A Rightgeous Twinkle vs. a Big Burnout
Welcome to our next parasha portion called, Balak. It begins in Numbers 22:2 to 25:9. We see here a parasha once again that is named after a person. Unlike parasha Sarai, which was named after a righteous person, this parasha is named after an unrighteous person, Balak. Wouldn't it be terrible to have a portion in Scripture named after you because of the bad things you did in life? Well hellooo Balak! Balak was king of the Moavites here and terribly afraid of the Israelites. When you are really afraid of someone, what do some people do? They call in a "hit man":. This particular hit man was not known for his expertise at weapons, but for his expertise with his mouth. If he cursed you, you were in trouble! His calling card read, Balam- have curses will travel:. Balak didn't want him to pull out an AK-47 and mow down the Israelites, he wanted him to spew out a string of curses over them. But there was one problem Balak didn't count on, you can't curse what YHVH has blessed! Notice what the elders brought from Balak to Balam with them as an offering to him. They were rewards of "divination". What does a true man of YHVH need with instruments of divination????
Balam turned them down them down on the first try. Next, Balak sends even more prestigious men to Balam with an even sweeter offer. Balak offers him great honor in return for coming to curse Israel. Balam is one of the people in the Scriptures that we often have debates about. Was he a man of YHVH, or was he just an evil sorcerer that YHVH used for His purposes? Keep in mind that sometimes YHVH'S people do not act in a proper manner. Sometimes they do terrible things, like King David did in having Bathsheba's husband killed in battle. But on the other hand, in Joshua 13:22, it refers to Balam as a sorcerer. So as to Balam, I'm leaving it up to you to decide for yourself as to him being a man of YHVH or a well versed sorcerer. Do you know who he was eventually killed by? You got it, the Israelites! Sometimes YHVH allows things to transpire that He doesn't necessarily find favorable. Here's a point in question.
Why did YHVH allow Moshe to send out the twelve spies to check out the land and see if it looked ok for them to try and conquer or not? Didn't YHVH already tell them it was their land for the taking? They didn't need to "check it out" first. Just ideas to ponder on:. Here YHVH allows Balam to go, but yet limits him on what he can say. It's not that Balam certainly didn't try to get YHVH to let him curse the Israelites. You'll see he made seven altars and did seven sacrifices after he arrived there. All this was to induce YHVH to let him pronounce a curse over Israel. Fortunately for the Israelites, YHVH doesn't take bribes:. When the sacrifices did not work, Balak has another plan. He took Balam to a hill (Peor) on which was a Moabite idol. He wanted Balam to just take a look at all those arrogant Israelites below. Maybe then he would decide to curse them. But yet this did not work either. Balam even remarks how beautiful the sight of all the Israelites are in their tents. He finally accepts the fact that YHVH is not going to let him curse Israel. As a matter of fact, it says he blessed them three times. If that wasn't bad enough, he predicts what is going to happen in the future to Amalek and the Canaanites.
Eventually these races will disappear forever! But wait, Balam knows there's more ways than one to skin a cat:. If he can't curse the Hebrews, he can make them bring a curse upon their own selves. He knew the Hebrews were not to join together with the pagan races of people. So what does he advise Balak to do? Use man's lust against him! Boy, that's not a new trick from the enemy. Satan doesn't have to worry about creating a new kind of stumbling block for us, he just twists the old ones into a new shape. Man's lust in one shape or another has been getting us into trouble since the Garden of Eden. Balam knows it's hard for a red blooded male to resist a good looking woman. It's harder still if that woman is throwing herself in his face. So that's exactly what starts taking place. In the words of country music star Kenny Chesney, everything gets hotter when the sun goes down:. Oh come on, smile, it won't hurt a bit.
The sun certainly went down on Israel when they started disobeying! When the men began to link up with the pagan women, they made it hot for Israel! An interesting note here, the sages cite that when the Pharaoh of Egypt decided to persecute the Hebrews, he conferred with his three advisors; Jethro, Job and Balam. They say Jethro fled in order not to be associated with Pharaoh's decree, Job remained silent and Balam advised him to destroy Israel. Interesting commentary on that idea. Getting back to the Hebrews, it was not just the ordinary John Does or should I say the John Doesteins: the women enticed, but the heads of the people. If you are in leadership, be careful. YHVH told Moshe to hang up the bodies of the leaders of the people. Moshe sends out the judges of the people to kill everyone who has been linked with the idols of Baal Peor under their leadership. Notice he didn't say to kill any man who has slept with a pagan woman. In the eyes of YHVH, if you slept with the pagan woman, you accepted her idols. Remember when a man and woman come together, they are seen as one flesh. So if the women worshipped other idols, then the man was thought to have worshipped them also.
It's interesting in the commentaries here, because it says when the women got the men drunk and interested in coming together, they would pull out their idol and make the man bow to it before the act would be completed. What better way to make YHVH mad? One of the men brazenly brought a Midianite woman to his tent right in front of Moshe. Bad idea to flaunt your sins! They ended up with a very bad intestinal problem:. Now YHVH is really upset with his people. So the plague hits the people. Pinchas (Aharon's grandson) saw the Israelite man and the pagan woman and ran into the tent and stabbed both through with a javelin. Twenty four thousand people died before the plague was stopped. We see here in this parasha, Balam was the star of the show. But sometimes your name is up in lights for the wrong reason, as was Balams. Better to be a righteous little twinkle than a big burn out:! Shalom
Balam turned them down them down on the first try. Next, Balak sends even more prestigious men to Balam with an even sweeter offer. Balak offers him great honor in return for coming to curse Israel. Balam is one of the people in the Scriptures that we often have debates about. Was he a man of YHVH, or was he just an evil sorcerer that YHVH used for His purposes? Keep in mind that sometimes YHVH'S people do not act in a proper manner. Sometimes they do terrible things, like King David did in having Bathsheba's husband killed in battle. But on the other hand, in Joshua 13:22, it refers to Balam as a sorcerer. So as to Balam, I'm leaving it up to you to decide for yourself as to him being a man of YHVH or a well versed sorcerer. Do you know who he was eventually killed by? You got it, the Israelites! Sometimes YHVH allows things to transpire that He doesn't necessarily find favorable. Here's a point in question.
Why did YHVH allow Moshe to send out the twelve spies to check out the land and see if it looked ok for them to try and conquer or not? Didn't YHVH already tell them it was their land for the taking? They didn't need to "check it out" first. Just ideas to ponder on:. Here YHVH allows Balam to go, but yet limits him on what he can say. It's not that Balam certainly didn't try to get YHVH to let him curse the Israelites. You'll see he made seven altars and did seven sacrifices after he arrived there. All this was to induce YHVH to let him pronounce a curse over Israel. Fortunately for the Israelites, YHVH doesn't take bribes:. When the sacrifices did not work, Balak has another plan. He took Balam to a hill (Peor) on which was a Moabite idol. He wanted Balam to just take a look at all those arrogant Israelites below. Maybe then he would decide to curse them. But yet this did not work either. Balam even remarks how beautiful the sight of all the Israelites are in their tents. He finally accepts the fact that YHVH is not going to let him curse Israel. As a matter of fact, it says he blessed them three times. If that wasn't bad enough, he predicts what is going to happen in the future to Amalek and the Canaanites.
Eventually these races will disappear forever! But wait, Balam knows there's more ways than one to skin a cat:. If he can't curse the Hebrews, he can make them bring a curse upon their own selves. He knew the Hebrews were not to join together with the pagan races of people. So what does he advise Balak to do? Use man's lust against him! Boy, that's not a new trick from the enemy. Satan doesn't have to worry about creating a new kind of stumbling block for us, he just twists the old ones into a new shape. Man's lust in one shape or another has been getting us into trouble since the Garden of Eden. Balam knows it's hard for a red blooded male to resist a good looking woman. It's harder still if that woman is throwing herself in his face. So that's exactly what starts taking place. In the words of country music star Kenny Chesney, everything gets hotter when the sun goes down:. Oh come on, smile, it won't hurt a bit.
The sun certainly went down on Israel when they started disobeying! When the men began to link up with the pagan women, they made it hot for Israel! An interesting note here, the sages cite that when the Pharaoh of Egypt decided to persecute the Hebrews, he conferred with his three advisors; Jethro, Job and Balam. They say Jethro fled in order not to be associated with Pharaoh's decree, Job remained silent and Balam advised him to destroy Israel. Interesting commentary on that idea. Getting back to the Hebrews, it was not just the ordinary John Does or should I say the John Doesteins: the women enticed, but the heads of the people. If you are in leadership, be careful. YHVH told Moshe to hang up the bodies of the leaders of the people. Moshe sends out the judges of the people to kill everyone who has been linked with the idols of Baal Peor under their leadership. Notice he didn't say to kill any man who has slept with a pagan woman. In the eyes of YHVH, if you slept with the pagan woman, you accepted her idols. Remember when a man and woman come together, they are seen as one flesh. So if the women worshipped other idols, then the man was thought to have worshipped them also.
It's interesting in the commentaries here, because it says when the women got the men drunk and interested in coming together, they would pull out their idol and make the man bow to it before the act would be completed. What better way to make YHVH mad? One of the men brazenly brought a Midianite woman to his tent right in front of Moshe. Bad idea to flaunt your sins! They ended up with a very bad intestinal problem:. Now YHVH is really upset with his people. So the plague hits the people. Pinchas (Aharon's grandson) saw the Israelite man and the pagan woman and ran into the tent and stabbed both through with a javelin. Twenty four thousand people died before the plague was stopped. We see here in this parasha, Balam was the star of the show. But sometimes your name is up in lights for the wrong reason, as was Balams. Better to be a righteous little twinkle than a big burn out:! Shalom