Numbers 23

God gave the Israelites a way to approach Him in the Old Testament Law. That was the authorized system, and it included the offering up of blood sacrifices according to His specific instructions.

Balaam the sorcerer was an expert not in authorized religious devotion, but in unauthorized spirituality. He used blood sacrifices as well, and he gave instructions to Balak, the king of Moab, concerning everything that he needed in order to practice his craft. Balak did everything that Balaam said.

But this sorcerer Balaam was a man under strict orders. God had told him in a very clear and persuasive way that he must only say way God gave him to say.

Balak was expecting results. He wanted Israel crushed through Balaam's arts.

The Lord spoke an entirely different message through Baalam: “How can I curse whom God has not cursed? … Who can count the dust of Jacob?”

Balak would not give up. Would the result be different if his sorcerer looked on from a different spot where he could not see so many Israelites?

The message that Balaam brought back to the elders of Moab the second time was no better: “God is not man, that he should lie,... There is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel.”

This was a shocking word. Balak had summoned Balaam for spiritual help against Israel. He had expected the sorcerer to curse the people of Yahweh. He had thought that Balaam would curse Israel, and that his evil words would bring great harm upon Israel. But Balaam could not even utter any words of cursing.

Israel's strength was not in herself, but in the settled determination of the Almighty to bless His chosen people. No weapon formed against her could ultimately prosper.

His Old Testament nation and His New Testament church were and are a people that He has brought into being. He was able to make the words of the sorcerer a rebuke to the man who wanted to curse His people.

“All that the Lord says, that I must do.” These were Balaam's words. Yet his heart was far from right.

The righteous One, the Son of God, gave a Word of blessing upon the Lord's people in His resurrection. It was a Word that did not tear down the weak, but established them in the righteousness and power of Jesus Christ, the King of heaven and earth.

His Name is now the only clear and powerful pathway to eternal blessing. It is the way that God has authorized. There is no other Name given among men by which we must be saved.