Torah Balaq “Balak (Devastator, annihilator).”
B’midbar (Numbers) 22:2 – 25:9
Mikah (Micah) 5:6 – 6:8
Romans 11:25-32 and
I Corinthians 1:20-31
Life from death is pictured by a dead branch grafted into an olive tree. The olive tree is the only tree that can revive a branch that had been cut off, lying dead for up to three years! Paul told us not to be ignorant of the mystery of how it is that native and wild branches alike can be grafted into Israel.
The Gospel of the Graft
Before any of us received Yeshua in our hearts, we were all dead branches. It was in that state that we came alive in Him. Paul put it this way:
When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions. Colossians 2:13
The spirit of a man is dead when the heart is connected and controlled by the old Adam, the sinful nature of his flesh, and by its dead works. But when a soul hears and believes the Gospel and receives Yeshua in his heart, the Messiah resurrects and makes alive the spirit of a new man by His Holy Spirit. In this way, He grafts Himself into the spirit of man.
For those of us not of the House of Judah, but the house of Israel scattered throughout the world, wild branches are grafted into the olive tree of Israel (Romans 11:25). Through the Gospel message, we’ve come alive and are now abundantly fruitful!
YHWH by His Ruach Ha’Qodesh (the Holy Spirit) wants us to identify ourselves as His grafted-in people closely. We have a powerful identity as overcomers. It’s in our surname Yisra’el, which means – he will rule as El, God (Strongs), or God prevails (BDB). Our identity is in El, which means the Mighty Authority, the Strong Controller. Our God is the greatest power on earth. Who knows, no defeat. In Him, we have victory! In Him, we can overcome the enemy who comes to kill, steal and destroy.
The Identity Crisis of Balak and the Moabites
To destroy is in the name of our Torah portion’s arch enemy – Balak – which means ‘devastator, annihilator.’ Balak tried to employ the powerful words of a prophet to overcome and destroy the people of Israel. He knew the power of a gifted tongue.
Balak suffered from an inherent identity crisis. He was the king of Moab. The name Mo’av means ‘from her father,’ or it could be translated as a rhetorical question with an interrogative pronoun to be ‘what father?’ In other words, Lot’s oldest daughter may, from her shame, have given her son a derogatory name as in ‘what father? I don’t know what you’re talking about!’ Moabites were suffering from a generational curse of incest.
However, the good news is that YHWH would eventually redeem the descendants of Moab from their shameful, incestuous origin. Our Father in Heaven grafted them back into the lineage of the Messiah by joining the Moabitess Ruth with the redeemer kinsman – a Jew named Boaz. Ruth then became the great-grandmother of King David.
Praise Yah! The shame of any unrighteous origin and the identity crisis of any people is redeemed when grafted into the Messiah. In Him, we have a powerful identity!
The Identity Crisis of Balaam
The prophet Balaam also had an identity crisis. Whereas Yisra’el (Israel) is the name we identify with as the people of God, the name of the notorious character – Balaam – means ‘not or nothing of a people,’ or ‘without a people.’ Although he claimed YHWH as his Elohim and said he could only speak His words, Balaam did not identify with the people of Yisra’el. That’s nothing new to our world today. We still have prophets of God who do not identify with Israel and suffer from an identity crisis.
Balaam was a picture of a wild branch that eventually was utterly cut off from the olive tree. He was never grafted into the commonwealth of Israel; he never joined himself with Yah’s people. Eventually, he perished by the sword at the end of his life (see Joshua 13:22).
Because he had no loyalty or connection with Yisra’el as his people, Balaam was hired by Balak to curse and rage at them. In paleo-Hebrew, the word for ‘rage’ is ‘Zahm,’ which means in paleo-Hebrew – ‘to cut off the well-spring of reproductive waters’ (Num 23:7-8). Now here’s where the Hebrew shows us something awesome about how our Elohim reverses the curse and instead gives His beloved people a blessing. Look at how Balaam replies to Balak’s charge to curse them:
How shall I curse him whom Elohim has not cursed? And how shall I rage (Zahm– cut off the well-spring of reproductive waters) at him at whom YHWH has not raged? Numbers 23:8
The blessing of Ma Tovu is what the Ruach Ha’Qodesh brought forth to flow out of the mouth of Balaam in a total reversal of Zahm – to cut off the well-spring of reproductive waters. Ma Tovu is one of the most deeply profound and most commonly proclaimed blessings among Jewish and Messianic people throughout history…
Ma Tovu (How lovely) are your tents, O Ya’aqov (Jacob), your dwellings, O Yisra’el (Israel)! They are spread out like valleys, like gardens by a river, and YHWH has planted aloes as cedars beside the water.
He makes water flow from His buckets, and His seed shall be in many waters. Numbers 24:5-7a
This beautiful blessing releases the opposite of the defiant curse attempted by the enemy. Our adversary wants to cut off and destroy the Living Waters that produce fruitfulness in the people of Yisra’el. YHWH made the waters flow from His buckets.
Our Father in Heaven reproduces His Life through His Son – From the Headwaters! Yeshua is the Head of Living Waters! He is the One Who reproduces the Life of the Spirit of God through His people! Let the river of blessings flow again to Israel!
The Curse Reversed!
Is anyone out there defiantly cursing the people of Israel these days? Like me, you’ve been hearing many voices in the world raging at us lately. Especially since Roe v Wade was overturned, those voices are amping up!
Is anyone trying to cut us off from our Elohim and other believers by calling us a cult? How about in your personal life – anyone cursing you, trying to destroy or tear you down? Do you find yourself cursing or belittling yourself with your own words?
That’s something I’ve struggled with in my life – muttering word curses upon myself that cut off the flow of Living Waters from the Messiah. Convicted, I turn to the Headwaters, the Messiah through Whom all blessings flow! Like Living Waters, His Spirit washes away all polluting thoughts and feelings about myself or others that the devastator would try to hit me with. In Yeshua, curses are reversed, and blessings flow from the Headwaters!
Instead of expecting to be cursed, expect the curse to be reversed and the blessing of an abundant life like a well-watered garden to arise among His people! YHWH is awesome!
He turns around even what’s meant for evil to the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (see Genesis 50:20 and Rom 8:28).
Isn’t He good? He purposes to bless us, even when we deserve cursing for our sins. What grace He lavishes upon us!
How does the Messiah reproduce His Life and His very essence through His people?
We can see marvelous illustrations of our Messiah growing up and emanating in and through His people in the two trees of Ma Tovu – How Lovely! Those two trees I find fascinating – the aloe (agarwood) and the cedar.
The First Tree – Agarwood Planted by YHWH
“Like valleys that stretch out, Like gardens beside the river, Like aloes (ahaliym) planted by YHWH.” Numbers 24:6a
The tree ‘ahaliym’ is known to be the sign of aloe. The aloe in this prophetic verse is a fascinating tree commonly known today as agarwood, reputed to be the most expensive wood in the word. Agarwood has been used to make high-quality incense for centuries. The Chinese describe its smell as ‘a sweet, deep but balanced fragrance’ and use it in religious and festive celebrations, as do Arabian, Indian, and Japanese people. Agarwood is part of many traditional pharmacopeias; Chinese doctors still prescribe it for colds and digestion. The oil extracted from agarwood is used in Arabian countries as a perfume. It is also broadly used as incense ingredients for cultural offerings or spiritual prayers.
What makes the wood so valuable is when the tree infuses resin on a cut or a wound to heal itself. It then forms dark portions in a light-colored wood (see the photo on the left). The recovered parts reduce the aromatic incense wood, which is highly prized and the most valuable timber in the east (see the photo on the right).
How is it that the people of Yah, Israel, are like an aloe, an agarwood tree?
When the Body of Messiah, His people are cut, bruised, wounded, and persecuted, His anointing immediately infuses the infected area with a healing balm. From His suffering flows the sweet aroma of the Anointed One that emanates through His suffering people.
Aloes are like a rose that releases its peak fragrance when picked fresh and immediately crushed. That’s how the love of our Messiah flowed from His heart when He was broken and bruised for our healing, for the salvation of Israel, and when He suffered and died for us upon the cross in the prime of His life. The essential oil of the sweet Spirit of Elohim oozed out of Him. His incredible love emanated from His heart.
One of my all-time favorite worship songs says how the Messiah is like an aloe:
‘Above All’ chorus by Michael W Smith
‘Crucified laid behind a stone,
You lived to die, rejected and alone.
Like a Rose trampled on the ground,
You took the fall and thought of me –
Above All.’
The song still brings tears of joy streaming from my eyes, from His buckets.
Cedars Beside the Water
“Like valleys that stretch out, like gardens beside the river, like aloes planted by YHWH,” as cedars beside the water. Numbers 24:6a
Cedar is the second tree mentioned in the prophetic blessing of Ma Tovu. I’ve grown to love this tree.
Knowing from experience, Forest managers prize cedar trees growing by a river above all other trees for their health benefits to aquatic habitats. I’ve planted thousands of them myself in my career. Cedar trees grow tall, strong, old, and upright, providing shade and shelter for all life beneath and inside their hollow trunks.
Cedar wood is the most resistant to wind throw and decay of all forest trees; they stand upright and tall longer than all other trees. When a cedar tree does end up falling into a river, the logs provide the most desirable wood structure for long-term, productive fish habitat. It was my favorite species to build fish habitat structures with when working for the US Forest Service.
When planting cedar seedlings, we often placed nylon mesh tubing over the little trees because elk and deer will eat the new growth of young cedars. It’s like candy to them.
If you ever run out of toothpaste, pluck a cedar frond and chew on it for a while. It’s nature’s tooth and gum cleaner. The fragrant sap in the fronds fights tooth decay; its fragrance is a breath freshener. I pick and chew on them from my front yard. I love it!
How is Israel like the cedar by the waters? We are called Benai Yeshurun (Deut 32:15; 33:5,26), meaning children of the upright One, the Messiah. The Anointed One was resistant to decay and rose from the grave. The spirits of all who are grafted into Him will not see decay but rise up in the resurrection.
The aroma of Messiah repels demons by His Spirit, like the pleasant fragrance of cedarwood repels devouring insects in the forest and moths in a cedar chest.
Like cedars beside the river, Israel provides shelter and habitat for others to enjoy an abundant life, drinking in the mayim chayim, the living waters of the Ruach HaKodesh. As Benai Yeshurun, we have the uprightness and the longevity of eternal Life in Him.
Our Strong Defense
We have only one Defender from the curse and one source of blessing, Yeshua, our Messiah. For those who are grafted into His olive tree, the blessings flow in some ways in cycles or seasons.
Foresters know that a tree exposed to stormy weather makes it more wind firm and stronger by growing its grain in a tight spiral wrap around the trunk’s core.
As long as we wrap every fiber of our being around the Messiah Who lives within us, our roots clinging around the Rock of our Salvation, and our roots extending to the living waters of His Ruach flowing within, we will never cease to bear the fruit of the Spirit. We will be productive even when the heat of tribulation comes. Here’s a commandment in the Torah I love:
You shall walk after Yahweh, your God, fear Him, keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and cling to Him. Deuteronomy 13:4
Pray hard, hang tight, wrap your soul around Him, and cling to Yeshua the Messiah! May the fruit grow and the river flow. May abundant blessings flow in your life like water pouring out of buckets as our Messiah reverses the curse for you!
From the Headwaters,
BaShem Yeshua HaMashiyach,
In the Name of Yeshua the Messiah, the Anointed One
David Klug