The story of Balaam is told in Numbers. Numbers is about the Israelites wandering around in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt and before their entrance to the Promised Land. Balak, the King of Moab, sees how Israel and its God defeated the Amorites, and he wants to do something in protection of his people. Balak attempts to hire Balaam, a non-Israelite sort of prophet or diviner, to curse the people of Israel. Though he is hired to curse Israel, when it comes down to it, he can only speak the words allowed by the Lord, which are words of blessing. This happens on three separate occasions, where Balaam looks down on the people of Israel with Balak expecting him to curse them, but all Balaam can speak are blessings upon God's people.
The book of Deuteronomy consists of sermons and words of encouragement from Moses to the Israelite people. He speaks these words to them as they are on the plains of Moab, on the verge of entering into the Promised Land. They are words that he wants them to especially remember as they enter into the next phase of their life as God's people.
In Deuteronomy 23:4-5, Moses reminds them of Balaam: "...[The Moabites] hired against you Balaam, the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. But the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loved you."
What a beautiful encapsulation of what God does through Christ in the Gospel! The Lord turns a curse into a blessing for us because he loves us.
Only two chapters earlier, in Deuteronomy 21:22-23, Moses says this: "And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance."
Israelites in Jesus' day, if they knew their Bible, would have been familiar with this verse. Hanging on a tree. That is an apt description of crucifixion, a practice not yet invented at the writing of Deuteronomy. A Bible-literate Israelite would have had trouble believing Jesus was King or Divine or the Son of God precisely because Deuteronomy would've told him that Jesus was also cursed. How could the Son of God be cursed of God?
The Son of God being cursed, taking our punishment in our place, is the way by which God turns our curse into a blessing out of his love for us. Jesus took our curse out of love; from his shed blood we find eternal blessing. Grace.
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