"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
It is very interesting and striking to think that all during this incident Israel is unaware that anything is happening behind the scenes. Here was a tussle in the unseen, in which the powers of darkness were vying with the covenant grace of God to overthrow His people, and to do them ill. It is an impressive instance of how God protects His people from hidden, un- seen dangers and foes. How wonderful and reassuring to know that the Watcher of Israel slumbers not nor sleeps! Perhaps Israel had some consciousness of an unaccountable pressure upon them that they could not understand, as we sometimes have (cf Daniel 10), and learned only later, perhaps much later, the real reason for it. Let us store up this thought against such a time for our encouragement and reassurance.
The prophecies themselves are no less remarkable than the story itself. It is almost as if God, being challenged concerning His chosen people, went out of His way to make it clear, not only to Balak, but to all posterity, that here was a people for whom He had the most wonderful and farreaching purposes. It is an uncovering of the divine plan of the ages, that which underlies the whole redemptive history of the Bible the plan of redemption, fulfilled in Christ, and prepared for and foreshadowed down the centuries until the fulness of the time when He should come and give Himself a ransom for the sins of men.