A new drama begins to unfold – one that will have lasting, chilling effects on the Israelites for generations to come.
Verse 1 has the Israelites moving to the “plains of Moab, across from Jericho.” This would have been in an area 10 to 20 miles east of the Jordan River, just northeast of the Dead Sea, and probably 10 to 20 miles from what is today the capital city of Jordan, Ammon. This is as far north as the nation of Israel had come. It would be the place they would stay for a little over a year, as the events of the rest of the book of Numbers and Deuteronomy play out before Joshua leads them across the Jordan River into Canaan to begin the conquest of the Promised Land.
The news of the recent string of military victories the Israelites had put together preceded their entry into this area. The nation of Moab is “terrified” and “filled with dread” (some translations say, “sick with dread,” a verb that connotes such violent emotion as to provoke vomiting). Verse 4 describes the Israelites as overrunning the area like an ox eats grass. In the mind of Balak, king of Moab, something needed to be done.
On one hand, Balak’s fear made sense – Israel’s track record made them a fearsome force. On the other hand, if he had known what God has already spoken to Moses as revealed in Moses’s retelling of these events in Deuteronomy 2:9, he would have realized there was nothing to fear. God had instructed Moses to bypass Moab, because he did not intend for Moab to be part of the land Israel would occupy.
But Balak did not know this, so, in concert with Moab’s neighbor and ally, Midian, he laid out a plan. Balak faced the reality that there was no military way to withstand the Israelites, so he sought to oppose them through pagan divination (vv. 6–7), sending for a diviner with an international reputation – Balaam.
Balaam is Moab’s answer to Moses. Balak wanted a henchman of sorts who could communicate with the forces of the spirit world and compete with the leader of the Israelites, who obviously had a reputation for being able to communicate with the God of Israel. Balaam is an internationally known prophet (perhaps it’s better to compare Balaam to a sorcerer than a prophet) who shares the pagan belief that the God of Israel is like any other deity who might be manipulated by acts of magic or sorcery. But Balaam begins to learn that dealing with the true God is fundamentally different from anything he has ever known.
Verse 7 indicates that messengers of Balak went to visit Balaam with a “fee for divination.” Balaam is a prophet/sorcerer for hire, not unlike the psychics, astrologers, and tarot card readers you can find in most suburban communities around us. The apparent difference with Balaam, however, is he was in the “big leagues.” There is a plethora of non-biblical archeological evidence that Balaam was a “big deal.” What is surprising is he tells the King’s messengers to spend the night, and he would let them know what God tells him about this potential “gig” for the King of Moab.
Verses 9-12 have God speaking to Balaam in a manner that doesn’t seem unlike the conversations God had with Moses. God clearly tells Balaam to back off – Balak wants to hire Balaam to curse Israel; but God says they can only be blessed. Therefore, Balaam initially responds to Balak’s offer by turning him down.
The language in v. 8 and later in v. 18 (“the Lord my God”) has led some to believe that Balaam was a believer in Yahweh (“the Lord”), the God of Israel. Based on the subsequent narrative, however, it seems best to take Balaam’s words as claiming to be the spokesman for any god. Balaam is universally condemned throughout both the Old and New Testament for moral, ethical and religious faults.
Let’s be real. Ethically, it is clearly wrong – then and now – for an authentic follower of God to serve as a prophet for hire. To have allowed these people to stay the night in order to consult with God regarding a matter that was clearly a sin (and the message God would speak to Balaam confirms this) it is obvious Balaam cares far more about the diviner’s fee than God’s will. Though Balaam was obviously a man of significant spiritual gifts, it becomes clear he is NOT a man with a genuine heart after God. This was a ruse. He was “seeking God’s will” regarding a matter that was plainly NOT God’s will. Balaam has set himself on a dangerous course. He is playing with fire, setting his heart on something he knew to be sin, and looking for an excuse cloaked in spirituality to pursue that sin. Balaam loved money more than anything else, and he was trying to find a way to weasel his way into manipulating his concept of who and what Yahweh was to allow him to do what he wanted to do.
Even with a slick trickster like Balaam, God shows his kindness and mercy. God had no obligation to respond to such a greedy, selfish man like Balaam. But in His mercy God did respond, warning Balaam to have nothing to do with these men sent to hire him.
With his first question in verse 9, where God asks Balaam “who are these men?;” obviously, God knows the answer before He asks. But He asked the question because Balaam did not know. Balaam knew they were evil men sent for an evil purpose – to hire a prophet – but Balaam ends up not responding properly.
If we pick these conversations apart, we see that while Balaam outwardly responds to the Lord’s warnings at first, we see his true motives seeping through.
First, God clearly commands him not to go, and not to curse. Balaam will soon find himself trapped between the demands of Balak and commands of God. This conflict will sustain the entire narrative to come. And while Balaam will discover that he cannot resist the power of God and is unable to speak the curses Balak wants him to say, he does find another way to do it – by encouraging idolatry with the Baal of Peor (see Numbers 25).
When Balaam confronts his guests, and tells them to go home, because the “Lord has refused to let me go with you.” I have a sense that if what he was doing was saying “no” with his words, he was saying “yes” in every other way. This feels like he is saying, “Go back home, but I would really like to go with you, except for God says I can’t go.” Sort of like the teenager grounded by his parents. But what it meant for the ongoing negotiations was “God said I can’t come, but I still can be persuaded.” King Balak could easily have figured this all out.
And Balak’s response shows that he did. Verses 15-17 has the messengers being more “important,” with a promise to “reward him handsomely.” This was not the usual “diviner’s fee.” This was a promise of immense wealth. The King of Moab “will do whatever you say” if the prophet for hire would kindly come and curse Israel. Balaam could have decisively killed this concept when he refused the first offer. By leaving the door open, the temptation to indulge this sin has come back to him much stronger than at first.
Balaam makes it clear he’s entertaining this new offer. “Even if Balak gave me all the silver and gold in his palace, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the Lord my God.” Now, let’s continue to be real. Hasn't Balaam basically said, "Read my lips," and suggested his own counteroffer? But even so, Balaam had to have understood the nature of what it means to be a true prophet. An authentic prophet would know that he could not conjure up just what the King was looking for – a real prophecy had to come from God. He knew deep down that even though he wanted to take this job, he could not do what they asked.
But this second episode where Balaam feigns piety to consult the Lord on a matter he must have known was futile shows us that God has a plan – the God of Israel will use whatever means He desires to reveal himself to humanity.
Does God change his mind? He tells Baalam that is to go with these men, but he is ONLY to speak the words God will give him.
The reality is God did NOT change His mind. Balaam would still not be following God’s will by going along with the messengers. God had clearly spoken to Balaam, and Balaam didn’t want to listen. So, God was sending Balaam to Moab to prepare Balaam for judgment. This would be a test that would prove to reveal the true motives of Balaam’s heart. Just as God sometimes says “no” to the prayers of his devoted followers because he loves them, and wants to protect them, he will also unabashedly say “yes” to the desires of the wicked because He will use it in the process of judging them. The Lord telling Balaam, "Go with them" was no more an approval of Balaam's motives then Jesus, telling Judas in John 13:27 (“what you do, do quickly”), was an approval of the actions of Judas.
Verse 21 begins the utterly amazing story of Balaam’s donkey. Balaam is off to Moab, riding on his faithful donkey. God is justifiably angry that Balaam has chosen to completely give in to this evil-all-dressed-up-as-righteousness, so an angel is now standing in the road, armed with a sword, in opposition to Balaam’s progress. There appears to be a contradiction between the permission God grants Balaam to go, the prohibition he had given earlier (v. 12), and then the anger the Lord displayed against Balaam on his journey (v. 22). This is best explained as difficulty relating to the antagonistic nature of Balaam’s character. God had forbidden him to go to curse Israel. He then allowed Balaam to go, but only if he would follow the Lord’s direction. But Balaam’s real intentions were known to the Lord, and so God confronts the pagan prophet to express his objections.
Verse 23 says that the donkey can see the angel, sword in hand, threatening Balaam (and obviously, the donkey as well) but Balaam apparently couldn’t see the angel, because on each of the three occasions the frightened donkey would avoid the angel, Balaam would beat the donkey to get it going again. This was extremely embarrassing for Balaam, because archeological records show that his specialty was animal divination, using the livers and entrails of sacrificial animals, or bird droppings to determine whatever the pagan deity he was trying to communicate with was saying. But here, a “dumb animal” was able to see what the spiritually blind Balaam could not.
Then, the donkey proves he is not literally “dumb” (as in lacking the power of speech). In verse 28 states:
“Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?” Balaam answered the donkey, “You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.””
Besides the seemingly amazing concept that Balaam is having an argument with his pack animal, we have the ridiculous concept of Balaam threatening his donkey with a sword! There just happened to BE a sword near, but its intended victim was NOT Balaam’s donkey. Verse 30 has the donkey further rebuking Balaam, asking him if her behavior was in keeping with her character. Balaam sheepishly replies, “No,” and then, in v. 31, the Lord opens Balaam’s eyes so he can see the angel. Then the angel rebukes Balaam for beating his donkey and identifies the purpose for his presence is to deal with Balaam’s “reckless path.” Other translations render the description of Balaam’s course as being “perverse.” The original Hebrew word conveys the concept of knowing you are going in the wrong direction but hurling yourself headlong into it anyway. But even more, the angel indicates that Balaam’s path was “reckless before him.” In other words, Balaam’s sin was a personal affront to the angel himself. This indicates that this is no ordinary angel (Can any angel be called “ordinary?”). This is an example of a “theophany,” which was a moment when Jesus, the second person of the trinity and God’s son, made an appearance in bodily form prior to his incarnation. Other examples are the angel that spoke to Hagar, the angel that visited Abraham, the angel that wrestled with Jacob, the burning bush, the pillar of fire, the commander of the Lord’s army that appeared to Joshua, and the angel who spoke to Samson’s parents. There are many more. It must have been a fearsome sight.
Balaam offers to turn back, but the Angel insists he continue, but only to speak what the angel tells him to speak (confirming that this is indeed God appearing in a form that Balaam could see).
As the chapter closes, we see a very anxious Balak greeting Balaam and going through all the ritual formalities required for Balaam to deliver the curse. In verse 38, Balaam seems to sheepishly offer Balak the warning, “I can’t say whatever I please. I must speak only what God puts in my mouth.” But in the final verse of Chapter 22, Balak has taken Balaam to a perch atop a mountain overlooking the Israelite camp. The stage is now set.
As you read further, you will see that when Balaam attempts to curse Israel at the instigation of Balak, Balaam finds his mouth unable to express the curse he desires to pronounce. Instead, from his lips come blessings on Israel and curses on their enemies (chs. 23–24).
- John Russell
