never more liable to be circumvented by the toils, or overcome by the arms of Satan, than when we are reposing in all the conscious superiority of a hardly-achieved triumph.

18. And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more.

19. Now therefore, I pray you, tarry ye also here this night, that I may know what the Lord will say unto me

more.

Alas! for Balaam, that a reply commenced so wisely, should terminate so wickedly and so foolishly! What the Lord should say unto him more! Why what could the Almighty say more? Had He not distinctly declared, " Thou shalt not go with them," and is God" a man that He should lie, or the son of man that He should repent?" No, Balaam vainly hoped that God would say something less, and bring that within the bounds of possibility, upon which Balaam had set his heart so strongly, and which the Almighty had already forbidden so decidedly.

20. And God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do.

66

Here the worldly-minded prophet had his desire, as Solomon says, "The fool is answered, according to his folly." The Almighty gives him a conditional permission, and observe distinctly, that it was only conditional, “ If the men come to call thee." It is quite certain that the men did not come to call him, or he would of course have pleaded that in extenuation, when the Lord afterwards so strongly chode with him for going. Nevertheless he went, and as might have been expected, his disobedience was his ruin.

21. And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab.

22. And God's anger was kindled because he went : and the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him.

23. And the ass saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.

24. But the angel of the Lord stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side.

25. And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall: and he smote her again.

26. And the angel of the Lord went further, and

stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left.

27. And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff.

The wisdom of the ass was evidently greater than that of his Master; doubtless because the Lord had opened his eyes, as He afterwards did his mouth. Where the Almighty is pleased to open the eyes or the mouth, it little matters what the natural and original powers are; "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou perfected praise." Perhaps the whole incident was chiefly intended to teach the apostate prophet, that man, when left to himself, is as blind as the lowest animal, and that all our senses are so completely in the hands of the Most High, that Balaam, who was now going expressly to curse Israel, should have no power whatever to do so, but should simply be an instrument in the hands of the Almighty of blessing them altogether.

The very fact, which is here so distinctly stated, " And God's anger was kindled because he went," we think proves that the interpretation which we have given, of the conditional nature of the Almighty's permission to Balaam, is the true one; for had God offered an unconditional

permission to the prophet, it is out of the question to suppose, that the anger of the Almighty would have been kindled against Balaam because he went.

EXPOSITION XXXI.

NUMBERS Xxii. 28-41.

28. And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?

29. And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.

30. And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay.

31. Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face.

32. And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me :

33. And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive.

The whole of this narrative is so evidently miraculous, that we have only to believe the fact as it is literally stated by the historian. To the humble reader of God's word, this will never be a difficulty, since He who created all things could as easily create a voice out of the mouth of an ass, as out of the mouth of a man. It was enough, that the Almighty, for wise and merciful purposes, willed that Balaam should be thus "rebuked for his iniquity;" and at once in the language of the apostle," The dumb ass, speaking with man's voice, forbad the madness of the prophet." *

34. And Balaam said unto the angel of the Lord: I have sinned; for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me: now therefore, if it displease thee, I will get me back again.

55. And the angel of the Lord said unto Balaam, Go with the men: but only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak. So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.

It appears probable, from the language of the angel, that this was the uncreated angel," the

* 2 Peter ii. 16.