The Life and Failures of a "True" Prophet - The Story of Balaam

 

 In one of my last articles, I mentioned Balaam, whose story in the Bible has some interesting twists and turns in it. It can be difficult to discern what the story is trying to tell us as we read it, as it seems that Balaam obeys God but gets reprimanded by Him, and then is told to continue what he was doing when he got reprimanded, and then comes the end of the story, which I suspect most people are unaware of because we find the ending chapters of Balaam's story in other books of the Bible; I don't want to ruin the ending here. I'm going to try to make sense of Balaam's story for you here today.

We are first introduced to Balaam the son of Beor in Numbers 22, where Balak, the king of Moab has seen what the travelling people of Israel have done to the Amorites and to Og of Bashan. Balak had reason to fear, because not only were the Amorites a large and long lasting people group long rooted in their country, but Og of Bashan, was a giant whose bed was made of iron and was nine cubits long, or about 13 1/2 feet! (Deut. 3:11) Og was the last of the Rephaites, an ancient line of the giants that are first mentioned in Genesis 6, and are confirmed in the Book of Enoch, and he was a foretaste of the giants that the Israelites would face when they would later enter the land of Canaan. Though Og was the last in his line, we can likely assume that the people that he ruled were potentially also of a greater than average size. So, out of fear, Balak calls on Balaam to come to him in order to curse the Israelites, because Balaam has a reputation that "he whom you [Balaam] bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed." (v.6)

At this point we don't actually know why it is that Balaam's curses and blessings carry weight. Given as the Israelites are travelling across what is largely pagan lands, there is every possibility that Balaam is some kind of witch doctor or diviner. In fact, we even read in verse seven that king Balak sends a diviner's fee. We only get a clearer picture of the reason for his effectiveness when the envoys from Balak arrive at Balaam's door and make their request known to him, and we receive this insight because of Balaam's answer to the men at his door. Balaam invites them to spend the night at his house so that he can ask God what to do, saying "I will bring word back to you as the Lord may speak to me." So not only does Balaam show us that he seeks to do the Lord's will, but he is willing to take his time to seek what God's will is.

So through the course of the night, Balaam does speak with God and receives his instruction from Him; "Do not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.” (v.12) And we see Balaam's obedience in the next verse; "So Balaam arose in the morning and said to Balak’s leaders, “Go back to your land, for the Lord has refused to let me go with you." This is a pretty good start to Balaam's story. It looks like he is a man that we can look up to and admire for his relationship with God, his willingness to seek guidance from God and his willingness to obey God. Unfortunately, this is not where his story ends. He is about to show his true nature.

Balak is not so easily dissuaded by Balaam's initial refusal. He sends more numerous and more prominent men to go back to Balaam, to offer him honour and potentially riches in order to persuade Balaam to come to him to curse the Israelites. Upon first reading this story, it seems that Balaam does the right thing again in that he again asks the men to stay for the night as he asks of God what he is supposed to do, but I think that this is actually where he begins to stumble. We know how God answered Balaam at his first inquiry; "God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed." If it were not for the last few words of that instruction, we may be able to give Balaam the benefit of the doubt and assume that he was just checking with God to see if His instructions has changed, but God has already told Balaam that the people of Israel are blessed by God, so for Balaam to even consider going to Balak in order to curse them is in defiance of God's will. The very fact that Balaam goes to God again with the same request indicates that Balaam had a desire for the acknowledgement and potential riches that the king of Moab was offering to him. It was not enough that God had given Balaam a name of prominence due to the words that he said coming true through his blessings and curses in the past. Apparently Balaam sought more recognition from mere men.

God knows our hearts and he knows our motivations. He saw what Balaam was after, so He already recognized that He had lost the heart of this prophet, so this time God tells Balaam, "If the men have come to call you, rise up and go with them; but only the word which I speak to you shall you do." I think it is important to study the words that God uses here. He gives Balaam permission to go to the king, but only on two conditions. 

The first condition was that the men had to have come to call on Balaam, not that Balaam had invited their return. This does make me wonder if Balaam's first answer to the king of Moab was not quite as firm as what our translation makes it sound. Balaam may have left some wiggle room in his answer to the first messengers, which Balak could have caught onto, realizing that Balaam just needed a little more persuasion. The Bible does not tell us this much; this is purely speculation. But if this is the case, then Balaam's fall began even as he sent the first messengers away. This could have actually been a test for Balaam. He knew how he had responded to the first messengers. If he had intentionally left that wiggle room that invited another inquiry by the king, then in fact, the men could have been acting on an unspoken invitation by Balaam. By God placing this first condition on Balaam, God was giving Balaam the opportunity to change the course of his own path, away from disobedience to obedience. That possibility really opens up the story of Balaam in a way that makes a lot more sense than what we simply read and explains the reasons for the things that are yet to come. The second condition that God places on Balaam is that he can only speak the words that God tells him to.

I think the next verse may be telling as to Balaam's motivations and actions because we don't get to hear what his response to the men was, we are simply told, "So Balaam arose in the morning, and saddled his donkey and went with the leaders of Moab." Even as I am writing this article, I believe that I am better understanding the story of Balaam. Noting that we are not privy to the conversation requires that we again look closely at what we are told, and what we are not told. We know that God told Balaam to speak only what God tells him to, we know that God has already told Balaam that the Israelites are blessed by Him and we know that the purpose that Balaam is being called to Balak is to expressly curse the Israelites. Then we are told only that, on account of the words that God had given him, giving him permission to go with them on certain conditions, Balaam left with the men, without knowing what his words to the men actually were. Did Balaam tell the men that he could go with them but that he was limited to speak only what God told him to in regards to the blessed people, or did he simply tell them that he was given permission to go with them with no mention of the conditions of that permission? There is every possibility that Balaam told the men as little as possible, and upon hearing that they had succeeded in persuading him to come with them to their king and that their quest was successful, they were just happy to be able to fulfill their king's wishes. 

I suspect that Balaam kept the conditions from the king's envoys because of what we see happening next; it is the only way that things make sense, because the very next words that we read after Balaam leaves with the men is that God is angry with Balaam because he was going. Again, upon a first read, this can be confusing for the reader because God gave him permission to go, so why is He now angry that Balaam is going? It only makes sense that Balaam is going with dishonest motivations. He is (unsuccessfully) hiding from God the fact that he wants the honour from the king, and he is hiding from the king that he will not be allowed to curse the Israelites. He is willing to accept the kings payment even though he is not allowed to do as the king wants. I don't know how he thinks this will turn out.

We pick up the story being given the knowledge that "the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as an adversary against him [Balaam]" (v.22), and in verse 23 we read that the angel had his sword drawn. We know from verse 33 that his intent was to kill Balaam upon his reaching where the angel stood, but we are made aware that the donkey saw the angel and acted to avoid him three times, saving Balaam's life those three times, and receiving a beating each of those three times. We know that Balaam was angry with his donkey due to his own lack of understanding of the situation, but it was not only because of the donkey's actions, but also likely because of Balaam's travelling companions that had witnessed the donkey's disobedient actions. We know this because Balaam responds to the words of the donkey by saying that the donkey had made a mockery of Balaam. In other words, the donkey has made a fool of Balaam in front of those whom Balaam hoped to impress. I have to picture this scene as the king's envoys being too far away to have heard the donkey speak to Balaam, but close enough to have witnessed him talking to his donkey, which would have added to Balaam's embarrassment, but how do you not respond to a donkey that has asked you a question? I doubt I could just ignore that question. Isn't it interesting that it took the actions and words of an ass to draw an ass's attention to his own words and actions? It's also ironic that the donkey got beatings for it's disobedience which was a result of it's actions to save it's master from the correction for his own disobedience.

After this conversation with a talking donkey, Balaam's eyes are finally opened to the presence of the angel of the Lord and he is told that the donkey's actions saved Balaam's life. At this point, Balaam acknowledges his sin against God and offers to try to make it right by returning home, to which the reply he receives is "Go with the men, but you shall speak only the word which I tell you." When Balaam finally meets Balak, he is honest with Balak about that which he is able to do. He tells Balak that, "The word that God puts in my mouth, that I shall speak." Apparently Balak believes that the God of Balaam is on his side because he proceeds with his plan without asking what it is that God will have Balaam speak over the people of Israel.

For the sake of time and the actual focus of this article, I will jump ahead a bit. In Numbers 23 and 24 we read the prophecies that Balaam delivers over Israel, according to what God tells him to say and against the desires of the king of Moab. So the king refuses to honour Balaam and they go their own ways. Now let's note that at the end of chapter 23, just prior to the third and final blessing over Israel, Balak brings Balaam to the top of Mount Peor in order to look down on the people of Israel, so this then tells us that Israel is camped at the base of this mountain. This comes into play with the title of the section that starts chapter 25 of Numbers, the name of which is "The sin of Peor". Let's discover what the sin of Peor refers to.

Chapter 25 opens up telling us that Israel "began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab", apparently while they were camped at the base of Mount Peor, in the vicinity of Moab. A harlot is one that sells them self to another and is considered of low morality. This harlotry is described in the sacrificing and eating to the gods of the Moabites and the Midianites, so the Israelites sold themselves from their service to the One true God into the service of the god of Peor (Baal of Peor, Numbers 25:3). It also apparently included sexual relations with the daughters of these pagan people. The actions of the Israelites angered God to the point where he unleashed a plague on the people that killed 24,000 men of Israel, though it appears that this plague was actually carried out by the judges of Israel as they were commanded to kill all the leaders of the people who had carried on with the pagan peoples, and to do so in broad daylight so the people could see the result of their betrayal against God. But you may be wondering how this relates to the life a Balaam, who is the focus of this article. This is where we need to look to other books of the Bible in order to finish his story.

I wonder how many of you noticed that Balaam and his actions were mentioned in one of my last articles. In my first article on the doctrine of once saved, always saved, I was talking about the teachings of the Nicolaitans and I quoted some Scripture from Revelation in which Balaam is mentioned. Well it is in Revelation 2:14 where we discover that Balaam had a hand in the harlotry of the Israelites with the women of Moab and Midia. This is where Jesus is talking to the church in Pergamum and He mentions, "But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality." So it appears that Balaam reverted back to his desire to receive honour from the king of Moab, and to do so he instructed Balak to have the women of his country intermingle with the people of Israel, to draw them into the pagan practices of Moab and Midia, drawing God's anger onto them, and then also potentially to intermarry and interbreed with the Israelites in order to weaken their resolve to conquer the Moabites and the Midianites. And what was the end of Balaam? We know that too.

In Numbers 31 we read of God's instruction to Moses to take revenge on Midia for the deaths of the 24,000 men of Israel due to their involvement in the seduction of the men of Israel. In this account we see two interesting things. The first that we see is that the father (Zur) of the woman (Cozbi) (Numbers25:15) whom Phinehas pinned to the ground with a spear to stop the plague of death at Peor, was himself killed. And then we read that Balaam the son of Beor, who must have been living with the Midianites, was also killed with the sword (Numbers 31:8).

 Balaam showed us who he really was when Balak first called on him, and this is who he reverted back to after he had completed the initial assignment that God had sent him on. It takes a methodical reading of Balaam's story in order to understand how this all works out, but we see that even though he was a prophet of God, he failed to maintain his estate with God and turned away from Him in pursuit of worldly prominence and wealth. 

Hopefully you understand the story of Balaam better now than when you started reading this article. I know I learned some things even as I wrote it. It isn't a story about a bi-polar God playing games and being petty. It is an example of God being consistent in what He expects of those who claim to serve and obey Him, and it shows us that we cannot fool God when we try to hide our motives from Him.

 Please let me know if you found this explanation of the story of Balaam helpful using the comments section found below.