It’s one of those repeated phrases that arrests the attention. But this one, I’m pretty sure, for the first time.

I’m in Numbers and reading of Barak’s frustrating attempt to get Balaam, a well-known practitioner of divination, to curse God’s people. When reading this familiar account in the past, my attention has been captured by the wonder of God’s unpredictable ways as, far from condemning this fortune teller for hire, He partners with him — speaking with him twice and then sending His Spirit to come upon him. What?!? And in that “wow-ness” of reading this passage, I think I’ve tended to overlook the words given by God to be spoken by Balaam over Israel. And, like I said, it’s the repetition of some of those words, declared in two of his oracles over Israel, that I’m chewing on this morning.

Behold, I received a command to bless:
       [God] has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.
He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob,
       nor has He seen trouble in Israel.
The LORD their God is with them,
       and the shout of a king is among them.
God brings them out of Egypt
       and is for them like the horns of the wild ox.

(Numbers 23:20-22 ESV)

Water shall flow from [Israel’s] buckets,
       and his seed shall be in many waters;
his king shall be higher than Agag,
       and his kingdom shall be exalted.
God brings him out of Egypt
       and is for him like the horns of the wild ox . . .

(Numbers 24:7-8a ESV)

Okay, some “full disclosure” . . . This is the only place you’re going to find this phrase in the OT and, it seems, it’s not a gimme to translate. The exact meaning of the word translated “wild ox” is not known — the old King James translated it “unicorn.” The horn on the head connection has others speculating it refers to an ancient, now extinct animal akin to a rhinoceros. Bottom line, think big, think fast, think powerful!

And who is “like the horns of the wild ox”? God the deliverer? Israel the delivered? You’ll find both. But, given that I’m reading the ESV, I’m going with the sense of what those translators thinks it conveys. So, I’m in awe this morning of the God who brings them out of Egypt and is for them like the horns of the wild ox. The same God who brought me out of slavery, bondage, and death. The same God who is for me.

First, what I notice is the grace in Numbers 23 where God tells Balaam to tell Balak (and all who have ears to hear), “He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has He seen trouble in Israel.” Come on! God has “no bone to pick with Jacob, he sees nothing wrong with Israel” (MSG)? Has God not been reading Numbers? Is He not aware of why these guys are doing laps in the desert? O’, what grace! Yeah, they have been a rebellious people, but they are still God’s people. Thus, there’s a veil cast upon them where He counts them unconditionally as His own and commits to them unconditionally because of a promise.

And so, He brings them out of Egypt. The sense there is that He is bringing them out of Egypt. Yeah, they are wandering in the wilderness, but the tabernacle is still with them, the glory of God is still among them, the cloud and the pillar of fire still over them. And so, God’s going to bring them to the land He promised He’d bring them to. Because God is for them like the horns of the wild ox.

God is for His people. What God freed from Egypt He’s going to deliver to Canaan. What God started He’s going to finish. And if God is for them like the horns of the wild ox, then who can be against them? Sound familiar (Philippians 1:6, Romans 8:31).

True for them? True for us! God is for His people, His church, the Redeemed! And He is bringing us out of Egypt and into a land of promise. As Calvin puts it, He is our “perpetual guardian.”

And He is bringing us out with a power beyond description, a power for which words are inadequate. A power sourced in Him, a power given to us (Col. 1:11). Such that, it is not a matter of if we will cross the Jordan into that land flowing with milk and honey, but only a matter of when. And all because God is for them like the horns of the wild ox.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

(Romans 8:31 ESV)

For us always by His abundant, overflowing grace.

For us always that He might receive everlasting, all-deserving glory.

Amen?