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Balaam's Blunder


October 1, 2023 "…you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed."

Numbers 22:12


It is sad to think that a donkey could have more spiritual insight than a man, but it is true in the story of Balaam. Israel was ready to enter the Promised Land and had encamped on the border of Moab and great fear struck the people of that land. Balak, the king of the Moabites, sent princes to hire the diviner Balaam, the son Beor, to come and curse Israel.


“Look, a people has come from Egypt. See, they cover the face of the earth, and are sitting next to me! Therefore please come at once, curse these people for me, for they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”

Numbers 22:5 & 6


After Balaam explains to the Lord what the men have come to hire him to do the Lord says, “You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.”


Balaam listens to the Lord this first time, but his heart is not in it. The men return to the king and tell him that Balaam refuses to come and curse Israel. The king sends men a second time, more numerable and honorable than the first. He promises to honor Balaam greatly if only he will come, and that he will do whatever Balaam asks of him. This time when Balaam asks of the Lord again, He tells him to go, but that he can only speak the words that the Lord gives him.


Did the Lord change His mind? No, but since He knew Balaam’s heart was set on the prize—He let him have his way. How did God know that Balaam was determined to go? When Balaam went in to inquire of the Lord the second time, after God had already told him, “No”--all was revealed.


Balaam sets out. So Balaam rose in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the princes of Moab.”


Then God’s anger was aroused because he went, and the Angel of the Lord took His stand in the way as an adversary against him. And he was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. Now the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand, and the donkey turned aside out of the way…

Numbers 22:22


I wonder what thoughts were going through Balaam’s mind as he rode. Whatever he was thinking he was a fool. For all the spiritual insight he was supposed to have he was clueless as to how near he was to judgment. The donkey knew and tried to protect Balaam. He wasn’t much of a diviner after all.


And the Angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because your way is perverse before Me. The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three times. If she had not turned aside from Me, surely I would also have killed you by now, and let her live.”

Numbers 22:32 & 33


Judgment was delayed, but not forgotten. “The children of Israel also killed with the sword Balaam the son of Beor, the soothsayer, among those who were killed by them.” Joshua 13:22 When someone comes against God’s people, they come against Him. He takes it personally. It is good to remember that Israel was a stiff-necked people. They were rebellious, unfaithful, and disobedient all the time they wandered through the wilderness for the forty years prior to this moment. Nevertheless, they belonged to Him. What kind of love is this? It is a love that we will never truly understand until we get to the other side of life. A love so great that it reaches down, and through the blood of Jesus, wipes our slate clean. It is a love that brings us into a covenant relationship with God and makes us His own.-LG


Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him.

Psalms 34:8-9


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