Numbers 22
After the death of Aaron (Numbers 20:22–29), Israel approached the land they would inherit. Arad the Canaanite attacked them, and they implored the Lord for victory over him. They sought God’s protective favor and utterly defeated these Canaanite enemies (Numbers 21:1–3). Amazingly, during a detour around Edom, again they complained about hardship and bad food (21:5). God sent fiery serpents to inflict pain and death on these grumblers (21:6). Then He sent a remedy in the form of a bronze serpent raised on a pole. Jesus referred to this event as typifying His coming death for those afflicted with the poison of sin (John 3:14). When Sihon refused passage and instead attacked Israel, they thoroughly defeated him (21:21–24). When attacked by Og, king of Bashan, they defeated him. All the territories occupied by these two “kings” became the property of Israel.
I. The Panic of Balak (22:1–6)
A. Balak heard about the series of victories over these tribes; He knew of their escape from Egypt.
He panicked, for he observed that they were many and he concluded they were mighty. He was “sick of dread” (22:3).
B. Balak knew of a man expert in divination, so successful in his craft that “he whom you bless is blessed and he whom you curse is cursed” (22:6).
Perhaps he was active in the demonic but also knew of the superior power of the Lord of the Israelites. He would be spiritually kin to Simon the sorcerer of Samaria (Acts 8:9-11); or of those people in the apostolic age who knew the “depths of Satan” (Revelation 2:24).
C. So intensely desperate and so stupidly convinced of Balaam’s prowess was Balak, that Balak conceived of an appropriate fee and sought to hire Balaam to come.
Given the power of his divination, his ability to reach the will of the demonic forces, Balak was convinced, “Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land” (6).
II. The Persuasion of Balaam (7–21)
Balak would not take “No’ as in any sense a final answer; this led him to an extravagant scheme to employ Balaam for the supposed power of his curses.
A. Balak sent money and elders to Balaam to seek his conjuring aid.
After they explained the request of Balak and showed him the money (“the diviner’s fee”), Balaam asked for an evening’s meditation and seeking the will of Jehovah on this matter. These emissaries stayed at Balaam’s abode.
B. When the Lord asked Balaam about these visitors, Balaam explained the reason for Balak’s alarm and the nature of the request.
The Lord forbad Balaam to participate. The next morning Balaam told the messengers that he could not give consent to their request and sent them back to Balak. They reported his refusal to come (9–14).
C. Dissatisfied, and perhaps a bit astounded at Balaam’s answer, Balak intensified his request for a curse on the Israelites.
He sent more honored officials and made greater monetary promises including this extravagant pledge, “I will do whatever you say to me” (17). Balaam rightly responded, “I could not go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more” (18). He did, however, consent to go to God again to see if He would respond a different way. He would not speak other than what God said but thought he could persuade the Lord to give a different answer (19).
D. On this occasion, the Lord permitted Balaam to go.
The necessity of reporting only the exact message revealed to him still was made clear (20). God was using the cupidity of Balaam to make a more extensive statement about His purpose through these people so feared by Balak. The next morning, Balaam saddled his donkey to go with the men from Moab. Balaam was accompanied by two of his own servants and the Moabite men went ahead.
III. The Persecution of the Donkey (22–30)
The phrase, “God’s anger was aroused because he went” (22) describes the unchanging position of God toward all evil and disobedience. It is described as “aroused” (NKJV) in light of the attempted manipulation and consequential permutation of Balaam’s initial response of obedience. God’s anger is aroused in differing degrees at each sin. The measured degree of anger depends on the aggravated nature of the sin. God’s manifestations of wrath always are in exact proportion to the degree of perversity manifested against the differing degrees of light a person has (Matthew 11:22–24). All sin is worthy of eternal condemnation for it contradicts some aspect of the infinite excellence and immutable holiness of God. But there will be differing degrees even of eternal punishment. God’s anger is displayed in exact proportion to the heinousness of the sin. These differences do not argue changeableness or inconsistency in God but demonstrate His perfect interaction with mutable creatures and situations.
A. The Angel of the Lord interrupted Balaam’s journey three times.
The donkey was enabled to see the strong and glorious presence of the angel, but Balaam was not made aware of it. On the first, the donkey ran into a field and was beaten by his master. On the second, the donkey turned into a wall and crushed Balaam’s foot against it. Balaam beat the donkey again. On the third time, the donkey lay down and again paid the price with a beating for saving her master from a wrathful sword.
B. In order to show which of these was truly acting the part of a brute beast, the donkey’s mouth was opened in speech to question his master.
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- The donkey asked why she had been beaten three times. Evidently, she did not know that Balaam could not see the angel; certainly he should be thankful for the caution, not angry for refusing to run into perhaps fatal danger.
- Balaam answered, ironically, that the donkey had abused him, thinking himself innocent of any abuse and unwarranted harshness. In fact, he retorted, had his staff been a sword, the donkey would be dead (29).
- The donkey pointed to the irrationality of Balaam’s reaction. Had this kind of thing ever happened before? Had the donkey ever brought any harm to Balaam? Had it not always done obediently what Balaam required of it? “Was I ever disposed to do this to you? (30). Balaam knew that the interrogation pointed to a fault in his unthoughtful and reactionary response.
- Balaam’s eyes were opened to see the angel blocking the path with a sword in his hand. Now the danger became clear, and the donkey’s incomprehensible hesitations were explained. Balaam turned quickly from a false sense of justified rage to a fearful shrinking from the very true danger of his situation.
IV. The Perplexity of Balaam (31–34)
Balaam fell flat on his face in the posture of an absolutely defenseless man. He had no defense, either physical or verbal in light of the rationale for his journey and his hateful aggravation with his beast. The beast had seen what he could not. The beast protected him while he beat the beast. Surely Balaam must have wondered “Who was the true donkey in this event?”
A. Now the angel talked to Balaam.
He spoke of the donkey, then Balaam, then the donkey, and Balaam again. He defended the brute beast in his mistreatment. He stated the reason for his menacing posture toward Balaam: “Your way is perverse before me” (32). The donkey turned away three times to help avoid the danger. Had she not done so, the angel would have killed Balaam and let her live (33). Balaam’s anger was as ill-placed as his journey was perverse. He intended it in a hope of gaining an increased degree of wealth and notoriety. God allowed his insistence to come to fruition in order to announce the greatness of his mercies for the covenant people.
B. Balaam saw his sin, admitted it, and offered to stop the journey and return home.
The angel said to continue, go with the men (who probably were somewhere ahead and had not seen this confrontation), but to speak only “the word that I speak to you” (35).
C. Elements in the narrative point to this angel, called the “Angel of the Lord,” as being a pre-incarnate appearing of the Son of God, who is indeed the chief Angel, the very Son of God whose message is couched not only in His words but eventually in his very being as “God with us.”
Note He told Balaam, “Your way is perverse before me.” Then he told Balaam, “Only the word that I speak to you, that shall you speak.”
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- The people of God’s choice were delivered from captivity by the blood of the Passover lamb, from a lethal bite by a lifeless serpent raised on a pole, and now by a Warrior-Angel with a sword.
- God’s elect are brought to salvation by “the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19), by His removal of the lethality of sin by bearing “our sins in his own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:22), and finally in His appearance as the one out of whose “mouth went a sharp two-edged sword” (Revelation 1:16).
V. The Preparation of Balak (22:35–23:4)
Balak wanted to make sure that he cleared the path for Balaam to utter an effectual curse. At the arrival of Balaam and his entourage, Balak sent meat from oxen and sheep that he had offered (22:40). On three occasions in preparation for a curse on Israel, Balak followed the prescription of Balaam to build seven altars on each of which to offer an ox and a lamb (23:2, 14, 30). These events of sacrifice were carried out in the hope that God would change His message that He gave Balaam (23:5, 15–16, 27). The desperate Balak, on the third occasion said, “Perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there” (23:27). On this third occasion, Balaam did not bother to “to seek to use sorcery” or “to seek omens” but only raised his eyes to look at Israel, “and the Spirit of God came upon him” (24:2).
VI. The Prophecies of Balaam (23:5–24:25)
A. Balaam spoke only as God directed him by the Holy Spirit.
Balaam knew this from the beginning and told Balak this was the case. As God had permitted Balaam’s journey after forbidding it, Balaam thought that a like alteration might happen if God were coaxed with sufficient sacrifice. On each occasion, however, Balaam affirmed in essence, “I could not do anything contrary to the command of the Lord either good or bad, of my own accord. What the Lord speaks, that I will speak” (24:13).
B. Balaam spoke as the Lord directed concerning Israel and the blessings intended: “There is no omen against Jacob, nor is there any divination against Israel” (23:23).
“Blessed is everyone who blesses you, and cursed is everyone who curses you” (24:9). Balaam saw the blessedness of Israel with such profound clarity that he exclaimed, “Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!” (23:10).
C. Balaam gave several prophetic propositions concerning the coming Messiah—the very reason that Israel existed and was protected by the Lord.
For example, he spoke, “He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor has He seen wickedness in Israel” (23:21). This was not true of Israel as a people but would be precisely true of them only in this sense: “Israelites, … from whom, according to the flesh Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen” (Romans 9:5). “His king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted” (24:7). “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; a star shall come forth from Jacob, a scepter shall arise from Israel” (24:17).
D. Balaam gave prophecies concerning some of the surrounding nations.
In quick succession (24:18–25), Edom, Seir, Amalek, the Kenites Ashur and Eber could be summarized in this judgment, “So they also will come to destruction” (24:24). And for all people everywhere, Balaam saw this clearly, “Alas, who can live except God has ordained it?” (24:23).
E. Though Moses does not record the precise way that Balaam sought to save face with Balak, the book or Revelation records a bit of perverse insight Balaam gave, He could not utter any curse on Israel, but he knew what would incite God’s disciplinary displeasure.
He advised an infiltration of the camp of the Israelites to entice them to perverse and serious violations of both the first and second table of the commandments. Jesus warned against “the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality” (Revelation 2:14). This event is recorded immediately in Numbers 25:1–3. The anger of the Lord against Israel was propitiated by the action of Phinehas, when he killed an Israelite man and a Moabite woman who were involved in the very act of sexual immorality. God declared that he “made atonement for the sons of Israel” (Numbers 25:7–13).
Poem
“Did I not prophesy in your name;
Did I not speak the truth
Did I not hesitate to proclaim
A curse, with a forsooth.
Seven times I uttered a blessing
Spoke the nations’ story.
Saw no wickedness, purely stressing
Israel’s gospel glory.”
“But you went to gain evil’s wages
Hoped that I’d change my mind.
Gold and silver the world engages;
Perishing souls go blind.
Against warning you decide to start,
For Balak you must see.
Wages of wickedness lured your heart;
You sought to entice me.
Angel with sword in hand blocked the path,
Your donkey hit the ground.
Blind to the glory, you vent your wrath;
Selfish motives abound.
Your donkey spoke—madness to restrain,
You rode a path to death.
You sought to bribe me so you could gain
The thrill of worldly wealth.
Constrained by my Spirit, then you spoke
The glories of my grace.
Constrained by your sin you did provoke
Sin in the elect race.
Balak was acting on your advice
To prompt unlawful acts,
Both body and heart to sin enticed.
My anger brought them back.
Redemption’s plan before the ages
Called forth cleansing action.
Purity prompts, and love engages
Moral satisfaction.
Phinehas acted with holy zeal;
He cleansed the camp through blood.
Through blood My Son now makes His appeal,
In place of sinners stood.”
