Numbers 23:19 Study Bible: God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?

◄ Numbers 23:19 ►

God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

Study Bible

God is not a man, that He should lie
This phrase emphasizes the divine nature of God, contrasting it with human fallibility. In biblical context, humans are often depicted as prone to deceit and sin (Jeremiah 17:9). God's nature is inherently truthful and faithful (Titus 1:2). This distinction is crucial in understanding the reliability of God's promises, as seen in the covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15).

or a son of man, that He should change His mind
The term "son of man" is used to denote humanity, emphasizing human limitations and changeability. In contrast, God's immutability is highlighted here (Malachi 3:6). This phrase reassures believers of God's steadfastness, as seen in His unchanging nature throughout the Old Testament, such as His consistent deliverance of Israel (Exodus 3:7-8).

Does He speak and not act?
This rhetorical question underscores God's faithfulness in action. When God speaks, His words are powerful and effective (Isaiah 55:11). Historical examples include the fulfillment of prophecies, such as the deliverance from Egypt (Exodus 12:41) and the coming of the Messiah (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:22-23).

Does He promise and not fulfill?
This phrase assures the fulfillment of God's promises, a central theme in Scripture. The Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 12:1-3) and its fulfillment in the nation of Israel and ultimately in Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:16) serve as key examples. God's faithfulness is a cornerstone of biblical theology, providing hope and assurance to believers.

Persons / Places / Events

1. God
The central figure in this verse, emphasizing His divine nature and attributes of truthfulness and faithfulness.

2. Balaam
A prophet who is speaking these words under divine inspiration, despite being hired by Balak to curse Israel.

3. Balak
The king of Moab who sought to curse Israel through Balaam, fearing their strength and numbers.

4. Israel
The nation chosen by God, whom Balak fears and seeks to curse, but whom God has blessed.

5. Moab
The region ruled by Balak, representing opposition to God's people in this account.

Teaching Points

God's Immutability
God’s nature is unchanging. Unlike humans, He does not lie or change His mind. This provides believers with a foundation of trust and security in His promises.

Divine Faithfulness
God’s promises are sure and steadfast. When He speaks, He acts. This encourages believers to rely on His word and trust in His faithfulness.

Contrast with Human Nature
Humans are prone to change and deceit, but God is wholly other. Recognizing this contrast helps believers to place their ultimate trust in God rather than in fallible human beings.

Encouragement in Trials
In times of uncertainty or difficulty, believers can find comfort in the assurance that God’s promises will be fulfilled, providing hope and strength.

Call to Reflect God’s Character
As followers of Christ, believers are called to emulate God’s truthfulness and faithfulness in their own lives, striving to be people of integrity.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does understanding God's unchanging nature impact your daily trust in Him?

2. In what ways can you apply the truth of God's faithfulness to a current situation in your life?

3. How does the contrast between God's nature and human nature challenge you in your relationships with others?

4. Can you identify a promise from God that you are holding onto? How does Numbers 23:19 encourage you in this?

5. How can you reflect God's truthfulness and faithfulness in your interactions with others this week?

Connections to Other Scriptures

1 Samuel 15:29
This verse reiterates that God does not lie or change His mind, reinforcing His unchanging nature.

Titus 1:2
Highlights God's inability to lie, underscoring the trustworthiness of His promises.

Hebrews 6:18
Emphasizes the impossibility of God lying, providing believers with strong encouragement to hold onto hope.

James 1:17
Describes God as unchanging, with no variation or shadow of turning, aligning with the theme of divine constancy.

Isaiah 55:11
Illustrates that God's word accomplishes what He desires, affirming His faithfulness to His promises.

Sermons

The Lord is Unchangeably True in All His Ways, Words, and Works	W. Attersoll.	Numbers 23:19
The Unchangeable Faithfulness of God	E.S. Prout	Numbers 23:19
The Unchangeable God	H. Melvill, B. D.	Numbers 23:19
The Unchangeableness of Jehovah	C. Simeon, M. A.	Numbers 23:19
The Word of God Unchangeable	J. Slade, M. A.	Numbers 23:19
The Second Prophecy. Balak's State of Mind	D. Young	Numbers 23:13-26

People

Aram, Balaam, Balak, Jacob, Moses, Zippor

Places

Aram, Bamoth-baal, Egypt, Moab, Peor, Pisgah

Topics

Act, Change, Changed, Confirm, Effect, Fulfil, Fulfill, Lie, Lieth, Mind, Mouth, Promise, Purpose, Repent, Repenteth, Speak, Spoke, Spoken

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Numbers 23:19

     1035   God, faithfulness
     1105   God, power of
     1120   God, repentance of
     1150   God, truth of
     1155   God, truthfulness
     1160   God, unchangeable
     1210   God, human descriptions
     1305   God, activity of
     1340   consistency
     1461   truth, nature of
     2221   Christ, Son of Man
     5020   human nature
     5036   mind, of God
     5167   mouth
     5329   guarantee
     5467   promises, divine
     5973   unreliability
     8214   confidence, basis of
     8715   dishonesty, and God

Library

An Unfulfilled Desire
'... Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!'--NUM. xxiii. 10. '... Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword.'--NUM. xiii. 8. Ponder these two pictures. Take the first scene. A prophet, who knows God and His will, is standing on the mountain top, and as he looks down over the valley beneath him, with its acacia-trees and swift river, there spread the tents of Israel. He sees them, and knows that they are 'a people whom the Lord hath blessed.' Brought there …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Philo of Alexandria, the Rabbis, and the Gospels - the Final Development of Hellenism in Its Relation to Rabbinism and the Gospel According to St. John.
It is strange how little we know of the personal history of the greatest of uninspired Jewish writers of old, though he occupied so prominent a position in his time. [173] Philo was born in Alexandria, about the year 20 before Christ. He was a descendant of Aaron, and belonged to one of the wealthiest and most influential families among the Jewish merchant-princes of Egypt. His brother was the political head of that community in Alexandria, and he himself on one occasion represented his co-religionists, …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Balaam's Wish Num 23:10
…
John Newton—Olney Hymns

The Night of Miracles on the Lake of Gennesaret
THE last question of the Baptist, spoken in public, had been: Art Thou the Coming One, or look we for another?' It had, in part, been answered, as the murmur had passed through the ranks: This One is truly the Prophet, the Coming One!' So, then, they had no longer to wait, nor to look for another! And this Prophet' was Israel's long expected Messiah. What this would imply to the people, in the intensity and longing of the great hope which, for centuries, nay, far beyond the time of Ezra, had swayed …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The Nature of Spiritual Hunger
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness Matthew 5:6 We are now come to the fourth step of blessedness: Blessed are they that hunger'. The words fall into two parts: a duty implied; a promise annexed. A duty implied: Blessed are they that hunger'. Spiritual hunger is a blessed hunger. What is meant by hunger? Hunger is put for desire (Isaiah 26:9). Spiritual hunger is the rational appetite whereby the soul pants after that which it apprehends most suitable and proportional …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Memoir of John Bunyan
THE FIRST PERIOD. THIS GREAT MAN DESCENDED FROM IGNOBLE PARENTS--BORN IN POVERTY--HIS EDUCATION AND EVIL HABITS--FOLLOWS HIS FATHER'S BUSINESS AS A BRAZIER--ENLISTS FOR A SOLDIER--RETURNS FROM THE WARS AND OBTAINS AN AMIABLE, RELIGIOUS WIFE--HER DOWER. 'We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.'--2 Cor 4:7 'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.'--Isaiah 55:8. 'Though ye have lien among the …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

How those are to be Admonished who Abstain not from the Sins which they Bewail, and those Who, Abstaining from Them, Bewail them Not.
(Admonition 31.) Differently to be admonished are those who lament their transgressions, and yet forsake them not, and those who forsake them, and yet lament them not. For those who lament their transgressions and yet forsake them not are to be admonished to learn to consider anxiously that they cleanse themselves in vain by their weeping, if they wickedly defile themselves in their living, seeing that the end for which they wash themselves in tears is that, when clean, they may return to filth. …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Fragrant Spices from the Mountains of Myrrh. "Thou Art all Fair, My Love; There is no Spot in Thee. " --Song of Solomon iv. 7.
FRAGRANT SPICES FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF MYRRH. HOW marvellous are these words! "Thou art all fair, My love; there is no spot in thee." The glorious Bridegroom is charmed with His spouse, and sings soft canticles of admiration. When the bride extols her Lord there is no wonder, for He deserves it well, and in Him there is room for praise without possibility of flattery. But does He who is wiser than Solomon condescend to praise this sunburnt Shulamite? Tis even so, for these are His own words, and were …
Charles Hadden Spurgeon—Till He Come

Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners Or, a Brief Relation of the Exceeding Mercy of God in Christ, to his Poor Servant, John Bunyan
In this my relation of the merciful working of God upon my soul, it will not be amiss, if in the first place, I do in a few words give you a hint of my pedigree, and manner of bringing up; that thereby the goodness and bounty of God towards me, may be the more advanced and magnified before the sons of men. 2. For my descent then, it was, as is well known by many, of a low and inconsiderable generation; my father's house being of that rank that is meanest, and most despised of all the families in …
John Bunyan—Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

Christ a Complete Saviour:
OR, THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST, AND WHO ARE PRIVILEGED IN IT. BY JOHN BUNYAN Advertisement by the Editor. However strange it may appear, it is a solemn fact, that the heart of man, unless prepared by a sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, rejects Christ as a complete Saviour. The pride of human nature will not suffer it to fall, as helpless and utterly undone, into the arms of Divine mercy. Man prefers a partial Saviour; one who had done so much, that, with the sinner's aid, the work might be …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Of the Decrees of God.
Eph. i. 11.--"Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."--Job xxiii. 13. "He is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth." Having spoken something before of God, in his nature and being and properties, we come, in the next place, to consider his glorious majesty, as he stands in some nearer relation to his creatures, the work of his hands. For we must conceive the first rise of all things in the world to be in this self-being, the first conception …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Heavenly Footman; Or, a Description of the Man that Gets to Heaven:
TOGETHER WITH THE WAY HE RUNS IN, THE MARKS HE GOES BY; ALSO, SOME DIRECTIONS HOW TO RUN SO AS TO OBTAIN. 'And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain: escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.'--Genesis 19:17. London: Printed for John Marshall, at the Bible in Gracechurch Street, 1698. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. About forty years ago a gentleman, in whose company I had commenced my …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

The Desire of the Righteous Granted;
OR, A DISCOURSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS MAN'S DESIRES. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR As the tree is known by its fruit, so is the state of a man's heart known by his desires. The desires of the righteous are the touchstone or standard of Christian sincerity--the evidence of the new birth--the spiritual barometer of faith and grace--and the springs of obedience. Christ and him crucified is the ground of all our hopes--the foundation upon which all our desires after God and holiness are built--and the root …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Thirdly, for Thy Actions.
1. Do no evil, though thou mightest; for God will not suffer the least sin, without bitter repentance, to escape unpunished. Leave not undone any good that thou canst. But do nothing without a calling, nor anything in thy calling, till thou hast first taken counsel at God's word (1 Sam. xxx. 8) of its lawfulness, and pray for his blessings upon thy endeavour; and then do it in the name of God, with cheerfulness of heart, committing the success to him, in whose power it is to bless with his grace …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

The Unchangeableness of God
The next attribute is God's unchangeableness. I am Jehovah, I change not.' Mal 3:3. I. God is unchangeable in his nature. II. In his decree. I. Unchangeable in his nature. 1. There is no eclipse of his brightness. 2. No period put to his being. [1] No eclipse of his brightness. His essence shines with a fixed lustre. With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.' James 1:17. Thou art the same.' Psa 102:27. All created things are full of vicissitudes. Princes and emperors are subject to …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Numbers
Like the last part of Exodus, and the whole of Leviticus, the first part of Numbers, i.-x. 28--so called,[1] rather inappropriately, from the census in i., iii., (iv.), xxvi.--is unmistakably priestly in its interests and language. Beginning with a census of the men of war (i.) and the order of the camp (ii.), it devotes specific attention to the Levites, their numbers and duties (iii., iv.). Then follow laws for the exclusion of the unclean, v. 1-4, for determining the manner and amount of restitution …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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