Balak “Balak”
WARNING: This blog post discussed mature themes and issues that may not be suitable for children. Discretion is advised.
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 word for the name “Balak”, this is the name for the weekly Torah Portion reading for the Numbers starting in chapter 22 verse 2 and going through chapter 25 and 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 verse 11.
Torah Portion Overview-
In this torah portion we get the story of Balak, the king of Moab and Balaam, a prophet hired to curse Israel. Balak calls for Balaam by sending the elders of Moab and Midian to meet him and offers to pay him a great sum of money. The Lord instructs Him not to curse Israel and Balaam refuses to go with them. Balak responds by sending more important officials but God tells him to go with them but warns him to only say what He tells him to say. Because of this Balaam agrees to go with the elders. It seems that on the way Balaam changed his mind and was thinking about cursing Israel. For while he was going the Angel of the Lord stood against Balaam ready to kill him. His donkey saw the danger and acted to save him. Balaam became angry and beat the beast of burden. In response, the Lord opens the mouth of the donkey and the donkey speaks to Balaam. It is then that his eyes are opened and he sees the Angel of the Lord. The Angel of the Lord warns him again to only say what He tells him to say (connecting Yahweh and the Angel of Yahweh, a pre-incarnate Jesus). Balaam ascends to Bamoth-Baael and sees Israel, but instead of cursing them he blesses them. Then he goes to another place and Balaam blesses Israel a second time. Balaam ascends mount Peor and once again blesses Israel instead of cursing them. Balaam issues more prophecies blessing Israel. When Israel cannot be cursed the enemies of Israel turn to a different strategy. Their women led Israel to commit sexual worship and sacrifices to Baal of Peor. In the middle of all this an Israelite man committed sexual worship with a Midianite woman inside the Tabernacle! A plague breaks out among the people. Seeing this Phinehas takes a spear and spears them to death. Finally the plague of judgement is stopped.
Today I want to talk about the sexual idolatry that Israel committed with foreign women.
“While Israel was staying at Shittim, the people began to have sexual relations with the women of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. Thus Israel yoked itself to the Baal of Peor, and the LORD’s anger was kindled against Israel. The LORD said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and impale them in the sun before the LORD, in order that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.” And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you shall kill any of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor.” Just then one of the Israelites came and brought a Midianite woman into his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the Israelites, while they were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting. When Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he got up and left the congregation. Taking a spear in his hand, he went after the Israelite man into the tent and pierced the two of them, the Israelite and the woman, through the belly. So the plague was stopped among the Israelites. Nevertheless those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.”
Numbers 25:1-9 (NRSVue)
Later, Numbers 31 explains that it was at the advice of Balaam that the women had caused Israel’s men to err and commit sexual acts of worship and fornication. Although the women who caused the men to sin were Moabites, and these women were Midianites, remember that it was the Moabites and Midianites who came to Balaam. Moses caution here is justified, for Balaam could easily have given the advice to both sets of rulers. Thus there is a real threat of a second occurrence here of idolatry.
“They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. And they also killed Balaam the son of Beor with the sword. And the people of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones, and they took as plunder all their cattle, their flocks, and all their goods… And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war. Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live? 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.”
Numbers 31:8-9, 14–16 (ESV)
It was worse than we would normally think, for Psalm 106 explains that not only did they commit idolatry and sexual acts, but they also worshipped the dead!
“Then they yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead; they provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them.”
Psalm 106:28–29 (ESV)
But what does this mean that they ate sacrifices offered to the dead? Beth Tanner and Rolf A. Jacobson explain in The New International Commentary on the Old Testament, Book Four of the Psalter: Psalms 90–106 on page 804,
“The psalm continues with a stanza that recounts the people’s continuing failings in the desert wanderings—the failure to trust that they could overcome the people of the land (cf. Num. 13:25–14:45), the Lord’s renewed intention to abandon the people (cf. Num. 14:11–25), and the people’s syncretistic sin of “yoking itself to the Baal of Peor” (Num. 25:3) following their intermarrying with the women of Moab—which led them to the ultimate sin: they ate sacrifices of the dead. The meaning of this phrase is debated, but based on v. 37 (see also 1 Kgs. 16:34; 2 Kgs. 16:3) the verse most likely refers to the tradition that Israelites who joined in the worship of false gods often joined in the practice of child sacrifice. This context at least puts in perspective the Lord’s violent response of plague (cf. Num. 25:9).”
This makes the sin even more severe, for they may have also been sacrificing their young to their gods! This explains why God acted so severely against the people when they did this great sin, for He had spread a plague among them.
We can see then that the sin of Balaam is four-fold:
1. Use woman to entice the righteous into sexual sin.
2. Use that sexual sin as a form of worship.
3. Eat of the sacrifices and bow down to their gods.
4. Possibly even sacrifice their children to the gods.
But what does this mean to us today? Reading this story it would be easy to say, “yeah, but I don’t sacrifice to gods, or eat meat sacrificed to idols!” This is true, we don’t do those things. However, there are aspects of this that we do practice, especially in America. However, there are several things in America that could easily align with such practices.
1 Fornication: Often, like the men of Israel, we are temped to give into fornication. The Bible makes it clear, that fornication is not allowed and not something that we, as believers should give in to.
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
1 Corinthians 6:9–11 (ESV)
Paul then goes on to use harlotry as an example, and why we should not partake in sexual immorality as believers. For we are already one with Christ, members of His family, and His “bride”. Therefore we should not bring an unbeliever into union with Him. These two unions are not possible. Thus, if we do, we will break union with Him.
“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
1 Corinthians 6:13-20 (ESV)
I speak as one who has partaken of this great sin of fornication. When I was young I fell into sexual immorality, and I deeply regret it. I do not speak as one who judges, but as a brother, warning you to not give in as I did. Instead of giving in, we are instructed to flee such youthful lusts.
“So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”
2 Timothy 2:22 (ESV)
2-3 The second and third ones are not as obvious. How could we possibly use sexual sin as a form of worship?
I believe the answer to this is porn. Porn is a plague of the mind and the soul. We can see it everywhere, from TV and movies to the internet and social media. It is all around us. How is it spiritual, you may ask. I believe that porn is driven by spirits, seeking to use the act as a way to worship other “gods”. Indeed, it is my opinion that the acts of those who are performing are spiritual, offering up deeds and service to false gods. When we partake in it we are, I believe, worshipping demons.
If this is true, then looking at porn could also be seen as “eating of sacrifices”, that is, when we partake of the media that is presented to us, we are “eating” it, taking it into our soul. This is why it is so dangerous! For we cannot mix the Spirit of God with such things. We are called, as above, to flee this lust.
4 What of the sacrifice of children?
I believe that we see this in the sin of abortion (it is important to say that I am not speaking of a surgical operation that is done to save the life of a mother). Indeed, I do not see how abortion could not be a sacrifice of the young. Although it is often not intended as such, and sacrifice does require a level of intention, even though this is true, I still believe it to be a sacrifice.
In America we see such a great amount of this. Almost a million babies are murdered every year. But you may say, I don’t do this? How does this apply to me?
Part of the driving force of abortion is the fear that young mothers have. If the church were more active in adoptions and supporting young single mothers, instead of judging them and telling them how they messed up, I believe we would see a lot less abortions! Indeed, much of the blood of the abortion industry can be applied to us, for we do nothing to stop it.
I believe we should combat abortion, not just through laws, but through action! We should give to single young mothers and support them. We should encourage them and minister to them. We should love them.
We should also love those who have committed this sin and show them that the love of God can overcome any sin. They made a mistake, yet they are in need of God’s love. Christ died for them, that did not change once they had an abortion.
With the revelation all around of us religious leaders who have fallen in sexual sin, let us also do our best to avoid giving into that. Those who practice spiritual leadership but also continue in sin are like Balaam.
“But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.”
Revelation 2:14-15 (ESV)
“They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! They have left the straight road and have gone astray, following the road of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of doing wrong but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.”
2 Peter 2:14-16 (NRSVue)
It is important though to see that they can repent and be forgiven. Like I said above, I have a past, and so do all of us! We must demand repentance, but then show love and forgiveness. It is hard to do this when someone we look up to and respect falls. Yet the cross of Christ is for all, and we must remember that!
And so we must be encouraged, to flea from lust and sexual sin. We must hold fast to Him, and follow after Him! The world is full of death, but our Messiah is life. This life means that we must not give into sexual immorality but instead walk in obedience and holiness. We must not hate or judge those who have fallen, but show them the way of Christ and His love. The church should be a driving force for this way, not one that cuts people who make mistakes.
Torah Portion Scriptural Highlights-
Numbers 22:2 Balak king of Moab calls for the prophet Balaam to curse Israel.
Numbers 22:7 The elders of Moab and Midian go to Balaam to convince him to curse Israel but the Lord instructs Him not to curse Israel. Balaam refuses to go with them to curse Israel.
Numbers 22:15 Balak sends more officials who had more honor and God tells Balaam to go with them but to only say what He tells him. Balaam goes with the elders to meet the king.
Numbers 22:22 The Angel of the Lord stands against Balaam and Balaam beats his donkey until the donkey speaks to him. Then Balaam sees the Angel standing with a sword. Balaam repents and the Angel tells him to go but to only say what He tells him to say.
Numbers 22:41 Balaam ascends to Bamoth-Baael and sees Israel and blesses them.
Numbers 23:13 Balaam blesses Israel a second time from a different place.
Numbers 23:25 Balaam blesses Israel a third time from Peor.
Numbers 24:15 Balaam issues more prophecies blessing Israel.
Numbers 25:1 Israel commits sexual worship and sacrifices to Baal of Peor.
Numbers 25:6 An Israelite man committed sexual worship with a Midianite woman inside the Tabernacle and Phinehas spears them to death. The plague of judgement is stopped.
Haftarah (Prophets) Scriptural Highlights-
Micah 5:7 The remnant of Jacob shall dwell among the nations and God will execute judgement.
Micah 6:1 The Lord pleads His case with Israel and asks them to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.
Brit (Gospel) Scriptural Highlights-
Matthew 21:1 The Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
References-
Michael L. Morales, Numbers 20-36, ed. David W. Baker and Beth M. Stovell, Apollos Old Testament Commentary 4b (London, England: Apollos, an imprint of Inter-Varsity Press, 2024), 385.
Beth Tanner and Rolf A. Jacobson, “Book Four of the Psalter: Psalms 90–106,” in The Book of Psalms, ed. E. J. Young, R. K. Harrison, and Robert L. Hubbard Jr., The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014), 804.
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