Following the way of Balaam.
Balaam
I. We begin with the good part of the character of Balaam. Balaam was a true prophet of God. He was the last prophet under the patriarchal dispensation. He had the knowledge of religion, faith in the future Messiah, and prayer for the great blessing--a death of peace and hope.
II. Let us now consider the character of Balaam; as it may be called, the bad part. The bad part of Balaam’s character was that he united with his religion, faith, and prayer, the errors of the head, which ruined his religion, and the vices of the heart, which ruined his faith and prayer. He complied with the practices of the idolaters that surrounded him; and he was guilty of that love of money which made him desire the wages of unrighteousness and receive the rewards of Balak, against the warnings of his conscience and his knowledge of God. We must now consider the especial reason why the dumb ass, on which the prophet rode, was the fittest channel by which God would reprove, first, his idolatry, and then his covetousness.
1. And first the dumb ass was the fittest channel by which God would reprove the idolatry of Balaam. It was as if a voice came from the God of Israel, saying to the prophet, “Wilt thou forsake the one true God, and join thyself, for the sake of money, to the foolish idolatry of the people around you? I will open the mouth of the most stupid of their idols to reproach thee, the prophet of God, to convince thee, and so convince them, that I am the only God, the only giver of all the usefulness of the instinct which has caused the dumb ass to be worshipped and honoured.”
2. So also the ass was the fittest channel for the reproof of the covetousness of Balaam. The wild ass of the East was not, as is too often imagined, the same sort of animal as that among us. It was selected, because of its size and beauty, to be the bearer of kings, magistrates, and princes; and its use may be said, therefore, to be confined to those who were the leaders and the wealthy among the people. Now the only palliation that can be alleged for the love of money is the poverty which fears want, or which desires the advantages which money confers. Balaam had no excuse for the covetousness which loved the wages of unrighteousness, and the proof of all this was the mere fact of his possessing the animal which was possessed only by the rich, the great, and the wealthy. When the Lord, therefore, opened the mouth of the ass, it was as if God said, “Why should the prophet of the true God thus be led away by the hope of money? why should the prophet of the true God love the wages of unrighteousness? Is not the possession and the use of the dumb ass on which you ride, the proof, and the demonstration to all around you that you already enjoy all that human ambition is wont to desire, and all that human avarice is wont to covet?” Be content. The most wonderful of all God’s miracles was wrought to prove to us God’s abhorrence of the most usual of all the sins that beset us, that we may learn to avoid that “covetousness which is idolatry.” (G. Townsend, D. D.)
Balaam
Of the melancholy history of this wicked man let us make its proper use.
1. It teaches the danger of giving way in the first instance to temptation. After we have been once conquered, we have lost half our strength.
2. Again, we are taught by this story that a religious disposition makes always the greatest and best part of every man’s character. Shining talents are what men desire, as they procure the admiration of the world; but we see in God’s sight it is otherwise. He often gives them to the most unworthy. A good heart is worth them all, and will make us illustrious, when all the rest become nothing.
3. We learn, further, from this story, the dreadful state of being what the Scriptures call forsaken of God.
4. But the most obvious use of the story is to convince ourselves of the folly and wickedness of acting under two characters--of hiding a bad heart under the pretences of religion. What pains it costs--the constant attention to every word and action. In fact, it would cost less to be good in earnest. Rarely did hypocrisy ever carry its deceit to the grave. Will the best gains of hypocrisy repay us for a bad conscience? (W. Gilpin, M. A.)
The dumb ass … forbad the madness of the prophet.--
Lessons from Balaam’s ass
Balaam’s madness had turned him into a beast, and why might not one beast teach another? In some things the ass excelled her master.
1. She saw the judgment, he was blind: instinct better instructed her than reason and religion had enlightened him.
2. The ass had a tongue of equity; the prophet a tongue, hand, and heart of iniquity.
3. The ass was not capable of sin, and did therefore justify herself; the master was so mad upon sin that he would needs ruin himself.
Observations:
1. The weaker vessel may hold the better liquor. The uncleansed lay hold on heaven, whereas men of knowledge often wallow in the lusts of flesh and blood. We are ordained to judge the angels; but if we degenerate from our prerogative, angels, men, infidels, harlots, yea, even beasts and stones, shall be our judges.
2. As Balaam proceeds in forwardness, so doth the ass in reprehension. At every turn she answered him, in every passage she was quit with him. We cannot run so fast but God can overtake us, nor be so cunning but He can teach even a beast to overreach us.
3. The sensual creatures are set to condemn our sins and to reflect our evils upon us. Peter hath a cock to tell him his cowardice, and Balaam an ass to reprove his avarice. There is no creature dumb when God bids it to speak. If there were no preachers to declaim, no conscience to accuse, the very creatures themselves would cry. The beds, boards, walls, windows, markets, closets should have tongues to condemn us. (T. Adams.)
Balaam
To us the narrative as a whole is stamped visibly and broadly with the arrow-mark of heaven. As Canon Kingsley says, it is one which never would have been, never could have been, invented by the Jews. They never would have put into the mouth of a heathen prophet the sublime evangelic statements which Balaam utters. The character is evidently drawn from life, A few of those traits of truth and experience we shall proceed to notice.
I. The first thing which strikes us in Balaam’s history is that we have here a very bad man, though a true prophet. He was covetous--“his heart was exercised with covetous practices,” “he ran greedily after reward.” Some of you may think that not a very great sin, but Scripture brands it as idolatry. Balaam, however, was worse than that. Like Simon Magus, he was desirous of turning the gifts of inspiration to low mercenary gain, and of making the things of the kingdom an affair of barter. Yea, worse than that. He rushed pell-mell to evil; and not only when remonstrated with did he refuse obedience, he became desperate in disobedience. There is no telling what a man may descend to I Gifts are not graces; great men are not always good men. Intellectual attainments, like some other things, may be valued too highly. Better the most drivelling idiot that crawls than the laurelled victor who, to attain his end, has prostituted his powers to the prince of darkness.
II. we have a striking instance of apparent obedience to the divine will masking an insincere heart, Balaam has been called a conscientious man. We should demur to that. Still, he had a remarkably clear idea of the fidelity of God, of His unchangeableness, of His unimpeachable righteousness, of His inflexible truth. He had a conscience, though very poorly he used it. Conscience was strong enough in him to make a coward of him; to make him now this, now that. It was not strong enough in him to lift him above the fascinating power of evil. Hence those inconsistencies which, like the confusing influences of light and shade, render this man as much a problem as any in history. Oh, whatever we are, God help us to be true!
III. We see how God frequently concedes in judgment a man’s wishes. Some of us have greatly wondered why God, the second time of Balaam’s asking Him, said, “Go with the men”; and yet “that His anger should be kindled” because Balaam did precisely what He had told him to do. Now this difficulty is met by two passages of Scripture: one is in Ezekiel 14:1-23., where we are told certain of the elders of Israel came and sat before the prophet, and the Word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Shall I be inquired of at all by them? Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face and cometh to the prophet, I, the Lord, will answer him according to the multitude of his idols.” The other passage is in 2 Thessalonians
2. “God will send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie.” He “had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Do you think God was going to give that man repeatedly right and gracious answers when he knew that the thing he asked was displeasing to God? No! to the froward God will show Himself froward. If a man “will have none of the Divine counsel,” it is no use repeating and repeating what God would have him do, nor is it becoming the majesty of God. He will say, “Well, then, you will not take no for an answer; I have told you the consequences; be it then even as you wish.” Often there would be no surer way to afflict us than to give us what we wish.
IV. Here is illustrated that secret law by which the sinner is almost compelled to continue. He thinks he can stop when he pleases. No such thing! except the grace of God aids the endeavour. “Go with the men!” said the angel. I see that your heart still hankers after Balak’s gold, you are not in earnest confessing your sin or in real acquiescence with the Divine judgment. “Go” then with them! Does not that illustrate the way of God’s providence with thousands upon thousands? The sensualist no sooner has indulged a lawless passion than he begins to see the folly of it; but how few turn and implore help and ask pardon of Almighty God! Go on! says the angel. The fear of discovery, the growing power of habit, the augmented strength of evil passion, the shame of acknowledgment, the bonds of association, all, like the weeds around the drowning man, hinder endeavours at self-rescue. There is an inevitable pressure from behind which, once the false step is taken, almost necessitates continuance.
V. We have here presented us the picture of a God-deserted man, not at first, but finally. If we may say so, at first God seemed to have a liking for that man; as indeed for what finally reprobate transgressor at one time had He not a liking? “As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” (G. Short, B. A.)