Numbers 23

Today’s Passage: Numbers 23

Balak the king of Moab has hired the prophet Balaam to curse Israel, and now he pays for it with altars and animals. Seven altars are built, and on each one a bull and a ram are burned. But every time Balaam opens his mouth to curse, God has already put a blessing there instead. He cannot curse those God has not cursed. He looks down on Israel and sees a people who dwell apart, too many to count, and he says God is not a man that He should lie or change His mind. Twice Balak tries, and twice the blessing comes. No sacrifice can buy a curse that God will not give.

As you read, hold this: God does not lie and does not change His mind; the blessing He has spoken over His people cannot be reversed.

Numbers 23:1–6 (BSB)

¹ Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me seven altars here, and prepare for me seven bulls and seven rams.” ² So Balak did as Balaam had instructed, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar. ³ “Stay here by your burnt offering while I am gone,” Balaam said to Balak. “Perhaps the LORD will meet with me. And whatever He reveals to me, I will tell you.” So Balaam went off to a barren height, ⁴ and God met with him. “I have set up seven altars,” Balaam said, “and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.” ⁵ Then the LORD put a message in Balaam’s mouth, saying, “Return to Balak and give him this message.” ⁶ So he returned to Balak, who was standing there beside his burnt offering, with all the princes of Moab.

The scene opens with enormous effort. Seven altars, fourteen animals, a king and a prophet working through the smoke, and Balaam slipping away to a lonely height to see if the LORD will come. And God does come, but not on Balak’s terms. Balaam reports his seven altars almost like a man presenting an invoice, as though the sacrifices might tilt the outcome, and God answers by putting His own words in the prophet’s mouth. Notice who is in charge here. The one who was hired to curse is now only a courier, sent back down the hill carrying a message he did not choose.

Numbers 23:7–10 (BSB)

⁷ And Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the mountains of the east. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘put a curse on Jacob for me; come and denounce Israel!’ ⁸ How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the LORD has not denounced? ⁹ For I see them from atop the rocky cliffs, and I watch them from the hills. Behold, a people dwelling apart, not reckoning themselves among the nations. ¹⁰ Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous; let my end be like theirs!”

Here is the first oracle, and it is nothing Balak wanted to hear. Balaam names the reason plainly: how can he curse whom God has not cursed? The curse is not his to give, because the blessing is not his to reverse. Then he looks out over the camp from the high rocks and sees what God sees. A people who dwell apart (בָּדָד) bādād, pronounced bah-DAHD. Strong's H0910, alone, apart, set apart, isolated. It can carry loneliness, but here it is dignity. Israel is not lost in the crowd of nations, blending in and forgotten. They are a people held out on their own by God, marked off, belonging to Him and not reckoning themselves among the rest. What looks like being small and alone in the wilderness is really the mark of being chosen. To dwell apart, under this God, is not to be abandoned but to be kept. , set off from the nations, belonging to God alone. A people numberless as the dust, the very promise once made to Abraham now spread across the valley in tents. It moves even this hired seer, and he cries out that he would like to die as one of them and share their end. The man paid to condemn Israel finds himself longing to be counted among the blessed.

Numbers 23:11–17 (BSB)

¹¹ Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you here to curse my enemies, and behold, you have only blessed them!” ¹² But Balaam replied, “Should I not speak exactly what the LORD puts in my mouth?” ¹³ Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place where you can see them. You will only see the outskirts of their camp—not all of them. And from there, curse them for me.” ¹⁴ So Balak took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, where he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. ¹⁵ Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your burnt offering while I meet the LORD over there.” ¹⁶ And the LORD met with Balaam and put a message in his mouth, saying, “Return to Balak and speak what I tell you.” ¹⁷ So he returned to Balak, who was standing there by his burnt offering with the princes of Moab. “What did the LORD say?” Balak asked.

Balak is stunned and angry. He brought Balaam to curse and got only blessing, and Balaam can only shrug and say the obvious: he must speak exactly what the LORD puts in his mouth. So Balak tries a second strategy. Maybe a different view will help. He takes Balaam to another height, where he can see only the edge of the camp, as if a smaller glimpse of Israel might make them easier to curse. And he builds seven more altars and offers seven more pairs of animals. But the problem was never the view or the number of sacrifices. The problem, for Balak, is that the LORD has decided to bless, and God meets Balaam a second time and again fills his mouth. Balak’s eager question, “What did the LORD say?”, is about to be answered in a way he will like even less.

Numbers 23:18–24 (BSB)

¹⁸ Then Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “Arise, O Balak, and listen; give ear to me, O son of Zippor. ¹⁹ God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill? ²⁰ I have indeed received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot change it. ²¹ He considers no disaster for Jacob; He sees no trouble for Israel. The LORD their God is with them, and the shout of the King is among them. ²² God brought them out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox. ²³ For there is no spell against Jacob and no divination against Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and Israel, ‘What great things God has done!’ ²⁴ Behold, the people rise like a lioness; they rouse themselves like a lion, not resting until they devour their prey and drink the blood of the slain.”

This is the heart of the chapter, and one of the great sentences of the whole Bible. God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind (נָחַם) nacham, pronounced naw-KHAM. Strong's H5162, to be moved to compassion, to relent, to be comforted. Elsewhere Scripture can speak of God relenting from a threatened judgment when His people repent, and that is real. But here the point is sharp and settled: God will not go back on a promise He has made. He is not a man who says a blessing in a warm moment and then thinks better of it. What He has spoken over His people He will do, because His word and His heart do not drift apart. The blessing is as steady as the God who gave it. . People make promises and break them. People say one thing and do another, or start down a road and turn back. God is not like that. When He speaks, He acts. When He promises, He fulfills. So when Balaam says he received a command to bless, and God has blessed, and he cannot change it, he is not describing his own stubbornness but God’s faithfulness. The blessing stands because the God behind it does not shift. No spell works against Jacob, no divination against Israel, not because Israel is strong but because God is with them and the shout of the King is among them. All Balak’s altars are useless against a promise that cannot be moved.

Numbers 23:25–30 (BSB)

²⁵ Now Balak said to Balaam, “Then neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!” ²⁶ But Balaam replied, “Did I not tell you that whatever the LORD says, I must do?” ²⁷ “Please come,” said Balak, “I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God that you curse them for me from there.” ²⁸ And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the wasteland. ²⁹ Then Balaam said, “Build for me seven altars here, and prepare for me seven bulls and seven rams.” ³⁰ So Balak did as Balaam had instructed, and he offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Balak has heard enough blessing to last a lifetime, and now, exasperated, he tells Balaam to at least stop, to say nothing at all if he cannot curse. But Balaam repeats the one thing he keeps learning: whatever the LORD says, he must do. And still Balak will not quit. He drags the prophet to a third height, Peor, overlooking the wasteland, and builds seven more altars, offers seven more pairs of animals, and hopes the change of scenery will finally please God enough to bend Him. The chapter ends there, mid-effort, with the altars smoking again. It is a picture of the whole doomed enterprise: a man throwing sacrifice after sacrifice at a mountain, trying to reverse a word that heaven has already made unbreakable.