Entry Eighteen, The Story of Balaam

ENTRY EIGHTEEN – FEBRUARY 11, 2008

18 – The Story of Balaam Numbers 22-25

The story of Balaam and his donkey is one of the most humorous accounts in the bible! You can quite accurately say that God used the incident to show Balaam what a jackass he was; in fact, perhaps this is the origin of the insult! This reading is just for one day, and hits topics like GREED, ARGUING WITH GOD, SEXUAL IMMORALITY, AND THE WAY THAT GOD HONOURS THOSE WHO HATE SIN THE WAY HE DOES.

 

Numbers 22 The nation of Moab was terrified because there were so many Israelites. The bible actually says that they were “filled with dread”.  Isn't it weird that when God's people grow numerically, it freaks people out? Anyway, the bad guy of the story, Balak, got his top officials to hire Balaam, apparently an effective sorcerer who also knew about Jehovah, to put a curse on the Israelites so that Moab could defeat them and drive them out of the country. Before accepting the job with its tempting pay package, Balaam decided to consult the true God tosee what He would say about it. Interesting! Balaam told them that he would give them an answer the next morning. In his line of work, Balaam would have been called upon to place curses on others. Belief in curses and blessings was common in Old Testament times. Sorcerers were thought to have power with the gods. Thus, the king of Moab wanted Balaam to use his powers with the God of Israel to place a curse on Israel-hoping that, by magic, God would turn against his people. Neither Balaam nor Balak had any idea whom they were dealing with!

 

God did give ananswer to Balaam – he told him not to go with them! God said, “You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed." God's command was clear - Don't Go! And the next morning, Balaam told King Balak’s officials that Jehovah God had refused to let him go with them. Of course, Balak wasn’t the kind of guy that took NO for an answer, so he sent more distinguished ambassadors, and offered a greater reward. They carried the following message,  "This is what Balak son of Zippor says: Do not let anything keep you from coming to me, 17 because I will reward you handsomely and do whatever you say. Come and put a curse on these people for me."

 

Isn't this just like what the world/Satan does to us now????  When we say "NO", the devil comes back with a bigger and better offer! Remember, he did it to Jesus in the wilderness! (The New American Standard version of Luke 4:13 reads “Then Satan left him for a more opportune time.”)

 

Now, Balaam gave them the right answer. He told them that he wasn’t able to do anything against the command of Jehovah no matter how much wealth King Balak might promise him. But then he did something dangerous – he told them to stay back while he consulted with God one more time.

 

Have you ever said, "No" but your heart was hoping, "Yes"? Balaam sounded good in the first verse, but then he went back to them, hoping that God would change his mind! (“God, I can donate some of the $ to the church!” “Maybe he will become a Christian.”)

And since God is a God who believes in free will, he let Balaam go, with a caveat that Balaam obey him on the way. So Balaam happily got up in the morning and accompanied the princes of Moab back to their king. God doesn't force us against our will, but he does make sure that we reap the consequences!

 

God let Balaam go with Balak's messengers, but he was angry about Balaam's greedy attitude and sent an angel to block the way. Balaam claimed that he would not go against God just for money, but his resolve had slipped. His greed for the wealth offered by the king blinded him so that he could not see how God was trying to stop him. We must be careful of the same kind of temptations…though we may know what God wants us to do, we can become blinded by the desire for money, possessions, or prestige. We can avoid Balaam's mistake by looking past the allure of fame or fortune to the long-range benefits of following God.

 

25 When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam's foot against it. So he beat her again. 26 Then the angel of the LORD moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left. 27 When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat her with his staff. 28 Then the LORD opened the donkey's mouth, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?" 29 Balaam answered the donkey, "You have made a fool of me! If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now." 30 The donkey said to Balaam, "Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?" "No," he said.

 

This is such a memorable story that over a thousand years later, Peter used it as an illustration to not love money!! (II Peter 2:15 “They have wandered off the right road and followed the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong. 16 But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice.”)

 

You gotta hand it to God – he does really have a great sense of humour! And what better way to illustrate how we let sin make a “jackass” out of us! No matter which iniquities ensnare us: a) Procrastinating out of laziness b) Being addicted to food, alcohol, smoking, etc c) Having affairs/ committing adultery d) Blowing up in anger e) Gossiping f) “white lies”... the list is endless. All of these sins eventually make us out to be fools!

 

31 Then the LORD opened Balaam's eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown. 32 The angel of the LORD asked him, "Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. 33 The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If she had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared her." 34 Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, "I have sinned. I did not realize you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now if you are displeased, I will go back."

 

 

It's hard not to be humble when you've just been rebuked by a donkey and an angel with a sword is talking to you. HOWEVER, what about when it's "just" a friend? I find it harder to be humble with my husband!? Isn't that the pits? Why is that? Or why is it so hard to hear it from another person?

 

 

Numbers 23 The rest of the story shows us how God can pull off a Plan B. He had not wanted Balaam to go, but when Balaam got greedy, God activated Plan B. That means he will allow us to mess up but still provide a way out. In this case, Balaam was righteous for a while, though it seems that he quickly fell back into his idolatrous and immoral ways, because in chapter 25 he is killed with the others who are turning Israel astray. But more on that later. For the time being, Balaam can be a good example of showing repentance.

 

By the way, isn't verse 19 comforting? Christianity isn't an "Anthropomorphic" religion. (Meaning, that Jehovah God doesn’t have the emotions and character weaknesses of humans, as do the so-called gods in the ancient Greek tradition, for example.)

 

Numbers 24 Balaam surely saw the error of his ways when King Balak reneged on his offer just because he didn’t like the outcome of Balaam’s prophecies. And Balaam had warned him! This is a lesson for us when dealing with the world – we shouldn’t think that they will like it when we stand up for God to their disadvantage, especially financially. This reminds me of the story that a friend of mine told me. When she was became a Christian, she stopped lying about her mileage claims, which caused the whole system to come under scrutiny because the boss wandered why her miles were so much less than others when she had the largest sales area! She wasn’t very popular among her colleagues after that!  So after all that, Balaam didn't get any money anyway, but at least pleased God! Balaam wasn't exactly a convert, but he was preaching the word & standing up for God here. Too bad he didn't continue with this, cause he led the Israelites astray in chapter 25.

 

Numbers 25 This combination of sexual sin and idolatry, it turns out, was Balaam's idea  (Nu 31:16  "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the LORD in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the LORD's people.” See also Rev 2:14) – the same Balaam who had just blessed Israel and who appeared to be on their side. It is easy to see how the Israelites were misled, for Balaam seemed to say and do all the right things—at least for a while (22-24). Not until Balaam had inflicted great damage on them did the Israelites realize that he was greedy, used sorcery, and was deeply involved in pagan religious practices. We must be careful to weigh both the words and the deeds of those who claim to offer spiritual help.

 

How did feel about this? He was really mad! This was an absolute rebellion towards God & his laws!

 

 

Num 25:6 Then an Israelite man brought to his family a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israelwhile they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

 

This is almost hard to believe. It sounds like modern -day disregard for morals (remnants of Sodom & Gomorrah).

 

7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand 8 and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear through both of them—through the Israelite and into the woman's body.

 

This is disgustingly graphic but it really paints the scene & makes the point well. It's also an EXCELLENT example of righteous indignation. When was the last time you felt indignant, not about how someone treated YOU, but about how someone treated God? Or about your own sin?

 

Of course, in Christianity, Jesus taught us new ways to be close to God, to repent, and to deal with members of the church who refuse to repent of blatant repeated sin, but the principle of hating sin is the same, whether under the Old or New Covenant. Jesus himself taught us to hate sin when he told us that it would be better to enter heaven with only one eye than to go to hell because of our sin.

 

Sometimes we know our sin will hurt us but we don’t care. We say, “well, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else, what does it matter?” In this situation, however, one man’s sin led to others sinning as well, and eventually 24,000 were killed by God in a plague. Sin scars and doesn’t leave anyone in its wake unscathed. We must remember that our sin hurts not only ourselves but also our families and even the whole church!

 

Phinehas received a great compliment from God: "for he was as zealous as I am for my honor among them"! May God see my zeal for his honour & my hatred of sin today! (Of course, must love the sin-ner, but that's a different study!)

 

Numbers 25:16-18 The LORD said to Moses, 17 “Treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them, 18 because they treated you as enemies when they deceived you in the affair of Peor and their sister Cozbi, the daughter of a Midianite leader, the woman who was killed when the plague came as a result of Peor.”

 

When God singles out a whole nation to die, you know thatit is serious.  See more notes below.

 

karenlouis@seachurches.org