So what we want to do today is finish up the book of Numbers. And we're in this third section of the book looking toward the Promised Land. So this is occurring geographically, this whole section in Moab on the east side of the Jordan River. And then it's occurring in the 40th year after the Exodus.
We're not going to dig into all of this. There's some great stuff here. We're going to focus momentarily.
mostly on the Balaam interlude, the Balaam narrative in chapters 22 through 24. And then we're going to touch a little bit more, just a little bit on the rest of that. So of course, the Balaam story is famous for its talking donkey. And that occurs, that occurs in chapter 22, the story of the summoning of Balaam and then his going to curse God's people or bless is what he ends up doing.
And then chapters 23 and 24 are Balaam's prophetic pronouncements or his oracles and we want to dig into those a little bit. I want to tell you one very interesting fact about Balaam, this whole narrative, but particularly about the person of Balaam and that is in 1967 at a little place called Tel-dir-Alla. Tel is just the an archaeological mound so in excavations at Tel-dir-Alla in Jordan right here on the east side of the Jordan River.
an inscription was found. It's simply called the Durala inscription. And this is a very significant inscription because of its connection to the biblical text. Now a few things to notice about this inscription. Note there's lots of pieces of it that we don't have.
That's very typical for ancient inscriptions. But this one is particularly interesting because this is an inscription painted on plaster, which you can't really tell from this diagram. We have lots of inscriptions from the ancient world inscribed on stone or hardened clay, but plaster inscriptions, painted plaster rarely survives because of course plaster crumbles over time. So it's really amazing that we even have this much of it.
So why is this inscription so significant? Well, because it mentions the main character of the inscription is the main character of our biblical story, Balaam, son of the, or it's not. just the name Balaam that's mentioned in the inscription, but also the patronymic, the name of the father.
So Balaam, son of Baor, who is exactly the person who is mentioned in the biblical text. Moreover, this Balaam in the inscription is called a seer and he speaks curses. He speaks curses at night. I mean, there are lots of linguistic similarities and points of connection.
between what's happening with this character and who he is and what he does in the inscription and the character and who he is and what he does in the biblical text. Moreover, of course, it was found in Moab, what's ancient Moab, modern Jordan, but it was found geographically in that same general area. So in chapter 22 in the biblical text, verse 5, they sent messengers to summon Balaam, son of Beor, same name. who was at Pthor near the Euphrates River. So the picture that we get from this inscription is that this person was a regionally known seer who was someone you could hire to speak curses, who is what the biblical text shows us that seems to be supported here by the text that was found.
archaeologically. So I want you to see and know about that kind of connection. It really changed the way scholars, our interpreters, our commentators now talk about this part of the narrative in numbers. Okay, let's look briefly at chapter 22. Oh, just another picture of Telder-Alla, kind of thinking about it, that geographical connection.
So in chapter 22 is when... Balak, king of Moab, as he's seeing these Israelites come toward his land, they have just defeated Sihon and Og. We mentioned that at the end of the last section.
He is looking for a way to give his people an advantage over this people who is coming. And so, of course, he goes to Balaam. I should mention, let me just make sure I very much clarify, the Deir ala inscription is not the biblical story of Balaam, right?
The Lord doesn't appear in it. Israel does not appear in it. It's just the fact that we have that character in an inscription that matches a character we have in the biblical text. In the Pentateuch, we don't have that. So that's very significant.
The God that is mentioned in the inscription is the God El, which is just kind of the generic term for God, though El was a god of the pantheon, but it is not Yahweh. So I do want to emphasize that. So what we have, the interesting part, the connection then is in the biblical text. When Balaam is summoned, he knows that Yahweh is the God of the Israelites.
So he goes, he goes to God and he asks if he, he said, Balak, this is in verse 10. Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent me this message. A people has come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the land.
Now come and put a curse on them for me. Perhaps then I will be able to fight them and drive them away. This is what Balaam is telling God. Then God said to Balaam, do not go with them.
You must not put a curse on these people because they are blessed. So that is what God tells him. Well, then they come back, try to put more pressure on him, give him bribes.
Balaam says, let me go ask again. Well, he first answers them and says, I can't curse them because God said I can't. But then he said, but let me go see. Let me ask again.
And so then in verse 20, that night God came to Balaam and said, Since these men have come to summon you, go with them, but do only what I tell you. Verse 21, Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the Moabite officials. But God was very angry when he went. And the angel of the Lord stood in the road and opposed him.
So the question that tends to come up with this part of the narrative is, Why does God get angry? He says he can go in verse 20 and then he's mad in verse 22. Why? Some would argue it's because Balaam asked a second time. God told him no. And then Balaam came back and asked again.
I put a question mark. I question that one because it would then mean that we have to understand verse 20 when God says, okay, go, but only do what I tell you. We would have to understand that.
some form of sarcasm or something that Balaam is supposed to interpret really is God saying no. So I think that lends a fickleness to God. I think a much better explanation would be to say that though the readers don't see this, God knows that Balaam, when he tells Balaam, okay, you may go, but only do what I tell you, that Balaam really wasn't going to planning to do what God, what God told him.
So Balaam said the right word. but was really planning something different. This is kind of like, I envision a parent handing the kid the car keys, and a teenager on the car keys, okay, you can go, but behave, you better behave. And as they're handing them the car keys, you know, sees a wink and a smile with the friends, and the parent, give me those keys back, you're not going.
And the kid, oh, I mean, you just said I could go, right? Well, because the parent perceived. that the child was not actually going to do what they had just been instructed to do.
Again, here, possibly, that is a possible explanation for how we might understand what we see going on here. I think alongside this, it's not really the answer to why God gets angry, but we do need to see all of chapter 22 as providing an important object lesson for Balaam. Balaam the seer.
who cannot see, right? The dumb animal, the donkey, can see and is actually given speech to then be able to explain to the seer what he cannot see. So God emphasizing to Balaam who he is at this moment and who he is not. So I think that's That's probably the most significant part here, but this tends to trip people up on how we kind of walk through and see this.
Again, we're having to rely sort of on, we aren't relying necessarily on textual evidence here. We're having to try to interpret to see what's happening at that point. What I want to, what I really want you to see here is the perspective of this. narrative in the function of the whole book of Numbers. Because of course, this whole passage is about God blessing Israel.
But what we have to see with Israel right now is they are an inactive player in all of these three chapters, right? We've got Balaam, this pagan seer slash cursor. We have Balak the king.
We have God speaking. And Israel is just like this far off people group that they're looking at from up on the hill. And we see them down there and we're scared of them. But they are playing no active role here.
And this idea of God blessing them multiple times. Balaam says it. Balak says it.
God says it. These people are blessed. You can only bless them. You cannot curse them because God has blessed them multiple times. We see this idea of blessing come up in this passage.
The idea of blessing, the word bless, occurs 72 times in Genesis. In Numbers, it only occurs in the priestly blessing of chapter 6, the very end. May the Lord bless you and keep you, that passage.
And in the Balaam story, the perspective, again, I talk about perspective because it's like this story is happening way out here and the Israelites are way over there, little dots in the story. There's this perspective that Israel, it's not, we don't even think. we don't even get told in these passages that Israel is even aware this is happening. How exactly Israel became aware of it and got written down, I think would be a fascinating story to know.
But the whole book of Numbers is so focused, I think, especially for us as the readers, we can get so caught up in the continued disobedience and the continued... judgment that the Lord executes against his people in the book of Numbers. And we don't even hear this idea of blessing.
But I think to step back and see this God who is looking at his people to bless them, ultimately to bless them, it emphasizes for us that the blessing of God, his promises and his presence, those are his blessings to us. are not lost in numbers, even when we feel they are. And at this moment, when God's people are not even playing an active role in the story, God is still there blessing them and emphasizing that to the world all around them.
This is, for me, such a beautiful picture of God's chesed, his faithfulness and his covenantal loyalty to him. who he is. And it is not different from what is happening in the rest of the book of Numbers, but I think it's important for us to see this moment, for us to have this moment, and for Israel to know eventually that this moment happened. Despite who we were at this moment here sitting here in the 40th year, God was still ultimately there to bless us as his people. And that then brings us to Balaam's oracles.
Now I have the number of Balaam's oracles. You'll see different things depending on which one of my Bibles I pick up. I see Balaam first oracle or first message, second, third, fourth.
In the Bible I have here in my hands right now, it goes to his seventh. I've divided them up into four. But again, just note that you might find some others there. So. Usually the first three are pretty agreed on.
It's the fourth one that we have some questions on. So the first oracle occurs in chapter 23, verses 7 through 10. And just as a quick shorthand, what I think is most emphasized in these oracles, the first oracle is about who Israel is. Remember, this is being spoken by Balaam to Israel's enemies, to the Moabites here.
Who Israel is. Look at verse 9. From the rocky peaks, I see them. There's that perspective idea.
From the heights I view them, I see a people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations. Think about that in terms of covenant, that God is setting apart his people. He's taking them to his place for them to live in this exclusive relationship with him, not for the purpose of excluding others. but ultimately for the purpose of drawing the world to him.
We talked about that when we talked about the purpose and the function of the land. And I think that's emphasized in Balaam's oracle here. Then the second oracle in chapter 23, 18 through 24, I think really emphasizes who God is. A few verses I want to point out to you there.
Verse 19, God is not human. that he should lie. Not a human being that he should change his mind.
We talked about that when we were back in earlier in Numbers and back in Exodus. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? And of course, the answer to those questions are no. What God has said he is going to do to protect, to bless these people, he is going to do.
Verse 20, I have received a command to bless. Balaam says, he, God has blessed and I cannot change it. So we see, and then go down to verse 22, Balaam emphasizes, oh, verse 21, sorry. The Lord, their God is with them.
The shout of the king is among them. God brought them out of Egypt. So we see these emphases that we have seen other places, this covenant.
covenantal language that's even coming into Balaam's language. The third oracle, which is in chapter 24, I would say emphasizes what God will do. There are several places we could look at there, but I want to look specifically at verses five and six. How beautiful are your tents, Jacob. Of course, that Jacob's another word for Israel.
Your dwelling places, Israel, like valleys they spread out, like gardens beside a river, like... aloes planted by the Lord, like cedars beside the waters. Water will flow from their buckets. Their seed will have abundant water.
Listen to the garden imagery, kind of moving from thinking about the move from original intent to final intent. What God will do in and for his people is create them into this garden-like, the people dwelling in his garden-like place. This is what God will do for his people. Again, there's more in all of these.
I'm just emphasizing a few things. And then the last one, and again, this is the fourth. If I say it's four oracles, I would put chapters 15 through chapter 24, verses 15 through 24. Some people break the last few verses down into their own oracles.
But here, if this is what God will do, this is who God will be. And again, for this one, I look specifically to chapter, to verse 17, when Balaam says, a star shall come forth from Jacob, Israel, a scepter shall rise from Israel. And this, this verse and, and this whole oracle, but particularly with a focus on this verse has been interpreted as a picture of the Messiah, which is why I said who God will be.
That Jesus, the Messiah, is the star who shall rise forth, who shall come forth from Jacob, and the scepter that shall rise from Israel. We see this understanding of this verse as messianic, as early, well, in rabbinic literature, throughout rabbinic, in different points of rabbinic literature, in Qumran, the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Qumran also. I was saying that also in the 1960s, but I think maybe some as early as 1940s. But the Qumran community used this verse. And so this is the 200 BC is about the time that that community was probably beginning to do its writing.
So they viewed these verses as Messianic Jewish interpretation from the first and second century AD. We see... this as a messianic interpretation of these verses.
Early church fathers had a messianic interpretation of these verses. So you'll be learning about some of those in, not necessarily about some of those early church fathers in your church history class. I want to give you a quote from Origen, an early church father.
In his commentary on Matthew, he relates this idea of the star coming forth from Jacob. He connects that to the star at Jesus'birth in Matthew chapter 2. And going beyond that, he says, God grants to each his own customs, guiding them, guiding him to the truth. As also the Magi, the wise men of Matthew chapter 2, the Magi proceeding from their home country to the worship of Christ because of astrology.
For these, meaning the Magi, the Magi, had the prophecy of Balaam. And trusting this one, trusting Balaam, they found the longed-for one. and worshipped the Christ. So there is even in early church writing this connection of the wise men, the magi, as being connected to this seer, this diviner of the ancient Near East, kind of there being a connection between those two.
But we see Balaam as he is When he opens his mouth, all he can do is bless. He speaks the truth of who Israel is, of who God is, of what God will do, and of who God will be for his people. All right, so there's the Balaam interlude. We have the rebellion in chapter 25 at Baal Peor.
And I want to note that Balaam plays a role here. Balaam feels very, very, very positive to care character to us in chapters 22 through 24. But we see him functioning very negatively in chapter 25. And then other places in scripture where Balaam is mentioned, he is mentioned negatively because, and perhaps that goes back to why God gets angry. I think the rest of the biblical text indicates to us that Balaam is not one that, that, that, um, that is faithful to God.
He actually works against God in chapter 25 and against his people. So we're not going to focus there, but remember the result of this plague is the elimination of the entire first generation here in the 40th year. So now everyone who is still alive in Israel are those who, if they were 20 and younger at the Exodus, at the Red Sea, etc., they may still be alive. But anyone at 20 years old or older at the Exodus... has now died, except of course for Caleb and Joshua.
Okay, and then the last part here are these, now we get this second generation ready to enter the promised land. And so we move from a rebellion laws interchange, primarily, though there's been some administration things in the earlier chapters, to this administration laws. And we're not going to take the time to look at it, but let me just note, the administration here is people focused. So we have the second census, so the counting of the second generation.
Then we have a legal question about female inheritance. And we have a leadership question about Joshua, who's going to succeed Moses. And it's Joshua at this point.
So I should say Moses is still alive at this point. I said everyone has died. Moses and Joshua and Caleb are still alive. But we are already planning the succession because we know that Moses will not leave them.
So this people-focused administrative section is followed by a very people-focused legal section. So what about bringing offerings and vows? And so there's some, we've already hit on vows, actually, other places in numbers. So that's an interesting comparison as well.
This next focus of administration is on the land. So. the defeat of Midian, the settling of the Transjordan, the journey route is recorded. We get some of our details about how they traveled from here and then about driving out the inhabitants of the land and how that is going to work. So all of this is land focused, followed by laws, very focused on inheritance.
I've noted inheritance as a theme here. Again, that's a picture of the grace. that God has given to the second generation, that you will inherit the land, the land that your parents never, never possessed. You will inherit it.
We usually think of inheritance passing, right, from parent to child. But what your parents never possessed, you will inherit, because this is the inheritance that comes from God to his people. Okay, sorry. But the administration land focus now is followed by laws related to the borders of the land, the heads of the tribe, Levitical lands, cities of refuge.
There's some great work to be done with cities of refuge. Very interesting. We're not going to do it though. And then finally, we move back to people focus. One thing I want to show you here is the legal question of female inheritance that occurs in chapter 27, then comes back up in chapter 36. So this is the daughters of Zelophehad or Zelophehad in Hebrew.
Zelophehad's daughters, they come and they lay out the scenario that they are experiencing. So we've seen this in numbers. Look.
We have the law, but then a particular scenario comes up. Now, what do we do? And so Zalapha's daughters come to Moses and they say, you know, there are no sons. Our father has died.
There are no sons. If we don't inherit that, our fathers, our families. hold stake in the land of promise, our inheritance will go away from our Father's name. And I love what Moses does.
Verse 5, so they bring their case before Moses. What does Moses do? Verse 5, so Moses brought their case before the Lord.
Another wonderful leadership example where Moses does not feel like he has to provide all the answers when he's brought something that he doesn't know the answer to. What does he do? He takes it to God.
And the Lord said to him, what Zelophehad's daughters are saying is right. And so then God makes the clarification in the law that we can have female inheritance. Now it comes back up in chapter 36 that there is some tribal issues.
And so then the daughters aren't allowed to marry outside their tribe so that the inheritance can stay within the tribe and we don't move tribal inheritance. But again, There's this working out of the law that God gives us his revelation. And yet we work alongside God.
We are co-agents in trying to understand and interpret. And when we don't know, I don't rely on my own understanding. I said it before the Lord and let him and for us, let the power of the Holy Spirit illuminate our eyes, our minds, our understanding.
We bring others around to understand. And we help, we seek to have deeper understanding of what God has shown us and has given to us. And I think that's a lot of what we see working out throughout the book of Numbers, but here in chapters 26 through 36 particularly. I hope you've enjoyed the book of Numbers. We're moving on to the law.
Now there's more here, so continue digging in there. Thanks.