God’s Word for You

Numbers 22:33-35 Faith and the means of grace

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, November 16, 2021

The Angel of the Lord is speaking:

33 The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away from me, I would have surely killed you by now and let the donkey live.” 34 Balaam said to the Angel of the LORD, “I have sinned, for I didn’t know that you stood in the road to confront me. Now if this is displeasing to you, I will go back.” 35 The Angel of the LORD said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but you will speak only the words that I speak to you.” So Balaam went with Balak’s officials.

For the third time Balaam speaks with the LORD God, and he still doesn’t understand his sin. The Lord permitted him to go with the Moabites because he picked Balaam up like a tool, no better than a stick or a stone, and he planned to accomplish something through him. The Lord only chose Balaam because Balak had called him into his service. As we already saw, Israel was no threat to Balak and the Moabites, but Balak was afraid. His plan to curse Israel had to be addressed, but all of this was set in motion by Balak’s fear and not by Israel in any way.

(We have not yet mentioned that Moses is nowhere to be found in this account. Note that the whole story takes place from the point of view of the Moabites and of Balaam their hired man. They had no knowledge of Moses, and the Lord’s prophet does not bother to inject himself into the account where there is no need.)

Balaam was guilty of two sins. The first was greed and the second was an unbelief which surprises some readers. Someone will ask: If he spoke with God, how could he possibly be an unbeliever? Answer: Faith comes through the means of grace, and Balaam had not had any contact with the means of grace, which are the gospel in the word or in the sacrament. After all, Satan spoke with God, and had known God face to face, and still fell. Others, like Pharaoh and Abimelech the Philistine, heard messages from God (Genesis 20:2-7, 40:1-6), and they, too, did not put their trust in the coming Savior. I would like to set down a few specific points:

• Ordinarily, the Holy Spirit does not deal with men apart from means, the means of grace, as Jesus says: “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message” (John 17:20; also Ephesians 2:20).
• Holy Scripture teaches that regeneration (being born again) is the word of God’s almighty power through these means. Paul says: “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
• Balaam had heard God’s voice, but only commands. In verse 34, he confesses his sin, but he misunderstands God’s anger. He thinks he was perhaps wrong to take the trip, when it was his motive, not his action, which was his error.
• Balaam showed no interest in hearing God’s word, of visiting with Eleazar the high priest where Israel was camped opposite Jericho (Numbers 20:28) or discovering anything about God apart from what we could learn in nature. This natural knowledge of God does not tell us how we are saved from our sins. Even knowing God’s name did not teach this to Balaam, who therefore remained without faith and ignorant of God’s grace.
• It should not surprise us that Balaam does not inquire about circumcision. When God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision (Genesis 17:10), the patriarch had been separated from Lot (the father of the Moabites) for several years (Genesis 13:11). The Moabites did not receive circumcision in the way Israel did, even if they performed it later on.

By speaking with God, listening to his word without asking forgiveness for his sins (sins he had confessed!) or showing any interest in the way of salvation, Balaam was in grave danger of hardening his heart against God, even though he didn’t recognize that this was the effect he was causing. His desire to profit from the “spiritual” world was leading him down a dark path that would result in agonizing and eternal punishment. This should be a warning to modern theologians who think they are helping people as if they are doctors and nurses of philosophy, psychology, or other mental or emotional disciplines, but who ignore the condition of souls before God. Rationalism and the modern goddess of Reason are idols to be feared and torn down. When your pastor warns you about these things, love and honor him as a pastor deserving of respect. He is being true to his divine call, even though the world hates him, makes fun of him, and belittles his work. He is “keeping hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience” (1 Timothy 3:9). He is striving to “encourage others by sound doctrine and (to) refute those who oppose it” (Titus 1:9). And continuing in that chapter of Titus, Paul has a judgement over those, like Balaam, who “claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good” (Titus 1:16). If something good comes from their actions, as something good came from Balaam in addition to much evil, then the good is the work of God, and is credited not at all to the man.

In our humility, we also acknowledge that anything good that comes from us sinners, Christians though we are, is also the work of God, but he credits such things as righteousness to us even though we don’t deserve it. “Was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did” (James 2:25)? God blesses us and our feeble work on account of the merits of Christ and his grace. How humbling it is to put our faith into practice, to know we are serving God even when we fall short, imperfect as we are.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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