Scripture Daily

Context No. 1451 of 4322 · Numbers

Context · Reflection

Numbers 22:36-41: in context

36When Balak heard that Balaam had come, he went out to meet him to the City of Moab, which is on the border of the Arnon, which is in the utmost part of the border. 37Balak said to Balaam, “Didn’t I earnestly send for you to summon you? Why didn’t you come to me? Am I not able indeed to promote you to honor?” 38Balaam said to Balak, “Behold, I have come to you. Have I now any power at all to speak anything? I will speak the word that God puts in my mouth.” 39Balaam went with Balak, and they came to Kiriath Huzoth. 40Balak sacrificed cattle and sheep, and sent to Balaam, and to the princes who were with him. 41In the morning, Balak took Balaam, and brought him up into the high places of Baal; and he saw from there part of the people.

Balak, king of Moab, goes out to meet Balaam, whom he has hired to curse Israel, and greets him with a reproach: did I not send urgently to summon you? Why did you not come to me? Am I not able to promote you to honor? Balaam answers, I have come; but have I any power to say anything? I can speak only the word God puts in my mouth. Balak takes him along, offers sacrifices, and in the morning brings him up to the high places of Baal to look out over part of the people of Israel he means to have cursed.

Balak's words reveal how he sees the world: am I not able to promote you to honor? He cannot imagine that Balaam's earlier hesitation could be about anything but the price; surely, he assumes, more honor, more reward, will secure the man's compliance. It is the worldview of someone who believes everyone has a price, that every person can be moved by enough honor or money, that no one is finally constrained by anything a sufficient bribe cannot override. And into that worldview Balaam speaks a word Balak can barely comprehend: I can speak only what God puts in my mouth. There is a constraint on Balaam, in this at least, that Balak's honors and rewards cannot touch, a limit set by God that no amount of promotion can move. Balak keeps thinking in terms of price; Balaam keeps pointing to a constraint beyond price. The scene holds up a mirror to a very common assumption, that everyone can be bought, that every person's convictions are finally for sale if the offer is high enough. The world often operates on that belief, and it is often right; a great many people do have a price. But it is not universally true, and it is meant not to be true of those who belong to God. There is supposed to be, in the servant of God, a constraint that honor and reward cannot override, a word we must speak and a line we will not cross whatever is offered. Balak could not understand it; the question is whether it is true of us, that there are things no promotion could buy.

Does the world's assumption that everyone has a price hold true of me, or is there in me, as there was in Balaam here, a constraint set by God that no honor or reward could override, a word I must speak and a line I will not cross whatever is offered?

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