Numbers 23:26

AN UNWILLING SERVANT OF GOD

‘But Balaam answered and said unto Balak, Told not I thee, saying, All that the Lord speaketh, that I must do?’

Numbers 23:26

I. With all the favourable traits which may be noticed in the character of Balaam, the features of his besetting sin are plainly marked.—The power of money over Him seems to have been known, and so when he refused to come, Balak hoped to overcome his scruples by the bribe of great promotion. And the prophet’s conduct well justified these expectations. He feared God so far that he dared not rebel directly against His will; but he was so much in love with the world’s gauds and honours and wealth, that he was ever trying to humour his conscience to bend the line of right to the line of seeming interest. He thought to secure this world and the next; he lost both: he had too much truth to secure the rewards of Balak; he had too little truth to escape the wrath of God.

II. The lesson to be learned from such a character is surely plain for us.—Balaam’s character is that of the half-hearted Christian. He makes a partial and unwilling sacrifice. He is, like Balaam, an uncertain, irresolute, wavering man, with many better principles and feelings, but with an undergrowth of evil which he will not utterly root out.

III. From the history of Balaam we learn: (1) the importance to each one of us of being indeed earnest Christians, of giving to God our hearts and our affections; (2) the importance of striving to subdue wholly every separate sin to which we are tempted; (3) the great need we have of seeking earnestly from God the gift of a sincere heart.

Bishop S. Wilberforce.

Illustration

‘Note the subtilty of the temptation which overcame him. There was the dream of avarice; but still more of power and ambition. Balak touched a powerful chord when he said (ver. 17), “I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me.” To leave his narrow sphere by the Euphrates, to become the first man in a powerful people, to be courted and respected and to have the opportunity—who knows but even this may have entered his plan—of raising this people to a knowledge of the true God—these were some of the plausible reflections by which plain duty became distorted. And no doubt Balaam went, saying oft to himself, “Only the word that the Lord gives unto me will I speak, neither more or less.” So when a young person begins even to turn over in his mind the alternative to plain duty, he soon finds many specious arguments. He will go with this set of evil companions. Who knows but he may even elevate their tone—and so conscience is honeyed over with fine resolves. But the fact remains. “God’s anger was kindled because he went.” ’