Our story is always a subplot to God’s story.

Numbers 24:1-11

February 28, 2010

More to the story

The Olympics have fascinated us for the past two weeks, and will come to a close tonight.  Almost every Olympic athlete has just a few moments in the spotlight to skate or race or jump.  Their whole lives have been invested in preparing for their 15 seconds of fame.

And then there’s the rest of the story.  For some viewers, the competition is the story.  For others, the stories of the athletes are what make the Olympics compelling.

Lindsey Vonn’s injuries.  Bode Miller’s bust in 2006 followed by success this year.  Apolo Anton Ohno and his “Dancing with the Stars.”  There’s always an angle to the rest of the story that makes the competition more riveting.

Sometimes “the rest of the story” is heartbreaking.  Many athletes use their notoriety for great causes and achievements.  Others became infamous.  If I mention names like Pete Rose, Mark McGwire, or Dennis Rodman, sports fans immediately recognize them as figures who belong in the sports “Hall of Shame.”

There are some former winter Olympians among them.  Wolfgang Schwarz won the gold medal for Austria in 1968 in men’s figure skating.  The rest of his story is that in 2002 he was convicted for trafficking in human beings after bringing 5 women from Russia to Austria as prostitutes.  In 2006, he was sentenced to eight years in prison for kidnapping a Romanian teenager.

How about Tonya Harding, the first American woman to land a triple axel in figure skating competition?  She gained notoriety when she allegedly conspired with her then-husband to injure Nancy Kerrigan before the 1984 U.S. Figure Skating competition.

“The rest of the story” of Balaam is kind of like that.

Futility times three

You wouldn’t know that, however, by reading Numbers 23-24.  At least, I wouldn’t.  From a biblical perspective, this is his Olympic moment.

Balaam comes across at first glance as a good guy.  He wasn’t.  Let me tell you “the rest of the story.”

First, a little background.  You probably remember that the children of Israel took forty years to get from their slavery in Egypt to their Promised Land in Canaan.  The Bible tells us a lot about the first part of that forty years – the ten plagues in Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, the giving of the Ten Commandments, the building of the tabernacle, and so on. 

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and the first half of Numbers are all about those first months – maybe even couple of years.  That period ends with an exploration of the land that leads to rebellion. God says no one over the age of twenty will enter the land, except Caleb and Joshua.

Then there is about a 38-year gap in the record (probably between Numbers 19-20).  Israel expends a generation camped in the desert.  We don’t know exactly where.  Balaam’s story intersects with theirs at this point.

We began the story of Balaam last week.  The children of Israel, a huge multitude (the surface evidence seems to be about 2 million people, though some scholars dispute the number) are on the east bank of the Jordan River.  Everyone around them knows they are looking for a place to settle.  Nobody feels secure.

Balak, the king of Moab, decides on a pre-emptive strike.  He wants a little divine assistance, however, so he brings in an internationally-known mystic named Balaam.  This guy has the reputation for communicating with any of the various gods claimed by the diverse religious and political groups in the region.  He employs various incantations to consult the deities.  His reputation is that what he blesses is blessed.  What he curses is cursed.  His words matter.

Balak sends a delegation to Balaam asking for his services and offering a fee.  Balaam then spends the night conferring with Yahweh, the God of the Israelites, who says, “No.  You may not curse them.  I want to bless them.  Do not go with Balak’s delegates.”

Undeterred, Balak sends a second delegation with greater rank and more money.  This time Balaam consents to go, still insisting he could only say what God gave him to say.  He says money is not a factor.  That’s when last week’s rather amusing story takes place. Balaam’s donkey is able to see what this famous seer cannot see – the angel of the LORD blocking the way.

Chapters 23 and 24 record seven “oracles” of Balaam.  Balaam is an oracle machine.

It is the first three oracles, or poetic prophecies, that interest us the most.  There are similarities and differences among them.

Let’s start with the first.  Balak meets Balaam, chides him for not coming sooner since they paycheck was obviously going to be lucrative, and ushers Balaam to a place where he can see part of the people (22:36-41).

Balaam asks Balak to build seven altars.  The two of them sacrifice both a bull and a ram (male goat) on each of the seven altars (23:1-2).  That’s part of the ritual of supposedly asking God what he wants.  No one in their time, Jews included, would have questioned the validity of this method of determining God’s will.

While the meat is smoking, Balaam withdraws by himself to meet with Yahweh, who reveals his first oracle (23:3-5).  Balaam returns to the site of the sacrifice, stands in front of Balak and his cabinet, and opens his mouth.  There is great anticipation among these Moabites that Balaam is going to curse the Israelites.

Instead, he prophesies Israel’s fertility.  They will continue to grow in number and be blessed.  He is so overwhelmed by the positive content of his own message that he exclaims, “May my end be like theirs!” (23:10)

Balak is not happy.  “What have you done to me?  I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!” (23:11)

Balaam answers, “I have to say what God tells me to say” (23:12, paraphrase).

“OK,” Balak responds.  “Maybe the place was wrong.   You couldn’t see how many of them there were.  These people are a threat to all of us.  Let’s try another location” (23:13, paraphrase).

The scene is repeated, this time at Mt. Pisgah, from which one can see Canaan.  Seven altars, seven rams, seven bulls.  Balaam talks to Yahweh while the smoke rises, goes back and blesses Israel again.  “God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind” (23:19).  God has blessed them and they will be as strong as an ox (23:22) and as victorious as a lion in battle (23:24).

Balak is ticked again.  “If you can’t say anything bad, don’t say anything at all!” (23:25, paraphrase).

Balaam: “I keep telling you – I only say what Yahweh tells me to say” (23:26, paraphrase).

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.  Balak tries one more venue.  This time he takes Balaam to Peor (23:28), which is a site for the worship of Baal, the Canaanite god (25:3).  The site was known for its sensual orgies.  It was a place of vile, vulgar, violent worship.  Apparently Balak wants Balaam to get his oracle from Baal, not Yahweh.

They do the seven altar-thing again (24:1).  There’s an interesting hint of what went on the last two times when 24:1 says, “he did not resort to sorcery as at other times.”  In other words, he didn’t go off by himself to ask Yahweh what to say – he already knew.  But we also learn what was going on in those private conversations.  Balaam was using his pagan rituals to consult with the God of the Israelites.

Balaam once again blesses Israel.  He blesses their lands, their crops, their kingdom, and their warfare.  He ends by repeating words God had spoken to their ancestor Abraham (Genesis 12:3), “May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed.”

Now Balak is livid (24:10).  He claps his hand in disgust and says, “Get out of here” (24:12).  A threat is implied by his words:  “Get out or else.”  He continues, “I said I would reward you well, but you can blame Yahweh.  You’re getting nothing” (24:11, paraphrase).

After then cursing Moab and some other surrounding nations, Balaam and Balak part ways.  End of the story?  No, there’s more.  In the next chapter, Moab (Balak’s people) use their women to seduce Israel – not only sexually but also in worshiping Baal (25:1-3).  Yahweh is very angry, and those involved in this seduction are condemned to die.

The rest of the Bible

You and I read that with some appreciation for Balaam.  He was a man of integrity, right?  He will only say what Yahweh tells him.  No amount of money would persuade him to go against conscience.  His story is told as an inspiration to those who do the right thing in spite of enormous pressure.

The rest of the story says, “Apparently not.”

With the help of my Bible study groups this week, I learned more about Balaam from the rest of the Bible.

The first piece I learned surprised me.  A few chapters after this incident, Israel invaded the Midianites.  Whether he lived there or was only visiting, Balaam was among those killed by the Israelites (Numbers 31:8) along with the kings of Midian.  Joshua 13:22 adds that one reason Balaam was killed was his “divination” – that is, fortune-telling.  The Bible consistently looks down on or prohibits trying to connect with the other world in any way except through worship and prayer.  So whether it’s some kind of spell or séance or whatever it is, it’s viewed as not trusting God and his word.

But there’s more in the Bible about Balaam as well.  Numbers 31:16 refers to a group of women who “were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the LORD in what happened at Peor.”  Revelation 2:14 says Balaam “taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality.”

There’s an interesting twist I had not seen.  Put these texts together, and you realize that apparently what Balaam did was to conspire with Balak to find another way that he could neutralize the threat of the Israelites.  If we can’t kill them, if we can’t curse them, let’s send our pretty girls in there to compromise their families and their faith.  Clever.

Joshua puts a different twist on a part of this story that we read earlier.   In Joshua 24, the Lord is reviewing the history of the people after the conquest is complete.  He’s getting ready to renew the covenant now that they are settled and secure.  In his history lesson, he says this, “When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you. But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand” (Joshua 24:10, italics added).

“But I would not listen to Balaam.”  Did you catch that?  Hmmm.  Apparently what Balaam was doing when he went off by himself was saying something like, “Please, Yahweh, let me curse them.”  And God says, “No.”  In fact, when 24:2 says, “The Spirit of God came upon him,” you get the idea that God is overruling Balaam.  (Remember, he had not consulted Yahweh the third time – so it was like he was going to do his own thing without asking permission.  But God prevented him.)  Reinforcing that point, Nehemiah says that God turned Balaam’s curse into a blessing (Nehemiah 13:2).

And why did he do it?  2 Peter 2:15 says he “loved the wages of wickedness.”  The New Testament prophet Jude says of the false teachers of his day, “Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error” (Jude 11, italics added).

I have to tell you that when I first read Balaam’s story, I was a little confused.  There were mixed messages about what he did and why he did it.  But every single other reference to Balaam in the Bible, Old and New Testament, is negative.  I finally decided it was cultural distance.  People of Balaam’s own cultural background don’t read his story as confusing at all.

They see him as a pagan, conniving, money-hungry, fame-thirsty, two-faced sorcerer.  You can’t trust Balaam.  They know his reputation and they know his kind.  The story of Balaam is about God overruling the wicked intent of a conspirator intent on destroying Israel.

That is the rest of the story.

Lessons

So what does Balaam’s story mean to us?

When I started out this week – even after preaching Part 1 last week – I would have said the meaning of Balaam’s story has something to do with the fact that words matter.  Motives matter as well, but words do bless and curse.  I saw this passage as essentially an antidote to the children’s ditty, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”

While it’s true that ditty needs an antidote, and words can deeply hurt – that’s not what Balaam’s story teaches us.

Here are a few deeper lessons.  I’ll summarize each with one word.

First, discernment.  We are always trying to get a glimpse into what will happen in the future or what God is doing behind the scenes.  We need discernment about our sources of truth.

As the Apostles Peter. Jude and John (Revelation) pointed out, Balaam is the prototype for a long line of spiritual swindlers who often sound good, or wise, or well-connected spiritually.  Some of them even quote from the Bible or sound very spiritual.  They speak very credibly of connections with the invisible world, and will be glad to connect you – usually for a fee.  Beware. 

I believe there is an invisible world of intelligent beings – the Bible refers to them as angels and demons – but I don’t believe we should try to connect with them or with the souls of those who have left the planet.  God has communicated all he needs for us to know in nature, in the Bible, and especially in his Son, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-4).

Second, freedom.  Sometimes in our frustration with God’s silence we deliberately take a path we know dishonors him.  We kind of dare him to stop us. 

Sometimes he does prevent us or alter our course, but often he does nothing.  If we are intent on doing so, he will let us travel far down a narcissistic, self-deceptive, gratifying path.  He will let us destroy ourselves and sometimes will let us greatly harm others so we can see the grievous nature of our wrongs. 

As the apostle Paul says, “You are called to be free.  But do not use your freedom as an excuse to do the wrong thing.  Use it to love God and server others” (Galatians 5:13, paraphrase).

Finally, perspective.  God used Balaam, in spite of himself, to bless Israel.  Step way back from the details of this story and remember that Israel did occupy their land, did continue to multiply, did become an instrument of God to bring salvation to the whole world through Jesus Christ. 

Whose legacy remains to this day as world-changing?  Moab or Israel?  Balak or Moses?  Balaam or Joshua? 

Our story is always a subplot to God’s story.  We think of ourselves and our needs and our times as being the center of the world.  We’re like Balaam, sometimes trying to coax God into thinking our way, sometimes reluctantly caving in, sometimes finding an end around to do what we had wanted to do anyway, usually having a self-serving motive.

God is not amused or fooled.  God ultimately has his way.  And that is the rest of the story.  Amen.