STRADDLING MORALITY —  BALAAM AND THE MORAL DILEMMA OF A LIFETIME  —  CONCLUSION

By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé

 

Michael says of this amazing ending to the story we have been studying for the past three weeks:

 

“Biblical lessons learned need to be held tight. Otherwise, we make the same mistakes over and over again.”

 

This wisdom will be strongly affirmed as we turn back to where we left Balaam and King Balek last week. The King, unable to await Balaam’s arrival at his palace, had gone out to meet the man he was counting on to curse the Israelites. The King’s state of mind? Everything in his life and in his country’s, Moab’s, was riding on a single person, Balaam, the purveyor of curses and blessings:

 

“When King Balek heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him at the Moabite town on the Arnon border, at the edge of his territory. King Balek said to Balaam, ‘Did I not send you an urgent summons? Why didn’t you come to me? Am I really not able to reward you?’

Well, I have come to you now,’ Balaam replied. But I can’t say whatever I please. I must speak only what God puts in my mouth.”

(Numbers 22:36-38) NIV

 

Wait a minute, there was one thing for which Balek was offering a reward — a curse on the Israelites. There was no misunderstanding in Balaam’s mind about this.

 

Secondly, God had told Balaam — “Don’t curse the Israelites.”

 

Thirdly, Balaam had not just traveled a few miles. He resided several day’s hard journey from Moab, a trek made riding on a donkey. Certainly, he was not there on a social visit.

 

Not to put too fine a point on it, but exactly why had Balaam come to Moab? Bluntly, there was a lot going on in this mystic’s mind. He knew that God’s first reaction had been, “Don’t go.” He knew that the angel of the LORD had stood in his way three times to stop him from continuing on the road that led to King Balek. Yet, here he was, in Moab, with the King.

 

How ominous Balaam’s words. —  “Well I have come to you now.” It had not just been a physical journey, it had also been a spiritual one. Against all spiritual advice, even commands, Balaam had pressed on toward Moab.

 

One might say, “Well, yes, he went ahead but only after God said he could go as long as he would say only the words God put in his mouth.” And God did say this. —  as a fallback position so as not to violate Balaam’s free will, something God would never do.

 

God did everything He could to stop Balaam from going, to keep him from the meeting that is set before us, i.e. Balaam and King Balek now together, only feet apart and talking. It is a moment filled with drama; it is a moment fraught with danger. —  for the Chosen of God, the Israelites and, yes, for the very soul of Balaam!

 

King Balek opened with the card he hoped would trump any concerns Balaam might have. He immediately mentioned the reward. Let Balaam have no doubt, the King was saying, the reward is forthcoming in exchange for cursing the Israelites.

 

Balaam responded just as quickly. And, based on that response, what can we say about this man, Balaam? Well, we can say that he is one of two things: he is either a true believer in God, the God of the Israelites, or he is this: he is evil to the core but talks a really good game. The answer is coming soon.

 

Over the next few passages of Scripture, the record reveals that King Balek built a number of altars, where he sacrificed animals, mostly at the request of Balaam. These are very important. They each represent a turning point.

 

Notably, from beginning to end, in the dialogues Michael and I are about to recount, even when Balaam and King Balek first met, there is a third presence with these two men. The Moabite officials are there to remind the King of the high stakes game of which he has pulled himself up to the table. As if King Balek didn’t need anymore pressure, he has it, nevertheless.

 

At the first scene, King Balek,

 

“…took Balaam up to Bamoth Baal and from there he could see the outskirts of the Israelite camp.”

(Numbers 22:41) NIV

 

During these times, high places were commonly where false gods were worshipped.

 

You recall Michael’s words last week regarding spiritual battles:

 

“They have the true potential for glory or for disaster. This is so much greater for spiritual battles than even for those in the military arena.”

 

The truth of this is so apparent in what follows.

 

Balaam asked for an altar to be built there, after which he met with God, who sent Balaam back with a message. Balaam told the King and his officials:

 

“Balek brought me from Aram,

the King of Moab from the eastern

mountains,

‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me;

come denounce Israel,’

How can I curse those whom God has not cursed?

How can I denounce

those whom the LORD has not

denounced?

From the rocky peaks I see them,

from the heights I view them.

I see a people who live apart…

Let me die the death of the righteous

and may my final end be like theirs!”

(Numbers 23:7-10) NIV

 

What spiritual warfare and what a spiritual victory for Balaam, or so it would seem! It’s just very difficult to imagine a better answer than this one! But whose words were they anyhow?

 

“Balek said to Balaam, ‘What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!’

He answered, ‘Must I not speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?”

(Numbers 23:11-12) NIV

 

Oh! So, these were not words from Balaam’s heart but only from his mouth? Yet he is so faithful to say them and, besides, he is resisting  the King and blessing Israel. Can we really condemn him? Do we know for sure the condition of another person’s heart? No, but we will soon see with regard to Balaam.

 

King Balek was physically present to hear these words and he is not sure of the true intent behind them. This time, it is the King who presses on:

 

“Then Balek said to him, ‘Come with me to another place where you can see them; you will not see them all but only the outskirts of their camp. And from there, curse them for me. So he took him to the field of Zephim, on top of Pisgah and there he built seven altars…”

 

What rich Scripture! Here is another high place on which to tempt Balaam. Also, Balek is saying in so many words, “You don’t even have to look at all of the Israelites .it’s easy, just kind of ease into cursing them.” How like the enemy this negotiator King is with his beguiling ways.

 

What a point Michael makes in analyzing this Biblical passage:

 

“When King Balek didn’t get the right answers, he just moved altars, refreshing Balaam’s thought, trying to get a different answer. He moved the altars to try to move the message.”

 

Now we’re deeply into the heads of these two men and their audience of Moabite officials, breathing down their necks.

 

Once again, Balaam meets with the LORD.

The result is Balaam’s next speech:

 

“God is not human, that he should lie,

not a human being, that he should change his mind…

I have received a command to bless;

he has blessed and I cannot change it…

There is no divination against Jacob

no evil omens against Israel.”

(Numbers 23:19,20,23) NIV

 

Oh, the irony! Balaam preaches a sermon to King Balek how God does not change his mind. Yet what was the mind of God to Balaam? “Balaam, don’t go to Moab, to King Balek. My angel stands in front of you on the road that leads to the rewarder of the man who would curse Israel. Get off this road. Don’t go!”

 

Balaam says to the King and his Moab cronies that “I have received a command to bless.” He doesn’t say, “I love the LORD. These are his people, Israel, so I love them and would never put them in harm’s way.”

 

God is looking for the love of the heart, not a cold obedience to a command, as here, with the implication to King Balek that, “Listen, if I had it my way, we could do business.”

 

Grasping at straws, The King attempts to renegotiate:

 

“Then King Balek said to Balaam, ‘Neither curse them nor bless them at all!”

(Numbers 23:25) NIV

 

Balaam, once again, refused, citing the LORD’s directive.

 

The end of the story has a beautiful blessing of  Israel by Balaam, as “the Spirit of God came on him.” (Numbers 24:2) NIV. Under the Spirit, Balaam blessed and even prophesied. When the King’s anger at him raged, saying God kept Balaam from receiving a reward of enormous proportions, Balaam says again that all the silver and gold in the King’s palace would not change his mind.”

 

And then, Balaam adds,

 

“Now I am going back to my people but come, let me warn you of what this people will do to your people in days to come.”

(Numbers 24:14) NIV

 

Oh goodness, Balaam was almost out the door when he faltered… He was within an inch of home plate when he slipped. All the beautiful words of blessings, every word of an amazing testimony… All was gone. Just as soon as he was back under his own spiritual steam, it was time to renegotiate his contract with the tempter, King Balek, the enemy of Israel. Now Balaam would tempt the King. And what better way to do it than to work the already frantic King into a frenzy of fear of the Israelites. And all of this was out of greed!

 

How right Michael is when he says,

 

“Don’t want; just be.”

 

What followed Balaam’s warning about the Israelites? What was the outcome? It unfolds with this:

 

“While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods…so Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the LORD’s anger burned against them.”

(Numbers 24:1-3) NIV

 

The LORD sent a plague as punishment and thousands of Israelites died.

 

And Balaam? Later, in an Israelite war ordered by God through Moses,

 

“They also killed Balaam, son of Beor, with the sword.”

(Numbers 31:8) NIV

 

Why? We find the answer in two verses.

 

Moses angrily asks regarding the women who were left alive after all the men of the enemy country were killed:

 

“Have you allowed all the women to live? he asked them. “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the LORD in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the LORD’s people.”

(Numbers 31:16) NIV

 

And:

 

“…Balaam, who taught Balek to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality.”

(Revelation 2:14) NIV

 

Though Balaam would not curse Israel to its face, he was more than happy to attack them from inside, to advise King Balek with regard to a way to lure them to other gods and moral decay.

 

How diabolical was this? We recall that the entire reason King Balek wanted the Israelites cursed was to whittle down their numbers so that he had a better chance to defeat them in battle. When God saw the Israelites sin, HE brought a plague, greatly diminishing their numbers, the end result King Balek desired all along.

 

This is real evil fueled by real greed by Balaam, the man of the once elegant and beautiful words of loyalty to God and His will. As we observed from the moment God told him not to go to meet with the King, Balaam meant to go and he meant to collect top dollar when he got there.

 

God, Who sees many moves down the chessboard of life, saw Balaam’s betrayal coming from the first second of the story. He knew that Balaam was ready to part company with his soul as long as King Balek parted company with his money. Yet God continued to give him chance after chance to take a different road.

 

An interesting question is whether Balaam had the self awareness to recognize his own bottom line. One could say that there was a part of him that wanted God’s approval. After all, he returned to the LORD more than once. But, at the end of the day, Balaam went spiritually rogue.

 

As Michael said, it is the spiritual battle that carries the possibility of disaster or glory. Here, Balaam chose the road to Moab and it cost him dearly. What a story! What a lesson! What a telling of glory offered, an ending of glory denied.

 

POSTSCRIPT:

The next blog will be sent out on September 9th. Michael and I are in the final edit of our book, “Things Wrapped in Purple.” The deadline to have the manuscript to the publisher is September 1st. This is going to require complete concentration on the final edit.

To our beautiful readers —  Have a great month! God bless each one of you so mightily!