Balaam – Prophet for Profit – Part Two

Numbers 22:31-41

 ³¹ Then the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the Angel of the LORD standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand; and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face. ³² And the Angel of the LORD said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because your way is perverse before Me. ³³ The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three times. If she had not turned aside from Me, surely I would also have killed you by now, and let her live.”

 Balaam the great gentile Prophet is spiritually blind to what is taking place in his life. He without fear sets himself against the will of the Almighty and is not even expecting rebuke, the very fact that his donkeys actions are misunderstood indicates that he “had no fear of the Almighty” and therefore he was not wise in accordance with true wisdom.

 It is interesting to note that despite the fact that his donkey was female the scripture tells us that the donkey spoke in a male voice!

 It is also interesting that this travelling party included the Princes of Moab and that his two servants probably would have been involved in directing his donkey – showing the donkey’s resistance to the chosen pathway.

 2 Peter 2 v 16 but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

We also learn that Balaam was considered mad in his actions.

He was so mad or infactuated that he allowed neither reason, nor conscience, nor the will of God, to control him!

 How common this is when a man sets himself of a course which any right minded individual can see will lead to failure and worse still destruction.

 And Balaam said to the Angel of the LORD, “I have sinned, for I did not know You stood in the way against me. Now therefore, if it displeases You, I will turn back.”

Here his madness is further revealed, Balaam attributes his sin to the fact that “he did not know” and yet we know that this was not his sin. His sin was that his whole course was rebellious. Despite having known the will of the Almighty in this matter he asks “if it displeases You”

Then the Angel of the LORD said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but only the word that I speak to you, that you shall speak.” So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.

 Balaam is given permission to go with the princes of Moab. It must have been strange for the servants and the princes who may have witnessed some of these events although possibly not hearing the voice of the donkey or seeing the Angel. This would have given those looking on a very strange sight and would not have been in keeping with the reputation of Balaam and certainly given the appearance of madness.

 ³⁶ Now when Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him at the city of Moab, which is on the border at the Arnon, the boundary of the territory. ³⁷ Then Balak said to Balaam, “Did I not earnestly send to you, calling for you? Why did you not come to me? Am I not able to honor you?”

 Balak obviously finds Balaam’s actions somewhat confusing and of considerable concern. The actions of Balaam are clearly not in keeping with his reputation and Balak can only link his failure to come with immidacy to his possible disbelief in Balak’s ability to “pay the fee”. This again indicates that Balaam had a reputation as a mercenary prophet, someone who loved honour and wealth and would usually respond to an offer of payment.

 ³⁸ And Balaam said to Balak, “Look, I have come to you! Now, have I any power at all to say anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that I must speak.” ³⁹ So Balaam went with Balak, and they came to Kirjath Huzoth. ⁴⁰ Then Balak offered oxen and sheep, and he sent some to Balaam and to the princes who were with him.

 Balaam by his answer to Balak demonstrates frustration and does not want to give account of the events that had taken place. Balaam claims that only the word that God puts in his mouth is that which he can speak. This sounds commendable but in reality he either promotes his own ability as a prophet in that all those words he speaks are of God or he prepares the situation in case of possible failure.

 We know that Balaam attempted to manipulate God, not seeking God’s will and voice but asking God for an outcome that was of his own desire and design.

Joshua 24:8-10

⁸ And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who dwelt on the other side of the Jordan, and they fought with you. But I gave them into your hand, that you might possess their land, and I destroyed them from before you. ⁹ Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose to make war against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you. ¹⁰ But I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he continued to bless you. So I delivered you out of his hand.

 Note: God would not listen to Balaam which indicates that Balaam asked God to fulfil the will of Balaam. We know that Balaam desired to bring about the downfall of Israel, the text tells us that God delivered Israel “out of his hand”.

Joshua 24:10

¹⁰ But I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he continued to bless you. So I delivered you out of his hand.

Deuteronomy 23:3-5

³ “An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD forever, ⁴ because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia,^[a] to curse you. ⁵ Nevertheless the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam, but the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you.

Footnotes:  Deuteronomy 23:4 Hebrew Aram Naharaim

 ⁴¹ So it was, the next day, that Balak took Balaam and brought him up to the high places of Baal, that from there he might observe the extent of the people.

Balak takes Balaam to the high places of Baal so that he might see the people of Israel and from here the next stage of the conflict begins.

Numbers 23

 ¹ Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”
² And Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar. ³ Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps the LORD will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went to a desolate height. ⁴ And God met Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.”

We know that Balaam desired the wages of his craft, he desired to curse Israel and in order to do this he sought to manipulate God. It is said of Balaam in the sources external to the bible that he had the ability to know when the wrath of the God’s was against a people and that he could bring the divine anger against those to be cursed.

Balaam instructs the building of seven alters and the preparation of seven bulls and seven rams. It is possible that Balaam offered an alter to each on the national dieties of the region with Israel’s God being included. This might be connected by the fact that the final oracle cursed the nations around Israel in the region. This being done both Balaam and Balak make burnt offerings on each alter.  Balaam distances himself from Balak in order to meet with the LORD.

When at a desolate height God meets with Balaam – Balaam immediately tells God that he has prepared the alters and made the burnt offerings. Balaam was using a formula to manipulate God, to try and induce God to listen to him and his curse against Israel.

It is possible that the practice of Balaam was to utter a curse to God that spoke evil of the target people in order to induce the wrath of God.

Nehemiah 13:2

² because they had not met the children of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. However, our God turned the curse into a blessing.

Balaams practice may have been to make sacrifices to the Diety and then to utter a curse against the people. In this sense it is probable that this is why God would not “listen” to Balaam and that the uttered curse was turned into a blessing.

⁵ Then the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” ⁶ So he returned to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab.

⁷ And he took up his oracle and said:

      “Balak the king of Moab has brought me from Aram,
From the mountains of the east.      ‘ Come, curse Jacob for me,
And come, denounce Israel!’
 ⁸ “How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?
      And how shall I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?

 ⁹ For from the top of the rocks I see him,
      And from the hills I behold him;
      There! A people dwelling alone,
      Not reckoning itself among the nations.

 ¹⁰ “Who can count the dust^[a] of Jacob,
      Or number one-fourth of Israel?
      Let me die the death of the righteous,
      And let my end be like his!”
¹¹ Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them bountifully!”
¹² So he answered and said, “Must I not take heed to speak what the LORD has put in my mouth?”

It is also possible that Balaam had no option but to speak this oracle,

The word of God was put in his mouth and he had to utter this before Balak.

   ¹³ Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from which you may see them; you shall see only the outer part of them, and shall not see them all; curse them for me from there.” ¹⁴ So he brought him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
¹⁵ And he said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering while I meet^[b]the LORD over there.”

 Balaam has not given up and he resorts again to the practice of making burnt offerings and then proceeding to meet with the Lord in order to utter his curse. Once again the Lord does not listen and put a Word into the mouth of Balaam.

 16 Then the LORD met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Go back to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” ¹⁷ So he came to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab were with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the LORD spoken?”
¹⁸ Then he took up his oracle and said:

      “Rise up, Balak, and hear!
      Listen to me, son of Zippor!

 ¹⁹ “God is not a man, that He should lie,
      Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
      Has He said, and will He not do?
      Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

 ²⁰ Behold, I have received a command to bless;
      He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.

 ²¹ “He has not observed iniquity in Jacob,
      Nor has He seen wickedness in Israel.
      The LORD his God is with him,
      And the shout of a King is among them.

 ²² God brings them out of Egypt;
      He has strength like a wild ox.

 ²³ “For there is no sorcery against Jacob,
      Nor any divination against Israel.
      It now must be said of Jacob
      And of Israel, ‘Oh, what God has done!’

 ²⁴ Look, a people rises like a lioness,
      And lifts itself up like a lion;
      It shall not lie down until it devours the prey,
      And drinks the blood of the slain.”
²⁵ Then Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all!”
²⁶ So Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Did I not tell you, saying, ‘All that the LORD speaks, that I must do’?”

The frustration of all concerned is evident and Balaam defends himself by pointing out that he has had no choice in the matter of the oracle spoken.

²⁷ Then Balak said to Balaam, “Please come, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.” ²⁸ So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that overlooks the wasteland.^{[c] 29} Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” ³⁰ And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on every altar.

Balaam is still stubborn in his approach and again resorts to his ritual process of inducing the deity to hear his curse and to bring wrath on the cursed peoples.

Numbers 24

 ¹ Now when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not go as at other times, to seek to use sorcery, but he set his face toward the wilderness. ² And Balaam raised his eyes, and saw Israel encamped according to their tribes; and the Spirit of God came upon him.

“Now Balaam saw” he understood that he could not manipulate God and that his method of sorcery, the cursing of the peoples before God was totally ineffective, therefore he simply set his face towards the wilderness and raised his eyes, seeing Israel encamped. Now in a place of defeat and having “seen” that he could only submit the prophetic to the Almighty, the Spirit of God comes upon him.

³ Then he took up his oracle and said:

      “The utterance of Balaam the son of Beor,
The utterance of the man whose eyes are opened,
 ⁴ The utterance of him who hears the words of God,
      Who sees the vision of the Almighty,
      Who falls down, with eyes wide open:

 ⁵ “How lovely are your tents, O Jacob!
      Your dwellings, O Israel!

 ⁶ Like valleys that stretch out,
      Like gardens by the riverside,
      Like aloes planted by the LORD,
      Like cedars beside the waters.

 ⁷ He shall pour water from his buckets,
      And his seed shall be in many waters.

“His king shall be higher than Agag,
And his kingdom shall be exalted.

 ⁸ “God brings him out of Egypt;
      He has strength like a wild ox;
      He shall consume the nations, his enemies;
      He shall break their bones
      And pierce them with his arrows.

 ⁹ ‘He bows down, he lies down as a lion;
      And as a lion, who shall rouse him?’^[a]

  “ Blessed is he who blesses you,
And cursed is he who curses you.”

Here we have the unrighteous, rebellious and sinful prophet Balaam experiencing the “coming upon” of the Holy Spirit and as a result uttering a prophetic oracle which includes “Messiahanic references of great significance” It is also different in its format as in this case he states that he is one who “has his eyes wide open”

¹⁰ Then Balak’s anger was aroused against Balaam, and he struck his hands together; and Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, and look, you have bountifully blessed them these three times! ¹¹ Now therefore, flee to your place. I said I would greatly honor you, but in fact, the LORD has kept you back from honor.”

Balak is angered by this defeat, how can his military leaders go to battle knowing of the continued blessing of Israel.

¹² So Balaam said to Balak, “Did I not also speak to your messengers whom you sent to me, saying, ¹³ ‘If Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of the LORD, to do good or bad of my own will. What the LORD says, that I must speak’? ¹⁴ And now, indeed, I am going to my people. Come, I will advise you what this people will do to your people in the latter days.”

Balaam is not telling the whole truth and seeks to escape the anger of Balak. We know that he did not go to his own people but stayed with the Mideanites. In the statement “If Balak……..Balaam doesn’t call the Lord “my God” any longer and implies that even if he willed to do good or bad he could not do it. His first statement claimed obedience to the Word of God, in this statement he claims that despite being willing he is forced to go by the Word of the Lord.

Balaam advises Balak what the Israelites will do to Balak’s people in the latter days.

 ¹⁵ So he took up his oracle and said:

    “The utterance of Balaam the son of Beor,
And the utterance of the man whose eyes are opened;
 ¹⁶ The utterance of him who hears the words of God,
      And has the knowledge of the Most High,
      Who sees the vision of the Almighty,
      Who falls down, with eyes wide open:

 ¹⁷ “I see Him, but not now;
      I behold Him, but not near;
      A Star shall come out of Jacob;
      A Scepter shall rise out of Israel,
      And batter the brow of Moab,
      And destroy all the sons of tumult.^[b]

 ¹⁸ “And Edom shall be a possession;
      Seir also, his enemies, shall be a possession,
      While Israel does valiantly.

 ¹⁹ Out of Jacob One shall have dominion,
      And destroy the remains of the city.”
²⁰ Then he looked on Amalek, and he took up his oracle and said:

      “ Amalek was first among the nations,
But shall be last until he perishes.”
²¹ Then he looked on the Kenites, and he took up his oracle and said:

“Firm is your dwelling place,
And your nest is set in the rock;
 ²² Nevertheless Kain shall be burned.
      How long until Asshur carries you away captive?”
²³ Then he took up his oracle and said:

      “Alas! Who shall live when God does this?
 ²⁴ But ships shall come from the coasts of Cyprus,^[c]
      And they shall afflict Asshur and afflict Eber,
      And so shall Amalek,^[d] until he perishes.”

²⁵ So Balaam rose and departed and returned to his place; Balak also went his way.