Balak & Balaam - Numbers 21:10-Numbers 24

Israel has the snake bite thing under control and moves throughout the land trying to find the best way into Canaan. They go to one king of an area and ask if they can pass and that king says no and gathered his people to fight Israel “and Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land.” I always thought that Israel was the underdog in all their fights but it seems like from the census that they had like 600,000 plus soldiers and I can’t think of very many armies that size especially anciently. And the problem with an army that size is feeding them, supply lines, and here God is providing their food straight from heaven, so that issue is solved. Interesting to think about. Israel continues up the country and defeats at least one more city state, “until there was none left him alive: and they possessed his land.” I wonder why God had Israel kill all the women and children as well, maybe because He knew that the Israelite men wouldn’t be able to resist the foreign women and would fall away from righteousness in pursuit of them. Which begs the question, does a man’s lack of self-control mean that a woman needs to die? Of course not from our perspective, but life and eternity is different to God, again just something to think about.

There is a king who sees Israel coming named Balak and knows what they’ve done to these other peoples and knows that he can’t win against Israel so he does what makes sense to him and contacts the main divinator at the time named Balaam. TB and the IM have differing opinions on who this guy actually is, TB says that he is just a sorcerer for hire, the best at the time who will do whatever the person paying him wants him to do. The IM suggests that it’s at least possible that this guy is a quasi-prophet who communicates with the God of Israel. Anyway, Balak sends a message to Balaam and asks him to curse the Israelites so that they could win in battle because this was their only shot at victory.

The first time the men show up asking for this service, Balak says that he will ask God. TB says that this is all for show and they Balaam is an excellent showman and that’s how he makes his money, this whole “I’ll ask God what He thinks,” when in actuality he’s just going to do what makes him money anyway. God comes to Balaam and after Balaam explains what Balak wants from him, God says, “Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed.” In the morning Balaam tells the messengers of Balak to leave, that he will not curse the people of Israel, and so they do. Balak doesn’t like this answer so he sends even more important princes to ask Balaam for the cursing and offers even more money if Balaam will come curse Israel. Balaam answers that it doesn’t matter how much money they offer, he can’t do it, but he’ll ask God again. That night God says “fine you can go with them but don’t say anything that I don’t tell you to say.” So they head on their way in the morning, but God is angry because he already told Balaam not to go, but Balaam wants to get paid so he’s trying to go do what he’s being asked to do because he doesn’t have any dog in this fight, he just wants to get paid.

While on the way to Balak, while Balaam is riding his donkey, “the ass saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand,” and the donkey freaks out and runs off the road. Balaam apparently doesn’t see the angel, and beats the donkey trying to get it back on the road. Again the donkey freaks out because of the angel and crushes Balaam’s foot against the wall and so he hits the donkey again. For a third time the donkey freaks out about the angel and is beaten again a third time. But this time the donkey is able to speak and asks “what have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?” This is where TB says that it’s obvious that this story was embellished and became like a folk legend because of the talking donkey aspect. The IM says that it’s the Spirit of God that would give an animal powers of speech in this instance. I don’t have an opinion either way, if it turns out this did happen then that makes sense, if it turns out that this did not happen, then that isn’t testimony shaking for me. What is interesting to me about this account is that a donkey is talking to Balaam and he isn’t phased by it at all, and says “I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.” If an animal started talking to me, my first reaction wouldn’t be to kill it, that’s just me.

Balaam and the donkey have a conversation but eventually “the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand.” Balaam falls on his face, understandably, and the angel tells him he should be grateful to the donkey for not walking him right into the angel’s path because otherwise he would have been killed. Inexplicably, Balaam thinks the angel is angry at him for beating up the donkey, not the fact that he is going to curse Israel like God Himself told him not to do twice already. The angel tells Balaam that he can go with the men “but only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak.”

Balaam and the group make it to Balak and Balaam tells him that he is only allowed to speak the words that God gives him and they go up to one of the “high places of Baal” to see the Israelites and for Balaam to curse them. They do a thing with altars and sacrifices and Balam tells Balak to stand by the burnt offerings while he goes to talk to God about the cursing. God meets Balaam “and the Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, Return unto Balak, and this thou shalt speak,” he can only say what God wants him to say. Balaam tells Balak, “How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? Or how shall I defy, whom the Lord hath not defied?... Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!” Balak freaks out and says, “if you won’t curse the Israelites, at least don’t bless them!” And Balaam says “I can only say what God wants me to say.” So it seems that regardless of whether or not Balaam is a righteous prophet or a charlatan, God is using him at this point for His purposes, which he does sometimes.

Balak does not like this answer, so he tries a fourth time and takes him to another hilltop, where I think there is another Baal worship spot, and asks him again to curse Israel. Again, there are sacrifices and God puts the words in Balaam’s mouth which is to not only not curse Israel but again blesses them. There are 5 verses of Balaam praising God and blessing Israel and Balak is just exasperated at this point. Balak convinces Balaam to try a fifth time and goes to another spot and this time Balaam didn’t go off and try to negotiate with God, he just starts prophesying as “the spirit of God came upon him.” He prophesies about the God of Israel creating a beautiful and prosperous land for the people of Israel. Balak is furious with Balaam but Balaam says that he told Balak already that he can’t say anything contrary to what God commands him to say. Balaam continues to prophesy but this time about “a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.” He’s prophesying about the Messiah to a people who probably aren’t familiar with that concept so it’s interesting to think about it from an outside perspective. If we had no idea about a Savior of a Messiah, like that wasn’t something in our spiritual ideology and the someone came around who was supposed to be highly spiritual and was like “a great king will come out of Israel,” who are our enemies, it would be something that we could relate to conceptually and that would be a big deal.

Balak doesn’t get the cursing that he wants, Balaam has born testimony to the coming of the Messiah, even if he didn’t know or understand it, and everyone just goes home. I wonder if we will find out what happens to the people of Balak when they face Israel.