Numbers 24:15b-25: Summary: God is still for His journeying people, who abide a great threat to the more settled nations around them. The king of Moab responds to the news about them by calling on the diviner for hire, Balaam. He pays the man to revoke the blessing of God on Israel, but God is the Lord of all, including the lips of swindlers. The force of this extended episode is that God's power and purpose in Christ cannot be successfully opposed. Once God has convinced Balaam that He's not like whatever 'undercover gods' he's dealt with before, Balaam speaks only what God gives. Four oracles follow: what God has blessed is irrevocably blessed (23:7-10). God isn't mutable; He will do in history what He's determined to do from eternity, and that's birth a people who, imaging Him, inherit the earth (23:18-24). Like the garden of Eden with the shout of a Lion-King in their midst, their boundaries separate the blessed from the cursed (24:3-9). And speaking of this King, He's coming. He's a Star in the night, a Scepter of God in a world of rebellion, a Victor over the enemies of God's people. When God sends Him into the world, who shall live? Not Balaam, nor Balak, but only those united to Him by faith.
Sermon Outline:
See the focus of the oracle: the sights that sharpen this sight. (22:1-24:15a)
See the origin of the oracle: this sight is a divine light. (24:15b-16)
See the subject of the oracle: this sight is a preview of Christ. (24:17a-d)
See the question of the oracle: this sight is an invitation to Life. (24:17e-24)
See the tragedy in the text, and flee it: this sight goes unSeen. (24:25)