A People Set Apart

From our vantage point in history, it is hard to believe that the creator of all things needed to make a name for Himself, but this is precisely what was needed at the time. During Pharoah’s first encounter with Moses he declared: “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go” (Exod. 5:2, emphasis added). Ten plagues later, Pharoah had changed his tune. His encounter with Israel’s God was so transformative that he requested Moses to “bless me also” (Exod. 12:32).

The song of Moses, sung after God rescued the Israelites by parting the waters, provides insight into how God was making a name for Himself in the region: “The peoples have heard, they tremble; anguish has gripped the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the chiefs of Edom were terrified; the leaders of Moab, trembling grips them; all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. Terror and dread fall upon them. By the greatness of Your arm they are motionless as stone; until Your people pass over, O Lord, until the people pass over whom You have purchased” (Exod. 15:14–16 emphasis added). The language chosen makes it clear that God’s mighty name was causing an emotional meltdown in the region. Rahab’s testimony to the spies in Jericho confirms this: “When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in anyone any longer because of you; for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath” (Josh. 2:11). 

Enter Balak and Balaam

It is against this backdrop of terror for the God of Israel that we meet King Balak and the soothsayer Balaam. They understood that it was not the Israelites’ military might that sustained and gave them victory, but the hand of their God. Their strategy for military conquest was thus to remove God’s hand from the Israelites. Balaam, who sourced his power from other spiritual sources, even acknowledged the superior power of Israel’s God.

The backdrop to Balak and Balaam’s plot was the dramatic emergence of God’s chosen nation, a transformation from downtrodden slaves into a unified people whose God commanded fear across the region. The prophet Jeremiah later noted that Israel’s deliverance from slavery proved that their God was a “living God” (Jer. 10:10), a redemption theme that remains central to both Jewish and Christian liturgy today. Yet Jeremiah declared that an even greater sign of God’s might would one day eclipse the Exodus: God gathering His people from every nation back to their Promised Land. The ultimate message remains unchanged: “Israel’s God is a living God.”

Balak and Balaam have their modern equivalents. Today, hostile nations and international bodies like the UN invest vast resources attempting to isolate and curse Israel. Similarly, theological entities like the World Council of Churches strive to pry God’s hand off the modern regathering of the Jewish people, denying His sovereign role in their return. Yet just as Balaam’s attempts to curse Israel ultimately failed against the living God of Israel, no modern power can undo the covenantal promise of the One who brings His people home.

The Real Israel versus the Virtual Israel

Each time Balaam prepared to curse Israel, he built altars, offered sacrifices and resorted to omens and sorcery. Interestingly, during the first two attempts, Balak carefully controlled what Balaam could see. On the first occasion, Balaam was positioned so that he only saw “a portion of the people” (Num. 22:41b). During the second, he was shown even less. He was brought to a vantage point where he could “only see the extreme end of them and will not see all of them” (Num. 23:13b).

The deviousness of Balak’s strategy became fully apparent on the third attempt. This time, Balaam abandoned his omens and were shown Israel’s entire encampment. Scripture records: “And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe; and the Spirit of God came upon him” (Num. 24:2).

Balak chose his strategy with care. He knew that as long as he withheld the full picture from Balaam, he could trick the man into cursing Israel. Today, we recognize this tactic as media manipulation, showing a selective slice of reality to shape a deceptive narrative.

Since Israel’s rebirth in 1948, her enemies have used this exact tactic: presenting a manipulated “Virtual Israel” to distort global perception and influence international policy. This virtual Israel is constructed with its own rewritten history, biased vocabulary and manipulated imagery. It weaponizes emotive labels like apartheid, genocide, occupation and ethnic cleansing, while seeking to erase the millennia-long Jewish connection to the land. Through campaigns like BDS, social media propaganda and the vilification of Christian Zionists, its ultimate goal is to isolate Israel as a pariah state.

The only antidote to virtual Israel is exposure to the real Israel. For this reason, anti-Israel activists work tirelessly to block authentic Israeli voices abroad and prevent people from seeing the land for themselves. Tragically, those who dare to step across the divide from virtual Israel to reality are often met with immediate ridicule, boycott and cancellation.

God’s Three Statements

Although modern adversaries continue to construct a false virtual Israel, this tactic is far from new. Its blueprint was drawn thousands of years ago on the plains of Moab. Yet just as Balak manipulated the vantage point to manufacture an illusion suited for a curse, God repeatedly intervened to shatter the deceit. Each time Balaam opened his mouth to curse, God overruled him and the opposite occurred. Let’s take a look at the three statements the soothsayer ended up making, and how that mirrors modern Israel’s situation today.

Statement 1: A People Set Apart

“For I see him from the top of the rocks, and I look at him from the hills; behold, a people that lives in isolation, and does not consider itself to be among the nations” (Num. 23:9). 

In Leviticus 18, God warned Israel not to copy the practices of Egypt behind them or the Canaanites before them, commanding: “You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes” (Lev. 18:4). Failure to do so would invoke God’s judgment, cause the land to vomit them out (Lev. 18:28). Eight hundred years later, Israel incurred God’s wrath by conforming to the surrounding nations (Ezek. 11:12), resulting in their exile from the land (Ezek. 11:16) 

Today, Israel remains uniquely set apart, singled out and judged by international bodies like the UN using double standards applied to no other country. While other nations resolve disputes through quiet diplomacy, the global scrutiny on Israel is loud, emotive and relentless.

Statement 2: An Unbreakable Covenant

“God is not a man, that He would lie, nor a son of man, that He would change His mind; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? Behold, I have received a command to bless; when He has blessed, then I cannot revoke it” (Num. 23:19–20).

This is the language of covenant, a sacred, binding promise initiated when Abraham obediently left everything familiar to go to the land God showed him (Gen. 12:1). God sealed this covenant unconditionally, passing between the sacrificial pieces as a flaming torch in the darkness (Gen. 15:17). God was making it clear to Balaam that His promise to bless Israel could never be revoked.

The Apostle Paul echoes this unshakeable truth regarding the Jewish people when he asks: “God has not rejected His people, has He? Far from it!” (Rom. 11:1) and “They did not stumble so as to fall, did they? Far from it!” (Rom. 11:11). Paul responded with an emphatic “Far from it!” because God’s character makes it impossible for Him to break an unconditional covenant. If God could change His mind concerning Israel, none of His other promises could be trusted. Consequently, Replacement Theology, Fulfillment Theology, or any claim that God is finished with Israel is a theological impossibility.

Statement 3: A Divine Destiny

When Balaam looked upon the whole of Israel, encamped around the Tabernacle, his eyes were opened and through the Spirit of God he declared: “The declaration of him who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down, yet having his eyes uncovered, how pleasant are your tents, Jacob, your dwelling places, Israel! Like valleys that stretch out, like gardens beside a river, like aloes planted by the LORD, like cedars beside the waters” (Num. 24:4–6).

From a purely human perspective, this was the same Israel that had grumbled for meat, rebelled against Moses’ leadership, built the golden calf at Sinai and shrank back in fear when the ten spies brought back a faithless report. However, as God looked upon their encampment, He saw life and life in abundance. God’s gaze bypassed their temporary frailties to behold their divine destiny and covenantal identity 

Seeing Israel Through God’s Eyes

This divine perspective remains essential today. What do you see when you look beyond the sensational headlines, political hostility and biased media coverage?

If you allow God to position your perspective, you will see a nation miraculously restored, uniquely set apart, and relentlessly pursued by His covenant blessings (Deut. 28:2). Modern propaganda attempts to trap the world in the deceptive snapshot of virtual Israel, but God calls His believers to look deeper and align their hearts with His eternal word.

Don’t settle for the distorted narrative created to isolate and curse. Come encounter the real Israel, God’s Israel. As you walk the land and stand with her people, you will find Bridges for Peace serving alongside this set-apart nation, affirming her calling, and bearing witness to the life the God of Israel continues to pour out upon His covenant people.