IF YOU CONFIRM IT IS BALAAM, SOUND THE ALARM!

By Olugu Orji

Balaam is the colourful Biblical character that shows up while the nation of Israel was making that tortuous but epochal journey from Egypt back to Canaan. He was a man just as energetic as he was enigmatic.

There are a few striking similarities between Balaam and Abraham: the famed father of faith and Israel’s prime progenitor. Both hailed from Mesopotamia and had at some point come into a vital relationship with Jehovah. Additionally, they both travelled away from their idol-infested homeland in obedience to specific divine commandment. It is easy to imagine the suave, sagacious Abraham being an inspiration to the more garrulous and rambunctious Balaam. 

In terms of how each interpreted and responded to the divine summons, there exist fundamental differences and I intend to elucidate on the one I consider the most significant.

When humans commit to a certain course of action, the awareness of the consequences or rewards is usually a powerful incentive to staying the course. And constantly being reminded of and rehearsing those rewards is an indubitable feature of every human odyssey. Quite early in Abraham’s pilgrimage, he received this assurance from God.

“Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” Genesis 15:1.

If a childless Abraham could embrace a name-change that introduced him as “father of nations,” then he had come fully to terms with the fact of God being the best guarantor of his rewards. And he earned the distinction of also being father of faith because he elected to fully do what was commanded knowing the Almighty always keeps his side of every bargain. Where he lived, what he did and those he chose to align with became direct consequences of accepting Jehovah as his “exceeding great reward.” 

Balaam, on the other hand, was not quite as prepared to trust God so implicitly; believing he was the architect of his own destiny. His decision to settle in the neighbourhood of the Moabites and Midianites had nothing to do with his desiring to convert them to the worship of Jehovah. Having decided his God-given gifts would be better employed in the business of divination, he set up a soothsaying conglomerate that saw him grow tremendously famous and rich. With copious evidence of ministerial success, Balaam must have been all over the place peddling the lie of the rightness of his earlier decision of not following the Abrahamic path of unquestioning obedience.

With an established reputation encapsulated in the mantra, “…he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed,” Balaam had become embedded in the affairs of the heathen potentates of the wicked nations that detested the righteous demands of a holy God. While he outwardly maintained the image of a genuine servant of God, his actions suggested his allegiance was entirely to another. Having come to the devious decision that it is much more lucrative to curse than to bless, Balaam elevated the practice of “cursing enemies” to his ministerial raison d’être. So if you needed an enemy demobilized or deleted, Balaam was the preferred executor; for a handsome price.

When a weary, wandering mass of humanity wormed its way into Moabite territory, and the king, learning of the many nations they had decimated in the course of their journeying, immediately dispatched a high-powered delegation to Balaam with one terse message: “Come now, curse this people for me, since they are too mighty for me…” with promise of a financial windfall. It must have been an excited Balaam that went to pray, and God’s response was as brief as it was definite: “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.” Numbers 22:12.

That should have put paid to the matter but Balak, the Moabite king knew something about this powerful man of God that he was intent on exploiting: that with the right combination of gold and glory, Balaam would stoop to do anything. And so a larger, more honourable entourage bearing enhanced incentives was sent right back to the lucre-loving prophet. And so began an endless series of meetings, fellowships, conferences, quasi-supplications, declarations, incantations and all manner of sacrifices on altars of diverse configurations. All these were in a bid to hoodwink the desperate Moabites and earn the sumptuous bounty on offer. 

Balaam was well aware that God had stated his unchanging position at the very beginning: that Israel was blessed, so purporting to curse them was an act in futility. But why would he permit this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for fame and fortune slip through his fingers? From this point forward, Balaam will deploy every trick in the book: targeted prophecy, visions and dreams, spurious oracles and sonorous canticles, word of knowledge, threats and tears to grab the hefty commission. And that is precisely how things panned out. Is it not the stuff of extreme irony and patently evil, that a professed man of God could be recruited to curse the people of God? But Balaam was to descend even further to the very nadir of treachery by revealing to the Moabites how Israel could be compromised: fornication and idolatry.

“While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.” Numbers 25:1-3

This was the trigger to a judgmental epidemic that claimed twenty four thousand lives in Israel! It took the zeal and heroism of a descendant of Aaron named Phinehas to dam the deluge of death. That is the danger that characters like Balaam pose in the community of the faithful, and we owe it a duty to God and the Church to expose them for what they are: rogues and charlatans. So despicable was Balaam’s error that it earned him instant enlistment in heaven’s hall of infamy alongside dark characters like Jeroboam and Jezebel. Because of his love for the wages of unrighteousness, he booked a secure passage to hell with thousands of ignorant, gullible souls in tow.

As I survey today’s church, I see many desperate to best Balaam’s reprehensible record. By inaugurating practices and peddling doctrines that question the validity of the redemption enterprise, this unconscionable horde is leading millions to certain damnation. Here is how two exemplars of our common faith described them:  

“For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.” 

2 Peter 2:18

“These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.” Jude 1:16

It is time for Phinehas to arise; only now, he must act before millions are sucked into eternal perdition. If you know a Balaam, then sound the alarm! Blast it so uncompromisingly loud and clear, and be prepared to keep at it until these damnable errors and their deadly effects cease.