Numbers 23:21-24 He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither has he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him… What? Was Israel perfect? Was not their entire history one of rebellion and ingratitude and sin? How then could God say He saw no iniquity or perverseness in them? Mark, it is not said that Israel had no iniquity or perverseness. It is said God "beheld" none. Is God, then, the minister of sin? God forbid! He only magnifies the riches of His grace by putting it out of His sight. But is not this a license to the soul to continue in sin, or be indifferent to it? Nay. The love that has pardoned is the love that constrains ever after to "newness of life." But notice again — God was never indifferent to sin in Israel. "He is of too pure eyes to behold iniquity." Yes, the least sin in them was marked and judged with an unsparing hand. But when it came to this, should Satan make use of their sin to cast them out for ever from God — to curse them — then God would see no sin in them. Then His language is, "I have not beheld iniquity in Jacob, nor seen perverseness in Israel." Thus we have seen Israel's complete justification before God. Now let us examine the foundation on which it rests. "God is not a man that He should lie; neither the son of man that He should repent: hath He said and shall He not do it? or hath tie spoken and shall He not make it good?" Thus their justification, and everything that follows, rest upon God's unchangeable character. What a rock is that on which the weakest believer rests! What untold blessings are his l and all secured by the faithfulness of that unchanging God. But let us proceed and mark the streams of blessing which flow down to the believer from this Rock. "The Lord his God is with him." What can he lack, having Him? He is with him to supply every need, to lead into every holy path, to unfold to his soul from hour to hour all the riches of His grace, to quicken, to warn, to comfort, to build up, and to carry on that work in the soul which His grace has begun, till it be perfected in glory. Mark the next blessing — "the shout of a king is among them." It is the shout of joy. It is the joy of Christ in His people, and His people in Him: "these things have I spoken unto you that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy may be full." It is the "shout of a king," even of King Jesus, for He has gotten the victory! "Jehovah has triumphed, and His people are free." Mark the next blessing — "God brought them out of Egypt." The song of redemption is now their song, and will be for ever. "He hath, as it were, the strength of an unicorn" (or buffalo); "strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." As the sapling grows into the mighty tree, so that no storms can uproot it, so the Christian grows by living upon Christ, and abiding in Him. All the trials of the way arc converted into elements of strength. What can harm the child of God, then? What foe can curse him whom God has so blessed? None. "What hath God wrought!" It is all God here; man is nothing. Surely every crown must be laid for ever on the riches of His grace! "Behold the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down till he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain." In the symbol of the lion, under which the Lord's people are here brought before us, we have the victorious onward course of the Church of Christ. The Lord's people are represented as "rising up" in the majesty of Divine strength and power and victory over their spiritual foes. And what is the last feature in the character of the Lord's people presented in this parable? It is victory over every foe at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: "he shall not lie down till he eat of the prey and drink the blood of the slain." To "lie down" is the expression for rest. In the morning of resurrection they will Pest, for then every enemy will be given into their hands. (F. Whitfield, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. |
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