Numbers 22 -Balak Summons Balaam to Curse Israel |Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to Numbers 22 read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer.In Numbers 22 the nation of Moab is terrified of the Israelites. In the last 40 years they defeated the Egyptian Empire, and then brought down the two big kings on the east side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og.They didn’t engage with the Edomites because of God’s requirement to leave them alone, but they also defeated the Amalekites and the King of Arad. They have a history with God’s help of mighty military accomplishments. The King of Moab has realised there is spiritual power at work and he is going to endeavor to counter it spiritually too. So he hires Balaam and the next few chapters cover what happens.Some have asked how Moses knew all of these details so as to include it in his writings. The answer is simple. After the Israelites ultimately defeat Moab, this information became available to them from presumably both conversations with people, and from official archives, giving Moses information he needed to include in the written story of what happened.Some commentators such as Bill Creasy from Logos have suggested that Balaam was just playing a clever bartering game pretending to not want to help, so as to up the financial stakes and earn more, but this isn’t right. Here clearly God is recorded as saying he refuses Balaam permission, so the increasing financial stakes simply show that Balaam is crooked and willing to compromise, but it just takes a higher amount of money to make it happen.Then the incident happents with the talking donkey and the angel. Such an unusual event as this demonstrates that God uses unintelligent creatures for his purposoes. That we are used by God is not an indication of our usefulness, or our own intelligence or any other redeeming quality, but rather that God can be glorified by our willingness to be used.