The Unstoppable Scepter Text: Numbers 24:15-25
Introduction: God's Hostile Takeover
We live in an age that believes God's word is somehow constrained by the character of the vessel He chooses to speak through. If the prophet is flawed, we think, then the prophecy must be questionable. If the preacher has sin in his life, then the sermon is neutered. But the story of Balaam is a potent refutation of this entire mindset. Here we have a pagan sorcerer, a man for hire, a man the New Testament holds up as a poster child for covetousness and compromise. And yet, when the Spirit of God comes upon him, he cannot help but speak glorious, nation-shaping, Christ-exalting truth. God is not limited by our limitations. He is not stymied by our sin. He can make a donkey speak, and He can make a diviner declare the coming of the Messiah.
This is a profound encouragement, but it is also a stark warning. King Balak of Moab wanted to hire a spiritual mercenary to curse Israel. He thought he could manipulate the spiritual realm to achieve his political ends. He believed that if he just found the right ritual, the right location, the right incantation, he could thwart the purposes of the God of Israel. This is the pagan mindset, and it is alive and well today. Men still believe they can manage God, or failing that, manage without Him. They build their little kingdoms, their political platforms, their corporate empires, and they think they can keep God in His lane. But God does not have a lane. He has the whole highway. He owns the entire earth and everything in it.
What Balak gets for all his trouble is a front-row seat to a detailed prophecy of his own kingdom's destruction at the hands of the very people he wants to curse. He pays top dollar to have his own obituary read to him. This is the folly of fighting God. It is like punching the ocean. All you will accomplish is getting your arm wet and looking like a fool. Balaam, for his part, is a man caught in the gears of God's great machine. He wants the money, but he is terrified of the God who has commandeered his vocal cords. He is a true prophet in that the words are genuinely from God, but he is not a true man because his heart is not right with God. This passage is his final, unsolicited oracle, a sweeping prophecy that looks down the corridors of time to the coming of a king who will crush all opposition.
This is not just ancient history. This is a declaration of the terms of surrender for the whole world. A king is coming. A scepter has been raised. And every pot-shot kingdom of man, from Moab to Washington D.C., will either bow the knee or be broken to pieces.
The Text
Then he took up his discourse and said, “The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor, And the oracle of the man whose eye is uncovered, The oracle of him who hears the words of God, And knows the knowledge of the Most High, Who beholds the vision of the Almighty, Falling down, yet having his eyes opened. I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; A star shall come forth from Jacob, A scepter shall rise from Israel, And shall crush through the forehead of Moab, And tear down all the sons of Sheth. And Edom shall be a possession, Seir, its enemies, also will be a possession, While Israel performs valiantly. And one from Jacob shall have dominion, And will make the survivor perish from the city.” Then he looked at Amalek and took up his discourse and said, “Amalek was the first of the nations, But his end shall be destruction.” Then he looked at the Kenite and took up his discourse and said, “Your habitation is enduring, And your nest is set in the cliff. Nevertheless Kain will be consumed; How long will Asshur keep you captive?” Then he took up his discourse and said, “Woe, who can live except when God has ordained it? But ships shall come from the coast of Kittim, And they shall afflict Asshur and will afflict Eber; So they also will come to destruction.” Then Balaam arose and went and returned to his place, and Balak also went his way.
(Numbers 24:15-25 LSB)
The Prophet's Reluctant Clarity (vv. 15-16)
Balaam begins his final prophecy by establishing his credentials, not as a point of pride, but as a statement of fact concerning the source of his vision.
"The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor, And the oracle of the man whose eye is uncovered, The oracle of him who hears the words of God, And knows the knowledge of the Most High, Who beholds the vision of the Almighty, Falling down, yet having his eyes opened." (Numbers 24:15-16)
Balaam is a fascinating and tragic figure. He is a man who has a genuine prophetic gift, but a corrupt character. He "hears the words of God" and "knows the knowledge of the Most High," yet he is not a covenant member of God's people. He has sight, but no saving faith. He can see the future of Israel, but he has no part in it. This is a terrifying possibility. One can have a profound understanding of theology, see visions, and even be used by God as a mouthpiece, and still be an enemy of God. Judas Iscariot cast out demons in Jesus' name. The Lord Himself warns that on the last day, many will say, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?" and He will say to them, "I never knew you."
The phrase "falling down, yet having his eyes opened" describes the state of prophetic ecstasy. The power of the vision overwhelms him physically, but his spiritual eyes are wide open. God has seized him, and he is a captive audience to the divine revelation. He is not in control of this experience. This is not some pagan ritual he has initiated. This is a hostile takeover by the Holy Spirit. God is showing him what will happen "in the latter days" (v. 14), and Balaam is simply the conduit. This should humble us. All truth is God's truth, and sometimes He is pleased to speak it through the most unlikely of characters. But we should never mistake the gift for the man, or the message for the state of the messenger's soul.
The Star and the Scepter (vv. 17-19)
Here we come to the heart of the prophecy, one of the most remarkable Messianic predictions in the entire Old Testament.
"I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; A star shall come forth from Jacob, A scepter shall rise from Israel, And shall crush through the forehead of Moab, And tear down all the sons of Sheth. And Edom shall be a possession, Seir, its enemies, also will be a possession, While Israel performs valiantly. And one from Jacob shall have dominion, And will make the survivor perish from the city." (Numbers 24:17-19)
Balaam sees a person: "I see him." This is not an abstract force or a philosophical principle. It is a king. But this king is far off in the future: "but not now... but not near." This prophecy has a dual fulfillment, which is common in Scripture. The near fulfillment came some four hundred years later in the person of King David. David was the one who came from Jacob and Israel, and he did in fact subdue and crush Moab (2 Samuel 8:2) and Edom (2 Samuel 8:14). He was the scepter that rose from Israel and established dominion.
But David was only a type, a shadow of the greater King to come. The ultimate fulfillment is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the "star" from Jacob. It is highly likely that this very prophecy, preserved in the East, is what prompted the Magi to look for a star heralding the birth of the king of the Jews. They saw His star and came to worship Him (Matthew 2:2). The star is a symbol of glory, light, and divine authority. Jesus is the bright and morning star (Revelation 22:16).
He is also the "scepter" from Israel. A scepter is an emblem of royal power and rule. This speaks of Christ's absolute sovereignty. This is not a democratic rule; it is a monarchy. And it is a conquering monarchy. He will "crush through the forehead of Moab" and "tear down all the sons of Sheth." Moab and Edom here represent all the enemies of God's people throughout all ages. This is military language. The kingdom of Christ advances through conflict and conquest. It is a gospel-centered conquest, to be sure, but it is a conquest nonetheless. He rules in the midst of His enemies (Psalm 110:2), and His purpose is to put all enemies under His feet. This is the engine of postmillennialism. Christ has been given all authority, and He is currently, progressively, subduing His enemies through the power of the gospel proclaimed by His church. This prophecy guarantees the success of the Great Commission. The nations will become His possession, and Israel, the church of God, will perform valiantly.
Oracles Against the Nations (vv. 20-24)
Balaam then turns his Spirit-compelled gaze to the surrounding nations, one by one, and pronounces their doom.
"Then he looked at Amalek and took up his discourse and said, 'Amalek was the first of the nations, But his end shall be destruction.'... Then he looked at the Kenite... 'Nevertheless Kain will be consumed; How long will Asshur keep you captive?'... 'But ships shall come from the coast of Kittim, And they shall afflict Asshur and will afflict Eber; So they also will come to destruction.'" (Numbers 24:20-24)
This section is a rapid-fire series of judgments. Amalek, the first nation to attack Israel after the Exodus, will be the first to be utterly destroyed. This is a fixed principle: those who set themselves against God's covenant people are signing their own death warrant. The Kenites, who had shown kindness to Israel, are warned of their coming exile at the hands of Assyria (Asshur). Even the great empires of Assyria and Eber (representing the Semitic peoples) will be afflicted by ships from Kittim (often identified with Cyprus, and by extension, the sea powers of the West like Greece and Rome).
The overarching point is this: human history is a graveyard of empires that defied God. Nations rise and they fall, but the kingdom of God endures forever. God is the one who sets the boundaries of nations and determines the length of their reign. There is no security outside of covenant with Him. The Kenites had their nest "set in the cliff," a picture of natural security, but it could not save them from the judgment of God working through the movements of history. Our only security is in the Rock of Ages, not the rock of the cliff.
The Prophet's Departure (v. 25)
The scene concludes with an almost anticlimactic finality.
"Then Balaam arose and went and returned to his place, and Balak also went his way." (Numbers 24:25)
The business transaction is over. Balak did not get the curse he paid for, and Balaam, we learn elsewhere, did not get the honor he craved. They both went their separate ways, two men who had a direct encounter with the raw power of God's prophetic word and were left unchanged by it. Balak went back to his doomed kingdom, and Balaam went back to his scheming. We know from Numbers 31:16 that although he could not curse Israel with his words, he then gave Balak the wicked counsel to corrupt Israel through sexual immorality and idolatry, which led to the plague at Baal-Peor. For this, he was later killed by the Israelites (Numbers 31:8).
Balaam's story is a stark reminder that hearing God's word is not enough. Knowing theology is not enough. Being caught up in a spiritual experience is not enough. The word must be mixed with faith. Balaam heard the word, he spoke the word, but he did not love the word or the God of the word. He loved the wages of unrighteousness. And so, he saw the Star from a distance, but was ultimately consumed by the darkness.
Conclusion: Whose Kingdom?
This prophecy, spoken through a compromised pagan, lays out the blueprint for the next several thousand years of world history. A King has come from Jacob. He has lived, died, risen, and ascended. He has been given a name that is above every name, and He has been handed the scepter of the universe. The conquest that Balaam foresaw is now underway.
Every day, the gospel pushes back the frontiers of darkness. Every time a sinner repents, a new outpost of the kingdom is established. Every time a Christian family raises their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, they are training soldiers for the King. The foreheads of Moab are being crushed, not with carnal weapons, but with the explosive power of the gospel of grace. The strongholds of Edom are being possessed for Christ.
The question for us is the same question that faced Balak, Balaam, and all the nations mentioned here. Will we stand with the Scepter, or will we be crushed by it? There is no neutral ground. You are either gathering with Christ, or you are scattering. You are either a citizen of His expanding kingdom, or you are a holdout in a doomed rebellion. The Star has risen. The light is shining. The victory is not in doubt. The only question is whether you will bow the knee willingly now, in the day of grace, or be forced to bow it on the day of judgment, when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.