1 Yesterday I read Numbers 22-24. I considerd it all day long. This does not cover all Balaam's prophecies, but is an account with The Angel of the Lord, Balak, the donkey, and Balaam. Was Balaam a good guy or bad guy? What did he see that most cannot? Sacred literature mentions a time when animals talked. Did they? Balaam's did! Nothing is too hard for God... and that includes things outside the bounds of reason. Below follows the sequence of events with Balaam and his donkey:
11.
Balaam asked to curse the Israelites.
2.
Balak sent elders (princes) to Balaam with the rewards
of divination (witchcraft).
3. Balaam met with the elders and told them “I will
bring you word again, as the Lord shall speak unto me.”
4.
God asked Balaam about the men (elders).
5.
Balaam responded that they sought a curse on the
Israelites.
6.
God will #1: God’s direction was twofold: (1) “Thou
shalt not go with them;” and (2) “thou shalt not curse the people: for they are
blessed.”
7.
Balaam told the elders, “The Lord refuseth to
give me leave to go with you.”
8.
Response #1: The message was sent back to Balak,
“Balaam refuseth to come with us.” (So far, so good).
9.
Balak sent more princes more honorable than the
first.
10.
Who said, “Let nothing, I pray thee, hinder thee
from coming unto me.” (Ignore your God.)
11.
Why? “For I (Balak) will promote thee unto very
great honour.”
12.
Response #2: Balak declines for any amount. (so
far, so good).
13.
But stay here one more night so God can give me
further direction. (Not good! He already has direction from the Lord. Now has
been talking to representatives of the Serpent which he should not have for their
god was Chemosh.)
14.
God’s Will #2: God’s new direction: “Go with
them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do.” (God changed
the conditions: Now he may go and speak but only what God tells him. He is allowing
Balaam to enter into temptation, surely as a test.)
15.
Response #3: Balaam went with them. (His trip to
temptation commenced. As can be seen, temptation gradually leads to sin without
being recognized as such.)
16.
God was angry with him. Why so? His heart was on
going all along. (As a small child would do, he was saying, “I want to go!)
17.
God’s Hedge #1: As Balaam was riding his donkey,
“the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an adversary against him.” The
Angel of the Lord” is pre-incarnate Jesus. (Jesus was against him. Either
people are for God or against him. Balaam’s heart needed circumcised for his
heart was with the rewards of Balak.)
18.
Donkey response #1: “The ass saw the angel of
the Lord standing in the way” carrying a sword. The donkey moved out of the
way.
19.
Balaam Strike 1: “Balaam smote the ass, to turn
her into the way.” (That was not in the Way of Jesus, but on the way of Balak.)
20.
God’s Hedge #2: “The angel of the Lord stood in
a path of the vineyards.”
21.
Donkey response #2: “the ass saw the angel of
the Lord, she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam's foot against
the wall.”
22.
Balaam strike #2: “He smote her again.”
23.
God’s Hedge #3: “The angel of the Lord went
further, and stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn either to the
right hand or to the left.” (Jesus is becoming more protective by grace.)
24.
Donkey response #3: It bowed to Jesus and ejected
(rejected Balaam), “When the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she fell down under
Balaam.”
25.
Balaam strike #3: “He smote the ass with a
staff.” (Staff’s were instruments of God. He misused an instrument of peace for
wrath.)
26.
Words finally given to the donkey, and not Balaam:
“The Lord opened the mouth of the ass.”
27.
The donkey speaks #1: “What have I done to thee,
that thou hast smitten me these three times?” (Notice that God stood in the way
of Balaam three times, the donkey was struck three times, and Balaam had questioned
God three times. That is not an accident. God was providing a teaching moment
to Balaam through an ass. Balaam had been more set o his own path than the ass
had been!)
28.
Balaam, although he had mocked God, accused the
donkey of mocking him.
29.
Balaam warned the donkey: “I would there were a
sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.” (Balaam would have killed the
donkey if he had a sword and was given the chance. Jesus however, had a sword
but did not kill Balaam as was God’s usual practice. God showed grace; Balaam
did not.)
30.
The donkey speaks #2: “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? and he said, Nay.” (The donkey reminded Balaam that it had
been he all along who had carried the burden. That is symbolic of Jesus who
always had carried Balaam through the safety of the Amorites and Moabites. The
ass pointed out to Balaam his lack of respect, for himself, but symbolically
for the Lord.)
31.
The Lord opened the eyes of Balaam who then saw
Jesus with the sword. (The obvious implication is that Balaam had been
spiritually blind, and by the way, stupider than the ass in a discernment
sense. We must always considers what God wills, not only what we hear, because
God tests our hearts.)
32.
Balaam “bowed down his head, and fell flat on
his face.” (however, the donkey had already been more subservient when he had
bowed down to Jesus before.)
33.
God’s Will
#3: The Angel of the Lord, for the third time, finally gave direction to Balaam: “Wherefore
hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand
thee, because thy way is perverse before me.” (God’s direction had not been
about the curse but about Balaam. The story was about Balaam’s attitude all
along, and had little to do with Balak who had been “perverse” in his true desires.
We find out later, a lust for wealth was the error of Balaam; Jude 1:11).
34.
The Lord compared Balaam to the ass: “And the
ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from
me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive.” (That is the grace
that God has but Balaam did not. Another error of Balaam was the lack of grace.
Error? Continue on.)
35.
Balaam confesses: “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.” (He knew that his motive had been silver and gold
all along. Jude compare him to Cain in his attitude. It was also the attitude
of Judas who betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. When Judas betrayed
the Lord, he could have said, “Been there, done that many times. It was Balaam’s
“error” because he repented. It’s never too late for God’s grace. We are to
forgive seventy-times seven because Jesus set the example by endless grace.)
36.
God showed his grace: “Go with the men: but only
the word that I shall speak unto thee.”
37.
Balaam went but with a new attitude. He felt
guilt, repented of it, was forgiven, and made a new creature with a circumcised
heart willing to obey for right reasons.
38.
Balaam told Balak he would not tickle his ears
and say what he wanted to hear, but “the word that God putteth in my mouth,
that shall I speak.” (His will finally is in accord with God’s Will and his
words were from God’s Holy Spirit: See Acts 2 for accordance.)
39.
Balak and Balaam went to Kirjathhuzoth. (Strong’s
Dictionary offers a related word from it root: “Quran.” Was that a rejection of
Islam which would come there hundreds of years later? Is it only coincidental that
Judas Iscariot’s name, who had the error of Balaam , was also associated with “Quran?”
)
40.
Balak made an offering the Chemosh, or perhaps
the Quran. Balaam did not.
41.
Balak and Balaam went to a high place to see the
Israelites.
42.
Balaam had alters made for the Lord (seven
pillars) and made offerings to God from each. (It is to be noted that
originally there were seven pillars of Islam. Was Balaam refuting Mohammad even
at this early time?)
43.
God met Balaam and finally put words in hos
mouth (not the donkey’s this time.)
44.
Balaam spoke the words of the Lord, finally, but
it was not to curse the Israelites.
45.
Balaam finally saw Jesus from atop the rocks. He
saw Jesus looking at the Israelites from whose loins he would someday come.
46.
Balaam asked for salvation: “Let me die the
death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!” (Note that Balaam saw
salvation to be at his death. All the while, Jesus, as the Angel of the Lord,
had kept him safe from the Evil one, represented by Balak.
47.
Balak, symbolic of the Serpent, recognized that
the Lord had outwitted him through Balaam.
48.
Balaam showed reverence for the Lord in answer to
the “serpent.” “Must I not take heed to speak that which the Lord hath put in
my mouth?” (He was finally in complete obedience, not because of the sword of
Jesus but because of the Lord’s grace in sparing him. That’s why all Christians
obey God; to demonstrate love and respect.)
49.
Balak continues on: Let us go somewhere else,
presumably out of the presence of the Lord. Would Balaam obey Balak or God?
50.
Balaam went but not to obey Balak but to burn
him by burning incense to the Lord.
51.
The Lord finally gave Balaam the words to speak.
52.
They were: “I have received commandment to
bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.”
53.
Balak continue to tempt Balaam as Satan was soon
to tempt Jesus with three.
54.
“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
Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to
their tribes; and the spirit of God came upon him.”
55.
Balaam was a Gentile. He saw himself worshiping
in the tents of Shem as God had spoke after the flood: “God shall enlarge
Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his
servant” (Gen 9:27). (He realized that his experience was all about Jesus.)
56.
He saw Israel as the Garden Paradise, or Heaven.
57.
Balaam will was harmonized with the Will of God:
“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?”
58.
In his mind’s eye, Balaam saw Jesus: “I shall
see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star
out of Jacob.” (The Star of Jacob is Jesus.)
59.
Balaam saw Jesus having dominion over the land;
he saw the millennial reign of Jesus and New Jerusalem which would come down to
that place: “Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion.”
60.
In short, Balaam did not curse the Israelites
but blessed them. Blessing as willing that others be saved. Salvation would
come when Jesus finished his work. The land of Israel was just part of the
task.
In summary, Balaam in theology is known as the bad guy. His heart was wrong, but Jesus circumcised it not by the blade of circumcision as with the flesh of the penis, but with the Word of the Lord. Of course, THE WORD is Jesus. Balaam saw Jesus with his eyes closed. Paul saw Jesus when he was blinded. I see Jesus through my heart. God doesn’t leave nor forsake us when we error, but if Christians repent, he is always there to lift us up just as Balaam was lifted off the ground by Jesus’s words when the donkey stumbled.
Appended: The other viewpoint:
Ah, but not so fast! Even prophets are human. The opinions on Balaam differ because after the Lord set him straight, and he saw Jesus, he still continued in sin. Moses spoke this about Balaam:
And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. (Num 31:15-16).
That was a serious offense. John the Revelator wrote on that:
That raises the question; how unrighteous can a Christian be and still remain a Christian? Was Balaam still "godly" in his sin? There is no mention of a later confession, and the error of Balaam seemed to be the sin of the Nicolaitanes whose sin God hated:But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. (Rev 2:14)
So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate. Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. (Rev 2:15-16)God hates Balaam's and Nicolas's sins, but was his grace generous enough to tolerate their sins? It is implied that Jesus forgives time and again as he encourages others to do "seventy-times seven." However, that forgiveness is based on contrition and repentance. Did Balaam repent of his other errors? We don't know.
This brings up the Calvinistic fifth point: Does God preserve the saints? "Saints" are those consecrated to the Lord. "Consecrated" is "devoted to a purpose with or as if with deep solemnity or dedication." (Merriam-Webster Dict.). Obviously, Balaam was not devoted; perhaps he was not a saint.
Some believe that belief is all that is required. Of course, even the demons believe in the Lord, so that is not efficacious. Belief is best-said as "trusting" in the Lord. In fact, "born again" is trusting Jesus and his sacrfice (John 3:7,14). Balaam believed, but did he trust. He fornicated against the Lord and encouraged others. His prophecies are epiphanies, but were they merely God's form of persuasion? Was Balaam merely transformed from a godless sinner to a sinner who believes in the Lord but does not love Him well enough to obey His Will?
I would say that Balaam had his "Jesus moment." He wasn't a bad guy, but his heart never seemed to be circumcised as it must. A moment of belief is not enough for salvation. It must endure to the end. I started to write, "a moment of faith" but changed that to "a moment of belief" because moment and faith are oxymoronic. "Faith" implies enduring to the end. It seems that Balaam did not!
In my youth, I too had my "Jesus moment" - several times in fact. But my faith was not there. I believed but never trusted God to deliver me from my sins. I'm afraid that with Calvinism, many merely have a Jesus moment. That is not sufficient.
Sin must be covered by confession and repentance, and that is an ongoing process. Balaam seemed not to do that. My wish for him is that he did. Good guy or bad guy? He was bad, but God is gracious. We won't know until we die ourselves. Was Calvin right or Arminius? Again, that won't be known for certain until and if sinning "Christians" get their room in God's mansion.
No comments:
Post a Comment