“And God said unto Balaam, “Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people; for they are blessed.” And Balaam rose up in the morning and said unto the princes of Balak, “Get you into your land: for the LORD refuseth to give me leave to go with you.””{Numbers 22:11-12}
After the children of Israel had left Egypt and spent their time in the wilderness for many years the Lord began to bring them closer to the Promised Land. The king of Moab and the people heard about the children of Israel coming and were afraid of them. They heard how the people of Israel conquered the king of the Amorites and the king of Bashan. The Bible states, “And Moab was sore afraid of the people, because they were many: and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel.” {Numbers 22:3} So Balak, the king of Moab, discussed his dilemma with the elders of the Midianites. He told them, “This company will lick all of us as the ox licks up the grass of the field.” The Midianites were a heathen tribe in alliance with the Moabites. They were both afraid of the children of Israel. Their solution was to have Balak call a prophet named Balaam to curse the children of Israel. He sent his servants with gifts to Balaam to ask him to come up and curse the children of Israel. He believed that Balaam can curse or bless anyone he liked. Well, when the messengers arrived at Balaam’s house, he told them he needed to hear from the Lord first before he can do anything to find out what the Lord wants him to do. The men stayed for the night and waited for Balaam to hear from the Lord. The Lord came to Balaam and asked him what the men wanted, and Balaam told the Lord about a people that have come out of Egypt and how Balak, the king of Moabites wants them cursed. The Lord told Balaam, “Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed.” {Numbers 22:12} So Balaam tells the messengers that the Lord did not want him to go with them. They left and Balak sent another set of messengers more prestigious than the ones before them to Balaam, bribing him with rewards of gifts and promotions. This time the Lord tells Balaam he can go but he must say what he wants him to say. So Balaam went, but on the way an angel of the Lord stood in the way of Balaam to block him from going. The Lord was angry at Balaam for going. He wanted to let him know that his going was really displeasing before him and sent an angel. Even though the Lord told him he could go this time the Lord doesn’t really change his mind. What he says in the beginning that was really his desire. Balaam couldn’t see the angel and beat his donkey to get going because three times the donkey just stopped walking and finally fell to the ground, to a point that the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth to speak up in human language to respond to his beatings! Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way. The angel told him his way is perverse before him. Balaam then decides he will go back home. But then the angel tells him, “Go, but only speak the word I want you to say.” To make a long story short, Balaam ended up going, but ended up failing in trying to curse the people of the Lord. Every time he was about to curse the people the Spirit of the Lord would get a hold of him and he ends up blessing the people instead. Finally after three tries, Balak, gives up on him and tells him he can forget about promotions.
A few chapters later, we see the Lord telling Moses to avenge the children of Israel of their enemies and to come against the children of the Midianites. The Midianites and the Moabites were in cahoots with each other against the children of Israel. It seems to me they are one in the same now. Moses lets us in on what happened to the children of Israel after Balaam failed to curse them. He tells us that Balaam gave counsel to have the children of Israel commit a trespass against the Lord: the children of Moab invited the children of Israel to a feast, to eat with them, and to commit whoredom with them before their gods. The Bible states, “And they (Moab) called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed to their gods. And Israel joined himself to Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.” {Numbers 25:2-3} The Lord sent a plague and thousands of them died. In return to being snared and tempted by the children of Moabites /Midianites, the Lord told Moses to avenge the children of Israel through sending Phinehas the priest to lead the twelve thousand armies of Israel. In the process of avenging themselves, the children of Israel killed the five kings of Midian. Balaam was killed as well. According to history he was a part of the land of Midian.
I often wondered what went wrong with Balaam’s story. He seemed to have done everything right. I mean, the Lord told him don’t go and he didn’t. The Lord told him to go and he did. When the angel came to try to stop him with his donkey he said to the angel, “I will go back if you want me to.” And yet the angel said, “Go.” Can anyone blame Balaam? Why was he killed like the rest of the people later?
I just saw the clue in these first two verses I stated from the beginning: And God said unto Balaam, “Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people; for they are blessed.” And Balaam rose up in the morning and said unto the princes of Balak, “Get you into your land: for the LORD refuseth to give me leave to go with you.”{Numbers 22:11-12}
From the very beginning, Balaam’s heart wasn’t really with the Lord’s. You can’t really see that if you look at the surface. But you see it in his actions. Instead of telling Balak’s messenger exactly what God had told him, “You shall not curse these people for they are blessed,” he tells them instead that God refuses to give him leave to go with them. Refuses! Surely he jests. It’s as if he wants to go and yet, he can’t because the Lord doesn’t want him to. Sure, the Lord told him not to go, but that’s not the point. He didn’t just out right tell the messengers that it’s pointless for him to even go. I mean there is no argument about it. Don’t even bother with it. God does not want these people cursed and so why even think that he should go, now or later?
This is where we find the problem with Balaam. He wanted to go. He wanted the promotion Balak can give him, even though he tells Balak again and again he doesn’t care. He does care. If he didn’t care at all he would’ve said so with the messengers from the very beginning. He would’ve said, “You’re wasting my time, God does not want these people cursed and that’s what Balak wants and he’s not going to get it, promotions or not.” Period. No arguments about it. But he goes and checks with God when the second messengers came. And so the Lord lets him go even though the Lord did not really want him to go so much so he sent his angel to show him. See I think if he had told the first messengers the truth that God does not want these people cursed, then Balak would know there’s no point. But you don’t see Balaam telling this at any time. He hides it from Balak. (Balak only came to know this because God would take possession of Balaam as he’s about to curse and turned the cursing into blessing.)
Then we see later on when Balak reproaches him for not coming at the very first, Balaam says to Balak, “Well, don’t I have power too to say what I want to say…?” Meaning, isn’t this why you asked for me? You might have the power to promote me but I have the power to bless or to curse, so you need me. So he thinks. He even stopped coming to the Lord for direction when he saw how the Lord would bless the children of Israel instead of having him curse them. By the third try Balaam stopped asking the Lord for direction. He still thought he was going to curse the children of God even though the Lord plainly said, “No, don’t curse them.”
Well, he got what was coming to him. His true heart was revealed. He wanted the promotions deep down inside to a point that he thought he could go against God and still get it. To add to his doom he counsels Balak and the Midianites to cause the children of Israel to commit idolatry and get the Lord jealous against his own people.
It is amazing how many of us can be snared like this. Like a big promotion at the company or some good opportunity may bring us blessing despite of it becoming a snare in our own lives. We are tempted in going against the will of God in our lives, we go and take it even though in our hearts we know that this is going to get us further away from God, or that we will become too busy for the work of the Lord. Many of us are being called to do his work and we know we should be doing his work, but instead we run away from him and desire the promotion of man. Is it worth it? Is it worth losing our joy and our peace that God can give us to be snared away from him? Of course not… It isn’t worth it. The Lord has better plans for us if we wait on him. If we tell the devil right off from the beginning that we have decided to wait for the promotion that God can give us rather than what this world can give us, that our relationship with the Lord is the greatest thing in our lives, then when snares like Balaam’s promotions come we can stand against it. When the enemy’s messengers come knocking at our door with prices of gold and silver or promotions and more money in our bank account, we will know better when the Lord tells us in our hearts, “No, son (or daughter), don’t go. I have better things for you.” We will love the Lord enough to say, “No thank you. I have better things coming from the Lord. Satan, get your Balak’s rewards out of here. I want nothing to do with it.”
“He raises the poor from the dust, he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with nobles, and inherit a seat of honor; for the pillars of the earth are the LORD’S, and he set the world on them.” {1 Samuel 2:8}
“For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.” {Psalm 75:6-7}
