Sermon Tone Analysis

/They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.

But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—a beast without speech—who spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness/.

Balaam, the dark prophet from Pethor, is remembered by most people, if known at all, for one incident alone – he is the only person to ever hear a spoken message delivered by a donkey.

Of course, this incident provides an occasion for great hilarity and an opportunity for ridicule of the Word by those enlightened souls who have determined to reject the Word of God while trusting in their own enlightened intellects.

Peter, ignoring the tendency of the world, simply presents the reminder that the prophet Balaam was restrained in his madness when he was rebuked by a donkey.

Such an event is worthy of our exploration, for it can prove instructive to the child of God willing to learn from that which God has provided in His Word.

As those who have received the Word of God, we are convinced that this Word is not superfluous.

That which God has caused to be written in His Word was given as warnings for our benefit [cf.

*1 Corinthians 10:11*].

Thus, Peter’s words concerning Balaam are worthy of our careful study … for the jackass did speak!

*The Incident Reviewed* – The first and most extensive reporting of Balaam is given in *Numbers 22-24*.

In that passage Balaam is mentioned fifty times.

Israel was camping in the plains of Moab and Balak, king of Moab, sent for Balaam to come curse Israel.

Apparently Balaam had a reputation as a soothsayer capable of inflicting damage on those he cursed.

However, God forbid the prophet to accompany the elders of Moab.

Balak sent other, more prestigious, elders in an effort to induce Balaam to come curse Israel.

This time, God permitted the seer to accompany them, but with the admonition that he must say only what God instructed him to say.

Eagerly, he arose early the next morning, saddled his donkey, and set out with the princes of Moab.

God, however, was very angry when he went [*Numbers 22:22*], presumably because Balaam harboured in his heart the thought that he would enrich himself through disobedience to the express will of God.

The angel of the Lord stood in the road, sword drawn, prepared to slay the greedy prophet.

The donkey saw the angel and turned off the road straying into a field.

Balaam, apparently in frustration because he did not wish to be delayed in obtaining the wealth promised him, beat her to get her back onto the road.

The donkey had moved by this time between two vineyards, each of which was surrounded by a wall.

Intent on beating his donkey the prophet was unaware that the angel of the Lord had moved to a position in front of the poor beast.

The donkey, however, saw the angel and in fear pressed into the wall, crushing Balaam’s foot.

This action on the part of the donkey brought an even more severe beating from Balaam.

The walls acted as a sort of funnel, and the donkey, under the furious assault of the prophet, moved forward.

The angel, however, stepped squarely in front of the beast in such a position that there was no room to turn around.

At this, the donkey lay down, bringing upon herself the most severe beating yet.

Balaam began to use his staff to beat the poor beast.

Under the hail of blows, the donkey began to speak.

Clearly, Balaam was angry, for he did not pause to reflect that donkey’s don’t usually speak to their owners, even when the owners are beating them unjustly.

He answered the donkey.

Determining which was a jackass must have been difficult!

/The Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?”/

/Balaam answered the donkey, “You have made a fool of me!

If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.”/

/The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day?

Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?”/

/“No,” he said./

With that, /the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with his sword drawn.

So he bowed low and fell facedown/.

It is worth noting that the usual response of those who realise they are in the presence of the emissaries of the Living God, the holy angels, respond by falling to the ground.

Pride drains from wicked man as water drains from a broken glass in the presence of God’s messengers.

The angel of the Lord now initiated an interrogation of the prophet, asking him the reason for his madness.

/“Why have you beaten your donkey these three times?

I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me.

The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times.

If she had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared her.”/

Balaam, less in repentance than in fear, apologised and revealed that he knew the reason the angel was opposed to him.

He /said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned.

I did not realise you were standing in the road to oppose me.

Now if you are displeased, I will go back.”/

Underscore in your mind that people seldom sin unconsciously.

Motivated by greed, though momentarily blinded and maddened by the possibility of transient riches, we know we are wrong.

Balaam realised he had sinned, for his heart was driven by greed.

He knew the angel of the Lord was displeased.

So, chastened by the presence of the Lord, though his heart was unchanged, he was willing to return home, even if reluctantly.

The angel of the LORD, however, was content to simply remind Balaam of his original conditions for accompanying the princes of Moab, /“Go with the men, but speak only what I tell you.”

So Balaam went with the princes of Balak /[*Numbers 22:28-35*].

The purpose of the entire exercise was to remind the prophet of the conditions God had given before He had granted permission to accompany the princes of Moab.

The one who dares to speak for God enjoys great freedom, but only with the limits God sets.

Balaam did eventually arrive in Moab and together with Balak he viewed the camp of Israel.

Three times he was urged by Balak to curse Israel, and three times he returned with the message that God had blessed them.

He was thus incapable of cursing those whom God had blessed.

The king’s anger flamed hotly and he scathingly dismissed the prophet in whom he had placed such hope.

This outburst brought forth one of the great messianic prophecies of the Word of God [*Numbers 24:15-19*].

Had the incident concluded with this, we would today honour Balaam as a great man of God.

We would consider him as blessed for having received the privilege to delivering the message of the Messiah to come from within Israel.

*The Incident Explored* – The incident for which Balaam is most readily remembered is that he was rebuked by a jackass.

While some of us may have heard the voice of a jackass, none of us can lay claim to having received a message from a jackass.

Students of the Word, however, remember the prophet for other less amusing reasons.

Balaam was a prophet who received the message of God, but he was a prophet willing to sell his skill for the proper price without reference to the Word of God.

He is remembered for his avarice and his participation in pagan cult and immorality.

Oh, that he had taken to heart the words uttered during his first oracle.

Blessing Israel, he concluded with these words:

 

/Who can count the dust of Jacob/

/or number the fourth part of Israel?/

/Let me die the death of the righteous,/

/          and may my end be like theirs!”/

[*Numbers 23:10*].

Up to this point I have said nothing which would indicate that Balaam did anything less than what God expected of him.

In fact, if you are unaware of the Word of God you will perhaps wonder why he is condemned by Peter.

The reason for his condemnation is found in the chapter which immediately follows Balaam’s last prophecy.

Superficially, it would seem that Balak rebuked Balaam and Balaam went on his way.

There is more to the story, however.

*Numbers 25:1-18* recounts an awesome sin which was imported into the camp and which almost brought utter disaster upon the people of God.

The people began worshipping the Baal of Peor, the lord of the opening.

Whatever this god may have represented, an essential part of this ancient, pagan worship was to engage in sex as a part of the rites.

The people of Israel found the activities associated with this worship appealing, though it is not clear that they felt any compulsion to actually worship this false god.

There is nothing casual about casual sex.

All such activity is a form of idolatry found outside the sanctity of holy matrimony.

Spiritual harlotry grew so prevalent among the Israelites that, Zimri, one of the leaders of the Tribe of Simeon even brought the daughter of a Moabite chieftain into the camp to “worship” with her.

Phinehas, son of Eleazar, followed the two into Zimri’s tent and ran them through with his spear while they were thoroughly occupied with “worship”.

Clearly, God approved of this drastic action by Phinehas and spared Israel, but not before thousands of Israelites had died in divine judgement.

The careful student of the Bible will note a great difference in two censuses.

In *Numbers 1:23* we note that 59,300 men of Simeon twenty years old or more able to serve in the armies of Israel are counted, whereas a later census listed soon after these events found but 22,200 members of the Tribe of Simeon [*Numbers 26:14*].

It is quite possible that mainly Simeonites were involved in this grave sin, which would only point to the danger of following errant leaders.

Just as one cannot obtain sweet water from a polluted well, so godliness cannot be discovered when unrighteousness is tolerated with church leadership.

The man of God must be a godly leader, about all else.