NUMBERS CHAPTERS 22-25 “Israel must learn that the heathen nations were not only hostile political powers, opposing their progress, but that heathenism itself was in its nature antagonistic to the kingdom of God. The two were incompatible, and therefore no alliance could ever be formed with heathenism” 1 The same is true today, friendship with the world, loving the world, or conforming to the world, cannot be tolerated (1 John 2:15-16; Romans 12:1-2).
Chapter 22 22:1 “in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan opposite Jericho”-“With the decisive victories over Sihon and over Og, all who could have barred access to the Land of Promise had been either left behind, or else scattered and defeated…Their tents were pitched in the rich meadow-land, watered by many streams, which rush down from the neighboring mountains…..it might have seemed as if the lion of Judah were couching ready for his spring on the prey” (Edersheim p. 12). 22:2 “Balak” (BAY lack), a name which means destroyer. “Zippor”-(ZIP or). He was the king of the Moabites. Balak had seen how Israel had destroyed the armies of both Sihon and Og. Military might had been tried against Israel and miserably failed! “The Amorites, who had been able to wrest from Moab all the land north of the Arnon, had boldly marched against Israel under the leadership of Sihon their king, and been not only defeated but almost exterminated” (Edersheim p. 13). 22:3 “Moab was in great fear”-But in reality Moab didn’t have anything to fear. God had made it clear to Israel, that Moab (the descendants of Lot and thus related to Israel) were to be left alone (Deut. 2:9). Let no man say that ignorance is bliss! Oh, how much pain and suffering could be avoided if Balak would have simply asked Moses what were the intentions of Israel! Note the irony, Balak was fearful of Israel, but not fearful enough to avoid trying to have them cursed. 1
Old Testament Bible History, Alfred Edersheim, p. 11 1
22:4 “The proverbial figure of an ox licking the grass is particularly fitting for a pastoral people. Balak knew how quickly the fragile grasses of the lands of Moab could be eaten by large beasts” (Gaebelein p. 886). “to the elders of Midian”-The Midianites were tribesmen who lived both in Sinai and in the deserts east of the Jordan. Evidently, the Midianites who were living in Moab at the time also felt that they were in peril. Balak’s name is also found outside the Bible. An Egyptian-Aramean papyrus tells us that his name means, “he (the deity) has destroyed” (Noordtzij p. 197). 22:5 “Balaam”-possibly meaning “devourer”. “Beor”-(BEE or); “Pethor”-(PEE thohr), “which is near the River”-i.e. the River Euphrates. Points To Note: 1. Balaam is a real historical person. The NT endorses his existence (2 Peter 2:15; Jude 11; Revelation 2:14). In addition, his name is also found in secular sources: “the discovery at Deir ‘Alla in modern Jordan of an Aramaic prophetic text. Its author is described as ‘Balaam son of Beor’ and is spoken of as a seer of the gods whose specialty was that of a professional imprecator who imposed curses upon others. This material was recovered from what seemed to be a sanctuary or a shrine and testifies to the high esteem that Balaam claimed in antiquity” (Harrison p. 293). “The fact that the prophecy was written on a wall indicates that it was an important historical example of the oracles of this diviner that might be preserved for posterity” (Gaebelein p. 887). 2. Pethor, which is generally identified with Pitru of the Assyrian inscriptions, a town some 12 miles south of Carchemish. From the above secular source, it is clear that Balaam was famous among pagan peoples, even centuries after his death. He had apparently earned quite a reputation for himself. He is much like Simon the sorcerer in the NT (Acts 8). Unable overcome Israel in with physical force, Balak attempts to fight against Israel on the metaphysical or spiritual plane. Israel’s neighbors in the OT didn’t deny the existence of Jehovah, rather they denied that Jehovah was the only true God. Pagan peoples believed that men such as Balaam had irresistible influence with the gods. They further believed that national deities might be induced to transfer their blessing and protection from one nation to another. “Thus the ancient Romans were wont, when laying siege to a foreign city, solemnly to invite its special gods to come out to them and join their side, promising them in return not only equal but higher honors than they had hitherto enjoyed” (Edersheim p. 16). 22:6 Evidently, Balaam had previously been in the business of blessing and cursing people. Note, Balaam isn’t called a prophet (navi), but a hakkisim (soothsayer). It appears that Balaam was a pagan magician who had gained 2
wide popularity. We aren’t told, when or how Balaam came to know about the true God (22:8). Clearly, Balaam already knew the name of Israel’s God. This doesn’t necessarily infer prior revelations from God, for Rahab also knew the name of the true God (Joshua 2:11). 22:7 “fees for divination”-which only seems to reinforce the idea that while God will speak through Balaam, Balaam had previously been a pagan diviner. Such a fee could have consisted of gold, silver, ornaments, animals, or a combination of these. “Balaam was an internationally known prophet, a diviner expert in examining the entrails of animals and observing natural phenomena to determine the will of the gods” (Gaebelein p. 887). 22:8 According to Near Eastern magic traditions, the period after darkness had fallen was preferred for diviners and soothsayers to consult their gods. “Balaam had some acquaintance with the mighty God of Israel, as was only appropriate for a man of his professional standing, whose success depended to a considerable extent upon his being familiar with the deities of all the surrounding nations” (Harrison p. 295). Note the word “may”, it appears that Balaam wasn’t entirely sure if God was going to speak to him or not. Chapter 24:1 makes it clear that when Balaam attempted to make contact with God, he had been using pagan techniques. 22:9-12 “The appearance of the God of Israel to unbelieving prophets and kings was not unique to Balaam. God revealed himself to Abimelech (Genesis 20:6-7), Pharaoh (Genesis 41:25), and Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:1ff)” (Bible Knowledge Comm. p. 241). Point To Note: Far from being intimidated by magic, or the occult, these chapters give the child of God confidence. No man, regardless of his professed powers can curse someone who is right with God! These verses and others show the utter hopelessness of the undertaking, and the utter powerlessness of any evil man to control or influence the purposes of God. “The divine blessing is irrevocable and not subject to hostile counteraction. Such a blessing carries with it a providential guardianship which is totally impervious to magic of any of its kind. Not only was Balaam prevented from effecting a curse, but he could only strengthen what had been done” (Zond. Pict. Ency. “Balaam”, p. 452).
Balak’s Second Attempt 22:14-17 “Balaam is thus trapped between the demands of Balak and the commands of God. It is this conflict that sustains the whole drama that follows”
3
(Wenham p. 170). “In the belief that Balaam might have left slighted by the comparatively low social ranking of the original delegation, and perhaps even sensitive to the possibility that the consulting fee might have been too small for such a reputable soothsayer, Balak dispatched a more noble deputation” (Harrison p. 297). 22:18-19 While the words in verse 18 sound noble, verse 19 infers, and the NT endorses the truth that while Balaam was pretending faithfulness to the Lord with his lips, his heart was really eager for the divination reward (2 Peter 2:15). The statement “what else”, seems to imply that Balaam was hoping for a change of God’s original command. Balaam may have been very happy with God’s initial response, since it had only sweetened the pot that Balak was now offering. 22:20-22 God isn’t being fickle here, rather God is allowing Balaam to go, because Balaam was eager for the reward. God was angry, because He saw the greed in this man’s heart. “God is permitting Balaam to do what he really wanted to do so as to teach him, as well as Balak and the modern reader, a lesson” (Smith p. 451).
Balaam And The Donkey 22:22-35
Points To Note:
1. Here is a great example of God’s sense of humor. Clearly Balaam isn’t “enlightened” or is he able to penetrate the mysteries of the universe, God does something that proves that a dumb animal had more on the ball than this magician! 2. Balaam, so far from being able to “read the signs”, can’t even perceive that the strange behavior of his donkey means that God is trying to tell him something. 3. Many critics of the Bible have ridiculed this account, but in so doing they show themselves just as blind as Balaam. The NT endorses this account as historically true and doctrinally correct (2 Peter 2:16). Which means that the person who rejects this account automatically removes themselves from being a scholar, teacher, or spiritual (1 Cor. 14:37). 4. The donkey’s acts and words anticipate the problems that Balaam will soon face. Soon Balaam will find himself trapped three times between Balak’s demands and God’s prohibitions. And in like manner, disobedience to the will of God means death! 5. The account is a warning to Balaam, this is no game! And Jehovah isn’t some deity that can be bought, influenced or manipulated. 6. Greed and anger can completely blind a person: “We also laugh as we hear Balaam talking with (the donkey), as though nothing was out of the ordinary. His rage must have been so heightened that he does not even stumble at the voice that comes from this donkey” (Gaebelein p. 894). 7. While Balaam does confess his sin, we will find that he doesn’t have godly sorrow (2 Cor. 7:10-11).
4
22:36 Balak is so worried and anxious that he goes to the very border of his land to meet Balaam. 22:37 Balak is upset and somewhat insulted by Balaam’s delay. And this is exactly the sort of trouble we find ourselves in when we attempt to compromise with the world! Even when we do compromise, even then the world still complains! 22:38 “Doubtless Balak would puzzle over the words that Balaam greets him with….ordinarily Balaam believed he could say pretty much what he pleased to say, if the price was right, with the belief that the will of the gods would in some manner correspond with his words. But not this time” (Gaebelein p. 894). 22:39-41 “Kiriath-huzoth”-(KIR ih ath HUH zahth)-a city located on the northeastern border of Moab. A sacrificial meal is conducted, and then Balak brings Balaam to a vantage point, which also happens to be one of the pagan worship centers for Baal. “the high places of Baal”-so-called because the plateau was dedicated to the service of Baal.
Chapter 23 23:1-3 Following the traditional methods of ancient diviners, seven altars are constructed on which seven bulls and seven rams will be offered. “By selecting 14 of the most valuable animals and offering them in this way, Balaam and Balak were evidently doing their utmost to secure a favorable response from God” (Wenham p. 172). 23:4-10 Balaam’s first answer from God. 23:8 “How shall I curse, whom God has not cursed?”—Christian, be impressed that no man can affect your relationship with God, no man can affect what sort of providential things happen in your life. No man can give you “luck” and no man can put a curse on you either! “If God is for us, who is against us?” (Romans 8:31). Horoscopes, fortune cookies, etc….have nothing to do with reality. Point To Note: “Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!” (23:10). Balaam could not curse, he could only envy! And yet, if this outcry expressed the true thought of Balaam’s heart at this moment, his heart changed again. For he will not die the death of a righteous man (Numbers 31:8). Sometimes Christians feel sorry for themselves and forget that many unbelievers in around
5
them, secretly envy the life, morality, virtue, honesty, integrity and family happiness that is enjoyed by the Christian. Never underestimate how many people would really like to reap the blessings that you are reaping, but aren’t willing to pay the price, or don’t have the courage to stand out in the crowd. 23:11-14 “Zophim”-(ZOE fihm). To the modern reader we might wonder why Balak didn’t give up at this point. But unbelievers don’t always think clearly. To many people then (and today), it was believed that a deity could be persuaded to change His mind, if a better site was chosen, or additional offerings were presented. “Maybe we can twist God’s arm just a little”. This really isn’t any different then when some people read a clear statement in the Bible, and then say, “I can’t believe that God would do that, I know what the text says, but I just believe that God would do something different”.
Balaam’s Second Speech 23:18-24 Carefully note the point being made emphatically by God that He isn’t fickle, neither does He alter His messages to the desires of sinful men (23:1819). What God says He means. “describe the immutability of the Lord and the integrity of his word…..Balaam is constantly shifting, prevaricating (lying, misrepresenting), equivocating, changing—he is himself the prime example of the distinction between God and man” (Gaebelein p. 901). The wild ox (22) of the ancient Near East is a traditional image of power. Note! There was no bag of tricks which could work against Israel (23). 23:25 Often sinners get more than they bargained for when they want communication from God! How many people have tried to shut you up after they asked you a Bible question? 23:27-30 But Balak insists on trying another spot. Such is the darkness and spiritual blindness which the sinner is so often entrapped (Acts 26:18; 2 Tim. 2:24ff). But is Balak really any more ignorant than the person who believes in Evolution, argues that every religion is an equally valid path to God, endorses reincarnation, or the person who believes that an unborn child isn’t a human being? “Superstitiously Balak felt that a move to a new location might create the proper environment (atmosphere) for the cursing to take place. They arrived then at the top of Peor (PEE ohr), a mountain near the town of Beth Peor (Deut. 3:29; 4:46), close to Israel’s encampment in the plains of Moab” (Bible Knowledge Comm. p. 243). “Third time is a charm” is Balak’s motto.
Chapter 24 24:1 This verse also infers that Balaam was a pagan magician, for Balaam finally realizes that God isn’t going to change His mind and sorcery against
6
Israel is useless (all the usual techniques have failed). “he did not go at other times to seek omens”-This time Balaam abandons his normal routine of sorcery. Balaam realizes that his pagan techniques hadn’t enabled him to contact God, rather, God had spoken to him. 24:2-9 “Agag”-was a royal title for the kings who ruled the Amalekites, probably like the term “Pharaoh” among the Egyptians. “Blessed is everyone who blesses you”-which reminds us of the blessing spoken to Abraham (Genesis 12:3). 24:10-14 Balaam won’t be the last person who must forfeit ill-gotten gains in order to serve God. 24:15-25 In these verses we have prophecies against the nations of Moab, Edom, Amalek, the Kenites, and Assyria. 24:17 Moab will be destroyed by a future Israelite king. Some think that this king is David. Some also see a reference to the Messiah (Genesis 49:1). The nation of Moab would eventually be incorporated into the Nabatean kingdom after the fourth century B.C. Jeremiah uses Numbers 24:17, when speaking against Moab in his time (48:1-47). It will be in the days of King David, when Moab will first lost her independence (2 Samuel 8:2; 1 Chron. 18:2). 24:18 Edom also could eventually be conquered and absorbed into other nations. See the book of Obadiah and Malachi 1:1ff 24:20 The Amalekites, who because of their antiquity are called the first of the nations, would be defeated by both Saul (1 Samuel 15) and David (30:17). They were finally destroyed in Hezekiah’s time (1 Chron. 4:43). 24:21-22 The Kenites (KEE nights), were a wandering desert tribe like the Midianites, and appear to have be related to them (Numbers 10:29/Judges 1:16). They would eventually be taken captive by the Assyrians (745-722 B.C.). 24:24 Appears to predict ship-borne invaders from the West. Some say the Philistines, others, the conquests of Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C., or those of Rome.
Chapter 25 25:1 “Shittim”-located immediately west of the Jordan River where they camped before crossing the river (Joshua 2:1).
7
25:1-3 Points To Note: 1. Balaam had went home empty-handed, but other passages suggest that he found a way to have Israel cursed, without actually cursing them audibly. The Bible says that he loved the wages of wrong-doing (2 Peter 2:15), and that Balaam, “who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling-block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of immorality” (Revelation 2:14). Hence, shortly after Balaam left, he must have figured out that if he could get the Israelites involved in an immoral feast in the honor of an idol (Numbers 25:1-3), that they would become cursed in the sight of God (Numbers 23:21). Therefore, Revelation 2:14 infers that he taught this plan to action to Balak, who then instigated the Moabite women to allure the Israelite men to such a sensuous feast. Add to all this information, when God finally executes judgment upon the Midianites for their deception in this chapter, guess who is there among them, and is killed, Balaam! (Numbers 31:8). 24:4 False doctrine cannot be tolerated among the people of God, regardless of whom is involved in it. The leaders had clearly been responsible for allowing the members of their tribe to go to this feast. Israel’s judges, probably the type of men selected in Exodus 18:25ff, who were responsible for the administration of justice among a particular group Israelites were to see that such men were executed. 24:4 “execute them in broad daylight”-The text can mean “make an example of” (LXX), or the Hebrew can also mean “hang in the sun”. Some suggest that these individuals were impaled on a stake or hung after execution. 24:6 Even professed believers can be very brazen. Often the sinner is saying, “Well, what you are going to do about this!” Often the world tries to shock us into inaction. But Phinehas wasn’t shocked! Notice that man ignored the presence of Moses and the Israelite women who were weeping at the door of the Tabernacle. “Most of those who saw this happening must have been so shocked that they were motionless. They must have been stunned by audacity, numbed by horror. Someone had to do something; finally, one man did act…The point was that in joining the sexual frenzies of the sacrificial feasts of Baal, the man and his priestess-partner now act to transform the worship of the Lord into the type of sexual rites that were the mode of Canaan” (Gaebelein p. 919). 25:7 “Phinehas”-(FIN ih uhs). Son of Eleazar, the high priest, grandson of Aaron. 25:7-13 Compare with Psalm 106:30. We cannot dally when sin is spreading, such defiance must be dealt with swiftly. “She led astray the Israelite man with her body and therefore she is pierced through the organ of his downfall. The
8
description of the crime may be intended to suggest that Phinehas slew them in the very act of intercourse” (Wenham pp. 187-188). 24:9 “First Corinthians 10:8 says 23,000 people died in this incident. This apparent discrepancy can be explained by Paul’s mention of “one day”, with the standing that another 1,000 may have died on another day or days” (Bible Knowledge Comm. p. 246). When comparing the census of 1:23 with 26:14, it appears that many of the men who died on this occasion were from the tribe of Simeon. Point To Note: If we are shocked that a priest would kill so quickly, let us remember that the example of Phinehas is completely in line with what was expected of the priests. In their life they were to mirror the character of God, and this is exactly what Phinehas did. He was jealous with a godly jealousy. He inflicted the anger that God Himself felt against such a brazen and defiant individual. The covenant with Phinehas is probably the guarantee that the high priesthood would always remain in his family (1 Chron. 6:4ff). Even though we (individual Christians) aren’t given the right to execute sinners, we need to have the same zeal for God’s honor. Let us refuse to remain silent, and let us speak out against the evil that surrounds us (Eph. 5:11). 25:14 “Zimri”-(ZIMM rye); “Salu”-(SAY loo). Note, this man was a son of one of the tribal leaders. 25:15 “Cozbi”-(KOZ bih) (lying, deceitful). She was a Midianite princess. 25:16-18 “Reprisals against the Midianites were called for, and accordingly God instructed Moses to commence harassing attacks against Midian” (Harrison p. 340). The full scale assault would happen in chapter 31. In Closing While it appears that Balaam was never one of God’s people, we must reject the claim that God never wanted Balaam saved. There are various crisis-points in the life of an individual, when an individual is given an ideal chance to choose between life death, righteousness or sin. Balaam was given an excellent chance, God even spoke through him! He was given a taste of what it would be like to be a true prophet of God, a man who had integrity, who spoke the word in season and out of season—rather than a counterfeit and a fraud!
9