Acts: Opposition to the Gospel: Balaam's Error, Part 1

In the last post, I wrote about the way of Cain as one way to understand internal opposition to the Gospel, but the way of Cain applies just as readily to external opposition to the Gospel I suppose, because it addresses something fundamental in a lot of us, whether in the Christendom or out.

The next root of opposition to the gospel, Balaam’s error, will take some work to see how it fits. So let’s dive in. The Book of Numbers, the 22nd chapter, takes us from the defeat and death of Og of Bashan, an Amorite king, to the ripple effect of their demise upon the Moabites and Midianites. They were in crisis. The press of Israel towards the Promised Land upended any confidence the Moabites had in themselves.

Something greater than them was on the move. Add to that unstoppable force, a recent history as giant slayers (for Og and the Rephaim were giant men), and these people who also stood in Israel’s path had cause to be afraid. But rather than stemming the rising tide of Israel by overtures of peace, Moab and Midian seek to destroy what they are afraid of. But where does one turn to overcome giant slayers? Not to natural resources, but a supernatural one.

Enter Balaam, a soothsayer, someone the Moabites hoped would supernaturally ensure a swift and sudden defeat of Israel, something the gigantic, natural power of the Amorite could not achieve.

To understand the context here, and to underscore a pattern we will see repeated in the life of Christ and in the Church, let’s put a finer point on the fear of the Moabites and Midianites (“Moabites”) to explain why they resorted to the spiritual realm.

Not long after this, Israel overtook Jericho as well. Rahab’s solicitation to the two spies to remember her for helping them provides us with insight into what had frightened everyone so much:

Now before [the spies] lay down, she came up to them on the roof, and said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. 

The word had spread, around the neighborhood so-to-speak, that Israel was moving under an unearthly, other-worldly power. Facing an existential crisis, the Moabites sought a countervailing, other-worldly power.

It’s interesting, and sad, to see the fight-or-flight mechanism kick in for these also-relatives and also-descendants of Abraham.

The tragic and shameful consequences of Lot’s choice to separate from his uncle, Abraham, and choose the green valley over the wilderness, security over faith, continue here. That separation was born out of conflict, see Gen. 13:7 (“and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock”), and here conflict abounds.

Similarly, Abraham’s stepping out of faith by his subsequent marriage to Keturah gave birth to a perpetual opposition to God and His people: first by selling Joseph into slavery for pieces of silver (sound familiar?), and now in seeking the destruction of God’s people, and later in overcoming them.

This opposition from Genesis 13 to Numbers 22 illustrates two points. First, there is no middle way. Either a man will love God and keep his commandments or he will hate and oppose Him. See Luke 16:13 and James 4.4. Don’t be deceived if that opposition is disguised as religious fervor or wrapped in ritual and belief. God knows the heart, and pressed on that self-deception, man will react to strike God down:

And the high priest said to him, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment?” They answered, “He deserves death.” 

Or strike down His people. Take Stephen for example in Acts 7, when he pierced the religious veil of the unbelieving Jews:

“the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,

Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?

You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. 

We either believe or oppose. We therefore would serve ourselves well to examine our own hearts on this point: to see if we are in fact walking in faith or in opposition. Now is the time for men everywhere to repent. See Acts 17:30.

The second point is a cautionary one. The consequences of rejecting faith are extraordinary and tragic. Lot lost his wife, and slept with his two daughters and fathered the Moabites and Ammonites by them. His life and heritage are marked by shame. Out of faith, Abraham fathered Ishmael and Midian—two thorns in the side of Isaac’s descendants. We should learn from their hard lessons and be very careful with our choices and unbelief and guard our hearts with all diligence for out of the heart flow all the issues of life.

Before the moving onto Balaam (in the next post), I do want to mention God’s redemption. God rescued Lot, and I don’t mean when Abraham and the 300 defeated Cherdolaomer nor do I mean when the two angels snatched Lot from the fire. I mean Lot’s shame is redeemed in Ruth, the Moabitess. The great shame associated with the name “from a father” or Moab and the direct opposition to God and His people by Moab was forgiven in Ruth. Out of her heart she said, Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. See Ruth 1:16. And so God wiped out that shame, and wove the line of Lot back into the line of Abraham, and David was born. See Matthew 1:5-6, 16 (“Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king . . .and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.”).

God is a God of redemption, not destruction. Redemption is in the heart of God, not the destruction of the wicked. See Ezekiel 18:23. But men will despise God and see Him as evil, unnatural and something to be opposed, and ultimately destroyed. But how He in contrast desires to gather us in, but we would not. See Matthew 23:37 (“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”)

Faith is powerful. Rahab heard and believed and she and her household were saved, and the line of faith in the Christ of God moved one step forward. Ruth heard and believed and the line of faith moved further still. In contrast, unbelief is fatal. The Amorite was put to the sword and, as we will see, so was Balaam.