Scripture Daily

Context No. 2642 of 4322 · Numbers

Context · Reflection

Numbers 23:25-30: in context

25Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.” 26But Balaam answered Balak, “Didn’t I tell you, saying, ‘All that the LORD speaks, that I must do’?” 27Balak said to Balaam, “Come now, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.” 28Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that looks down on the desert. 29Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” 30Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.

Balak, the king who hired Balaam to curse Israel, is growing frustrated. Every time Balaam opens his mouth, blessings come out instead of curses. So Balak tries a new tactic: if you will not do it, at least neither curse them nor bless them. When that fails, he takes Balaam to yet another vantage point, the top of Peor, hoping that from a different angle God might permit the curse he wants. More altars are built, more sacrifices offered, in search of a different answer.

Balak's strategy is one we recognize. God's word has been clear, blessing, not cursing, and rather than accept it, Balak keeps changing the vantage point, hauling Balaam from mountain to mountain, hoping a new angle will produce the answer he wants. It is answer-shopping, the refusal to take God's plain word for it, the search for a different perspective that will finally yield the yes we are after. We do the same when a clear word from God does not suit us: we look for another teacher, another interpretation, another angle, building new altars in hope of a different verdict. But God's word does not change with the view.

Am I moving from mountain to mountain, shopping for a different answer from God, rather than accepting a word he has already made clear?

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