“God, who brought them out of Egypt,
gives them the strength of a wild ox;
thus one can’t put a spell on Ya‘akov,
no magic will work against Isra’el.
It can now be said of Ya‘akov and Isra’el,
‘What is this that God has done?!’”
-Numbers 23:22-23
We are continuing on with studying the second oracle of Balaam which establishes some foundational aspects of God’s character.
Last time we learned that God is NOT a man (nor will He ever become one) and we learned that God is NOT whimsical or capricious.
Moving forward, we learn some more important things about God and His relationship with His chosen people Israel.
Again, through Balaam, the Lord makes it clear that what He has blessed can never be reversed.
Thus, it is futile for Balak to try and curse Israel.
Verse 23 is also interesting.
We’re told that HASHEM has neither established magic nor will He allow sorcery or divination among His people.
It is simply NOT to exist in any form.
Unfortunately, as we move forward in our study of the Scriptures, we’re going to find that Israel continued to struggle with divination and idolatry and the consequences were not pretty.
Let’s move on.
Next, a common metaphor of the day is used to describe Israel.
Israel is told she possesses the strength and ferocity of a lion and then more vivid poetic language is used.
We’re told Israel “will not lie down till he eats up the prey and drinks the blood of the slain”.
At this, Balak just about pops another blood vessel.
Let’s face it, this king from Moab is paying big bucks to get Balak to curse Balaam and he hasn’t gotten one cent of his money’s worth so far.
“Obviously, you won’t curse them. But at least don’t bless them!” he pleads with Balaam
Again, Balaam repeats that he has no free will in the matter.
He can only do what the Lord instructs.
Well, as we have learned about King Balak’s character, he’s not one to give up so easily.
He suggests escorting Balaam to yet another high place called PEOR to achieve his goal of getting Israel cursed.
Now pay close attention to what’s going on here because it gives us a good idea of how the pagan mind worked in this era.
Notice how in spite of the many times HASHEM has made it clear that he is NOT going to change his mind when it comes to cursing Israel, King Balak continues to try and do so.
Why?
Again, it is because of the belief in those days that it was perfectly possible to negotiate and even manipulate the gods to do one’s own bidding.
King Balak thinks that all he has to do is just appease this Hebrew deity a little more and then he’ll finally get what he wants.
So they head up to Peor, which by the way was another high place dedicated to the pagan god Baal.
And they again build seven altars and place seven sacrifices on them.
Are things going to be different this time?
We’ll find out in the next chapter.
NEXT TIME WE BEGIN NUMBERS CHAPTER 24
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