Muse

Come and study the Holy Scriptures with us as Fr. Stephen DeYoung teaches verse-by-verse on the podcast, The Whole Counsel of God. Fr. Stephen holds a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies and is an Orthodox priest serving at Archangel Gabriel Orthodox Church in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Okay, chapter 22. Now the children of Israel broke camp and camped west of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho. So when Balak, the son of Zippor, saw all that Israel did to the Amorites, Balak is the king of, Balak, son of Zippor, is the current king of Moab. So there's going to be a bunch of very similar names here. So Balak, king of Moab. Not to be confused with Balaam, who we're about to read about. Not to be confused with Balak, who was played by Clint Howard in the episode of the original Star Trek series, the Corbamite Maneuver. Balak, right, is the king. So Balak, the son of Zippor, saw all that Israel did to the Amorites, namely wrecking them. And Moab was exceedingly afraid of the people because they were many. And Moab was irritated because of the children of Israel. I like that. They're irritated. Man, getting on my nerves, those Israelites. But notice here how, again, we see the king and the nation used interchangeably. The king is afraid, like, oh, are they going to turn on us now? And Moab is irritated. Moab there is also the king, right, is irritated. then moab said it said to the elders of midian again this being the king not like all of the people taking a vote uh midian is remember midianites are a mix of edomites and ishmaelites so midian from the perspective of moab is everything south of them so edom and all the desert nomads south of edom okay so they speak to the elders of midian now this congregation will lick up everything around us as a young bull licks up the grass of the field now balak the son of zippor was king of the moabites at that time so right so they're going to come through they're going to come through here like a buzzsaw right they're going to take everything then he sent ambassadors to Balaam the son of Baor at Pethor which is near the river in the land of the sons of his people there's some vague locators for you there's a river it's where the sons of Balaam's people live saying look a people came from Egypt see they cover the face of the earth and are settling next to me so a couple a couple things here then we'll go on uh that first phrase you know that look and then see that's a little there's a little bit of

old canaanite dialect showing through there that is how those inscriptions sound you get that kind thing all the time you know sometimes tries to be hold right behold i am the king of moab look see my domains right there's a that's like kind of the original thing that he said poking through a little bit um but also balaam son of beor why are there these weird by the river that's where his people live well this is because Balaam son of Baor was famous uh we have inscriptions completely unrelated to the bible not in Israel and what used to be Moab ancient inscriptions like from this time talking about Balaam the son of Baor and him being a him being a prophet of Chemosh who we were just talking about and a few other a few other uh canaanite gods so this is someone people had heard of so the original people reading this narrative know who this is that's why you could have those vague balaam son of bay oh right so so this is like if someone was telling you a story and they're a historical story talking about their family and then you know who do they run into at the at the uh courthouse in springfield illinois but abraham lincoln right and you would be like

who right or yeah maybe we should make it more louisiana who do they run into in bad huey long anyway so right but so this is this sort of oh wait you know like oh okay famous so and and there would be as if you're telling this story like oh this might be trouble this is this famous like powerful kind of a wizard yeah like powerful guy right oh he's calling him in because the israelites what's going to happen here right we're kind of getting this set right so this is a right and he would have been among israelites he would have been kind of infamous being associated with these pagan gods right so he's like evil wizard all right so this is balak Yeah, he's a prophet. Balaam, son of Boer, is a prophet. We're going to see a prophet for hire. Okay.

Right.

So, yeah, as most prophets were at the time. So prophethood was not just an Israelite thing. The idea of Moses being a prophet, it's not like that's a brand new thing in the world. Right. There are other people called prophets. Right. And were for a long time before this. and what this means is a prophet is someone who there were there were two main pieces one they were a person who the earliest word for prophet is not uh navi or nabi um that comes to be the main word for prophet right uh the earliest word uh term is uh they refer to as the rahim the seers they're called seers right and this is related to the title that judaism and then the church has given to moses moses the god seer so step one in the pagan world so now in the pagan world they were someone who was able to enter into and see quote unquote mystically the world of spirits of gods and spirits and right so they could enter into that world they could see they could converse and interact with that spiritual world that everybody believed lay sort of behind and overlaying the physical world so here's a spring the spring has some spirit associated with it he's able to see and interact with that spirit so that's part one and then part two not only can they interact with it but they can then represent it that world and sort of wield the power of it in in the visible world right i'm trying i don't use the word material because that isn't how they thought about it right but in the visible world sort of invisible invisible is probably the best way to talk about it so they could sort of bridge that and so you could see how that's applied to moses those terms are applied to Moses. Moses sees God, interacts with him face to face, and then is able to represent God, right, including doing signs, right, miracles, that kind of thing, and speaking that we have God in the world. So Balaam was considered to be able to do this with these various pagan gods and with other spirits. And so you can see how people who could do that would end up being kind of for hire so like my well dried up on my farm oh what did I do I must have made the spirit of the well angry somehow with something I did let me call Balaam son of

Bjor he'll come out he'll communicate with it tell me what I need to do to make it happy again right what i did wrong that i need to fix and then i'll have water again crops failed this year what did i do right etc etc and the ways in which they would enter into the spiritual world kind of varied uh but think of all the general ways in which you enter into an altered state of consciousness so psychedelic drugs right uh uh other forms of inducing ecstatic experiences prolonged meditation all those kind of things they were doing then right they'd figured all those things out um and those were the ways in which they would enter into the the uh the spiritual world so that's who balaam and balaam is a famous one right which means he had some success at this right you didn't become famous by not being able to deliver so from the perspective of the text. right and from our perspective as orthodox christians he is actually interacting with spirits they're just not ones that are friendly to humans and we're going to see that one of the things so i just gave a bunch of nice examples like oh man i need to get my well water back but very very common was i want to put a curse on this person you got to remember how humans are like it'd be nice if we were all nice and just all trying to look out for our families and stuff But a lot of us get mad at other people and stuff and have rivals and hatreds and grudges and want somebody to put the whammy on someone we don't like. Right. And that was something that these spirits did, too. So there are lots of ways that that was done. We're going to see. I'm telegraphing a little. The reason I bring this up is that's why Balak is getting in touch with Balaam. He doesn't want him to do nice things for Israel. Right. Quite the opposite. He wants them to sick, right, the gods and spirits, right, who he interacts with. He wants to sick them on Israel to have bad things happen. So that's how Balaam is. He's renowned, so he's actually doing stuff. And again, as modern people, most modern people, and atheists will throw this at Christians all the time, and it works really well on evangelicals. So that's why they keep throwing it at them, is that people with a modern frame of mind are sort of don't want to believe in miracles because they're good modern people, right? And so they'll be sort of like, well, okay, the ones in the Bible I kind of have to believe in because I'm a Christian, right? At least the big ones.

But any that aren't in the Bible, and if they're not associated with Christianity, definitely, no, definitely fake, right? Definitely bogus. that's not the perspective the bible ever takes even in the new testament it talks about people doing false signs and wonders and false doesn't mean like like stage magic right like we're not talking about like david blaine right we're talking about like the wizards in pharaoh's court right we're talking about people who are doing evil demonic things and so that this is there's a this is what balaam's the evil wizard right this is he actually has power to do evil things from these spirits that are not nice and even the pagans didn't believe they were nice this is another thing this is not like oh the pagans thought all the gods of these spirits were all wonderful and nice and friendly and helping man and then the christians came along and said they were all evil right like have you read any greek mythology there zeus is not nice okay zeus is zeus is like a violent rapist yeah like these are all pretty horrible people actually like from their own stories and they would turn on you the drop of a hat right and yes like and and horrible medusa right horrible things happen to people and medusa wasn't but he didn't do something horrible she was just like way too pretty and a goddess got jealous right like these were really petty by their own account so christian's coming along and saying maybe you should worship that wasn't a huge reach really right but so that's Give us a picture of who Balaam is and what he's about. So he gets this message. Look, these people from Egypt, the Israelites, they're all over the place. They're settling next to me. They're a little too close for comfort, right? I need some breathing room here on my border. Therefore, come at once and curse this people for me, for they are stronger than we. if we would be able to strike some of them that I could drive them out of the land for I know he whom you bless is blessed and he whom you curse is cursed right so he says I know you're for real you're legit you come and you bless somebody they're blessed you come and curse somebody it's all over right so come on I need you to come out here I need you to curse these people for me and then I can launch an attack once you put the whammy on them and we can drive them out and I can get my territory back and I won't have to worry about them invading me. So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with their divinations in their hand and they came to Balaam and spoke to him the words of Balak.

The divinations in their hand meaning offerings. They bring like sacrificial offerings and stuff to Balaam. Then he said to them, Lodge here tonight and I will... bring back to you whatever words the Lord may speak to me. So the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam. So there's this weird thing in the Orthodox study Bible where they've chosen to capitalize Lord and God in this section. As if Balaam is a prophet of... Which he isn't. right? Which he isn't. I think I know why. Part of it is that the Greek is ambiguous, but part of it is based on a Jewish, a rabbinical Jewish tradition, that Balaam is one of the three prophets that God sent to the gentiles but that tradition is based on what's going to happen at the end of this story not based on what balaam is doing at the beginning of this story and so i think there was a little confusion there on the part of the person who translated this for the orthodox study bible uh now god is going to say things the true god yahweh the god of israel is going to say things to and through balaam but he is not here saying he is going to go consult with yahweh okay the historical balaam right who is receiving sacrificial offerings from moabites right uh we have to remember the term lord is ambiguous doesn't necessarily mean in yahweh but so he's gonna go and uh he doesn't just say sure your money's good here he says let me go consult with the gods right because remember the word that we translate as capital g god in Hebrew is also just Elohim, which also means gods, depending on context, right? So he's going to go consult with his gods is his plan. God then came to Balaam and said to him, who are these men with you? So Balaam said to God, Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, said to me saying, look, a people came out of Egypt and they cover the face of the earth and are settling next to me. Therefore, come at once and curse them for me. Perhaps I shall be able to strike them and drive them from the land. Then God said to Balaam, You shall not go with them,

neither shall you curse the people, for they are blessed. So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the rulers of Balak, Return to your Lord, for God is not allowing me to go with you. Therefore, the rulers of Moab rose and went to Balak and said, Balaam is unwilling to come with us. so let's just assume this is a direct quote from Balaam to these Moabites and Midianites and he said Elohim told me I'm not allowed what would they hear? the gods right so another issue here I think in terms of the translation is the idea that number one pagan gods exist which of course in terms of the Old Testament pagan gods do exist but in terms of a modern translator number one number two the idea that they would tell him not to but who are the pagan gods if they exist demons you know all those demons in the Synoptic Gospels who Jesus casts out of people? Right? They say all kinds of true things before he casts them out. They call him the Son of David. They call him the Messiah. They call him the Christ. They call him the Son of the Most High God. Right? They say all these true things about him. Okay? So, what's the idea there? Well, demons knew who Jesus was better than anybody. They'd seen him around thousands of years, right? Like, they knew better than anybody, right? So, it makes perfect sense, biblically speaking, that these gods, these spirits, who we all have commuted with, would tell him, hey man, don't go messing with Israel. Right? You don't need to mess with them. Right? They're blessed. It doesn't say blessed by who. Right? Now, if this was the actual God, if this was the actual God of Israel, Yahweh God of Israel, talking to Balaam, would he have said, oh, don't go with these men, because they are blessed? Would he have said, they're mine, I have blessed them, You notice it doesn't say that, right? You notice it doesn't say any of that. Right? It's, oh, they're black. No, no, don't, don't. Right? It's like they're tough, yeah. Yeah, like you don't.

I don't normally, this is a job you take, but not this time, man. Right? It's a little about our family. If you don't want to go there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we don't want to. But it sounds a lot like the demons of the Synoptic Gospels. Are you here to torment us before the time? Yeah. Right? We don't want to trouble. Like, put us in the pigs, something. They're kind of scared. Like, don't mess there. So I'm saying, probably just translate, return to your Lord, for the gods are not allowing me to go with you. I was told not to go, so I'm not going. Turns them down. Therefore, the rulers of Moab rose and went to Balak and said, Balaam is unwilling to come with us. Balak yet again sent rulers more numerous and more honorable than these. I like that, more honorable, meaning more important, right? Higher ranked, right? So, you know, okay, I sent the ambassador and he wouldn't listen. I'm going to send the vice president. When they came to Balaam, they said to him, Thus says Balak, the son of Zippor, I beg of you not to hesitate in coming to me for I will certainly honor you greatly and I will do whatever you say therefore come and curse this people for me honor you greatly and do whatever you say means money name your price right you can name your price if you come and do this for me then Balaam answered and said to the rulers of Balak though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold I could not go beyond the word of the Lord God. To make it little or great mind. Again, translations. He can't go beyond the word of Yahweh, the God of Israel. He's a pagan follower. Yeah, right. Now therefore, stay here tonight, so I may know what more the Lord will say to me. Thus God came to Balaam at night and said to him, if these men are present to summon you rise and follow them but the word i speak to you that you shall do okay so now he says go with them go ahead and go and now what we're what we're about to see is going to make it very plain that this being the actual god would make no sense and being the god of israel would make no sense that's okay so so balaam rose in the morning saddled his donkey and went with the rulers of moab so he gets up he says okay i'll take the job after all then god was very angry because he went how does that make any sense how does that make any sense he says go with them i'm very mad that you went with them okay god was very angry because he went and the angel of god stationed himself to divert him from his purpose now he was riding

on his donkey and his two servants were with him okay so he's riding on his donkey he's got a couple of slaves with him to attend to his stuff right they're riding down the road and the angel of god is in front of him on the road blocking the road we're dealing with the real god yes now we're dealing with the real god who's angry that he did what someone else told him he should do not what he told him he would do because god does not get angry at you for doing exactly what he told you to do. When the donkey saw the angel of God standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand, the donkey turned aside out of the way and went into the field. Right? So he leaves the road and goes off into the field. So Balaam struck the donkey with his staff to turn her back onto the road. It's a female donkey to boot. now what's the important part of this aside from it being funny it's the doggy heads off what was balaam supposed to be able to do what's this all predicated him upon upon he can see the spiritual world he doesn't see the angel of god but the female donkey he's riding on does and has the common sense the donkey has the common sense i'm not going that way to head off in the other direction and he starts beating the donkey okay so the question being asked by the text and i don't apologize for putting it this way because it is the question being asked by the text is who is the ass here really balaib or the donkey right so this donkey has more spiritual insight than famous seer balaib son of baor then the angel of god stood in a narrow path between the vineyards with a wall on this side and a wall on that side okay so he's on the road and the road is going between two vineyards if you have vineyards you build walls because you don't want rats and stuff getting into them right you got to block it off and so he's between these two walls there's not a way to go around right now when the donkey saw the angel of god she pushed pushed herself against the wall and crushed balaam's foot so he struck her again right so she's trying like okay well we're trying to go by here on the then the angel of god went and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left so when the donkey saw the angel of god she laid down under balaam and balaam became angry and struck the donkey with his staff okay So he can see nothing as his donkey is trying to prophesy to him, to a great prophet, Balaam said to Baor, and he's just beating the donkey.

Then God opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, what have I done to you that you struck me this third time? balaam then said to the donkey because you abused me i wish there were a sword in my hand for now i would kill you but you see the level of rage right he is just you know so the donkey said to balaam am i not your your donkey on which you rode from your youth to this very day did i ever allow such utter disregard for you he replied no i guess not so the donkey has more wisdom than balaam to boot then god opened balaam's eyes and he saw the angel of the lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand and he bowed worshipped right now he sees the angel of God then said to him why did you strike your donkey a third time behold I came out as your adversary because your way was not acceptable before me so when the donkey saw me she turned aside for me this third time if she had not turned aside for me surely I would have killed you by now and let her live not the donkey you right the donkey just saved your life balaam you should be thanking this donkey right but notice a couple things here he worshiped the angel of the lord did the angel of the lord tell him to stop no yes this is christ with a sword ready to kill somebody see book of revelation Anyway, right? But also, notice again, as your adversary is the way he's supposed to be. That means it wasn't him who told him to do it. Right? That doesn't make any sense. Translators, sorry. So, yeah, you need to be thinking of this donkey. Then Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, I sinned, for I did not know you met me as an adversary on the road. Now, therefore, if my way is not acceptable to you, I will turn back. okay he's like my bad I don't want to die I'm out right the angel of God then said to Balaam go with the men but only the word I may speak to you this you must be careful to speak so Balaam went with the rulers of Balak okay so if this is the same person as before how does that make any says go with them and speak the words i give you oh i'm angry at you i'm ready to kill you go with them and speak the words right now when balak heard balaam was coming he went out to meet him at the city of moab which is on the borders of the arnon the boundaries of his territory

right so he heads out to meet him and they're out by the river right that's the boundary now between them and the Israelites so they could look out and see them and then Balak said to Balaam did I not earnestly send to summon you why did you not come to me am I not actually able to honor you right so this is remember the first time right why did you come the first time Balaam then said to Balak look I did come to you

Like, look, I'm here now. Shall I now be able to say anything? Whatever word God may speak in my mouth, this I must speak. So Balaam went with Balak, and they came to unwalled encampments. Then Balak sacrificed sheep and young bulls, and he sent some to Balaam and to the rulers with him. Again, who is Balak sacrificing to? Not the God of Israel, right? And Balaam's eaten this. verse 41. When morning came, Balak took Balaam and brought him up to the pillar of Baal, and he showed him part of the people from there. Part of the people is an interesting way to translate that. The idea being, so the pillar of Baal, this is referring to one of the shrines to Baal. Pagan shrines to Baal and other Canaanite gods and goddesses are referred to often in scripture as high places because they were built literally on elevated places, so on hills for the most part. There are things that get called mountains in this part of the world around Moab that are not mountains by American standards. They're not like the Rocky Mountains. They're definitely not like the himalayas or the alps they're more hills from our perspective but if they're the tallest hills around they get called mountains right so um but that's where these shrines are so he takes them to one of these shrines where there is this particular pillar uh the pillar is probably referring to we know from external sources about bale worship that uh one of their rituals was to erect standing stones which were either large stones sort of propped up to stand up or piles of stones right to make a small pillar they would usually have some kind of inscriptions engraved in them sometimes imagery and would identify that place as the place where some event in the life of Baal in the thinking of that community of Baal worshipers took place at that spot and that's why there's a shrine there and so on whatever the date was when they believed that that thing took place whether it was Baal's victory over some one or something or what have you on the the day when that was celebrated the people from that Baal worshiping community in this case the Moabites would make a pilgrimage to that spot and they would anoint the pillars with oil tell retell the story uh at that point and then usually offer sacrifices okay so that's that's what this is this place where he's taking him and apparently it is an elevated spot from which they could see the part of the people that they could see uh it's not parts of people it's

not like arms and legs or something uh part of the people means they could see the israelite camp and it's part meaning you can't see like the whole camp but they can see enough of the camp that he can lob a curse he can sort of aim it over at them, that's the idea

listen next time as Father Stephen DeYoung continues his study of the scriptures on the whole council of God Father Stephen's email address is wholecouncil at ancientfaith.com That's wholecouncil at ancientfaith.com.