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