BLESSING AND CURSING

America is in a brand new (and foreboding) place. We're creating an oppositional stance toward Israel.

Israel was born as a nation when I was seven months old.  Since then our two nations have locked arms because we share democratic values and common goals.  And what else?  Historically, Americans have held to a Genesis 12:3 understanding that God blesses those who bless Israel and curses those who curse Israel.

In recent years, our grasp of God's sovereignty toward Israel may be fading as anti-Semitism rises. But God and His promises never change.

This Rembrandt (to the right) gives us a glimpse of Balaam's story from Numbers 22/23 which perfectly illustrates the blessing and cursing of Israel.  Remember Balaam?  He's the man who gets set straight by a talking donkey.

Here are the basics:

1.  WHO was Balaam?
Balaam was a soothsayer from a long line of soothsayers who lived close to the Euphrates River.  His name means "destroyer" and his daddy's name meant "to burn away, consume".  Their specialty was "seeing"; they inspected livers from a religious ritual sacrifice and thereby communicated with the gods for favor or predictions about the future.

According to an archaeological find in modern-day Jordan, Balaam was well known.

2.  WHEN did Balaam live?
This diviner lived in 1451, one thousand four hundred and fifty-one years before Christ.

In this same time period, God had just delivered Israel from Egypt, one of the world's greatest empires at the height of their rule.  Now God is bringing His people to the land He promised.  As they come out of the wilderness, their number has swelled to include over two million Israelites.

First they came to the territory of the Amorites and sent a request of the Amorite king for permission to pass through their land on the public highway.  The Amorite king turns Israel down and then proceeds to attack the flank of Israel's line (killing women, children, the sick and the elderly).  God gave His people a complete victory over the Amorites. Now as the Israelites approach Moab, their king (Balak) saw what Israel had done to the Amorites.  And since his country was once defeated by the Amorites, he feels very threatened.  He acts pre-emptively and hires a curse specialist named Balaam, saying "I know that whoever you bless is blessed, and whoever you curse is cursed."  Uh, oh.

3.  WHAT happened?
When Balaam stood on the outcropping and looked down at the Israelites camped below, he opened his mouth to curse them...but the Holy Spirit came over him and his words came out as a blessing.  That must have made the vein stand out on King Balak's neck.

The king had dangled a nice fee and Balaam tried his best to curse Israel.  He tried three times, but it was God in control, not Balaam.

When it was over, Balaam had spoken seven "oracles" (blessings) which restated the Genesis 12 promises God gave Abraham about Israel.  God said He would live among them; in the picture you see the tabernacle smack dab in the middle of their tents.  He said He would make them a great nation; it was that great number that scared King Balak, because as Balaam said "Who can count the dust of Jacob?".  God promised land and here they were on the way to the Promised Land.  When they were slaves in Egypt, that promise must have seemed completely unattainable.  God promised to bless the world through the Jews.  Not only did Jews write the Old Testament for us, they've also offered the world many medical and technological advances LINK.

Of course, Israel's best gift was a descendant (Jesus) who gave the world the provision that was lost in Eden.  Numbers 23 records Balaam's reference to Jesus as "a star out of Jacob and a scepter out of Israel".

4.  HOW do we know Balaam was one of the bad guys?
Balaam was pious, saying "my God" and calling on the name of Yahweh.  But the first hint of the man's true colors is when he's on his way to one of his cursings and the donkey sees the angel blocking the way, but Balaam does not.  Here's a guy who works in the spiritual realm, but doesn't seem to be aware of God's spiritual realm.  My BSF notes on Balaam offered several great contrasts:

   a.  Balaam pushed his donkey onward until God's angel intervened.  Balak pushed Balaam to curse Israel, but God repeatedly stopped him.
   b.  God opened the donkey's mouth to speak truth to Balaam.  God opened the prophet's mouth to speak God's true blessing on Israel.
   c.  The donkey's human speech did not make the donkey truly human.  Balaam's prophetic words did not make him a true prophet.
   d.  The donkey was caught between the angel of God with his drawn sword and Balaam's stick.  Balaam was caught between the unchangeable will of God and Balak's urgings.

The next clues about Balaam's heart comes in Numbers 31 (when his counsel caused the Israelites to act treacherously against the Lord), and in Judges (which speaks of Balaam's greed).

Finally, there is a Revelation passage which urges believers not to fall for false prophets like Balaam. After the LORD repeatedly blocked Balaam from cursing Israel, the false prophet still went on to manipulate behind the scenes.  He explained to King Balak how to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel so they would commit sexual immorality and eat food sacrificed to idols.  That would have separated them from the Source of their power.

4.  WHERE did the story end?
The book of Joshua says the sons of Israel killed Balaam, the magician.

5.  WHY was this story included in Scripture?
   a.  We need to remember that not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" is truly His.  Pious talk may be just talk.
   b.  Balaam's profession was divination and God forbids that; only He holds the future.  As God told Moses in Deuteronomy: "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." Do we listen to predictors of the future? Horoscopes?
   c.  The donkey was beaten when he was protecting Balaam.  Are we stopped by obstacles in our path that are put there for our good?  Do we discount unlikely messengers?
   d.  Balaam tried unsuccessfully to manipulate God and take His place for Balaam's personal advantage.  Do you bargain with God?
   e.  God gave voice to a dumb animal, so we remember He can use anyone or anything.

Balaam heard the voice of Yahweh, yet he did not reverence or fear Him.  Instead, Balaam tried to go around God for personal gain.  He was used to manipulating demons, and now he was up against the One True God.  Balaam's judgment came at the tip of a sword.

The Bible is full of stories with the same thread that runs from before the Garden of Eden to Jesus' return.  It's the story of the LORD loving people to Himself.  God loved Balaam, but Balaam loved himself more.  He did not submit himself to God even though he had a front row seat in God's affairs, even hearing the LORD's voice.

In 1451BC there were power grabbers like Balaam and King Balak who tried to curse God's people.  But God protected Israel, the apple of His eye.  That's not based on whether Israel deserves it, but because the LORD made a promise.

America would do well to believe God's promise that He will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse her.