Evening — October 27 — Numbers 22:6

So please come now and put a curse on this people, because they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I may be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land; for I know that those you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed.” — Numbers 22:6Balaam's testimony against his own greedy heart—'those you bless are blessed'—puts God's sovereign blessing on display. Nobody earns or bargains for it; God blesses whom he chooses to bless, and his blessing sticks. And where do we see that blessing most clearly? In the beatitudes, where Christ pronounces blessing on the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek—people who've stopped trying to earn anything. The truly blessed are those who hear God's word and keep it, and who are written into the lamb's book of life. It's all of grace, from start to finish.