Numbers 24:1-7 - The Spirit of God came upon him

24:1-4

Verse 1 demonstrates the mixture within Balaam. He clearly used omens (presumably a form of divination) at various times, but realised there was no point doing that in this situation. Instead he set his face towards the wilderness. He did this in order to see the Israelites. The Spirit of God came upon him. Verses 3 and 4 seem to show that Balaam has a high opinion of himself. It could be that he is simply stressing that he is giving the word of God, but there does seem to be a lot of pride within him. Alternatively, if we take these words as coming directly from God (and not that this part is Balaam’s own words), then it is God declaring to Balak that Balaam is giving the word of God, not the result of some form of divination.

24:5-7

The blessing now starts. The picture here is looking forward to the time when they are settled in the Promised Land. These are God’s plans for Israel. The reference to Agag (24:7) could be a prediction of Saul defeating Agag (1 Sam 15:1-9). It is worth noting that one of the reasons so many scholars cannot believe that Isaiah 40 onwards was written by Isaiah is the mention of specific details about Babylon and its defeat by Cyrus (e.g. Is 45:1). Here it seems that we have another mention of a specific king well before the king reigned.