes of Moab were standing beside his burnt offering. 7 And Balaam took up his discourse and said,
“From Aram Balak has brought me,
the king of Moab from the eastern mountains:
‘Come, curse Jacob for me,
and come, denounce Israel!’
8 How can I curse whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?
9 For from the top of the crags I see him,
from the hills I behold him;
behold, a people dwelling alone,
and not counting itself among the nations!
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob
or number the fourth part[a] of Israel?
Let me die the death of the upright,
and let my end be like his!”
11 And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them.” 12 And he answered and said, “Must I not take care to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”
Numbers 23:1-12
In this and in the next chapter we have recorded for us four prophecies uttered by Balaam under the constraint of the Spirit of God. They are remarkable for their insight, and are indicative of the sovereign control God had over this recalcitrant and double-dealing seer. The implications of these utterances are considerable, and not without problem in the matter of interpretation. The preparations recorded in 13 show that Balaam was 'going through the motions' of seeking the face of the Lord was this to convince Balak of the genuineness of the approach, and therefore to absolve Balaam, so to speak, of any responsibility for what the Lord would say? Was the wily seer 'hedging his bets' as we say, so as to safeguard his own position against any possible repercussions that might follow an adverse answer from the Lord? The Lord, however, is impatient of this 'performance' (4) and ignores Balaam's reference to the sacrifices, thrusting His word into the seer's mouth and commanding him to go and speak it to the king. We shall look at what that word was later. Meantime, we observe that Balaam's position was not quite perilous. He had put himself in considerable danger in being obliged to prophesy the blessing instead of the cursing of Israel, when the king and all his nobles were all around him. It would have been so much easier for him to have said 'no' at the beginning, and refused to go with or to the king in the first place. Ah yes! But when we wilfully take a wrong turning, God is intent on teaching us the hard way that 'to gang our own gait' is fraught with complication, embarrassment and even danger to life. Jesus said 'my yoke is easy...'. But we often make spiritual life far more complicated for ourselves than it need have been, and than it was meant to have been!