The story of Balaam is the story of how God preserved Israel when their enemies sought to ruin them by paying a prophet-for-hire to come and curse them in God’s name; but it is also the story of Balaam himself, a pagan who believed he could do the work of any god you happened to be interested in. As Balak king of Moab said in his effort to recruit Balaam, “I know that whomever you bless is blessed, and whomever you curse is cursed” (Numbers 22:6).

Yet Balaam was careful in his response. “I will bring back word to you, just as the Lord speaks to me” (22:8). God told Balaam not to go with the envoys (22:12), and so he did not go. They came a second time, offering higher rewards; and again Balaam insisted “I could not go beyond the command of the Lord my God, to do less or more” (22:18).

It’s hard to know how sincere Balaam’s “the Lord my God” might have been. He was not part of Israel. He would not have known about the Covenant, let alone have thought of himself as one of the people of the Covenant. He may well have heard a rumor about how the nation of Israel had escaped from slavery in Egypt by the power of Yahweh, their God. He was at least willing to listen to what God said, though it is not clear how well he understood what God wanted (22:22).

Yet as he sought to prophesy in Yahweh’s name, with the Spirit of God coming upon him, he became at least for the moment “the man whose eye is clear … who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty” (24:2-4). And the blessing of God was poured out on Israel, many times over.

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O Lord! It is so hard for us to credit that you would choose to work your will through a pagan like Balaam. Yet you keep on selecting such unusual people to accomplish your purpose. We pray that you would open our eyes as well: we, too, would be an unlikely choice, but we are ready to serve you.

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