A DIFFICULT STORY TO UNDERSTAND
The story of Balaam, Balak and Israel is exceedingly difficult to interpret in a way that its lessons can be applied to our lives. And yet, we have 2 Timothy 3:16-17 which says that all scripture is useful for training in righteousness. So we must conclude that there are timeless lessons there which will teach us, reprove us, correct us and train us in righteousness.

In the beginning of the story, we see that Balak fears Israel and wants to curse Israel so that it will not overcome his kingdom. Balak’s solution to his problem is to hire Balaam, a son of Beor. With a little research into Balaam, we discover that Beor is a descendant of Esau, the son of Isaac, and brother of Jacob. Esau had despised his birthright. The birthright was a blessing which Jacob received from Isaac through deception. From then on, Jacob and Esau were enemies.

This history is relevant because it tells us that there is a history of bad blood between Balaam and Israel. The blessing that Jacob stole from Isaac should have been Esau’s blessing. This is God’s way of saying that there will always be enmity between people who have the blessing (i.e., the ability to hear God’s spoken voice) and those who don’t. Balaam, therefore, is an enemy of Israel, and therefore predisposed to do harm to Israel.

Balak’s family also has bad history with Israel. Balak was a Moabite. Moabites were descendants of Lot. Since Lot’s descendants came from an incestuous relationship with his daughters, and since Lot separated himself from Abraham after the incident at Sodom, his descendants (i.e. the Moabites) were also enemies of Israel. It is not surprising, therefore, that Balak wanted to curse Israel.

After some back and forth negotiations, Balaam, enticed by the promise of income, agrees to go and help Balak in his mission to curse Israel. So, what we have is two of Israel’s enemies teaming up to curse Israel. This situation symbolically represents religions of all kinds working together to curse God’s people (i.e., New Covenant disciples who are blessed to be able to hear God’s spoken voice). Or, to put it another way, the people who are cursed (i.e. people who do not have the ability to hear God’s voice) want to put that same curse on people who have the blessing of people who do have the ability to hear God’s voice. This story symbolically represents this conflict which is, and has always been, the reason why religions fight with one another.

STUDY TIP: See Religion is the Enemy and Sibling Conflict for more about this ongoing, contentious relationship.

On Balaam’s way to curse Israel, God shows his anger with Balaam by sending messengers (i.e. angel, donkey) to discourage him and keep him from cursing Israel. Angels are True Prophets, but donkeys are unclean animals (i.e., False Prophets) which God tells his people to avoid. In this story, however, when the donkey speaks it is functioning as an angel/true prophet who is warning Balaam not to proceed on his mission to curse Israel.

The lesson we learn from the donkey speaking to warn Balaam not to do something he intends to do is that God can use unclean people to warn his people to avoid listening to false prophets. This is always the warning that True Prophets have for religious people. Accordingly, it was Jesus’ message to Israel and to us.

Eventually, Balaam meets Balak. But his hopes of having Balaam curse Israel with his mouth are dashed because God has told Balaam that he can only say what God has told him to say.

God tells Balaam to bless Israel with the words that God has spoken to Ballam. We learn from this that even though Balaam is the enemy, God still speaks to, and through, his enemies. This of course angers Balak who was hoping for a curse — not a blessing.

Balaam is in a predicament. He does not want to cross God by speaking other than what God has said he should speak, but he is also enticed by the financial rewards promised to him by Balak. Plus, there is the historical enmity between Balaam’s people and Israel that motivates him to want to curse Israel.

Balaam has a deception that he expects will resolve his predicament. Instead of actually speaking a curse against Israel, Balaam teaches Balak how to entice Israel to engage in a fleshly worship (i.e., altars and sacrifices). In his scheming, greedy mind, Balaam did not overtly violate God’s commands about what he can and cannot say. But he still gave Balak what he wanted: a curse. The curse went into effect when Israel yields to the temptation to worship alongside Moab at the altars built at Balaam’s direction.

This event had a lasting effect on Israel who several times reverted to the sin (i.e., played the harlot) of worshiping at the Baal of Peor (i.e., the physical altars built by Balaam at the place called Peor). As a result, Balak got what he wanted from Balaam: a curse on Israel. The nature of this curse is the tendency to worship at a physical place (e.g. temple, atar, etc).

Balaam, even though he did not directly speak a curse against Israel, did curse Israel, an act for which Israel later got revenge.

STUDY TIP: See Tabernacles, Temples, Altars, High Places and Pilgrimages for more about physical worship.