Numbers 24:1

Now, in order that He might be shown to have together in Himself at once the nature of God and that of man,-as the apostle, too, says: "Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Now a mediator is not of one man, but two," -it was therefore necessary that Christ, in becoming the Mediator between God and men, should receive from both an earnest of some kind, that He might appear as the Mediator between two distinct persons.

But what follows? "And Balaam," it says, "seeing that it was good in the sight of the Lord to bless Israel, did not go according to his custom to meet the omens, but turned his face to the wilderness. And Balaam, lifting up his eyes, beheld Israel encamped by tribes; and the Spirit of God came upon him. And taking up his parable he said." It might perhaps be asked from what source Balaam saw that it was good in the sight of the Lord to bless Israel, and one will suppose that he understood it from the sacrifices which he had offered. For when he saw that no demon was present, that no contrary power dared to stand by his victims, that all the ministers of wickedness whom he was accustomed to employ for cursing had been shut out, he could from these things have understood that it was good in the sight of the Lord to bless Israel. Yet I understand rather this: that that people, which is now empty, and those teachers, who not believing in Christ hold the people fast in emptiness, will one day see — that is, in the last days when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and all Israel begins to come to faith in Christ. Those, I say, who now having eyes do not see, will then see. For they will lift up their eyes to loftier and spiritual meanings, and they will see and understand that it is good in the sight of the Lord to bless the spiritual Israel. For they will see him arranged by tribes and by houses and by families, and each one in his own order attaining the glory of the resurrection, and taking up their parable they will understand the things that are written in parables, which now, because of the veil that is placed over their heart, they neither see nor understand. Finally, "he did not go," it says, "according to his custom to meet the omens"; for he will not, according to his accustomed manner, be carried away by foolish and empty notions in considering the will of God in dumb animals and cattle, like those who gather auguries from such things, but he too will recognize that God has no care for oxen, and likewise none for sheep or for birds or for other animals, but that if anything about these has been written, he will understand it to have been written for the sake of human beings.