Thoughts on Numbers 22:26-27

 Thoughts on Numbers 22:26-27 by Richard T. Ritenbaugh

"Then the Angel of the LORD went further, and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left. (27) And when the donkey saw the Angel of the LORD, she lay down under Balaam; so Balaam's anger was aroused, and he struck the donkey with his staff."

The donkey proves herself wiser than Balaam.

God frequently does this: First, He gets us in a wide place and allows us to make our decisions. It soon becomes apparent which direction we are going, which path we are taking. Then God begins to narrow the way, especially if He sees us going in the wrong direction.

He catches us in a place where we can turn around and gives us an opportunity to make a right decision. If we do not do what is right, what is beneficial to our good, He will let us go a little further down the path to catch us in a place where the answer is obvious, and we can do nothing except stop, and say, "God help me! I've gone the wrong way, and I need You to open the path for me."

He did this to Balaam. He got him to the point where there was only plunging on to destruction on one hand, and on the other, stopping and retracing his steps to where he could head in the right direction.

This is where Balaam is in these two verses. The donkey simply lies down, as that is all she can do. Proverbs 22:3 says, "A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished."

The donkey is the 'prudent man' here, and blind Balaam is 'the simple.' He is so without any spiritual acumen that he is just like a foolish simpleton. He cannot see wisdom; he cannot make a wise choice. However, the dumb donkey can!

As a last resort, God takes matters one more step. He is always full of mercy, willing to give us that one more chance to make the right choice. But now He has to do something drastic!

Several parallels exist in the account of Balaam and one's approach to God. We have to be on guard against people who are intimidated by righteousness and will seek to destroy its practice. Balaam, motivated by self-interest, believing that the ends justify the means, willing to do anything to get his way, shows himself spiritually inferior to a donkey when it comes to yielding to God's correction.

Balaam's story has important parallels with our own time, and our own experience. It should give us insight, knowing a bit more about the details of this story and the common worldly mindset, because the way Balaam approached God is the way most people seem to approach God.

Balaam's story should also make us aware of some of the dangers that even we may face as chosen sons of God with His Holy Spirit. We still have some of these same tendencies. We have brought some of these things in from the world. And because the world is so always pressing at us, there could be a very good chance that we will pick them back up, even if we have thrown them off in the past!

The most obvious parallel to our time in this scenario is that it occurs just before Israel crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land. And here we are, living in a time just before Christ returns. So, the scene and settings are similar. Just as Israel was about to go in and possess the land, we are poised at the edge of the Kingdom of God, and our inheritance.

Let's begin today in Psalm 37:29 because in a way this part of Psalm 37 is part of a summary of the things we can learn from the story of Balaam.

Psalm 37:29 The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell in it forever. Psalm 37:34-40 Wait on the LORD, and keep His way. [Remember that word "way"] And He shall exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you shall see it. I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a native green tree. Yet he passed away, and behold, he was no more; indeed I sought him, but he could not be found. Mark the blameless man [That means recognize him, see who he is.] and observe the upright; for the future of that man is peace. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together; the future of the wicked shall be cut off. But the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their strength in the time of trouble. And the LORD shall help them and deliver them; He shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in Him.

Balaam that he was just the opposite of the man described in this psalm; he was one of the wicked mentioned. Balaam was the kind of person that God stood against as an adversary.

We know also that Balak and all Moab were terrified of Israel. Remember it was terrified to the point of being literally sick. They had two and a half million, or three million people coming across at the edge of their land, and they thought for sure that the Israelites were going to treat them in the same way they had been treated by the Amorites under king Sihon, and king Og of Bashan. And so they were mortally afraid. They were also afraid that they would come in and consume every green thing in their land.

They need not have feared either of these things, because God had told Israel not to mess with Moab. They are a kindred people, and they tried their best to go around them every time they came across Moabites, and the Edomites, and the Ammonites. They are all related peoples.

But, Balak and all Moab were terrified. So, what did Balak do? He went and hired a religious mercenary to curse Israel for the purpose of weakening Israel so they could be beaten militarily—to put them to the sword; this was totally unnecessary; Moab was doing this without a cause.

In this situation with Balak, and Balaam, God was standing up to fight with them, and we will see the Angel of the Lord make his appearance at the end of Numbers 22.

Without Israel having to do anything, God was standing up for His people, Israel. He was pleading their cause against those who would strive with Israel.

Psalm 35:2-8 Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for my help. Also draw out the spear, and stop those who pursue me. Say to my soul, "I am your salvation." Let those be put to shame and brought to dishonor [Think about Balaam and the donkey here] who seek after my life; let those be turned back and brought to confusion who plot my hurt. [That's exactly what happened!] Let them be like chaff before the wind, and let the angel of the LORD chase them. Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the LORD pursue them. For without cause they have hidden their net for me in a pit, which they have dug without cause for my life. Let destruction come upon him unexpectedly, and let his net that he has hidden catch himself; into that very destruction let him fall.

That's exactly what happens with Balaam. He set the net for Israel, and he ended up falling into it himself. It came back to bite him. It cost him his life.

This same thing—laying a trap for the righteous, laying a trap for those who are innocent—is something we Christians have to deal with. It is almost a natural law, that those who see righteousness exhibited by those who are Christian will try to squash it, and put it down because they are intimidated by righteousness. They are put to shame by it because they see people that are actually doing what is right, and succeeding in it and being prospered for it.

Good things are happening to these people, and whether it is covetousness, or envy, or whatever their motivation, they try to stamp it out. They did that with Christ. And if they did it to Christ, they will do it to us. So, a little warning here. There are definite prophecies in the Bible that say it is going to happen here at the end time.

This story of Balaam is one of those things—types and shadows and warnings—that could help us keep our eyes open for what is coming up in the last days in which we live.

Balaam is what is called a Baru, a priest-diviner. He considered himself a devotee of every god, believing that he could communicate with any god, could work with any god, and that he would curse for any god. He was very much like any multi-culturalist that we see today—willing to spread himself out among all the different types of religions. He was very tolerant of all religions. Willing to take here, and there, and make a syncretistic mix of religions. He attempted to be spiritual without being religious—without coming down to one specific way to live—rather embracing all ways. He was willing to work with any religion for any reason and to accept money for his services.

He was internationally known—remember it was 400 miles between Moab and Balaam's home. So, the word had gotten around that this guy was pretty good at cursing people. It was his specialty, and his family's specialty.

Balak got out the gold and went to get the best in the known world—the best curser that he knew of. He had a big enemy and he wanted that enemy to be crushed. And so he pulled the chains off his wallet and started dishing it out -- he wanted Balaam.

We know that Balaam, aware of Balak's position, negotiated pretty doggedly for the job. He was not only willing to negotiate with Balak, later on he was willing to negotiate with God himself for a little more gold or prestige. That lust for worldly wealth and acclaim is an important part of his character, and helps us to understand his mental and spiritual condition.

We see from his actions that Balaam was greedy for wealth, and prestige. He was willing to get ahead at any cost. Whatever would benefit Balaam was good! It didn't matter if it was money, or prestige, honor. If it was good for Balaam, then it was good!

He was always looking for his own advantage—he loved the wages of unrighteousness. His love was not for God. His love was not for truth. His love was not for anything that is good and righteous. His love was for wages that you could get from being sinful; a thoroughly evil character who had an effective façade.

This brings out his major flaw. This is one thing that many in the world today also have. He believed that the end justified the means. To put it another way, he was willing to set aside principle to achieve his goals. We can put it another way. He functioned by self-interests rather than by belief or standards, because his standard was "Anything that is good for Balaam is good."

So, what was his standard? Self-righteousness, self interests. It is what he set up to be the principles by which he could live a successful life. He didn't base his actions on anything that was Godly, but based them on what he reasoned out, what he figured was the best way to get what he wanted; his actions had nothing to do with God; his actions were guided by his determination to please and prosper himself. So, it all comes down to the same thing: He was willing to do anything to get his way.

This illustrates the depth of his spiritual blindness. In today's lingo, we would call Balaam absolutely, totally materialistic. Everything was based on what he could see, feel, hear with his senses. He couldn't see beyond the temporal; there is nothing spiritual about him. There is no depth of faith or honor or truth or love or reverence for God in him. Balaam is blind. He can't see eternal truth because he is so stuck on the here and now--what was in his hand, what was in his pocket.

He didn't want to live like the righteous. He wanted all the rewards of the righteous, but he didn't want to do anything the righteous do, in order to receive those rewards.

That is very interesting because the same thing happens to us. Jesus calls us the salt of the earth. And part of the meaning there is that we're the preservative in this world. If there weren't us, there would be no world.

God's righteous are the only ones keeping the Balaams of this world from being totally snuffed out; because God has mercy on the righteous, the unrighteous also receive His mercy.

What can we as believers today conclude from what happened to Balaam?

The major take-away from his experience is that our focus must be upon the LORD GOD and HIS perfect will rather than upon any worldly accolades or wealth we might achieve. JESUS must be our "all," for apart from HIM, we are nothing and have nothing. We must yearn for HIS eternal treasure, not temporal gain.

Without HIS help, we cannot become what HE wants us to be, so our focus must be on the spiritual realm and its goals, not on the temporal realm and its gold.