I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 22-24.

    It is easy to understand why Balak was overwhelmed by the numbers of the people of Israel when they showed up on the doorstep of the land he controlled. The largest city in the world at the time had about 100,000 people and here was an encampment of over 1,000,000 people, or 10x the size of the largest city in the world at the time. Having seen what they did to the other peoples they had encountered, Balak knew that he could not take them on militarily and was sure that they would strip the land bare if he allowed them to pass through his territory.

    Reading this passage it is easy to miss what Balaam did wrong. When God told him to send Balak’s messengers away the first time, he did so. However, the first sign of what he did wrong is how he responded to the second set of messengers. He told them that he could not do anything beyond the command of God, but he followed that up by telling them to spend the night while he tried to convince God to let him do something which would lead them to pay him (I will admit to doing a little reading between the lines here). The suspicion that Balaam was looking for a loophole is confirmed by the angel from whom he was only saved by the actions of his donkey the following day. Even after that confrontation and warning, Balaam still tried three times to find a way to curse the people of Israel. The third time he even tried to bypass going to God, since he knew that the message God gave him directly was not going to have any wiggle room he could turn into at least the appearance of a curse so that Balak would pay him. How often do we try to find wiggle room to do what we know is wrong?