"Then Balak sent a larger group of officials, who were even more important than the first ones"- Numbers 22:16 . CEV
"Once
again Balak sent princes, more in number and more honorable than these."- Numbers 22:16 ESV
"But Balak
wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. He sent another, bigger contingent of
even more highly esteemed men to solicit Balaam’s help. "-Numbers 22:16 VOICE
Last week we looked at the two
other errors of Balaam where we saw
Balaam answering why instead of who and the fact that we all sometimes do this
in one way or the other and the second
error we found was the fact that Balaam did not deliver the whole counsel of
God. We see Balaam refusing to tell Balak’s emissaries what God had said to him,
hiding the fact that the mission was
impossible and that the Israelites cannot be cursed. He refused to tell the
whole truth and simply told them that the Lord refused him to go with them .
Just in the same way that Balaam
did not give all of the message, the messengers who returned to Balak also gave an incomplete message.This boomeranged and Balak
somehow got the message that Balaam could be bought and that somehow there was
a need to change the price. It was perhaps just a case of raising the stakes
higher and seeing that there could be a compromise.
We look at the life of Balaam and
wonder, what was the price ?.This was a man who had already been told by God “not
to go”. Balak decided to do what the enemy usually does.-he raised the stakes
higher and it worked.
Let us remember that it was the
previous error of Balaam when he didn’t
deliver the whole counsel of God that made the next error possible. T was easy
for the enemy to come knocking again.
Recently I was reading a survey
that was done in America some years ago when people were asked how much they would be paid before they
could sleep with a total stranger and the response varied for men and women
with the men saying it could only take as low as $10 to sleep with a total
stranger woman and for the women, it was about a $100,000 as the highest amount
to sleep with a total stranger. There was another survey I saw in the internet
where they featured the 10 most expensive virginities hat were sold. Ladies
gave up their virginities to total strangers for different causes .Some of course had reasons why they did it,
they were trying to pull through their education, raise funds for medical bills
and so many causes but that does not rebut the reason that what they did was Balaam
as we see from this story starts to consider again what he shouldn’t do when
there was a greater price attached to it . He definitely had a problem with
money as we shall see in this series wrong.
So let us consider, as is it very
possible for us to compromise when the stakes are raised higher, the things that
we would not normally do, maybe circumstances present and cause our minds to
sway .
If there is a change in price and
that poses a greater threat,then it is a temptation. Temptation actually occurs because
somehow it is something we desire. So before we even blame the devil, James
tells us that we are tempted when we are drawn away with our own lusts and what is temptation to Mr A may not be temptation to Mr B . It is
important for us to know the things that are a temptation to us so that we
don’t put ourselves in a position of vulnerability. Someone said to me recently
that she heard her Pastor say to know your strength is a strength in itself.
In His Service,
Grace Tom-Lawyer
“The
Error of Balaam” is being run now as the current Bible Study series on “Feasting
at the Table” on Peace &Joy Radio @11am every Saturday with a Rebroadcast
on Tuesday@7pm.
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