Balaam and Israel

Balak sends for Balaam. The grand question in this touching scene is this, "Can Satan succeed in cursing the people of God so as to prevent their entrance into the land of promise?"*

*It is of the highest interest to see the special character of this prophecy. It is God who, of His own will, interferes to take the part of His people against the enemy, and that even without their knowing it or asking for it. It is not, as almost all prophecies are, an appeal to the conscience of the people, accompanied by promises calculated to sustain the faith of the remnant in the midst of the gainsayers. The people know nothing about it; they are, perhaps, still murmuring in their tents (so beautiful in the eyes of him who had the vision of the Almighty) against the ways of God with them. It is God declaring His own thoughts and confounding the malice of Satan - the enemy He has to do with. That is the reason why this prophecy is so complete, presenting to us, in spirit, our whole portion (literally it is that of Israel, as in the fourth prophecy is evident), separation, justification, beauty in the eyes of God (all that corresponds with the presence of the Spirit of God), and the crown of glory in the coming of the star of Jacob - of Christ Himself - in glory.

It is not merely a question of redemption, and of the joy of redemption at the beginning of their course, but in the end when all their unfaithfulness has been manifested - their unfaithfulness even after the Lord has brought them to Himself. Can Satan succeed then? No.

When Moses in those same plains has to say, with regard to their conduct towards God, "Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you" (and, indeed, they had been excessively froward, a most stiff-necked people; do we not know this well?), God says by the mouth of Balaam, the involuntary witness of the truth, "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel." What a testimony! What wonderful grace! What perfection in the ways of God! God sees aright; He makes no mistakes. He speaks the truth according to the perfectness of His infinite intelligence; and it is because it is infinite that He can see no iniquity in the redeemed people. How could He see any in those who are washed in the blood of the Lamb? Nor is it His mind to see it.

In His own dealings with the people He will see everything, take knowledge of everything; but with the accuser it is a question of righteousness. God only sees this, that, according to the counsels of His grace, He has given a ransom; the sins of His people have been atoned for. He could not in justice see those sins. The mouth of the accuser is therefore obliged to confess that there are none, and that there is no power of the enemy against Jacob. And the ground is clearly taught - according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and Israel, What hath God wrought? Not said of God, but of Israel; and not, What hath Israel wrought? but, What hath God wrought? Israel had the place, but the work was God's work. This is very perfect.

What is peculiarly blessed and comforting in this is, that God acts and judges from His own thoughts. From beginning to end He has had thoughts about us; He has done what was needed to reconcile all His ways in the accomplishment of them with eternal righteousness; but He has these thoughts and acts towards us according to them. It is these faith apprehends, accepts, and builds on. Hence joy and peace; while the presence of God in the midst of an accepted people to whom a new nature has been given, and His judging all these secures practically the holiness which He cannot dispense with, or judges departure from it, so as to vindicate His name. But here it is Gad acting, judging, in spite of all, according to His own thoughts.

Balaam was a sad character. Forced to see from afar off the blessing of God upon His people, when he is near, and actuated by his own heart and will, he sees nothing but the way of error, into which he wishes to drag them that they might forfeit that blessing (if this were possible), reasoning upon this ground, that the righteous God could not bless a sinful people. One cannot think of any iniquity worse than that. J. N. Darby.