85. The People Dwell Alone
Numbers 23:9 For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.
The Lord promises that we, His people, will dwell alone. Although this sounds like a strange promise and not a pleasant one, it really is a peculiar blessing. The Jews were a peculiar people with strange customs and an odd religion; their religion and their way of life were not in conformity with the world. They looked different, they acted different, their god was invisible, and they lived alone and unique in the world; they were not counted as a regular nation among the nations.
But in a deeper and a more important and an eternal way the same is true for the Christians, the NT believers in Christ. The promise is for us also: we are alone in the world. We do not conform to the world’s ways. We do not look and act and talk and think the way the world does. Now in actual, real life, day to day living Christians don’t always appear alone and different than their worldly neighbors, but God sees a peculiar, unique, strange, odd, and different looking people than humans see. We are called out of the world and we are alone and separated from the world. Christians truly are different, even though we don’t always act like it. The “world” clings tightly to all of us, but down deep in the heart we are holy, separated unto the Lord, not reckoned among the heathen.
It was Balaam who spoke this promise over the people of Israel. He was hired by King Balak of Moab to come and curse Israel on the plains of Moab, but he could only speak the words God gave him. And God gave him words of blessing instead of cursing. “Dwelling alone” is a curse if it means being separated from God, but it is a blessing if it means being separated from the world and all sin and evil. This is the meaning of God’s words through Balaam. It is a blessed promise to be different. We are alone, separated, and we are not afraid to act like it. The promise affects behavior. We are not conformed to the world, but transformed by renewal.