Here is a question, and the one who submitted it provides an interesting consideration:
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“In Numbers 22, God first told Balaam not to go with the princes from Balak, but in v. 20, God tells him to go. However, along the way, the angel of the Lord was ready to kill Balaam with a sword.
After Balaam was able to see the angel, the angel told him he would have slain him had it not been for the ass’s refusal to go on.
But then the angel told Balaam to go on. All of this is confusing to me. Will you shed some light on it?
Could it be that God was emphasizing repeatedly to Balaam His power and the absolute necessity that Balaam express His words and not give in to any of Balak’s attempts to pressure Balaam?”
What was going on?
Balak heard of a massive army sweeping up the east side of the Jordan and defeating anyone in their path, the Israelites. He decided to hire Balaam, a prophet, to curse them preemptively (Num 22:1-7).
Balaam asked God if he should heed Balak’s invitation. God told him no (Num 22:8-14).
At Balak’s command, another group came to ask. Here is where it looks like God told Balaam he could go, but He seems to get angry when Balaam goes:
“And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, ‘If the men come to call you, rise and go with them; but only the word which I speak to you—that you shall do.’ So, Balaam rose in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the princes of Moab.
Then God’s anger was aroused because he went, and the Angel of the Lord took His stand in the way as an adversary against him. And he was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him” (Num 20:20-22Unless otherwise stated: Scripture is taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Used by permission. All rights reserved).
The donkey Balaam rode refused to proceed three times because it could see the Angel of the Lord. The Angel explained, “The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three times. If she had not turned aside from Me, surely I would also have killed you by now, and let her live” (Num 20:33).
Why would God say, “go,” and almost kill Balaam for going?
The first answer is that he didn’t tell Balaam to go. He said, “If the men come to call you, rise and go…” We don’t see where the messengers had asked Balaam again before the account says, “So Balaam rose… and went… .”
Alone, this is a sufficient explanation for why God would come frighteningly close to punishing Balaam. If Balaam just went without waiting till the men called for him, he disobeyed God.
Now, concerning the possibility in the original question, is it likely that God was emphasizing His power and that it was essential that Balaam not compromise?
Absolutely!
We are just meeting Balaam here. He seems to put on a pretty good show, regularly saying something to the effect, “The word that God puts in my mouth, that I must speak.” For all we see at this point, he’s a top-tier prophet.
God, however, knew he was a solid, A-1, bona fide sell-out. The donkey beater’s shining moment would be pronouncing God’s blessings on the people. He would immediately betray them by telling Balak how to bring Israel down (Num 25:1-4; 31:16; 2 Pet 2:15-16; Jude 11; Rev 2:14).
We would need explicit Scripture to say that God wanted to shake Balaam sufficiently so that he made it to the finish line with the blessing of the people, but it would be consistent with what we know about the man. In fact, could it be implied by what we learn about the situation in 2 Peter 2:15-16?
They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.
Great question. Keep reading. Keep asking,
Van
