God’s Word for You
Numbers 22:1-6 Introducing Balaam
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, November 9, 2021
Balak Hires Balaam
22 The Israelites set out and camped on the Plains of Moab along the Jordan across from Jericho. 2 Balak son of Zippor saw everything that Israel had done to the Amorites. 3 So Moab was afraid of the people, because they were so numerous. Moab was terrified because of the Israelites. 4 Moab said to the elders of Midian, “Now this assembly will eat up everything around us, just as cattle eat up the grass in the field.”
With a suddenness that probably surprised Israel as well as her enemies (everyone, in fact, except God who carried it all out), Israel had been transformed from a rabble trying to scratch their way into the Promised land from the south to a nation lawfully occupying all of the land east of Canaan from the Sea of Galilee and down along the whole Jordan. Moab, who had simply been rude to them and unaccommodating, suddenly became terrified. The Moabites called to Midian for help.
The Midianites were a nomadic people without a central location. Moses’ first wife had been a Midianite (Exodus 3:1), but she and her father had come from much further south, on the edge of the Sinai desert. The Midianites were also found mixed together with the Moabites, as we see in the little war described in 1 Chronicles 1:46. It seems that at this time, there were Midianites in or around Moab as well, so that the king of Moab could call on them to join forces with him against Israel. But he thought that this wouldn’t be enough. He had no idea that Israel had no plans at all to take anything away from him. If he had left them alone, they might have become a powerful ally rather than an enemy!
Balak son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time. 5 He sent messengers to summon Balaam, the son of Beor, from Pethor by the Euphrates River, in the land of his own people.
Balak, the Moabite king, wanted spiritual help as well as military aid, so he called for the most famous false prophet (apart from Moses himself) known in their time to help. Balaam son of Beor is also known from a set of plaster inscriptions in Aramaic from Deir Alla in the Jordan Valley from the 8th century BC. The inscriptions are difficult to read because they were originally made in color rather than in black ink or paint. In addition, since those words aren’t part of Scripture, they don’t really interest us. In my opinion, they are also suspect because the only mention of Balaam’s name is in a portion of the text that is badly damaged. The readable portion of the text is “(The Inscrip)tion of—-am——or.” Ever since the inscription was discovered in 1967, it has been assumed that it must be “[Bala]am [son of Be]or,” but it could well be some other name.
Let’s return to the text before us. Balaam was from a city on the Euphrates. What should we call him? A sorcerer? A wizard? A false prophet? A soothsayer? It would be clearest to say “false prophet.” At any rate, the king of Moab summoned this man, and made his request.
He said, “Look, a people came out of Egypt. They cover the surface of the land, and they are settling right across from me. 6 Please come now. Curse this people for me, for they are more powerful than I am. Perhaps I will succeed and strike them down, driving them out of the land, for I know that whomever you bless is blessed, and whomever you curse is cursed.”
A curse was not merely a matter of foul language shouted in a crowded room. There was a whole practice to making a curse, usually involving a clay tablet which might simply be square or rectangular, or, if a certain person was to be cursed, a model of that person was used. The curse would be written out in the clay and on a piece of paper (papyrus or vellum). Then there was a payment for the curse to be made. When the business transaction was finished, the curse was read out loud, and then the usual procedure was for the clay figure or box to be broken. This might then be laid on an altar near the land in question or buried under it.
The language of verse 6 is a lot like something God said to Abraham: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3). The Moabites were descended from Abraham’s nephew Lot (Genesis 19:37). Did king Balak’s language come from the memory of those words of God, now turned unwittingly against God’s people?
Curses that come from false prophets, witches, occultists, or anyone who does not serve the true God, are meaningless. They shouldn’t concern us at all. “They may curse, but you (O Lord) will bless. When they attack they will be put to shame, but your servant will rejoice. My accusers will be clothed with disgrace and wrapped in shame as a cloak” (Psalm 109:28-29).
Astrology, communicating with the dead and fortune telling are all still going strong today. Don’t get caught up in any of it. If you love someone who dabbles, share the word of God with them. Not just fearsome warnings like Leviticus 20:27 (which is not a command to be carried out literally today since Christ fulfilled the law) but the truth of the gospel. Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Let that be the message you share. That’s the gospel that changes hearts.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.