Numbers 23:1-12--Balaam's First Oracle

Numbers 23:1-12
New American Standard Bible

The Prophecies of Balaam
23 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” 2 Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered up a bull and a ram on each altar. 3 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went to a bare hill.

4 Now God met with Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have set up the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.” 5 Then the Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and this is what you shall speak.” 6 So he returned to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, he and all the leaders of Moab. 7 And he took up his discourse and said,

“From Aram Balak has brought me,
Moab’s king from the mountains of the East, saying,
‘Come, declare Jacob cursed for me,
And come, curse Israel!’
8 How am I to put a curse on him upon whom God has not put a curse?
And how am I to curse him whom the Lord has not cursed?
9 For I see him from the top of the rocks,
And I look at him from the hills;
Behold, a people that lives in isolation,
And does not consider itself to be among the nations.
10 Who has counted the dust of Jacob,
Or the number of the fourth part of Israel?
May I die the death of the upright,
And may my end be like his!”

​11 Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to put a curse on my enemies, but behold, you have actually blessed them!” 12 He replied, “Must I not be careful to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”

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Remember the conflict here is going to be that Balak thinks that God's blessing or cursing is something that can be bought with silver or gold and that the man of God should have a price for which he would be able to decide whether the bless or curse someone--the goes back to how all the false prophets operated, but notice that Balak did not go to any of them, though they were probably much closer to him, for he knew that those prophets had no success and that the gods they cried out to had been shown to be useless and ineffective against the God of the Israelites.  The only divine being that Balak knew of that just might be powerful enough to match the power of Israel's God was Balaam's God (it seems that Balak didn't understand that Balaam and Israel worshiped the same God, for if he did, why would God curse His own people that He called "my son"?).

Balaam has gone with Balak, but has only promised to say the words that the Lord (that is Christ, the angel of the LORD) shows him and tells him and the words that the LORD (that is YHWH) puts in his mouth.

They start with Balaam asking Balak to build seven altar and to prepare seven bulls and seven rams for sacrifice.  This sounds like Balaam knew the kinds of sacrifices that God required the priests to make, but how could he when he lived all the way over on the Euphrates River and the children of Israel just recently received the Law on Mount Sinai?  And why would Balaam imagine that he should be able to make sacrifices on behalf of a pagan king?  Would God be pleased with such sacrifices?  Seeing a man of God who is not a priest offer sacrifices in this place and time period is not unusual as we see Job doing the same for his family probably around this period of time.  I'm not going to dig too deep into this as I believe this is mostly historical narrative that is descriptive and not prescriptive as we don't see the LORD commanding this in any way, nor is it applicable today since we no longer live under such a system of sacrifices where we need to approach God by the blood of bulls and rams and goats, because we approach God by the blood of Jesus--the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  (See Hebrews 10:1-18 and John 1:29-36).

After Balaam made these sacrifices, the Lord told Balaam to return to Barak and speak the words here that are recorded as Balaam's First Oracle.  Balaam's message from the Lord gets to the point right away--blessing and cursing comes from the Lord and not from His prophets, "How am I to put a curse on him upon whom God has not put a curse? And how am I to curse him whom the Lord has not cursed?"

As if his refusal to curse them what not enough, his whole oracle was actually a blessing!  Notice how he says that they are too large to be numbered and although they themselves don't count themselves among the nations of the world, and they live in isolation, this is what the prophet of the Lord says about them,

"May I die the death of the upright,
And may my end be like his!”

May the same thing be said of the Church of Christ who, like Israel is a people and a nation without a land to call our own right now.  Even if we don't consider ourselves to be counted among the other nations, may it be said of us that we are upright and that we died as faithfully as we lived.

Balak is upset, still thinking he is in charge of what Balaam must say, and asks Balaam why he has blessed Israel when Balaam had been hired to curse them?  Balaam's only answer seems to be, "I told you that I'm only going to be able to speak the words that the Lord puts in my mouth."  Balak is not going to get the message and is going to take Balaam to another area where they can see a different part of the Israelite camp thinking that perhaps it was only that little group of people that God refused to curse, but maybe things will be different if we try again from this point over here with this other group of people, and we'll see this play out with Balaam's Second, Third and Final/Fourth Oracles coming up.  Again, hang in there because these are going to be some interesting words that the Lord puts in Balaam's mouth!