Balak “Balak”
It is customary for religiously practicing Jews to read from an annual cycle of weekly Old Testament readings called Torah Portions. This is said to be the same reading schedule that was taught every Sabbath in the Synagogues during the times of Jesus in the first century.
As Christians exploring the Torah portion cycle we must maintain a balance of including the Old Testament, the prophets, and the gospels in our weekly bible study.
Torah Portion Name and Readings-
Balak is the Hebrew name of the Moabite king and is the name for the weekly Torah Portion reading for the Book of Numbers starting in chapter 22 verse 2 and going through chapter 25 verse 9.
Prophets and New Testament-
It is also important to point out that along with the Torah portion readings and teachings, there are what are called Haftarah portions which are readings from the Bible in the books of the prophets. This week’s haftarah readings come from the book of Micah in chapter 5 verse 7 through chapter 6 verse 8.
The gospel readings incorporated with the weekly Torah portion readings come from the book of Matthew in chapter 21 with verses 1 through 11.
Torah Portion Overview-
What do you do when you can’t attack a threat directly? This is what the king of Moab faced as Israel approached its territory. Moab was not a large and powerful nation. As the Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible explains in the entry for Moab by Gerald L. Mattingly:
“A small Iron Age kingdom in Transjordan, sharing a border with the Ammonites to the north and Edomites to the south…At the height of its power, Moab included an area that measured ca. 88 km. (55 mi.) from north to south and ca. 32 km. (20 mi.) from west to east…For all practical purposes, Moab was that narrow strip of cultivable land which extended less than 32 km. (20 mi.) from the edge of the plateau on the west to the “desert fringe” on the east, beyond which lived nomadic tribes.”
This is not a large area! The whole nation took up less space than Rhode Island! I do not know what their estimated population size was, but it couldn’t have been large. And so the king of a small nation fears the encroachment of the people of Israel as Israel comes closer and closer to its borders. What is the king to do? His army is not large enough to attack Israel. Not only this but great and mighty works have been done by the God of Israel! The king then seems to resort to magic or mystical forces! He wants to curse Israel.
The king and elders first seek to form an alliance of sorts with the Midianites (Numbers 22:4, 8). They call up a practitioner of divination (Joshua 13:22), a reader of omens (Numbers 24:1), a seer (possibly here you could also use the word “prophet” although seer and prophet are not always synonymous) named Balaam. Although it is clear that he speaks to Yahweh, it would be a mistake to think of him like Samuel, Elijah or Isaiah. Because of the descriptions of his methods of divination and reading omens I think he either worshipped many gods, including Yahweh, or turned from Yahweh to other gods. Either way he was not a good man.
The elders of Moab and Midian came to Balaam with divination fees and asked him to come curse Israel. God instructs Balaam (in a dream or vision?) not to go with them or curse Israel because Israel is blessed. The princes return. This time Balak king of Moab sends more princes and offers great reward and honor if he will curse Israel. Here we need to pause to address a supposed contradiction.
God came to Balaam at night (in a dream?) and instructed him to go with the princes this time (Numbers 22:20), however, two verses later God becomes angry with Balaam that he is going with them (Numbers 22:22). Why be angry when He has instructed Balaam to go? I see three possibilities;
Balaam has decided, sometime in the night, not to just “go with them” but to “go with them” in order to curse Israel. He had been instructed to only speak what God tells him but here it is possible that he has decided to stray from the command.
Another possibility is that he was deceived through self deception, hearing what he wanted to hear, that it was ok to go with them.
It is also possible that although God tells him that he can go, he is angry that he did not turn them down and is reminding Balaam of the threat of opposing God.
Scholars believe that this event is evidence of the combination of two or three stories into one, although this is not required. Either way, the Lord is angry with Balaam!
On his journey we are presented with irony, a seer who cannot see! The Angel of the Lord stands before Balaam but he is unable to see Him. Making things worse, he fails to see what his donkey sees! Further more the donkey behaves strangely but that “omen” is not noticed. The whole ordeal seems to shame Balaam and mock him for his failure.
Reminded of the danger to his life from God, Balaam does not obey the king but instead issues 4 oracles blessing Israel! Here is a question I have about the process. Did Balaam have the king sacrifice in order to “bribe” God to let him curse Israel? Why go through so much effort? Or was this to justify a large fee? We don’t know but this whole story is intriguing!
Failing to curse Israel what did Balaam do? Well, the people began to worship the gods of Moab by committing sexual acts with the Moabite women.
Numbers 25:1-3 (ESV)
“While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.”
We learn later that this was due to the advice of Balaam.
Numbers 31:16 (ESV)
“Behold, these, on Balaam’s advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the LORD in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the LORD.”
This involved sexual immorality and eating food sacrificed to the dead!
Psalms 106:28 (ESV)
“Then they yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead;”
This escalated with an Israelite man bringing a Midianite woman to the tabernacle (probably to perform sexual acts)! Phinehas the Priest rose up and executed them before the Lord. This stopped the plague that had broken out.
Numbers 25:6-9 (ESV)
“And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.”
What can we learn from all this? The enemy will work to kill us. He wants to destroy us! However, Christ set us free from the curse of the law and other curses (Galatians 3:13)! Because of this the enemy cannot curse us! And so he seeks another way. He cannot attack from outside so he seeks to destroy us from within, by causing us to sin with sexual immorality or idolatry. The truth is that we all are guilty of this! The Bible says that if we even look at a woman (or man) to lust after them that we have committed adultery in our heart (Matthew 5:28). And from our heart proceeds sin, which defiles us. Not only this but how many times have we been guilty of looking to other gods? No, we don’t bow down to idols, feed them or serve them. But how often do we look to other things instead of God? I know I have. Maybe we trust the government to protect us, and our job to provide for us. We do this instead of looking to God who is our true protector and provider! Is that a form of idolatry? Let us look to Him, who convicts us of sin and teaches us how to walk in purity. Let us look to Him who protects and provides for us. Then we won’t give in to the attacks of the enemy!
Torah Portion Scriptural Highlights-
Numbers 22:2 Balak king of Moab calls for Balaam to curse Israel
Numbers 22:9 Yahweh will not let Balaam curse Israel
Numbers 22:22 Balaam disobeys Yahweh and goes with the Moabites and the Angel of Yahweh confronts him
Numbers 22:36 Balaam arrives and sacrifices
Numbers 23:1 Balaam issues his first oracle, a blessing for Jacob
Numbers 23:13 Balaam issues his second oracle, no misfortune for Israel
Numbers 24:1 Balaam issues his third oracle, how lovely are your tents o Jacob
Numbers 24:15 Balaam issues his forth oracle, a star shall come out of Jacob
Numbers 25:1 Israel mixes with Moab and commits idolatry with Baal of Peor
Numbers 25:6 Phinehas puts to death an Israelite man and Midianite woman and stops the plague
Haftarah (Prophets) Scriptural Highlights-
Micah 5:7 Yahweh will rescue a remnant of Jacob and punish the nations
Micah 6:1 Yahweh has a court case against Israel
Micah 6:6 Yahweh requires justice, covenantal love, and humility
Brit (Gospel) Scriptural Highlights-
Matthew 21:1 Jesus enters Jerusalem as King
Bibliography
Jo Ann Hackett, “Balaam (Person),” The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992) 569–572.
K. Spronk, “Baal of Peor,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), 147–148.
J. C. de Moor and M. J. Mulder, “בַּעַל,” Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1977) 192–194.
M. W. Chavalas, “Balaam,” Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 75–78.
Gerald L. Mattingly, “Moab,” Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000), 909–910.
Gerald L. Mattingly, “Moab, City of (Place),” The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992) 893.
John D. Barry, “Seer,” The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).
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