THE PROPHECIES [Lect. a better country---you long for the sabbath of the just--see here your example, see here the pattern of believers--6 no son of Abraham can hope to escape temptations, while he sees that bosom in which he desires to rest so assaulted with difficulties.' • Whatsoever is dearest to us on earth is our Isaac---happy are we if we can sacrifice it to God--those shall never rest with Abraham, who cannot sacrifice with Abraham.' 'His son the father offered up, son of his age, his only son; One only remark more you will receive. It is but the application of what was before laid down--the unity of the faith -the common interest of truly pious men in every age of the world---the identity of salvation. Abraham and the We believe in a fathers believed in a future Deliverer. Saviour who has been revealed. But the great object of our faith is one and the same. Here have we communion with the good of every dispensation-and the church is seen to be one. But, the application of this idea is most momentous---what share have they in the great salvation who reject the Saviour—what inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God, who believe not the gospel of God ? Now, beware, ye despisers, lest that come upon you which was spoken by the Prophets---beware, lest in the day when Abraham and Isaac and all the Prophets are called to the kingdom of God, there should be no voice of welcome to summon you, but the only sound that can be gathered from the low, unwilling, and supprest murmurs of the angelic messengers should be, behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish.' 6 'Lo! where he cometh! the Messiah comes! The King! the Comforter! the Christ!' There is not salvation in any other, &c.-Acts iv. 12. v.] OF BALAAM. LECTURE V. THE PROPHECIES OF BALAAM. Numbers xxiv. 14. This is the manner in which Balaam introduces his concluding predictions. He had been sent for, as you will remember, from a distant part to pronounce a malediction upon Israel. The rewards offered by Balak were sufficiently attractive to his covetousness-but a preternatural restraint lay upon his mind and on his lip, and after doing his endeavour to please his employer he was compelled to exclaim.--- Numb. xxiii. 8, 23. Again and again, the king renewed his sacrifices upon seven altars, and the soothsayer stood by the burnt offering and took up his parable-but as often it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, and he turned the enchanter's curse into a Prophet's blessing. At last when Balaam saw that 'the Lord would not hearken to him,' he gave up the contest, and went not to seek for enchantments; but set ting his face towards the wilderness, he looked down upon the camp of Israel, and there from the high places of Baal whence the curse should have fallen like a continual dropping, he poured forth the full stream of inspiration and of blessing, like the water which flowed from the rock. -Numb. xxiv. 5, 9. It was a customary thing, we find, with certain nations of antiquity, before they entered on a war, to engage the assistance of invisible powers by incantation, and to solicit ruin for the enemy by the voice of a venal Prophet. With S THE PROPHECIES [Lect. the pomp of ceremony and awful sacrifice, and with the hoarse note of imprecation and of fatal song, the embattled hosts gave over their enemies to cursing and perdition. And the king of Moab seems to place his sole dependance on this satanic ceremonial.-Numb. xxii. 5, 6. After indulging such extravagant confidence in the event of Balaam's imprecations, it is no wonder that the prince was distracted with rage when he found his hopes disappointed.-- Numb. xxiv. 10, 11. History can hardly present to us two portraits more distorted with odious passion, or more contemptible in their disappointment--the one is pale with impotent malice, and the other glows with all the confusion of littleness, avarice, and thwarted divination. But, since Balaam cannot win the rewards he had hoped for, he seems resolved to save his credit if he may, by announcing the whole extent of the blessing upon Israel. If he could have purchased the wages of unrighteousness he would most gladly-but since he may not, he resolves to come as near to righteousness and truth as possible. It is a kind of cheap virtue, which speaks the truth when falshood cannot profit. As he has been compelled to pronounce a blessing, his own waywardness now leads him to make it complete. Or perhaps even it might be a pleasure to increase the mortification of his base employer-he is himself disappointed of his expected gains, and he will not spare to lay a full share of the disappointment upon the shoulder of his accomplice.--- Numb. xxiv. 13: but the mortification of my vain enchantments shall not rest only with me.-Ver. 14. These are motives, black and satanic enough, and if Balaam had uttered his predictions and his oracles only under the inspiration of malice and of hellish passion, the spell would only have been woven round himself, and Israel should have derived little benefit from the angry ravings of a frantic bard. But, however mysterious it may seem, both the history of the predictions, and their subsequent accomplishment unite to prove, that even this wicked man was made the interpreter of Divine decrees, the organ of the prophetic Spirit; and that as it was by a supernatural con troul, that he could not curse, so it was by a superior impulse, which was not discredited by the unworthiness of its instrument, that these sublime benedictions were uttered-the words were the words of Balaam, but the visions were the visions of the Almighty. In this concluding oracle, which commences from verse 15., the issue is foretold of the ensuing struggles between Israel and Moab, reaching onwards to the histories of Edom and Amalek, and other states connected with the fate of their neighbour kingdoms. And, to preserve that uniform reference which we have always found in the Hebrew Prophecies, there is contained in this passage, a prediction of greater events, the times of the latter days,' the coming of the king Messiah. This chief subject of prediction is as usual connected with inferior subjects, the certain expression of historic verity is not to be looked for in prediction-it was the custom of the Prophets to enwrap religious truth in secular language, to join the history of Israel with the hopes of the world---so that we wonder not that in the case before us, as in other cases, a degree of obscurity should be felt, and a degree of uncertainty as to the application, part referring to one subject, and part belonging to another. We shall direct our attention to the prophecies of Balaam in the general-they are given in a highly poetic diction, and will amply repay the thought which in the first place we shall bestow on their grammatical understanding. In the second place, we shall produce some historical notes of their fulfilment. And thirdly, offer some miscellaneous reflections which are suggested by the more interesting parts of this subject. First of all, we propose some remarks in explanation of the prophecies of Balaam, considered as relics of ancient poetry. There are four separate poems, two contained in the xxiii. chap. and two in the xxiv. each advancing in force and intensity of expression. The first describes the peace and prosperity of Israel-the second pronounces it impossible to curse the children of a blessing-the third threat ens judgments on any who would harm them--and the fourth foretells their eventual victory and ascendancy over all the nations that oppose them. If you will turn to the passages, you will more readily perceive the meaning, and the illustration which we shall endeavour to bring to them. Chap. xxiii. 7.-The preceding history states that the place of Balaam's residence was "Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people." There is* good reason to believe, that the description would be more correct as well as more definite, if we read by the river of the land of the children of Ammon,' a locality which will then agree with what is said in Deut. xxiii. 4., that Pethor is in Mesopotamia, and with the account here given by the Prophet himself, that he was sent for from Aram, from the mountains of the East. The manner in which this passage is introduced, shews us that it is essentially poetical. He took up his parable, and said '—it will be found that this formula is always followed by a marked change in the style and the sentiment, such as has always been understood to be the distinction between prose and poetry. When Job continued his parable and said', it is the continuation of a highly figurative and metrical composition. When Balaam took up his parable, it was the commencement of his prophetic numbers, the chanting of his oracular song most probably in a measured and sonorous tone. And when we see this mark of poetic language, given as it undoubtedly is, that we may not overlook it, we shall do wrong if we do not immediately prepare to receive poetic impression, if we do not measure out the lines, and string our mind like a well-tuned harp to the touch of the prophet's hand -that the imagery and the words of sacred and inspired song may not be clouded and spoiled by our dull and tasteless comprehension. Some good men have * Boothroyd's Heb. Bib. in loc. |