Balaam, Who Took God’s Name in Vain (3)
22The children of Israel also killed Balaam the son of Beor, the soothsayer, with the sword, among the rest of their slain.
Numbers 23:1-12
1Balaam said to Balak, “Build here seven altars for me, and prepare here seven bulls and seven rams for me.” 2Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram. 3Balaam said to Balak, “Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me. Whatever he shows me I will tell you.” He went to a bare height. 4God met Balaam, and he said to him, “I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.” 5Yahweh put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 6He returned to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, he, and all the princes of Moab. 7He took up his parable, and said, “From Aram has Balak brought me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the East. Come, curse Jacob for me. Come, defy Israel. 8How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? How shall I defy whom Yahweh has not defied? 9For from the top of the rocks I see him. From the hills I see him. Behold, it is a people that dwells alone, and shall not be listed among the nations. 10Who can count the dust of Jacob, or count the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous! Let my last end be like his!” 11Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them altogether.” 12He answered and said, “Must I not take heed to speak that which Yahweh puts in my mouth?”
Joshua gave the tribe of Levi no land to conquer. Unlike the other tribes, each of which possessed its own territory, the Levites had no need of a share in the land, because they did God’s work at the tabernacle. In place of land, Aaron and his sons were put in charge of every offering the children of Israel presented to Yahweh. God made all that the people brought, their tithes and their firstfruits, the inheritance of the tribe of Levi.
To take as one’s inheritance the offerings given to God is a fearful thing. It is fearful because the people gave those offerings to God with all their hearts, and living on them carries a responsibility to match. Today all of us are priests. We must therefore live upright and holy lives that God can accept.
Pastors, who preach the word of God so that the church can live a holy life, must live by faith all the more. If pastors do not preach the word of truth, the congregation cannot hear the truth, and without hearing the word they cannot extend the Kingdom of God. A pastor who lives on the offerings church members have worked hard to give must handle money honestly, in the fear of God. Once pastors begin to crave money, they drift away from the word as a matter of course, and once they have drifted from the word, they will lose all concern for the souls in their care. The church, then, should help its pastors so that they lack nothing their ministry requires. Pastors, for their part, should not take the love the church shows them for granted but should serve the church with reverence for God. The Levites worked in the temple and had to show God a holy life, and since they bore responsibility for the faith of the people, they had to win the battle with themselves again and again. Because we too must take up the task of saving souls, life here is lonely and hard, yet we must strive to live as purely as the Levites.
When we hear the apostle Paul say that he could not fulfill his calling unless he died daily, we begin to see how great the greed of Balaam was, a man engaged in spiritual work. Balaam’s sin was this: he heard the voice of God and passed it on, yet he could not let go of his craving for pleasure and wealth. He was so wise and so renowned that the king of Moab heard of him and sent for him. But because he did not serve God with a heart that feared him, he did not know how grievous a sin it was to take money and curse Israel.
Numbers 22:20,35
20God came to Balaam at night, and said to him, “If the men have come to call you, rise up, go with them; but only the word which I speak to you, that you shall do.” 35Yahweh’s angel said to Balaam, “Go with the men; but only the word that I shall speak to you, that you shall speak.” So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.
God came to Balaam at night and spoke to him, and the angel of Yahweh who stood before Balaam spoke the very same words. From this we can tell that the angel of Yahweh standing before Balaam was Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ did not begin his work in the world when he was born. He created the heavens and the earth by his word, and throughout the Old Testament he appeared to many prophets and led the people of God. His work, then, had begun long before. He appeared to Abraham on his way to judge Gomorrah, he was in the fire with Daniel’s three friends when they were thrown into it, and he revealed himself directly to Samson’s parents. Beyond these, the instances are more than we can count. To the saints who laid down their lives to keep their faith he appeared as Savior and came to their aid, and to the wicked, like Balaam, he appeared as Judge and made them pay the price of their sin.
God gave Balaam chance after chance and tried to hold him back, but when Balaam would not listen, God told him to go to the king of Moab. Balaam’s last chance had passed. If we refuse to turn back even when God keeps giving us chances to the very end, no chance remains. No—even if God gives another, a person who has closed their heart cannot see it as the chance of life it is. That blindness is what keeps them from taking hold of it.
How many chances have there been in your life? There must have been chances to hear the word and learn from it. God would have solved some trouble of this world for you and made you realize that he is the living God. Perhaps he made you hear words that shamed you before others, sent you hardship and testing through your circumstances, and brought people into your path to counsel you. All of these are chances God is giving you. But if, like Balaam, you refuse to the end to give up your own righteousness, greed, pride, and lust, you will not be given another chance.
If we have left God and yet meet with no rebuke and no hardship, we should be alarmed, because it may be that, like Balaam, we have stepped outside the fence of grace. Those who go out from God have neither his protection nor his salvation.
Numbers 22:38
38Balaam said to Balak, “Behold, I have come to you. Have I now any power at all to speak anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that shall I speak.”
When Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went all the way out from Moab to a city on the Arnon to welcome him. He came out rejoicing at the thought that, now Balaam had arrived, he could curse Israel. But Balaam could not do as Balak wished, because God had forcibly shut that greedy mouth of his. Having said that he would speak only the word God gave him, he could say nothing of his own will.
1 Kings 22:14
14Micaiah said, “As Yahweh lives, what Yahweh says to me, that I will speak.”
The prophet Micaiah swore by the life of Yahweh that he would speak whatever Yahweh said to him. At first glance Balaam and Micaiah seem to say the same thing, which may make Balaam look like a man of faith. But he was full of greed for more wealth, whereas Micaiah, out of his own will, his faith, and his love for God, had resolved to speak even at the cost of his life.
Balaam and Micaiah differ in their faith and in the direction they pursue. Balaam set his hope on the earth and Micaiah on heaven, and their ends were different. Speaking the same words does not mean holding the same faith. Give thanks in all things, then, for everything you now eat and drink and do is possible only because God keeps you. It may seem that I eat because I want to eat, play because I want to play, and work because I have decided to work. Yet without God’s grace he would take back this very day the life I took to be my own, and so all that I possess is vanity of vanities.
People cannot help speaking out of the life they are living. However fine a person’s character and however broad their learning, their words reveal whether they depend on God or on the world. What a person holds dear, and where they fix their attention as they go through life, therefore matters a great deal.
If you want to know what someone is like, watch closely what they say and do. Then you will know how much distance to keep in your dealings with them. However much people want to hide themselves, their words and actions can go no further than what they know, which is why they are easy to judge. So if we are to win souls, we must be filled with the word and with prayer. Only then can we govern people with spiritual authority, and only then will we not become people who hinder the work of God.
Those in whom the world has taken a larger place than the word will in the end speak only the language of the world, while those who hope for the Kingdom of God will preach nothing but the word, whatever their circumstances. Even if Balaam now passes on the word God has given him, his heart is full of the desire for a life of pleasure and dissipation, and it can therefore be nothing but a lie.
If you can see the love of God in holding Balaam back to the end so that he could not curse Israel, you will see how wicked Balaam is, defying God to satisfy his own greed. He says he will speak only the word of God, but he has already accepted every term Balak offered, and he has no choice but to do whatever King Balak tells him. Calling on God with our lips alone does not make us children of God. That is the sin of taking God’s name in vain. We must show God by our lives that we are his children.
Romans 10:9-10
9that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Whoever believes in the Lord with the heart and confesses with the mouth is saved. We must believe that the Lord came to this earth in the flesh, that he became the atoning sacrifice on the cross to redeem us from sin, and that God the Father raised him from the dead. To believe this, and to live out each day with a faith that is ready to die daily for that righteousness, is what it means to confess with the mouth, and those who live by the word are saved.
Church members today say far too easily that they believe in God and in Jesus. God is holy and almighty—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—and yet they approach him lightly, without fear. Worse still, they believe in God or cast him off as their mood dictates. When suffering comes, some scheme to use God to solve their problems. Others attend church as if doing him a favor, as though God were begging them to be saved, and then ask him to repay them with the riches of the world. Such people hold a faith no different at all from Balaam’s.
Yet because God knows human nature, he goes on working for the salvation of souls to this day, whatever the state of people’s faith. The promise the world refuses to believe will be fulfilled on the last day, as plainly as when we see face to face. I hope with all my heart that you will not believe in God with your head alone, because on the last day you will see Christ, the Judge of every soul, with your own eyes.
Numbers 23:1
1Balaam said to Balak, “Build here seven altars for me, and prepare here seven bulls and seven rams for me.”
Balaam had heard God’s command never to curse Israel, and as he prepares the altars, he appears to be offering sacrifice to God. But he does not know how to offer God a true sacrifice, so he will sacrifice in the way he knows, just as he has always done for idols. Once the altars were built, he told King Balak to stand beside the burnt offering on behalf of the people of Moab, and he himself went off to pray. Like the sorcerers, Balaam means to pray not at the altar but in some place suited to consulting spirits. However many bulls and rams he slaughters, he cannot offer a true sacrifice, since the only way of sacrifice Balaam knows is the way of mediums.
That is why it matters that we first know the word of God. If we do not know his word, we will serve God with the worldly knowledge and methods we already have, and our faith can become a very dangerous thing. So we need to learn the word, understand rightly what God wills, and walk with him accordingly.
Just as Balaam had always relied on Satan for his divinations, he sought to hear the word of God by turning to sorcery. Even so, God came upon such a man as Balaam to keep him from cursing Israel.
Deuteronomy 23:4-5
4because they didn’t meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. 5Nevertheless Yahweh your God wouldn’t listen to Balaam; but Yahweh your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because Yahweh your God loved you.
Of this event Moses said that Balaam tried again and again to curse Israel, but God would not listen to him. Balaam did not bless Israel out of faith. It was God who turned his curse into a blessing. Having taken a bribe from King Balak, Balaam labored to curse Israel in return, but because of God he could not. Time after time he built altars and prayed, and every time he failed. This shows that all his talk of speaking nothing over Israel but blessing, and of not cursing them, was a lie.
When Balaam went up to the height to pray, God came upon him, though Balaam was calling on evil spirits. Balaam had no idea what a great blessing God’s presence was. He simply took it for granted. So, without any fear, he told God that he had built seven altars and offered bulls and rams to show his devotion. To speak of his devotion in this way was to ask God, as if he were one of the spirits, to accept the offering and give him an omen in return. You may be wondering how God could come upon so wicked a man.
But because God the Son took on even the likeness of sinners for the salvation of souls, he himself was blocking Balaam’s curse to protect Israel, his chosen people. It is the same with us. We compromise with the world as it suits us and abandon our promises to God and our faith, and yet the Holy Spirit goes on helping us to the end for our salvation. Balaam failed to understand even when the God who is over all spoke to him directly, and we fail to understand even when the almighty Holy Spirit leads us himself. We are no different from him at all.
Balaam heard the word God had pressed upon him and went back to Balak. Balak was eager to know what God had said, and Balaam told him that God is almighty and great in his works, that no one can curse those whom God has blessed, and that, however hard he tried, he had no enchantment that could harm Israel. Balak, who had been listening, grew angry: he had paid Balaam and brought him there to curse his enemies, and instead Balaam was blessing Israel. When Balak pressed the bribed Balaam to curse once more, Balaam built a second altar on the top of Pisgah and a third on the top of Peor.
But no one can resist the compelling work of God—not Satan, not the world, not anyone—and so Balaam could not curse Israel. However much he wanted to curse Israel with Satan’s power, he could not, because even Satan is a spirit that must submit to God. As we live in this world, we need not be anxious that people or circumstances will bring us to harm. If you are living by an upright faith, God himself will keep anyone from laying a hand on you.
Numbers 24:1
1When Balaam saw that it pleased Yahweh to bless Israel, he didn’t go, as at the other times, to meet with enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness.
After failing again and again, Balaam came to see that he could not curse Israel. Frustrated, he was looking out over Israel, the people God loved so dearly, camped in peace tribe by tribe, when the Spirit of God came upon him. Only then did Balaam realize that he was hearing the voice of the holy God, and that he had harbored evil intentions toward the people God loved.
In Numbers 24:3-4, Balaam called himself one whose eyes had until then been shut, covered in darkness, and who only now could hear the words of God. He confessed that the Almighty had shown him in a vision how much he loved his own people, and had shown him his sin as well, but that only now had he come to know that sin. Falling down in fear and taking the lowly place, he had become one whose eyes were opened, who understood what an astonishing blessing it was that God was showing him these things and speaking them in his hearing.
Once he had grasped the almighty power of God, Balaam blessed Israel from his heart: “How goodly are your tents, Jacob, and your tents, Israel! As valleys they are spread out, as gardens by the riverside, as aloes which Yahweh has planted, as cedar trees beside the waters.” Balaam could not curse Israel to the end, and he went his way.
Yet why did Balaam, who in the end blessed Israel from his heart and went his way, not return to Mesopotamia but die in Midian? The men Balak sent to bring Balaam, even if it took a bribe, were the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian. It seems that when Balaam failed to curse Israel and was driven away by King Balak, the elders of Midian lured him with wealth and took him to their own land. They had heard him prophesy blessing over Israel by the power of God and took it for a remarkable power. So they would have given Balaam many gifts and carried him off to prophesy about their future in the name of God. There, we may suppose, Balaam practiced divination, serving God as one god among many. Balaam had tasted the grace of God, but because he could not give up the pleasures and dissipation of the world, he went back to being one whose eyes were shut, one who could not see the word of God or his visions.
Why, then, did Balaam, though he had heard the word of God, fail to attain righteousness and die at the hands of Israel? God did not come upon Balaam because he had been born again. God was at work to keep him from cursing God’s people. Balaam died because, though he had experienced grace, he could not give up his own righteousness, he became a slave to money, and he was never born again through the word. Because God removed the fence of grace and left him to himself when he gave up faith and went back to the world, Balaam returned to his evil nature, and though he had blessed Israel, he was put to death.
We are not saved merely by saying that we believe in God, since Jesus said that not everyone who says Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Like Balaam, we may hear the word of God and know that Israel is a blessed people, yet we must still live it out in our own lives. It is never easy to give up worldly greed and our own righteousness, but only when we give up all of it do we escape the eternal death into which Balaam went.
It is easy for anyone to meet God. Living as a child of God is never easy. But if only you strive to live as his child, God will always help you with the fence of his grace. And when God gives grace, living as his child is far easier than you think.
Over three sermons I have told you what kind of man Balaam was, how many chances God gave him, and why in the end he could do nothing but forsake God. The conclusion is this: if you love the world, you cannot love God. But if you love God, you can overcome the world as you live, and your life will be far more at peace.
When God gives you a chance, I hope you will try living by faith. And may you give yourselves with endurance to guarding the grace of God. This much I can tell you with confidence: if you live by the word, God will certainly help you so that you are not put to shame in the world.
May you always walk with God as those who hear his word, who see the vision of the Almighty, who fall down and have their eyes opened. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.