“Because you’ve been making a fool of me!”
(No one likes to be taken for a fool. It’s embarrassing… intimidating. There’s pride at stake, reputations to recover. Revenge to consider? Or perhaps one can make a compromise so that all is not lost.)
Would you have ever attempted a compromise with God?
After the Israelites had endured their 40-year sentence in the wilderness, the time came for The Lord to lead them out and bring them into the Promised Land. But their conquest wasn’t going to be any easy takeover. There were many skirmishes and outright battles to win to possess the land. Their numbers were very confronting – over 600,000 military men aged over twenty years old – with their families they could possibly have numbered up to three million people!
They defeated and destroyed the Amorites, then camped in the acacia plains
of Moab east of the Jordan River, opposite Jericho. The campsite was enormous,
and not just a conglomeration of tents as far as the eye could see. It was a well-designed city, sectioned off in
four distinct tribal areas to the East, South, West and North of a central
temple precinct, above which hovered the God of the Israelites in the cloud on
fire day after day, and in a column of fire every night.
The people of Moab were overcome with dread when they learned what had
happened to the Amorites. Moab’s king Balak realised his people had no strength
against the Israelite multitude, so he consulted with the leaders of his
eastern neighbours in Midyan, saying of the Israelite encampment ‘they cover
the face of the earth!’ Balak sent messengers with a generous diviner’s fee
to Balaam – a soothsayer living in Midyan near the Euphrates River – requesting
he come at once to curse the Israelites so that Moab could drive them away.
Here’s where Balaam gets very interesting:He told the Moabite envoys to stay overnight, and the next morning he would give them God’s answer. Balaam’s conversation with God is recorded in Numbers 22:9-12 with God’s instruction “You are not to go (back) with them; you are not to curse the people, because they are blessed.” [CJB] The messengers returned to Balak in Moab without the magician.
Panicky and desperate, King Balak sent a second delegation to Balaam. The
Bible describes these emissaries as princes of high-ranking. Although they
promised Balaam great honour and ‘name-your-reward’, Balaam again answered that
he couldn’t go beyond the word of The Lord God… however, he added “stay overnight,
so that I may find out what else (The Lord) Adonai will say to me.” [CJB]
Numbers 22:20 records God’s words to Balaam during the night. He said, “If
the men come to call you, rise and go with them; but only the word which I speak to you – that shall you do.”
[NKJV] In the morning, Balaam saddled his donkey and went with them.
Something that always puzzled me is:
