By Raphael ben Levi
This week’s parasha is jam-packed with action and opens with the words how “…Balak [the King of Moab] son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites.” (Num 22:2)
Basically, the Hittites, Amorites and Philistines formed civilisations who ultimately merged into other people groups. The Edomites, Moabites and Ammonites formed nations and were relatives of the Israelites and so the Israelites were not commanded to drive them out. The Midianites, Jebusites and Amalekites were wandering tribes who lead a nomadic existence.
The Amorites were warlike mountaineers. Their king, Og, was the last “of the remnant of the giants” ( Deut 3:11 ) containing a hybrid people known as Nephalim who the 12 ‘meraglim’ encountered when they spied out the land. They were known for being rebels and babblers and they would slander others in order to turn people against each other with the objective to weaken them and create chaos. Their manner of behaviour has not changed even to this day – using all means available to manipulate and turn the nations against Israel and the Jewish people.
On the other hand the surrounding pagan nations trembled at the mention of the name of Israel knowing they could never defeat God’s covenant people.
The same principle applies for us as believers. When we walk hand in hand in covenant relationship with the living God through Yeshua, no weapon formed against us will prosper for the Lord God Almighty is our protector unto whom everything within all creation must bow the knee.
With odds like this, it is not a difficult thing to place our full confidence in God, and stand strong against every manifestation of evil. But who can withstand the wrath and judgement of the living God? Kingdoms may arise and come and go but the Word of God endures forever!
With these things in mind, it was no surprise that Israel totally decimated the Amorites in battle. And now they feared that Israel would do the same to them when they approached their territory:
“The Israelites journeyed and encamped in the plains of Moab, on the east side of the Jordan [River] at Jericho. 2 And Balak [the king of Moab] son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. 3 And Moab was terrified at the people and full of dread, because they were many. Moab was distressed and overcome with fear because of the Israelites.”
And yet the Moabite’s fear was unfounded as per God’s promise in Deut.2:9: “And the LORD said, ‘Do not harass [the descendants of] Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the sons (Moab and Ammon) of Lot as a possession.”
The Moabites were descended from one of Lot’s sons who was born following incest with his daughters (Gen.19:37-38). Most scholars believe they represent modern-day Jordan, the Hashemite tribe from Saudi Arabia who were granted the tract of land named Jordan in 1921.
Nonrtheless, the Moabites were terrified when they learned that the Israelites had encamped on the borders of their territory. They had heard that one Israelite would chase 100 and two 10,000! No power in the whole of the universe who can withstand the Most High God, for all of creation must bow the knee to Him and to the One whose name is above all names, Yeshua our Messiah!
This is an important reality for godly believers to apply in their lives. Scripture states that greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world! The weapon of our warfare…. When we put on the armour of God and confront the enemies of God, he must scatter – end of story!
Although the Moabites knew they were powerless militarily to face the Israelites, they ignored or had forgotten the command God had given to the Israelites concerning them and instead submitted to the fear of man instilled by Satan not God. So all the following things which happened could have been avoided. What they perceived was only a false flag.
So, Balak, the Moabite king contacted Balaam the famous hireling and pagan prophet. In ch.22 he pleaded “…now come, I beg of you, curse this people for me, for they are too powerful for me. Perhaps I may be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”
And as Balaam enters the picture, the story begins to unfold. Here comes the surprise factor. After Balak sent a delegation of dignitaries to the north to meet with Balaam, God sovereignly intervened by sternly commanding Balaam: “…’You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.’ So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princes of Balak, ‘Go back to your land, for the LORD has refused to give me permission to go with you.’”
Although he was later permitted to go by God’s own command, it was God’s permissible rather than His perfect will because Balaam was solely motivated by greed and self interest. Balaam lived and died a wicked man, as an enemy of God and his people, yet became a vessel in God’s hands used to fulfil His eternal purposes. Balaam knew full well that no curse could befall the Israelites without cause yet went along with Balak’s persistent requests out of pure greed without any ethical or moral considerations.
As a comparison, it’s interesting that when the muslim nations couldn’t defeat modern Israel militarily following their establishment as a sovereign state in 1948 and following, they resorted to employing tactics similar to the Moabites through delegitimising and cursing Israel, employing all forms of false allegations, misinformation and distortions via social media, pro-Palestinian NGO fronts and countless other devious means with the sole objective to wipe Israel and the Jewish people off the map.
Ba’al-am can mean, “Lord of the People” and he came from a ruling Moabite family situated Pet-hor, a city in Mesopotamia. Deut.23:3-5 provides us with two reasons why the Moabites were prohibited form ever joining the congregation of the Israelites:
“An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation their descendants shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord forever, 4 Because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired Balaam son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia against you to curse you. 5 Nevertheless, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, (i.e., refused to permit his curse to take effect) but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because the Lord your God loves you.”
Fortunately, according to the rabbis, this ruling was restricted to the Moabite men not the women for, as we know, Ruth was a Moabite woman who married Boaz an Israelite from whom the genealogy of the Messiah was descended. Even at this stage in biblical history God was laying the foundation to provide forgiveness to all nations through Yeshua.
The name, Balaam can also have an alternative meaning – “without a people” (‘Bli-Am’) implying that he was someone with an orphan spirit, a loner who separated himself from others who showed no loyalty towards anyone. He simply provided his ‘services’ to the highest bidder as a ‘hireling prophet” with a life that was characterised by emptiness and greed.
God will never permit word curses to take effect over our lives when we remain under His covering but we should be aware that there is no shortage of people, who Satan uses in an attempt to destroy the people of God by any means available through curses, demonic seductions and other evil persuasions.
None of the Israelites knew what was brewing behind the scenes and this was an important factor that led to their eventual downfall through different means, as we shall see. Ignorance is never bliss! Here is the point. God commands us to walk in His wisdom and discernment and be ‘alert and sober’ so that we give Satan no room to blindside us, because our adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. (1Pet.5:8)
So King Balak’s first plan of attack was to pay Balaam to pronounce a curse on the Israelites to achieve what he could not succeed in doing militarily. The place Balaam chose to curse Israel is as significant as the words he spoke. He chose a location from a mountain top where pagan sacrifices were offered, including human sacrifices to Molech. High places are linked to the rebellion of Lucifer where in his pride and arrogance boasted in Isa.14:12-16, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
However, God as always had the last word. He knew exactly how Balaam would respond to the enticements of Balaak but reversed everything; what Balak had intended for evil, God turned around for good! God permitted Balaam to speak only blessings over the Israelites to demonstrate that His Divine purposes cannot be revoked. This has been proved true throughout Israel’s history, something which has vexed the nations and clearly frustrated King Balak. Even in the worst imaginable circumstances such as in modern times with the Shoah, out of the ashes of the Holocaust was born the sovereign nation of Israel. God always has the last word and His eternal purposes will forever prevail!
Amid these things, God demonstrated something overwhelming concerning His fathomless love and mercy even towards this such as Balaam. It’s a story we are all familiar with.
On his journey to meet with Balak, Balaam crossed the path where an angel of the Lord stood to destroy him because of his reckless folly which he was completely unaware of, and was spared only by the intervention of a donkey.
God went to unbelievable lengths to demonstrate His love for Balaam to warn him of the grave folly of his actions. It was a profound illustration of grace extended for a person steeped in such evil.
Sadly, Balaam rejected this opportunity because of a blind greed that consumed his life that was overshadowed by self-interest – and all the accumulated wealth he had illicitly acquired throughout his lifetime ultimately turned to dust. Num.31:7-8 describes Balaam’s final demise not long afterwards. “The Israelites fought with Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and slew every male, including the five kings of Midian: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba; also Balaam son of Peor they slew with the sword.”
What was Balaam’s error? Each time Balaam opened his mouth to curse the Israelites, he found himself uttering words of blessing instead. It was when he discovered that he couldn’t curse the Israelites through a direct approach, he used a different tact by luring them into immorality and idolatry (Plan ‘B’) and for this grievous sin he paid the ultimate price.
The full account is recorded in Num.31 and summarised in Rev.2:14 concerning the Church of Pergamum who God rebuked for “…holding to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block before the Israelites so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality.” Jude1 refers to this as “the sin of Balaam” that resulted in God’s judgement against the Israelites from which 24,000 people perished from the plague. The consequences of Balaam’s godlessness and lust for money was exposed and his death remained unmourned.
Whilst every true believer is protected by God against the wiles of the enemy, we must be sure at all times to remain under His Divine covering otherwise Satan will be quick to take residence.
Balaam’s notoriety is given much coverage in the NT as a warning against greed and deception. For example, in 2Pet.15-18, Peter describes some people with the spirit of Balaam who “…left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness (who) … are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.”
In this parasha, we see the consequences for those who curse the Jewish people and it always ends badly for them. This is clearly illustrated with Balaam referred to among Jewish people as ‘Balaam HaRashah‘ (Balaam the Wicked).
Three times Balaam tried to curse Israel and three times he blessed them as God turned his words into blessings against his own will. God is infinitely greater than the puny attempts of pompous people seeking to destroy God’s Divine will and purposes (Ps. 2).
The prophet Micah, cautioned the Jewish people to “…remember what Balak king of Moab plotted and what Balaam son of Beor answered,” followed a few verses later with the words: “He has shown you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you: to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:5, 8).
It is amazing that God expressed His love for Israel uttered through the very same person who sought to curse them: “I see them from the mountain tops, gaze on them from the heights: This is a people that dwells apart, not reckoned among the nations.” “Lo, a people that rises like a lion, leaps up like the king of beasts.” “How good are your tents, O Jacob, Your dwellings, O Israel!”
God’s ways are inscrutable something people like Balaam could never understand no matter how much they tried as illustrated by the following story:
A secular person approached a famous rabbi with the following question:
“I understand that you Jews have a peculiar way of reasoning when you come to the Talmud and the Torah, and I want you to teach it to me.”
The rabbi replied, “I’m sorry, but you’re too old for that.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Well,” the rabbi told him, “we have three questions we ask a boy before he enters into the study of the Talmud. If he can answer them, we let him into the study. If he can’t, he has no chance.”
The man replied, “Ask them of me. What’s the first question?”
The rabbi said, “The first question is this: Two men fall down a chimney; one comes out clean and the other is dirty, which one washes?”
The student answered, “Oh, that’s easy. The dirty one washes, of course.”
The rabbi said, “Wrong. It is the clean one that washes.”
How do you reason that?” asked the student.
The rabbi answered, “When they fall down the chimney, they look at each other, and the dirty one sees the clean one, so he thinks he is clean too; but the clean one sees the dirty one and thinks he is dirty, so he washes.”
“All right,” the student reflected, “there is a strange logic about that. But give me the second question.”
“The second question is this: Two men fall down a chimney. One comes out dirty,
and the other clean. Which one washes?”
The student replied, “That’s the same question!”
“No it isn’t, it’s an entirely different question.”
“Well,” the student said, “I think I can answer that. It is the clean one that washes.”
The rabbi answered him, “Wrong. They look at each other. The dirty one looks at the clean one and says, ‘Isn’t it wonderful that two men can fall down a chimney and come out clean?’ But the clean one looks at the dirty one and says, ‘Look how dirty we’ve got.’ And the dirty man holds up his hands and sees that they are dirty. So he washes.”
The student pondered for a few moments, then said, “What’s the third question?”
“Two men fall down a chimney…”
The student interjected, “That’s the same one!”
“No it isn’t,” the rabbi answered, “it’s an entirely different problem!
What’s the answer?” the student asked in frustration,
“I don’t know.” The rabbi said, “Neither of them wash because it is a ridiculous story to begin with! How could two men fall down a chimney and one come out dirty and the other clean? So, unless a boy can answer those questions, we never allow him to study the Talmud.”
It is this type of penetrating reasoning that Jewish children are taught, of a kind which is alien to the Western mind. Yeshua put it well in Matt.18:2-4, “Believe me, “unless you change your whole outlook and become like little (Jewish) children you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven. It is the man who can be as humble as this little (Jewish) child who is greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.” (Phillips)
Being a ‘little child’ in the Kingdom of God is more than being child-like in one’s faith (as opposed to being childish); it involves being child-like in the Jewish sense. You see, the story appeared ridiculous because it had nothing to do with right answers or interpretations, but everything to do with right questions, which the intelligent man in the story seemed to have missed completely.
Raphael ben Levi
