Is your path Reckless?

Is your path reckless?  This is an important question that as teenagers our parents made sure they repeated it a hundred times not to be reckless.  Don’t drive reckless, don’t play reckless, and don’t be reckless in your relationships.  They were a broken record in my house and yet I did not hear a word they said.

The story of Balaam the sorcerer teaches us some import life lessons regarding this question

scripture: Numbers 22-25;

The Story takes place as the Israelites are making their second attempt into the Promise Land.  Moses has lead them out of the desert after 40 years and they are preparing to enter the promise land from the east of the Jordan.  Now King Balak of the Moab’s sees the Israelites as a threat, He knows what they did to the Amorites and fears they will do the same to him.  Balak decides He is not able to defeat them on his own so he calls upon a sorcerer that he knows can put a curse on these people.  Balaam was the sorcerer who lived in Moab that the King knew but Balaam was in Pethor at the time which was nearly 400 miles away near the Euphrates.  The king sent messengers to Balaam (princes from Moab) with a fee to pay Balaam to come and put a curse on the Israelites. 

The Moab’s were immoral people in the site of God.  They worshipped Baal – (fertility god – which meant male and female prostitutes) the also worshiped other deity and ate the food sacrificed to them. 

You can look at the culture today and see it is not any different then it was in Moab.

The only thing different is we are worshipping ourselves versus worshipping Baal or any other idol.  We are consumed with doing whatever makes us feel good, or whatever makes us look better, or whatever gives us the most authority over others. 

So we can look at this story and gain some important insight into our own lives. 

Balaam’s career chose was a sorcerer (todays -palm reader, psychic, someone who practices magic).  He called up spirits to see what happens in the future.  He talked with the dead, He asked that people be cursed like witch doctors do today in other countries. Nothing has changed since then, we still have these people around today.  In Delaware they are at every corner.  In Salisbury they are in strip malls on route 50. 

Balaam was not just a mediocre sorcerer, He was well known.  He was so good at what he did the King of Moab knew him and sent princes 400 + miles to Pethor to pay him to come back and curse the Israelites. 

Balaam worshipped many gods but surprising enough we find that He also knew the Lord God even though he was not an Israelite.  (Num 22: ⁸ “Spend the night here,” Balaam said to them, “and I will report back to you with the answer the Lord gives me.” So the Moabite officials stayed with him.)

As you can imagine Balaam was not living a life that God would be impressed with; He was so immoral his name means Destroyer Of People.  Yet God was going to use Balaam.   Num 22: ²⁰ That night God came to Balaam and said, “Since these men have come to summon you, go with them, but do only what I tell you.”

Know we do not know when or how Balaam came to know the Lord but it surely did not mean he lived life any different.  I mean hear he is talking directly with the Lord God (which may have been the first time ever or not) and then the next morning he takes off with the Moab officials and never consults God on what he is supposed to do.  I mean God did say “do only what I tell you”.  This would normally mean go when I tell you to go.  Having the right attitude is so important before we do what God has called us to do.  In fact in many cases He will not even open the door if our attitude is not right.  And sure enough the Lord became angry with Balaam.

Num 22: ²¹ Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the Moabite officials. ²² But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him.”

Now Balaam didn’t know the Lord was opposing him until the donkey he was riding started acting up.  And then he didn’t see the situation for what it was until the donkey began speaking to him. In fact all he was concerned about was his image.  The whole situation made him look like a fool.  The donkey was misbehaving so bad and then finally just laying down put Balaam over the edge.  Balaam wanted to kill the donkey, he was so mad. 

Num 22: ²⁷ When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat it with his staff. ²⁸ Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?”

²⁹ Balaam answered the donkey, “You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.”

Balaam held a prestigious position with many high officials so image was everything.  To have this donkey act like this and others see it well that was maddening.  He was not going put up with it, then the Lord opened his eyes so that he too could see the angel of the Lord.  This was a game changer, 

Num 22: ³¹ Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown.” ³² The angel of the Lord asked him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me.^{[a] 33} The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared it.”

³⁴ Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned. I did not realize you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now if you are displeased, I will go back.”

 Balaam was told “His path was a reckless one” So reckless that the Lord had every intention on killing him but the donkey saved his life.  

Yet did Balaam change his ways?  No!  As soon as he got to Moab and with the King he did what the King did.  The King took him to the idols and they sacrificed to them and ate the meat.  Then the King took him up to one of the high places of Baal and looked down over the plain where the Israelites were so he could curse them.  

But Balaam did something surprising he asked that they build seven altars and sacrifice seven bulls and seven rams on them and then He would go and see if God would speak to Him.  Well God did!

 Num 23:

 God met with him, and Balaam said, “I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.” (was he looking for approval or what.)

⁵ The Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”

⁶ So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the Moabite officials. ⁷ Then Balaam spoke his message:

“Balak brought me from Aram,
    the king of Moab from the eastern mountains.
‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me;
    come, denounce Israel.’
⁸ How can I curse
    those whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce
    those whom the Lord has not denounced?
⁹ From the rocky peaks I see them,
    from the heights I view them.
I see a people who live apart
    and do not consider themselves one of the nations.
¹⁰ Who can count the dust of Jacob
    or number even a fourth of Israel?
Let me die the death of the righteous,
    and may my final end be like theirs!”

You see God did not want Balaam to curse his people and that message He made loud and clear to the King.  The interesting fact about this message that God gave to Balaam had he contemplated what God had said at the end, He would have known he was given an opportunity to repent and be saved.  You see this was told to Balaam in the first person.  This was all about Balaam and the situation at hand and nothing to do with the king or a curse.  “Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my final end be like theirs!”  

But the King was not going to settle with this and asked Balaam to go to another high place of Baal and look down on the Israelites and curse them from there.  But again Balaam made seven altars and sacrificed bulls and rams on them before calling upon the Lord.  He again went through the same rituals he normally did in speaking with the dead and received another message from God.

Num 23:  ¹⁸ Then he spoke his message:

“Arise, Balak, and listen;
    hear me, son of Zippor.
¹⁹ God is not human, that he should lie,
    not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
    Does he promise and not fulfill?
²⁰ I have received a command to bless;
    he has blessed, and I cannot change it.

²¹ “No misfortune is seen in Jacob,
    no misery observed^[a] in Israel.
The Lord their God is with them;
    the shout of the King is among them.
²² God brought them out of Egypt;
    they have the strength of a wild ox.
²³ There is no divination against^[b] Jacob,
    no evil omens against^[c] Israel.
It will now be said of Jacob
    and of Israel, ‘See what God has done!’
²⁴ The people rise like a lioness;
    they rouse themselves like a lion
that does not rest till it devours its prey
    and drinks the blood of its victims.”

²⁵ Then Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!”

²⁶ Balaam answered, “Did I not tell you I must do whatever the Lord says?”

This time Balaam blesses the Israelites.  Not what the King wants to hear that is for sure.  But the king was not giving up and asked that Balaam go up to another high place of Baal and curse the Israelites.  This time after they made the seven altars and performed the sacrifice Balaam realized that God was pleased in blessing the Israelites so instead of calling upon the Lord as he had done before like he did when calling on the dead the Spirit of God came upon him. 

So the Holy Spirit came to Balaam and gave him this message;

Num 24:

³ and he spoke his message:

“The prophecy of Balaam son of Beor,
    the prophecy of one whose eye sees clearly,
⁴ the prophecy of one who hears the words of God,
    who sees a vision from the Almighty,^[a]
    who falls prostrate, and whose eyes are opened:

⁵ “How beautiful are your tents, Jacob,
    your dwelling places, Israel!

⁶ “Like valleys they spread out,
    like gardens beside a river,
like aloes planted by the Lord,
    like cedars beside the waters.
⁷ Water will flow from their buckets;
    their seed will have abundant water.

“Their king will be greater than Agag;
    their kingdom will be exalted.

⁸ “God brought them out of Egypt;
    they have the strength of a wild ox.
They devour hostile nations
    and break their bones in pieces;
    with their arrows they pierce them.
⁹ Like a lion they crouch and lie down,
    like a lioness—who dares to rouse them?

“May those who bless you be blessed
    and those who curse you be cursed!”

So God gives this wonderful revelation of Israel and how God is seeing them.  How blessed could Balaam be but after speaking this the King is furious and will not pay Him as he said because He did not curse them.   Balaam decides he is going back to his people and his home in Moab, but he first warns the King what is going to happen to His people. 

Sometime later the Israelites end up invading the Moab’s and killed Balaam along with other Midian Kings

Num 31:  

⁷ They fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every man. ⁸ Among their victims were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba—the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword”

So you see Balaam was on a reckless path.

His career choose was reckless

His peer group was reckless – he did not surround himself with righteous people.

His attitude was reckless - (my land the man experienced God and still went back to his old ways.) (He was concerned about his image, remember the verse –num 22:29,  and to top it all off Balaam knew what was going to happen to the people around him and yet he did nothing to warn them.) 

Balaam died because he taught the King (Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating sacrificed food to idols and sexual immorality (Rev 2: 14)

Is your Career choose a reckless one before God?

Are your peer's chooses reckless before God

How about your attitude is it reckless before God.