Consider again, with respect to the enterpri,se of Balaam- !. THAT BALA.ill WAS HIRED TO CURSE lsRAEL DUT WAS CONSTRAINED TO BLESS HIM ALTOGETHER (cf. Deut. xxiii. 5; Josh. xxiv. 10; Micah vi. Ci). Even so all the efforts of the world to cast infamy and odium upon the Church are turned backward, unless indeed she is untrue to herself. No weapon is forged against her more terrible thnn the interested enmity of gifted and intellectual men, which often promises to succeed where brute force is powerless ; but even this cannot prosper. It is often the policy of the world to nssnil religion by religious influences, but God overrules this also. Gifts which nre truly of hie giving cannot be really turned ngninst him or his. II. THAT Goo's PURPOSES AND PRONOUNCEMENTS CONCERNING HIS CHUB.CH ARE ETERNAL AND IMMUTABLE, SINCE BE OANNOT DENY HIMSELF, NOB. GO BACK FROM HIS WORD, The future of his Church is perfectly enfe nnd absolutely unassnilable, because it depends not on nny human counsel or constancy, but upon the eternal predestina- tion and chnngelese will of God.
Consider. agnin, with respect to that wltich Balaam spake b11 the Spirit of God- ' I. THAT BALAAM HAD A VISION OF CHRIST HIMSELF, i. e. of ll mysterious Ileing, 11. King of Isrnel, exalted and extolled, nnd very high, whom the Jews believed, nnd we know, to be the Christ. Even so all true prophecy looks on, more or Iese con- sciously, to him in whom all the promises of God are Amen (2 Cor. i. 20), nnd in whom all the gifts of God to men nre concentrated. The spint of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus (Rev. xix, 10), because there was nothing else really worth prophesying. II. THAT BALAAM BAW HIM UNDER THE EMBLEMS OF A STAR AND 011' A SCEPTRE, Even so the Lord is both a Ju ninn.ry (Luke ii. 32; 2 Pet. i. 19; Rev xxii. 16) nnd B ruler (Luke i. 33; Hcb. i. 8; Rev. xii. Ci) for ever. III. THAT BALAAM BAW HIM AS A DESTl!.OYEU, Cl!.USHINO THE ENEMIES OF GoD AND OE BIS PEOPLE. And this is nt first sight strange, because he came not to destroy Y2 824 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [cH. xxu. 41-xiu,.
men's lives, but to save them. But ae it is quite naturally explained from a moral point of ~•iew when ~e tak~ ~nto account the moral i~eae of Balaam's age, eo it is found perfectly trne m a spmtual eense when we consider what the work of Christ really is. For that work is indeed a work of destruction : he came to deetroy the works of the devil (1 John iii. 8) ; he came to destroy-not men, but-all that is sinful in men; not the enemies ol God (for God has no enemies among men), but all in men which is inimical to him and to his truth. Hence he is ever represented as a destroyer in the Apocalypse, which reverts to the imagery of the Old Testament (Rev. vi. 2; xiL 11, 13, 15, &c.). And this aspect of his work, which is true and necessary, and is jealously guarded as his in Holy Scripture, ought not to be set aside or obscured by the gentler and pleasanter aspects of his reign. That he must put all enemies under his feet is the first law of his kingdom, and must somehow or other be brought to pass in us, as in others. IV. THAT BALAAM SAW (ACCORDING TO HIS DAY) THE ENEMIES OF THE CHUBCB. OF Gon UNDER THE SEMBLANCE OF MOA.llITEB, EDOMITES, AMALEKITES, KENITEB, AND AsITRIA.NS. And these may be interpreted in a spiritual sense as typifying the diJferent forms in which a common hostility to the truth of Christ displays itself. In Moab we may see the hostility of cunning, which fears an open contest, but enlists the intellect and craft of others on its side ; in Edom the hostility of insolent opposition, which loses no opportunity of inflicting annoyance and injury; in Amalek we may see vainglorious anger, which resents pretensions greater than its own, and roshe11 upon a hopeless conflict; in the Kenites we may see confidence in earthly strength, and in a lodgment so naturally strong as to defy all assaults ; in Asshur we have the embodiment of brute force brutally used. If, however, the Kenites were the friends, not the foes, of Israel, then we may see in them how vain is the self- confidence even of religions people in any advantages of position or circumstance. The Kenites are not known to have provoked God, as Israel did, and their abode was peculiarly inaccessible, and defensible; nevertheless, they too fell victims to Assyria, at the very time perhaps when Hezekiah and Jerusalem escaped. V. THAT B.ALil.11: WAS STRUCK WITH J1EA.B WREN BE FORESAW THESE DEBTBUC- !r"IONB EXTE1'"DING EVEN TO llIS OWN PEOPLE. Who shall live? In the crash of these gi-eat contending world-powers who could hope to escape? How much more may evil men fear "when God doeth this " which he bath so clearly foretold I And not evil men only, but all who are not in the truest sense of the Israel of God (1 Pet. i. 17; iv. 17, 18; 2 Pet. ill. 11).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ver. 8.-The safety of al,l who enjoy the blessing of God. God's "defiance" the signal of destruction; God's "curse," fatal. But il protected from these we are •safe, for "the curse callSelees cannot come." We are safe from-I. Malicions designs. E. g. Balaam's wish ~ curse 1 the plot of the Jews to.!tone Paul at lco• nium (Acts xiv. .5), and to assassmate him at Jerusalem (Acts :xxm.). 2. Words of execration. E. g. Shi!11ei (~ Sam. xvi.)•; the blasphemies spoke? against Chris~, !lnd the libels uttered agamst his people (Matt. x. 24-26). B. Witchcraft and dmnn- tion. In reply to all such foolish fears let it suffice to say," I believe ~ God (Isa. 11
viii. 13 14 ; 1 Pet. iil. 18). 4. .Assaults and all violence. E. g. the vanous attempts to seizd or kill Jesus Christ when" his hour was not yet come." When the hour for suffering "as a Christian II is come," let him glorify God_" (1 Pet. iv. 12-16). S_uch calamities are not " curses " from God, and God can change all other curses into blessings, as in the case of Balaam (Deut. niii. 6).. 6. Evet'J'. kind of persecution {Rom. viii. 35-39). The devil's curse is a telum imbelle; his defiance an empty tr,reat. The objects of God's care are invincible, if not invulnerable (Isa. liv. 17).-P. 'Ver. 19.-The unchangeable faithfulness of God. Two truths are suggested in ,contrast. I. IT 18 NA.TUB.AL TO MEN TO CB.ANGE THE!ll MIND A.ND J!aEAIC THEIR WORD, 1. They repent, i. e. they change their mind, frequently, hastily, because of ignor- ance, or abort-sightedness, or prejudice, or narrow-mindedness. Picture a Wll.Il, CH, XXII, 41-XXIV.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 325