Day 47. Numbers 24-26

In our reading for today we hear the last of Balaam's oracles. Balaam is not Israelite; he is a foreigner, but he knows the LORD, and he is unshakeable in his integrity—"What the LORD says, that is what I will say" (Numbers 24:13). And our encounter with this righteous foreigner gives us some clues as to what it means to be a prophet and speak the word of the LORD.
A prophet is one upon whom the "spirit of God" has come to rest in a unique way, and that spirit gives a special clarity of vision, an insight into the real situation of things which goes beyond mere appearances (Numbers 24:2-3). Sometimes the prophetic insight is a glimpse into the future events, or but more often, as in the case of Balaam, it is simply a clear-sighted interpretation of God's will in the present.
The prophet is a "seer"--one who not only hears the voice of God speaking, but also "sees the vision of the Almighty" (24:4). The revelations the prophet receives are as at least as much visual as they are auditory. This encounter with the divine comes as a waking dream--something like a violent seizure. The prophet, says Balaam, "falls down, but with eyes uncovered" (24:4). And the prophet's oracles are outbursts of ecstatic speech which are beyond the control of the speaker and for which he is not responsible.
The prophet Balaam is hired by the Balak, the king of Moab, to curse the children of Israel, but in each attempt he is constrained by the spirit of the LORD to bless them instead. When he realizes he is not getting his money's worth, King Balak's anger [is] kindled against Balaam, and he angrily dismisses him (24:10).
But the prophet turns on his erstwhile employer and curses not only the nation of Moab (24:17), but several of Israel's other hostile neighbors. These nations roundabout are persistent danger to the People of the Covenant because, although they are racially and linguistically similar to Israel, they have a radically different religious faith. Their idolatry is as seductive to Israel as their women are.
The disturbing account found in chapter 24 illustrates the dangers of cultural mixing for the covenant people and the tragic consequences of intermarriage with foreigners. The men of Israel have "sexual relations" with the women of Moab, and this leads to the worship of Baal of Peor, a powerful local deity. In response the LORD commands Moses to take drastic action, and he orders that the "chiefs of Israel" be "impaled" in the sun (25:4).
Modern readers will have a hard time with this passage, and no less with the one that follows where Phinehas, the son of high priest Eleazar, kills a high-ranking Israelite and his foreign wife with a spear. The LORD commends "such zeal" on his behalf, and credits it for saving the people from a plague that would otherwise have consumed them (25:10). We are appalled.
But when we began to read through the Old Testament together in a systematic way, we entered a foreign world with values strange to our own. If we read only selected passages from the Old Testament, we could avoid the violence and savagery of passages like these and pretend they don't exist. But they do, and we can't pretend otherwise.
So how should we look at these passages in the light of our Christian faith?
Well, first of all, we need to remind ourselves that in the Old Testament the sufferings of Israel—plagues, set-backs in war, exile--are seen as a direct result of Israel's unfaithfulness to the covenant made with LORD at Mount Sinai. That covenant is a great experiment in righteousness. Can God and humankind live in relationship? They live together as partners in the creation of a new humanity?
The unfaithfulness of Israel and the idolatry that results from too close a contact with its pagan neighbors threatens that whole divine experiment. The existence of the covenant people, the story of God's offer of friendship to humankind is in jeopardy. Radical danger calls for violent solutions.
And second of all, we need to remember that toleration is not a virtue in the world we have entered; it is the supreme vice. Purity in the Old Testament is held up as the ideal above everything else. The LORD does not compromise with evil, and he allows no compromises in his people. The purity of their God demands purity in his people.
But how do we reconcile this jealous, vengeful God with the one who reveals himself as one of love and mercy through Jesus Christ? Well, that is a difficult task, but not impossible, I think. And it is the task we have set for ourselves as we go forward with our reading. . . . .