Worse and worse for Balak. Curiously his next effort is to shut Balaam’s mouth altogether. Since he can not get from him curses against Israel, he begs him to hold still and not bless them. “Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.”——Balaam replied: “Did I not say to thee, All that the Lord speaketh, that I must do”?——But Balak has not yet lost all hope. Perhaps it was of the Lord rather than of his hope however that he is in for another trial—this time “on the top of Peor that looketh toward Jeshimon.” Great faith he must have had in the prestige of new points of vision—of other mountain tops.——The altars are set up; the bullocks and rams are offered as before. But in one respect the course of events changes. “When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went not as at other times to seek for enchantments, but set his face toward the wilderness;”—which seems to imply that on the two former occasions he had pursued his usual methods of divination to obtain messages from the spirit-world, but now changed his course, and simply turned his face toward the wilderness where the camp of Israel lay in full view before him. Now we read, not that the Lord “met him” and “put a word into his mouth” (Num. 23: 4, 5, 16), but that “the Spirit of God came upon him,” giving him prophetic visions in manner quite different from the preceding. His spiritual eye was now opened; what his natural eye had just seen as he set his face toward the wilderness (the camp of Israel), led his thought in these spiritual visions of Israel’s glorious future, and his imagery naturally came from the scenes still fresh in his mind. “How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel”! Exalted be thy kingdom; glorious thy king! His own great God brought him up from Egypt; befriends him still; will give him assured victory over all enemies in his own time! Blessed be all who bless thee; cursed be all who curse thee!
Balak is terribly enraged and bids Balaam flee and begone. Balaam with apparent mildness and undisturbed equanimity proposes to give Balak some further prophetic views of what Israel should do to Moab in the coming days. Again “he takes up his parable:” “I shall see him, but not now; I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a star out of Jacob and ascepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth” (v. 17).
Who is “the star” and “the scepter” of this prophecy?——The leading thought of the passage (vs. 17–19) and indeed of the entire prophecy to the end of verse 24 is the supremacy of Israel, and the fall of all powers hostile to Israel and to Israel’s God. The key-note is in the words: “Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion.” The prophetic future (as usual) is built upon the visible present, or perhaps more precisely, springs out of it—is suggested by it, and takes its phraseology and costume from it. The Lord forces the truth upon Balaam’s soul that this Israel whom he was called out from his Eastern home to curse could not be cursed to any purpose by any earthly divination or power because they were God’s own people, and it was his fixed purpose to bless them. To impress this great truth the more deeply, the Lord reveals to him in prophetic vision that this present fact is not transient but destined to reach into the remote future; that it is indeed only a beginning of their supremacy—a pledge of a far more sovereign ascendency, to be manifested in future ages.——With this view of the spirit of the prophecy, we must find here, not merely David in whom as the first conqueror of Moab and of Edom (2 Sam. 8: 2, 12, 14) these words receive the first palpable installment of their meaning; but yet more surely that greater Son of David whose scepter is to rule the nations with a rod of iron.
That this broad construction is the true one will appear yet more fully when we compare the use of the word “scepter” here with Jacob’s use of it (Gen. 49: 10); the “star” here with the “star in the East” (Matt. 2: 1) seen by other wise men [magicians] from Balaam’s own country; and not least, the fact that Edom and Seir became in the usage of later prophets symbolic names for the declared and malign enemies of Christ’s kingdom (See Isa. 34).——“He shall smite the corners;” better the two sides of Moab, i. e. Moab from side to side, through and through, laying waste her whole country.——The word “Sheth” (“all the children of Sheth”) seems to be used as a common, not a proper noun, the sense being—all the sons of tumult—all the men of war and strife. Her war-power he shall utterly break down. Edom and Seir—two names for one and the same kingdom, often affiliated with Moab, shall become the possession of their enemies and Israel shall outmaster them through her valor, and yet more through the might of her God—first fulfilled by David (2 Sam. 8: 14).
Of Amalek he said: Amalek was first among the nations to assail Israel (Ex. 17: 8–16); her end shall be utter annihilation. (See the notice of Amalek on Ex. 17).
Verses 21, 22, spoken of the Kenites, of whom Jethro and Hobab were the earliest representatives, are not without difficulties, yet their history places them in marked contrast with Amalek—friends, not enemies of Israel; and therefore suggests—not to say demands, a contrasted prophetic destiny. Placing themselves on the side of Israel, their dwelling-place was strong; their nest in the rocks. Keil translates the passage—“Durable is thy dwelling-place, and thy nest laid upon the rock; for should Kain [the Kenite] be destroyed until Asshur shall carry thee captive”?—the question in his view having the force of a negative: The Kenite shall not be destroyed, etc. But it is not quite clear that the original words will bear this construction. It is however certain that the prophecy assures the Kenites, as friends of Israel, of long-continued prosperity.
Again Balaam “takes up his parable,” forcibly impressed with the fearful judgments God would send upon the enemies of Israel: “Who shall endure the day of such judgments on the guilty foes of God? Great powers from the West [ships of Chittim] shall sweep over the ancient Eastern empires and level them with the dust; and God will stand before the nations far down the ages as one mighty to protect his people and to overwhelm their enemies.”
Balaam’s oracles are expressed in the purest style of Hebrew poetry—such as few can read without a sense of its beauty and majesty. If read with a present sense of the moral status of this prince of diviners—of the conflict in his soul between the love of riches and honor on the one hand and some regard to the high behests of the Almighty on the other, we can not well suppress a feeling of sadness that one so gifted by nature and so favored of God with prophetic revelations,should, despite of all, have yet succumbed to the dominion of the baser impulses of his soul. His final record is dark and distressing. “He taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before Israel” and drew them into idolatry and fornication (Rev. 2: 14 and Num. 25). He cast in his lot with the Midianites, and (apparently) counseled them into the same infernal policy. Hence when the Lord in self-defense hurled down the sword of his people upon Midian and five of her kings fell, Balaam the son of Beor also was slain (Num. 31: 1–8). Thus he who so plaintively yet so pertinently prayed—“Let me die the death of the righteous,” met the death of the wicked. He had seen reason enough for the prayer: “Let my last end be like his”; and yet he “died as the fool dieth”—in arms against Almighty God. While in imagination and intellect he might have taken rank with the noblest of earth’s sons, yet through the baseness of his impulses and the greed of a covetous soul, he chose his rank among the meanest and utterly missed the immortality which seemed at one moment so nearly in his grasp! For awhile God held him to the utterance of lofty thought, and apparently of pure and resolute purpose. But no sooner was the Lord’s restraining hand lifted off than Balaam slumped into the mire of his selfish, covetous nature and went fast “to his own place”!
The question has been raised (more curious than useful) how Moses and the archives of Israel came into possession of these prophecies of Balaam. In answer it has been suggested that, failing to get the pay he expected from Balak, Balaam went to Moses and laid before him the contents of these chapters (Num. 22–24) with the hope of ample reward (which his covetous heart was loth to forego); but failing here also, left in disgust; threw himself into the arms of Moab and Midian; retaliated with selfish malignity upon Israel and Israel’s God, and of course hurried himself swiftly to his final doom.——Let his example never cease to be a warning!