As the children of Israel progressed towards the promised land toward the end of 40 years of wandering, they found themselves in Moab country having already taken possession of the land of the Amorites. By this time in their travels Israelites had become so numerous that it seemed to king of Moab that they covered the whole earth (Numbers 22:11). Not only were their numbers frightening but their ability to take over was terrifying. The king of Moab recognised that the Israelites were powerful because of the god they worshipped. This point of Israelites' history brings us to one of the most interesting stories of the Old Testament. Balak, the king of Moab knew he had to enlist some help if he was to withstand the Israelites so he sent for Balaam, a Mesopotamian diviner (Deut. 23:4) who had an international reputation. Ancient Aramaic texts refer to Balaam as a 'seer of the gods'. It was believed anciently that diviners could speak for any god. Balaam received his instructions from God during the night (Num. 22:8) and then rose in the morning to reveal them. It is not known whether or not Balaam was a true prophet of God holding the powers of the priesthood authority but his geographical position suggests he could have been one of the few scattered people such as Jethro, who held the priesthood and exercised its power (Old Testament Student Manual, p. 207). The Bible suggests that he had a true knowledge of God and was susceptible to receiving revelation from Him, hence the title of a 'prophet'.
The story of Balaam is referred to by Elder Bruce R. McConkie as 'the madness of a prophet'. Balaam was petitioned by Balak, the king of Moabites, to travel to Moab to curse Israel so they would not prevail against Moab and in return he would bestow on Balaam riches and great honour. If Balaam heeded the first directive which he received from the Lord to decline the request and stay put, he would have faded into obscurity there and then but because of the choices which he made, three chapters of the Old Testament are devoted to his story and he is referred to a number of times throughout the scriptures. Balak was persistent in his petitioning and Balaam was persistent in his hunger for riches and honour that were so easily offered. Because of this he kept pushing the Lord to allow him to go. So Balaam went to Moab against the Lord's displeasure even though the Lord allowed it and he importuned the Lord several times through offering of sacrifices to allow him to curse Israel. Each time instead of a cursing came a blessing on Israel. You would think that Balaam would at this point get the message that Israel was favoured of the Lord and that he should be on their side but Balaam wanted both, to please the God of Israel and to please the king of Moab. How wonderful it would be to be rich and powerful as well as having the prophetic powers that already were his. This is a classical example of being at two minds, with your feet in two camps, attempting to serve both God and mammon. This double mindnedness proved to be Balaam's downfall both spiritually and physically.
There are a number of lessons we can glean from this man and his choices. When Balaam couldn't get the Lord's permission to curse Israel he thought of another way to get his way. He came up with an ingenious plan to obey God and still get the riches. He told Balak that he can't curse Israel but God can. He advised the king of Moab to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel by enticing them to commit sin through practices associated with idol worship. Through his advice, Moabites seduced the children of Israel into participating in the fertility cult associated with Ba'al worship. "And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods; and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor" (Num. 25:1-3) Here is a prophet who truly is mad thinking that he can retain God's favour while he is advocating such great sin. Balaam met his death shortly thereafter while aligned against Israel in the camps of the Midianites where he was slain with the sword. Here is something interesting though. While he was on his way to Balak an angel of the Lord tried three times to stop him. The donkey that Balaam travelled on halted each time and refused to travel further but Balaam was so fixed on his purpose that he could not see the angel and hurled such abuse on the donkey that the Lord opened the donkey's mouth and spoke to him. Donkeys are known for their stubbornness. It is plain in this instance to see who was the real donkey. Sometimes we are like Balaam and we insist on pursuing a destructive course of action with such exceeding stubbornness that we do not recognise the warning signs that God places before us.
Balaam's unwise course of action was not only to his detriment but to the detriment of others. Because of his craftiness the children of Israel were enticed into idol worship and whoredom with the Moabites and they paid dearly for it. As a result they were cursed with a plague and 24,000 people died (Num. 25:9). How often do we stop to think if our choices are going to be to the detriment of others? We very seldom stop to think if they will be detrimental to ourselves let alone those who are within our influence. Another lesson for us to learn from this story. It's a terrible thing to be the cause of someone's demise, whether physical or spiritual. This is why fornication is a sin with a double edge sword. When committed, you are not only damaging your spiritual welfare but are endangering the spiritual well being of another person.
The greatest lesson we can learn from Balaam is to trust God to direct our path. God knew that riches and prestige were Balaam's Achilles' heel and the adversary did too. In other words, God knew Balaam but obviously Balaam didn't know himself. Very often like Balaam we don't understand why God won't let us have something we want and we rationalise that we can handle that which we seek or that we can handle the temptation and so we flirt with disaster. We think we know how far we can go but we don't know how Satan will take that daring to his advantage and bring us to the point of no return. If Balaam had trusted God he would have known that he couldn't handle the lure of riches and he would not have come to the point where he abandoned all common sense and ended up being an enemy to the god who once favoured him enough to reveal things of importance to him. We are just children and God as our parent is trying to keep us away from the fire so it doesn't consume us. We need to trust that and we need to know our most prominent weakness which has the potential to take us away from Him. We need to seek to know ourselves.
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem.....how oft would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" (Matt 23:37). How appropriate that the Lord would use a mother hen as a metaphor for his parental tender care. It is only under His safe wings that we can find refuge and safety. He knows us far better than we know ourselves. He can save us from our personal 'madness' by guiding us in the paths that we should go. His paths are sure and his protection never failing.
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