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Balaam, evidently a man of God and a prophet, was living not with the Israelites, but in Aram,
back where Abraham had originally lived.
As the Israelites camped just outside the Promised Land, the king of
Moab decided to pay Balaam to intervene and pronounce curses upon the
Israelites. (It sounds like had he done nothing, they would simply have passed through his land on the way to the
Promised Land, but Balak had an ego.)
God allow Balaam to go to Balak, but told him to only say
what God directed him to say. As Balaam
traveled, it says God became angry that
he did travel. The only way I see to reconcile this is that
God foresaw that Balaam might be tempted by Balak’s bribes and disobey. God sent an angel to block the way. Balaam couldn’t see the angel (was he
spiritually blinded by the thought of bribes) but his donkey could, and the donkey tried three times
to not continue on the journey,
enduring beatings in the process.
Finally, God enabled the donkey to speak, and Balaam was able to also see the angel. This reinforced God’s original message that
Balaam could only bless Israel and
not curse them.
I saw two lessons here:
First, even prophets who hear God clearly are susceptible to spiritual
blindness; and second, it’s impossible to fight God and win. Had Balak accepted that God was leading the Israelites, he could have backed
off and suffered no harm.
Father, I think about several issues coming up in the near
future where we need to ascertain Your leadership and the direction You would
have us take. Give us Your wisdom from
the start, to help us not have to go through the difficulties
Balak faced.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
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