The foregoing line of truth is most forcibly illustrated in Balaam’s four parables. To speak after the manner of men, we never should have had such a glorious view of Israel as seen in “the vision of the Almighty”—“from the top of the rocks”—by one “having his eyes open,” had not Balak sought to curse them. Jehovah, blessed be His name, can very speedily open a man’s eyes to the true state of the case, in reference to the standing of His people and His judgment respecting them. He claims the privilege of setting forth _His_ thoughts about them. Balak and Balaam, with “all the princes of Moab,” may assemble to hear Israel cursed and defied; they may “build seven altars,” and “offer a bullock and a lamb on every altar;” Balak’s silver and gold may glitter under the covetous gaze of the false prophet; but not all the powers of earth and hell—men and devils combined, in their dark and terrible array, can evoke a single breath of curse or accusation against the Israel of God. As well might the enemy have sought to point out a flaw in that fair creation which God had pronounced “very good,” as to fasten an accusation upon the redeemed of the Lord. Oh, no; they shine in all the comeliness which He has put upon them, and all that is needed in order to see them thus, is to mount to “the top of the rocks”—to have “the eyes open” to look at them from His point of view, so that we may see them in “the vision of the Almighty.” Having thus taken a general survey of the contents of these remarkable chapters, we shall briefly glance at each of the four parables in particular. We shall find a distinct point in each—a distinct feature in the character and condition of the people as seen in “the vision of the Almighty.” In the first of Balaam’s wonderful parables, we have the marked separation of God’s people from all the nations most distinctly set forth. “How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied? 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. Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.”[19]