Balak, Balaam, and the Blindness of Power: When the Nations Try to Curse God’s Chosen People

The King's Highway and the Two Highways

The Torah portion of Balak opens with context that most readers skip over. Balak's land of Moab was positioned at the control point of the King's Highway — one of two great international highways that formed a bottleneck bridge between three continents: Asia, Europe, and Africa. The first was the "Via Marris" — the Way of the Sea — that came from the northern Sinai desert through Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Jaffa, and on across the Jezreel Valley near Megiddo, continuing to Damascus and beyond. The second was the King's Highway on the east side of the Jordan River — passing directly through Balak's territory.

Moses had been respectful and offered to pay for everything — for the water that the people drank and the water that their animals drank while passing through. Edom refused with a threat of war. Moab refused with a threat of war. And Balak, seeing everything Israel had done to the Amorites, saw that simple military threat was not going to work. Israel was winning every war — not because of their strength or abilities, but because the God who created the heavens and the earth was on their side, delivering enemies into their hands supernaturally. So Balak decided to fight the supernatural with what he thought was the supernatural.

He hired Balaam the son of Beor from Mesopotamia — the international soothsayer, the wizard of international reputation, whom he offered a house full of silver and gold. And here is the most instructive thing about this story: Balaam genuinely had the ability to communicate with the Lord. God really did speak to Balaam. This alone is a point that we must learn to accept. We don't control with whom the Creator of the World will communicate. The Lord does not ask us permission to do anything He chooses to do. If He wants to call a pagan, idol-worshiping king "My Messiah," the Lord can do it — as He did with Cyrus, the King of Persia:

The Donkey Who Saw More Than the Prophet

The story of Balak and Balaam is spread over 95 verses in the parasha. The story of the donkey is only 14 of those 95 verses — and yet it is the most remembered part of the entire story. A beast of burden sees what the internationally famous prophet cannot. The angel of the Lord stands in the road with a drawn sword. The donkey turns aside, presses Balaam's leg against the cliff, finally stops entirely. Balaam beats the donkey three times. And then the donkey speaks: "Am I not your donkey that has served you faithfully all these years? And now what is it?"

Balaam was so set on his desire and greed that his mind was blinded by his own agenda — he could not see anything except to reach his own goal. That is the answer to why the famous international prophet doesn't see the angel, but the donkey does. God is always patient — He warns more than one time — but in the end, when the cup of iniquity is full, the gavel strikes. This is why God gave Balaam permission to go: it was a test to see if he would obey or not.

We have in the Christian world today, like in the time of John's revelation, some of the same phenomena. Sometimes an anonymous "donkey" can see what the famous VIP leaders don't see, and it is these simple men of God that save the day. Everyone can be used by God, even a donkey! If you hear from God, don't say to yourself, 'I am simple and God can't be speaking to a simple man like me.' Say to yourself, 'God has spoken to me, and I will do what He tells me to do!' Isaiah says: "Who is Blind like my servant Jacob." Leadership can often be blind to the Lord and His revelation, when a small child or a donkey, with open eyes, can be a leader for God's people.

The Unholy Trinity — and Its NT Disciples

In the end Balaam wants both the gold that Balak promised him AND to remain on God's good side. You cannot have both. What we see in Balaam is the unholy trinity of money, power, and sex. He got his wealth from Balak. Israel fell into sexual sin through his terrible advice of sending the beautiful girls of Moab to entice the men of Israel. And Balak enhanced his power. The success of unrighteousness continues only until some person like Phinehas rises and takes action while the older leaders stand helpless, not knowing what to do and how to handle the complicated diplomatic situation. A person can be world-renowned for his religion, like Balaam — he can have the reputation of a holy man — but when greed captures his heart, he has become a disciple of Balaam.

In three places in the New Testament, Balaam is mentioned as a living pattern that persists:

Balaam's disciples — at one time they knew the right way. You can't forsake something you don't have. Their sin: wages of unrighteousness, greed, and using immorality to put stumbling blocks before the innocent.

Every Attempt Has Failed — And Every Attempt Will Fail

Moab was born from Lot's daughters. The offspring of Lot became Israel's most bitter enemies — an enmity that continued all the way to the time of Herod the Great, who ruled when Yeshua was born. That history of attempted destruction is unbroken. Haman, the Wazir of King Ahasuerus — who ruled an empire from Persia all the way to Kazakhstan and northern India — attempted to delete the Jewish people. The Catholic Church during the Inquisition attempted to force-convert them. Hitler attempted to eliminate them. None of it worked. Why? Because God has chosen the Jewish people to bring salvation to the world through His Son — a Jew, the King of the Jews, Yeshua.

The Psalmist asks:

Ironically, the words that open every synagogue service in the world — on every holiday, on every Sabbath day — are the words of Balaam, the man who came to curse Israel and could only bless her:

These words of Balaam are historically true. This small nation of 10 million people has more Nobel Prize winners than nations with billions of inhabitants. Joseph saved Egypt from hunger. The Jewish people preserved and held the Word of God for the whole world. Anyone who stands against Israel in the end pays the price. Anyone who blesses Israel receives the blessing promised to Abraham — the same promise that is repeated more times in the Bible than any other promise God has ever made to anyone. Please see the following references: Genesis 12:3-5; 13:15; 15:18; 17:7-8; 18:18; 24:7; 26:3, 4; 28:4, 13; 35:12; 48:4 — and it continues all the way through Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Chronicles, Nehemiah, Psalms, Isaiah, and Acts 7:5.