GOD in the Old Testament - Numbers - Part 3

Numbers 23:3-10  

    Then Balaam said to Balak, "Stay here beside your offering while I go aside. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet with me. Whatever he reveals to me I will tell you." Then he went off to a barren height. 

    God met with him, and Balaam said, "I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram."

    The LORD put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, "Go back to Balaam and give him this word."

    So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the Moabite officials. Then Balaam spoke this message:

    "Balak brought me from Aram,

        the king of Moab from the eastern mountains.

    'Come,' he said, 'curse Jacob for me;

        come, denounce Israel.'

    How can I curse

        those whom God has not cursed?

    How can I denounce

        those whom the LORD has not denounced?

    From 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!"

 

Numbers 23:18-23  

    Then he spoke this message:

    "Arise, Barak, and listen;

        hear me, son of Zippor.

    God is not human, that he should lie,

        not a human being, that he should change his mind.

    Does he speak and then not act?

        Does he promise and not fulfill?

    I have received a command to bless;

        he has blessed, and I cannot change it.

 

    "No misfortune is seen in Jacob.

        no misery observed in Israel.

    The LORD their God is with them;

        the shout of the King is among them.

    God brought them out of Egypt;

        they have the strength of a wild ox.

    There is no divination against Jacob,

        no evil omens against Israel.

    It will now be said of Jacob

        and of Israel, 'See what God has done!' "

 

Numbers 23:27  

    Then Barak said to Balaam, "Come, let me take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them for me from there."

(see all Numbers 23) 

 

(parentheses are mine) 

 

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®, Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Limited to 15 verses per post.