I. How CLEAR IT IS MADE THAT BALAAM DID NOT DIE THE DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS! He was slain among those who were slain by the vengeance of God. He might, of course, have died in circumstances more peaceful and less indicative of his wickedness, and yet died the death of the wicked all the same. But now the manner of his end is left in no doubt. He had not only suffered himself to be drawn into opposition to the people of God, he had not only been disobedient to God himself, but it seems that he had been the chief provoking agent in bringing destruction on a portion of the present generation of Israel. Moreover, the very people whom he thought to help he had unconsciously led to their own ruin. He certainly could not have done all this if he had not found the materials ready to hand - actual idolatry in Midian, and the spirit of lust and idolatry in Israel. But it was he who saw with a sort of Satanic quickness all that could be done with the material. A man cannot cause an explosion unless he has explosive substances to deal with, but we reckon him responsible who applies the exploding agent. One sinner not only destroyeth much good, but, as we see here, produceth much evil Wicked men should learn from the history of Balaam that they may do a great deal more harm than they are conscious of. How much better it is to be on the other side, striving to draw men, even though it be with few apparent results, into the paths of purity, self-denial, and love!

II. FROM THE CHARACTER OF BALAAM WE SEE HOW REAL AND DESPERATE SPIRITUAL INSENSIBILITY MAY BE. Rightly considered, the whole conduct of Balaam is a great deal more perplexing than is the speaking of his ass. There we have to do just with the momentary occupation of the vocal organs of a brute by the speech of a human being. For a moment or two the ass was honoured beyond its natural faculties. But here is a man, raised above other men in many respects, acting in a way most humiliating to humanity. Favoured again and again with light which came to him in different ways, he remained in gross darkness with respect to the character of God as a whole. He saw not the folly, the absurdity, of the path in which he was treading. The conduct of Balaam in the essential principles of it /ms often been repeated, and is being repeated still. We are all spiritually blind unless God be pleased to open our eyes. Seeing the things of God by the light of nature, and judging of them by natural reason, we come to some strange and impotent conclusions. Balaam's indifference to the interferences of God is not one whit more marvelous than the unmoved, matter-of-fact way in which we can bear to have truths presented to our minds which, if they concern us to any extent, concern us more than all outward circumstances taken together. It is easy to say as one reads of Balaam, "What a fool! what an enigma! what a bundle of contradictions! what a mixture in his life of unwilling obedience to God and most obstinate persistence in his own path!" Take care lest it be said to one thus speaking, "Thou art the man." There is not a man of the world living in a land of open Bibles but whose conduct might be so described as to appear quite as perplexing as that of Balaam here.

III. A MAN MAY ENJOY GREAT PRIVILEGES, AND YET BE RUINED AT LAST. A seeing man may be quite safe in a dangerous path, and on the darkest night, with a little lamp, if it is enough to show him where his feet are to be placed. But a blind man will fall into the pit by noonday. A firmament radiant with a score of suns would avail nothing to such a one. A man may live in a land of Bibles, churches, and every conceivable variety of gospel ministrations, and yet die, after a long contact with all these, knowing nothing of his own state as a sinner, or of the power of Christ as a Saviour. Another man, in the midst of Africa, with no more than a torn leaf of the New Testament, might come to know the one thing needful, and be effectually led to repentance, faith, salvation, and eternal life. Privileges, as we call them, are nothing in themselves; all depends on how they are received. It was the same seed that was sown in the four different kinds of ground. One seed sown in the good ground will bring forth more than a cartload scattered by the wayside.

IV. BALAAM KNEW JUST ENOUGH OF THE TRUTH TO MISLEAD HIM, NOT ENOUGH TO LEAD HIM RIGHT. He apprehended the real power of Jehovah without apprehending his character as a whole. He had made the discovery that if Israel fell away into the worship of any other god, it would be very severely dealt with. Doubtless he had found his way into some intercourse with the Israelites, and been made acquainted with their past history, particularly with the commandment of God at Sinai against idolatry, and the sufferings which came upon the people because of the golden calf. But he did not know that in the midst of the most faithless and apostate of generations there would still be preserved a faithful seed; he did not reckon on the energetic and efficacious zeal of a Phinehas. And thus the great mischief to many arises not so much from total indifference to God as from misleading conceptions of him. It is only too easy for us to miss the full view which a sinner ought to have of God, and remain all our lifetime with erroneous and most limited conceptions. Some make too much of God's anger with sin, forgetting his love, his mercy, his patience, his revelation of himself as a Father; others make too much of his mercy, forgetting his unyielding righteousness, and the need of a radical change in man - a change in his motives, purposes, sympathies, and delights. Nothing is more perilous than to see so much of one side of the Divine character as not to see the rest. We must see it as it is revealed in Scripture. There the living God moves before us in his actions. We see his actions, and they cannot be understood unless as the harmonious outflow of all his character. - Y.

It would seem, then, that this people that was to "dwell alone and not be reckoned among the nations" had not dwelt alone; and that one man, at least, of the people in whom God had not beheld iniquity nor seen perverseness, had been guilty of the most flagrant iniquity and perverseness. For not only had he, an Israelitish prince, brought the daughter of a Midianitish prince unto his brethren — which was in itself an unlawful act — but he had done this openly and shamelessly, in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of Israel (Numbers 25:6). But how came it to pass that these Moabites and Midianites, who, only yesterday as it were, displayed such relentless hostility to Israel, should, to-day, be upon such friendly terms with them? How was it that, whereas but yesterday — so to speak — the king of Moab sent princes of Moab and Midian to Balaam, the son of Beor to Pethor in Mesopotamia, entreating him to come and curse the Israelites — sparing nothing to secure this end — these hostile princes are now giving their daughters to the Israelites in the most intimate companionship? Surely there must be some treachery in this proceeding! And so it seemed there was. Balaam, after his repulse by Balak, had fled, not to his own land, but to Midian, the confederate of Moab; and, not daring to curse the people himself, had suggested to the Midianites a method of leading them into iniquity, as a means of bringing a curse on them from God. And this new scheme had propitiated Balak, who had been so fiercely enraged against Balaam, and who now" consulted" (Micah 6:5) with Balaam; who "counselled" (Numbers 31:16) this expedient of mischief. So the matter came out upon the death of Balaam, and so is it explained in my text.

1. Balaam plainly committed this crime with his eyes open to the wrong be was doing. Out of his own mouth we may judge him. In a moment of prophetic inspiration he protested to Balak that his eyes were open; that he had heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High. Balaam's sin, then, was committed knowingly, consciously, wilfully. He was not "overtaken in a fault." He set himself to do wickedly.

2. And he was influenced to take this course by the meanest of motives. He "loved the wages of unrighteousness."

3. And if anything could have aggravated the meanness of the motive that influenced Balaam in betraying Israel, it was the baseness of the method he adopted to accomplish that design. God had revealed to him, in prophetic insight, the secret of Israel's greatness and strength. And Balaam used the very inspiration which God gave him to injure, fatally, God's own chosen people. And the cowardice of his procedure was in keeping with its baseness. He would not touch Israel himself. He dare not utter a word against them; but be could whisper suggestions of evil into the ears of others, that they might execute the diabolical design.

(W. Roberts.)