AP

Numbers 23:9-10From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them.   I see a people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations.   Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel?   Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my final end be like theirs!

Balaam was a prime example of the ‘double-minded man’ who ‘is unstable in all his ways’, whom the apostle James warns us about in his call to us to stand firm and persevere in the face of persecution (James 1:2-8).

Balaam was caught between, on the one hand, receiving a handsome reward from Balak, King of the Moabites, for cursing Israel, and, on the other hand, facing opposition for remaining faithful to God’s revealed truth about his abundant blessing of his Chosen People.  Today’s verses  form part of Balaam’s first reply to Balak.

From our New Testament perspective, the Church is the New Israel, so it is encouraging for us to reflect on the words God gave to Balaam to report to Balak.  Like Israel of old, we are not to consider ourselves to be ‘one of the nations’, for our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20).  Jesus calls us to be holy (‘set apart’, different from the world), as his apostle Peter reports: “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16).

God promised Abraham: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:2-3)” and  “I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.” (Genesis 22:17). So too Jesus promises his followers: “and on this rock [the confession that he is the Messiah] I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:18).

Even Balaam himself could see that in the light of all these truths, the best option was to be part of the blessing and not opposed to it – how much more important it is today to unite with God’s blessing on his Church than to fight against it.

With this in mind, let us not be tempted to compromise with the world, to forget that as ‘citizens’ of the world our true citizenship is in heaven – that we are to be in the world but not of the world – and that by persisting in being different [‘holy’], regardless of facing inevitable persecution, we are more likely to bring others into sharing all the cosequent blessings, rather than by trying hard to be ‘acceptable’ to our present culture! 

– Bruce Christian