That brings us to the story of Balaam. So, do you know the story of Balaam in the book of Numbers? He makes his grand appearance in chapters 22-24 as a person who is a soothsayer, a quasi-religious prophet of sorts who was asked by the King of Moab at that time Balak, the King of Moab (now central Jordan, the place where the Israelites were on their way to capture), to place a curse on the Israelites. If you didn't know your stuff, you would think that he did hear from God. He said he did, but he was a false prophet.
The King of Moab had heard about the God of the Israelites and how their army was like no other. He wanted Balaam to lay down some serious curses and save the kingdom and bargained and tried to bribe him. Balaam, however, made it look on the outside like he was seeking a word from God, but the motivation was greed. On the outside, he looked like he was listening to God because God did use him and did speak to him for the sake of the Israelites, but what he wanted was God to bless what was wrong to do in the first place.
God is able to get our attention any way he wants to. In the story of Balaam, he has an encounter with an angel of the Most High God. This angel knew caught the attention of Balaam's donkey who could see with its own donkey eyeballs, the angel with a sword in his and standing on the road. He had to go through the donkey because Balaam ignored the supernatural visit from the Lord himself to NOT to curse the Israelites. Balaam was unamused because his donkey wouldn't go anywhere, so he hit the donkey three times quite badly. The third time the donkey said to Balaam, "What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?" (Numbers 22:28).His eyes were opened wide to the presence of the Lord and the angel said he could go on to the King of Moab but only to proclaim a blessing over Israel. Not only did he go on to bless Israel, he went on to tell the King of Moab all about how he would lose the fight and tells of a trying times to come an of a time not yet, a prophecy of one who is to come who will rule and reign over all (Numbers 24).
Toward the end of the story, we see Balaam trying to get the Israelites to turn away from God and to worship idols. Some did. Numbers 31:16 says, “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident so that a plague struck the Lord’s people." Then he was killed by the sword during the time when the Israelites were victorious over the King of Moab and the other four kings around the area.
So, the lessons we learn from this story besides be kind to animals are these:
1) Do not follow false prophets or false idols because they are stumbling blocks to our faith in the Most High God. They might say things that sound true, but there is a motivation that is not good behind their words.
2) Do not leave out parts of God's word to suit your needs.
3) God's plan is going to happen no matter what and he can use the most absurd situations and broken people to do it.
4) Be careful about the pursuit of things of this Earth.
5) Honor and respect the God of the Universe. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
