The Folly of High Places: The Stubbornness of Cursing God Text: Numbers 23:27-30
Introduction: The Geography of Paganism
We live in an age that is both profoundly secular and deeply superstitious. Men who deny the existence of God in one breath will, in the next, refuse to walk under a ladder or will check their horoscope with a straight face. This is not a new phenomenon. The heart of fallen man is an idol factory, and when the true God is rejected, man does not believe in nothing; he will believe in anything. And at the root of all false religion, all paganism, is the fundamental assumption that God, or the gods, can be managed, manipulated, and domesticated.
The pagan mind believes the spiritual world is subject to the material world. It believes in sacred places, sacred times, and sacred rituals, not as responses to a sovereign God, but as techniques to control Him. If you just get the incantation right, the sacrifice right, the location right, you can get the gods to do your bidding. This is the essence of magic. It is an attempt to make the Creator subservient to the creature. It is an attempt to find the right lever in the created order to move the uncreated God.
This is the mindset we find on full display in our text today. We have Balak, the king of Moab, a man in a state of high panic. The Israelites are camped on his border, and he knows he cannot defeat them in a straight fight. So he resorts to spiritual warfare, but of a particularly pagan variety. He hires a prophet, Balaam, to do a job, to curse Israel. But the job is not going according to plan. Twice Balaam has opened his mouth, and twice a blessing has come out instead of a curse. But Balak is a man who thinks like a pagan. His conclusion is not that the God of Israel is sovereign and cannot be thwarted. No, his conclusion is that they have a technical problem. A location problem. They just haven't found the right spot yet.
This story is a glorious comedy of divine sovereignty. It is a demonstration of the utter futility of opposing God's declared purpose for His people. Balak's frantic search for a new vantage point from which to curse Israel is a perfect picture of the rebellion of man. It is persistent, it is religious, it is meticulous in its own way, and it is utterly, completely, and laughably futile. God is not subject to geography. His will is not determined by which mountain you are standing on.
The Text
Then Balak said to Balaam, “Please come, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will be right in the eyes of God that you curse them for me from there.”
So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor which overlooks the wasteland.
And Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.”
And Balak did just as Balaam had said and offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.
(Numbers 23:27-30 LSB)
The Definition of Insanity (v. 27)
We begin with Balak's third desperate attempt.
"Then Balak said to Balaam, 'Please come, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will be right in the eyes of God that you curse them for me from there.'" (Numbers 23:27)
Balak is the picture of what we might call theological insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. He has already tried this from the high places of Baal and from the top of Pisgah. Each time, God has turned the intended curse into a blessing. A reasonable man would conclude that the God of Israel has made up His mind. But Balak is not a reasonable man; he is a pagan king, and his entire worldview is built on the idea that the gods are fickle and can be swayed by a change of scenery or a more impressive ritual.
Notice his language: "perhaps it will be right in the eyes of God." On the surface, this sounds pious. It sounds like he is seeking God's will. But this is the sort of piety that is common among rebels. He is not asking what God's will is. He already knows what God's will is; God has made it abundantly clear. What Balak means is, "Perhaps from this new angle, God will see things my way. Perhaps if we show Him a different view of Israel, He will notice their flaws and agree with me that they ought to be cursed." He is treating the living God like a corrupt judge who might be persuaded by a better line of sight, a different argument, or a bigger bribe.
This is the heart of all false religion. It does not seek to submit to God's will but rather to bend God's will to its own. It uses the language of piety, "in the eyes of God," but the goal is entirely selfish, "that you curse them for me." The little word "me" is the center of his universe. This is not about what is right in God's eyes, but about what Balak wants. He is trying to co-opt God into his own political and military strategy. Men still do this today. They look for the church, the preacher, the doctrine, or the interpretation that will allow them to get what they want, all while maintaining a veneer of godliness.
A Room with a View (v. 28)
So, the search for the perfect cursing spot continues.
"So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor which overlooks the wasteland." (Numbers 23:28 LSB)
There is a dark irony in this choice of location. The top of Peor. This place, Baal-Peor, will very soon become the site of a great and terrible apostasy for Israel. It will be the place where the Israelite men are seduced by the Moabite women into idolatry and sexual immorality, leading to a devastating plague (Numbers 25). Balaam, though he could not curse Israel with his mouth, would later give Balak the wicked advice to corrupt them from within. So while Balak's attempt to curse Israel from this mountain fails, the mountain itself would become a curse to Israel through their own sin.
This teaches us a critical lesson. The only thing that can truly harm God's people is their own sin. No external curse, no demonic power, no pagan king on a mountaintop can overturn the blessing of God. The only thing that can bring us under judgment is our own rebellion against the God who has blessed us. Satan knows this. If he cannot curse us from the outside, he will seek to corrupt us from the inside. This is why the New Testament warns us so sternly against idolatry and immorality. The greatest danger to the church is not the angry world outside, but the compromising sin within.
Balak takes Balaam to a place that "overlooks the wasteland." The Hebrew is Yeshimon, which means desert or wilderness. Perhaps Balak thought that if God saw Israel in the context of the barren wilderness, He would see them as insignificant, a people of no account, and would therefore consent to their destruction. But he misunderstands the entire story of the Exodus. The wilderness is precisely the place where God has been displaying His covenant faithfulness, providing manna from heaven, water from a rock, and guidance by a pillar of fire. The wasteland did not testify to Israel's weakness, but to God's power to sustain them.
Ritual without Relationship (v. 29-30)
Having found the new spot, they prepare for the third round of religious ceremony.
"And Balaam said to Balak, 'Build seven altars for me here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.' And Balak did just as Balaam had said and offered up a bull and a ram on each altar." (Numbers 23:29-30 LSB)
Once again, we see the meticulous attention to liturgical detail. Seven altars, seven bulls, seven rams. The number seven in Scripture represents completeness or perfection. They are putting on a full-court press of pagan worship. They are sparing no expense. Balak is obedient to the letter of Balaam's instructions. If religious observance and lavish sacrifice were the measure of a man's relationship with God, Balak would be a saint.
But this is the dead shell of religion. It is form without substance, ritual without relationship, obedience without submission. Balak builds the altars and offers the sacrifices, but his heart is filled with hatred for God's people and rebellion against God's will. This is a perfect illustration of what the prophets would later condemn in Israel itself. "I hate, I despise your feast days... Though you offer Me burnt offerings... I will not accept them" (Amos 5:21-22). God does not want sacrifices from a heart that is set against Him. He desires obedience, not the mere motions of worship.
Balaam, for his part, is a fascinating and tragic figure. The New Testament identifies him as a greedy and unrighteous man, yet God is speaking through him. He knows the right liturgical forms, he knows the right language to use, but he is a prophet for hire. He is willing to go through the motions for a paycheck. This should be a sobering warning for us. It is possible to be deeply involved in the machinery of religion, to know all the right things to do and say, and yet to be utterly estranged from the living God. It is possible to have a prophetic gift and still have a corrupt heart.
The Unshakeable Blessing
This entire scene is a powerful demonstration of a central biblical truth: whom God has blessed, no one can curse. "He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it" (Numbers 23:20). Balak's frantic efforts are like a man throwing pebbles against a fortress. His geographical superstition is powerless against the God who created the geography.
And this brings us to the Gospel. In Jesus Christ, God has blessed His people with an irrevocable blessing. We have been "blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3). We have been chosen, adopted, redeemed, and sealed. Our standing with God is not based on our performance, our location, or the whims of a celestial being. It is based on the finished work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The enemy of our souls, like Balak, is relentless. He will try every angle, every high place, to accuse us and to bring a curse upon us. He will point to our sin, our weakness, our unworthiness. He will overlook the wasteland of our past and argue that we are fit only for destruction. He will try to use the very machinery of religion, works-righteousness, and legalism to bring us into bondage.
But the verdict has already been rendered. "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us" (Romans 8:33-34).
Our security does not depend on finding the right mountain. Our security is a person, Jesus Christ. He is our high place, our rock, and our fortress. Balak thought a different view might change God's mind. But God's mind was made up from before the foundation of the world. He has chosen a people for Himself, and He will not be dissuaded. No matter what vantage point the accuser takes, when God looks at His people, He sees them clothed in the righteousness of His Son. And He cannot curse what He has already blessed for Christ's sake. Therefore, let us not fear the curses of the world, but rest in the unshakeable, unchangeable, and geographically-independent blessing of our sovereign God.