The Protection of Holiness

He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.
Numbers 23:21 KJV

This statement from Balaam is very loaded. There’s an implication that if sin, iniquity, or perverseness was found among the people, then there would have been an open door for a curse to prosper. Sin is an immoral act which transgresses Gods law. It is missing the mark of God’s expectation. This is how one scholar describes it: ” it can refer to doing something against God or against a person (Exodus 10:16), doing the opposite of what is right (Galatians 5:17), doing something that will have negative results (Proverbs 24:33–34), and failing to do something you know is right (James 4:17) ”. Iniquity is a premeditated inclination towards sin. It is when sin is habituated as a cultural practice. It is continuing in a sinful behaviour for a long time without repentance. Perverseness is ” deliberate and stubborn unruliness and resistance to guidance or discipline ”. A perverse person commits sin for fun. The three concepts all lead to a downward progression and separation from Gods cover in a Christian life. Balaam described the protection of a person under Gods cover. Its not until chapter twenty five of numbers that we are given insight into an evil inspired advice by Balaam on how to break the protection by sending in beautiful girls into Israel’s camp to seduce the men. Sin is an open edge. Holiness is a closed edge. It stops the arrows if the enemy. Now you have a choice. What do you want?