Numbers 22:1, 4b-6

July 15, 2007

Rev. Kevin Pleas

The Israelites set out, and camped in the plains of Moab across the Jordan from Jericho. Now Balak son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time. He sent messengers to Balaam son of Beor at Pethor, which is on the Euphrates, in the land of Amaw, to summon him, saying, "A people has come out of Egypt; they have spread over the face of the earth, and they have settled next to me. Come now, curse this people for me, since they are stronger than I; perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land; for I know that whomever you bless is blessed, and whomever you curse is cursed."

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I would imagine the story of Balaam isn't one most people are familiar with. It takes up a fair amount of space in the Old Testament; three whole chapters of the book of Numbers, which is quite a lot by Biblical standards. Still, it isn't a story we hear very often, partly because it's hard to say anything meaningful about it without telling the whole story, and the whole story is way too long to stand up here and read. But let me see if I can give you the Reader's Digest version.

After forty years wandering around in the wilderness with Moses, the Israelites have grown into a great nation and they are about to "inherit" the land of Canaan, which is to say take it away from the people who were already living there. They had settled themselves on the plains of Moab beside the Jordan River directly across from the city of Jericho. The battle of Jericho, you may recall, was the event that signaled the actual entry of the chosen people into the Promised Land. The story of Balaam takes place sometime before that battle.

As to story goes, the King of Moab, whose name is Balak, is understandably anxious. He's afraid the Israelites are going to put him out of business. Balak decides that if he can just get the famous prophet Balaam to come and curse the Israelites, maybe he would then be able to defeat them in battle and drive them away. So, king Balak sends a troop of messengers to fetch the prophet, promising him wealth and honor if he will only come and lay a curse on the Israelites. At the time, blessings and curses were believed to be very real and powerful. Baalam doesn't want to come at first. It actually takes two delegations from Moab to convince him. But even after agreeing to come, he takes pains to tell King Balak that he can only say what God gives him to say. If that's alright with the king, then Balaam will come.

Three times Balak takes Balaam up into the hills overlooking some part of the Israelite people, expecting him to curse them. But Balaam ends up blessing them instead. "How can I curse whom God has not cursed?" he says. "How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced?" Well the king is furious, but the prophet says to him essentially, "I told you so. I can only say what God has given me to say, and if God won't curse these people I can't either." Eventually, Balaam goes home and we don't hear anything more about him.

Now one of the things that makes this story complicated is that right in the middle of it, someone, somewhere along the line, made up another story about Balaam and stuck it right in the middle of the larger story. This second story supposedly takes place during Balaam's journey to Moab. It's very different in tone and style from the larger story and actually has the feel of a fairytale. Let me read it to you.

So Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the officials of Moab. God's anger was kindled because he was going, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the road as his adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him. The donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand; so the donkey turned off the road, and went into the field; and Balaam struck the donkey, to turn it back onto the road. Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on either side. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it scraped against the wall, and scraped Balaam's foot against the wall; so he struck it again. Then the angel of the Lord went ahead, and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it lay down under Balaam; and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff. Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and it said to Balaam, "What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?" Balaam said to the donkey, "Because you have made a fool of me! I wish I had a sword in my hand! I would kill you right now!" But the donkey said to Balaam, "Am I not your donkey, which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I been in the habit of treating you this way?" And he said, "No." Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road, with his drawn sword in his hand; and he bowed down, falling on his face…. The angel of the Lord said to Balaam, "Go with the men; but speak only what I tell you to speak."

Now isn't that interesting. Here we have two completely different stories wrapped up together. In the one, Balaam is a wise man, a seer, who is faithful to the God of Israel even though he is not himself an Israelite, who makes it clear that he will not be unfaithful to God's word for all the gold in Moab, and who takes his life in his hands by blessing those the king wants cursed. In the other story, Balaam is a blind, impatient fool, who can't even see the way things are as well as his own donkey. Maybe you can understand why you don't hear too many sermons about Balaam.

According to one of the commentators, the person who put in the donkey story might have been wanting to discredit Balaam. It could be that sometime after the first Balaam story was written somebody decided it wasn't proper for the holy scriptures of the Israelites to have such an approving story about a foreign prophet. So he added in this other story that made Balaam out to be a fool. It's just a guess though. How the two stories came to be wrapped up together the way they are is lost in history. But that aside, maybe putting the two stories together isn't such a bad idea anyway. It isn't hard to imagine Balaam having his good and his bad days. We all have our wise and foolish moments, don't we? We all have times when we can see clearly and other times when the truth is staring us in the face without our knowing it; times when, in our ignorance, we become impatient, maybe even beat up on those who are only trying to help us.

It seems to me that both these stories, different as they are, make essentially the same point; we cannot successfully get past the truth of God. God's truth will have the last word. One way of another, the truth will out. Now I'd like you to bear with me because this is an idea I'm still working on and I'm not sure I've got it all sorted out yet.

First of all, I certainly don't believe that God is somehow the great puppet master in the sky, pulling our strings whenever He wants to make something happen. We've been created as people who have free and meaningful choices to make. We have free will, as the theologians have long said, and it is tremendously important to believe this. If we don't believe we have real choices to make that can have a real impact on our lives and the world, the only alternative is helplessness and cynicism. As overwhelming as the world can be at times, it is simply not true that we are helpless.

On the other hand, we so often take this idea that we are free agents to an unhealthy extreme. We think that we can simply go our own way without there being any consequences. We may or may not believe that God has a plan for our lives, but frankly we have our own plans for our own lives and, no offense God, but it is my life and I'll live it the way I please. But what Balaam knew in his better moments, and then ran smack into in his blindness, is that there is nothing beyond the truth of God. He did have a real choice to make but the choice was this: he could be what God wanted him to be, or he could be less. He did have a real choice, but it was not a choice between equal alternatives. It was a choice to live into the fullness of the life God had given to him, or to turn away into a life that was less meaningful

The truth of God is not just one of the alternatives. It is the highest, fullest, most blessed, most beautiful, most uniquely individual way for each one of us to be who we have been created to be. But we have freedom. We don't have to choose to go the best way. We can resist or ignore or flat out deny that God has any claim on us. But while we're in our denial, we shouldn't delude ourselves that any other way will ever measure up. God wants what's best for us. If we don't want the best for ourselves no one's going to force it on us, but that then means the only choice that remains to us is something less.

I know that we don't think like this very much these days. I know that when we try to think about putting God's will for our lives at the center, very often, we turn it into a moralistic thing. It's not though, or at least it shouldn't be, about moralism. It's not about being perfect, about never having a negative thought cross our minds, never losing our tempers. Sometimes we get the idea that the only way to be a faithful Christian is to live a life in a straitjacket. But what about abundant life? One of my favorite sayings of Jesus is, "I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly." I've never been able understand how some people want to fit abundant life together with holier than thou moralism. It just doesn't work.

So the God we resist, that we sometimes refuse and sometimes deny is that very same God, who wants nothing but the best for each and every one of us. The stories of Balaam are worth reading and thinking about for this message alone. We cannot go beyond the truth of God. God's truth will out.

Amen.