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It’s important to respect yourself as one who bears the image of God, but when does self-love cross over into conceit? And when that conceit is in the heart of a prophet that practices deceit, it’s a sobering warning. The lesson of Balaam told in Torah reading בָּלָק Balak (Numbers 22:2-25:9) and expanded upon in Micah 5:6–6:8 and Jude 3-16 is a warning and a contrast between a true prophet of God, namely Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus), and a false prophet.
Just as there are “types” of the Messiah Yeshua throughout the Tanak, such as Abraham, Joseph, Moses and King David, there are also types of HaSatan, the Accuser, throughout the Tanak, too. Balaam, who we meet in the Torah portion called Balak, is one of the types of Ha-Satan we read about in Scripture.
“When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations. There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, anyone who practices divination, an omen reader, a soothsayer, a sorcerer, one who casts spells, one who conjures up spirits, a practitioner of the occult, or a necromancer. Whoever does these things is abhorrent to the LORD and because of these detestable things the LORD your God is about to drive them out from before you. You must be blameless before the LORD your God. Those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to omen readers and diviners, but the LORD your God has not given you permission to do such things.” (Deuteronomy 18:9–14 NET)
Balaam was a practitioner of witchcraft. That was his job and his vocation. The term here witchcraft is the same word for divination. Witchcraft and other forms of divination were widely practiced in the Ancient Near East, even in the Promised Land.
In no uncertain terms, God specifically prohibited the children of Israel from taking up this occupation. God was bringing the children of Israel into the Promised Land to evict the witches, sorcerers, etc. from His holy land. He had no intention of importing more.
We learn certain things from this section of Deuteronomy. Moses is warning us about divination and Balaam falls dead square in the middle of it. Which I’m filtering this word in particular because this witchcraft the same word for divination?
The diviner calls, the prophet receives
What is the difference between divination and prophets? Have you thought about that the difference between diviner so who defines things versus someone who was a prophet?
So a diviner is paid to communicate with the spirit world on a one on one basis. The diviner asks the spirits to do whatever he has been paid by the petitioner to ask of the spirit. The diviner is the go-between transmitting request from his clients to the spirit world.
The prophet is different. A prophet receives a message from God that he’s supposed to give to the people.The diviner is the caller, calling upon God you to do this or that.
How did Balaam become a diviner and why did God speak to and listen to him? God was willing to speak to Balaam, even though he was not a prophet of God in any way any shape or form.
Although Balaam was called a “Prophet for the Gentiles,” he wasn’t a prophet.
We see other diviners in the Tanak such as the Witch of Endor, but we also see someone else who claimed to be a diviner. This one is a bit controversial but I am going to mention him anyway.
Joseph, the son of Jacob claimed to be a diviner, too. The truth is that Joseph was actually a prophet.
He did not presume to tell God what to do. Joseph waited and God spoke to him.
Joseph also did not make money off of people claiming to be able to bend God’s will.
Joseph was making a a very selective word choice to his brothers while he was calling himself a diviner, because he’s supposed to be the Egyptian and his brother’s think he’s Egyptian. An Egyptian would not refer to himself as a prophet. Joseph was not ready to reveal himself to his brothers yet.
Abraham v. Balaam
“Now, therefore, please come, curse this people for me since they are too mighty for me; perhaps I may be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land. For I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”” (Numbers 22:6 NAS95)
“And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”” (Genesis 12:3 NAS95)
If you want to see an example of polar opposites, look no further than Abraham and Balaam. These two men are what we would normally call the inverse of each other. They are opposites, though they may look appear similar, they are in fact the inverse of each other and we are supposed to know what. God wants to make sure we see their differences, but there are also similarities, at least on the surface.
The fact that King Balak of Moab says of Balaam, “I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed” is noted here by Moses as he wrote this down so we would instantly make a comparison between Abraham and Balaam. God is wanting us to compare the two men very closely.
One similarity in Abraham and Balaam’s stories include the fact that men were called by a superior to leave their own countries to perform a mission. Abraham was called by God to leave his home and go to a new land. Balaam was called by the King of Moab to eliminate a threat.
Balaam and Abraham were also both given tests. God tested Abraham by asking him to kill his promised son. Abraham was willing to kill his son without argument. Then God told Abraham not to kill his son. These commands conflicted with each other.
It was similar with Balaam. First he tells Balaam not to go to Balak to curse Israel but then he tells Balaam to go to Balak.
He gives both Abraham and Balaam contradictory commands, though they were inverse of each other. Abraham was told to go and then stop while Balaam was told to stop and then go. They are inverses on purpose. There are more differences between the two men than similarities.
Abraham received blessings from God. Abraham never manipulated God for material gain. He also never manipulated his fellow man for wealth either, even when he was given an opportunity to do so. When Abraham had defeated the Five Kings, the King of Sodom offered him a lot of the booty the Five Kings had stolen from Sodom. Abraham turned it down. He didn’t want anybody to say that the King of Sodom made him rich. He refused to except the possibility of being a beneficiary of war.
However, on the surface, Abraham and Balaam look the same but they are actually the inverse of each other. One was good and one was evil.
There’s a reason why it’s written down for us this way. The Bible didn’t make a mistake. Balaam is an evil individual. By every account, he’s an evil individual. Even the blessings he gave were not really blessings. How do we know that? What did he actually do?
After the blessings were spoken, Balaam taught the Moabites how to undermine the people of Israel to bring them low. He put a major stumbling block in front of them to cause 24,000 men to die. That is not a blessing. That is not a good person. That is a wicked person.
But God didn’t allow Balaam to follow the desire of his heart without a warning of the consequences.
Balaam faces a HaSatan
“But God was angry because he was going, and the angel of the LORD took his stand in the way as an adversary against him. Now he was riding on his donkey and his two servants were with him.” (Numbers 22:22 NAS95)
The Torah tells us that the Angel of the Lord was acting as a “HaSatan” or adversary against Balaam. God can be a “Satan” to those who are evil. If God is trying to stop the person evil, he is an adversary to that person. However, when a person is walking in righteousness, he is their advocate. He is an adversary to the evil and an advocate for the righteous.
So in this instance, the Torah very carefully uses this word each time is that the angel of the Lord was Balaam’s HaSatan.
God even says, “I will be an adversary I will be a ‘Satan’ to those who are Satan’s.” He will be the adversary because those who are adversarial against Him.
We as Christians think that Satan is only one individual, an evil demon. No, it doesn’t. The word doesn’t mean that.
If you go into a courtroom, you will find an adversary and an advocate. That’s what the attorneys for the plaintiff and the defendant are. Their role changes on a case by case basis. There’s nothing strange or abnormal about that.
When Yeshua told Peter “Get behind me Satan,” Yeshua was not saying that Peter was demon possessed. Yeshua was pointing out that Peter was opposing God’s will for Him at that point. Yeshua had to go to the cross and Peter was willing to do anything to stop that from happening.
The Angel of the Lord’s job in this story was to be Balaam’s HaSatan, his adversary. The Angel of the Lord was not going to make it easy for Balaam to disobey God’s command.
Anyone can be an adversary of anyone else depending on the context.
This is for our benefit not his
Why did God have any kind of interaction with Balaam? Why didn’t God just ignore Balaam? Wouldn’t that be the most effective way of showing that whatever he does is worthless? What was God’s objective by not ignoring belong?
God wants he wants to teach us something through those stories. That’s why sometimes He lets things happen, so we can learn from these stories.
How do we even know these stories, particularly the interchange between Balak and Balaam? Where was Moses as Balak and Balaam’s story was unfolding? Moses was in the camp. Did Moses hear their conversations? Was there Israelite spy amongst the Moabite princes that that wrote down everything that Balaam was saying? No.
There’s no indication that Moses would even have any knowledge of this conversation at all. But the entire event is well recorded.
This was not written down for Balak’s sake or Balaam’s sake but for ours. We’re learning from what somebody else documented, that no one was around to watch. But it got into our Torah to teach us something about these characters. Balaam’s story is here on purpose.
We can all be adversaries or advocates depending on the point of view of whoever is watching us. God only wants us to be adversaries against those who are evil.
Tools of divination
When Balaam meets with the Moabite King Balak, he asks for certain tools of divination: seven altars, seven bulls, and seven rams. Balak makes these offerings at Balaam’s instruction but Balaam has no assurance that God will respond favorably to these sacrifices.
“Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps the LORD will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went to a bare hill.” (Numbers 23:3 NAS95)
This is how a diviner speaks and acts. He operates with chance. He sets up his tools in a certain way, and says certain prayers in a certain way and the spirit might respond favorably.
Also note that each high place that Balak brough Balaam to had names and titles. The first high place was dedicated to Ba’al. The Ba’al s is a generic title for any one of our hosts different gods. Each town and village had its own ba’al that they would honor and worship.
Balaam is mixing worship of the Creator God with the worship of the false pagan deities. In Balaam’s divination, he blends the worship of God with the worship of their false gods.
Even in our modern times, we see fortune tellers, mediums, etc. offering their services. They do not limit themselves to one religious belief or system. They are blenders and they get paid to blend, mix and match religions. Nothing has changed since the days of Balaam.
We still are left to wonder why God is listening to this guy? Why doesn’t God just ignore him or rebuke him for being abhorrent?
So far as we know, God doesn’t correct Balaam in this matter. He simply tells Balaam what to say word for word to Balak.
God’s objective in his interactions with Balaam is to foil the attempts of Balak to curse Israel. God is also demonstrating to anybody else who’s listening that Israel is unique, strange and is a different nation from them.
God could have refused to interact to Balaam or Balak at all. He could have kept His mouth shut and ignored this entire drama. So God’s priority was to address to teach Balak and Balaam about Israel. That was His objective.
The process of blending worship of Himself with the worship of fake deities is abhorrent to God. But when it comes His higher priorities, he can and will use these weaker vessels to accomplish His purposes.
He used Abraham’s father, Cyrus, Lot and others who didn’t really know or fully understand Him to do what He wanted to do. God did not ignore them or treat them as garbage. He still will use them if it serves His objective. He even used an unclean animal, like a donkey, as a messenger.
Selfie generation
The most common form of idolatry is self-worship. What does it look like? When we try to polish our image in someone else’s eyes. When we want to make them look up to us and admire us. We want others to think good things about us. We want others to have a positive impression of us. We want those around us to respect what we’ve done or not done. We want others to think our opinions are always right. They should all agree with everything we say. It’s always about self, that is our most common form of idolatry.
We want to be looked up to, but do we deserve to be looked up to? This is very, very common amongst all humans.
This is Balaam’s form of idolatry, too. How do we know? Just read his own words.
“He took up his discourse and said, “The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor, And the oracle of the man whose eye is opened; The oracle of him who hears the words of God, Who sees the vision of the Almighty, Falling down, yet having his eyes uncovered,” (Numbers 24:3–4 NAS95)
Is that an arrogant statement? Yes, it is. Is that a humble person? No, it’s not. There is nothing humble about these statements. Balaam is great in his own eyes.
On the opposite, the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all saw themselves as very low. Abraham was a friend of God, Moses was a servant of God. Both of them had conversations and even arguments with God. Moses wielded enormous power but he was called the most humble man who ever walked the earth. Moses’ power did not corrupt him.
Self worship is the opposite. That is, I have the power, I will use it. have the influence, I will use it. People look up to me, I will then use it to my advantage. I will gain more followers or more whatever you’re gaining.
Balaam’s self worship, of course comes to an end in Numbers 31.
Let’s now take a look at the Haftarah reading in Micah and we will see even more how Abraham and Balaam had similar life experiences, except one was very humble and one was very haughty.
“Then the remnant of Jacob Will be among many peoples Like dew from the LORD, Like showers on vegetation Which do not wait for man Or delay for the sons of men.
The remnant of Jacob Will be among the nations, Among many peoples Like a lion among the beasts of the forest, Like a young lion among flocks of sheep,” (Micah 5:7–8 NAS95)
Israel is almost always compared to sheep but in this verse, the people of Israel are compared to a lion. So in this situation at this point in time, in the latter days, Israel’s position is flipped. Though they’re scattered amongst the nations, their status is flipped from being the prey to the predator, from the one being devoured to the devourer.
Who is God’s competitor? HaSatan. This is where Balaam comes in. Balaam isn’t just a prophet. He’s a special kind of diviner. He’s a Gentile, a special kind of Gentile.
The book of Jude tells us what kind of Gentile Balaam is. As we read in Jude, he compares insidious individuals who appear to be normal, but are in fact very evil. They blend in very well with the church crowd. They say the right prayers, they sing the right songs. They appear to be in fellowship with God. They appear perfectly godly on the outside but inside they are far away from God.
In Balaam’s case, he appeared to be a holy man on the outside but he wasn’t. He’s after profit and personal gain. Balaam was after money but there are lots of forms of profits.
We see with the King of Sodom that he was willing to give up his money but he kept the people. For a king, their most important possession is their subjects. If you have no people, you are king of nothing.
There’s no power without influence. There’s no power if there are no people to inflict it upon.
Balaam worked very hard to look good on the outside, but he was very evil on the inside.
Think about HaSatan. Does he show up wearing a black cloak with a pitchfork like the grim reaper? No. He shows up as an angel of light. HaSatan is the master deceiver. On the inside, HaSatan is evil but he cleans up well on the outside. That’s what a master deceiver would be. What did Balaam do? On the outside, he appear perfectly fine and normal, what’s on the inside? Deception, a lust for profit, greed and obviously various evil things he goes through.
Balaam is the human prototype of God’s adversary. On the outside he appears clean but on the inside, he is full of wickedness.
What did Balaam do? He used magnificent words. He heaped lots of flattery upon Israel, but a lot more on himself.
When the story ended, what happened? Balaam then goes over and teaches Balak secretly about how to destroy Israel, through the Midianite women, through sexual morality.
HaSatan is also seeding deceit and corruption. He’s good at it. He is the master of it.
We know that God has spoken to HaSatan just as he spoke with Balaam. How do we know? The Torah tells us that HaSatan can’t anything without God’s permission. He speaks to both of them even though they are both utterly corrupt on the inside.
It’s a great story of a comparison to see how God dealt with Abraham. But how God deals Balaam and how God deals with His own adversary. We also see how Israel will deal with the nations that try to destroy them from the inside out.
We are these patterns of behavior we’re looking at and seeing and observing in these men these characters.
It’s not by accident that God reveals to us a courtroom type setting in Micah 6.
Did Balaam walk justly? Did he have mercy? No. Was he humble before his God? No. Balaam’s mercy clearly wasn’t merciful because he taugh Balak and all the people how to destroy Israel. 24,000 men died as as result of Balaam’s “mercy.” Recall that only 3,000 men died after the sin of the golden calf. Which was worse, which was more insidious, more evil, more corrupt. Balaam’s sin was, that corruption was truly evil. His actions and the results of his actions were evil.
When we walk humbly before God, what are we doing? What does that walk look like? It does not look like Balaam’s.
The one who truly walks with God is clean on the inside and the outside, as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses were. But the one who is clean on the inside doesn’t care what the outside looks like. The outside will take care of itself.
Balaam demonstrates the outside can look fantastic. But it’s empty. It’s good for us to compare him to Abraham. On the outside, Abraham looks fantastic, but his inner self was even better.
We can’t clean our insides by ourselves. Only God can do that. When Paul calls himself “the chief of sinners” he is making the same point. Inside we’re equally corrupt. We try to look nice and polite on the outside. It doesn’t mean a whole lot to God.
It’s only with God’s help that we can be humble on the inside as well as the outside.
Summary: Tammy