Balaam, Who Took God’s Name in Vain (1)

22The children of Israel also killed Balaam the son of Beor, the soothsayer, with the sword, among the rest of their slain.

Numbers 22:12-15

12God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people; for they are blessed.” 13Balaam rose up in the morning, and said to the princes of Balak, “Go to your land; for Yahweh refuses to permit me to go with you.” 14The princes of Moab rose up, and they went to Balak, and said, “Balaam refuses to come with us.” 15Balak again sent princes, more, and more honorable than they.

Some 7.7 billion people live together in this world. Among them are introverts and extroverts, the good and the base. Happily, some come into good surroundings and meet kindly people as they grow, and so acquire a good heart along the way, while others who were once good fall under the sway of a bad environment and go on to live evil lives. Heredity may play a part in forming a person’s character, but environment cannot be ignored either. So only by looking to God, who works above every circumstance, every work of evil spirits, and all human character and reason, can we live a holy life.

Those who believe in Jesus and the people of the world who do not believe travel altogether different roads. Believers who hope for heaven and worldly people whose eyes are on the earth pursue fundamentally different things, so there is no common ground between them. Faith has only white and black. We must not argue for gray and settle for a convenient compromise. Of course, worldly people and those whose faith is immature may say that what I am telling you is narrow-minded or blind faith. Nevertheless, all of this is fact, and it is the truth.

Know that you can never meet God through the thinking of the flesh, and meet him in the word and in faith. Satan is at work to hinder the faith of those who believe in God, trying to make them doubt him and defy his word. If you draw a convenient line with your own shallow reasoning and believe in God only up to that point, you will end up with the foolish notion, like Balaam’s, that God can be deceived.

Far too many church members today have stopped at this kind of faith, for though outwardly they seem to be faithful churchgoers, they believe in God only up to a line drawn to protect their possessions and their pride. Faith like this is a sinful thing that God cannot take into his arms. Not grasping who God is, they waver at every fork between good and evil, even while they attend church and serve in it. When we strive to hold fast to our faith, God begins to work for us. He becomes a shield to fend off the world’s attacks and a fortress before the temptations of Satan that come at us like a tsunami.

Though God gave him chance after chance, Balaam accepted King Balak’s enticement to curse the people of Israel. He played a shallow trick, trying to catch two rabbits at once. He tried to take the riches the king of Moab offered and at the same time to use God to play the prophet, and in the end he was killed.

Joshua 13:22

22The children of Israel also killed Balaam the son of Beor, the soothsayer, with the sword, among the rest of their slain.

As Joshua was dividing up and conquering the land of Canaan for the people of Israel, Balaam died along with the Midianites. Balaam, who should have been in Mesopotamia, was killed while the tribe of Reuben was attacking Midian.

To explain why Balaam’s death suddenly appears in the book of Joshua, we must first know the background of these events. After the exodus, Israel suffered for lack of water and food; when they complained after being attacked by Edom, they were rebuked by the bites of venomous snakes; and they fought great battles against Arad, Og, and Sihon, who stood in their way. Having driven back Arad, Sihon, and Og, Israel marched toward Moab on the way to Canaan.

Numbers 21:22

22“Let me pass through your land. We will not turn away into field or vineyard. We will not drink of the water of the wells. We will go by the king’s highway, until we have passed your border.”

Israel did not intend to fight anyone, since God’s people, journeying toward the promised land, had no reason to make war in order to seize land in this world. Israel’s goal was to reach Canaan, so if Arad, Sihon, and Og had given them passage, there would have been no war.

But these kings did not believe in God, and their unbelief made them resent Israel’s passing through their land. Had they trusted Israel’s promise to pay for everything they ate and drank, Israel would have passed through in peace and they would have gained a great deal of wealth. The world may not know it, but God was protecting the people of Israel at that moment in order to lead them into Canaan, and so every nation that stood against his plan was bound to be defeated. Put the other way round, if we trust God and depend on him, we will not fail. As we who have set out from Egypt, which is the world, journey toward Canaan, which is the Kingdom of God, God will judge all who block our way — the world, Satan, and people alike. If you believe this, your life will be one miracle after another.

By God’s grace Israel drove back every nation that attacked them and camped on the plains of Moab before crossing the Jordan. During the months they stayed there, Moses took the second census, mustered the army, proclaimed the law so that the people would not forget God’s word, and appointed Joshua as leader.

The Moabites were descendants of Lot, so Israel regarded them as brothers and felt no hostility toward them. But mighty Israel, which had defeated every nation, now wanted to pass through Moab’s land, and that pressure drove the Moabites to look for a clever scheme to fight them.

It was then that King Balak thought of Balaam as the man to help him. The name Balaam carries the meaning “destroyer of the people,” and he was a soothsayer who regarded God as one god among many in the world. That is why he accepted without hesitation King Balak’s request to be used to drive Israel out. The king of Moab knew how great God was and how strong a nation Israel was, so out of a natural fear he sought out a soothsayer and tried to use Balaam to curse Israel. If he feared God and the people whom God had set free from four hundred years of slavery under Pharaoh, the wise course would have been to submit to God as the Gibeonites did rather than think of war. Instead, he went looking for a god greater than God.

What could a soothsayer possibly do against God? Foolish human beings lack even the ability to judge that. Like Balak, when trouble comes, people look for ways to solve it by their own strength rather than coming to God. Those who do not believe in God go to fortune-tellers, naturally, but it grieves me to see even churchgoers seeking them out, for a heart that professes faith in the almighty God and still goes to a fortune-teller is already rotten through with unbelief.

Even if a worldly king like Balak makes plans to curse Israel and seeks out a soothsayer, we must believe that if God blocks the way, a king like that can never strike. Only then can we live boldly in the world. We must know that even someone with spiritual power like Balaam can never curse Israel at will unless God permits it. If we rely on God to the end and remain in his grace, we will see miracles the world cannot withstand, and we will experience the power with which God works on our behalf.

Numbers 22:6

6Please come now therefore curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall prevail, that we may strike them, and that I may drive them out of the land; for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”

The king of Moab believed that whatever Balaam cursed would be cursed, and whatever he blessed would be blessed. Such a belief comes from not knowing that God is the source of every blessing.

Our blessing rests with God. God told Abraham that he would make of him a great nation, bless him, and make his name great, and that he would bless those who blessed him and curse those who cursed him. Those who blessed Abraham, who served God, God would bless; and those who cursed Abraham, God would curse. It was a promise that the God who created the world would protect his beloved child’s life entirely, so that no one could lay a hand on it. To bless or curse Abraham was in fact a sign of whether one believed in the God Abraham believed in, and God would repay them accordingly. Since blessing belongs to God, if you are among those who fear him, I hope you will trust that no one can curse you at will, and live with courage.

Even while the king of Moab was seeking out Balaam and scheming to curse Israel, Israel knew nothing of it and was living in peace. Instead of worrying about who might attack them, they were taking a census, proclaiming the law, appointing a leader — simply doing what they were meant to do. Their faith that God would protect them in any situation is what freed the Israelites to go about their appointed tasks faithfully and with peace of mind. Once we have entrusted our lives to God, we need only be faithful in what is given to us now. If, rather than closing our Bibles and rising from our knees for fear of falling behind in a fast-moving age, we live by the faith that the world is under God’s authority, he will make us blessed people who enjoy peace and rest.

The elders of Moab and the elders of Midian came to Balaam with a large fee for divination. They told him that King Balak had sent all this and asked him to come with them and curse Israel. They are stating plainly why they have brought the fee. If Balaam had been a man who feared God, he ought to have been angry with them and refused the king’s request. Instead, he said he would speak to God about it. It seems that because Israel was God’s people, he called on the name of their God and deceived the Midianites into thinking he was in contact with God.

Balaam said he would inquire of Yahweh, but when the task was to curse God’s own people, what prayer could he possibly offer to Yahweh? The king himself had asked, so he saw it as a fine chance to get ahead. The envoys had also brought so many gifts that he could not bear to let the opportunity slip. Already it is clear that Balaam did not regard God as the only God but as one idol among many.

God heard Balaam’s prayer and commanded him not to go with them and not to curse his people, because Israel was a blessed nation. Balaam had prayed to one of the gods as he always did, and when God himself spoke and told him to refuse, Balaam, hearing God’s voice, must have been astonished. In fear, he turned down their request. It was a very good thing that he heard the word and did as it said, because although at first he had said he would pray about it in hopes of the fee, whatever his motive, he turned back at once.

When Balaam refused, Balak grew impatient and sent princes of higher rank than the first envoys, with even more gifts, pleading that if only Balaam would come, he would honor him all the more.

Numbers 22:18-19

18Balaam answered the servants of Balak, “If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I can’t go beyond the word of Yahweh my God, to do less or more. 19Now therefore please stay here tonight as well, that I may know what else Yahweh will speak to me.”

On the surface, Balaam seems to refuse King Balak’s request because he fears God and wants to obey his word. When he declares boldly that he will not go even if they fill his own house with silver and gold, he can even look like someone who will not compromise with the world because he truly wants to live by faith.

But if Balaam had truly feared God, he would not have met with the officials sent by the king of Moab, just as Elisha would not meet Naaman when he came laden with gold, silver, and treasure. Nothing required him to go out of his way to meet Balak’s officials and tell them that he had no need of gold and silver, but that he would pray once more, so they should stay and wait. The gifts they had brought and the king’s promise to honor him had already captured Balaam’s heart. He was not praying to learn God’s will but only looking for an excuse to go to the king.

God’s refusal is also an answer. When God does not quickly rescue us from suffering, that too is an answer, and when he keeps us from chasing the wealth and glory of the world, that is an answer as well. If God told him at the outset to refuse, Balaam should have refused firmly, whatever the temptation.

Two desires are now at war in Balaam: the wish to go to the king and enjoy wealth and honor, and the fear that if he goes, God may rebuke him. As you look at Balaam with his divided heart, which desire do you think has the stronger hold? A battle rages in us as well, between the conviction that we must live according to God’s will and the natural heart that asks how anyone can live in this world by faith alone. So we must beat ourselves into submission and judge wisely in spiritual matters if we are to hold fast to our faith.

With God there is no middle ground. If God has commanded, and if we believe his word is right and have resolved to live by faith, we must not compromise. However often we renew our resolve, the voice whispering in a corner of the heart is Satan’s temptation. The voice that whispers that there is no need to live by the word, that it would do no harm to accept the gold and silver King Balak sent just this once — that is the voice of Satan. The voice telling Balaam that though he had refused out of fear of God, he need not hold to it, is the voice of death that leads to destruction. Had Balaam cut off his ties with King Balak decisively, he would not have died. He died because, knowing full well why he was being summoned, he gave in to greed and so in the end turned his back on God.

Out of fear of God he refused once, but when the invitation kept coming, the second time he could not refuse and asked God whether he might go with them. God, who knew that Balaam’s heart had already tipped, told him to go with them.

Now that God has permitted Balaam to go to the king of Moab, what do you make of it? Do you think God really answered Balaam’s prayer? Balaam thinks it is all right to go to the king of Moab, since he has little choice, as long as he does not curse Israel. I would ask you to weigh whether that thinking is right.

When God gave Balaam permission to go, he was giving up his efforts to lead an evil man’s thinking onto a good path. God had shown Balaam grace in keeping him from cursing Israel, yet Balaam did not understand and went on in his greed, so it was no longer worth holding him back.

There are people with this kind of faith in the church today. Suppose a pastor hides six days lived no differently from the people of the world and then preaches with an air of holiness before the congregation: that does not mean the pastor has fulfilled their calling. Only when those six days are lived according to God’s word can worship be holy, and can the word proclaimed bring souls to life. Someone who lives those six days so loosely that they cannot be told apart from the world is not a pastor just because they proclaim the word from the pulpit on Sunday, and someone who puts on a show of holy worship on Sunday is not a Christian for that alone.

God is not starved for your worship. He delights only in worship that offers up life itself, and he accepts the worship we bring with our lives. It is because they do not believe in God, as Balaam did not, that pastors become embroiled in sexual misconduct, stir up disputes over money, and dance to Satan’s tune. If pastors do not first obey the word they preach, God will still work the wonderful miracle of saving souls through the word that is proclaimed, but the pastor who preached it will bear no fruit. If church members attend church in order to be blessed, God will revive the church through their zeal and service, but they themselves will have no fruit. How sad it is to labor for the church a whole lifetime and receive no reward!

Balaam deceived everyone, as if he were going with God’s permission, and he acted as though he were blessing Israel, but his end was eternal death. My desire is that you know God as you live out your faith, because God will not count a person among his saints for a lifetime of religion lived without honest faith. As you watch Balaam pressing ahead with his own desires even though God blocked him from the start, may you never commit the sin of deceiving God and others.

If someone keeps praying a prayer God does not answer in order to push through their own will, God has already given them up, so he will not stop them even if, like Balaam, they live a worldly life. Such people will not recognize sin as sin, even when they see that God’s discipline is absent. With no rebuke from God, they will rejoice, taking it for an answer. But God is no longer concerned with their life. From then on they will be in Satan’s grip, and they will be left with no discernment at all. That is why the word must stand rightly at the center of our hearts if we are to tell God’s answer from Satan’s.

Let us lay aside our own thinking, judge by the word, and never make Balaam’s mistake. Being forsaken by God can be mistaken for a blessing, because no rebuke or reproof comes. But the end of the forsaken is a wretched death.

May you refrain from what God has told you not to do, and give your whole life to what he has told you to do. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.