express confusion

numbers 22-24; ch 31

2 Peter 2

Revelation 2

Balaam

Growing up in sunday school i heard balaam's story a lot.  well, i heard about half his story a lot.  why is it that my church never told me about his prophesies and deceits?  or maybe they did and all that stood out to me was the talking donkey?  something about talking donkeys really stands out to a kid...

J version summary recap 

Israel is moving into their promised land and defeating everyone who opposes them on the way.  Praise the Lrd!!  Balak is a king and has been watching the Israelites advancing towards him.  what is he going to do?  pay the most spiritually powerful man he knows to curse the Israelite army so he can defeat them. 

this guy is Balaam.  we don't know a lot about him but we do know that whoever he blesses is blessed and whoever he curses is cursed and he seems to be on pretty close speaking terms with the Lrd.  this is pretty amazing for a non-jew at the time.  

Balaam asks the Lrd about cursing the Jews.  the Lrd tells him they are blessed so he should not curse them.  so, balaam turns balak down.  

long story short... balaam eventually goes to balak.  he stands before the israelite army three times and blesses them using the words Gd gives him.  balak is angry and the next chapter is about how the israelites turn from Gd.  

This balaam character doesn't seem so bad hu?  He looks like a pretty good Gd fearing person.  he asks the Lrd what to do and says only what the Lrd tells him... or does he!!  something must have happened here because in Numbers 31:8 Israel kills Balaam!  whats going on here?  

check out Revelation 2:12ish "There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality."

where's that in numbers?  well, it's not explicitly, but it's plain to see that Balaam was up to more than blessing Israel!  

maybe balak 'forced' balaam to give him some advice.  the chapter after balaam's blessings is moab seducing israel...  

some more clues.  the Lrd was angry with balaam when he left 22:22 balaam angrily beats his donkey v27.  balaam eats food sacrificed to an idol v40...  these not exactly fruit of righteousness...  

2 peter 2 does a really good job of laying it all out for us.  this chapter describes what a false prophet/teacher looks like.  what their fruit is.  explaining in v12 that these people blaspheme in matters they don't understand like mindless animals.  then it goes on to explain that balaam was rebuked by a mindless animal that was given speech!  His donkey had more sense than he did!  balaam had blinded himself and created reasons why it was ok for him to go to balak.  think of all the excuses he could have made for himself.  'i'll only say what the Lrd tells me to say,' 'i'll actually bless them instead of curse them,' 'i really could use the money...'  


it's a confusing story.  there are so many questions and i want to believe the best in him but the fact of the matter is his fruit doesn't line up.  after blessing Gd's people (who didn't need his blessing, they had already been blessed) he teaches balak how to seduce israel into cursing themselves.  


it's so evil and i want to part of that in myself!!


thanks Lrd for teaching me through John Gluek!  further up and further in!