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Post by john75 on Oct 23, 2015 9:46:20 GMT -8
Does anyone have an opinion on the difference between the old and new testament's take on Balaam. The new testaments take on Balaam was that he was wicked, but ive read the blessings he bestowed on Israel, and there is not wickedness there. All the time he says he can only say what Adonai Elohim tells him to.
Numbers 22:8“Spend the night here,” Balaam said to them, “and I will report back to you with the answer the Lord gives me.” So the Moabite officials stayed with him.
And it is like this all the way through. He humiliates the Moabites by making them build altars and sacrificing their cattle to the Lord, but takes nothing else from them.
These are not the actions of someone determined to disobey the Lord.
Please feel free to discuss this topic.
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Post by alon on Oct 23, 2015 13:40:24 GMT -8
Does anyone have an opinion on the difference between the old and new testament's take on Balaam. The new testaments take on Balaam was that he was wicked, but ive read the blessings he bestowed on Israel, and there is not wickedness there. All the time he says he can only say what Adonai Elohim tells him to. Numbers 22:8“Spend the night here,” Balaam said to them, “and I will report back to you with the answer the Lord gives me.” So the Moabite officials stayed with him. And it is like this all the way through. He humiliates the Moabites by making them build altars and sacrificing their cattle to the Lord, but takes nothing else from them. These are not the actions of someone determined to disobey the Lord.
According to Vines, Balaam was a soothsayer, which is the pagan equivalent to a prophet of God. Hebrew quasam, it is one who seeks the gods for future events or blessings on an endeavor. I’ve heard the name implies a detestable thing, so God spoke to him as using something unsavory to achieve an end. Balaam means "devourer of the people" or simply "devourer" or "destroyer." Balaam kept trying to do anything that would earn him his gold, but it was God who kept making fools out of both Balaam and the armies of balaak.
Deuteronomy 23:4-5 (ESV) because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.
Num 22:18 indicates that Balaam did recognize Elohim as the most powerful God. However this did not keep him from trying to thwart the will of God for his own gain. In fact, he originally tried to press on knowing the will of God even after an argument with his donkey (itself a humiliation). Finally he was confronted by a messenger (malach) who put the fear of God into him and told him what to say. Four times he went back to seek a different answer of God so that he could be paid. Four times God said no, and Balaam (probably still afraid of the angel) relayed this to Balaak. He did, however come up with a way.
Numbers 31:16 (ESV) Behold, these, on Balaam's advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord.
If not for the actions of Pinchas, those fornicating with the Moabites and eating food sacrificed to their idols might have brought ruin on the people of Israel and given Balaak his victory.
So the Old and New Tesaments agree that Balaam was wicked.
2 Peter 2:15 (ESV) Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing,
Balaam was killed when Moses sent the Israelites against the Midianites.
Numbers 31:8 (ESV) They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. And they also killed Balaam the son of Beor with the sword.
Dan C
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Post by john75 on Oct 23, 2015 18:10:12 GMT -8
You forgot JUde's comment on Balaam. Anyway i just wondered about those being blessed who he blessed and cursed who he cursed. That sounds like a good guy , not an enemy.
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Post by alon on Oct 24, 2015 8:14:45 GMT -8
You forgot JUde's comment on Balaam. Anyway i just wondered about those being blessed who he blessed and cursed who he cursed. That sounds like a good guy , not an enemy.
Dan C |
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Post by john75 on Oct 24, 2015 8:42:35 GMT -8
You forgot JUde's comment on Balaam. Anyway i just wondered about those being blessed who he blessed and cursed who he cursed. That sounds like a good guy , not an enemy.
Dan CI think Balaam still blessed Israel of his own free will. Shabbat Shalom btw Dan. Oh the reference is Jude 1:11Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion. |
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Post by Elizabeth on Oct 24, 2015 11:18:37 GMT -8
Balaam is the man who underhandedly tried to go around the G-d of Israel to curse Israel by telling Balak to tempt the men of Israel with cultic prostitutes specifically to break Israel's bond with its G-d. He was wicked, but he also understood G-d as stronger than him. Satan understands this as well, but still tries to break our bonds with G-d out of hate and spite.
Balaam tried to skirt G-d's will in a very evil and premediated way. G-d forced blessings out of his mouth rather than allowing him to say the curses he was trying to say. His story highlights that even evil bent on doing so, is limited in it's ability to act outside of G-d's will. It's a pitiful joke that it even tries as in the process of trying, it is evil that will inevitably reveal the G-d of Israel. Who attests to the G-d of Israel, His will, and the one's he loves more than the people who seek to destroy them? The world who reveals G-d in spite of itself. A similar dynamic was taking place here.
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- there are 70 faces to 
