May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed! – Numbers 24:9b

Today's Scripture Reading (February 4, 2025): Numbers 24

Abram was in Ur of the Chaldees when God called him to move to an unknown place. It takes a lot of faith to go with God to a place that not only have you never been, but that there isn't even a name by which the place is known, at least not one that you have ever heard before. Yet, that is precisely what God does to Abram. It was a "come with me" moment. Abram would likely be asked to follow the Euphrates River from Ur as it winds northwest toward modern-day Turkey. Then, he would follow the fertile crescent as it made a turn south along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea until he came to Canaan and the land that God was going to promise to Abram's descendants.

Do you ever wonder what would make Abram go to such a place? I do. The answer might be relatively simple. Abram heard the voice of God as he made this promise to him. 

The LORD had said to Abram, "Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you.

"I will make you into a great nation,

    and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

    and you will be a blessing. 

I will bless those who bless you,

    and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth

    will be blessed through you" (Genesis 12:1-3).

Abram, go, and I will bless you. Not only that, but I will also curse those who curse you. And it wasn't just Abram of whom God was speaking. It was the nation that would emerge from Abram's descendants. The biblical identity of that nation is Israel. However, we shouldn't miss the transactional nature of this promise. God promised Abram and his descendants that if they passed the blessing they would receive from God on to the world around them, God was willing to bless those who blessed Abram and curse those who cursed Abram. From our point of view in history, God promises to bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel.

It has not been a great time for King Balak. First, he hires Balaam, a prophet, to curse Israel. But it is a task that, from Balak's point of view, Balaam is unequipped to complete. In his first attempt, Balaam simply fails to produce an effective curse on the nation. But Balaam isn't done. He attempts to curse Israel a second time, except that this time, what comes out of Balaam's mouth is not a curse but a blessing. But Balaam still isn't done. In his third attempt to curse Israel, he actually curses Balak. And the curse that he utters is straight from the blessing God gave to Abram during his call to move to Canaan. "May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed!" Balak sought to curse Israel. Balaam ends up reminding his employer that the result of that curse would be that King Balak would be the one who felt the effects of that curse. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Numbers 25

Then Balaam said to Balak, "Stay here beside your offering while I go aside. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet with me. Whatever he reveals to me I will tell you." Then he went off to a barren height. – Numbers 23:5

Today's Scripture Reading (February 3, 2025): Numbers 23

Back in college, the friends I hung out with played a little game with each other. The basis of the game was that we didn't lie to each other, but we did twist the truth. We just phrased it in a way that was true, although the truth was phrased in a way that served our purposes. It was an interesting endeavor, even if it was more than a little misguided. Everything depended on how the question could be phrased and how the answer could be crafted. It was an endeavor that relied on the literal meaning of the words spoken and being specific instead of general with both the questions and answers.

In the story of Balak and Balaam, Balaam is a corrupt prophet, but he is not a false one. There is a critical difference between the two, and that difference is not just a semantic one. A false prophet makes up his answers. They lie without remorse. A corrupt prophet is willing to do whatever he can to make money and is even willing to work around the word of God to get what he wants, but what a corrupt prophet would not do is lie about what it was that God said. 

Pastor and theologian David Guzik imagines this conversation could have occurred between Balak and Balaam.

Balak: "I want you to get the gods to curse Israel. Ask Baal or some other god to do it."

Balaam: "It doesn't work like that. Yahweh, the God of Israel, is greater than all those gods. If Israel is going to be cursed, Yahweh has to do it."

Balak: "Then let's get the God of Israel to curse them."

Balaam: "We can try – but I can tell you only what the God of Israel tells me" (David Guzik).

The two men would now work on the problem from different angles. Balaam would work toward fulfilling Balak's desires, trying to get Yahweh to curse his people. Balak would go off to barren or desolate heights. This phrase alludes to the places where altars were built to honor the gods. While Balaam worked on the problem from his knowledge of Yahweh, Balak leaned on his understanding of the false gods honored in the high places of the nations and hoped that they would give him the answer he wanted. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Numbers 24

Then the Israelites traveled to the plains of Moab and camped along the Jordan across from Jericho. – Numbers 22:1

Today's Scripture Reading (February 2, 2025): Numbers 22

When I was a child, my family made a 2000-mile, or 3000-kilometer, move from east to west. We went from a place where we had family all around us to a place where we had no close family anywhere in the vicinity. The plan for the move had been in place for months. My mother had purchased the house we would live in months earlier without the assistance of my dad. I was the reason for the move, or maybe more precisely, my health would be the reason for the move.

I probably wasn't aware of all of the things that were happening around me. It was an adventure to a new world for my eight-year-old self. The journey began with the breakdown of the three-ton truck my dad had purchased for the move. My paternal grandfather had decided to accompany us through the first leg of the trip. Still, as the adventure progressed and unexpected trials mounted, Grandpa decided to join us for the entire move.

When we finally arrived at our destination, we discovered that the house we had planned to move into wasn't empty. The former owner and his family still inhabited the home. So, while we had arrived at the end of our journey, the adventure wasn't over. According to eyewitnesses, again, the young me had no idea what was going on, my grandfather moved into action, demanding concessions from the delayed owner. The next day, my family moved in the back door, as the previous house owners moved out the front. 

Israel has reached the end of the journey, but the adventure isn't quite over. There are still hurdles to cross and mountains to climb. The biblical community will camp on the other side of the Jordan across from Jericho for at least another year. But the Plains of Moab would be the site of the rest of Israel's wilderness story. But there were still lessons to be learned before the people were ready to take the land, moving in through the back door at Jericho. The story of that event is told in the Book of Joshua. 

But everything that is told in the rest of the book of Numbers and Moses's addresses, given in detail in the book of Deuteronomy, would take place on this plain across from the city of Jericho. And I am sure everyone in the neighborhood, including the residents of Jericho, was well aware of their presence.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Numbers 23

They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way. – Numbers 21:4

Today's Scripture Reading (February 1, 2025): Numbers 21

When we are traveling, I am one of those guys who looks at a map and makes plans. I try to estimate when I can arrive at a particular place. I will plan to eat lunch at a specific place and spend the night in this city. I also tend to make a reservation in the area where I am planning to end my day. You have to understand, this was not the example my parents and grandparents passed down to me. In my childhood, we ate at a restaurant sometime between 11:30 and 1:00, depending on how hungry we were and whether we had found an appropriate stopping place. At the end of the day, we looked for a vacancy sign at a local motel. There were no plans, just the journey. Sometimes we made good time, and sometimes we didn't. But it was all part of the trip.

A few years ago, I was traveling with my wife on our annual vacation, and I had reserved a hotel room in a particular town along our journey. However, we encountered a problem about two hours from our destination. We were going through a rugged mountainous area, meaning there was only one road to our destination, and someone on a motorbike had met an unfortunate end just ahead of us on that road. It was about four in the afternoon when we reached the place where the police were stopping traffic. Slowly, we watched as vehicles reached the police barricade, had a conversation with one of the officers, and then turned around to go back into the town we were passing. 

When it was our turn to reach the front of the line, we were given our options. We could stay here; the road was expected to open around midnight. It was about four in the afternoon, so the wait time would be about eight hours spent sitting in a small mountain village. Or we could travel a couple of hours south, hoping to catch a ferry across a mountain lake and then drive another couple of hours to our destination. The problem was that, with the increased traffic, there was no guarantee that the ferry would be able to handle the increased traffic, at least not today. We had a decision to make.

It can be frustrating to watch a plan fail, especially if that failure means you have to delay something for which you have built up anticipation. Israel had planned to follow the path of the King's Road toward Canaan. But that required moving through land belonging to Edom. And Edom had denied passage. As a result, Moses and his itinerant community had to reverse their course and move back to the Red Sea to get around Edom. It was discouraging, and the people became discouraged. The detour began to shape how the people viewed the journey as a whole. And as often happens when we get discouraged, people start to look for someone to blame. As a result, Moses and his God were once again easy candidates for their criticism.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Numbers 22