Study Desk

It will be so that you may remember to obey all My Laws, and be holy to your God.

I am the Lord your God Who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God."

Is it not enough for you that the God of Israel has set you apart from the rest of the people of Israel? He has brought you near to Himself. He has you do the work around the meeting tent of the Lord. And He has you stand in front of the people to care for them.

But they fell on their faces, and said, "O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will You be angry with all the people?"

They spoke against God and Moses, saying, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? For there is no food and no water. And we hate this bad food."

Then God came to Balaam and said, "Who are these men with you?"

Balaam said to God, "Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent word to me, saying,

God said to Balaam, "Do not go with them. Do not curse the people, for I have decided that good would come to them."

Balaam answered and said to Balak's men, "Balak could give me his house full of silver and gold. But I could not do anything, small or big, against the Word of the Lord my God.

God came to Balaam at night and said to him, "If the men have come to call you, get up and go with them. But do only what I tell you."

But God was angry because he was going. The angel of the Lord stood in the way against him. Balaam was sitting on his donkey, and his two servants were with him.

Balaam said to Balak, "See, I have come to you! Am I able to speak anything at all? The Word that God puts in my mouth is what I must speak."

God met Balaam. Balaam said to Him, "I have made seven altars. And I have given a bull and a ram on each altar in worship."

How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I say that those should be punished whom God has not said should be punished?

God is not a man, that He should lie. He is not a son of man, that He should be sorry for what He has said. Has He said, and will He not do it? Has He spoken, and will He not keep His Word?

No hard times are seen in Jacob. No trouble is seen in Israel. The Lord their God is with them. And the cry of a king is among them.

God brings them out of Egypt. He is for them like the horns of the wild bull.

For there is no special thing that has been shown against Jacob. Nothing has told of a bad future for Israel. Now it will be said of Jacob and Israel, ‘Look what God has done!'

Then Balak said to Balaam, "I beg you, come. I will take you to another place. It might be that God will be pleased to have you curse them for me from there."

Balaam looked up and saw Israel living in their tents by their families. And the Spirit of God came upon him.