Numb. xxii. 31. Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand : and he bowed down his head, and fell fiat on his face.
THE ministry of angels is frequently asserted both in the Old and New Testament : but, because it is not seen, it is scarcely believed amongst us. Never-
theless, there is not any doctrine more fully esta- blished than this ; nor scarcely any more clearly exemplified. We need only look to the passage before us ; and there we see an angel deputed to intercept Balaam in his way to Midian, and to stop him in his career of wickedness. Whether the angel were the Son of God himself, " the Angel of the Covenant," with whom Jacob afterwards wrestled3, we will not absolutely determine : but the context seems to coun- tenance the idea that it wasb. At all events he had the appearance of an angel, and acted in the capacity of a messenger from heaven. For a considerable time Balaam did not see him ; though the beast on which he rode, both saw, and endeavoured to avoid him. The whole story is so singular, that some have represented it as a vision. But, whilst that mode of accounting for the circumstances renders them not at all less miraculous than the more obvious interpre- tation, (for a divine agency would be as necessary in that case, as in the other,) it directly opposes the assertions of the historian, and the testimony of an inspired Apostle0. We can have no doubt but that the facts happened as they are related : and, that we may present them before you in a more easy manner, we will call your attention to some observations founded upon them.
I. God often mercifully interposes to obstruct sinners in their ways —
[Balaam, though he professed to be acting by the divine appointment, was in reality going in opposition to the will of God. The permission which had been granted him condition- ally, he had construed as unconditional; and when God had declared that Israel should be blessed, Balaam was going with a desire and purpose to curse them. God, to awaken him to a sense of his wickedness, sent an angel to stop him in his way, and to make known to him the evil of his conduct.
It is thus that God often interposes to arrest the progress of sinners, and prevent the commission of iniquity. We say not, that he often proceeds precisely in this ivay : he has a great variety of ways in which he carries this gracious purpose into
a Hos. xii. 3 — 5.
b See ver. 32, 35. " perverse before me" — "the word that /shall speak." c 2 Pet. ii. 16.