_Balak and Balaam offered on every altar._ THE SACRIFICE OF BALAK AND BALAAM I. Objectively this sacrifice was as perfect as the offerers could make it. Clearly they aimed at presenting a perfect offering. This is exhibited-- 1. In the number of offerings. Seven was regarded as a sacred and perfe... [ Continue Reading ]
_How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed?_ BALAAM’S FIRST PARABLE; OR, THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD Balaam’s declaration of the happiness of Israel sets forth the blessedness of the people of God. I. It is placed beyond the power of their enemies. II. It consists in their separation... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his! _ THE END OF THE RIGHTEOUS DESIRED Carlyle, in his “History of the French Revolution,” tells us of a Duke of Orleans who did not believe in death; so that when his secretary stumbled on the words, “The late King of Spain,” he... [ Continue Reading ]
_God is not a man, that He should lie._ THE UNCHANGEABLE GOD I. God is unchangeable. God cannot change; to suppose that He could change would be to suppose Him not Divine. A finite being may refuse to change, adhering rigidly to some purpose; but all the while that being is capable of change, ther... [ Continue Reading ]
_He hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it._ IMMUTABLE BENEDICTIONS I. Blessings are decreed for the people of God. The difficulty of believing in the glorious truth of the supreme blessedness of the children of God is so common that there must be some reasons for it. 1. One reason is that the lar... [ Continue Reading ]
_He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel._ THE PROPHECIES OF BALAAM Prophecy is not Fatalism, but in many cases, at least, a forecasting of the certain consequences of such and such moral antecedents. And this view of prophecy leads me to that which is, af... [ Continue Reading ]
_Balak brought Balaam unto the top of Peor._ THE WICKED ARE WISE IN THEIR KIND TO BRING THEIR WICKED PURPOSES TO PASS We may observe by continual experience the nature of ungodly men. They are cunning in their kind; they watch their ways and times to fit them to work out their wicked devices. Balak... [ Continue Reading ]