Now I don’t know if you caught this or not, but the story of Balaam and Balak is a prophetic story pointing to the gentile church.
“How so?” you ask?
Well, think about it.
Balaam is a gentile who has an awareness of things spiritual.
One might even call him a God-fearer.
He hears from and knows the God of Israel.
Yet in spite of his intimate knowledge of the God of Israel, he cannot bring himself to do away with his gentile traditions and customs that are so in conflict with God’s Torah and Holy Teachings.
Is not the gentile church a perfect example of this?
The gentile church claims to know the God of Israel, yet they deny God’s Torah and turn the Messiah into an object of idolatry.
Let’s dig a little deeper into this.
Balaam was given personal and direct instructions from HASHEM concerning what his relationship with Israel was to be like.
He was told it was to be a relationship of uniting with them and blessing them based on the covenants God had entered into with His People.
Furthermore, HASHEM made it crystal clear to Balaam that He has already blessed Israel and that His Blessing upon them was something that could NEVER be changed or overturned by any man or gentile nation.
It was a done deal!
Not only would God never cease to consider Israel as His blessed people, but He would also never permanently curse Israel.
And not only that, but the Lord would fight against anybody who attempted to curse His Chosen People.
Note that I bolded and underlined the word “permanently” in the above sentence.
I did that because while it is true that God did at times severely discipline Israel, He will never permanently curse Israel.
Now Balaam seemed to grasp what God was telling him.
When God told Balaam that Israel has a most glorious future ahead of them because they are blessed, Balaam responded by saying “May my end be like theirs!”
So Balaam seemed to get what HASHEM was trying to communicate to him but man there seemed to be a serious disconnect somewhere.
I mean even in spite of being warned more than once not to go with King Balak to Moab to attempt to curse Israel, Balaam just couldn’t take a hint.
He let Balak escort him from one mountain top to another in order to attempt to do what God clearly told him he must not do.
Balaam just couldn’t get it through his thick head that it is impossible to take actions that would hurt Israel while at the same time attempting to honor and worship the God of Israel.
Man, that point is so important, I’ve got to say it again.
One cannot be against God’s Chosen People while at the same time worshipping the God of Israel.
Got it?
Now let’s take a look at the mainstream institutional church which for the most part today represents gentile Christianity.
The gentile church has said that Israel’s glorious future has been done away and actually replaced by the gentile church.
The most common (and accepted) doctrines of the mainstream church promote the idea that God abandoned Israel and rejected His people for all time.
Boy, they are soooooooooooooooooooooo WRONG on this point!
In fact, during the many centuries of Jewish dispersion before the rebirth of Israel in 1948, it was the mainstream church who persecuted the Jews.
Again, one cannot assist or lend moral support to Israel’s sworn enemies (as Balaam tried to do) and say you’re being neutral.
No, to support Israel’s enemies is a form of attempting to curse Israel no matter how you try to justify it.
Balaam didn’t realize this.
He was thinking I’ll just help out Moab a bit by saying some curses, get my money and then go home.
God informed Balaam that if he followed through on those intentions, he was a dead man and indeed later on we see that Balaam was killed by the Israelites.
Today what are some ways the institutional gentile church under the guise of being loving and fair end up actually attempting to curse Israel?
Well, for one, how about supporting organizations that send supplies and money to the Palestinians?
Or how about applying political pressure on Israel to give up some their land and then even go so far as to say the Bible supports such a thing?
If one claims allegiance to the God of Israel, there is no way in hell you should support organizations like the United Nations who push Israel to divide the land that was covenanted to them by their God or even allow Islam to keep their pagan shrine and worship center at the very location where the Temple of Adonai once stood and and will be rebuilt and stand again!
In his final oracle, speaking in his own words but under the inspiration of God, we see that some important truths did finally penetrate through Balaam’s thick skull.
Balaam finally got it that Israel was unlike any gentile nation that ever was or will ever be.
He finally understood that God was NOT a man (something the church still needs to learn).
And it finally dawned on him that the God of Israel had zero capriciousness in Him and that when God makes a promise or enters into a covenant with a third party, NOTHING can overturn it.
I pray that just as Balaam under the illumination of the Spirit came into a true understanding of God’s Will concerning Israel, the institutional church will also.
NEXT TIME WE BEGIN NUMBERS CHAPTER 25
Leave a Reply