Numbers 23 is a very structured chapter of the Bible. It consists in three instances of Balac prompting Balaam to curse the people of Israel. Each time Balaam is given a divine instruction to not curse Israel, but to bless them instead. This of course frustrates Balac, who is bent on ridding his land of Moab of these newcomers, the Israelites. Balac's behavior is very illustrative of human stubbornness. He will not listen to the proclamations uttered by God (through Balaam) and continues to obstinately try to get Israel cursed. He wants to hear only what he wants to hear. If Balaam had returned to issue a curse instead of a blessing, Balac would have been overjoyed. How often is it the case with us, that we will only listen to God when He is telling us things we want to hear. And when He has things to say that we don't necessarily want to hear, we often ignore Him, or modify His message so that it is more in line to what we wanted in the first place. Such a thing is not how we are to abandon our will and adopt God's. Your will, God, but not mine.
One other interesting thing about this chapter is its reference to a strange creature whose identity translators to this day are not sure of. In Numbers 23:22, Balaam prophecies that, "God hath brought [Israel] out of Egypt, whose strength is like to the rhinoceros." The Hebrew word for what is translated as "rhinoceros" is ream. Apparently some translators think ream is the unicorn, while there is a theory that it is actually the Arabian oryx. It apparently signifies a beast with a horn, though I think of those possible creatures, the rhinoceros fits best, as it is notably the largest and strongest of these real and fictitious animals. It's fascinating to wonder what creature Moses had in mind when he originally wrote this verse. One has to think of the animals that were known in that region at that time. And if ream does signify the unicorn, perhaps that legendary creature's myth goes back farther than we thought.
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