Numbers · chapter 23 of 36
Updated on
Numbers 23 records Balaam's first two oracles. Balak builds seven altars at two different places, but instead of cursing Israel, Balaam speaks what God puts in his mouth: a people God has not cursed, whose blessing he will not revoke and among whom no misfortune is seen. Balak grows angry and proposes trying a third place.
Numbers 22 ended with Balaam before Balak and with the rule that he speak only what God tells him. In chapter 23 that rule is tested. Balak expects a curse and receives a blessing; changing the setting does not change the result, because it does not depend on the place or the ritual but on the word of God.
Balaam asks Balak to build seven altars and prepare seven bulls and seven rams, and an altar receives a bull and a ram each. Balaam goes off to a bare height to see whether the Lord will meet him, and God puts a message in his mouth. Returning to the sacrifice, he speaks the first oracle: Balak brought him from Aram to curse, but he cannot curse whom God has not cursed. He sees Israel as a people dwelling apart, not counted among the nations, countless as dust, and he wishes to die the death of the upright.
Balak protests: he called him to curse and got a blessing. Balaam answers that he must speak what the Lord puts in his mouth. So Balak takes him to the field of Zophim, on top of Pisgah, and repeats the seven altars. Balaam speaks the second oracle: God is not a man that he should lie or a son of man that he should change his mind, and what he has said he will do. God has blessed and Balaam cannot reverse it. No iniquity is seen in Jacob; the Lord is with Israel, whom God brought out of Egypt, and no divination can stand against him. The people rise like a lioness and will not rest until they devour their prey.
Balak, desperate, says he should neither curse nor bless them. But Balaam reminds him that he must do what the Lord says. For a third time Balak takes him elsewhere, to the top of Peor, which looks toward the wasteland, and again builds seven altars with a bull and a ram on each.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Balaam asks how he can curse one whom God has not cursed or denounce one whom the Lord has not denounced. The blessing of Israel comes before Balak's ritual and makes it useless.
Balaam describes Israel as a countless people and wishes to die the death of the upright. The wish shows that even a hired diviner recognizes that the end of the upright is better than his own.
God is not a man that he should lie or a son of man that he should change his mind, and what he says he does. It is a firm guarantee: God's word does not shift with anyone's pressure or rituals.
The oracle says no misfortune has been seen in Jacob nor trouble in Israel, and that the Lord is with the people. It does not deny that Israel has sinned; it declares that God sees them through his covenant and will not hold it against them.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Seven altars, with a bull and a ram on each. — Numbers 23:1-2
Answer: He asked how he could curse one whom God had not cursed. — Numbers 23:8
Answer: As a people dwelling apart, not counted among the nations and as numerous as the dust. — Numbers 23:9-10
Answer: That God is not a man that he should lie or a son of man that he should change his mind. — Numbers 23:19
Answer: That God has blessed and he cannot revoke it. — Numbers 23:20
Answer: He took Balaam to the top of Peor and built seven altars again. — Numbers 23:27-30
The chapter reminds us that God cannot be manipulated with rituals, altars or changes of scenery. Balak thought another place or more sacrifices might change the result. We often think that if we repeat a prayer, an effort or a formula, God will change his mind; this passage teaches that God acts according to his word and his covenant.
It also comforts. Believers in Christ are blessed by God, and that blessing does not depend on what others say about them. In a class you can encourage those who feel accused or cursed to rest in what God has said about his people.
Numbers 23 leaves Balak with two blessings where he expected curses, and a third place to try. In chapter 24 Balaam gives up the rituals, the Spirit of God comes on him, and the blessings reach as far as a star that will rise from Jacob.
This passage speaks of the firmness of God's promise to bless Israel: he will not take it back as a person might. Other texts that say God relents describe his compassionate response to people. Both are read in context: God is faithful to his word and responsive to his people.
Seven is a number of fullness in the Bible. Balaam asked for seven altars with a bull and a ram on each as a complete rite. The text gives no power to the number: God speaks only on his own initiative.
The text does not explain the wish. It shows that Balaam recognizes the end of the upright is better than his own. His later life, however, shows that he did not follow that recognition into obedience.