Prophets and Profits

The story of Balaam, as we see in Scripture and as we heard in Sunday's sermon, is not confined to the book of Numbers. It is referenced in Second Peter chapter 2, and in the letter to the church in Pergamum found in Revelation chapter 2. And there is a warning to be heeded. So, let's consider this question: if a man has been made aware of God's desire, why would he speak a word that is in opposition to the desire of God?

In Balaam's case, it appears that he was offered temporal incentives that were enticing enough to cause him to oppose a series of spiritual directives and warnings.

If you have a Bible that has maps in the back, check out the distance from the region of Moab, Balak's kingdom, to the region of Mesopotamia along the Euphrates River, where Balaam was. It's about 250-300 miles. Balaam must have had quite a reputation for Balak to send two sets of messengers, and money, to petition Balaam to travel from Mesopotamia to Moab.

And Balaam made the journey. He made the journey in spite of having received a direct warning from the mouth of God (Numbers 22:12). Made the journey in spite of what I like to call the "glossolalic" protest from his own donkey (Numbers 22:28-30). Made the journey in spite of having a direct encounter with 'the angel of the LORD' holding a drawn sword (Numbers 22:31-35... and, I hope you see the connection to Revelation 2:12-16!).

As Pastor Benji noted, there are some that are so bound in the grip of sin that they will remain on the reckless path in opposition to God (see Numbers 22:32). And Balaam lost on several fronts. He lost the ability to curse: when he opened his mouth, God filled it with words of blessing upon Israel. He lost the wealth of Balak, who refused to pay him after the pronouncements of blessing spoken over the children of God. And, for his part in opposing the mandate of God, Balaam was killed- not on the road by the angel of the LORD, but in a war later conducted between the Israelites and the Midianites.

Now, this is interesting, because Scripture tells us that after the failure to curse Israel, Balaam went back home- that 250-300 mile journey north to Mesopotamia, if the biblical scholars are on target. But the war was conducted in the areas of Moab and Midian (which is even further south than Moab)... Why was Balaam there? I think his return to Moab is connected to his success in creating a sexually immoral and spiritually adulterous environment that led to the deaths of 24,000 Israelites. We'll explore that a little bit more tomorrow.