I Cannot Go Beyond the Word of the Lord

The story of Balaam in the book of Numbers is an interesting example of one who initially sought to be loyal to the Lord but did not continue. When Balak, the king of Moab, came to him to curse Israel, he sought guidance from the Lord. God said to Balaam, “Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed.” Balaam then said to the men of Balak, “Get you into your land: for the Lord refuseth to give me leave to go with you.” It seems like it should have ended there, but Balak was persistent: “And Balak sent yet again princes, more, and more honourable than they. And they came to Balaam, and said to him, Thus saith Balak the son of Zippor, Let nothing, I pray thee, hinder thee from coming unto me: For I will promote thee unto very great honour, and I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me: come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people.” Balaam initially responded, “If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more.” But he asked the Lord again, and this time the Lord let him make a choice (JST addition in italics): “If the men come to call thee, rise up, if thou wilt go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do.” It seems from the account that the Lord didn’t really want him to go, but like in the story of the lost 116 pages by Martin Harris, with enough asking He let Balaam go if he so chose. But it was still the wrong choice as the Lord had told him in the beginning, and “God’s anger was kindled because he went” (Numbers 22:12-22). If only he could have stuck with his initial determination: “The Lord refuseth me to leave to go with you.” It reminds me a bit of the story of Lehonti in the Book of Mormon who at first courageously refused the requests of Amalickiah to come down from the mount. But eventually he was worn down and he compromised just enough to get himself into trouble. I love Balaam’s answer that even for a house full of silver and gold he could not go against the word of the Lord, but it appears that he didn’t fully live up to that conviction. His story is a reminder that the adversary will not stop with one attempt to get us to do something wrong; one refusal will not be enough on our part. The world will try again and again to convince us to compromise our standards or go against our covenants, and unlike Balaam and Lehonti, we must learn to stand firm in our covenants no matter what enticements are used to sway us.

               I was surprised to see that Balaam is mentioned three times in the New Testament. Peter warned in his epistle of those who had gone after wickedness: “Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet” (2 Peter 2:15-16). The epistle of Jude also speaks negatively about Balaam: “Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core” (Jude 1:11). This suggest that perhaps Balaam did go for the money, despite his insistence that he could not betray the Lord for silver and gold. It appears that Balaam’s wickedness did not end there, and John wrote these words of the Lord to the church of Pergamos: “But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication” (Revelation 2:14). So his actions appeared to have gotten worse as he went to Balak and ultimately tried to help him hedge up the way of the Israelites. His story stands in stark contrast to that of Joseph, the classic example of refusing to break covenants with God: “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9) Our commitment to the Lord should be like Joseph’s and like that of Nehemiah: “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down” (Nehemiah 6:3). Balaam and Lehonti both came down with enough pressure, but like Joseph we can choose to stay true to the Lord and live by these words that Balaam did not measure up to: “I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord.”