Saturday, February 21

Scripture:Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but now you have done nothing but bless them.” (Numbers 23:11).

Observation: Balak was the king of Moab when the Israelites camped on the border of Moab on their way to the Promised Land. The population of Israel had become so great that the Israelites, if they wanted, could overwhelm Balak in battle and take over the kingdom. Plus, the sheer number of mouths to feed, human and cattle, might gobble up Moab’s food supply, starve out Moab’s people and livestock, and ruin Moab’s economy. As king charged with the wellbeing of his people, Balak’s fear of the Israelites is reasonable. When he sees the Israelites camped on his border, he sees a massive overwhelming hoard of foreigners whose presence in his land could possibly, if not certainly, collapse the kingdom. Balak sends for a renowned sage from a distant land, Balaam of Pethor, and asks Balaam to invoke the wrath of the gods against the Israelites and curse them into oblivion in return for payment. Balak’s reasoning is, “If I can’t defeat the Israelites in battle, then maybe Balaam can convince the gods to do it for me.” But the God of Israel appears to Balaam while on the way to Balak – God even speaks through a donkey! – and warms Balaam that Israel is not to be cursed. Three times Balak asks Balaam to curse Israel, and three times Balaam blesses Israel instead. Balaam is not a member of Israel. He, too, is a foreigner, an outsider looking in, and when he sees Israel, he sees neighbors to be blessed, not enemies to be cursed. Balak and Balaam are foils of one another. One sees enemy where the other sees neighbor. One sees reason for fear where the other sees opportunity to bless. One sees danger and what he has to lose, while the other sees abundance and human beings God refuses to lose.

Application: As a Christian reading the story of Balak and Balaam, it’s impossible not to see Jesus. Jesus tells us to love our enemies, pray for our persecutors, turn the other cheek. Jesus says the merciful are blessed and whatever we do for the “least of these” we do to Him. Jesus commands us to love our neighbor, and when a religious type tries to limit who counts as “neighbor,” Jesus draws the circle of “neighbor” as wide as possible. If a person breathes, that person is my neighbor. The approach of Jesus is the approach of Balaam, not Balak. Jesus sees neighbors to be blessed, not enemies to be cursed. Would Jesus sympathize with Balak’s concerns about the Israelites? Yes. Balak’s concerns are reasonable and fair. Balak has responsibilities to keep, responsibilities to provide for and protect his people. His caution is correct. It’s his approach that is off. Blessing and cursing represent different and mutually exclusive approaches when we’re dealing with God’s most complicated precious creations, humans. We can approach with blessing or approach with cursing. God appears to Balaam while he's on the approach to curse and turns Balaam’s approach the other way, to the blessing way. May Jesus do the same with us all.

Prayer:

Bless them all. Bless all my neighbors around the world, and since Your Word drew the circle of who counts as neighbor as wide as possible, I’ll start with people on the outer rim and work in, and so: bless the factory worker with deft hands who assembled the super computer in my pocket, bless the child eating recipes of rice and cabbage and fish and forms of vegetation I cannot pronounce who will grow up speaking a language I cannot read, bless the barefoot women collecting water from a well and the barefoot men hunting wild game or riding a bicycle to the closest village ten miles away so they can harvest coffee cherries for ten hours then pedal back, bless the oilrig workers and navy sailors and deck hands, bless Your servants who answered a call to serve be they nurses or soldiers or paramedics or government employees or sanitation truck drivers or anyone who suits up in a uniform to heal and protect, bless Your dear children who will cast votes for people I will not vote for in the upcoming election but if we shared chips and salsa and swapped stories I’m sure I’d like them, bless the woman waving the orange flag and motioning for traffic to steer clear of her road construction crewmates, bless the sweet folks who clean my daughter’s school and sing in my daughter’s church choir, bless my children and their children and their children forever and ever, bless my spouse for You know I won the lottery there and I thank You, bless me, my second neighbor after You, so I approach all who draw breath with a heart for blessing and never for cursing. Onward we go: amen.