Numbers 24:1-25:18
Luke 2:1-35
Psalm 59:1-17
Proverbs 11:14
In the movies I saw when I was a child, it was easy to tell who the good guys and who the bad guys were. Ugly old woman with the poisoned apple? Bad. Unnaturally short but industrious and reluctantly hospitable men? Good. Queen who turns into black fire breathing dragon? Bad. Beautiful adopted daughter working as a slave and able to make house vermin charming and likable? Good.
The older I got, the harder it was to tell. Big ugly ogre and - no pun intended - wise ass donkey sidekick...bad or good? Not too sure. And in today's reading, the same: foreign diviner who picked animal livers to try and predict the future...bad or good? People called apart by God, saved from slavery and fed on a journey through the barren desert...bad or good? It is interestingly unclear.
Balaam was a foreigner to whom the God of the Israelites was unfamiliar. Yet when Balak tried to bribe him to curse the Israelites, God called Balaam - and Balaam heard God's call, recognized his voice - and obeyed, despite Balak's attempts to bribe him to do otherwise. All the silver and gold of an earthly king? No thanks. And because of that, God blessed him with a vision not just about Israel for that day, but for mankind's eternity. God gave him a prophecy about the birth of our Lord. Balaam looked like an outsider, but turned out to be very much on the inside!
Then there were the Israelites who got involved with the Moabites, against God's will. One could almost hear their justification for doing so. In today's language, it might sound like "don't be a hater" and "what's wrong with love?" and "why shouldn't people be able to love however they want, whomever they want?" With these justifications, some of the Israelites revealed themselves to be outsiders at heart, and the punishment of God was against them. Indeed, despite the commandment against murder, God rewarded Phinehas for killing Zimri and Kozbi with a covenant!
I don't know if you feel the same way I do. But so often today, there is just so much pressure to compromise, to accept the world's values, values designed for sinful self gratification. The world pitches these values so insidiously - we are pressured to gradually accept good intentions we know to be sinful, and are made to believe we are the bad guys because we don't agree. Balaam found the strength to withstand the world's enticements by hearing and recognizing God's voice - by communing with Him. The Israelites who remained obedient found strength to do so as part of a community. In this sense, today's psalm and proverb are particularly appropriate:
Community with brothers and sisters is so important - "for lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisors." I found so much of God's nourishment and strength over pizza with a church brother Thursday night, and over breakfast with another church brother this morning. My wife finds the same nourishment in her Bible group on Thursdays. If you haven't given community a try, I encourage you to do so!
And community with God is equally crucial, if not even more so. For we have a God to whom, in times of trouble, we can turn and ask "deliver me from my enemies...be my fortress against those who are attacking me...save me from those who are after my blood." And unless the community is premised on God, then it is doomed to failure. For we know that "unless the Lord builds the house, in vain do the builders build".
All in all, I would rather be on the inside.
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