“They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following
the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of
unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb
donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the
prophet” (2 Peter 2:15-16, NKJV).
“And when the donkey saw the Angel of the LORD, she lay down
under Balaam; so Balaam’s anger was aroused, and he struck the
donkey with his staff. Then the LORD opened the mouth of the
donkey, and she said to Balaam, ‘What have I done to you, that you
have struck me these three times?’ And Balaam said to the donkey,
‘Because you have abused me. I wish there were a sword in my
hand, for now I would kill you!’ So the donkey said to Balaam,
‘Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden, ever since I
became yours, to this day? Was I ever disposed to do this to you?’
And he said, ‘No.’ Then the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes, and he
saw the Angel of the LORD standing in the way with His drawn
sword in His hand; and he bowed his head and fell flat on his
face” (Numbers 22:27-31).
Peter’s second letter, chapter 2, is a missive against some false teachers troubling the church. In the middle of his condemnation, he likens these false teachers to the Old Testament character of Balaam. Since we have just finished studying Numbers, I thought
about Balaam this week.
Years ago, we used to have a Biblical carnival here at the building on Halloween. It was an alternative to trick or treating; we hadgames, goodies, and all you would expect. It was Biblically themed, of course; there was a whale the kids could run through, etc. If I recall,
Neil Hodge built the whale out of foam. It was stored in the attic for many years...who
knows, it may be up there still. At any rate, I always wanted to dress up as Balaam’s talking
donkey, but I never pulled it off. But Peter does not speak of the event as a joke or a game; he recalls it as part of Israel’s history.
Balaam was at one time a true prophet of Jehovah. But he wanted King Balak’s money,
so he gave into temptation and became the prophet for hire. In the end, unable to curse
the Hebrews as Balak desired, he did the next best thing. He told Balak to send out women
to tempt the Hebrew men...and once the men committed sexual immorality, Jehovah Himself
would curse them! And so it was.
Balaam is a powerful negative example of the power of temptation, covetousness, and greed. He wanted that reward but knew that God had already rebuffed his requests. Nevertheless, Balaam kept pursuing the object of his desire. The second time the princes came, he invited them to stay the night so that “I may know what more the Lord will say to me.” He knew God’s mind and will on the matter, but he hoped he would get a different answer if he kept asking. The next day, when Balaam was on his way, the donkey
rebuked him and restrained his madness.
Can you and I learn a lesson from Balaam? If we know God’s will, do we humbly accept that will, or do we search high and low for some way to obtain the object of our desire and still pretend to be disciples? Balaam became more focused on his pursuit of riches instead of becoming more and more focused on Jehovah. We can all fall (and some of us have many times) when we get our focus on the wrong things. That is one of the many reasons to attend the worship assembly—it helps to reorient our hearts towards our Savior and King. As God the Father told Abraham, “I am ... your exceedingly great reward” (Genesis 15:1). May God help us not get distracted from what truly matters...knowing and serving our God.
—John Ostic
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