Balaam's Blessings (Part 2)
a Numbers 23-24 rewrite
This is the second post examining Balaam’s blessings pronounced over Israel in Numbers Chapters 23-24. If you missed the first post, here’s a link to that.
In the last post, I proposed that since Israel and the Church are often paralleled in scripture, how God established Israel in the Promise Land could foreshadow how God is establishing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth today. This means that certain stories and messages to the children of Israel could have a double message: one for Israel, one for us. I have been examining Balaam’s blessings in light of this. Here’s my key of major symbols below:
Balak: people afraid of God’s people and who are seeking to destroy them
Balaam: people who exploit God’s people for personal gain
Jacob: Israel, the old covenant, or the physical man
Israel: Christendom, the new covenant, or the spiritual man
Egypt: the entrapping sins of our fathers
Let’s examine Balaam’s second blessing. King Balak has just chewed out Balaam because he didn’t curse Israel. So Balak takes Balaam to view Israel from another angle, thinking this might alter Balaam’s mind.
Verses are cited in bold for cross-reference purposes, but please keep in mind, this is not a word-for-word translation. The original ESV follows for your comparison. Here we go!
The Second Blessing: (Numbers 23:18-24)
18 Then exploiters of God’s people spoke their message again: “Wake-up, earth-fearlings, and listen. Hear me, sons of earth fathers. 19 God is not human, that he should lie, nor a mere son of flesh, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? 20 I have received a command to bless like God has blessed, and I cannot do otherwise. 21 He has not beheld a miscarriage in the old covenant, nor has he seen a problem with the new covenant. The Lord their God is with them; the shout of their heavenly king is among them. 22 God is rescuing them from the entrapping sins of their forefathers; and is for them like the business-end of a wild thing. 23 There is no curse against Israel's old covenant, no evil karma riddled through the new covenant. Now it shall be said of the old and new, ‘See what God has transformed!’ 24 Behold, God raises up a new people He works in them like a lioness, rousing them up like a lion that does not rest until it consumes what he's after and finds satisfaction through his labors.”*
*I’m unclear if the lions spoken of here are God or God’s people. In the NIV, it sounds like the people. In the ESV, it sounds like God. Here I made it God working through his people. This metaphor of God working like a lion and lioness and not resting until catching prey sounds like Isaiah 55:10-11 where God’s word is compared to water that produces growth on earth.
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11 NIV)
Original Passage Numbers 23:18-24 ESV
18 “Rise, Balak, and hear; give ear to me, O son of Zippor: 19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? 20 Behold, I received a command to bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it. 21 He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel. The Lord their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them. 22 God brings them out of Egypt and is for them like the horns of the wild ox. 23 For there is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel; now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel, ‘What has God wrought!’ 24 Behold, a people! As a lioness it rises up and as a lion it lifts itself; it does not lie down until it has devoured the prey and drunk the blood of the slain.
To read the next blessing, click the link next week.
To read more scripture rewrites, click a link below.