THE PROPHECIES OF BALAAM
[p. 194] THE PROPHECIES OF BALAAM
Numbers 23:1 - 10; Numbers 23:18-24; Numbers 24:1 - 9; Numbers 24:15-25
I sought on the last occasion to draw a distinction between the first part of Numbers up to chapter 20, and the remainder of the book from chapter 21, which really presents another subject. I tried to show that in the experience of peoples’ souls the two parts might probably go on together. A great many souls begin with Numbers 21 as the result of the presentation to them of the gospel. They have begun with the testimony of life; that is, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life”. I think it has been said that this is not the beginning of the gospel. I admit it is not in a moral sense. In a moral sense I think that the gospel is the fulfilment of the type of the Red Sea — the death and resurrection of Christ; but in the presentation of the truth as in John 3 the gospel begins with life. Other parts of scripture correspond to this. The apostle speaks to Timothy of life and incorruptibility brought to light by the gospel. People may get their first impressions from that, and thus begin really with Numbers 21. But then you cannot escape the other part! It is certain that if God goes on with us we must be affected by the light of God. You cannot conceive of a soul being formed according to God that has not been affected by the light of God. God must be known by man in all that He is in righteousness, power, and love. God shines out as light, and that in the presence of Christ. The light has come in to test man. Light must enter the soul of the believer, and there are certain consequences which are bound to follow, and these are [p. 195] brought out in type and shadow in the first twenty chapters of Numbers.
I will just glance over the points that have come before us in these chapters before I go on to my present subject.
We began with the pillar of cloud and of fire, as connected with the tabernacle of witness. They were the means of divine guidance. There is guidance from God down here, but connected with the testimony. In a country there are roads, in a city there are streets, but in a wilderness there is no way, there are no roads. We cannot find our way; and we want divine guidance. God comes out to His people to guide them, but He connects the guidance with the tent of testimony; and to enjoy that guidance you must stand in relation to the tent of the testimony.
Then another point came before us: that was the perverseness of the flesh in two directions — one, the hankering after Egypt, the land of flesh; and the other, the natural indisposition of the heart to enter into the purpose of God. That came out very distinctly with the children of Israel. Even when the testimony of the spies came to them, and they saw the fruit of the land, they betrayed the greatest possible indisposition to go up. While dealing with the perverseness, God most blessedly brings out His glory, the stability of His purpose. However contrary the people may be, His purpose and His glory will most certainly be displayed. God has been completely glorified. All hangs upon the sacrifice of Christ. Not only has sin been removed, but God has been glorified, and glory will yet be displayed. The earth is to be filled with the glory of the Lord.
Another characteristic of flesh which we saw was its readiness to intrude itself into the service of God. This came out in the rebellion of Korah,
[p. 196] Dathan, and Abiram. The Levites claimed the priesthood because they were Levites. The principle comes out in the most naked form in Christendom in the idea of a clergy. It is spoken of in the New Testament as “the gainsaying of Kore”. God’s answer to it was, that only the priests, who were in connection with the tabernacle, were to draw near, and the common people could not come nigh the sanctuary. The lesson for us is, that in the service of God we draw nigh only in the character of priests. The function of the Levite, or the duties of the common person, have to be left aside. We have to be conscious of our ability as priests to draw nigh, apart from what we are as Levites or common people. In the case of Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the common people formed three distinct classes; but in Christianity all are combined in one person.
Then another point came before us, that is, the two principles by which God carries His people through the wilderness. The experience and lessons of the wilderness depend upon the light of God. God is revealed to the Christian, and that being so there must be certain moral consequences that flow from it. If God is made known to me in righteousness, it is a moral impossibility that I can go on in sin: I have no option about it. Again, if God is made known to me in grace the necessary response is that I bring forth fruit unto God. All this is not arbitrary, but what I should call the necessary moral effects of the light of God having come into the soul.
Now God helps us in regard of these things. In connection with righteousness and sin we have the “water of purification”; and in connection with bringing forth fruit to God we have the refreshment that comes from priesthood. Christ is interceding for us; He supports us; and we get refreshment [p. 197] by the Spirit so that we may bring forth fruit unto God.
All that is what I should call the consequence of the light of God in the soul. The light is an immense thing; and there are certain consequences that must flow from it. If a person does not see the necessity of these things I very much doubt if such an one has the light of God. He may know texts of scripture, and yet not have the knowledge of God in the soul. Where the light of God is in the soul it is impossible that a man can go on with what is exposed by it. He cannot go on with sin. If he comes in contact with it he wants the water of purification.
That closes the first part of Numbers; the death of the high priest comes in. I say again that the wilderness is the consequence of the light of God in the soul; and we see His provisions that we might be helped, and that He may have fruit. God looks for fruit for Himself. Fruit and righteousness are very intimately connected. The apostle speaks to the Philippians of: “Being filled with the fruit of righteousness which is by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God”. And again we read, “The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace”.
Well, as I have said, all that ends with the death of the high priest. You may be sure that when you come to the death of the high priest another chapter is to be opened up. That is found in chapter 21. There the subject is the purpose of God, and life in connection with that purpose. We apprehend this in the death of Christ; we see in it the expression of the love of God toward man, but we see that death in another light, and that is, as the ground on which God accomplishes His purpose in regard of man. In Christ the state of man after the flesh has been condemned; and God can bring about another state in man to accomplish His purpose. That I [p. 198] believe to be the force and teaching of the brazen serpent. God is love; His love to the world came out in the death of Christ; but there is also the sovereignty of love, and life comes in in connection with that.
The light of the gospel shines like the light of the sun to every one; but in respect of life God claims to be sovereign, and as sovereign He quickens. “As the Father raises up the dead and quickens them, even so the Son quickens whom he will”. In that connection, most unquestionably God claims sovereignty. He fulfils the purpose of His love in quickening whom He will. And I do not think this conflicts with the truth of the gospel, in which the light and grace of God is presented to every one. As a matter of fact many refuse the light, but God will none the less accomplish His purpose.
Two other points came out in that connection. One was the springing up of the well. The groundwork was the Son of man being lifted up, the state of man condemned in the death of Christ, as the apostle speaks to the Corinthians. He was determined to know nothing among them save Jesus Christ and Him crucified — the condemnation of man, root and branch. The Son of man was content to take a place between earth and heaven. He had Himself glorified God on earth; but in the cross he takes a place between earth and heaven on behalf of others. He took that place that God, in Him, might bring about the purpose of His love, “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life”. He is thus the proper object of faith. As to the manner in which the purpose is effectuated in man, it is by the well of water springing up to eternal life. This is what Christ gives.
There was another point, namely, the victory over the two kings, Sihon and Og. We have come [p. 199] here to overcoming. You are on firm ground, the ground of the purpose of God. It is a great thing to have the light of God in the soul; but it is equally important to have the soul established in divine purpose. If it were possible to have the light of God without the knowledge of His purpose, what security would you have as to yourself? Do you think you would be certain to continue in the faith? You would not have much security without the work of God in the soul, and that is connected with His purpose. “He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”. We have to look at the two things: there is the work of God for us, and there is the work of God in us, and the latter connected with His purpose. If aught depended on the responsibility of the creature it would fail, but all hangs now upon the sovereign purpose of God.
So we have begun with a new subject in chapter 21, and this involves another important fact: the people are now looked at typically in the light of the elect of God, who are to inherit the land. The apostle Paul said, “I endure all things for the elect’s sake, that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory”. And so in the future, even with regard to the earth, there is the elect Israel. From chapter 21 you find another company, not the company numbered as having come out of Egypt. They are typical of the elect Israel, the Israel that are to inherit the land, not the Israel after the flesh. Flesh does not enter into the purposes of God.
Those that God brought out of Egypt were tested after the flesh and perished in the wilderness. But God intends to carry out His purpose in the elect Israel; and what brings them to light is life. I could not tell you who are the elect of God; I can only discern them by God’s work in them, no one [p. 200] could possibly tell them otherwise. What I am leading up to is the prophecies of Balaam. If you do not look at them as referring to the elect of God, it is impossible to understand them at all.
One thing is indisputable, Balaam never saw the people as they were. What he saw were the tents. He looked at the people from above, from the top of the rock. He saw Israel abiding in their tents by their tribes. He did not look inside the tents; if he had, he would have seen a very different sight; but he surveyed them from above in the vision of God. His utterances were prophetic. God took up Balaam, and held such possession of the man and of his mind, that he could not help uttering what God intended him to say, he could not do what he himself desired. You must look at him in that light, for he gives us a prophetic view of the elect Israel. The matter is simple if you accept the division I have already made in the book, and see that chapter 21 brings you to new ground, to the purpose of God and life.
I think that the Lord alludes in principle to the same thing in John’s gospel in saying, “The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live” (chapter 5: 25). The Lord looked on all in the world as morally dead, and indicates that His voice would bring to light the elect of God, the subjects of divine purpose; and so it will be in the future with regard to Israel.
Now I just take up these prophecies in detail. I will only attempt to give you the leading feature in each prophecy — I could not go into them fully. You notice that there are four distinct prophecies, they were not one utterance. Each one of these four utterances has its own distinct point and subject. It is very important to observe this. Can you conceive a more wonderful thing than our [p. 201] getting such prophecies as these through such a person as Balaam? When you think that what Balaam really presented was the mind of God in regard to a heavenly people on earth, it is still more amazing. Without controversy these prophecies were uttered hundred of years before Christianity existed; and yet you get this man announcing what God’s thought is in regard to Christians, God’s true people in the wilderness. If any one wants a proof of the unity of the word of God, that the Author is one, that it is the work of one Spirit, you get it in such a fact as this.
Another point is, that until Christianity came in not a single soul really understood these prophecies. Until the Holy Ghost came there was no intelligence as to them. “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning”. The people who were contemporary did not understand them. I do not even know that they ever heard them. They are recorded by Moses, God gave them to him; but we have no knowledge that the people heard them at the time. As a matter of fact they portray a heavenly people here in the wilderness. As I said, you must bear in mind that they relate to the elect people of God. Christians are that now. You must, in considering them, exclude the idea of flesh and profession for a moment, and look simply at the elect people of God.
What is the first mark that comes out as characterising such a people? A very important one indeed: complete sanctification. The people were to dwell alone and not to be reckoned among the nations. They had no part in the common history of the world. You cannot write a history of the people of God. The history of the children of Israel was never compiled. Scripture does not give you their history. If you were to take from the record of the Old Testament what is not history, namely, divine [p. 202] interpositions, and so on, you would have little or nothing left. Their national history was never compiled. They were to dwell alone. Sanctification, setting apart to God, was essential, in their case it was national. In the true sense sanctification is by the Spirit, that is how Christians now are set apart; we have no wall of partition around us. Christians are set apart in the power of the Holy Ghost to God. And the great point to my mind is that there is such a thing as sanctification, not of a race, but by the Holy Ghost, who sets apart the people of God for God. I do not think there was the sanctification of the Spirit until He came; but from that moment there was the setting apart to God of God’s elect people down here. Flesh and profession have no part in that. It is the course which the Spirit of God takes unknown to man, as, for instance, the apostle Paul was set apart from his mother’s womb. The Spirit is conscious of every one and everything, and He is working, that the elect people may be a separated people. Why? Because the world is an evil world. All that is in it, “The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world”. Therefore the Holy Spirit is here as the power of sanctification. The design of the Spirit in His dwelling down here, is the setting apart of a heavenly people. That is what Paul laboured for, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified in the Holy Ghost.
In the second prophecy the elect people are under the eye of God entirely justified, none can call them in question. God is the justifier. The truth of this comes out in Romans 8 as regards ourselves. “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth”. His elect people are in His eye entirely apart from all possibility [p. 203] of blame. They are out of the reach of the enemy, because no accusation can stand against them. “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel”. What an amazing thing that God can view His people in that light! There is not only the Spirit’s sanctification, but in virtue of what has been effected the people of God are without reproach in the eye of God.
There is progress in these prophecies, and the third prophecy takes you a point further, announcing something beyond the previous ones. It is not here sanctification, nor that the people are without blame; but the beauty of the people is presented in their divine order in the eye of God. The order of the people is that which God appointed. It was not left to Israel to pitch their tents according to their mind. Their tents were all pitched, according to the divine order, in relation to the tent of the testimony. It is most important to remember that Balaam did not see inside the tents. He saw Israel abiding in their tents according to their tribes, and said: “How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!” The wicked man went to get enchantments, but they failed him; he was compelled to speak in the power of the Spirit, and to announce the ordered beauty of the people. This man was thus used of God to furnish these wonderful prophecies as to God’s people. If the brazen serpent had not come in, it might have been possible to curse the people as Balaam wished to do. But now there was nothing to curse. God had anticipated the curse by the brazen serpent, and when Balaam comes upon the scene the curse had been met and sin condemned; and all that Balaam could do was to show that the people of God were sanctified, justified, and in perfect beauty and order according to God.
If he had looked inside their tents he would have [p. 204] seen plenty of ugly flesh; God will deal with that in discipline; but when the enemy looks at the people, he can only say they are comely, they are beautiful.
What order has God put upon us? We are not a people abiding in our tents around the tent of the testimony; but I see a beauty put upon Christians; and their comeliness in the eye of God is that Christ is upon them, and not only Christ upon them but Christ in them. Christ is written in the fleshy tables of the heart in the lines of the Holy Ghost, so that properly speaking, in that sense, Christians are Christ’s epistle. They are that in the eye of God; that is the comeliness and beauty which He has put upon His people. You get an illustration of this in the parable of the prodigal. His comeliness was the best robe, the ring, the shoes, all that the father ordered the servants to put upon him that he might be suitable to the father’s eye, that his eye might rest upon him with satisfaction. So the eye of God looked upon Israel with divine satisfaction. All will be fulfilled without doubt in regard to them, but I am sure that what we have here is descriptive of a heavenly people now — the elect of God in the wilderness.
In this point of view, in the purpose of love, God sees them as holy and beloved. Christ was the elect of God here, and necessarily everything that was beautiful and comely to God? It says of Him, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth”. And who have taken the place of the elect of God now? Christians are the elect of God, and God has put upon them the best robe that they may be beautiful in His eye.
Balaam had to announce this. His is an extraordinary case. He represents officialism invested with the prestige of the name of God. He had the place of a prophet, and the glamour of the name of God, and yet was a man going to the devil to get [p. 205] enchantments! I am afraid there is a great deal of that kind of thing in Christendom in the present day. Men are invested with Christ’s name, but they do not go for light to Christ; they honour the Virgin Mary, and saints, and all that sort of thing — like going to the devil for enchantments. I strongly suspect Balaam prefigures such practices. We read in the address to Philadelphia (Revelation 3: 9), “The synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie”.
One word more as to the last prophecy. This has, I think, more distinct relation to Israel, for it refers to the Star and the Sceptre, and alludes to the hereditary enemies of Israel — Moab and Edom and Asshur and Amalek — these enemies of Israel would be completely set aside, and Israel would have his place cleared upon the earth. It brings before us, in fact, the coming of the Lord. Of course, you can look upon it in a different light, for these nations represent moral principles: Moab, the pride of man; Edom, the haughty independence of man, and so on; and all must be completely subdued by the coming of the Lord. What place will there be then for the pride and haughtiness of man? “The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of man shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day”. If He has His proper place in your heart, what place is there for haughtiness? The antidote to it in the heart of the Christian is the Lord; and He will be the antidote to it all in the world. The enemies of the people of God will have no place at all. They will be set aside and their power broken; and the One to reign springs from the elect people of God. “There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall arise out of Israel”.
Thus we have the climax in the coming of the Lord and the complete displacement of all that is of man.
[p. 206] Amalek comes especially into prominence for judgment. They were the first people that Israel came into conflict with after their deliverance out of Egypt.
My impression is, as I have said, that you cannot understand these prophecies of Balaam if you do not apprehend them as having their application to the elect people of God. They were not spoken until the generation that came out of Egypt had passed away, save Joshua and Caleb. Hence, as relating to another generation, they show what God’s people are to Him; their sanctification, their justification, their beauty, and everything crowned by the coming of the Lord.
May the Lord give us to apprehend much more distinctly than we have ever before done, the wonderful and blessed character of the word of God!