Numbers 23

v1-12: “Though the enemies of God’s people may have some success against them, they cannot curse them,” that is, do anything that “would ultimately destroy them” or “separate them from the love of God.” Balaam’s intention was to curse Israel for Balak, but God puts words of blessing into his mouth, as he acknowledges that they are special because God has set them apart from the nations, numerous, and their deaths will be “not only more desirable than the death of others, but even more desirable than life itself.”

v13-30: Balak was keen to know the message Balaam had from the Lord. Shouldn’t we have this same enthusiasm “when we come to hear the word of God”?

Numbers 24

v1-9: Those who oppose God and his people will sooner or later be made to see their foolishness in doing so. Balaam’s eyes are opened, but his heart is not.

v10-14: “If Balaam had been willing and sincere in his faithfulness to the word of the Lord, even though he lost the honour Balak intended to give him by it, God would have greatly made up that loss to him.” No-one loses in the end by being faithful to God.

v15-25: In Balaam we see this truth, that “people may be full of the knowledge of God but be completely empty of the grace of God.” Balaam saw Christ coming “out of Jacob and Israel, as a star and a sceptre,” but rejected Him. But Balaam’s prophecy “was preserved by a tradition” of his country in the east, so that when wise men saw an unusual star, they went looking for Him “who was born king of the Jews.”