Balaam's Blessings (Part 3)
a Numbers 23-24 rewrite
This is the third post examining Balaam’s blessings pronounced over Israel in Numbers Chapters 23-24. If you missed the first posts, here are the links.
In the first post, I proposed that since Israel and the Church are often paralleled in scripture, I think how God established Israel in the Promise Land foreshadows how God establishes the Kingdom of Heaven on earth today. This means that certain stories and messages to the children of Israel may have a double message for us. I’ve been examining Balaam’s blessings in light of this using the following symbolism:
Balak: people afraid of God’s people and who are seeking to destroy them
Balaam: people who exploit God’s people for personal gain—think religious leaders
Jacob: Israel, the old covenant, or the physical man
Israel: Christendom, the new covenant, or the spiritual man
Wilderness: the place where God’s people are refined and tested
Bones: systems that hold up humanity
This third blessing gets cool. When Balaam faces the wilderness, he says he sees a vision. He says his eyes are opened, and he sees Israel encamped, tribe by tribe. I think Balaam is seeing a vision of the all the children of Abraham, that is, those who follow Jesus mixed in with those who followed the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Here, I use Jacob and Israel to mean the physical man and the spiritual man combined into a new nation of God’s people from every tribe and nation.
Verses are cited in bold for cross-reference purposes, but please remember that this is not a word-for-word translation. The original ESV follows for your comparison. Here we go!
Numbers 24:1-9 Rewrite
1 Now when those who exploit God’s people saw that it pleased the Lord to increase his people, the exploiters did not resort to plotting like they did at other times, but faced the trials where God's people are refined. 2 When the exploiters looked and saw God's people every tribe in every nation thriving in the wilderness, the Spirit of God came upon them 3 and the exploiters spoke God's message: “The prophecy of an exploiter, son of an earth father, the prophecy of one whose eyes of the heart has been opened, 4 the prophecy of one who hears the words of God, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who worships when his blindness is lifted: 5 How beautiful are your bodies, O physical man, your spirit-inhabited hearts, O spiritual man! 6 Like sky scrapers clustered over the land, like botanical gardens beside Eden's streams, like medicinal aloes planted by the Lord, like 2,000-year-old cedars beside the waters. 7 God-life will flow from your buckets; God's word will gush out everywhere. Their king will be greater than anyone who comes to attack them. And his kingdom shall be exalted. 8 God is rescuing them from the entrapping sins of their forefathers; and is for them like the business-end of a wild thing. He shall use their adversaries for their nourishment * and shall break their systems to pieces and convict them with his truth. 9 God prepared to spring, like a lion crouched, like a lioness. Who will instigate the chase that ends in feasting. Blessed are those who bless what God has blessed, and cursed are those who curse what God has blessed."
Original Passage Numbers 24:1-9 ESV
1 When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go, as at other times, to look for omens, but set his face toward the wilderness. 2 And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe. And the Spirit of God came upon him, 3 and he took up his discourse and said, “The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eye is opened, 4 the oracle of him who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down with his eyes uncovered: 5 How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel! 6 Like palm groves that stretch afar, like gardens beside a river, like aloes that the Lord has planted, like cedar trees beside the waters. 7 Water shall flow from his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters; his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. 8 God brings him out of Egypt and is for him like the horns of the wild ox; he shall eat up the nations, his adversaries, and shall break their bones in pieces and pierce them through with his arrows. 9 He crouched, he lay down like a lion and like a lioness; who will rouse him up? Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse you."
To read the next blessings, click the link after next week.