The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 348

Balaam's lying lips, _b?t he makes him see such visions as were customarily confined to men who were spmtually fit for them. Balaam doubtless, looking away into the distance of time from the present encampment of Israel in Moab to their future life in Canaan, would rather have seen ruin, confusion, and desolation-something to rejoice the heart of his employer, and bring to himself the promised re,varde. But he could only see what God showed him. If then God held this ungodly Balaam in such control, what may Mt hu power be over those who S'Ubmit to him wiJJ& all their hearts 'I There is a sort of proportion in the matter. As the unwilling Balaam is to the com- pletely submissive believer, so what God did to Balaam is to what God will do for such a believer. The more you give to God for working on the more by consequence he ml! give to yon in return. Yield yourselves to God, that he m~y not only work throngh you by his mighty power, but in you and for you according to the purpose of his love and the riches of his grace. The sad reflection is that Balaam allowed himself to be an evidence of the pO\ver, but not the grace; allowed God's blessings to go through him, yet, in spite of his own expressed wish, made no attempt to keep blessings for himself. II. THE PROPH_ECY ITSELF'•• Here are set before us two J?ictures, ~sit were, a beauti- ful one and a temble one. Picture the.first. A spectator ID an ordmary state of mind, looking down with his natural vision on the Israelite camp, sees long ranges of tents, set in four divisions, and at a reverent distance from the tabernacle in the midst of them. The people dwelt" not in stately ~alaces, but in coarse and homely tents, and those, no doubt, sadly weather-beaten. ' But Balaam in his ecstasy, when the Spirit of God came upon him, looked upon a more attractive and inspiring scene. ·what he gazed upon at first was indeed these rows of tents, but, just as if in a dissolving Yiew, they faded away before his eyes, and in place of them, valleys, gardens by the river-side, aloes of Jehovah's planting, and cedars beside the waters were spread out hefore him. Everything is suggestive of quiet, steady prosperity, of fruitfulness, peace, and beauty. This is the internal life of the Church of Christ, when hie people are Ii ving to the extent of their privileges. This is the difference between the external appearance and the inward life and experience. Just at that moment when the lot of the Christian looks least attractive to the casual and uninstructed glance, it may be rich in all the grea~ elements of trne blessedness. The position of the Christian in this world is not seldom like that of the kernel within the shell : outside, the rough, repulsive, UDpromising shell ; inside, the precious kernel, with "the promise and potency" in it of a tree like that from which it was taken. "Eye bath not, seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God bath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit" (1 Cor. ii. 9, 10). And thus it ie here. It was not possible for Balaam to describe the blessed circumstances of Israel in direct language. He had to fall back on the comparison to certain visible things, such things as would raise in the mind of a dweller in Moab or Canaan, or anywhere round about, a picture of the highest satis- faction and success. Pu:ture the second. The first picture is beautiful, and very beautiful ; it is Eden raised in the waste wilderness. The second picture is terrible, and very terrible ; yet what else could be expected? If Balak will go on presumptu- ously defying the sacred and beloved people of God, undeterred by the menaces to which he has already listened, then those menaces must be repeated with all the force and thoroughness of expression that can be thrown into them. The sudden transition, from such a peaceful, beautiful scene as goes before heightens the effect, and probably. was meant to do eo. On one side is Israel engaged in tilling the garden, the work to' which man was set apart in the first days of innocence1 watering hie far-spread crops _ and enjoying his fragrant aloes and his cedars; on the otMr side is Israel the Destrofer,: emphatically the Destroyer. The qualities of no one animal, however destructive, ' are sufficiently expressive to set him forth. Fierce, furious, strong, resistleee ae the lion ie, the lion by himself ie not enough to show forth Israel, and you must add the unicorn; and there you are invited to gaze on this unicorn-lion, strong in power, thorough in execution, leaving not one of hie enemies uneubdued and undeetroyed. ~t Balak well understand that Israel, under the good hand of God, ie climbing to the highest eminence among the nations. The repetition of the references to the unicorn and th~ lion shows how important the references are, and how needful it is to let the mr. xxn. 41-xxiv.J THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 335