Numbers 23:20 Study Bible: Look, I have received a command to bless. He has blessed, and I can't reverse it.

◄ Numbers 23:20 ►

I have indeed received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot change it.

I have indeed received a command to bless;
This phrase is spoken by Balaam, a non-Israelite prophet, who was hired by Balak, the king of Moab, to curse the Israelites. The context is significant as it highlights the sovereignty of God over human intentions. Despite Balak's desire to harm Israel, God commands Balaam to bless them instead. This demonstrates God's protective hand over His chosen people and His ability to use even those outside the covenant community to fulfill His purposes. The command to bless reflects God's unchanging promise to Abraham that his descendants would be blessed (Genesis 12:2-3).

He has blessed,
The blessing here refers to God's favor and protection over Israel. This is consistent with the Abrahamic Covenant, where God promised to bless those who bless Abraham's descendants and curse those who curse them. Theologically, this underscores the idea that God's blessings are irrevocable and not subject to human manipulation. It also points to the concept of divine election, where God chooses to bless whom He wills, independent of human actions or desires.

and I cannot change it.
Balaam acknowledges the futility of opposing God's will. This phrase emphasizes the immutability of God's decrees. In the broader biblical narrative, it reflects the theme that God's purposes cannot be thwarted by human schemes. This is echoed in other scriptures, such as Isaiah 14:27, which states that no one can annul what God has purposed. Theologically, it points to the sovereignty of God and His ultimate control over history. This also prefigures the New Testament understanding of Jesus Christ as the ultimate fulfillment of God's blessings, which cannot be altered or revoked by human actions.

Persons / Places / Events

1. Balaam
A non-Israelite prophet who was hired by Balak, the king of Moab, to curse the Israelites. Despite his intentions, Balaam ends up blessing Israel instead, as he is compelled by God’s command.

2. Balak
The king of Moab who fears the Israelites due to their numbers and their victories over neighboring nations. He seeks to weaken them through a curse.

3. Israelites
The people of God, journeying through the wilderness towards the Promised Land. They are the intended target of Balak's curse.

4. Moab
The region ruled by Balak, located east of the Dead Sea. It is a place of tension as the Israelites pass through on their way to Canaan.

5. God’s Command
The divine directive that Balaam receives, which overrides his own intentions and Balak’s desires. It emphasizes God’s sovereignty and the irrevocability of His blessings.

Teaching Points

God’s Sovereignty
God’s will is supreme and cannot be thwarted by human intentions. Balaam’s experience shows that even when people intend harm, God’s purposes prevail.

The Power of Blessing
When God blesses, it is irrevocable. Believers can trust in the security of God’s promises and blessings in their lives.

Faithfulness to God’s Word
Like Balaam, we must recognize the authority of God’s word and align our actions with His commands, even when it conflicts with human desires.

Protection of God’s People
God’s protection over His people is evident. Believers can find comfort in knowing that God watches over them and His plans for them are for good.

The Futility of Opposing God
Balak’s efforts to curse Israel highlight the futility of opposing God’s will. It serves as a reminder to align ourselves with God rather than against Him.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does Balaam’s experience in Numbers 23:20 demonstrate the sovereignty of God over human intentions?

2. In what ways can we see the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 reflected in this passage?

3. How can believers today find assurance in the unchangeable nature of God’s blessings, as seen in Numbers 23:20?

4. What are some modern-day situations where people might try to oppose God’s will, and how should Christians respond?

5. How does the account of Balaam and Balak encourage us to trust in God’s protection and provision in our own lives?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Genesis 12:3
God’s promise to Abraham that He will bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him. This foundational promise underlies the blessing Balaam pronounces over Israel.

Isaiah 55:11
The assurance that God’s word will not return void but will accomplish what He desires. This reflects the unchangeable nature of God’s blessing in Numbers 23:20.

Romans 11:29
Paul’s teaching that God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable, echoing the theme of God’s unchangeable blessing.

Sermons

Immutable Benedictions	W. F. Adeney, M. A.	Numbers 23:20
The Curses of Man Turned into Blessings by God	T. Dale, M. A.	Numbers 23:20
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

Behold, Bidden, Bless, Blessed, Blesseth, Blessing, Can'not, Can't, Change, Command, Commandment, Mission, Orders, Power, Received, Reverse, Revoke, Yea

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Numbers 23:18-26

1421 oracles

Numbers 23:19-20

8112 certainty

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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