What is the meaning of Numbers 24:20? Then Balaam saw Amalek • Balaam, standing on the heights of Peor (Numbers 23:28), shifts his gaze from Israel’s camp to the nearby desert tribe of Amalek. • This “seeing” is more than noticing—God opens Balaam’s eyes, just as in Numbers 24:4 he is described as one who “sees a vision of the Almighty.” • The timing matters: Amalek had attacked Israel at Rephidim soon after the Exodus (Exodus 17:8-13). Balaam’s sight therefore recalls a long-standing hostility (Deuteronomy 25:17). and lifted up an oracle • Balaam “lifts up” prophetic speech, the same wording used in Numbers 24:3 for his Spirit-given oracle. • Though Balaam earlier sought reward from Balak (Numbers 24:11), God again overrules, proving Proverbs 21:1—“The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD.” • Each oracle in Numbers 23–24 climaxes God’s blessing of Israel and judgment of her foes (compare Numbers 23:23 with 24:17), so this oracle continues the pattern. saying • The spoken word carries divine authority. Isaiah 55:11 reminds us God’s word “will not return to Me empty.” • Balaam is compelled to utter exactly what God dictates (Numbers 22:38), underscoring the reliability of the prophecy. Amalek was first among the nations • “First” points to priority in aggression, not nobility. Amalek was the first to attack Israel after the Red Sea (Exodus 17:8-16). • Their ambush of the weary stragglers (Deuteronomy 25:18) exposed a heart set against God’s covenant people. • Being “first” also hints at prominence among desert clans (Genesis 36:12). Yet human prominence never guarantees divine favor (Psalm 20:7). but his end is destruction • God had sworn perpetual war with Amalek (Exodus 17:14-16). Balaam now seals that verdict. • Centuries later Saul is commanded to “utterly destroy” Amalek (1 Samuel 15:2-3). His partial obedience leads to his own downfall (1 Samuel 15:23). • Simeonite clans finish Amalekite remnants in Hezekiah’s day (1 Chronicles 4:42-43), and Haman—an Agagite descendant—meets poetic justice in Esther 7:10. • This arc confirms Galatians 6:7: “God is not mocked; whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” summary Balaam’s Spirit-guided gaze singles out Amalek, the first nation to raise its hand against God’s people. Declaring an oracle he cannot resist, Balaam contrasts Amalek’s early prominence with the certain doom God has decreed. The prophecy echoes across Scripture—from Rephidim’s battlefield to Saul’s throne room, from Simeon’s victory to Haman’s gallows—demonstrating that hostility toward God’s covenant purposes ends in ruin, while His word stands unbroken. |
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