Throughout the unfolding of the purpose of
the ages — whether the whole sweep of that purpose, as visualized from Genesis i.
to Revelation xxii., whether man himself, from Paradise lost to
Paradise regained, whether Israel, or the Church, or even the individual life
of the believer throughout all times and under all dispensations — Scripture
apprizes us of a series of Satanic attacks, carried out along lines parallel
with that purpose, including, prominently, an attack upon the exclusive worship
of God, and a seduction from the path of moral purity. These attacks are not confined to the
beginning of any new dispensation, but are repeated, with undiminished force,
at their close. Rebellion began in
heaven and war will again take place in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting
against the Dragon and his angels. That
old Serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, who deceived our first parents when
placed in the garden of Eden, will deceive the nations once again, just before
the garden is restored at the last.
Coming closer to our subject, Israel had
been delivered out of Egypt but five months when we find them ensnared in the
matter of the golden calf and its immoral "play", for they made
themselves naked (Exod. xxxii. 1-6, 25).
This terrible breaking of the covenant of Sinai was visited by a
judgment executed by the sons of Levi.
And now, as we are about to read the account of the closing attack upon
Israel, just as they are to cross the Jordan, we find again, in the matter of
Baal-Peor, the same idolatry and immorality, followed by vengeance executed by
the javelin of Phinehas.
The book of the Revelation reveals a
similar attack at the time of the end, “that woman Jezebel” teaching the same
double evil in the church in Thyatira (Rev. ii. 20). Before the dreadful fall of Israel in the
matter of Baal-Peor, much is recorded concerning Balaam himself, and
considerable space is devoted to his unwilling inspiration and utterance of the
prophetic parables.
Three battles are recorded: against
Irad the Canaanite, Sihon, king
of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, but these sanguinary fights are disposed of
in a few verses. The record of the final
attack under Balaam, however, occupies more than one hundred verses. Moreover, the N.T. refers to Balaam three
times, and makes allusion to two points in the story recorded in Numbers:
“Which have forsaken the right way, and
are gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the
wages of unrighteousness, but was rebuked for his iniquity; the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad
the madness of the prophet” (II Pet. ii. 15, 16).
“Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and
ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the
gainsaying of Korah” (Jude11).
“But I have a few things against thee,
because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak
to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things
sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication.
So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which
thing I hate” (Rev. ii. 14, 15).
A reference is made to this period in I Cor. x. 8:--
“Neither let us commit fornication, as
some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.”
Two references are made to Baal-Peor
outside the books of Moses:--
“They joined themselves also unto
Baal-Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead” (Psa. cvi. 28).
“They went to Baal-Peor and separated (nazar,
as Numb.vi.7) themselves unto that shame;
and their abominations were according as they loved” (Hos. ix. 10).
As a detailed examination of the whole of
the narrative is beyond our limits, these references will enable us to
appreciate the features that require consideration.
Just as Balaam comes upon the scene at the
very end of Israel’s period of wandering, and just before they cross over into
the promised land, so these N.T. Scriptures which refer to Balaam, are
Scriptures that deal with the last days, viz.,
II Peter, Jude and
Revelation.
II Peter
is occupied with prophecy, both false and true, revolving around the
second coming of the Lord. Chapter
ii. is taken up with the question of
false prophets, and the ungodly of ancient times. The angels that sinned, the old world in the
days of Noah, and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, are examples cited of the
ungodliness yet to come. Even a passing
acquaintance with the Scriptures that deal with these three subjects will
indicate the awful uncleanness associated with them, and this is immediately
taken up by the apostle (ii. 10-14), and is followed by the reference to
Balaam.
Jude follows very closely the same lines
as II Peter ii. He, too, introduces three ancient examples
of ungodliness: Israel, the angels,
and Sodom & Gomorrah, and, again, terrible uncleanness is
indicated (Jude 7, 8). These three
classes are balanced in the epistle by three evil individuals: Cain,
Balaam & Korah,
and throw light upon the character of the last days.
The book of the Revelation also speaks of
the last days, and again we read of Balaam.
This time a special doctrine is associated with his name, and also with
Nicolaitanes. Now, inasmuch as both Balaam
and Nicolaitan have the same meaning, namely, the overcoming of the
people, we see that Satan will once more introduce his unclean doctrines at the
time of the end to ensnare the people of God.
Balaam’s doctrine was taught at Pergamos — “where Satan’s throne
is.” Balaam stands before us as the
great typical false prophet: he sins
against light and knowledge and is
overcome of greed: He was in league with
the forces of evil, as may be seen by the references to enchantments (Numbers xxiii. 23; xxiv. 1
and falling into a trance, xxiv.
4). Four times does Balaam utter in parable form
the words that God put into his mouth.
Balak takes Balaam to view Israel from three different heights, but no
loophole can be found for the curse to fall upon them.
Balaam’s four parables represent four
aspects of the perfect standing of every true child of God. Under the first covenant Israel had
undertaken to inherit the position of a kingdom of Priests by their obedience,
saying: “All that the Lord hath spoke we
will do” (Exodus.xix.3-8), and as a part of their preparation for the
confirmation of this covenant Moses was to:
“sanctify them to-day and to-morrow
and let them wash their clothes
and be ready against the third day” (Exod.xix.10,11). Alas, we know too well that Israel utterly
failed, and the Lord, in grace, set aside that covenant and introduced another,
a better covenant, established by better promises, resting upon an infinitely
better Sacrifice, and in the hand of a better Mediator.
When Israel do, eventually, enter into
their blessed inheritance, it will not be by their own obedience, neither will
they be able to “wash their clothes and be ready against the third day”. The book of the Revelation gives the new and
better state:--
“Unto Him that loved us, and washed us
from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and
His Father” (Rev. i. 5, 6).
“These are they which have come out of
greater tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the
blood of the lamb” (Rev. vii. 14).
“Thou hast redeemed to God by Thy blood out of
every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made them unto our
God kings and priests: and they shall
reign over the earth” (Rev. v. 9, 10).
The first of Balaam’s parables emphasizes
the believer’s separation unto God:--
“Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and
shall not be reckoned among the nations” (Numb. xxiii. 9).
This is the basic truth concerning
Israel. The second parable emphasizes
the perfect acceptance of every child of God:--
“He hath
not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel”
(Numb. xxiii. 21).
Yet on both sides of this parable of
Balaam we have the record of Israel’s terrible failure. The apparent contradiction is, however,
removed when we remember that Balaam speaks of their standing, whereas
Moses speaks of their state.
The two parables that follow emphasize the
glory and the victory of the people “in the latter days” (Numb. xxiv. 14). “His kingdom shall be exalted” (Numb. xxiv.
7), and Balaam plainly prophecies that this exaltation is associated with the
Messiah:--
“There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and
a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel. Out
of Jacob shall come He that shall have dominion” (Numb.xxiv.17,19).
Before ending the prophetic utterances,
Balaam speaks of the end of the Amalekites, the Kenites and the Assyrians. Ships shall come from the coast of Shittim,
and afflict both the Assyrian and the Hebrew,
and then he also (that sent the
ships) shall perish for ever. Daniel, in
xi. 30 of his book, speaks of
these “ships of Chittim”, and makes it clear that they come against the Beast
of the Apocalypse.
Here, then, we have a false prophet, who
sets out, at the bidding of a king, to curse Israel, uttering such truths as
demand nothing less than the inspiration of God as their origin. Balaam realized his helplessness in the
matter, saying to Balak:--
“Have i now any power at all to say
anything? The word that God putteth in
my mouth, that shall i speak” (Numb.xxii.38).
“Must
i not take heed to speak that which the Lord hath put in my mouth?” (Numb.
xxiii. 12).
“If Balak would give me his house full of
silver and gold, i cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord, to do either
good or bad of mine own mind: but what
the Lord saith, that will i speak” (Numb. xxiv. 13).
“And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw
Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes; and the spirit of God came upon him” (Numb.
xxiv. 2).
It is therefore apparent that Balaam’s
utterances had no relation to his own heart, or his own moral character. He, himself, was wicked, unrepentant, and in
league with Satanic powers, yet God
could so come upon him that he was
powerless to resist being made a mouthpiece of the Almighty. If wicked Balaam and wicked Caiaphas can
utter prophetic truth by the mighty constraint of the Spirit of God, how much more may we believe that “holy men
of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (II Pet. i. 21)?
It is sad to leave this high standpoint of
the blessed standing of the elect of God, for the narrative of their
terrible state which follows in
Numbers xxv. Balaam’s intended
curses were rendered impossible, but Balaam’s subtle doctrine ensnared the
people of God:--
“And Israel abode in Shittim, and the
people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the
sacrifices of their gods: and the people
did eat, and bowed down to their gods, and Israel joined himself unto
Baal-Peor” (Numb. xxv. 1-3).
No censer of incense stays the judgment
that now falls. The javelin of Phinehas
“made an atonement for the children of Israel”, and his reward is remembered in
the words of Israel’s last prophet (Mal.ii.4,5). The words that follow deal with abuses in
connection with marriage, and the intention of the Lord in marriage — “That He
might seek a seed of God” (Elohim) (Mal. ii. 15). They reveal the diabolical character of
Balaam’s doctrine. Its connection with
Cain, the fallen angels and the cities of the plain in II Peter
and Jude, further emphasizes the Satanic plot at
Baal-Peor, at the moment of entry into the land, to sow his own tares, “the
seed of the wicked one”.
It is surely something more than an
accident that the passage already quoted from
Hos. ix. 10 should use the word nazar
(“separate”), which is found in
Numb. vi. 3, where we have the
law of the Nazarite. What a
contrast. Israel should have been
“separated” as a nation unto the Lord:
instead, they corrupted themselves, and “separated themselves unto that
shame, and their abominations were according as they loved”. This passage from Hosea makes us think of the
charge against the church of Ephesus, “Thou hast left thy first love”,
although, be it said, they hated the deeds of the Nicolaitanes. Hate, however, is not so strong as love, and
with the loss of the first love, hatred of the Nicolaitan doctrine waned, so
that by the time we reach Pergamos, the Nicolaitan doctrine has a hold, and is
coupled with the doctrine of Balaam, and answered by the seduction of
Jezebel. And now Levi with his sword and
Phinehas with his javelin give place to the Lord Himself, out of whose mouth
goeth a sharp two-edged sword.
The last act of Moses was the execution of
vengeance, a faint anticipation of
the “Day of vengeance of our God”:--
“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterwards shalt thou be gathered unto thy
people” (Numb. xxxi. 2).
Each tribe of Israel sent 1,000 armed men
to execute this vengeance of the Lord against Midian, for all Israel had been
guilty, and had actually lost double this number, 24,000 having died, as Numb.xxv.9
declares. In this connection we
earlier quoted I Cor. x. 8. As some
may have a difficulty because that passage says 23,000, it should be noted
that I Cor. x. 8 specifies how many died in one day,
for some had been hanged, and some slain earlier (Numb.xxv.4,5). Phinehas, whose javelin executed the first
stroke of vengeance on a daughter of Midian, led the army on this dreadful
mission. This was no conquest of
territory, it was not the claiming of an inheritance; it was a priestly blotting out of a sinful
alliance. In this battle Balaam meets
his end, unrepentant to the last. Not a
single man of Israel was lost in this battle, and a thank offering was brought
to make an atonement for their souls before the Lord, amounting to 16,750
shekels of gold. This was brought into
the tabernacle of the congregation, “for a memorial for the children of Israel
before the Lord” (Numb.xxxi.54). This,
in some measure, counters the other memorial for the children of Israel, made
of the rebels’ censers (Numb. xvi. 40).
Surely we are justified in seeing in these
12,000 overcomers a foreshadowing of that great company, the 144,000 who
overcome, who were not defiled with women, and who stand out in contrast with
the awful doctrine of Balaam and Jezebel.
Israel now prepare to enter the land of
promise, and the remaining chapters of Numbers are occupied with the numbering
of the people, with laws adjusted to suit the changed circumstances, and with
the special provision of the cities of refuge.
These we hope to consider in our next article, which brings the survey
of Numbers to a conclusion.
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