Numbers 19-24: Balak and Balaam

From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them. I see a people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations.
Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my end be like theirs!” -Num. 23:9-10 NIV

When most people think of Baalam, they remember the story of his donkey speaking to him, but that is a minor story compared to his response to when Balak summoned him to curse Israel.

The Children of Israel had been wandering, waiting in the desert for forty years, until all of the rebellious elders had died, in order to enter the promised land.  This was not a small crowd, but they had been quiet and kept to themselves so they were not a threat to the others until they started to move.  That is when Balak started to get worried and he summoned Balaam to head them off at the pass.  Balaam may have been a pagan seer, but he saw things in the spiritual realm.


God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it.
“No misfortune is seen in Jacob, no misery observed in Israel. The LORD their God is with them; the shout of the King is among them. - Num. 23:19-21 NIV

No matter how much Balak threatened Balaam, he would not, could not change his pronouncements. All he could do was bless the very people that Balak commanded him to curse.


When Balaam looked out and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, the Spirit of God came upon him and he uttered his oracle: “The oracle of Balaam son of Beor, the oracle of one whose eye sees clearly,the oracle of one who hears the words of God, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who falls prostrate, and whose eyes are opened:
“How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel!
“Like valleys they spread out, like gardens beside a river, like aloes planted by the LORD, like cedars beside the waters.
Water will flow from their buckets; their seed will have abundant water. “Their king will be greater than Agag; their kingdom will be exalted. -Num. 24:2-7 NIV

 While the Israelites may have grumbled and rebelled, paying the price for their actions with plagues and sometimes even sudden death, they were still God's chosen people.  The Lord their God was with them.  The shout of the king was in their midst.  God's plan was going to be fulfilled and there was nothing that Balak or Balaam could do to stop it.