“Balaam’s Blunder” – FBC Morning Light (2/26/2024)

Well, a good Monday morning. I hope you had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed your time together with God's people yesterday. You attended church, hope you were able to do that. Well, today we start a new week, and in our Bible reading we're reading the story of Balaam in Numbers 22 through 24.

Balaam, Balak, and the Curse on Israel

A well-known story, particularly because of Balaam's talking donkey. But I want us to think about this passage for a few minutes, okay? In the first place, okay, remember the story. Balak, king of Moab, wants Balaam to come where he is to look over the encamped nation of Israel, people of Israel, and then to pronounce a curse upon them, okay?

That's what Balak wants Balaam to do. So Balak sends emissaries to Balaam and says, come, I want you to curse these people. And you read about that in chapter 22, and verses 10 and following, the people, the emissaries come, Balaam goes before God, says, what should I do here?

God says, why are these people here? And Balaam says that Balak, the king of Moab, sent me saying, look, a people has come out of Egypt, that's of course Israel, and they cover the face of the earth, come now and curse them for me, perhaps I shall be able to overpower them and drive them out, right?

So what Balak wants is very clear, what Balak wants Balaam to do is very clear, to curse Israel. So Balaam says to God, what am I to do here? God, he doesn't even actually ask, but God says to Balaam in verse 12, you shall not go with them.

Can't be any clearer, more plain than that, right? Furthermore, God says, you shall not curse the people for they are blessed. All right, God's will in this matter is settled, no need for any further discussion.

God says don't go, and he says, don't curse, they're blessed. Okay, so Balaam hears that, he goes back to the emissary, says, sorry, can't go. The emissaries go back to Balak, and Balak sends other emissaries and sends greater promises of wealth and reward if Balaam will just come and curse Israel.

And so what do you, how do you think Balaam should have responded at that point? What do you think he should have done? What's the simple solution to this situation, right? God's will is clear, so Balaam's responsibility here is simply to say, no, God has made his will clear here, I am not to go with you, and I will not curse these people.

But that's not what Balaam did. Instead, Balaam said to the emissaries, hang out here overnight, spend the night here, and I'll see what I'll see what God has to say about this. It's as if he's saying, let me pray about it, let me pray about it.

Clear Commands and False “Pray About It” Decisions

Have you ever known anybody who does that related to, something related to God's will? God's will is very clearly expressed in his word. For example, 2nd Corinthians 614, the Bible says, do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

Here's a young lady, falls in love with a young man, the young man is not a Christian, the young lady professes to be a Christian, and in the first place, never should have been dating the guy, but the guy says to her, will you marry me?

And she says, hmm, I'm gonna have to pray about this. Does she have to pray about this? No, she doesn't have to pray about this, God's will is clear. It's clearly known and understood. All right, nevertheless, Balaam prays about it, if you will, and in the course of the night, God comes to Balaam and says, if the men come to you, call you, rise and go with them, but only the word which I speak to you, that shall you do.

So in the morning, Balaam gets up and he says, okay, I'm gonna go with you. All right, now watch here, God told him to go, right? Okay, then why in verse 22 of chapter 22 does it say God's anger was aroused because Balaam went?

Why did God get angry? Didn't God tell him to go? Well, I think the answer to that is twofold. I think in the first place, he got angry because God had made his will very clear to Balaam, and Balaam did not need to go to God and ask again, and God shouldn't have been asked again.

And secondly, he knew Balaam's heart in this matter. He knew what Balaam's real motivation was. His motivation was not to express the will of God, not to do and to communicate the will of God. Balaam's motivation was the reward that Balak would give to him.

God's Purpose in Sending Balaam

So why then did God tell him to go? Why did he tell him to go? Why didn't he just reiterate his will that he'd already made clear? Well, in the first place, God does not need to reiterate his will that he has already made clear, but why then did he tell him to go?

Why didn't he just stay silent and let what he had said before stand? Well, I think the answer to that is quite simply that God wanted to use this opportunity of telling Balaam, okay, go ahead and go.

He wanted to use this opportunity for a couple of different things. I think he wanted to use it as an opportunity to publicly, profoundly bless Israel so that Balak, the king of Moab, and all the Moabites would know God's favor has been pronounced upon Israel.

Secondly, I think God told him to go because he wanted to frustrate Moab. Moab wanted the Israelites cursed, and God said, I'm gonna make clear that you understand that these people are not cursed. And then thirdly, I think he told Balaam to go ahead and go because he wanted to, he wanted to judge Balaam, give him a taste of unsatisfied greed, and eventually Balaam, you know, he did get rebuked, he got nothing out of going, and his life was eventually snuffed out in judgment.

So yeah, God had a purpose for telling Balaam, okay, go ahead and go. It wasn't that God changed his mind, God was using Balaam's sinful motivation as an opportunity to bless Israel, to curse Moab, and even to judge Balaam.

Prayer for Clarity and a Warning Against Balaam’s Heart

So I hope that helps us understand what's going on in this story. All right, let's pray. Father, I thank you for the clarity of your will in many important matters, matters that relate to eternal life and the way of life that we ought to basically conduct in this world.

Thank you for your clarity. Lord, deliver us from having Balaam hearts, we pray, and we ask this in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Monday, I hope your week gets off to a great start.

Good day.