God’s Word for You
Numbers 22:13-20 Balaam and the means of grace
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, November 11, 2021
13 Balaam got up in the morning and said to Balak’s officials, “Go back to your land, because the LORD has refused to let me go with you.” 14 The officials of Moab got up and went back to Balak. They said, “Balaam refuses to come with us.”
We don’t know whether Balaam had ever been visited by demons. It’s possible that he was used to the idea of demons bringing up a message, talking in shaking, scary Halloween-voices, with cryptic and useless messages with multiple interpretations, like “The battle will fall to the pure of heart,” or whatever. But now? God had come and had spoken to Balaam in clear, plain words: “Do not go with them. Do not curse my people.” When he woke up in the morning, he thought he was being clear when he said, “The LORD refused to let me go.” The messengers had to take that message back to the king. Clear or not, the king was going to have other ideas.
15 So Balak again sent other officials, more numerous and more prestigious than the others. 16 They went to Balaam and said to him, “This is what Balak son of Zippor says, ‘Do not let anything prevent you from coming to me, 17 for I will reward you very richly. Also I will do whatever you tell me. Just come and curse this people for me.’”
Content that he had done the right thing, did Balaam shudder as he looked up from his morning coffee when a crowd of princes with jingling, jangling bags of silver and gold swarmed up to his tent? Balak’s message missed the point entirely. He said, “Do not let anything prevent you.” But it wasn’t an “anything” preventing Balaam, it was a certain anyone. This is what God had said. Now Balaam was in a tug-of-war between a king and God, and the king didn’t believe in God. In such a tug-of-war, it wasn’t going to go very well for the rope everybody was pulling on, and Balaam knew that he himself was the rope.
18 Balaam responded to Balak’s servants, “Even if Balak would give to me his house full of silver and gold, I would not be able to go against the command of the LORD my God to do anything small or great. 19 But please, stay and spend the night here, and I will find out what else the LORD might say to me.”
He says “the LORD my God.” Does that mean that he had saving faith? Let’s allow Jesus to answer and explain: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:21-23).
Balaam was no prophet of the Lord. He was a false prophet; a diviner, a soothsayer, a magician who thought he had a marvelous new trick. But he had no faith. What he thought he had was a wonderful Secret, something that people would pay him to use for their advantage. To Balaam, a god was a god. Gods were things to be used to make people frightened, to control the weak and the poor and to manipulate the powerful. But gods, to Balaam, were nothing more than unseen spirits at best, “for the gods of the nations are idols” (Psalm 96:4). What was different about this one, the God of Israel, was obvious. “Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord; no deeds can compare with you” (Psalm 86:8). The Lord was the God who spoke, who understood, and who gave definite commands. Balaam decided that he would go in one more time. “If I got this god to talk with me once, maybe I can do it again.” But the Lord says, “How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?” (Psalm 4:2).
20 God came to Balaam at night and said to him, “If the men have come to summon you, get up and go with them. However, do only what I tell you.”
Now the Lord was allowing Balaam to go with these Moabite men, but only for his, the Lord’s, purpose and plan. Since Balaam was first introduced in verse 4, Moses never once has used any sort of title for him. He is nothing more than “Balaam” to Moses, because none of his titles, fame, or prestige in the pagan and secular world had any real meaning before God or among God’s people. If God chose to work through this man apart from the usual way of calling into service (which at this time belonged to Aaron’s son Eleazar, Numbers 20:28), then that was God’s business, and he would accompany it by special signs to confirm his message. With us, God works through his means of grace, the Gospel in word and sacrament. He reveals himself “through his word” (1 Samuel 3:21; Titus 1:3). We confess this in the explanation of the Third Article:
“I believe that I cannot by my own thinking or choosing believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian church he daily and fully forgives all sins to me and all believers.”
For Balaam, communication with the Lord should have been terrifying, but he was not thinking of the danger to his life and his soul. For us, communication with the Lord is a matter of joy and comfort, for God has chosen to speak to us through his gospel. “In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe” (Hebrews 1:2). Turn to the Lord in prayer, and give glory to the Son!
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.