Numbers 24:17

PIOUS TALK AND UNHOLY CONDUCT

‘I shall see Him, but not now: I shall behold Him, but not nigh.’

Numbers 24:17

These words were spoken by the prophet Balaam, and they were inspired words put into his mouth by God Almighty when he went forth to curse but stayed to bless. There is no character in the whole of Scripture that is more thrillingly human than this character of the prophet Balaam. There was Balak, the king, and there stood this man inspired of God. He had come to curse, but he dared not. What a strange mixture of a man was this! There was a great struggle going on in that man’s bosom—a struggle between right and wrong, a struggle between selfishness and duty, a struggle between conscience and covetousness. That struggle has gone on all along the ages. It goes on now in every town—shall I say in every home?

When Balaam went out to meet Balak, the king, he had determined in his heart to curse that people. But picture him upon that mountain-top, that wild-looking man, with blazing eyes, with a face lit up, as it were, with the very light of God; see him there, standing upon that mountain, gazing upon the hosts of the Lord. All in a moment his eyes were opened, as he himself said. We can imagine what it was he saw as he looked back on the past. But he saw more than that. In that Egyptian darkness, in that time of the most awful evil, in that time of sin, he saw that star that rose in the East glittering in the heavens, shedding its dazzling ray upon the earth. He saw the sceptre which had departed from Jacob returning in the hand of the Son of Man. ‘I shall see Him,’ he said, ‘but not now: I shall behold Him, but not nigh.’ As he uttered that prophetic word he little thought what it was he said. It was true that he would see Him. All eyes shall see Him; yours will see Him, mine will see Him, even the eyes of those that pierced Him will see Him—see Him sitting on the throne of glory. But how many of us will, like Balaam, see Him, but not nigh?

And now, as we draw aside from this unwilling prophet, who utters a blessing in every word of which was breathed a curse, what lessons are there? God help us to learn some of the lessons! How many Balaams are there in this congregation, think you? how many are there who choose the evil when they know the good? But there is one thing that you can all learn, and that you all must learn, if you are to do any good, and that is—

I. It is an awful danger to trifle with your conscience, that conscience which whispers to you words from the Holy Spirit of God. Balaam knew what was right, and yet he chose to do wrong. How many are there here who know what is right, and yet choose to do wrong? I say how many are there who, knowing what is right, yet deliberately, in the face of that knowledge, go and choose the evil? We know that things are either right or wrong instinctively. God has implanted that knowledge in us. We know; in a moment it dawns upon us. We know; God has given us the power. Oh, how useless any excuse will be in that great day of judgment when God adds up our account! God will say: ‘You knew; I gave you the power.’ Balaam had the power; he knew. We are, men and women, curious creatures. When you talk to a man about his sin, he will belittle the sin, and say: ‘It is not as bad as it looks.’ Even though it were as black as it could possibly be he would say: ‘There are plenty of people who do the same.’ What an awful thing to say! There are plenty of people who do the same, plenty of people to populate hell itself, plenty of people who, knowing the good, choose the evil. But does that make any difference to you? You who know what the evil is, yet you deliberately choose it. Does that make any difference to you? You say: ‘I ought to do a certain thing; yes, I ought to.’ We argue with you. We come to you, and we say: ‘Oh, for the Saviour’s sake, turn from your evil ways; leave the sin that enthralls you, that casts such a blot upon your soul.’ You say: ‘I ought,’ and the very first opportunity you get you go and do the same thing. Do not say you do not. You do; God knows you do, you know you do. Knowing the good, yet, deliberately, with your eyes open, even like Balaam, you have chosen the evil.

II. Another thing that Balaam teaches us is this—that you must not make a bargain with God, make a compromise with the Lord Most High.—He will not have it. No compromise will do with Him. That is just our religion; we want to serve God a little and ourselves a great deal. You ask a man to do something which will give him trouble. If he has not got his excuses ready-made he will make them quick enough. Oh, our religion is such a half-and-half thing!

III. Again, there is another thing that we ought to learn, and that is—that we ought never to neglect a plain duty for the sake of earthly gain.—All too often a man says: ‘How much shall I get by doing so-and-so?’ He never says: ‘What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?’ or ‘What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’ These are the questions for business men.

IV. And there is just another lesson that Balaam teaches us—that religious talk is not religion.—You may talk goody-goody for a week, but you may be as far from the kingdom of Heaven as the devil himself. No; Balaam was a good talker. There never was a better, but he is not in the kingdom of Heaven. He said: ‘Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!’ He died the enemy of God and of God’s people. We must do something more in this world of ours than talk. You men of business know quite well that talk will not earn you a penny. It will not go any distance, and the man who talks you despise. Then why should talk do for religion? It too often does. If we are to die the death of the righteous, we must live the life of the righteous. Actions, not words; lives, not professions; that is what God wants, and if you give Him that, if you give Him lives and leave the professions to take a back seat, then I say that yours will be that portion in the inheritance of God which He promised to all His beloved.

Illustration

(1) ‘The Messianic prophecy of the Star (Numbers 24:16), which makes the fourth and most important of the “parables” spoken by Balaam when the Lord “put a word in his mouth,” may be literally translated thus:—

He hath said who hears the words of God,

And knows the knowledge of the Most High;

Who sees the vision of the Almighty,

Fallen down (i.e. under the power of the prophetic inspiration),

but having his eyes open,

I see him, but not now!

I behold him, but not nigh!

There has come a Star out of Jacob,

And a sceptre shall rise out of Israel,

And smite the two sides of Moab,

And undermine all the sons of tumult.

And Edom shall be a possession,

And Seir, his enemies, shall be a possession,

But Israel does valiantly (or, acquires power).

And let One rule out of Jacob

And destroy the survivor out of the city!’

(2) ‘If we look down the dark and slippery steps of his degradation, we can trace them through temptation faintly resisted to temptation yielded to, and remorse stifled, and warnings resisted, and penal blindness inflicted, and sin willingly chosen, and sin let alone, until the seer of the vision of the Almighty becomes the tempter to the infamies of Baal Peor. But the very central lesson of his career is the power of a besetting sin.

“In outline dim and vast

Their fearful shadows cast

The giant forms of empires on their way

To ruin: one by one

They tower, and they are gone;—

Yet, in the prophet’s soul, the dreams of avarice stay.”

This was the little canker, the little poison drop, which blighted the whole life of what might otherwise have been a magnificent and enlightened soul. For the sake of a handful of paltry dross he imperilled his eternal happiness, and earned the dreadful twofold epitaph which the New Testament inscribes upon his tomb.’