Numbers 22:21-34
21So
the next morning Balaam got up, saddled his donkey, and started off
with the Moabite officials. 22But
God was angry that Balaam was going, so he sent the angel of the Lord
to stand in the road to block his way. As Balaam and two servants
were riding along, 23Balaam’s
donkey saw the angel of the Lord
standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand. The donkey
bolted off the road into a field, but Balaam beat it and turned it
back onto the road. 24Then
the angel of the Lord
stood at a place where the road narrowed between two vineyard walls.
25When the donkey saw the
angel of the Lord, it
tried to squeeze by and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall. So
Balaam beat the donkey again. 26Then
the angel of the Lord
moved farther down the road and stood in a place too narrow for the
donkey to get by at all. 27This
time when the donkey saw the angel, it lay down under Balaam. In a
fit of rage Balaam beat the animal again with his staff.
28Then
the Lord gave the
donkey the ability to speak. “What have I done to you that deserves
your beating me three times?” it asked Balaam.29“You have made me look like a fool!” Balaam shouted. “If I had a sword with me, I would kill you!”
30“But I am the same donkey you have ridden all your life,” the donkey answered. “Have I ever done anything like this before?”
“No,” Balaam admitted.
31Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the roadway with a drawn sword in his hand. Balaam bowed his head and fell face down on the ground before him.
32“Why did you beat your donkey those three times?” the angel of the Lord demanded. “Look, I have come to block your way because you are stubbornly resisting me. 33Three times the donkey saw me and shied away; otherwise, I would certainly have killed you by now and spared the donkey.”
34Then Balaam confessed to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned. I didn’t realize you were standing in the road to block my way. I will return home if you are against my going.”NLT
In this post we're going to
examine the influence of the spirit of Balaam in some people from a
different perspective. In verse 21 Balaam went after hearing the voice
of the enemy to curse and speak against what God was doing on behalf
of His people. This to begin with is a way in which we could
blaspheme the Holy Spirit, and the Bible says in Mark 3:29 that
blaspheming the Holy Spirit is a sin that is never pardoned and that
could put us in danger of eternal damnation. We have to be very
careful not to speak against the moves of the Spirit of God in
a person's life or in a region or group of people because most of the
time it will look like something unorthodox and hard to define by
those who do not have the eyes to see what God is doing, and instead
fall into the trap of the enemy to curse and call evil what God calls
good.
Also, people under the
influence of the spirit of Balaam follow the ways of the world and
its Antichrist mindset and are easily led of the enemy to oppose
God's plan and purpose for others. This happens because they have
allowed their hearts to become hard, calloused and full of greed to
the point that they would do whatever in order to obtain
their desires that are not God's desires for them or that are not
done according to God's ways and at the expense of the innocent.
Therefore, whatever they're building is being built on sand instead
of on the rock (Matthew 7:24-27).
Furthermore, in their greed,
these people have allowed themselves to be used of the enemy to
become stumbling blocks for others that pursue by the leading of the Spirit of God
the things that will help them have not only their life sustenance,
but the things needed to fulfill God's plan and purpose for them. But
there comes a time when if there is no repentance and a cry to God
from the obstructer to come out from under the influence of this
spirit, he or she will meet the God that fights for those who are faithful
to Him and are willing to do everything He asks them to do to advance
His Kingdom on the earth.
Deuteronomy 23:4-5 says, 4
“These
nations did not welcome you with food and water when you came out of
Egypt. Instead, they hired Balaam
son
of Beor from Pethor in distant Aram-naharaim to curse you. 5But
the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam.
He turned the intended curse into a blessing because the Lord your
God loves you.”
2 Peter 2:15-16 also explains that, These people have wondered off the right road and have followed the footsteps of Balaam, son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong. But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice. NLT
Verses
23 to 30 of Numbers 22, explain the struggle Balaam had with his donkey. We have
mentioned in the last post that this is similar to people that have
gone the wrong way and blame others because they're not seeing the
results they want. These people or situations that are blamed, are in
fact used of God to wake up the disobedient people in an attempt to
get them to turn the right way again. It is dangerous to try to make
something happen just because it is what we want. The best thing to
do is ask God why circumstances are the way they are in case we need
to search our hearts and correct things through repentance and a change of course. As it is
shown in the passage of Numbers 22, the grace of God made the donkey
stop and step out of the way of the Angel of the Lord in order to
keep Balaam from being killed by the sword because his ways were
found perverse in the sight of God.
Furthermore,
in verse 29 Balaam complaint to the donkey that she was making him
look like a fool. People under the influence of this spirit are more
concerned about how they look to others and prefer to show off and
hide behind a mask of religious “duties” and behaviors in order
to appear to be what in reality they are not. They are full of
grudges and deep-seated bitterness, and resentment that have not been
given to God to heal. This way they have polluted themselves deep
enough to justify retaliation and have become a big deterrent of
their right standing with God. The more the grudge stays in a
person's heart and he or she refuses to let go of it, the bigger the
issue it will be in their minds and their hearts to the point of
going from a mentality to a stronghold, and even worse to a reprobate
mind that does not repent easily (covered in post #2 of this series). Thus, the way for them to
fulfill their destiny will become narrow until there will be no way
to advance unless they turn to the right direction through true
repentance and seeking to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit that
will put them in the right path for them.
James
5:8-9 says, 8 Be ye also patient: stablish
your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. 9 Grudge not one
against another, brethren, lets ye be condemned: behold, the judge
standeth at the door. KJV
Among
the Greek meanings of the word grudge is: to
be held in or be held
captive, to press upon, to be ensnared. So
what God is revealing here is that Balaam became held in, and
ensnared because deep inside he held a grudge against God and His
people. He saw how God was blessing them and enlarging their
territory and he did not have those results in his life because he
was contaminated with demonic influence. He was given chance after
chance to turn from His grudging ways, but chose to remain jealous,
resentful, and giving unwillingly. This led him to become a smiter. A
person that smites others with his or her mouth is
constantly beating others by belittling them, gossiping and
slandering, feeling and thinking themselves superior
to others, and oppressing and abusing them. These could be authority
figures or those that want to usurp those positions from others
assigned to occupy them.
That
is why David could not wear Saul's armor even though Saul insisted
that David would wear it because it represented the contamination
King Saul was exposed to and David was free to serve God by inquiring
of Him and getting the right Word for the right situation because he
was radical in his relationship with God and was not afraid to look
different. David knew that a Word from God and discerning the right
time to move is what he needed. In addition, Saul would get enraged
when the women would sing about him killing one thousand and David
killing ten thousand (1 Samuel 18:6-9). Saul was only able to accomplish so much due
to his contamination with the Antichrist demonic spirit that
influenced him because of the many times he did things outside of
God's way or timing in order to accomplish what he wanted. His lack
of trust in God's ability to deliver him at the right time and in His
way, caused him to be ensnared by the wrong influence in a deeper
way.
Matthew
24:42, 44, 48-51 acknowledges, 42Watch
therefore for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. 44Therefore
be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the son of man
cometh. 48But
if that servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming:
49 and
shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with
the drunken: 50the
lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him,
and in an hour that he is not aware of, 51
and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the
hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. KJV
Joshua
13:22 says that Balaam used magic to tell the future. This means that
the contamination with the Antichrist spirit drove him to want to
curse instead of bless and be a blessing because this spirit is about
selfish ambitions and becoming an obstruction to others. In other
words, the witchcraft and rebellion of control and manipulation of
their circumstances and of people is their lifestyle. This also means
that the person influenced by the Antichrist spirit is considered a
pharisee that knows the law and its legalisms, but denies the power
of God (2 Timothy 3:5) and the truth of Who He is as well as the true
manifestations of His Spirit. This is because this demonic influence
turns a person to follow the world's system more than the ways of God
and persecutes and oppresses those who have a heart to follow God's
ways in Spirit and in truth in the same way they incited the Jews of
the times when Jesus walked on the earth to come against Him and
crucify Him.
The
Lord wants to deliver His people from the bondage to sin and grudges
that could in many ways obstruct the path to the fulfillment of their
promises from Him or the next level of their process, but there has
to be repentance as Balaam did in verse 34 of Numbers 22 in order to
avoid the death of these dreams and promises because Galatians 6:7
says, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows,
that he will also reap.
Jude
1:11 also adds of the sorrow that awaits those
who follow in the footsteps of Cain, who killed his brother, or those
who, like Balaam, deceive others for money, and like Korah, perish in
their rebellion. NLT
To
avoid this, a humble and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17) is what we need
to come before the Lord because we seek to have restoration of our
right standing with Him so that we are not counted among the
hypocrites when the Lord comes on His day appointed which the
Scriptures say is at hand, for He has given us the time and grace to
repent as He has been sounding the trumpet to announce His coming to
give to each one according to what he or she has done (Revelation
22:12). And after we have repented, we must do whatever He tells us
to help us produce fruit in keeping with repentance (Luke 3:8). This
means that whatever He instructs us to do to stay in the path of
right standing with Him we must obey because of His unmerited favor upon our lives and out of relationship and reverence to Him as well as our
communion and obedience to His word. To God alone be all the glory. ■
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