Numbers 23:1Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and then prepare seven bulls and seven rams.
2 Balak did it. Then Balaam and Balak sacrificed a bull and a ram on each of the altars.
3 Balaam instructed Balak: “Stand watch here beside your Whole-Burnt-Offering while I go off by myself. Maybe God will come and meet with me. Whatever he shows or tells me, I’ll report to you.” Then he went off by himself.
4 God did meet with Balaam. Balaam said, “I’ve set up seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.”
5 Then God gave Balaam a message: “Return to Balak and give him this message.”
6-10 He went back and found him stationed beside his Whole-Burnt-Offering and with him all the nobles of Moab. Then Balaam spoke his message-oracle:
Balak led me here from Aram, the king of Moab all the way from the eastern mountains.
“Go, curse Jacob for me; go, damn Israel.”
How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I damn whom God has not damned?
From rock pinnacles I see them, from hilltops I survey them: Look! a people camping off by themselves, thinking themselves outsiders among nations.
But who could ever count the dust of Jacob or take a census of cloud-of-dust Israel?
I want to die like these right-living people! I want an end just like theirs!
11 Balak said to Balaam, “What’s this? I brought you here to curse my enemies, and all you’ve done is bless them.”
12 Balaam answered, “Don’t I have to be careful to say what God gives me to say?”
13 Balak said to him, “Go with me to another place from which you can only see the outskirts of their camp—you won’t be able to see the whole camp. From there, curse them for my sake.”
14 So he took him to Watchmen’s Meadow at the top of Pisgah. He built seven altars there and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
15 Balaam said to Balak, “Take up your station here beside your Whole-Burnt-Offering while I meet with him over there.”
16 God met with Balaam and gave him a message. He said, “Return to Balak and give him the message.”
17-24 Balaam returned and found him stationed beside his Whole-Burnt-Offering and the nobles of Moab with him. Balak said to him, “What did God say?” Then Balaam spoke his message-oracle:
On your feet, Balak. Listen, listen carefully son of Zippor: God is not man, one given to lies, and not a son of man changing his mind. Does he speak and not do what he says? Does he promise and not come through? I was brought here to bless; and now he’s blessed—how can I change that? He has no bone to pick with Jacob, he sees nothing wrong with Israel. God is with them, and they’re with him, shouting praises to their King. God brought them out of Egypt, rampaging like a wild ox. No magic spells can bind Jacob, no incantations can hold back Israel. People will look at Jacob and Israel and say, “What a great thing has God done!” Look, a people rising to its feet, stretching like a lion, a king-of-the-beasts, aroused, unsleeping, unresting, until its hunt is over and it’s eaten and drunk its fill.
25 Balak said to Balaam, “Well, if you can’t curse them, at least don’t bless them.”
26 Balaam replied to Balak, “Didn’t I tell you earlier: ‘All God speaks, and only what he speaks, I speak’?”
27-28 Balak said to Balaam, “Please, let me take you to another place; maybe we can find the right place in God’s eyes where you’ll be able to curse them for me.” So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, with a vista over the Jeshimon (Wasteland).
29 Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for sacrifice.”
30 Balak did it and presented an offering of a bull and a ram on each of the altars.
WOW! Seven altars, each with a prize bull burning on them. The smoke ascending to heaven is so thick it’s practically choking. And Balak is watching Balaam anxiously. When one is dealing with prophets and seers, one never quite knows what they will do, particularly Balaam, who has the reputation of hearing from an unknown God. And Balak is right to be nervous, for Balaam can’t say or do anything apart from whatever God demands.
Instead of cursing these people, Balaam returns, saying, “How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I damn whom God has not damned?” And things get even worse, for Balaam pronounces fantastic blessings over the Israelites. And when Balak sends Balaam to two additional places, building seven altars each time and offering bulls on them, things become terrible. Rather than Balaam cursing the Israelites, he returns with a message directly from God: “On your feet, Balak. Listen, listen carefully son of Zippor: God is not man, one given to lies, and not a son of man changing his mind. Does he speak and not do what he says? Does he promise and not come through? I was brought here to bless; and now he’s blessed—how can I change that?”
By now, Balak is tearing his hair and his robe! Inviting Balaam has turned out to be one of the worst ideas he’s had for a long time. 25-28 “Balak said to Balaam, “Well, if you can’t curse them, at least don’t bless them.”
Balaam replied to Balak, “Didn’t I tell you earlier: ‘All God speaks, and only what he speaks, I speak’?”
Balak said to Balaam, “Please, let me take you to another place; maybe we can find the right place in God’s eyes where you’ll be able to curse them for me.” So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, with a vista over the Jeshimon (Wasteland).
In desperation, Balak changes locations, builds seven more altars, and offers a bull on each of them. The chapter ends as Balak is waiting to hear the final edict from Balaam.
This is the first time Balak has had any dealings with the One True Living God, and now he’s sorry he ever invited Balaam. In the past when Balak was invoking demons, changing locations and offering more animals seemed to get the desired results. But this God doesn’t appear to be impressed by the quality of the sacrifices, their numbers, or the locations where the sacrifices are offered. What does it take to get this God to do what Balak wants Him to do?
Unfortunately for Balak, God has already given His answer: God has spoken and He’s not about to change His mind, period. While demons might hand out a few paltry results to encourage people to believe in them, God doesn’t play those games. Tomorrow, we hear God’s final verdict on all this, but meanwhile, look at Balaam. Balaam has already delivered God’s verdict, but Balaam is still hoping to gain a rich reward somehow. If Balaam weren’t worried about the money, he would have stopped after God’s first message. Balaam is going through the motions at this point in hopes that somehow God will say something that will pacify Balak and result in Balaam collecting wealth.
In the end, twenty-one bulls lose their lives for nothing. When one’s aim is wrong in the first place, no amount of sacrifice is going to sanitize bad motives. 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 tells us, “If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.”
Balak neither knows God nor loves Him. Balaam knows God but is hoping for a pay-off. Under such circumstances, sacrifices of any kind-blood or otherwise-are useless. Psalm 51:7 tells us, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” This Christmas, why not give God the only gift you can possibly give Him? Give God your heart and let Him change your life forever.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, we confess that we are sinners and nothing we can do will wipe out that sin. But You have sent Jesus as a blood sacrifice to save us from our sins. Here are our hearts. Please take them and help us follow hard after You all the days of our lives. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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