(Edited from and based on a message preached Sunday evening, 2-16-25 at New Hope Baptist Church of Fulton, MO; this is not an exact transcription.)
Introduction: The story of Balaam is, or at least used to be, one of the saddest in the entire Bible. It seems he knew the One True God and could speak to Him honestly and openly. Still, he gave some chilling advice to a pagan king which resulted in the death of over 20,000 Israelites.
As with any series, there is much to discover about false prophets like Balaam, This first message begins when opportunity knocked, and Balaam agreed to the “deal”. Let’s see what the Word has to say about all this:
1 The Reality of the Situation
Text: Numbers 22:1-6, KJV: 1 And the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in the plains of Moab on this side Jordan by Jericho. 2 And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. 3 And Moab was sore afraid of the people, because they were many: and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel. 4 And Moab said unto the elders of Midian, Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field. And Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at that time. 5 He sent messengers therefore unto Balaam the son of Beor to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt: behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me: 6 Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land: for I wot that he whom thou blesses is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed.
If anyone were to come to this passage “cold”, or not aware of the context, that person might well be a little confused by what’s happening here. To set the stage a little, remember that Numbers had records of various things including a census of all military-age males (age 20 and up); plus a detailed account (chapter 7) of what each tribe gave the Tabernacle and priests over a 12-day period. More recently, Israel had come to the east side of the Jordan River and had defeated Sihon and Og, kings of various tracts of land in Bashan, also east of the Jordan.
Israel victory was complete and, maybe not surprisingly, Moab was now scared of what they thought was going to happen. Balak may have thought, “We’re next,” even though the LORD had expressly forbidden Israel to take any of Moab’s land (Deuteronomy 2:8-9).
Further, Midian seemed to be allied with Moab, although it’s never mentioned elsewhere in Scripture. Even so, with all this manpower, and the advantage of fighting on their own soil, Moab and Midian were very afraid of what Israel might do. Balak even used a colorful figure of speech when he said Israel will lick up the territory around them, just like an ox would “lick up the grass of the field”. Now, the church where I pastor is very fortunate to have a very experienced pastor emeritus. Pastor B has a lot of knowledge and explained to me that an ox would use its tongue to raise the grass up before the ox would chew the grass from the ground.
It’s been said that fear can be a powerful motivator and this fear of Israel led Balak to choose a seemingly unusual strategy. He sent messengers to Balaam, son of Beor, who was living near the “river (usually taken to mean the Euphrates)”. Balak decided to send messengers to Balaam, asking him to come and curse “a people come from Egypt” but not mentioning just who those people were. Note, then, how sly Balak tried to be here: “Come and curse a people for me, but I can’t or won’t tell you who they are."
Balak also seemed to be aware of the LORD’s promise to Abraham which, among other things, guaranteed that the LORD would bless those who bless Abraham and his descendants, and that the LORD would curse those who cursed Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-3). How that promise came to Balaam is something I’ve never figured out, as Balaam was in the line of Esau or Edom (Gen 36:1, 32; allowing for the same Beor to be father to Balaam as well as Bela).
The messengers then went their way to find Balaam. They found him, all right, but they didn’t exactly find everything they were looking for.
2 The First Request from the Sovereigns
Text, Numbers 22:7-14, KJV: 7 And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the rewards of divination in their hand; and they came unto Balaam, and spake unto him the words of Balak. 8 And he said unto them, Lodge here this night, and I will bring you word again, as the LORD shall speak unto me: and the princes of Moab abode with Balaam. 9 And God came unto Balaam, and said, What men are these with thee? 10 And Balaam said unto God, Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, hath sent unto me, saying, 11 Behold, there is a people come out of Egypt, which covereth the face of the earth: come now, curse me them; peradventure I shall be able to overcome them, and drive them out. 12 And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed. 13 And Balaam rose up in the morning, and said unto the princes of Balak, Get you into your land: for the LORD refuseth to give me leave to go with you. 14 And the princes of Moab rose up, and they went unto Balak, and said, Balaam refuseth to come with us.
Balak, king of Moab at this time, had heard about Balaam and decided to have him come to Moab in order to curse Israel. Of course, Balak didn’t say anything about just who he wanted Balak to curse. That, apparently, would be revealed later!
And it seems Balak wanted to entice (translated, “bribe”) Balak to come to Moab. First, he sent a group of messengers along with, get this, the ”rewards of divination” in their hands! Some take this to be money, and, it could have been money of course or something else. Whatever it was, Balak may have thought that showing great honor and some other material enticements (bribes) would be enough to get Balaam in place to curse Moab’s enemy.
So the delegation from Moab-and-Midian arrived at Pethor, Balaam’s hometown. That wasn’t a quick journey: Moab was located on the east side of the Jordan River close to the Dead Sea, about as far south as Israel’s southern border. Pethor was a good ways north of Moab, near Carchemish, on the Euphrates River according to the online map available at https://bibleatlas.org/full/pethor.htm. The messengers would probably have stayed on the east side of the Jordan (why cross a river if you don’t have to?) and followed whatever guidance they could find to reach Balaam’s home.
And, if these messengers were expecting a prompt reply, they were about to be disappointed. Balaam asked them to spend the night (had they arrived at evening?) and he would reply to them what the LORD had told him.
That word from the LORD wasn’t long in reaching Balaam. We read in verse 9 that God came to Balaam and asked him a question. Perhaps one could or should do a study on the times when God asked a human a question. Let’s remember that God already knew the answer—He was simply asking Balaam for an honest answer, in my opinion. The question was, “What men are these [here] with you?”
Balaam replied honestly (this time) and replied to God that the men, the guests, were from Balak, King of Moab, and that Balak wanted Balaam to come a curse a certain people. To be fair, Balaam didn’t seem to ask the messengers much of anything, rather, he simply gave them the customary hospitality of the era and region. I don’t read where Balaam asked the messengers much of anything, except to wait for the morning so he could deliver God’s message to them.
That message from God was brief and to the point: “You are not to go [back] with them, and you are not to curse “the people” because, as God said, “they are blessed”. This was a veiled reference, as mentioned, to the promise God made to Abram (not yet Abraham) back in Genesis 12. That promise, by the way, has been fulfilled many times—just look at the nations who did evil against the Jews, and how blessed people became when they blessed God’s chosen ones.
Maybe, just maybe, Balaam had heard of this from his ancestors. After all, the head of his tribe, Esau, was a full twin brother to Jacob, father of the Israelites. Then again, it’s possible Balaam had heard about this directly from God Himself. Only he and the LORD know for sure, though.
But no matter how much Balaam knew, or didn’t, he received that clear message from God and he promptly told the messengers, “Go back home, gentlemen, because the LORD does not give me permission to go with you.” And so they did.
Now, I don’t know of very many people who are excited to tell their boss (king, team lead, commander, doesn’t matter) they couldn’t “get it done”. All the way back to Moab, I’m sure these messengers rehearsed just what they were going to say to Balak. And they settled on, you guessed it, blaming Balaam for not coming back with them!
Perhaps, we shouldn’t be too surprised at this. Balak may have thought that he could sway anybody’s opinion because he was king—and had both the armies of Moab and Midian to back up any command he made. Now we’ll see how Balak changed his strategy. He wanted Balaam to come and curse Israel and he made a very generous offer, as we’ll see in these next verses.
3 The Reminder From the LORD
Text, Numbers 22:15-21, KJV: 15 And Balak sent yet again princes, more, and more honourable than they. 16 And they came to Balaam, and said to him, Thus saith Balak the son of Zippor, Let nothing, I pray thee, hinder thee from coming unto me: 17 For I will promote thee unto very great honour, and I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me: come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people. 18 And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the LORD my God, to do less or more. 19 Now therefore, I pray you, tarry ye also here this night, that I may know what the LORD will say unto me more. 20 And God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do. 21 And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab
As we’ve seen, Balak was very interested in having Balaam come from a very far distance (some think it was 300-400 miles!) to curse Israel, even though Balak never mentioned Israel by name. He had sent messengers (verse 7), who were also elders of Moab and Midian (verse 7) to Balak, with a “cash for cursing” offer. Balaam turned it down after he heard God’s message of “don’t go and don’t curse”. To say the least, Balak was probably very disappointed.
So now the text shows how Balak “sweetened the deal”, so to speak. First, he sent princes, “more and more honoruable [sic]” than the others. Not only that, he offered Balaam a chance for a promotion to very great honor. And, finally, he offered to, basically, submit to do whatever Balaam told him to do.
But, only if Balaam would curse “this people”. Notice, Balak still hasn’t named who they were!
Off went the princes with Balak’s offer and, just like the elders, they arrived at Balaam’s place. These princes may have thought that since they were, let’s call it like it was, more noble and a greater number than before, Balaam would jump at their offer this time.
They hadn’t counted on Balaam’s devotion, at least outwardly, to the One True God. When Balaam heard their offer, he said, in so many words, even if Balak gave me his house full of silver and gold—precious metals then as now—he still wouldn’t go “beyond the word of the LORD my God, to do less or more”. Then, again showing the hospitality of that era, he asked them to remain overnight and he would share with them what the LORD would say that night.
And just like before, God spoke to Balaam, probably in a dream, but this time there was a test. In so many words, God told Balaam to go with the men, IF they called him in the morning. Additionally, God told Balaam, “You’ll tell them the words I give you.”
Sadly, this marks the beginning of Balaam’s downward spiral. When the first delegation came to him, he flat out said, “No, I’m not going back with you because God told me not to/” That was good enough for Balaam, as he passed that test (I mean, he could have gone anyway but he would have paid dearly if he had); and it was good enough for the messengers. They didn’t try to beg, plead, or anything else. Balaam’s no meant no and that was that.
This time, however, Balaam sinned because he rose up, saddled his donkey (I choose the alternate word simply to avoid any semblance of evil), and went with the princes to Moab.
But did you notice, something was off?
God told Balaam it was okay to go with the princes, IF they called unto him first. There is no record in the text that anything like that happened. Balaam’s greed seems to have taken control of him, and I have to confess, the chance for promotion to great honor is not easy to refuse. Balaam may have thought he could be chief prophet for Balak, or maybe something else. Yet, in his desire (me first), he rejected God’s instructions (God first) and left
with the delegation.
In a word, opportunity knocked, and Balaam widely opened the door.
It’s anybody’s guess what he thought he would receive when he reached Balak, but there was more in store for Balaam long before he ever reached Moab. The next message will, the Lord willing, discuss how Balaam’s ride on his donkey almost became a real disaster!
For now, here’s the conclusion or the “what can I take with me” from this passage. First, when God says “Don’t”, it’s wise to follow. Too many, even believers, have suffered many things when they disobey the Lord. Second, when there’s a condition or test attached, pray the Lord will give you grace and courage to pass that test. Finally, once you make a decision, don’t look for ways to get around it. To be sure, it’s one thing to correct a mistake or an error, but much different when a believer, or anyone else, commits a deliberate sin.
In summary, Balaam said yes to the wrong opportunity when that opportunity knocked. Don’t let what happened to him happen to you!
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)
