Numbers 24:15-19: in context

Balaam, the hired diviner brought to curse Israel, instead speaks a prophecy God puts in his mouth. Looking far into the future, he says: I see him, but not now; I see him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob, and a scepter will rise out of Israel. Even from the mouth of this reluctant, hired seer, God brings a promise of a coming king, a ruler from Israel, glimpsed from far off, long before he would come, a star and a scepter still distant but certain.

Two things are worth dwelling on in this prophecy. The first is what it foretells: a coming king, a star out of Jacob, a scepter out of Israel, a ruler God would raise up. The people of God would come to read this as a promise of the Messiah, the king who would come; and the magi who followed a star to Bethlehem stood in the long shadow of Balaam's words. God had purposed to send the promised ruler, and here, centuries before, he declared it. The second is how far off it was when spoken: I see him, but not now; I see him, but not near. The promise was given long before its fulfillment, a hope held across centuries, a star seen from very far away. And it came true. There is encouragement here about God's promises and his faithfulness across time. This promise was spoken far in advance, not now, not near, and generation after generation held it, waited for it, before it was fulfilled in Christ. God keeps his promises, but often across long stretches of time, so that those who first receive them see them only from afar, and long years pass before they come to be. Yet come to be they do; the star out of Jacob rose at last. And there is a further encouragement: that God brought this promise even through Balaam, a reluctant, hired diviner who had come to curse. God's purposes are not thwarted by unlikely or even unwilling instruments; he can bring his word through the most improbable mouth, and no one can prevent it. This steadies us in our own waiting on God's promises. Some of what God has promised we may see only from afar, not now, not near, held in hope across time before it comes. But the God who declared the star out of Jacob centuries before it rose is faithful to keep his word in his time. The promise glimpsed from far off is certain, though distant; and the God who fulfilled Balaam's prophecy in Christ will fulfill all he has promised, in his time, however far off it seems.

When God's promises seem far off, not now, not near, held only in hope across long waiting, do I doubt they will come, or can I take encouragement from the star out of Jacob, glimpsed through Balaam centuries before it rose and fulfilled at last in Christ, that God keeps his promises across time and that what he has declared, however distant it seems, is certain to come in his appointed hour?