"What the Lord Says, I Say" (Numbers 22-24)

 

Watch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cWC5629aSU&t=2s

Sunday, August 2, 2020

 

            A friend telephoned to ask if I could throw up a prayer.  His dog was dying and he knew it.  Those with beloved pets, understand where he was coming from.  He knew his dog was going to die whether I prayed or not.  Of course, God could have healed the dog.  God could heal any dog, goldfish, or person, for that matter. 

We have lifespans.  My friend knew that.  He was sad, so what did he do?  He called his best childhood bud who grown up to become a pastor and asked, “Could you throw up a prayer?”  It was his way of saying, I feel really sad and I need you to be sad with me. Shying away from such raw emotion, we couch our needs in manageable terms.  Rob is a pastor?  I’ll ask him to pray. 

The idea of what is manageable is in the story we read in Numbers, chapters 22-24.   This story is very important to Israel, but Israel is a silent, absent player.  At Center stage, is  Balak, king of Moab.  He thinks he can manage what God will do. 

Let that soak in.  Are we guilty?  Do you or I try to control God?  The phrase “God is in control,” is often heard in church.  Do we, though, fall into the trap of thinking, if I pray hard enough, and tithe faithfully, and attend every worship service, God will have to answer all my prayers with “Yes’s?” 

God hears us.  God is affected when we pray.  I don’t think getting “yes’s” is tied to how hard we pray or how long we pray or how faithfully we believe.  Prayer is relating to God, seeing who God is.  As we see more of God and drink in more of God’s love, we are able to hear God’s voice.  We get the desires of our hearts because our hearts are transformed.  We bear the image of God, grow in Christ, and what God desires becomes what we desire. 

Instead of thinking about prayer as a transaction, we realize it is conversation with the one who loves us.  In a transaction, we try to be as good we can to get God to give us what we want.  This fails because as sinners, we can’t be good enough to influence God’s wisdom.  We aren’t going to convince God to do something.  However, when we throw the idea of a transaction out, and instead see God as the one who loves us and whose wisdom is perfect, then we accept what God gives.  We know, as it says in Ephesians 3, He will do abundantly more than we could ask or imagine (v.20).  In prayer we talk with the one who loves us.  Ask for whatever you want.  Trust God to give what’s best.

For King Balak, it was a transaction.  After years of desert wandering Israel has arrived in Moab, just across the river from Jericho and the Promised Land.  They crushed the Ammonites in battle.  Balak, King of Moab, figures it could happen to his people too.  The ancients thought that, when nations when to war, the nation with the stronger god won.  Balak saw what Israel had done to Ammon, so he assumed their god was pretty tough.

He needed a tougher god to protect him.  Where do you find a tough god who will help you win the battle?  Enter Balaam, a professional seer, a conjurer, a prophet for hire.  He lived at Pethor, which the Jewish Study Bible notes say was 400 miles from Moab. Neither distance nor price was of any concern to Balak.  He sent his emissaries with a bag full of money.  They were to bring Balaam back so he could curse Israel and Moab would win the battle. 

When the Moabites appeared at his door, Balaam welcomed them, took their money, and told them to wait.  Paying for a favorable prophecy was normal in that part of the world at that time in history.  But things go sideways for the Moabites.

“Who are those men with you?” God asked.  Balaam doesn’t seem the least bit surprised to hear God speak.  He answered and God told him not to go with the men.  Balaam didn’t know anything about Egypt or Israel. That wasn’t his story.  He was an outside.  God is as powerful outside the Biblical community as in it. God told him the Israelites were blessed and he, Balaam, needed to send these guys back empty handed.  So he did. 

Perturbed, Balak would not take “no” for an answer.  So, he sent more distinguished representatives.  Price is no object!  They needed to come back with a curse on the Israelites. This time, God, told Balaam to go with them. 

God isn’t happy about it.  God is Lord of the universe.  God is almighty.  God was not some genie who had to come out if Balaam rubbed a lamp. 

As Balaam rode his donkey the 400 miles toward Moab, an angel of Lord holding a flaming sword blocked the road.  Balaam couldn’t see it.  The donkey could and he wanted to part of this angel, so he turned into a field.  Now Balaam wasn’t at all bothered when God spoke to him in conversations, but he falls to pieces when his faithful donkey stops heeding his commands.  Balaam hit the donkey.

They made their way to a narrow path by a vineyard.  The angel of the Lord appeared, blocking the way.  The donkey saw the angel and veered to avoid it, scraping Balaam’s foot on the wall.  Enraged, he beat the donkey again. 

On they traveled until they came to a narrow spot with no space to veer or turn off.  The angel blocked the way.  The donkey knew what was coming and did not care.  He could handle Balaam’s rod.  He was not confronting that angel of God, so he just stopped.  Still unable to see the angel, Balaam once more belted the donkey.  The donkey turned around and said, “Knock it off.”

Balaam, without missing a beat said the donkey made a fool out of him and if he had had a sword, he would have killed the donkey.  To this the donkey replied, haven’t your ridden me all your life?  Have I ever treated you this way?  No, Balaam had to admit.  His donkey had been a faithful beast of burden. 

So many things wrong here!  First, what is going in Balaam’s head that he doesn’t think twice about extended conversations with God?  He isn’t at all surprised when his donkey just starts talking?  Yet, he loses his composure when the donkey doesn’t obey his commands.  Second, why would he travel without a sword?  Did he not pack for the 400-mile donkey ride?  Third, why was the only one in the story aware of God’s presence a donkey??

God used this weird episode to reiterate to Balaam that he may be headed to see Balak, but it doesn’t matter how much Balak offers.  Balaam is only to say what God tells him to say.  Balaam follows through on the command perfectly.

Balak, irritated that he had to send two teams of recruiters, asked for the curse he paid to receive.  Balaam tells him how to prepare the ritual and Balak complies.  But when the message comes, it’s not what Balak had in mind.  “How can I curse whom God has not cursed?”  Balaam says (23:8). 

Balak, furious, demands that Balaam go back to God.  Maybe Balaam didn’t deliver the right message, or didn’t hear God’s response properly.  They go through the entire routine again, and again, God says through Balaam, “Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob; no divination against Israel” (23:23).  Exasperated and desperate, Balak told Balaam, fine don’t curse them.  But don’t bless them.  Balaam’s answer?  What the Lord says, I say.

Balak wants Balaam to try it one more time.  Each attempt is in a different location.  Maybe God couldn’t be reached from this mountain, only that one?  What kind of god did Balak think he was seeking, who could only answer from certain places and who had to do what Balaam asked?  The Bible says, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Balaam.  Again, he blessed Israel and did not curse them.

Balak was done.  “Go home!” He barked.  He had promised to make Balaam rich, but now, he told Balaam to ride his talking donkey back the 400 miles he had come.  Balaam retorted he didn’t care if Balak gave him all the silver and gold he possessed.  Balaam had to speak God’s word, whatever it was.  As he left, he gave a final prophecy, letting Balak know Moab would be crushed by Israel. 

Israel is talked about in this story, but is not active participant.  We see God acting in those nations Israel will fight.  God went ahead of Israel, preparing the way.  Moses had no idea God was talking through a donkey to a medium.  Consulting soothsayers was forbidden, but God is not confined even by his own law.

In our lives, when we pray as if we’re talking with a Father who loves us, not an impersonal deity who makes deals, we are drawn into God’s heart.  We begin to desire what God desires, and God includes us in what God is doing in the world.  Unbeknownst to us, God is out there in the world, preparing the way in places we can’t see right now and in ways we can’t imagine.  God is clearing out the obstacles, so we can walk the path He’s set before us.

We can pray, God I want that job; God I want that car; God I want that girlfriend; God heal my mother; God save my daughter’s failing marriage; God help our church grow.  These prayers are fine.  We bring these requests to our Heavenly Father who loves us.  We trust our Father’s response.  As Jesus said, “How much will your father in heaven give good things to those who ask” (Matthew 7:11)?  God knows what we need more than we do. 

If we pray for a loved one to be healed, but the loved one dies, it doesn’t mean God failed or our prayer failed or God abandoned us.  I don’t know what it means.  God loves us and loves those we pray for.  We can yell at God, cry to God, rage against God, and sit silently in God’s presence.  God receives us.  God sees us.  God helps us find our way to healing. God invites us to walk in his purposes and be a part of what He’s about in the world. 

Decide then, what you’re looking for, a God with whom you make deals, or a God you trust to love you.  Once you decide, pray to that God.  Live based on the way you pray and based on you understanding of the God who hears your prayers.

AMEN