Numbers 23-25    Listen

An evil prophet gives a good prophecy (Numbers 23)

1 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 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 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?”
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 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 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 sorcery against Jacob,
Nor any 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’?”
27 ¶ Then Balak said to Balaam, “Please come, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.”
28 So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that overlooks the wasteland.
29 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”
30 And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on every altar.

We first saw Balaam in Numbers 22 (see notes). Make no mistake about it, Balaam was a pagan Midianite prophet. Yet, the passage indisputably identifies "the LORD" (Jehovah) as the one who had put the words into Balaam’s mouth (Numbers 23:5, 12, 16, 17, 26; Numbers 24:2,13,16 - see below). Here's the rub: Balak (the Moabite king) had called for Balaam to come curse Israel. God told Balaam it was okay to go (Numbers 22:20). Balak gives Balaam the tour around the encampment of Israel. For some reason he apparently thought that different views of Israel's encampment might do the trick. At two locations, Balaam directs Balak to sacrifice on seven altars prepared specifically for the tour. At each altar God gives a word to Balaam (verses 4 and 16) in favor of Israel. God just won't let Balaam place a curse on Israel. Balaam declares in Numbers 23:8, "How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how shall I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?" Things really backfire on Balak when Balaam declares in Numbers 23:20, "Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it." The next verse is key to the final outcome (as we'll see in Numbers 25, see below); verse 21 says, "He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, Nor has He seen wickedness in Israel. The LORD his God is with him, And the shout of a King is among them." Let's face it; Israel's righteous before God (as a nation); they can't be cursed. Finally, Balaam (for some unknown reason) has Balak build seven more altars for seven sacrifices a third time as they overlook Israel. Perhaps Balaam is hoping that this additional reverend act might somehow do...something...anything.

The curse-Israel plan derails (Numbers 24)

1 Now when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not go as at other times, to seek to use sorcery, but he set his face toward the wilderness.
2 And Balaam raised his eyes, and saw Israel encamped according to their tribes; and the Spirit of God came upon him.
3 ¶ Then he took up his oracle and said:
“The utterance of Balaam the son of Beor,
The utterance of the man whose eyes are opened,
4 The utterance of him who hears the words of God,
Who sees the vision of the Almighty,
Who falls down, with eyes wide open:
5 “How lovely are your tents, O Jacob!
Your dwellings, O Israel!
6 Like valleys that stretch out,
Like gardens by the riverside,
Like aloes planted by the LORD,
Like cedars beside the waters.
7 He shall pour water from his buckets,
And his seed shall be in many waters.
“His king shall be higher than Agag,
And his kingdom shall be exalted.
8 “God brings him out of Egypt;
He has strength like a wild ox;
He shall consume the nations, his enemies;
He shall break their bones
And pierce them with his arrows.
9 “He bows down, he lies down as a lion;
And as a lion, who shall rouse him?’
‘Blessed is he who blesses you,
And cursed is he who curses you.”
10 ¶ Then Balak’s anger was aroused against Balaam, and he struck his hands together; and Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, and look, you have bountifully blessed them these three times!
11 Now therefore, flee to your place. I said I would greatly honor you, but in fact, the LORD has kept you back from honor.”
12 ¶ So Balaam said to Balak, “Did I not also speak to your messengers whom you sent to me, saying,
13 “If Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of the LORD, to do good or bad of my own will. What the LORD says, that I must speak’?
14 And now, indeed, I am going to my people. Come, I will advise you what this people will do to your people in the latter days.”
15 ¶ So he took up his oracle and said:
“The utterance of Balaam the son of Beor,
And the utterance of the man whose eyes are opened;
16 The utterance of him who hears the words of God,
And has the knowledge of the Most High,
Who sees the vision of the Almighty,
Who falls down, with eyes wide open:
17 “I see Him, but not now;
I behold Him, but not near;
A Star shall come out of Jacob;
A Scepter shall rise out of Israel,
And batter the brow of Moab,
And destroy all the sons of tumult.
18 “And Edom shall be a possession;
Seir also, his enemies, shall be a possession,
While Israel does valiantly.
19 Out of Jacob One shall have dominion,
And destroy the remains of the city.”
20 ¶ Then he looked on Amalek, and he took up his oracle and said:
“Amalek was first among the nations,
But shall be last until he perishes.”
21 ¶ Then he looked on the Kenites, and he took up his oracle and said:
“Firm is your dwelling place,
And your nest is set in the rock;
22 Nevertheless Kain shall be burned.
How long until Asshur carries you away captive?”
23 ¶ Then he took up his oracle and said:
“Alas! Who shall live when God does this?
24 But ships shall come from the coasts of Cyprus,
And they shall afflict Asshur and afflict Eber,
And so shall Amalek, until he perishes.”
25 ¶ So Balaam rose and departed and returned to his place; Balak also went his way.

Balaam forgets his mission altogether in this chapter as he begins blessing (not cursing) Israel. Verse 7 is curious; there's the mention of Agag, king over the Amalekites during the reign of Saul in I Samuel 15 (see notes). Wow, here's a prophecy with substance.

Balak immediately notices that things are going backwards here. Balaam falls into a prophetic state where he just begins to rattle off the blessings which shall fall upon Israel, much to Balak's dismay. Balaam's words of blessing on Israel become intolerable in verse 9 when he says, "He bows down, he lies down as a lion; And as a lion, who shall rouse him? Blessed is he who blesses you, And cursed is he who curses you." Whoa! That sounds very much like God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 (see notes).

Finally, Balak has had all he can take in Numbers 24:10, "Then Balak’s anger was aroused against Balaam, and he struck his hands together; and Balak said to Balaam, 'I called you to curse my enemies, and look, you have bountifully blessed them these three times!'" Here's the case where a man (Balak) hires a contractor (Balaam) to do a job (curse Israel), but he can't satisfactorily do the job. Balak fires him without pay right there on the spot.

Balaam now enters the bonus round. He becomes a prophesying machine, but not in favor of Balak - against him in favor of Israel. He falls into a trance and begins to give more prophecy concerning the demise of all these heathen occupants of the region. Who is going to fall before Israel? Here's the list: Moabites, Edomites, Amalekites, and Kenites. Verse 22 is a little curious; though a few hundred years in the future, Balaam also prophesies their demise and deportation to Assyria (Asshur), a process which would not begin for another six centuries (II Kings 15:27-31, see notes). Now it may seem that everything has worked out marvelously for Israel with regard to Balak's service contract with Balaam, but not so; we'll see in Numbers 25 (see below).

The men of Israel go out on the town (Numbers 25)

1 Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab.
2 They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.
3 So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel.
4 ¶ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before the LORD, out in the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.”
5 ¶ So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal of Peor.”
6 ¶ And indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
7 Now when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand;
8 and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel.
9 And those who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand.
10 ¶ Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
11 “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My zeal.
12 Therefore say, “Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace;
13 and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.’ ”
14 ¶ Now the name of the Israelite who was killed, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, a leader of a father’s house among the Simeonites.
15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi the daughter of Zur; he was head of the people of a father’s house in Midian.
16 ¶ Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
17 “Harass the Midianites, and attack them;
18 for they harassed you with their schemes by which they seduced you in the matter of Peor and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a leader of Midian, their sister, who was killed in the day of the plague because of Peor.”

This is a strange chapter; it seems a little disjointed at first - no relationship to chapters 22-24. However, it turns out that chapter 25 has everything to do with chapters 22-24. We won't see it until we get to Numbers 31:16 (see notes), but according to that verse, the events of chapter 25 are instigated by Balaam himself as a device to corrupt Israel so that God himself will curse them. See...I told you that Balaam was a pagan prophet! I told you that Numbers 23:21 (see above) was key. What if Israel wasn't righteous before God; then could they be cursed? In this chapter, Balaam has devised a strategy designed to bring down the wrath of God upon Israel.

Numbers 25 gets ugly. The men of Israel head for Las Vegas (so to speak) just outside their motels (temporary quarters) in a place called Acacia Grove. These Hebrew men indulge in sexual relations with the heathen women there and take in a few shows while they are at it (actually they bowed down to their gods, the gods of Baal - IDOLATRY!). Isn't it amazing what a seductive woman can get some men to do? At this point, God tells Moses to have these idol worshippers slain and their heads hung up in the sun for all the rest of Israel to see (verses 3-4). It would appear that the subsequent decree issued to the judges of Israel doesn't get completed before this dreadful situation intensifies.

The situation intensifies to the point where there is no shame; one man actually brings the promiscuous gal back to the camp of Israel. Well...Aaron's grandson (Phinehas) takes some pretty drastic measures at this point. He takes his javelin and kills the Hebrew man (Zimri, son of Salu, a leader among the Simeonites) and the woman. We are told that she was the daughter of an influential Midianite leader; her name is given as Cozbi. And that was after God had told Moses to behead the Hebrew idolaters and display their heads. This is followed by a plague that kills 23,000 more. I Corinthians 10:8 (see notes) makes mention of this occasion. While not specifically stated that there had been 1,000 heads hung in the sun prior to the plague, based upon Paul's number of 24,000, we assume that to be the case. God really doesn't like idolatry, does he?

A covenant was established that day regarding Eleazar's son, Phinehas. Because of his actions, which may have seemed compulsive at the time, he and his descendants were awarded the priesthood from that time forward in verses 10-13. Note the promise of verse 13, "and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel." Furthermore, this action of Phinehas became noteworthy in Israel's history. Hundreds of years later he is mentioned along with this incident in Psalms 106:30-31 (see notes), "Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, And the plague was stopped. And that was accounted to him for righteousness To all generations forevermore." Despite this prophecy, there was a period of time where the priesthood was not controlled by a descendant of Phinehas. Eli, during the period of the Judges, was not his descendant. However, we see in I Samuel 2:27-36 (see notes) that the priesthood through his lineage will be cut off. This transfer would take place later under Solomon's authority as a fulfillment of this prophecy in I Kings 2:27,35 (see notes).

Where Balaam was not able to prophesy against Israel, he was able to go back to the Moabites and plot Israel's corruption by using their women as prostitutes to lure Israel's men into idolatry. What a plan! So, just in case you started liking Balaam as he was giving his pro-Israel prophecies, don't get too excited. He just turned out to be another evil man who seemed to have had a short period of favor with God. In the end, he was just an evil man. And the Midianites? They incur some judgment from God as well because these women were not ordinary prostitutes; as a matter of fact, we see in verse 15 that the slain woman (Cozbi) was the daughter of an influential Midianite leader (Zur). Yes, this was an orchestrated plan designed by Balaam for the destruction of the Israelites by the Moabites and Midianites...and it almost seemed to work.

God’s command that Israel take vengeance on the Midianites for their part in the apostasy of Baal of Peor is realized in the continuation of this account in Numbers 31 (see notes). That's where we find the completion of these events that have centered around Balaam in chapters 22-25. Chapters 26 through 30 are not related to these events.

Incidentally, I'm certain that Satan creates circumstances around Believers conducive to sin today. While he can't steal a Believer's salvation, he can place people and things around that Believer that may serve to steal his joy and soften his resolve to serve God first and foremost in his life. I'm reminded of I Peter 5:8 (see notes), "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." Also, Ephesians 6:11-12 (see notes), "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."