Donkeys And Diviners Are Under God’s Hand

The story of Balaam (Num. 22–24) is a curious aside in the Pentateuch— and not just because it includes a talking donkey.

Exodus through Deuteronomy tells the story of the Israelites, who follow Moses out of Egypt, through the wilderness of Sinai, and to the promised land. These books recount how God established his covenant with his people (Ex. 20; 24), the internal and external troubles they faced (e.g., Ex. 32), laws they were to follow (e.g., Ex. 20–23:19; Lev. 19), and even how they arranged their camp (Num. 2).

Strangely, just as the Israelites arrive at their long-awaited destination, poised to enter and inherit the land (22:1), the camera pans away from their encampment. As a result, our protagonists are glaringly absent from the longest continuous story in the book of Numbers. To understand the importance of this cliff-hanger—and, thus, the passage’s intent—it’s essential to consider its literary and historical context.

Ancient Promises and Mantic Arts

Recall first the assurances God made to Abraham, ancestor of the Israelites. Despite the patriarch being old and having no heir, God promises him his offspring will be a multitude, like the stars of heaven and the sand on the seashore (Gen. 15:5; 22:17). They’ll also inherit a land of promise after having spent time in servitude (15:7–16), and they’ll be a blessing to all the families of the earth (12:3). Numbers 22–24 references each of these promises. The narrative immediately notes that the Israelites have indeed grown numerous, have come out of Egypt, and are encamped opposite Jericho—about to enter and receive the promised land (22:1–5). This is a significant moment in the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham and his descendants.

Balaam is labeled a diviner (Josh. 13:22) or one who seeks omens (Num. 22:7; 23:23; 24:1), so it helps to know a little about ancient systems of divination. Ancient Near Eastern deities weren’t sovereign. Their decisions could be nullified by incantations and rituals; divine rulings were often at odds with those of competing deities; and they weren’t omniscient, demonstrated in their practice of divination. This is the cosmology that underlies the words and actions of Balaam and the Moabite King Balak.

Don’t be fooled by Balaam’s reference to the God of Israel as “the LORD my God” (22:18); it doesn’t mark Balaam as one devoted exclusively to the God of Israel, as it was normal for the ancient Near Easterners to refer to any and multiple deities as their own. Diviners appealed to a plethora of gods multiple times and in numerous ways to reach desirous outcomes.

Diviners appealed to a plethora of gods multiple times and in numerous ways to reach desirous outcomes.

These capricious deities could be persuaded to answer in the diviner’s favor with, for example, aromatic sacrifices performed in consecrated places. Balaam and Balak assume as much in this story (23:4, 13–15, 27–30). A modern, Western audience might find this kind of worldview absurd, but the Israelites were undoubtedly familiar with it.

God’s Sovereignty over the Supernatural

The intrusion of a diviner at this climactic point in Numbers would have raised alarms in the minds of its early readers. The people blessed by God are about to receive a curse from a foreign agent. If the decisions of other gods could be manipulated by practices such as divination, then maybe God’s plan for the Israelites could, likewise, be changed. God’s promises were able to withstand insurrection (Num. 16), foreign armies (Num. 21), and, of course, sin (e.g., Num. 11), only to now be threatened by revocation at the hand of the supernatural arts.

Balak certainly thinks that’s the case. Though God asserts the authority to curse and to bless in his promise to Abraham, the Moabite king believes the real power lies in the hands of the diviner Balaam, who can purportedly bend the will of the gods: “For I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed” (22:6). With Moses absent and unaware of these events, the Israelites have no intercessor to avert disaster. At first, Balaam seems successful in coaxing God to go along with the plan, but the omniscient narrator reveals God’s true position in verse 22. By pressing the issue, Balaam (and later Balak) is handed over their sin.

On joining Balak, Balaam attempts to contact God twice by reading omens. Perhaps surprisingly, God answers the diviner both times. The interpretation of those signs, which Balaam relays in poetic form (23:7–10, 18–24), specifically mentions the promises made to Abraham—the Israelites are as numerous as the dust, and the Lord is the God that rescued them from the bondage of Egypt.

At first, Balaam seems successful in coaxing God to go along with the plan, but the omniscient narrator reveals God’s true position.

As was normal for the practice of divination, Balak demands Balaam make a third and final attempt to sway the God of Israel (vv. 25–27). All the same preparations are made, but something unexpected happens before the diviner can secure more omens: God, undoubtedly frustrated by Balak’s scheming, finally overwhelms Balaam with two prophetic visions (24:3–9, 15–19).

In both, God unequivocally states that the tribes will be securely established—in the land. Further, God reaffirms his promise to Abraham as it applies to Israel: “Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse you” (v. 9; see Gen. 12:3). The God of Israel sovereignly fulfills his Word, and no other power can thwart his plan for his people.

Ancient Assurance for Today

That God fulfills his promises isn’t a message of assurance reserved only for the Israelites. Paul reminds all believers that, through faith in Jesus Christ, we too are heirs of the promise made to Abraham (Rom. 4:13).

God has, indeed, made his people numerous, a church that brings blessing to the ends of the earth. In Christ our Lord, there’s no power—either natural or supernatural—that can separate us from our Heavenly Father’s promises and love (8:38–39).