From soothsayer to Savior: Balaam’s prophetic foreshadowing of the Messiah (Numbers 22–24)

Hallel Fellowship

Balaam was hired to curse Israel but he was also supposed to serve God in the office of prophet to the gentile world. We would call Balaam more of a soothsayer, than a prophet in the sense that Jeremiah or Isaiah are prophets. But in Balak’s eyes, Balaam was a prophet and that is why Balak respected him and called for him. Israel were forbidden to become soothsayers or to seek out advice from them.

I do not believe this was the first time that Balaam was hired out to either curse or bless others.

When God told Balaam initially told him not to go with Balak’s representatives, God was not forbidding Balaam to go with them on a trip He was telling Balaam not to go with them in the sense of fellowship or agreement with their goals. God wasn’t telling him not to go with them physically as much as he was warning Balaam not to go with them in one accord with agreement of their mission to curse the Israelites.

The fun part is this reading is Balaam’s exchange with his donkey. As I see it, Balaam and his donkey are nearly the same. Donkeys and horses are not the same animal. People perceive horses as strong, large, vigorous and arrogant while donkeys are considered a more humble, smaller, subservient and lowly animal. Donkeys were bred to be reliable service animals. That is the job of a donkey, to serve its master, primarily to carry burdens for its master and goes where its master directs it. Balaam was supposed to be a loyal servant of God but we see in his story that he was not interested in serving God as much as he was interested serving himself.

In Balaam’s story, Balaam directs his donkey to travel on a very dangerous road. Balaam doesn’t perceive the danger, but the donkey perceives the danger and changes direction several times. Balaam gets upset, and possibly gets injured, as the donkey changes course. Balaam then beats the donkey and forces the donkey to continue on the original dangerous path.

Imagine the angel watching this scene happening in front of him. The angel could have killed Balaam regardless of the donkey’s efforts to save Balaam from him, but the angel’s primary mission was not to kill Balaam but to teach him a lesson he would not forget.

Balaam did not want to deviate in any way from the path he intended to follow and continued to get more and more upset as the donkey continues to try to avoid the danger in front of it.

When the donkey could not deviate from the path anymore, it decided to simply sit down and refused to forward. It’s at this point, the donkey opens its mouth and declares the truth to its master.

“And the LORD opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” Then Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a mockery of me! If there had been a sword in my hand, I would have killed you by now.” The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I ever been accustomed to do so to you?” And he said, “No.””

(Numbers 22:28-30 NAS95)

Now, let’s take a look at this same story from Balaam’s point of view. He is supposed to be a prophet and he is supposed to do what God says to do and say what God says to say. He is supposed to be a reliable servant of God, who is his master. A true prophet speaks on God’s behalf, a false prophet speaks on his own behalf.

The prophet is not in charge, like a king is in charge. A prophet is supposed to be a humble servant of his master, who is God. God did not tell Balaam to go on the dangerous road but Balaam clearly wanted to go to Balak as quickly as possible and to receive the blessings that Balak would give him for cursing the entire nation of Israel. He preferred to go on his own dangerous path, in direct opposition to his master’s direction. It is Balaam’s hearts desire to curse Israel, in direct opposition to God’s ruling.

Each time Balaam tries to curse Israel, God rebukes him and puts words of blessing in Balaam’s mouth, just as each time Balaam rebuked his donkey, his donkey continued to try to avoid the path that its master wanted him to do.

By the third time that Balaam tries to curse Israel, he finally realizes that this is not going to happen, just as the third time that Balaam tries to force the donkey on the dangerous path, the donkey simply gives up altogether and sits down.

Balaam is acting as though Balak is his employer and master when in fact God was his employer and master. Balaam’s greed blinded him to this and got him in a lot of trouble.

Finally Balak’s eyes and mouth are opened and tells Balak the entire truth, particularly about the future, just as when the donkey’s mouth opened and Balaam’s eyes were opened on the path, he saw the angel and the real danger the angel posed to him.

What happened with the donkey is a parable with what God was doing with Balaam.

Messiah Yeshua was a reliable servant of God, He was humble and followed His Master perfectly. This is why Yeshua is referred to as one of God’s prophets even though He was much more than a prophet.

God put Yeshua on a dangerous life path, as it was Yeshua’s life path to be crucified. For Yeshua to bring a blessing to Israel, He had to walk on the path that God chose for Him, which was a path that would be a curse for Him, leading to His death by crucifixion.

In Yeshua’s story, it was the Sanhedrin who believed they were Yeshua’s master, rebuking Him and calling for His death. The Sanhedrin were appointed by God to be shepherds to the people of Israel, teaching them right and wrong, but they were treating Yeshua, who was their Master as though they were His master.

Yeshua’s mission was to invert and cancel out the curses that Balak placed on Israel. The donkey was successful in avoiding danger by going off the path and then by refusing to walk further at all, while Yeshua’s success came when He voluntarily walked on the dangerous path.

Balaam’s interaction with the donkey was orchestrated by God Himself to teach us how the Messiah would flip the script and invert the story in the future. The donkey’s mission was to bless Israel, Balaam’s mission, once he accepted it, was to bless Israel and Yeshua’s path was also to bless Israel.

When we follow God’s intent, we are a blessing. When we serve ourselves, we are not a blessing to ourselves or others. Balaam experiences a near death experience and survives, this changes his intent. For many people it does take a near death experience to convince them to stop walking the dangerous course they are on.

What happened to Donald Trump last week at the rally in Butler, PA, was a near death experience. We can pray that it will keep him from following whatever dangerous path he might have been traveling upon and draw closer to God.

The reason that Balaam was on his dangerous path was because of his greed for money and accolades. He thought satisfying his greed was more important than to follow God’s instruction to bless Israel. Later on, Balaam comes up with a very clever way to get Israel to curse themselves and give Balak what he wanted and to get the money from Balak that he wanted.

Balaam’s true god was himself, not God. That’s why he was willing to follow his dangerous path. What he did was in service of his goal to bless himself. Yeshua, on the other hand, served God and God alone. He walked His dangerous path in service of His goal to bless Israel as God wanted.

Summary: Tammy