“How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel! “Like valleys they spread out, like gardens beside a river, like aloes planted by the Lord, like cedars beside the waters." Numbers 24:5-6

Numbers 24 gives an account of an interesting encounter between King Balak and Prophet Balaam. The Israelites are traveling along the desert towards Canan their promised land and on the way they have overcome mighty warriors like Og king of Bashan, Sihon king of the Amorites and the like. When Balak king of Moab heard about it, he gets afraid and calls for Prophet Balaam to put a curse on the Israelites.

Three times he sets up alters just as Balaam suggests but every single time when Balaam opens up his mouth he only blessed the Israelites instead of cursing them because God did not allow him to curse.

Today's verse is part of his blessings over Israel at Balak's third attempt to curse them. They are blessed inspite of Balaam's order to curse them. This is so true for us who are part of the faith walk marching towards our promised land - Life Eternal in heaven.

We as born again believers are the spiritual Israelites and so these blessings hold true for us too. We will be abundantly blessed like gardens beside a river, like aloes planted by the Lord, like cedars beside the waters. Let's say amen and claim that today!

P.S: If you have some time today and are looking for an intersting read, I suggest you go back and read Numbers 22 thru 25 to get the full detail of this Balaam/Balak interaction.

Happy Friday folks!