Page images
PDF
EPUB

thou hast blessed them altogether." No wonder that Balak was surprised and vexed at Balaam doing exactly the contrary to what he wished.

MAMMA. The answer of Balaam which you are going to read ought to have roused Balak to a sense of his own sin and folly.

CHARLES. "And he answered and said, Must not I take heed to speak that which the Lord hath put in my mouth ?"

MAMMA. This was perfectly consonant with what Balaam had told Balak from the first.

CHARLES. "And Balak said unto him, Come, I pray thee, with me unto another place, from whence thou mayest see them: thou shalt see but the utmost part of them, and shalt not see them all: and curse me them from thence." What could be the

use, Mamma, of Balak and Balaam moving to another place?

MAMMA. Dr. Jortin* tells us that "It was the opinion of the Gentiles, that if one victim proved faulty, or portended evil, another victim might have a more propitious aspect and be accepted. Balaam seems here to have complied with some superstitious notions of this kind; and, to gratify Balak and his own ambitious views, he repeated the same experiment of sacrificing at different places, a second time, and a third time, and still with the same disappointment. Bishop Patrick † thinks that Balak perhaps imagined Balaam might be frightened at the sight of the multitude of the Israelites, and for that

* Dr. Joseph Jortin, an eminent divine of the last century, distinguished for his religious writings and remarks on poetry.

† See Page 22.

motives that would actuate himself or his fellow mortals.

CHARLES. "Hath He said, and shall He not do it? Or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?"

MAMMA. The unchanging truth of the Almighty Ruler is frequently insisted on in the Holy Scriptures. Saint Paul addresses Titus," In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. Saint James speaks of " the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."†

[ocr errors]

CHARLES. "Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and He hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it." MAMMA. Bishop Kidder ‡ thus

* Titus 1. 2.

† St. James 1. 17.

Dr. Richard Kidder, Bishop of Bath and Wells, a man of much learning, in the 17th century. He was killed by a stack of chimnies falling on his bed in a violent storm of wind, 1703.

paraphrases this passage: "God will make good His promises, and particularly that of bringing this people into the promised land; for He is not like a man, who, for want of veracity or power, fails in the performance of his promise."

CHARLES. "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel."

Mamma, how could Balaam say that of the Israelites, who had so often provoked God with their rebellion and murmurs? In the chapter, we were last week talking about, containing the story of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, you know it was said that God was so very angry with them He would have destroyed them all if it had not been for the intercession of Moses and Aaron.

MAMMA. I am not surprised that

L

reason took him to a part of the mountain from whence he could not see them all.

CHARLES.

"And he brought him unto the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah"

MAMMA. Pisgah was a high mountain commanding an extensive view of all the parts of Canaan. In a subsequent period to that we are now considering, God bade Moses go up to the top of Pisgah, that he might from thence see the whole land of promise.

CHARLES.

"And built seven altars,

and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. And he said unto Balak, Stand here by thy burnt offering, while I meet the Lord yonder.

And

the Lord met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, Go again unto Balak, and say thus."

« PreviousContinue »