Drunken Mystic

You know how at some stores when you buy a certain number of things, you get one free?  This is kinda like that, except way different.

Balak was really mad at this point.  So mad he clapped his hands (which is obviously a really big deal), and basically says, “Fine!  Since you’ve blessed these people, you won’t get any money from me!”

So even though Balaam isn’t getting paid for this one, and Balak didn’t ask for another one, Balaam gives him one last word for good measure.

Balaam goes on to speak on what will happen in the “latter days”.

Remember what I said about poking a sleeping lion?  Well, Balak gets the lion, now.  Balaam prophecies how Israel is going to wipe out the whole area with all their great and mighty kings. “Alas!  Who shall live when God does this?”

But before Balaam goes into all that, there is an interesting prophecy.  “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near: a Star shall come out of Jacob; a Scepter shall rise out of Israel … out of Jacob One shall have dominion.”

Of course the Israelites would have ultimately concluded that to be David, which was one stage of that fulfillment … but we know it is fully fulfilled Jesus.  Balak pushes Balaam so far, pokes the lion so thoroughly, that Balaam even prophesies the coming of Christ.

So in conclusion, we see four main aspects through Balaam’s oracles of God’s blessing.  First, God sees His people as vast and eternal, without end.  He sees us with an eternal perspective.  Second, He sees us as pure and holy.  His goal is not to leave us where we are but to purify us.  Third, He sees abundance within us because He sees His Son (the fourth aspect) within us.  God sees not a wasteland or any lack, but full measure of abundance in His Son within His people.

Of course these aren’t three or four different blessings … as teachers we like to separate things or break them down to understand them better … but there is no separation.  All is included in the blessing of His Son.  It is all Yes and Amen.

The tragedy of this whole thing is that Balaam, as a sorcerer, receives a revelation of God and His people and ultimately the One that will have dominion.  And so we would think Balaam’s response would be to follow God fully, give up his divination, maybe join the Israelites?

Nope.  Unfortunately, Balaam is instead responsible for bringing idolatry into the camp.  This is explained in Numbers 31:16: “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the LORD in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the LORD’s people.”  That story is in Numbers 25, directly after Balaam’s oracles in Numbers 23-24.

It is tragic that someone can have such a clear revelation and still seek to be God’s enemy.  It is also sobering that just because I might have revelation, that does not in and of itself make me God’s friend.  I must obey and have the proper response to that revelation, no matter what anyone else might say.

Peace.

Now Balak is really upset.  “Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all!”

Balaam says what we’re all thinking: “Did I not tell you, saying, ‘All the Lord speaks, that I must do’?”  I tried to tell you …

But Balak really doesn’t get it.  He keeps doing the same thing by the same principle and hoping that he’ll get a different result … one of the definitions of insanity, as I remember.  “Please come, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.”

Before Balaam speaks this time, however, the Bible says “he did not go at other times, to seek to use sorcery …”  Meaning other times he did.

This time the perspective and place was from “the top of Peor, that overlooks the wasteland.”  Balak wanted Balaam to see Israel from the midst of the wasteland.

As Balaam’s “eyes are opened” he declares:

“How lovely are your tents, O Jacob!  Your dwellings, O Israel!  Like valleys that stretch out, like gardens by the riverside, like aloes planted by the Lord, like cedars beside the waters.  He shall pour water from his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters.”

In other words, Balaam didn’t see a wasteland.  His eyes were opened by God and he saw that, despite the wasteland they currently inhabited, Israel was wealthy and abundant, lying in valleys and gardens amidst trees with flowing waters.

I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling at times like the Lord has placed me in the middle of a wasteland.  But God doesn’t see you defined by your situation.  He sees you defined by what He has decided to bless you with.  As Paul said, “having nothing yet possessing everything.”

There is a place where you might seem like you have nothing.  But in God’s eyes, if you have Him in your midst, you have no lack.  In fact, you possess everything in abundance and will have everything as you need it.  This is true faith to see this.

Balaam ends with: “‘He (Israel) bows down, he lies down as a lion; and as a lion, who will rouse him?’  Blessed is he who curses you (Israel), and cursed is he who curses you.”

Again with the poking of the sleeping lion.  We’ll see how it goes for Balak in the next and last oracle Balaam provides us.

Peace.

So now Balak, the king, is upset.  “I took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them bountifully!”

What seems obvious to Balak was that it was the wrong place and perspective:  “Please come with me to another place from which you may see them; you shall see only the outer part of them, and shall not see them at all; curse them for me from there.”

Again with the “from there.”

The new perspective is to see the “outer part of them”.

Balaam’s prophecy begins by reiterating that that God “has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.”

Then Balaam continues: “God has not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor has He seen wickedness in Israel.  The Lord God is with him, and the shout of a King is among them.”

In other words, as Balaam is given a surface perspective, he declares that God sees no iniquity in Israel but God Himself is among them as a King.

But wait a minute … doesn’t God continually have to deal with rebellion and sin in the midst of the camp of Israel?  Yes, and will again in the very next chapter in Numbers as Israel embraces idolatry.

From an outside perspective, however, to those on the outside, those that would seek to curse His people, the word is different.  When God sees His people, and when He testifies of His people to others,  He testifies by love and as a good father and husband.  He speaks good things over those He has set out to bless, despite their failings.

As a husband and father, I know my wife and children have their issues.  And I might even deal with those issues in my personal relationship and responsibilities with them.  But when I speak of my family with others, I honor and lift them up.  They are the greatest thing in the world to me, the greatest blessing, and something I am abundantly thankful for despite the fact that my wife and I might have had a tense discussion the night before or I might have had to discipline one of my children that morning.

Too often we are concerned with how the world views the Church, with the outside perspective.  We need to be concerned with our testimony and integrity, to be sure, but our standard should never be how others react but what God says about us.  He is our Husband and Father and wants good things for us, to bless us.  So we listen to Him to see what He would have us do or say or change or repent of.  Too often we give a worldly culture the right to define what kind of Christians we ought to be.  If we follow God as we should, they may hate or love us, but that isn’t the goal.  Obedience is.

Be encouraged.  God may deal with your frailty and even seem harsh sometimes, but as a Father, He has a different message for your enemies: the world, the flesh, the Devil.  “They are pure and good and I am among them.”

There are consequences for messing with God’s people.  Balaam’s second oracle ends with, “Look, a people rises like a lioness, and lifts itself up like a lion; it shall not lie down until it devours the prey, and drinks the blood of the slain.”

In other words, Balak, you’re poking a sleeping lion.  Probably not a good idea.

Third oracle next.

Peace.

As we get into the oracles/burdens/prophecies/blessings of Balaam, King Balak continually seeks to curse Israel based on place.  As we will see with the first three oracles, Balak thinks the problem is the place or perspective from whence Balaam is prophesying.  Of course it isn’t about place, it is about the Lord’s heart for His people.

So Balak takes Balaam up to the “high places of Baal” (a pagan god and idol) that “from there he might observe the extent of the people.”

“From there” is an important phrase for these first three oracles.

So at this high place, Balaam has Balak build altars and stuff and begins the first oracle.

First, Balaam states that he cannot curse “whom God has not cursed” or “denounce whom the Lord has not denounced.”  The New Covenant promises to overcome the curse of sin and the Law in Christ should encourage us.  If God is for us, who can be against us?  He will not curse nor denounce, nor truly allow a curse upon, what He has chosen to bless.

And interestingly enough, Balaam also deals with the perspective given by Balak to “observe the extent of the people.”  Balaam sees Israel and says, “Who can count the dust of Jacob or number one fourth of Israel?”

In other words, Balak thought to show Balaam the extent, the limits, of Israel, and Balaam’s blessing was that there is no end to them.

As we’ll see with the next two, God’s view of His people is different than the worldly view of them.  He sees as a father to a son or a husband to his bride.  He looks on in love and will not bear that others seek to curse them.  It is a good way to piss Him off.

Balaam’s second oracle up next.

Peace.