Torah: Bamidbar (Numbers) 22:2 — 25:9; Haftarah: Micah 5:6 — 6:8
BALAK - The Teaching of Balaam
This week's Parashah is an example of how God sees the Israelis in spite of their shortcomings - without iniquity and blameless - not because of what they are doing, but because of the promise He has made to the forefathers Avraham, Yitzchak, and Ya’akov, that the nation of Israel will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation; a light to the Gentiles. This parallels the view that God has of us, the believers - without iniquity and blameless – sanctified, not because of anything that we are doing, but because of the work of the One who has covered our sins, Yeshua the Messiah.
The previous Parashah ends with the Israelis beginning their wandering in the wilderness and their arrival at the plains of Moab. Balak, the king of Moab, is not very pleased with the situation and hires Balaam the son of Beor to come and curse the Israelis so that they will be weakened in battle. But who was Balaam to supposedly have such a power? He was the son of Beor, an Edomite, and, according to Joshua 13:22, a sorcerer: “The sons of Israel also killed Balaam the son of Beor, the diviner.” Balak, a heathen himself, believing that the sorcery of Balaam will work to force the hand of God, takes Balaam three times, each time to a different place, in order to curse Israel. But God turns Balaam words into blessings: “And he (Balaam) took up his discourse, and said, “Rise up, Balak, and hear; listen to me, you son of Zippor. God is not a man, that He should lie; nor the son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and shall He not do it? or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good? Behold, I have received a command to bless; and He has blessed; and I cannot reverse it. He has not seen iniquity in Jacob, nor has He seen perverseness in Israel; the Lord his God is with him, and the trumpet blast of a king is among them.” And Balak said to Balaam, “Come, I beg you, I will bring you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.” And Balak brought Balaam to the top of Peor that looks toward Jeshimon. And Balaam said to Balak, “Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams.” And Balak did as Balaam had said and offered a bull and a ram on every altar. And when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness. And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes; and the spirit of God came upon him. And he took up his discourse, and said, “The speech of Balaam, the son of Beor; the speech of a man whose eyes are open; “How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, and your tabernacles, O Israel! Like winding brooks, like gardens by the river’s side, as aloes which the Lord has planted, and like cedar trees... Blessed is he who blesses you, and cursed is he who curses you.” Numbers 23:18—24:9
Was Israel perfect? Certainly not! We have previously read how many died in the rebellion of Korach – besides 250 leaders of Israel – we have read about the 14,700 who died by the plague in the rebellion against Aharon, and we have read in last week’s Parashah that people were again rebelling against Moshe and God, and because of it many died bitten by the fiery serpents. And even after this beautiful blessing, uttered by Balaam, we see that people sinned again and 24,000 perished by another plague, and yet, God “perceived no iniquity in Ya’akov and saw no perversity in Yisrael.” So, is there a contradiction between the words of the blessings and the actual behavior of the Israelis? Not from God’s perspective. Surely the people of Israel were not perfect and without sin, but instead of cursing them God placed words of blessing in Balaam's mouth and each time he ended up blessing them. God is outside of our time constraints and instead of seeing the temporary kvetching, He sees the potential good things that the nation will bring to the world culminating with the coming of Moshiach. Taking this godly example, our sages have always tried to find the good in another person, because there is good in each and every one of us. They were able to look beyond the person's external acts and see into the essence of the soul. As a result, rather than judging their brethren for their shortcomings as acts of sin, they were able to find the good and the positive hidden within that act, a challenge for us all, for we serve a God that requires of us to do good, to do justice and to love kindness.
Yeshua taught us by example. He was God in human flesh and yet He did not judge anyone but had compassion for our human condition. One of Matthew’s characterizations of Yeshua is compassion; he uses this word more than any other Brit Chadashah writer. In chapter 12 verse 7 he records the words of Yeshua: “But if you had known what this means, 'I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE,' you would not have condemned the innocent.” Who were the innocent? The poor and the hungry who in order to feed themselves were not complying with the religiosity of the time. Yeshua told His disciples, “he who has seen Me has seen the Father.” (Yochanan 14:9) This was and is in God’s heart, compassion, for He said through the prophet Micah: “O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab planned, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim to Gilgal; that you may know the righteousness of the Lord. With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with one year old calves? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:5-8)
Positional, we are without sin in Messiah and this is how God sees us. But we live in this world in the flesh who is pulling us towards sin and this we have to fight in order to be Messiah-like and please our heavenly Father, for He will reward us or not, according to our deeds. “For we are fellow workers of Hashem, you are Hashem’s field; you are Hashem's building… Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, the work of each man will become evident, for the day will make it evident, because by fire it is revealed; and the fire itself will test the quality of each one's work. If anyone's work he built on the foundation will remain, he will receive a reward; if anyone's work will be consumed, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” (1 Corinthians 3:9-15)
May we all learn to have compassion for our shortcomings and build each other up so we will not suffer a loss of rewards when we will come into His Divine Presence. May we resolve to see the good in each other instead of looking at what divides us, for none of us is perfect. Yet sin has to be recognized and confronted, but how we go about doing it is what makes our work worthy of reward.
So what was the sin of Balaam? In the Torah reading we get the feeling that it was more to the conversation between Balak and Balaam, and indeed we read in the Brit Chadashah in the revelation given to Yochanan the words of Yeshua: “But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit {acts of} immorality forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the {son} of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.” (Revelation 2:14)
Balaam’s sin was teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before Israel, to forsake God’s commandments, by enticing the flesh with the age-old words of Satan, “Indeed, has God really said this?” planting the seed of doubt about God’s authority, His sovereignty and His power. Did God really say not to eat un-kosher foods? Did God really say not to covet, or not to steal, or not to lie – to live a moral life? Why is it so difficult for us to just obey God’s commandments? As believers we know that there are no such thing as idols, but we find excuses because of our desires, our lust which we do not want to keep under control. Yeshua, “being found in appearance as a man, humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” - Philippians 2:8. Yeshua was obedient to the Father until the end, and if we say that we are His disciples we should follow His example and also be obedient. One of the commandments that He gave us was also to love one another. So let’s love one another by humbly putting each other above ourselves and encourage each other with uplifting words.
The teaching of Balaam was intended to destroy Israel and because of that Yeshua has strong words for it. He is against any believer who, by this teaching, becomes a prototype of the assembly of Pergamum. Thus, Yeshua tells us that this teaching can also destroy the fellowship of the believers. We are also warned by the apostle Shaul of the consequences of following the teachings of Balaam: “But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For through your knowledge, he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Moshiach died. And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Moshiach” (1 Corinthians 8:9-12).
I pray that none of us will be found sinning against Moshiach “therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this — not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way” (Romans 14:13).
Shabbat joy, peace, and blessings! Shabbat Shalom!
