2. Let us see what Balaam answered' him.
[1.] By way of prediction. He came to curse them, but he uttereth many prophecies concerning the happiness of Israel : Num. xxiii. 8, ' How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed, or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied ? ' He showeth that no inferior power is able to hurt without leave from God ; j^ea, he pronounceth a great blessing upon Israel, as those that were happy both in life and death : ver. 10, ' Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my •last end be like his.' And further showeth the stableness of God's
SERMON UPON MICAH VI. 5. 43
love to his people : ver. 19, 20, ' God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent : hath he said, and shall he not do it ? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good ? Behold, I have received commandment to bless, and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it.' All the powers of the world are not able to separate them from his love and blessings in Christ. And then pro- phesieth of Christ, insomuch that Balak entreateth him to give over : ver. 25, ' Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.' Since he could do no evil to Israel, he would hinder him from doing good. But yet he would make another trial ; but still it pleased the Lord to over- rule his tongue to bless Israel, and the truth and constancy of his love appeared, against whose will the more he struggleth the stronger he is resisted, Num. xxiv. 3. He taketh up a new parable, blessing Israel once again, which puts Balak all into a rage and indignation, and he driveth away the false prophet from his sight, who sought after honour and riches as the wages of his unrighteousness, but is sent home with ignominy and shame. But Balaam's mind is still hanker- ing after the reward, and therefore, when he could not hurt them by any prophetical curse, he seeketh to do it by his pestilent counsel.
[2.] What he answered him by way of advice : Num. xxiv. 4, * Come now, and I will advertise thee what thou shalt do.' Moses doth not express the counsel given, because it was whispered secretly into Balak's ear ; you see the sense is imperfect in that place ; and what it was may be known by the effect, and by other places. By the effect, Num. xxv. Balaam gave counsel to Balak and the princes of Midian to put a stumbling-block before the Israelites, to see if they could withdraw the people from the love, fear, and obedience of the Lord their God, that so God might be provoked to withdraw his favour and blessing from them ; and so Israel's sinning might bring themselves into the curse which Balaam with all his enchantments could not bring upon them. By this wicked counsel they prevailed against many, to the death of twenty-four thousand Israelites. That Balaam was the author of all this mischief appeareth. Num. xxxi. 16, ' Behold these (that is, the Midianitish women) caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor.' And it is said, Rev. ii. 14, that ' Balaam taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication.' This was the plot, to send some beautiful women of the Midianites to wander about the camp of Israel, to tempt their lusty youth and martial men, first to uncleanness, and then to idolatry, that so God might be provoked against them ; a design pernicious and full of refined malice.
3. What befell them between Shittim and Gilgal.
[1.] In Shittim they miscarried foully by the effect of Balaam's counsel. The intended war of Moab against Israel was turned into a pretended peace and feigned amity, and their fair women were sent about the camp to defile the bodies and souls of men with whoredom and idolatry. And so a people that had such experience of God's power and goodness in the wilderness, and were just now ready to enter into the promised land, are here prevented and overthrown ia
44 SERMON UPON MICAH VI. 5.
the wilderness, and God's anger was kindled against them, and twenty- four thousand were destroyed among the people. Num. xxv. 9, It seems one thousand slain by the judges, and twenty-three thousand by God's own hand ; that is, by a plague : 1 Cor. x. 8, ' Neither com- mit fornication, as some of them also committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.' But after that God was atoned to them, and his judgment was executed upon the malefactors, and the plague ceased.
[2.] They are sent against the Midianites, who had vexed them with their wiles, that is, with their deceits and feigned amity ; and there they light on Balaam, and slew him, Num. xxxi. 8. This wretch died not the death of the righteous, as he seemed to desire ; but his iniquity found him out, for, among others, he was slain with the sword.