Daniel had been a Christian since he was seventeen. He knew the Bible. He knew what obedience looked like. He just didn’t want to do it anymore.
At forty-one, he had a decent job, a wife who still loved him, and two teenage sons who mostly stayed out of trouble. On Sundays he still showed up at church, sang the songs, and even led the men’s small group on Tuesday nights. People thought he was solid.
Then, he met a woman at the gym named Brooke. She was divorced, confident, and made him feel like the man he used to think he was. They started texting, and then began meeting for coffee.
Daniel knew exactly what he was doing. He also knew what the Bible says about it. He just didn’t care enough to stop. One night, alone in his truck after meeting Brooke, he finally spoke to God out loud. “I know this is wrong,” he said, “but I’m doing it anyway.” He waited, almost daring God to do something dramatic. Nothing happened. There was no voice and no lightning, just the quiet hum of the engine and the weight of his own choice.
He kept going. The affair lasted eight months. When Lisa found out, the explosion was worse than he expected. His sons wouldn’t look at him.
Daniel moved into an apartment. He kept seeing Brooke for a while, but the excitement faded fast. She didn’t respect him the way he thought she would.
Some nights he would sit in the dark and remember the way his boys used to run to him when he came home. He still believed in God. That was the strange part. He never stopped believing. He just stopped caring what God wanted.
The book of Numbers tells us about a man named Balaam. Balaam is not a great example for us to emulate because he often did not care what God wanted. However, there were times Balaam did the right thing and illustrated the proper submissive attitude to God. Today’s passage is one of those occasions.
Balak, the king of Moab, was afraid of Israel’s power and asked Balaam to come and curse Israel for him. Yahweh gave Balaam permission to go, but warned Balaam to only speak what Yahweh told him to speak. When Balaam arrived, Balak met him and promised to reward him for his services.
Num. 22:41 ¶ Then it happened in the morning that Balak took Balaam and brought him up to the high places of Baal, and he saw from there the end of the camp of the people.
Num. 23:1 ¶ Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.”
Num. 23:2 So Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.
Num. 23:3 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went to a bare hill.
Num. 23:4 ¶ Now God met Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have set up the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.”
Num. 23:5 Then Yahweh put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and you shall speak thus.”
Num. 23:6 So he returned to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, he and all the leaders of Moab.
Num. 23:7 Then he took up his discourse and said,
“From Aram Balak has brought me,
Moab’s king from the mountains of the East,
‘Come curse Jacob for me,
And come, denounce Israel!’
Aram was in the mountains of the East.
Num. 23:8 How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?
And how can I denounce whom Yahweh has not denounced?
These were rhetorical questions. The answer was he couldn’t. At this moment, Balaam articulated the proper submissive attitude to God. Balaam knew he could not curse someone whom God had not cursed.
Num. 23:9 For I see him from the top of the rocks,
And I look at him from the hills;
Behold, a people who dwells alone,
And will not be reckoned among the nations.
The words “him” and “people” refer to Israel.
Num. 23:10 Who can number the dust of Jacob,
Or count the fourth part of Israel?
Let me die the death of the upright,
And let my end be like his!”
The question in this verse is also rhetorical. Balaam knew Israel would be so numerous over the centuries that it would be impossible to count even a fourth of them.
Since Balaam knew Israel would prosper, he wanted to be like them.
Num. 23:11 ¶ Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have blessed them repeatedly!”
Num. 23:12 And he replied, “Must I not be careful to speak what Yahweh puts in my mouth?”
Once again Balaam articulated the proper submission to Yahweh. Balaam was only able to speak what Yahweh told him to speak.
Num. 23:13 ¶ Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from where you may see them, but you will only see the end of them and will not see all of them; and curse them for me from there.”
Num. 23:14 So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Num. 23:15 And he said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering while I myself meet Yahweh over there.”
Num. 23:16 Then Yahweh met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”
Num. 23:17 So he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the leaders of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has Yahweh spoken?”
Tomorrow we will read about Balaam’s second oracle regarding Israel.
The natural tendency of humans is to do what we want regardless of what God wants. Our instinct is to disobey God and satisfy our own desires.
Balak offered Balaam a lot of money to curse Israel. Balaam wanted to do so; however, he also knew he could not curse someone whom Yahweh did not curse.
This is the attitude we should have. We should care what God wants. We should work to have a desire to obey all the commands in the Bible, even when we don’t want to do so.
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“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”