The lyrics of Blessings by Laura Story always remind me that God does not always answer our prayers the way we ask Him to, because He knows what is best for us and His purposes are always good and trustworthy. Psalm 57:2
Verse 1
We pray for blessings, we pray for peace, Comfort for family, protection while we sleep, We pray for healing, for prosperity, We pray for your mighty hand to ease our suffering. And all the while, You hear each spoken need, Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things
Verse 2
We pray for wisdom your voice to hear, We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near, We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love, As if every promise from your Word is not enough, And all the while, you hear each desperate plead, And long that we’d have faith to believe.
Chorus:
Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops, What if your healing comes through tears, And what if a thousand sleepless nights Are what it takes to know you’re near What if my greatest disappointments Or the aching of this life Is revealing of a greater thirst This world can’t satisfy And what if trials of this life The rain, the storms, the hardest nights Are your mercies in disguise
Bridge:
When friends betray us, when darkness seems to win We know that pain reminds this heart that this is not, This is not our home.
The Bible passage that inspired this post is the story of the prophet of Balaam found in Numbers 22-24.
Balek was king of Moab and his whole country was in dread of the Israelites who were camping along the Jordan river across from Jericho. The Moabites had good reason to fear as they were well aware of all that Israel had done to the Amorites and because the Israelites were so numerous!
So Balek sent messengers, with a divination fee, to summon Balaam, who was in Pethor, to curse the Israelites for him because he knew they were too powerful. Balek reasoned that – If they were cursed, perhaps he would be able to defeat them and drive them out. Numbers 22: 5,6
God came to Balaam with this message:
“Do not go with them. You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed.” Numbers 22:12
King Balek was not going to give up easily! He upped the enticement for Balaam to come.
“I will reward you handsomely and do whatever you say. Come and put a curse on these people for me” Numbers 22:16-17
Balaam, rather than closing the matter completely after God explicitly told him that he was not to go, he gave in to the temptation of the handsome reward he could potentially receive and told them to wait another night and he would ask God again. Numbers 22:18
God was angry with Balaam when he asked again but he did tell him to go with the Princes and gave further instruction to do only what he was told. Numbers 22: 20
Balaam’s greed for the wealth offered by king Balek blinded him so that he ignored God’s first answer- do not go.
So Balaam saddled and mounted his faithful donkey and started out with the Princes of Moab to meet King Balek.
There are times in our lives when we know God’s explicit answer to our prayers, but we still move ahead with the answer we want because of our own desires – fully expecting God to bless our choice.
God was very angry with Balaam and used a very unusual and miraculous event to get his attention. On the way, his faithful donkey began to act strangely ( his donkey was seeing an angel of the Lord, holding a sword, in her path.) Three times she saw the angel, the first time she veered off the road to avoid the angel with the sword, the second time she pressed close to a wall and Balaam’s foot was crushed. Each time, Balaam beat his donkey for her behavior. The third time she sees the angel of the Lord, there is no room in the narrow place to the right or left so she lies right down with Balaam sitting on top so he beats her again. God does the funniest thing- God gives the donkey a voice and she says to Balaam:
“ What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?”
They have a short conversation together and Balaam does not even question that he is speaking to his donkey! Then God opens Balaam’s eyes so that he can also see the angel of the Lord.
In Numbers 22:34, Balaam says to the angel of the Lord,
“If it displeases You I will turn back.”
Balaam seemed undecided whether he was displeasing God. He says : IF it displeases you….though God had made His will very clear to Balaam. Yet Balaam still sought for the answer he wanted from God.
Through this, Balaam made it plain that he really did not want the answer that God had already clearly revealed.
This was not the end of Balaam’s story, he still pursued his journey and the rest of this event is told in the book of Numbers. From other passages in scripture, it appears that Balaam never truly repented of his lust for the treasure he was seeking.
Though he did not curse the Israelites, we read in Numbers 31:16 that it was Balaam who advised the Midianite women to seduce the Israelites who rebelled against the Lord.
Balaam is referred to as an example in 2 Peter 2:15 which is speaking about false teachers among the Corinthians. “They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.
also in Jude 1:11 “they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error….”
In Balaam’s profile in the NLT Application Bible, it states that at first reading, it might appear that Balaam was an honest and God fearing man. However, his story exposes the deception of maintaining an outward facade of spirituality over a corrupt inward life. He was only ready to obey God’s command as long as he could profit from doing so. This mixture of motives – obedience and profit- eventually led to Balaam’s death.
The profile also provides us with the following lesson for us:
Eventually, each of us lives through the same process. Who and what we are will somehow come to the surface, destroying any masks we may have put on to cover up our real selves. Efforts spent on keeping up appearances would be much better spent on finding the answer to sin in our lives. We can avoid Balaam’s mistake by facing ourselves and realizing that God is willing to accept us, forgive us, and literally make us over from within. Don’t miss this great discovery that eluded Balaam.
The Lord says, “Stand by where the roads cross, and look. Ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it. And you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.” Jeremiah 6:16
In summary, an excerpt from Got Questions outlines the errors of Balaam:
- According to 2 Peter 2:15, Balaam’s “way” is a choice to promote falsehood for financial reasons.
- According to Jude 1:11, Balaam’s “error” was his willingness to accommodate pagan beliefs out of greed. Jude 1:4 also refers to the sin of those “who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality.”
- One trait of false teachers in the church is that they attempt to turn Christian liberty into a “freedom” to be promiscuous (see Romans 14:1–5).
- Putting these ideas together gives a clear view of the doctrine of Balaam. It is the attitude that one can be fully cooperative with the world and still serve God. The doctrine of Balaam teaches compromise, wanting Christians to forget they are called to be separate and holy (Leviticus 20:26; 1 Peter 1:2);
- The doctrine of Balaam makes believers indistinguishable from the unbelieving world (Matthew 5:13).
- The doctrine of Balaam is a belief that “a little sin” doesn’t hurt (Galatians 5:9), especially if there’s some financial or personal benefit involved (1 Timothy 6:5).
- A person following the doctrine of Balaam is willing to compromise his beliefs for the sake of economics. He acts to enable sinful behaviors for personal gain or even participate in them (Romans 1:32).
In practical terms, the teaching or doctrine of Balaam is the view that Christians can—or even should—compromise their convictions for the sake of popularity, money, sexual gratification, or personal gain. It’s the attitude that treats sin as “no big deal.” Christians can’t—and shouldn’t—totally shun the presence of sinners or unbelievers (Luke 7:34; 1 Corinthians 5:9–13), but we are obligated to stand up for truth (Ephesians 4:25), righteousness (Proverbs 23:20; Romans 14:22), and goodness (2 Peter 1:5, Matthew 5:16), whether it’s what others want to hear or not (John 4:16–18; 8:11; Acts 24:24–25).
What can we learn from the life of Balaam?
- Christ followers who desire to be in close communion and faithful to God will spend time in His word and prayer.
- When God clearly speaks his will through His word, we are not to question it; we obey and live accordingly even if it conflicts with our own personal desires.
- We should live a contented life, thankful for God’s provision and blessing and not seek the treasures of this world.
- Seek to use the gifts that God has given us for the purposes He gave them; use our gifts for God’s glory rather than for our own praise and/or profit.
- Be humble, acknowledge God in all our ways.
Prayer of Response
Our Father,
You are holy, mighty and perfect in all of your ways. We acknowledge our human nature is weak and we can not live a life pleasing to you apart from your Holy Spirit living in us and our complete submission to His direction in our lives.
You know the temptations we face, the struggles we fight, the fears we have, the desires we have, you know us completely. Your desire, your plans for us are always good. Your Word says in Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Thank you for this promise!
Father, I pray that as Christ followers, we will be steadfast in all of our ways to walk in the center of your will – regardless of the cost. May our faith in the knowledge of your goodness and faithfulness always be on our minds.
We pray in Jesus name, AMEN
Awesome, truth.
Love this reflection! Characterizing this attitude of reluctance to give up compromising God’s will as balaam’s Doctrine is instructive.
We’ve all ‘been there’ at some point, making ourselves believe we are doing Gods will when often we don’t want to look deep enough within ourselves to actually find out. We must start with a humble attitude before Him. It would save us alot of needless grief. Balaam is a great example of what ‘not’ to do!