16 February | EVERYONE
“How lovely are your tents, O Jacob! Your dwellings, O Israel! Like valleys that stretch out, like gardens by the riverside, like aloes planted by the Lord, like cedars beside the waters.” Numbers 24: 5,6
On the rugged path goes the treacherous prophet, the man who was once a divine instrument. Now dominated by greed, he walks taciturn, not knowing what he will say. It is Balaam, riding on a donkey and tired of living; for life far from God is only toil and anguish of the soul.
Balak, the Moabite king, knew that the Lord was always leading Israel. If he used weapons, he would lose. So, fearing God's people, he hired Balaam to curse Israel. If the divine curse were to fall upon the people, victory would be assured.
Troubled, Balaam walks. His conscience cries out loudly, but he follows the path of poor souls sold to the greed of the flesh. A herd of skinny goats graze on a hillside, reduced by the inclemency of the desert. Balaam does not pay much attention to them. He plans in his thoughts what he will say when the moment for which he was hired arrives. How to curse what God has blessed? But the human heart is mysterious. It sells values and principles for a handful of coins. It sells the future and commodifies the soul. Not even a donkey speaking
moves him. His heart is hardened as flint.
When the time comes, he opens his mouth. But instead of cursing, he says a blessing like the one that is in contrast to his initial purpose. Balaam pronounced, "How lovely are your tents, Jacob...!" These are words that, even today, involve promises of divine blessings for God's children.
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You too can fully enjoy these promises if you let the Lord guide your stePsalm In this way, you will walk the path so that the dreams that He has for you will be fulfilled in your life.