Numbers 24:17

This verse is a prophecy spoken by a man named Balaam — a prophet-for-hire who lived outside of Israel. The king of Moab, a neighboring nation threatened by Israel's presence, paid Balaam to come and curse the Israelites. But every time Balaam opened his mouth, God turned the curses into blessings instead. Jacob and Israel in this verse both refer to the same people — Jacob was the great ancestor whose twelve sons became the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel. Balaam's prophecy speaks of a future ruler — a 'star' and a 'scepter,' both ancient symbols of royalty and divine authority — who would rise from Israel. Christians have long understood this as one of the earliest prophecies pointing to Jesus, and some scholars believe the Magi, the 'wise men from the East' who followed a star to find the infant Jesus, may have been guided by exactly this ancient prediction.

God, it amazes me that your plans move forward even through unlikely people and moments no one would have chosen. Thank you that your story is bigger than the people who resist it. Help me recognize the ways you are speaking and working in my life, even through things I did not see coming. Amen.

Imagine being hired to curse a people you do not belong to, and finding that every time you open your mouth, blessings pour out instead. That is Balaam's strange, almost absurd situation. He is not a hero of the faith. He is a contractor who took the wrong job. And yet, through him — through this resistant, reluctant outsider — God speaks one of the most remarkable predictions in all of Scripture. There is something quietly stunning about that. God's plans did not wait for a willing, qualified, card-carrying insider to deliver this message. They broke through an unlikely person in an unlikely moment for an unlikely audience. If you have ever felt too outside, too disqualified, too far from the center of the story for God to use you — Balaam might be the most strangely encouraging figure in the Old Testament. He did not even want to be there. His words still echoed for centuries. God has a habit of working through the people and moments nobody would have scripted.