SUMMARY OF THE STORY OF BALAAM, BALAK AND ISRAEL
While there are many scriptures in both First Covenant and New Covenant scriptures about mixing money and ministry, the example of Balaam stands out. It is worth it, therefore, to take another look at interpreting the story.

The first thing we notice in the story is that Balak is the one who proposes to hire Balaam to curse Israel. The best way to appreciate the story is to understand that Balak symbolically represents satans who want to curse spiritual Israel because it is too strong for them. Religious leaders know that they cannot defeat God’s people outright, so they elect to hire more professional prophets (Balams) to do what they cannot do alone.

We should not be deceived into thinking that this only happened one time in history. This is still the plan of all satans (i.e. religious leaders) so they too can earn a profit by exploiting their prophetic abilities for personal gain. They are all in cahoots to maintain and advance their religious kingdoms. 

Because Balaam says he hears from God, and because he does actually speak oracles and blessings inspired by God, there is a tendency to think that he is as believer and follower of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. However, there is little room for dispute about whether Balaam is a true believer or not. Just looking at his name shows that he is not an Israelite, and we find other clues about which God he worships later in the story.  And we should not be too impressed by Balaam’s ability to speak for God. We only need to be reminded that God also spoke through a donkey, and that God often creatures not usually associated with God to accomplish his will.

There are, however, a few things that we do know for sure about Balaam:

As we review this list of fact about Balaam, we begin to see why it is reasonable to compare clergy with Balaam.

Another thing we learn early on about Balaam is that he is willing to eat food sacrificed to pagan idols. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is a practice forbidden by God. It is a clear indication that he worships demons and not God.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: See this link for more about Food Sacrificed to Idols.

The bulk of the story is about Balaam’s various strategies to earn the rewards (honor and money) that Balak has offered to him without crossing God. Along the way, God checks his efforts, but always leaves room for him to make the right choice about proceeding or not. But Balaam, being strongly motivated by the rewards he would acquire, always chooses to keep moving ahead. He clearly recognizes that he is moving in the wrong direction, but just as clearly decides to try another strategy because the lure of the rewards outweighs any fear of God he might have.

Balaam’s predicament is a good example of what Jesus said about serving two masters. For Balaam, the lure of mammon is the more powerful influence. It is important to note, however, that he is careful not to say anything that is directly contradictory to what God says. In fact, he is fully obedient to bless Israel as God commands, even though that is not at all what his employer Balak wants. What we see in Balaam is a double-minded man.

As a schemer who is trying to have it both ways, he  appears to be executing a clever, long-range plan that will satisfy Balak and earn the rewards he desires while avoiding an overt conflict with God. His strategy seems benign at the least, and religious at best.  Twice he tells Balak to build altars and put sacrifices on them. This seems appropriately religious since God has also told Israel to build altars and make sacrifices. And the building of altars seems to be approved by God because immediately following each altar-building event , God puts a blessing for Israel in Balaam’s mouth. This tells us that, while Balaam is bent on earning his rewards, God is still  in control and faithful to bless Israel despite Balak’s efforts to get Balaam to curse Israel.

Included in the narrative are seemingly innocuous notes about what  Balak does after each failed attempt to elicit a curse from Balaam. Balak takes him to a high place from which Balam can see Israel. We will discuss the symbolism of these events later.

In the Bible, high places are typically associated with places of worship. And in pagan religions, worship is typically executed through blood sacrifices on an altar of fire. As a pagan king, Balak is very familiar with these practices and builds an altar early in the story to invoke good will from his god (Ba’al of Pe’or) so that his efforts to curse Israel will be successful.

This practice is reinforced by Balaam who later tells Balak to build altars and make sacrifices. Being a good student, Balak learns from Balaam and later builds a second altar without being told to do so by Balaam. Even though this does not produce the curse he wants, Balak  learns that building altars and offering sacrifices is a strategy that gets some results from God. We infer also that Balak sees in the building of altars, a deceptive, but effective strategy by which his goal of cursing Israel might be accomplished.

On the surface, it may appear that no negative consequences for Israel result from all the altar building events. We only see later in Numbers 25:1-9 that Balak learned from Balaam that inviting Israel to worship was the means to subduing them. He didn’t get the long range curse that would drive Israel away, but he did get the short-run satisfaction of enticing Israel to worship Ba’al of Pe’or. 

The encounter between Balaam and Balak ends with the two separating after Balaam speaks another prophecy about Israel. But that is not the end of the story. It continues with  Moab (Balak’s people) inviting Israel to worship (i.e. make sacrifices) to their gods. Israel accepted the invitations, thus angering God who brought a plague on Israel.