Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Introduction

In order to please God, you have to know God. When God created man and woman, he gave them the ability to think and make decisions. With this great power, comes great responsibility. Often we find ourselves at a crossroads in life and without spiritual maturity it is almost impossible to discern between what might be a good choice, and what is a God choice. Because God gave men and women the ability to reason. This means we use our senses, and our common sense to determine right from wrong, good and bad, whether we should stay or go. The difficulty comes in the fact that making decisions about our lives, our purpose, or even our next move aren’t always black and white. It isn’t always crystal clear as to which direction the Lord is trying to direct us. This gray area causes us to use our faculties and our good senses to figure out which way to go. In the Bible we run into passages of scripture which seem to be obscure and hard to interpret, but understanding God what says requires us to understand who God is.

There’s a popular saying in pop culture, “what’s understood don’t have to be explained.” This statement simply means that there are some things that can be understood without being said. If you know the person who said it then you know what they meant by what they said. In a lot of ways, we can use this idea to help us understand what God is saying. But to know what God is saying you have to know who God is. Every healthy relationship requires good communication. But not every thing can be communicated. Sometimes you have to be able to take a hint. Sometimes silent communication is the most appropriate form of communication. You can only arrive at a healthy level of communication when you have a healthy understanding of who your partner is and how they think. The same is with our relationship with God. We cannot have a healthy relationship with God until we spend some time studying to understand who God is and what he is about. Sometimes it is not what is said, it’s what is implied.

Balaam had went to the Lord twice, to ask him if he should heed to Balak’s request to travel to Moab and curse the Israel. Balaam, was a spiritual man and he enough wisdom to talk to the Lord before he responded to the elders when they came to deliver Balak’s message. He went to the Lord the first time and the Lord told him, “ You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed” () Balaam went and told the elders of Midian and the elders of Moab thus said the Lord and they went back and told Balak. Balak sent the elders back to deliver the same message and again Balaam said that he needed to talk to the Lord about it. This time God told Balaam, “if the men have come to call you, rise, go with them; but only do what I tell you.” () So Balaam set out on a journey to travel back to Moab, and the text says that God’s anger was kindled against Balaam because he went. Why in the world would God allow him to go, and then get mad at him for going?

Possibilities vs. Purpose

Everything that is possible is not acceptable. God allowed Balaam to go after he had come to him the second time. In his initial response he had explained to Balaam why he did not wish for him to go. His response was, because Israel was a blessed people he would not allow Balaam to go and curse them. God had made a covenant with Israel that he would bless them and he would curse those who stood against them. Now Balaam was asking God to allow him to do something that would go against his will. Balaam had missed the point the first time, so God says, “sure go ahead and go but only do what I tell you to do”. Have you ever asked for permission to do something and the person you were asking granted you permission, and you proceeded to do what it was that you wanted to do only to later find out that the person who told you that you could do it was upset that you actually did do it. Just because it may have been permissible at the time does not mean that it was acceptable. God has created us as free moral agents with the ability to go about and pretty much do as we please, but just because it is possible does not mean it is acceptable in the Lord’s eyes. This may sound as though pleasing God requires us to understand passive aggressive mixed signals, but it is not. If Balaam had only paid attention to what the Lord said the first time then he wouldn’t have bothered coming to him a second time. Anytime we are forced with a decision to make we must ask ourselves, although this seems possible, is it acceptable in the Lord’s eyes. Brothers and sisters, anything that goes against the Lord’s will is not acceptable, it does not matter how much of a possibility it may be.

We often confuse possibility with purpose. Just because it is in front of us, does not mean it is for us. Even though God had permitted Balaam to go, God did not want Balaam to go to Moab. We must learn to discern the Lord’s will for our lives in relation to how our lives contribute to his ultimate will. We were made in the image of God. () What that ultimately means is that although we are not eternal like God, and we are not omniscient omnipotent and omnipresent like God. It means that our existence aligns with God’s sovereign will. We are God’s representatives on earth. We are his agents , and although we have some freedom and a will of our own, because are made in his likeness, his intention for making us was to populate the earth with his very own “brand ambassadors” if I could use a popular buzz word in this scenario. A brand ambassador works to spread the message of a business or entity in order to help people get a feel for the identity of the business or entity. These people get paid to represent the brand in a positive light in order to increase awareness or sales. God has created and commissioned us to bring awareness to his love, his grace, his mercy, and his power. So in thinking about purpose as an individual you can never separate your purpose from God’s purpose. God would never have you to do anything that would misrepresent him. God allowed Balaam to set out on his donkey toward Moab because he asked. But this was not what God ultimately wanted Balaam to do. Sometimes doors open, and we love to claim that it was God who opened the door, so we have to walk through it. But in reality it could have just been the wind. Just because it is open does not mean that God wants you to walk through it.

Pray & Pray Right

But now this episode has reached its climax. The Lord’s anger has been kindled. If God truly did not want Balaam to go then why didn’t he just tell him that? Balaam did an admirable thing in seeking counsel from the Lord before he decided to even respond to Balak’s request. He set the precedent for responding to opportunity. The door opened. He asked God whether or not he should go. He waited on God to respond. He followed the orders God gave him. However, he still found himself at odds with God because he went. Now remember, although God did say, “go with them”. He really was just allowing Balaam to do. Balak had made Balaam a pretty generous offer if he were to come he promised that he would give him great honor and whatever he asked of him he would give it. The text does not say this explicitly but it sounds like to me Balaam found the offer to be enticing so he went back to God again to ask his permission, and God knew that in his heart Balaam really wanted to go. So Balaam went to God already impaired by his desires. This is how we can have the right formula, take all of the proper steps, and still end up at odds with God. When we go to God, we must make sure we go stripped of our own desires. A good prayer to pray is the same prayer that Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane:

“nevertheless not my will, but thy will be done”

God ultimately gave Balaam exactly what he wanted even though, it was not in his will for him to curse Israel. He allowed him to go. God was angry because Balaam’s ambition had corrupted his communication with God. He asked wrongly, and God gave him an answer although the answer would eventually get him in trouble with God. When we go to the Lord seeking counsel or direction we must first make sure that we have stripped ourselves of anything that might cause us to ask wrongly. It’s easy to hide behind ritual, religion, and formality in order to give the impression that you are handling things spiritually. But if your heart is not in the right place when you ask you won’t arrive at the right answer. The story climaxes with the Lord’s anger being kindled against his servant Balaam, because he had been distracted by the thought of great honor and riches. He set out toward Moab to do something that would threaten the covenant that God had made with Israel.

Thank God For Patience

But let’s examine how the Lord had to rectify this situation. It is true that because we do have some freedom. We are free moral agents with the ability to choose and make decisions. This is a gift and a curse. Sometimes we are presented with options and we don’t know which to choose. Because we have this freedom God sometimes allows us to choose paths that he has not necessarily chosen for us. However because he is sovereign, although we might stray, we are not outside of his reach. God is able to let us know when we are headed in the wrong direction. Although God’s anger burned and God could have destroyed Balaam like he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, he halted him but he did not harm him. Although Balaam’s decision displeased the Lord, God could have given up on him but he decided rather to get in his way. God can be angry and yet still be merciful. As a matter of fact God never stops being merciful. Even when he has to punish us, he is still merciful. How God responds in verse 22 is characteristic of him. He always acts according to his nature as a loving and merciful God, while at the same time remaining just. His righteousness causes him to be angry, but his love causes him to be merciful. Even when we make the wrong choice God does not stop loving us. However, he does have to correct us.

Conclusion

Balaam’s story is not any different from any one else’s story. He made a bad decision. He displeased God. Just like each of us, we all like sheep have gone astray. Each one turned to his own way. But! God still pursued reconciliation. This is the message of the Gospel and this is the good news of this story. Although Balaam had approached the Lord for advice with his heart not completely right. Although he was wrongly going to take advantage of a great opportunity. Although he had found himself at odds with God. God sought to be reconciled with Balaam. Understand that it was God who sought to be reconciled with Balaam, not Balaam who sought to be reconciled with God. For all that Balaam knew, God had no problem with him going with the princes of Moab. That was because Balaam was to preoccupied with opportunity to understand how his ambition angered the Lord. It was God who sought to fix the situation. This is while Paul wrote, “while we were yet sinners Christ died”. () In life I have made many wrong turns and will probably make plenty more, but the Lord is so merciful that he does not seek to harm me when he halts me. He wants to reconcile me back to him and get me back on track. When God stops you he’s not trying to hinder you, he’s trying to help you. “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” () This is the message of the gospel. God reconciling himself back to the people who turned away from him. Making decisions about one’s life or about one’s purpose should ultimately answer this question: “Does it bring me closer to God, or take me further from God?” Christ was sensitive to his purpose in that his living and his dying would give men and women a way back to God. Can the same be said for us. Will our lives help people get back to God or not ? Definitely not in the same way that Christ was able to accomplish this, by taking on the sins of the world, but we introduce them to the one who has already paid the price for their sins. Balaam is presented with opportunity and he has to make a major decision. Should I stay or should I go? Ultimately that answer for him, and for all of us hinges on whether or not God gets the glory in what we decide.