Balaam
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related to Balaam the word of the Lord, and said, “I went out to with-
stand thee, because thy way is perverse before me.” It was important to
Israel to overcome the Moabites, in order to overcome the inhabitants
of Canaan. After the angel had impressively warned Balaam against
gratifying the Moabites, he gave him permission to pursue his journey.
God would glorify his name, even through the presumptuous Balaam,
before the enemies of Israel. This could not be done in a more effectual
manner than by showing them that a man of Balaam’s covetous dispo-
sition dared not, for any promises of promotion or rewards, pronounce
a curse against Israel.
Balak met Balaam, and inquired of why he thus delayed to come
when he sent for him, and told him that he had power to promote him
to honor. Balaam answered, Lo, I am come unto thee. He then told
him he had no power to say anything. The word that God should give
him that could he speak, and could go no further. Balaam ordered
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the sacrifices according to the religious rites. God sent his angel to
meet with Balaam, to give him words of utterance, as he had done on
occasions when Balaam was wholly devoted to the service of God.
“And the Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, Return unto
Balak, and thus thou shalt speak. And he returned unto him, and lo, he
stood by his burnt sacrifice, he, and all the princes of Moab. And he
took up his parable, and said, Balak, the king of Moab, hath brought
me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse
me Jacob, and come, defy Israel. How shall I curse whom God hath
not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied? For
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. Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the
fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my
last end be like his!”
Balaam spoke in a solemn, prophetic style. How shall I defy, or
devote to destruction, those whom God hath promised to prosper? He
declared in prophetic words that Israel should remain a distinct people;
that they should not be united with, swallowed up by, or lost in, any
other nation; that they would become far more numerous than they
then were; and he related their prosperity and strength. He saw that the
end of the righteous was truly desirable, and prophetically expressed
his desire that his life might end like theirs.