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Chapter 24
Numbers 24:1 Balaam's Third Commissioned Oracle
This time Balaam did not offer additional altar sacrifices; instead he turned toward the orderly encamped tribes of Israel.
Question: What did God's prophetic vision reveal to Balaam?
Answer: Balaam saw beyond the present orderly encampment to the conquest of Canaan and the Israelite tribes settled on their own fertile lands-a new Eden, as suggested in verse 6.
Question: What Israelite hero might be the man the oracle refers to who came out of Egypt and who is connected to the vision of the Israelites settling the land of Canaan in verses 2-6? See Ex 17:8-16; Dt 31:7-8.
Answer: The Israelite hero that is prophesied in verses 7-9, who God has "brought out of Egypt" (verse 8), seems to fit the description of Moses' successor Joshua; he is the man who will lead the conquest of Canaan, settling the various tribes on their ancestral lands and serving God his great king. He also defeated the Amalekites in Exodus 17:8-16.
However, other parts of the prophecy do not fit Joshua. He did not serve a human king. Israel was a theocracy at this time and did not have a human king ruling over the confederation of tribes. In addition, Israel was not a "kingdom held in honor" by the other nations of the region at the time of Joshua. Scholars have also suggested Saul, Israel's first king (defeated King Agag of the Amalekites in 1 Sam 15:9-33) and David, Israel's second king who was one of King Saul's most successful military commanders and an acknowledged hero of Israel.
The Fathers of the Church saw in this prophecy a reference to the future Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, who bore the same name as the hero Joshua and who was also "brought out of Egypt" (Mt 2:19-21). They wrote that in this part of the oracles that Balaam began uttered blessings that proclaimed the Christ (Tertullian, Against Marcion 4.28.8), seeing the flight of Mary and Joseph taking baby Jesus into Egypt (Mt 2:13-15) from whence He was to return one day be acclaimed King of Kings (Eusebius, Proof of the Gospel 8.3) and foreseeing the mystery of Jesus' Passion and Resurrection (Ambrose, On His Brother Satyrus 2.43). In the Gospel of Matthew 2:14, St. Matthew will make a reference to Hosea 11:1 as prophecy that was fulfilled when Joseph took Mary and baby Jesus into Egypt to escape the wrath of King Herod: This was to fulfill what the Lord has spoken through the prophet: I called my son out of Egypt (Mt 2:15). In Matthew's quote and in Hosea 11:1 the word "son" is singular. Since the reference in Numbers 24:8 is also in the singular, the Fathers of the Church saw this passage as referring to the Christ.
Concerning this prophecy, Bishop Eusebius wrote in the fourth century AD: The oracle in the previously quoted prophecy, in saying that the Lord would come into Egypt, foretold the journey of our Lord Jesus Christ when he went into Egypt with his parents. Here we have the prophecy of his return from Egypt in its natural order, when he came back with his parents into the land of Israel, in the words "God led him out of Egypt." For our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Christ of God, was the only one of the seed of Israel and of the Jewish race who has rule over many nations, so that it is indisputable that he is the fulfillment of the prophecy which says, literally, that a man will come from the Jewish race and rule over many nations" (Eusebius, Proof of the Gospels 8.3).
Numbers 24:10-11 Balak's Response to the Third Commissioned Oracle
In a rage, a frustrated Balak dismissed Balaam from his service.
Question: Who did Balak blame for Balaam's loss of profit from the venture?
Answer: Balak pointed out that Balaam's God, Yahweh, as deprived him of the wealth and honors Balak had promised.
The last oracle is separate from those commissioned by Balak. Special Messianic importance has been attached to this oracle like the previous oracles.
Balaam's Final Prophecy (Num 24:15-24):
- Israel's future king and the fall of Israel's enemies (Num 24:15-19).
- The future of two regional peoples (Num 24:20-22).
- The future invasion of the Sea People (Num 24:23-24).
Numbers 24:12-25 Balaam's Response to His Dismissal and His Final Oracle
Balaam was unable to curse Israel, but now in an ironic twist, Balak's hired seer curses Moab in a prophetic oracle that also prophesies Israel's victories. In this passage, Balaam uses two names for Yahweh from Genesis: Elyon, "God Most High: (see Gen 14:18, 19, 20, 22; also frequently used in the Psalms) and Shaddai, which most scholars translate as "Almighty" (Gen 17:1; 28:3; 35:11; 43:14; 48:3; 49:25; also see Ex 6:3).
The ancient peoples of the Near East studied the heavens for omens of future events. A new star or a comet signified the birth of a god or a deified king, and a falling star or an eclipse was an omen that pointed to the death of a king (Is 14:12). The word "scepter" is shevet in Hebrew, a word that also means "comet" or "meteor" (JPS Torah Commentary: Numbers, page 208). According to this prophecy, in the distant future a king will arise from Israel who will conquer Moab and the nations of "the children of Seth" (those who are not from the line of the "promised seed" of Noah's son Shem) as well as the nation of Edom-Seir and the last survivors of the Moabite city of Ar. These are among the people over whom Abraham was promised his descendants were to have dominance in Genesis 15:18-21. The description of the future victory as crushing the head of Moab and the skulls of the children of Seth is language from the curse of the serpent in Genesis 3:15.
Question: What connection does Balaam's prophecy have to Jacob's prophecy for Judah in Genesis 49:10-12 and who is the future king of Israel who will conquer these peoples? See 2 Sam 8:1-14; 1 Kng 11:15-16; Zec 9:9-14; Mt 21:1-9; 26:27-28; Jn 6:54-56; 19:1, 34.
Answer: The prophecy is similar to the prophecy in Genesis 49 of a king of Israel coming from the tribe of Judah. King David was from the tribe of Judah.
King David of Judah fulfills some of the prophecy here and in Genesis 49:10-12 but not all. David did not ride into Jerusalem on the foal of a she-donkey, nor were his robes covered in the "blood of the grape", etc. David's son Solomon partially fulfilled the prophecy in Genesis 49:10-12 by riding into Jerusalem on his father's mule on his coronation day, but it was Jesus who fulfilled this prophecy and the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 by riding into Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey on Palm/Passion Sunday in 30 AD. It was Jesus whose robes were to be washed in the blood of His Passion, which yielded the gift of His Precious Blood through the transformation of the "blood of the grape" into the gift of the Eucharistic cup.
There is also a significant Messianic fulfillment of this passage in the reference to the "star" that comes from Jacob (Num 24:17) and the star that signified the birth of Jesus, the heir to the Davidic kingdom (Mt 22). The emblem of a star was not associated with King David until centuries after the destruction of the second Temple-a triangle is the Greek symbol for the letter "D", delta. The "star of David" is one Greek delta imposed upside-down over another delta. The Fathers of the Church saw Balaam's prophecy as the star that appeared in the heavens on the night Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
When the Wise Men (Magi) approached King Herod to help them find the newborn king, a worried Herod (who was an Idumean and not a Jew) consulted the Jewish scribes and teachers and told them to search for the prophecies in Scripture concerning the coming of the Messiah (Mt 2:1-7). The Fathers of the Church believed that Balaam's prophecy of the star and a future king was surely one of the prophecies pointed out to Herod along with the prophecy that the Messiah was to be born from the tribe of Judah in Bethlehem, the city of his ancestor King David (Gen 49:10; Mic 5:1-3; CCC 528).
Question: Compare Balaam's prophecy in Numbers 24:17-19 as it was fulfilled in King David and as it was fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth.
Answer:
| Balaam's prophecy in Numbers 24:17-19 partially fulfilled in David and completely fulfilled in Jesus | ||
| Prophecy | David | Jesus |
| I see him-not in the present. I perceive him-not close at hand = an important birth in the future | David changed the history of Israel. | Jesus changed the history of mankind. |
| A star is emerging from Jacob, a scepter is rising from Israel* ... = a king of Israel | David was a descendant of Jacob from the tribe of Judah who became king of Israel. | Jesus was a descendant of Jacob and David from the tribe of Judah whose birth was announced by a star. He is the King of Kings. |
| ... to strike the brow of Moab, the skulls of all the children of Seth. Edom too will be conquered land, Seir too will be a conquered land, when Israel exerts his strength, when Jacob tramples on his enemies and destroys the last survivors of Ar. | David conquered all the nations who were enemies living on the borders of Israel. | Jesus' enemy, King Herod, was an Idumean (Edom). Jesus' dominion is over all earthly kingdoms and all of them will answer to Him in the Last Judgment. |
| Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2010 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved. | ||
*see Gen 49:10
Chapter 25: Israel's Fall from Grace on the Plains of Moab
Chapter 25 is in a sense the conclusion of the Balaam narrative. While the Israelites were encamped at Shittim, near the shrine of Baal of Peor on the frontier between Israel and Moab on the Plains of Moab, the Moabite women seduced the Israelite men into worshipping Baal through ritual prostitution during the sacred banquet of communion sacrifices that were offered to the god Baal. Baal had replaced El as the principal deity of Canaan and the Transjordan. Shittim is called Abel-ha-Shittim in Joshua 2:1b. It was part of the Plain of Moab just to the northeast of the Dead Sea (Num 33:49).
Numbers 25:1-9 Israel at the Sanctuary of Baal-Peor
The sexual orgy at Peor in honor of the false god Baal evoked the wrath of God. Moses and the faithful of Israel were distraught and were weeping in front of the Sanctuary.
Question: What was God's first command to stop the orgy?
Answer: He told Moses to take all the Israelites leaders who encouraged the worship of Baal and to execute them.
Phinehas saw how one of the men of Israel brought a Midianite woman to his tent (Numbers 25:6). When Phinehas saw this, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear. He “went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly” (Numbers 25:8).
Numbers 25:10-13 Yahweh's Covenant of Peace with Phinehas
Question: Who is Phinehas? See Ex 6:25; Num 3:32; Josh 24:33; Judg 20:281 1Chr 6:21; 9:20; Sir 45:23/28-24/30.
Answer: A priestly grandson of Aaron, son of the High Priest Eleazar, who succeeded his father as chief of the Levitical guard and who later succeeded his father as Israel's High Priest after his father's death.
Question: Why was the covenant with Phinehas called a "covenant of peace"?
Answer: Like his grandfather Aaron, Phinehas had the courage to stand in the breech between God's wrath and the salvation of the people. His act of courage restored peace between God and Israel.
Numbers 25:14-18 The Aftermath of Israel's Covenant Ordeal
The woman who was killed was the daughter of a Midianite chieftain in alliance with the Moabites. After this disastrous event, relations with Midian were no longer friendly and eventually the Israelites went to war against the tribes of Midian. Only those Midianites related to Hobab who remained loyal to Israel were given, as Moses promised, a portion of the Promise Land to call their own. It was according to the blessing of Balaam: Blessed be those who bless you, and accursed be those who curse you! (Num 24:9b). God blessed those Gentiles who blessed Israel and punished those who cursed Israel.
God formed a covenant of peace with Phinehas that promised a perpetual priesthood that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ the everlasting High Priest of the New Covenant. It was a covenant within the covenant of Sinai, just as the covenant with Aaron and his descendants was a covenant within the Sinai Covenant. The covenant with Phinehas is the sixth Biblical covenant. The inspired writer of Sirach extolled Phinehas' heroism: Phinehas son of Eleazar is third in glory because of his zeal in the fear of the Lord, because he stood firm when the people revolted, with a staunch and courageous heart; and in this way made expiation for Israel. Hence a covenant of peace was sealed with him, making him governor of both sanctuary and people, and securing to him and his descendants the high priestly dignity for ever (Sir 45:23/28-24/20).
Question: Why did Balaam tell Balak that it would be an effective tactic to use false worship and sexual sins to separate Israel from Yahweh's blessings? When had God warned Balaam three times that he was in danger of acting contrary to the will of God (two warnings are within Balaam's oracles?Question: Was Balaam a saint or a sinner? See Num 22:8-24:25; 31:8-16; Dt 23:5b-6 [23:4b-5]; Josh 13:22; 24:9-10; Neh 13:2 and Rev 2:14 and quote a significant passage.
Answer: In the beginning, Balaam was a man with a prophetic gift who profession devotion to Yahweh as his God, but in the end Balaam was a sinner who turned away from God's plan in favor of his own ambitions. In His letter to the Christians at Pergamum, Jesus called their members who strayed from the path of righteousness the "followers of Balaam": Nevertheless, I have one or two charges against you: some of you are followers of Balaam, who taught Balak to set a trap for the Israelites so that they committed adultery by eating food that had been sacrificed to idols ... (Rev 2:14).
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Agape Bible Commentary
Deuteronomy 26
Chapter 26:1-15
This chapter addresses two ceremonies in which the heads of the Israelite families must make declarations of obedience before Yahweh's altar once a year after entering the Promised Land.
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
The Declaration of obedience and Profession of faith associated with the offering of the first fruits
After the redemption of the firstborn on the night of the last Egyptian plague, the first-born of man and beast belonged to God (Ex 13:11). After taking possession of the Promised Land, the Israelites were also to offer Yahweh the first fruits of the produce of the land which were consecrated to Him (Ex 22:28; 23:19; 34:26; Lev 2:12, 14; 23:10-17; Dt 18:4). These are tribute offerings to God the liberator and great King of Israel. In ancient Near Eastern kingdoms it was a common practice to bring the king tribute offerings in appreciation for the king's protection and in acknowledgement of his sovereignty over the people.
Question: To whom does Yahweh share the first-fruits of the animals and the produce of the soil and well as the redemption tax paid of every first born male child? See Num 18:8-19; Ez 44:15, 28-30.
Answer: It is the way that God provides for His chief priests and Levites in addition to the Israelite's redemption tax for first born sons.
Question: The declaration of obedience in verse 3 is followed by a profession of faith. In what form is the profession of faith given in verses 5-9?
Answer: It is a summary of salvation history that is centered on the Egyptian deliverance.
Question: According to verses 5, who was the "wandering Aramean and what is meant by the term?
Answer: The reference is to Jacob/Israel, who was a descendant of Abraham who came from Haran, a city in the Mesopotamian providence of Aram-Naharaim, the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Abraham's homeland after leaving Ur of the Chaldeans was Haran in Mesopotamia, known also as the land of Padanaram. Abraham and his descendants were Arameans and not Israelites. There were no Israelites until God changed Jacob's name to Israel (see Gen32:29/28 and 35:10). The members of Jacob/Israel's family are not called "Israelites" until Genesis 46:8 on the journey into Egypt.
Question: Why isn't Jacob/Israel called a Jew?
Answer: Originally that designation meant one who is a member of the tribe of Judah (one of the twelve tribes of Israel). Later, in the period of the divided monarchy, it meant one who was a citizen of the nation of Judah and in the Roman period, one who was a citizen of Judea.
Question: What is the theological point of the declaration that the head of the family had to make before Yahweh's altar?
Answer: Theologically, the point of this declaration is that Israel's identity is not rooted in the mythological like her neighboring states-Israel's origins are historical. According the Pentateuch, Israel was called into existence at a precise moment in time and at a specific place-in the Exodus out of Egypt and at Mt. Sinai.
Deuteronomy 26:12-15 The Oath for the Third Year Tithe
The obligation of the third year tithe was declared in Deuteronomy 14:28-29: At the end of every three years, you must take all the tithes of your harvest for that year and collect them in your community. Then the Levite-since he has no share or heritage of his own among you-the foreigner, the orphan and the widow living in your community, will come and eat all they want. And so Yahweh your God will bless you in all the labors that you undertake.
Question: Every third year the tithe was collected and kept in the community to feed what groups of people within the community?
Answer: They were to provide food for the Levites, the widows, the orphans and the resident aliens.
Question: After the collection and the giving of the third year tithe for the poor, what must the covenant member, who is the head of his family, do upon the next visit to Yahweh's Sanctuary?
Answer: He must make a public declaration before Yahweh's altar that he has fulfilled his obligations to the poor and has not abused the tithe by handling the tithe while in a ritually unclean state would defile it.
Deuteronomy 26:16-19 Exhortation and Promise
As we near the end of the second homily, Moses urges the people to remain faithful to Yahweh if they want to receive the blessings He has promised.
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CHALLENGE: “The deuterocanonical books aren’t Scripture because they aren’t prophetic. None of them claim to be written by a prophet, contain predictive prophecy, or contain messianic prophecy.”
DEFENSE: The criterion by which a book is to be evaluated for the canon is whether it is divinely inspired, not whether it is “prophetic” in those senses. Further, claims about the deuterocanonicals not containing any prophecy are inaccurate.
Books are Scripture if they are divinely inspired (2 Tim. 3:16). They do not have to have someone who functions as a prophet as their author (Luke, for example, was not known as a prophet, but he wrote at least two books of Scripture—his Gospel and Acts). Despite this, the book of Baruch is attributed to the same Baruch who served as the prophet Jeremiah’s scribe in writing the book of Jeremiah (Bar. 1:1; cf. Jer. 32:12, 36:17–18). Also, Baruch 6—also known as the Letter of Jeremiah—is attributed to Jeremiah himself (Bar. 6:1).
Books do not have to contain predictive prophecy to be Scripture. Many do not contain forecasts of specific, future events in the literal sense of the text (i.e., the sense intended by the human author, apart from additional, spiritual meanings intended by the Holy Spirit). Ruth, Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes are examples of books that do not contain predictive prophecy. However, the deuterocanonicals do contain predictive prophecy.
This is true both of prophecies already fulfilled (see 2 Macc. 15:13–29) and prophecies still in the future (see Bar. 4:21–5:9; Tob. 14:5–7; 2 Macc. 7:23, 12:43). These reflect the same types of prophecy found in the protocanonical books of Scripture.
Messianic prophecy is usually found in the spiritual sense of Old Testament texts. For example, “Out of Egypt I called my son” (Hos. 11:1b) literally applies to the nation of Israel (see Hos. 11:1a), but in the spiritual sense it also contains a messianic prophecy (Matt. 2:15).
The deuterocanonicals contain messianic prophecies of this sort that are just as clear as those found in the protocanonicals.
For example, Wisdom 2:12–23 contains a meditation on how the wicked plot against a righteous man who regards himself as God’s son. They condemn him to a shameful death, but they do not recognize the secret purposes of God, who created man for incorruption. This is a clearer messianic prophecy than most.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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