…and they hired Balaam son of Beor …to pronounce a curse on you. 5 However, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam but TURNED THE CURSE INTO A BLESSING FOR YOU, BECAUSE THE LORD YOUR GOD LOVES YOU. Deuteronomy 23
God LOVED HIS PEOPLE ISRAEL (and also His Church today) and turned all their enemies curses to blessings.
Balaam couldn’t curse the Israelites, but he also had to speak blessing over them.
1 Now when Balaam saw that it PLEASED GOD TO BLESS ISRAEL, he did not resort to divination as at other times, Numbers 24
Balaam wanted his divination fee, but God wouldn’t allow it.
5 ‘How beautiful are your tents, Jacob,
your dwelling-places, Israel!
6 ‘Like valleys they spread out,
like gardens beside a river,
like aloes planted by the Lord,
like cedars beside the waters.
7 Water will flow from their buckets;
their seed (children) will have abundant water. Numbers 24
God blessed Israel and made them stronger;
8 ‘God brought them out of Egypt;
they have the strength of a wild ox.
They devour hostile nations
and break their bones in pieces;
with their arrows they pierce them.
9 Like a lion they crouch and lie down,
like a lioness – who dares to rouse them? Numbers 24
Balaam also restated the blessing God Himself had given to Abram when He called him out from his own people;
9 ‘MAY THOSE WHO BLESS YOU BE BLESSED (have you blessed Israel? God has promised to bless those who do)
and those who curse you be cursed!’ Numbers 24
Finally, it would seem that Balaam saw the coming of the Lord Himself in the distant future;
17 ‘I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near.
A star (speaks of Heaven) will come out of Jacob;
a sceptre will rise out of Israel.
He will crush the foreheads of Moab,
the skulls of all the people of Sheth. Numbers 24
God wouldn’t allow anything to harm His people and as we’ve seen, God Himself turned the curses to blessings, however, Numbers 25 shows the subtlety of the enemy. The men of Israel were seduced by the Moabite women and participated in the worship of Baal. They immediately became defiled and brought God’s judgement on their whole community. A plague struck the camp, would have been unknown today before Coronavirus, and many died. Numbers 31:15 shows that this was done on the word of Balaam the sorcerer/prophet. God’s people were seduced and God had to judge them by Old Testament standards; no intermediary.
The sin of Balaam is mentioned in two short books at the end of the New Testament, 2 Peter and Jude.
15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, WHO LOVED THE WAGES OF WICKEDNESS. 2 Peter 2:15
God wouldn’t desert His people, but the people betrayed God and suffered for their disloyalty. Our faith will be tested but never beyond our ability to endure and God will never reject His own.
22 The Lord said to Moses, 23 ‘Tell Aaron and his sons, “This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:
24 ‘“‘The Lord bless you
and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord turn his face towards you
and give you peace.’”
27 ‘So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.’ Numbers 6
God wants to bless His people.