Advent 7: Two Accidental Blessings

Numbers 24:15-19

“And he took up his discourse and said,
‘The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,
the oracle of the man whose eye is opened,
the oracle of him who hears the words of God,
and knows the knowledge of the Most High,
who sees the vision of the Almighty,
falling down with his eyes uncovered:
I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near:
a star shall come out of Jacob,
and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;
it shall crush the forehead of Moab
and break down all the sons of Sheth.
Edom shall be dispossessed;
Seir also, his enemies, shall be dispossessed.
Israel is doing valiantly.
And one from Jacob shall exercise dominion
and destroy the survivors of cities!'”

Numbers 24:15-19

Double Prophecies

This passage comes to us from the Book of Numbers and is really fascinating because it is a prophecy with two meanings. God does this all the time in the Old Testament. He gives a prophecy that applies first to the people of Israel but then has a fuller meaning that will be accomplished in the future.

First, let’s look at the immediate context of this passage. To make a long story short, there is a king of Moab named Balak who feared the Israelites because God gave them victory over their enemies. To protect himself, he hires a prophet named Balaam to put a curse on them.

But here’s the catch: even though Balaam is not a godly guy, he will not prophesy something unless God allows it. This totally frustrates Balak because every time Balaam gets up to prophesy against the people of Israel, he winds up prophesying for them. That’s what happens here. Balak tries to get Balaam to say that Moab will defeat Israel, but instead, he says that God will send someone from the line of Jacob to crush the forehead of Moab. That’s his own country!

This is an amazing story because it again draws our attention to God’s complete sovereignty over all peoples and nations. He predicts the Israelites victory over Moab, which happens later in Old Testament history (in the Judges, really). But this story also points to the rule and reign of Jesus as the star who came from Jacob’s line.

When God prophesies something, it will come to pass, no matter how long it takes to happen.

Jacob, the Trickster

For a better overall picture of this, we need to look at Jacob. This is also confusing because when we think of the Old Testament patriarchs, we want to look at them as heroes we should imitate, right? I mean, when we look at Abraham, we see someone who has such a solid faith in God that the New Testament uses him as an example for us to follow. Although, even with Abraham, we see moments where he doesn’t act consistently in his faith.

When we get to Jacob, this inconsistency is even more glaring. Why is this so important? Because God is the One working out this amazing mission to save us, and he will use anybody he wants to in order to accomplish it, even if they are not living lives of faith.

Abraham had Isaac, and then Isaac had twins named Esau and Jacob. Esau was born first, and in that culture, that meant he should have been the one to inherit the most from his father, but God had already made it clear that the older would serve the younger. Don’t let that go unnoticed. Before they were born, God had already chosen Jacob over Esau, which was before they had done anything to gain his favor.

Knowing this, we are not surprised when Esau later gives his birthright to Jacob, although it seems pretty shady that Jacob would withhold food from his brother until he promised to give it to him. As the story goes on, we’re not surprised that Isaac blesses Jacob over Esau, but the way Jacob gets the blessing is really surprising. Basically, their dad is really old and wants to bless his sons. So, he sends Esau to hunt wild game and cook it for him, so he can bless him before he dies. Then, while Esau is out, Jacob and his mom trick Isaac into thinking that he is blessing Esau when it is really Jacob in disguise. How crazy is that? This is not the example of faith we should follow.