Numbers 24 is a fascinating and rich Scripture- perhaps the most deeply messianic text in the Pentateuch. We are told that Israel is “like gardens beside a river” and that “his seed shall be in many waters.” The poetic seams in the Pentateuch draw heavily on Genesis 1-11, and this is no exception. The reference to “gardens beside a river” is an allusion to Genesis 2-3, where the garden of Eden is planted so that a river divides in it and flows out to the world. The four rivers flowing from Mt. Eden mark the boundaries of the outlying lands, symbolizing the nations. Those lands have different resources than the land of Eden, and later in history, the kings of Israel (the land of Israel symbolizes the land of Eden) trade with other lands in order to gain resources to dedicate to the Temple. Revelation 21 has the resources described in Genesis 2 integrated into the temple-city of God. These other lands are the nations of the world, and that Balaam describes the “seed” of Israel being in “many waters” is a reference to the promise of Genesis 17: Abraham will be the “father of many nations.”

Next, Balaam moves from discussing corporate Israel to discussing its messianic king. The king has already been described in Genesis 49:8-12, where he is described in terms taken from Joseph’s dream so as to connect the story of Joseph with the story of the future messianic king. The king from the line of Judah is the same as the king here, as Numbers 24:9 describes him in terms taken directly from Genesis 49:9.The Masoretic text says that the king will be “higher than Agag” but every other ancient witness to the text of Numbers 24:7 says that “his king shall be higher than Gog.” That this is the correct reading is confirmed by Ezekiel 38:17 when God says that Gog is “he of whom I spoke in former days.” Numbers 24:14 says that the prophecy will come to pass “in the latter days.”

So who is Gog? There is a popular misconception that Gog is another nation besides Magog. In reality, Gog is the king of Magog. The closest parallel to “Gog” is found immediately preceding the narrative of Balak and Balaam, in Numbers 21:33, where we are told that “Og the king of Bashan” came out against Israel.According to Deuteronomy 3:11, “Og” was of the remnant of the Rephaim, who are giants related to the Nephilim. This is intimately woven together with the theme of the “seed of the Serpent” in Scripture, these giants being descended from the “sons of God” and “daughters of Man” (I do not think this refers to literal copulation but to ritual consecration and possession, but that’s a topic for another time), so that Og is a representative of the Dragon-Serpent. That this is the case is confirmed by the association of Bashan with the Serpent. Not only does Bashan, according to Michael Heiser, mean “Serpent”, but it is associated with Serpents with respect to the Tribe of Dan. Genesis 49:17 says that Dan shall be a “serpent by the way”, and Deuteronomy 33:22 expands on this by saying that Dan “leaps from Bashan.”

Why is Gog later described in Ezekiel as the “king of Magog”? I think it is because Magog is the second nation mentioned in Genesis 10, and Gog is also described as ruling over “Gomer” in Ezekiel 38-39, which is the first nation mentioned in Genesis 10. That these two nations are specifically mentioned is a sign that they are symbolically all nations which gather together under the rule of Satan. Revelation 20:7-10 therefore describes the Battle of Gog and Magog as a battle where Satan gathers all the nations in an attack on the city of God.

We can learn more about the messiah from this passage. Numbers 23 poetically describes Israel’s exodus from Egypt and subsequent victories. Numbers 24:8 takes this description and applies it personally to the king from the line of Judah. The king is a personal representative of the whole nation, and the messianic king sums up Israel’s story in Himself and brings it to completion in a new exodus. The king is thus like Moses- Pharaoh tried to destroy Israel three times, and his third attempt produced Moses, through whom God brought salvation to Israel. Balak likewise tried to curse Israel three times, the third attempt at a curse producing a prophecy of a king who would come out of Egypt. Moses himself is described as having “become king in Jeshurun” by the giving of the law in Deuteronomy 33:5, and Deuteronomy 30:1-14 describes the new exodus as a time when the hearts of the people will be circumcised so that they can do the Torah.

Moreover, Numbers 24:9 refers to both Genesis 27:9 and 12:3 (Blessed are those who bless you, cursed are those who curse you), applying it to the future king from the line of Judah. Genesis 3:15 begins the theme of “seed” by prophesying a seed from the Woman who will crush the head of the Serpent, and Genesis 12:3 picks up that theme, speaking of covenantal promises made with Abraham’s seed- the five blessings of Genesis 12:1-3 undo the five curses of Genesis 1-11. When Numbers 24 picks up this theme, it focuses Israel’s election onto a single royal seed from the line of Judah, in whom and through whom the promises are fulfilled. This is where Paul gets the idea he does in Galatians 3:16, when he identifies the singular Seed of Abraham as the Messiah. Paul is not making things up, but reading the Torah with close attention to its literary craftsmanship and design.

Numbers 24:15-24 gives more information about this king- and provides signs for the time of his coming. Balaam beholds the king in a vision, but says he is “not now” and “not near.” Calling him a “scepter” which rises out of Israel alludes to the “scepter” which “shall not depart from Judah” in Genesis 49:10. We are told that he shall “crush the forehead of Moab.” References to head crushing allude to the promise of the Seed who will crush the head of the Serpent in Genesis 3:15. Why Moab? I can think of two reasons. First, Balak is the king of Moab, and the king who tries to curse Israel is defeated by the seed from Israel. Second, Moab’s origin is described in Genesis 19:31-38 in the same terms that describe the curse of Canaan in Genesis 9:25. The curse of Canaan, in turn, is described in terms of the curse on the Serpent in Genesis 3:14- the Serpent and Canaan are the only two individuals directly cursed in Genesis, Cain being cursed through the ground. But why are we told that the king will “break down all the sons of Seth”? This is somewhat speculative, but my view is this. Both Moab and arguably Canaan were produced through sexual depravity, and the fall of the sons of Seth is described in Genesis 6:1-4, where, in my view, they gave their daughters to the wicked “sons of God” in order to produce “mighty men”- conquerors whom they believed would be capable of defending the Sethites from the mighty Cainite civilization described in Genesis 4:17-24. That the fathers gave away their daughters to these beings alludes to Adam’s failure to guard his bride from the Serpent and explains why the sons of God were able to take “as many as they chose.” The commandment of Leviticus 18:21 reminds us of this sin, commanding fathers to “not give any of your seed to offer them to Molech.”

This understanding of why Moab and Seth are mentioned together is congruent with two textual features: the allusion to the giant-king Og in 24:7 and the fact that Numbers 22-24 is immediately followed by Numbers 25, which describes how Israel “began to whore with the daughters of Moab” and “yoked himself to Baal of Peor.” There’s exactly the theme I was describing- marriage with demonic false gods. So the king’s crushing the head of Moab and breaking down the sons of Seth refers to his destruction of the Satanic serpent as well as all those who are allied with him.

Next, we are told that Israel will dispossess Edom and Mt. Seir. This prophecy is echoed in the tiny book of Obadiah, which structurally follows Amos 9:11-15, which itself alludes to Numbers 24. Amos 9:11-15 says that God will raise the “booth of David that is fallen.” This is a reference to the Davidic tabernacle, placed on Mt. Zion, which had a number of special features. Most importantly, it involved the unprecedented (both before and after, until the time of Christ) participation of Gentiles in Israel’s worship. Amos says that Israel will “possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name.” “Edom” is almost identical to “Adam” and there are a number of connections between the story of Esau, father of Edom, and the story of Adam. The story of Jacob and Esau retells the story of Cain and Abel with a happy ending- Esau seeks to kill Jacob, but in the end, he is converted. The reconciliation of a divided humanity. Throughout the Scriptures, Edom will represent fallen humanity which rejoices in violence against his brother- but the promise of conversion never lurks too far in the background. Israel’s possession of the “remnant of Edom” is interpreted in the Septuagint as the possession of the “remnant of humankind”, and James applies it to the conversion of Gentiles in Acts 15. Amos 9:14-15 alludes to the poetic seams of the Pentateuch, with Israel’s replanted “gardens” coming from Numbers 24:7 and the “planting” of Israel herself on the holy mountain coming from Exodus 15:17. The four long poems of the Pentateuch (Genesis 49, Exodus 15, Numbers 23-24, Deuteronomy 32-33) literarily echo one another, and that Amos alludes to both in a single passage indicates that the prophecy is based on the Torah as it is understood through its literary structure.

Amos, having prophesied the possession of the remnant of Edom, is immediately followed by Obadiah, which is a prophecy against Edom. In order to understand why a prophecy against Edom can be understood in the sense of both conversion and judgment, one most understand the typology of death in Scripture. Baptism is a death. The difference is that it is followed by resurrection. This is why Revelation 9:18, describing the killing of a “third of mankind” is actually about conversion- it echoes Zechariah 13-14, which refers to a third of the holy city being converted and transfigured. “Jesus” is simply the name “Joshua”, and Jesus is indeed the New Joshua. He devotes the entire world to complete destruction: but His people rise from the dead in glorified form. The prophecy against Edom, understood as a sign of divided humanity, has both blessing and cursing aspects. Consider what Obadiah says:

(Obadiah 1:15-17) For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head. For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations shall drink continually; they shall drink and swallow, and shall be as though they had never been. But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape, and it shall be holy, and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions.

All nations shall be brought to the holy mountain to drink the wine of judgment. But this is drawn from Isaiah 25:

(Isaiah 25:6-8) On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

God prepares a feast for all nations on His holy mountain. There are some who drink and are judged as a consequence- they drink the “wine of God’s wrath” (Revelation 14:10) whereas others drink and are transfigured by death and resurrection. The complete annihilation of Edom refers both to the conversion of a part of humanity and the destruction of the other part. Obadiah 1:18 calls the house of Jacob and the “house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble.” Let your light shine before the nations: God’s Spirit radiates through His people, blessing and warming the righteous but destroying the wicked. That the house of Joseph is mentioned specifically is fascinating, given his role in Genesis of feeding all the nations with Bread and Wine- there’s the feast prophesied by Obadiah.

Alluding to Numbers 24, we are told that “those of the Negeb shall possess Mt. Esau”, and the prophecy ends on this optimistic note:

(Obadiah 1:21) Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.

There is the “kingdom” referred to in Numbers 24:7. “Saviors” go up to Mt. Zion to rule Mt. Esau. In Isaiah 2:1-4, the Torah comes from Zion. The nations of the world ascend Mt. Zion in order to receive judicial wisdom so that they might rule their own peoples. That is why ascent to Mt. Zion is the means through which “Saviors” rule “Mt. Esau”, and that’s how the “kingdom shall be the Lord’s.

Back to the text of Numbers 24. Understanding that the dispossession of Mt. Esau refers to the spread of the kingdom of God to all the Earth, and the conversion of the nations, the next verse is illuminated. It says that "one from Jacob shall exercise dominion and destroy the survivors of cities.” That word for “dominion” was last used in Genesis 1:28, where God calls Adam to “subdue the earth” and “have dominion.” The king of Numbers 24 is the last Adam, the king who exercises dominion and completes Adam’s mission to subdue (the same word for conquer) all the nations of the Earth. Indeed, Obadiah refers to “survivors”, saying that there shall be “no survivor for the house of Esau.” Why? Because the nations shall be “called by my name” (Amos 9:12). They are given a new name- all are devoted to destruction by Jesus, but some rise from the dead with a new name. Fallen humanity does not survive as fallen humanity, but is transfigured into a new humanity.

Finally, we are given the timeframe for the coming of the king. Three events are described by Balaam, each of them coming at a time when Israel’s condition in covenant history is transfigured:

1. “Amalek was the first among the nations, but its end is utter destruction.” This occurs when King Saul invades and destroys the Amalekites, devoting most of them to complete destruction. It comes when the period of the judges comes to an end and Israel is transformed into a Kingdom.

2. The Kenites are taken away when “Asshur takes you away captive.” This refers to the rise of the Assyrian Empire and their policy of exiling the nations from their native lands in order to uproot the indigenous cultures and prevent the possibility of provincial rebellion. The rise of the Assyrian Empire comes when the Northern Kingdom is destroyed and Israel and Judah are transformed from kingdoms into a host of prophetic witnesses to the nations. No longer are the nations coming to Israel to learn, but Israelites like Jonah, Elijah, and Elisha are being sent out to the nations to witness, and the whole nation becomes a nation of witnesses at the exile of Judah and return, when God spreads them “abroad as the four winds of heaven.” (Zechariah 2:6). Ezekiel 8 says the Spirit of God left the Holy of Holies and dwelt with the exiles, and the windy Spirit of God makes God’s people windy- they are the four winds of heaven.

3. “Ships shall come from Kittim and shall afflict Asshur and Eber.” This is the most interesting, because the passage is quoted in Daniel 11:

(Daniel 11:30) For ships of Kittim shall come against him, and he shall be afraid and withdraw, and shall turn back and be enraged and take action against the holy covenant. He shall turn back and pay attention to those who forsake the holy covenant.

Kittim refers to the Roman people, and Daniel 11 narrates the history of the old covenant down from Darius’ day to the time of Christ. This passage refers to the Roman intervention against Antiochus Epiphanes, a descendant of Asshur, which also afflicts the wicked in Israel who allied with Antiochus and attempted to buy the priesthood- Jews are descendants of Eber, for which reason they are called Hebrews. This series of events marks the end of the Zadokite high priests and begins the last period of Israel’s history before the coming of the messianic high priest. Hence, when the narrative of Antiochus is completed in 11:35, Daniel calls the subsequent events at the “appointed time” those which await “the time of the end.”

Thus, Balaam, after saying that the rise of the scepter from Judah is “not near” gives three sequential historical events, each marking a crucial turn in Israel’s covenant history, so that when these events are completed, the coming of the messianic king is known to be “near.”

This is much, much longer than I initially meant it to be. But I wanted to show an important point: the Scriptures are about Jesus, but one can only fully appreciate the specificity of their picture when one pays attention to all of the details of the text. At first, things will seem randomly and haphazardly organized, with most of the text appearing opaque. But as one understands the network of typological and symbolic associations developed in Scripture itself, and as one understands the ways in which later Scriptures use earlier Scriptures, the picture begins to sharpen up. As it sharpens further, we behold the Lord Jesus Christ, whom Moses, the Prophets, and the Writings foretold. We must recognize two crucial points. First, the biblical use of earlier Scripture is not identical to “the New Testament use of the Old Testament”, as important as that is. Scripture from Genesis to Revelation is a cumulative echo of itself. The Old Testament uses the Old Testament. Second, the biblical Jesus is not limited to the New Testament. What I mean by that is that the whole of Scripture reveals Jesus, and because of this, if we only understand Jesus from the New Testament, we don’t have a complete picture. It is only when the Old and New Testaments are understood as mutually interlocking that one sees the entirety of the icon, with all of its beautiful and majestic detail.