Numbers 23 - 24, Romans 7, Psalms 100 - 101

Yahweh Speaks Through Balaam

23Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” ²So Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered up a bull and a ram on each altar. ³Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went to a bare hill.

⁴Now God met Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have set up the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.” ⁵Then Yahweh ^aput a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and you shall speak thus.” ⁶So he returned to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, he and all the leaders of Moab. ⁷Then he took up his ¹discourse and said, “From ^aAram Balak has brought me,Moab’s king from the mountains of the East,‘^bCome curse Jacob for me,And come, denounce Israel!’

⁸“^aHow shall I curse whom God has not cursed?And how can I denounce whom Yahweh has not denounced?⁹“For I see him from the top of the rocks,And I look at him from the hills;^aBehold, a people who dwells alone,And will not be reckoned among the nations.¹⁰“^aWho can number the dust of Jacob,Or count the fourth part of Israel?^bLet ¹me die the death of the upright,^cAnd let my end be like his!”

¹¹Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? ^aI took you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have blessed them repeatedly!” ¹²And he replied, “Must I not be careful to speak ^awhat Yahweh puts in my mouth?”

Balaam’s Discourse

¹³Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from where you may see them, but you will only see the end of them and will not see all of them; and curse them for me from there.” ¹⁴So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. ¹⁵And he said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering while I myself meet Yahweh over there.” ¹⁶Then Yahweh met Balaam and ^aput a word in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” ¹⁷So he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the leaders of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has Yahweh spoken?” ¹⁸Then he took up his ¹discourse and said, “Arise, O Balak, and hear;Give ear to me, O son of Zippor!

¹⁹“^aGod is not a man, that He should lie,Nor a son of man, that He should repent;^bHas He said, and will He not do it?Or has He spoken, and will He not establish it?²⁰“Behold, I have received a command to bless;^aWhen He has blessed, then ^bI cannot revoke it.²¹“^aHe has not observed ¹misfortune in Jacob;^bNor has He seen trouble in Israel;^cYahweh his God is with him,^dAnd the shout of a king is among them.²²“^aGod brings them out of Egypt,He is for them like the ^bhorns of the wild ox.²³“^aFor there is no omen against Jacob,Nor is there any divination against Israel;At the proper time it shall be said to JacobAnd to Israel, what God has done!²⁴“^aBehold, a people rises like a lioness,And as a lion it lifts itself;It will not lie down until it devours the prey,And drinks the blood of the slain.”

²⁵Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all nor bless them at all!” ²⁶But Balaam replied to Balak, “Did I not tell you, saying, ‘^aWhatever Yahweh speaks, that I must do’?”

²⁷Then 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.” ²⁸So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor which overlooks the ¹wasteland. ²⁹And Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” ³⁰And Balak did just as Balaam had said and offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.

Spirit of God Comes upon Balaam

24And Balaam saw that it was good in the eyes of Yahweh to bless Israel, so he did not go as at other times to ¹encounter ^aomens, but he set his face toward the ^bwilderness. ²And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel dwelling tribe by tribe; and ^athe Spirit of God came upon him. ³Then he took up his ¹discourse and said, “^aThe oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,And the oracle of the man whose eye is uncovered;

⁴The oracle of him who ^ahears the ¹words of God,Who beholds the ^bvision of ²the Almighty,Falling down, yet having his eyes opened,⁵How fair are your tents, O Jacob,Your dwellings, O Israel!⁶“Like ¹valleys that stretch out,Like gardens beside the river,Like ^aaloes planted by Yahweh,Like ^bcedars beside the waters.⁷“Water will flow from his buckets,And his seed will be by many waters,And his king shall be lifted up higher than ^aAgag,^bAnd his kingdom shall be exalted.⁸“^aGod brings him out of Egypt,He is for him like the horns of the wild ox.^bHe will devour the nations who are his adversaries,And will gnaw their bones in pieces,And ¹shatter them with his ^carrows.⁹“^aHe ¹crouches, he lies down as a lion,And as a ²lion, who ³dares rouse him?^bBlessed is everyone who blesses you,And cursed is everyone who curses you.”

¹⁰Then Balak’s anger burned against Balaam, and he struck his ¹hands together; and Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have blessed them repeatedly these three times! ¹¹“So now, ¹flee to your place. I said I would honor you greatly, but behold, Yahweh has held you back from honor.” ¹²And Balaam said to Balak, “^aDid I not tell your messengers whom you had sent to me, saying, ¹³‘Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything to trespass the ¹command of Yahweh, either good or bad, ^aof my own ²accord. ^bWhat Yahweh speaks, that I will speak’? ¹⁴“So now, behold, ^aI am going to my people; come, and I will advise you what this people will do to your people in the last days.”

Oracle of Balaam

¹⁵Then he took up his discourse and said, “^aThe oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,And the oracle of the man whose eye is uncovered,

¹⁶The oracle of him who hears the ¹words of God,And knows the knowledge of the ²Most High,Who beholds the vision of the ³Almighty,Falling down, yet having his eyes opened.¹⁷“I see him, but not now;I behold him, but not near;A star shall come forth from Jacob,^aA scepter shall rise from Israel,^bAnd shall crush through the ¹forehead of Moab,And ²tear down all the sons of ³Sheth.¹⁸“^aAnd Edom shall be a possession,^bSeir, its enemies, also will be a possession,While Israel performs valiantly.¹⁹“And one from Jacob shall have dominion,And will make the survivor perish from the city.”

²⁰Then he looked at Amalek and took up his discourse and said, “Amalek was the first of the nations,^aBut his end shall be ¹destruction.”

²¹Then he looked at the ^aKenite and took up his discourse and said, “Your habitation is enduring,And your nest is set in the cliff.

²²“Nevertheless Kain will be consumed;How long will ^aAsshur ¹keep you captive?”

²³Then he took up his discourse and said, “Woe, who can live except when God has ordained it?

²⁴“But ships shall come from the coast of ^aKittim,And they shall afflict Asshur and will afflict ^bEber;^cSo they also will come to destruction.”

²⁵Then Balaam arose and went and returned to ^ahis place, and Balak also went his way.

Released from the Law

7Or do you not know, ^abrothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is master over a person as long as he lives? ²For ^athe married woman has been bound by law to her ¹husband while he is living, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law ²concerning the husband. ³So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.

⁴So, my brothers, you also were ^amade to die ^bto the Law ^cthrough the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵For while we were ^ain the flesh, the sinful passions, which were ^baroused by the Law, were at work ^cin our members to bear fruit for death. ⁶But now we have been ^areleased from the Law, having ^bdied to that by which we were constrained, so that we serve in ^cnewness of ¹^,^dthe Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

⁷^aWhat shall we say then? Is the Law sin? ^bMay it never be! Rather, ^cI would not have come to know sin except ¹through the Law. For I would not have known about ²coveting if the Law had not said, “^dYou shall not ³covet.” ⁸But sin, ^ataking opportunity ^bthrough the commandment, worked out in me ¹coveting of every kind. For ^capart ²from the Law sin is dead. ⁹Now I was once alive apart ¹from the Law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died; ¹⁰and this commandment, which was ¹^,^ato lead to life, was found ²to lead to death for me. ¹¹For sin, ^ataking an opportunity ^bthrough the commandment, ^cdeceived me and through it killed me. ¹²^aSo, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

The Conflict of Two Natures

¹³Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? ^aMay it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by working out my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would ¹become utterly sinful.

¹⁴For we know that the Law is ^aspiritual, but I am ^bfleshly, ^chaving been sold ¹^,^dinto bondage under sin. ¹⁵For what I am working out, ^aI do not understand; for I am not practicing ^bwhat I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. ¹⁶But if I do the very thing I do not want, I agree with ^athe Law, that it is good. ¹⁷So now, ^ano longer am I the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me. ¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my ^aflesh; for the willing is present in me, but the working out of the good is not. ¹⁹For ^athe good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. ²⁰But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, ^aI am no longer the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me.

²¹I find then ^athe ¹principle that in me evil is present—in me who wants to do good. ²²For I joyfully concur with the law of God ¹in ^athe inner man, ²³but I see ^aa different law in my members, waging war against the ^blaw of my mind and making me a captive ¹to ^cthe law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from ¹^,^athe body of this ^bdeath? ²⁵¹^,^aThanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh ^bthe law of sin.

Serve Yahweh with Gladness

100

A Psalm of ¹Thanksgiving.

^aMake a loud shout to Yahweh, all the earth.²^aServe Yahweh with gladness;^bCome before Him with joyful songs.³Know that ^aYahweh, He is God;It is He who has ^bmade us, and ¹not we ourselves;We are ^cHis people and the sheep of His pasture.⁴Enter His gates ^awith ¹thanksgivingAnd His courts with praise.Give thanks to Him, ^bbless His name.⁵For ^aYahweh is good;^bHis lovingkindness endures foreverAnd His ^cfaithfulness, generation unto generation.

Consider the Way of the Blameless

101

Of David. A Psalm.

I will ^asing of lovingkindness and ¹justice,To You, O Yahweh, I will sing praises.²I will ¹^,^aconsider the way of the blameless.When will You come to me?I will walk within my house in the ²^,^bintegrity of my heart.³I will set no ^avile thing before my eyes;I hate the ¹work of those who ^bfall away;It shall not cling to me.⁴A ^acrooked heart shall depart from me;I will know no evil.⁵Whoever secretly ^aslanders his neighbor, him I will ¹destroy;Whoever has a ^bhaughty look and an arrogant heart, I will not endure.⁶My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may abide with me;He who walks in the ^away of the blameless is the one who will minister to me.⁷He who ^apractices deceit shall not dwell within my house;He who speaks lies ^bshall not be established before my eyes.⁸^aEvery morning I will ¹^,^bdestroy all the wicked of the land,To ^ccut off from the ^dcity of Yahweh all the workers of iniquity.