“Nevertheless the LORD thy God would not hearken unto Balaam; but the LORD thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the LORD thy God loved thee.” (De 23:5 AV)
What is astounding about this account is Israel never knew of this until much later. Balaam, a gentile prophet, was hired by Balak, the king of Moab to curse Israel. Balak heard of all God did for Israel from Egypt to Jericho and was terrified of what they would do to Moab. Balak asked Balaam to offer offerings unto God so that God might change His mind regarding Israel. Rather than merely declining, Balaam did just the opposite. When Balaam ascended to the altar, instead of cursing Israel, he prophetically blessed them. The motive is stated above. God turned a curse into a blessing because of love. That we understand as much as it is done. We may not understand the depth of love or love itself. How a holy God could love creatures such as we are we cannot understand. But we do understand it is so. That which occurred to me this morning is God turned the curses of Balaam into a blessing when they were not even aware of it. One has to wonder how many times the enemy intended to cause us harm and God turned it into a blessing without us even realizing it. It has to be more than we could ever fathom.
It is hard to see what one does not know. It is hard to realize an actuality that never came to be. It is even harder to notice when one is further removed from this actuality that perceiving it would be near to impossible. Have you ever played in the water? I am thinking of playing in the yard with a hose and some army men. No? You don’t know what you are missing. We had these fold-out forts that came with little plastic cowboys and Indians. The young lad playing with them would set up the fort, and place the watch towers, ramparts, and all sorts of little things that went with the fort. The idea was to build a battle scene where the Indians lay siege to the fort and the cowboys behind the fort would defend it. Over time, we replace the cowboys and Indians with little plastic army men. We would play with it outside. Our backyard was mostly dirt. So, we used gardening tools and dug little trenches for water to run by. Then, as little boys are, we tried to wipe out the town with a large flood. So, we would fill our little wading pool with water and bend down the side of it towards the fort to see if we could wipe it out. It was a bit hard to do. The trenches we dug and the arid nature of our backyard diverted or soaked up the water. It was rare we could wash away this little plastic town of faithful soldiers, cowboys, and Indians. Playing often like this turned our backyard into a grassy patch. What we meant for evil, nature turned in for good. And the little plastic village was none the wiser.
I am certain there is more of this than meets the eye. Well has the prophet said, “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.” (Isa 64:4 AV) This is one of many truths we must accept without any obvious evidence. The children of Israel never knew Balaam went to curse them. They never knew there were altars built against them. They never knew a covetous prophet was close to honoring a gentile king set on ridding the planet of the Jewish race. They never knew how close they were to extinction. All they knew was God provided for them despite Moab’s adversity. All they knew was life went on as it always had. All they knew and enjoyed was the day-to-day blessings of God with no view of what God just did for them. This is our life whether we can see it or not. God has turned so much cursing into a blessing it is beyond our ability to account for it all. Praise God that He is so good.
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