Balaam of Pethor was one of the few non-Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament. His story is in some ways convoluted but the lessons to be learned from it are quite simple. A prophet to be a prophet must strive diligently to speak the word the Lord gives him to speak, not the words that others want to hear or that will bring honor or riches to him. The story is contained in Numbers 22 to 25. What follows is my reflections upon the story of the prophet Balaam of Pethor.
When the Israelites came into the Promised Land, King Balak of Moab witnessed the Israelites defeat the Amorites and “was sore afraid….because they were many.” So King Balak sent princely messengers, “with the rewards of divination in their hand,” to Balaam of Pethor to ask Balaam to curse the Israelites, “for they are too mighty for me.” King Balak knew that he who Balaam blessed was blessed, and he who Balaam cursed was cursed.
When these princely messengers met with Balaam and told him what Balak wanted, Balaam told them, “Lodge here this night, and I will bring you word again, as the Lord shall speak unto me.” After Balaam spoke with the Lord, the Lord told Balaam, “Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed.” The next morning Balaam went to the princes of Balak and told them, “Get you into your land: for the Lord refuseth to give me leave to go with you.” The princes then returned to deliver Balaam’s reply to their King.
Balak though was not deterred. Balak sent another group of princes, even more honorable than the first, to Balaam with this message. “Let nothing, I pray thee, hinder thee from coming unto me: For I will promote thee unto very great honour, and I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me: come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people.”
To which Balaam answered the Balak’s princes, “If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more.” Balaam then asked this new group of princely messengers to once again stay the night, stating he would give them the Lord’s reply in the morning. That night the Lord told Balaam, “If the men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do.”
The next morning “Balaam rose up….and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. And God’s anger was kindled because he went.” At first it might not be readily apparent what Balaam did that caused God to be angry with Balaam. Didn’t the Lord tell Balaam to rise up and go with the men, and isn’t that what Balaam did? But that isn’t what the Lord told Balaam. The Lord added a condition to Balaam going with the men, and that condition was that if Balak’smen should come to Balaam first Balaam should go with them. Balaam either ignored or didn’t understand this part of the instruction and took it upon himself to go so God was angry with Balaam.
God though did not punish Balaam for his inattention to detail, instead God sought to warn Balaam so Balaam would understand that when the Lord speaks being attentive to detail is important. The way that the Lord sought to warn Balaam was by sending an Angel to block Balaam’s path, an Angel only Balaam’s ass could see. “And the ass saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.”
Three times Balaam’s ass tried to warn Balaam not to go forward because the ass saw the danger Balaam did not, to the point where the third time the ass “fell down under Balaam: and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff.”
Even after Balaam did not recognize or heed the three warnings that the Lord had given Balaam not to continue on his journey, the Lord did not punish Balaam. Instead the Lord “opened the mouth of the ass” and had him speak directly to Balaam.
Ass: What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?
Balaam: Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.
Ass: Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? Was I ever wont to do so unto thee?
Balaam: Nay.
Only at this point did the Lord open the eyes of Balaam so he could see the Angel which would have slain Balaam if his ass would have gone ahead. Seeing now the Angel of the Lord, Balaam “bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face.” The Angel then told Balaam, “I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me.” Unless the ass had done what the ass did, “surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive.”
Balaam now realized that he had made a mistake, but Balaam did not express remorse for attacking his ass three times when the ass was only trying to save Balaam’s life or question why his ass saw the Angel while Balaam did not. Balaam did not even express gratitude to the Angel of the Lord for warning him. Balaam simply said, “I have sinned; for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me: now therefore, if it displease thee, I will get me back again.” In short, Balaam simply said, “I made a mistake, I didn’t know.” Balaam did not seem to question why he did not know.
The Angel then told Balaam to go forward with the Princes of Balak, “but only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak.”
When Balaam finally arrived before Balak, Balak was indignant. “Did I not earnestly send unto thee to call thee? Wherefore camest thou not unto me? Am I not able indeed to promote thee to honor?” To which Balaam replied, “Lo, I am come unto thee: have I now any power at all to say any thing? The word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak.”
The next day, Balak took Balaam “up into the high places” so that Balak could show Balaam how numerous Balak’s subjects were. Balaam then told Balak to build seven alters and bring an ox and a ram for the two men to offer on each alter, which was done. Balaam then told Balak to stand by the offerings while Balaam went to a high place to inquire of the Lord.
When Balaam returned he told Balak and all the princes of Moab that were with him what the Lord had told Balaam to say to Balak:
Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel. How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? Or how shall I defy, whom the Lord hath not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!
Balaam knew that what the Lord instructed Balaam to say to Balak was not what Balak wanted to hear. Balaam knew in fact that what the Lord instructed Balaam to say to Balak would likely make Balak very angry and that Balak had it within his power to kill Balaam with a wave of his hand. But Balaam did as the Lord had instructed him anyway.
Balak: What hast thou done unto me? I took thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast blessed them altogether.
Balaam: Must I not take heed to speak that which the Lord hath put in my mouth?
Balak was not deterred and asked Balaam once again to inquire of the Lord, which Balaam did. When Balaam returned his message from the Lord to Balak was even more blunt and direct:
Rise up, Balak, and hear; hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor: God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn. Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought! Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain.
Still not to be deterred from cursing his enemies, Balak tried yet once again to convince Balaam to do his bidding. Balak proceeded as if Balaam had power that Balaam had already said he did not. But Balaam went yet again to the Lord, but this time “Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness” and after seeing Israel abiding in their tents “the spirit of God came upon him.” Here are the words the Lord had Balaam deliver to Balak:
Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said: He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open: How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river’s side, as the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters. He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows. He couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a great lion: who shall stir him up? Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee.
Each time Balak insisted that Balaam return to the Lord to curse his enemies the language in favor of Balak’s enemies grew stronger. Each time Balak ignored the word of the Lord as spoken by Balaam the further and further the desires of Balak’s heart became. Each time Balaam spoke only what the Lord had commanded Balaam to speak, each time Balak refused to heed Balaam’s words. Balak was very angry.
Balak: I called thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times. Therefore now flee thou to thy place: I thought to promote thee unto great honor; but, lo, the Lord hath kept thee back from honor.
Balaam: Spake I not also to thy messengers which thou sentest unto me, saying, “If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; but what the Lord saith, that will I speak?”
Balaam then one more final time, without being asked by Balak, conveyed the words of the Lord concerning the destruction and afflictions of Moab, Edom, Seir, Amalek, the Kenites, Asshur and Eber, which “shall perish forever.” Balaam then returned home and Balak left.
The words of the Lord regarding Israel spoken by Balaam did not though mean that Israel was without flaw and beyond reproach. After Balaam had spoken the word of the Lord condemning Moab, the Lord’s fierce anger was kindled against Israel when Israel “bowed down to [Moab’s] gods.” The Lord stated his blessing upon Israel over Moab, but Israel followed Moab over the Lord. Israel followed the example of Moab.
For this transgression the Judges of Israel were told to “[s]lay every one his men that were joined unto” the Moabite gods. “Those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.”
Although the scriptures are in my opinion far from clear on the point, Balaam did later disregard the word of the Lord and suffered the consequences of his transgression. But with Balak, Balaam spoke the words that the Lord had given him to speak despite the dangers in doing so and the honors that it cost him.