UM 23{How blessed to meditate on what God is in Himself; He acts in the supremacy of grace according to His own holy nature. The evil which is in man does not affect that. We have seen the perverse prophet who would for reward help on the enmity of the world against the people of God, while at the same time that very people had been rebellious against the Lord from the day of their departure from Egypt. (Deut. 9:77Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the Lord. (Deuteronomy 9:7)) Neither the way of Balaam nor the stiff-neckedness of the people can alter what He is. He will rebuke the madness of the prophet by his own ass; and He will chasten His people as often as they need it; but He is God.
Having shown Balaam the perversity of his way, it is now God's will that he should go with the princes of Moab, and speak the word only which God compelled him to utter. He meets Balak thus, " Lo, I am come unto thee: have I now any power at all to say anything? the word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak." The high places of Baal, to which Balak conducts him on the morrow, witness the impotency of the power of evil. Balak and Balaam offer sacrifices, but to whom is not said. Perfect in number, but in character spiritual wickedness. This done, Balaam bids Balak stand by his burnt-offering, while he goes alone to the meeting of a superior power, with a "peradventure" that it might be the Lord. "And God met Balaam; " and in reply to his recounting the sacrifices he had offered, Jehovah put a word into his mouth. He returns to Balak, and took up his parable. Brought out of Aram from the mountains of the east to curse Jacob and defy Israel, he has to own his inability to curse those whom God hath not cursed, or to defy those whom Jehovah hath not defied.
But more, he is obliged to survey the people from the height of God's purpose. " From the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him." He looks at them, not according to their actual state as in the valley below, but from above. From Pisgah's top (compare verse 14) Moses was permitted to view the promised land; and from an exceeding high mountain John was shown the holy city-new Jerusalem. Ezekiel also, from the same vantage-ground, saw the city whose name was to be, " The Lord is there." To the same point, an exceeding high mountain, the devil took the blessed Lord, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them-all was made to pass before Him in a moment of time. From such a point Balaam views the people in the visions of God, and from thence he has to declare God's thoughts as to them. " So the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." In the mind of God they are a separate people.
We have seen that Abraham, by the call of God, had been separated from the midst of the idolatrous nations to know Him, and to walk before Him as the Almighty God. To his seed according to the flesh the name of Jehovah was made known; and by His mighty arm they were redeemed to Himself out of Egypt, that they might be His people. The revelation of His name put them into relationship with Himself as so revealed. They could not belong to God and to the world also. Further, to be God's people necessitated that they should dwell alone. The fact of His dwelling among them, that He went with them, was the principle on which they were, and the cause of their being, separated from all people on the face of the earth. (Ex. 33:1616For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. (Exodus 33:16)) It is ever so. There is the broad road of the world, and the narrow and separated path which leads to life. We cannot walk in the two at once. Conversion to God is to quit the highway of the world, and to enter the strait and narrow gate. Instance after instance may be given in confirmation of this separated path, and passage after passage from God's word to show that it is God's mind for His people. " Beware that thou bring not my son thither again," was the chief injunction of Abraham to his servant. Isaac must not return to the country whence his father had been called out. Consequently we find him, at his father's death, dwelling by the well Lahai-roi (Gen. 25:1111And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac dwelt by the well Lahai-roi. (Genesis 25:11)) -the well of Him that liveth and seeth me, the secret of the presence of God. This well had been made known to Hagar; but Ishmael, her son, and his descendants, dwelt from Havilah to Shur, the great highway of the world between Egypt and Assyria. In the New Testament this separation received its force from the death of Jesus. His cross is the boundary line between the Christian and the world. He gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world. (Gal. 1:44Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: (Galatians 1:4)) Its character is unaltered; therefore the apostle John thus writes, " We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness." (1 John 5:1919And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. (1 John 5:19)) The mind of God then as to His people is that they dwell alone. They are His, and this He will give the enemy to know.
Let us further survey them in the mind of God. Balaam proceeds with his parable: " Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? " One solitary man had been called out from the midst of the nations. " I called Abraham alone, and blessed him, and increased him." (Isa. 51:22Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. (Isaiah 51:2)) A childless man, alone, he was bidden of God to look toward heaven and tell the stars, if he were able to number them. So was his seed to be. In the same plains of Moab, where Balaam's prophetical utterance, "Who can count the dust of Jacob?" was spoken of Israel, Moses said of them, " Ye were the fewest of all people." (Deut. 7: 7) A separated people, dwelling alone, may apparently be for the time " a little flock;" yet when the purpose of God is fully accomplished, what countless multitudes will fill both the heavens and the earth. " Look now towards the heavens." Do they not declare the glory of God? Those redeemed from every nation by the blood of Christ are there-an innumerable throng of heavenly saints, each one in the likeness of Christ. On earth they spring up as among the grass, as willows by the watercourses, the witnesses of Jehovah and of His redemption. They are the children of the separated Joseph-the ten thousands of Ephraim, and the thousands of Manasseh. (Deut. 33: 16, 17) Besides, there is a countless multitude for the earth (Rev. 7:99After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; (Revelation 7:9)) of Gentiles, who find their place in God's holy temple. (Comp. Isa. 56:7,87Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people. 8The Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him. (Isaiah 56:7‑8)) But whether on earth or in heaven, Jesus will see in these countless multitudes of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. They are witnesses of redemption power and glory. Who then shall count them?
Well may Balaam conclude his parable, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." It is the "last end" which is important, whether for Israel or an individual. Death is the "last end" for man here. Death, vanquished in the power of resurrection, is now the beginning according to God. The way of the Lord is prepared by proclaiming that all flesh is grass. That flesh is grass is fully brought out in the parable and dark saying of Psa. 49, and yet the inward thought of man is to continue here. This their way is their folly. Each will admit it is folly, yet their posterity approve their sayings, and hence each, while he lives, will bless himself. Nevertheless death shall feed upon them. Balaam would curse Israel to bless himself. His way is his folly. Under the power of the word of Jehovah, which he was compelled to speak, he desires the end of the righteous, but in heart approves the present way of the world. The righteous-the saints of old-died according to faith. They rested on the promise and embraced it, though to them it was a parable-a dark saying. Such was the utterance of the psalmist: "God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave." Life and incorruptibility are now brought to light by the gospel. Death, the last end of man, opens out into the light of resurrection and heavenly glory. It is no longer a parable. Israel too, as a nation, will eventually awake from the dust of the earth, when they have been brought to know that all flesh is grass. Of old, God led them through the wilderness "that He might humble thee, and that He might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end." Their entrance into Canaan under Joshua was not the fulfillment of that word, it was but preliminary to their deliverance from a wilderness condition, in which they will be found in the last days, into the fullness of their blessing. They will pass through the time of Jacob's trouble, and be saved out of it, having been brought up as from the grave. (Ezek. 37:1212Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. (Ezekiel 37:12)) What an awakening it will be I Balaam, in wishing for himself the last end of the righteous, anticipates in his parable what that end will be. We have yet to see how such a people can be reckoned righteous.
This parable of Balaam is rightly interpreted by Balak as a blessing. The Lord had indeed chosen them to be a special people to Himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth-who then should bring accusation against them? Looked at as the people of God they were blessed-shielded by the power of Jehovah. Would it be possible to curse part of them? " Thou shalt see but the utmost part of them," says Balak, " and shalt not see them all." The "utmost part" is a place exposed to danger; it was there the fire of the Lord burnt at Taberah. (Chapter 11:1) Nearness is always a safe place; while to be at a distance leaves us open to attack. Could the power of the enemy prevail there?
Again sacrifice is offered, and again Balaam went to meet a mysterious power " yonder." But Jehovah met Balaam. At first, when the separation of the people was declared, God met Balaam. Now it is manifestly Israel's God-Jehovah—who put a word into his mouth. He returns to Balak; but he no longer merely confesses his inability to curse. There is a commanding power in his utterance as he replies to Balak's question, " What hath the Lord spoken? " " Rise up, Balak, and hear; hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor: God is not a man." The word Balaam uses here- "El" -is the expression of absolute Deity. Man is thus vividly brought into contrast with God in His essential Being. Blessing -our blessing through grace -is thus connected with what He is. This title of God is used several times in this prophecy. (See chap. 23: 8, 19, 22, 23; 24: 4, 8, 16, 23) It is put into Balaam's lips, and bespeaks the absolute character of the blessings pronounced. " Hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good? " Consequently there is a further title used (chap. 24: 4), " Almighty "-the Accomplisher of all that He has spoken. He is too in relationship with those He blesses-"Jehovah his Elohim is with him; " and when the rising of the Star out of Jacob is predicted, then the title " Most High " is brought in (24: 16); for the Scepter of universal dominion arises out of Israel, and Jehovah their God is then Most High over all the earth. It is His millennial title. How blessed to be in the secret of these titles! (Compare Psa. 90:1,21<<A Prayer of Moses the man of God.>> Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. 2Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. (Psalm 90:1‑2)) Soon will they be celebrated in heaven thus, "Hallelujah! for the Lord God Almighty reigneth." But He who is thus celebrated we call in the Spirit of adoption, Abba, Father! T. H. R.
(To be continued, if the Lord will)