It all started when Moses led the Israelite people out of Egypt. After crossing the Red Sea to flee Pharaoh’s soldiers, they stumbled around in the desert for 40 years.
This involved a massive amount of people who were following and grumbling about the leadership of Moses and his brother Aaron. Logistically, how would he feed and water that mob and their livestock?
God gave them manna and quail to eat as well as producing water from rocks, but the Jews were not happy, so God kept the mob moving. As they approached cities and other people groups, their kings would send out armies to battle the Israelite nomads, but God would help them to easily defend and destroy the armies. The Jews would then loot the cities and graze their cattle on the lands.
It was when the Israelites arrived at the Moab border that their king, Balak, went into a full-blown panic.
The Moabites said to Balak, “This horde is going to lick up everything around us like an ox licks up the grass of the field.”
Balak realized that no country could stand against the God favored Jews. He summoned a man from Aramean named Balaam who was a diviner, or prophet, and someone who took no sides. Some traditions present him as a forerunner of the Magi, while others including the Apostle Peter saw him as a charlatan. Though this man had the ability to cast curses on individuals, he also had the ability to communicate with God.
Balak sent messengers from Moab and Midian with the following message for Balaam: ”Come and curse these people for they are too powerful for me. Whoever you bless is blessed and whoever you curse is cursed. Perhaps I will be able to drive them from my land. Oh, and by the way, here is a gob of money for your time.”
Balaam, with the cash on the table in front of him, said to the messengers, “Stay the night. I will enquire of the Lord and see what he has to say.”
That night, God came to Balaam and asked who the men were at his house and what their intentions were.
Balaam explained that Balak requested that he come and put a curse on the Israelites so the Moabite army could beat them in battle and drive them away.
God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them or put a curse on the Israelites for they are blessed.”
The next morning, Balaam said to the messengers, “Go back to your country, for God has refused to let me go with you.”
The messengers returned to Balak, giving him Balaam’s reply.
So, Balak sent more princes, more numerous and distinguished than the first group. They said to Balaam, ”His majesty, the King of Moab, requests your appearance for which he will pay you handsomely and do whatever you say if you will put just an incy-wincy curse on the Israelite mob.”
“Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything great or small beyond what the Lord would allow,” he told the new messengers. “Stay the night and I will find out what else the Lord will tell me.”
That night, God told Balaam he could go with the messengers but only to do what He told him.
Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the Moabite officials. But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, it turned off the road and walked into a field. Balaam, not being able to see the angel, beat the donkey to get it back on the road.
Then the angel of the Lord then stood in a narrow path through the vineyards, with walls on both sides. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam’s foot against it. So, he beat the donkey again.
Then the angel of the Lord moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat it with his staff. 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.”
The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?”
“No,” he said.
Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn. He bowed low and fell facedown.
The angel of the Lord asked him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared the donkey.”
Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned. I did not realize you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now if you are displeased, I will go back.”
The angel of the Lord said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but speak only what I tell you.” So, Balaam went with Balak’s officials.
When Balak heard that Balaam was coming to meet with him, he went out to meet him at the edge of his territory.
“For crackin’ ice, what took you so long? Didn’t I promise I’d pay you?” Balak asked.
“I’m here now,” was Balaam’s reply.
Balak took him to an overlook where they could look down and see a portion of the Israelite nation.
“Build me seven altars here and prepare seven bulls and rams for me.” Balaam said. They then sacrificed the animals on the alters.
Balaam walked away a distance and the Lord gave him a message. Coming back to the overlook and Balak’s entourage, he uttered an oracle, blessing the nation of Israel.
“What the? I brought you here to curse the Jews. You blessed them!” Balak screamed.
“I can only speak what God puts in my mouth,” was Balaam’s defense.
Balak took him to a second overlook above the Israelites. Again, he was asked to make seven altars and sacrifice seven bulls and rams.
Once again, God gave Balaam instructions to bless the Jews.
Now, picture in your mind the Warner Brother’s cartoon character, Yosemite Sam because from here on out, Balak acted like this character (hot headed, red faced, stomping around, shouting “Oooh, can’t you get anything right?”
Taking Balaam to a third high place to look down on the Israelites, he again built seven altars and sacrificed seven bulls and rams. This time, instead of turning to sorcery as he had done before, Balaam looked out over the encamped Israelites and again blessed them as before.
This enraged Balak for a third time and he again blew up.
“Our deal was very simple! I pay you a house full of loot and you curse the Israelites. No curse, no loot!”
Now Balaam had come all this way, although God had initially barred him from coming. The only reason he was on the hilltop with Balak was for money. If God had allowed him to curse the Jews, he would have been a very rich man. He ached at the idea of walking away from the riches, so he took Balak aside.
“This mob of Jews that you are worried about, there is no need to worry. You know of course that they are relatives of the Moabites going all the way back to Abraham’s nephew, Lot. God has given instructions to Moses. He said, ‘Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war.’” (Deuteronomy 2:9-15) “If you want to destroy the Jews, you can do it from within.”
Balaam advised Balak that the way to bring ruin to the Israelites was to allow them to co-mingle with the Moabites. The Israelite men who were camped on the border, went into Moab and had relations with the Moabite prostitutes, and many began to worship the Moabite god, Baal. This enraged God, and He sent a plague amongst those who defied him, and 24,000 Israelites died.
So, Balaam, who was not allowed to put a curse upon the Israelite people, slyly got his money from Balak by using the back-door approach. Balaam was a prophet for a profit.
And yet, though he was sly and conniving, we must also remember that he failed to recognize he was carrying on a conversation with a donkey. Like that was an everyday occurrence. If you asked my wife, she would tell you that she does it every day.
I, of course, find that offensive.
*The story of Balaam is found in Numbers, Chapters 22-24 in the Bible.
Title photo from Britannica
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