Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

This Torah Portion goes from Numbers 22:2-25:9

Last Torah portion we spoke of the Red heifer being all about sanctification, and purification

After the event of the red heifer we spoke about last Torah portion, the children of Israel had taken some territory, coming to Kadesh ( a sacred place and holy) where Miriam, Moses’ sister died.

They then attempt to pass through Edom (red) but are denied right of passage.

Soon after that they set off on a journey from Kadesh to Mount Hor (in Negev).

This is the place where Aaron dies.

They traveled from Mount Hor to Moab, defeating different peoples: Canaanites, Amorites, Og - king of Bashan and his family.

They camped at the end in the plain of Moab

To give an overall view of this Torah portion:

Balak, king of Moab, hires the renowned seer Balaam to curse Israel.

Numbers 22:2-21

Balaam consents only when he receives the Lord’s permission

[He] further, warns Balak that he will speak only as the Lord directs him.

On these occasions, involving a sacrificial ritual and change of site, Balaam blesses the Israelites instead of cursing them.

And in a fourth oracle he predicts the eventual doom of Moab at the hands of Israel: Balak’s curse, intended for Israel, will instead be inflicted by Israel on Moab

Jacob Milgrom, Numbers, The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), 185.

Account of Balaam and the donkey Numbers 22:22-35

Eventually Balak and Balaam meet Numbers 22:36-23:6

There is an account of 4 oracles (word given by God) of Balaam

First Oracle: Numbers 23:7-10

Second Oracle: Numbers 23:18-24

Third Oracle: Numbers 23:25-24:9

Fourth Oracle: Numbers 24: 10-19

Oracle against the Nations: Numbers 24:20-25

Idolatry and Expiation at Baal Peor: Numbers 25:1-18

Although the Torah portion is called Balak, the main study today will make emphasis on Balaam- our subject of study

Moab is a son of Lot

Born of his older daughter

A son of sexual immorality

An issue of seduction takes place

Balak is the king of the Moabites in Numbers 22:4

Balak means DEVASTATOR, he who lays waste

Balaam means: He who brings the clan

Balak has heard what the God of Israel has done and is afraid

Notice how the text changes from Balak being the focus to Moab

Moab was sick with dread

קוּץ quts (880d); a prim.

root; to feel a loathing, abhorrence, or sickening dread:—abhorred(2), dread(3), loathe(2), terrorize(1), tired(1).

Robert L. Thomas, New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries : Updated Edition (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, Inc., 1998).

Balak calls for the elders of Median

Now you have two against Israel: Moab and Median

According to tradition, the two nations formed an alliance against the Israelite menace: “It is like the case of two dogs that were fighting with one another.

A wolf attacked one of them.

The other thought: If I do not come to his aid the wolf will kill him today and tomorrow he will attack me.

For a similar reason Moab joined with Midian.”

Another interpretation maintains that Balak himself was a Midianite and that Moab and Midian formed a united kingdom.8

Jacob Milgrom, Numbers, The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), 186.

Both Moab and Median want to hire Balaam to curse Israel

So, who is Balaam?

Why is his character so important to learn from?

What is God's response to Balaam’s actions?

Presentation

So, who is Balaam?

Balaam son of Beor The animosity of the tradition toward Balaam is revealed by the many explanations proposed for his name: (1) a mad people;12 (2) he went out of his mind because of the immensity of his knowledge; (3) he who swallows up the people;14 (4) corrupter of the people; (5) his son is a beast.16

The Deir ʿAlla inscription features a seer by the same name, Bilʿam the son of Beor (see Excursus 60).

Jacob Milgrom, Numbers, The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), 186.

Characteristics

1-Well known prophet - Popularity

2- A diviner - Something to Offer/no truth

7. versed in divination Hebrew u-kesamim be-yadam, literally “with divination in their hands”; that is, they themselves were diviners (see Ezra 7:25) and might, therefore, prevent him from backing out on the pretext that the time was unpropitious.

More likely, his colleagues were present for the purpose of honoring him.29

Alternatively, the phrase has been translated (1) “possessing [the means of] divination” (see Ezek. 21:27) (but that Balaam would have need of his colleagues’ divinatory methods is hardly likely)31 and (2) “possessing [the fees for] divination.”

However, Balaam is to be rewarded only after the job is done (22:18, 37; 24:11).

The mention of divination is not to be taken as a reproof of Balaam.

Although divination is elsewhere condemned in Scripture, as in Deuteronomy 17:10, 14 (also 1 Sam.

15:23; 28:8; 2 Kings 17:17), in certain quarters its practice was considered both efficacious and legitimate.

Balaam’s oracles serve to clarify that Israel has no need of it in order to determine God’s will.

This text is the first of many to emphasize that Balaam is a diviner, one who predicts the future, not a sorcerer, one who can alter the future (through cursing and blessing), as Balak makes him out to be.

(For details, see Excursus 59.)

Jacob Milgrom, Numbers, The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), 187.

A diviner is not always a negative connotation.

Balaam was able to hear God, and had the wisdom of God.

His issue was to exercise what is PAGAN with the TRUTH

3- Able to hear God- GIFTS

4- Who had a price- COVETOUSNESS

5-He was honoured by others who did divination too

Tradition has it these servants were Jannes and Jambers:

6- His way was perverse against the Lord

7- Balaam offered to pagan gods

Molech = Zeus

8- Balaam mixed the altars dedicated to the God of Israel with pagan gods as practice of his divinatory technique

seven altars … seven bulls and seven rams Ibn Ezra points to the frequency of the number seven in the cultic calendar:

the seventh day (Sabbath),

the seventh week (Shavuot),

the seventh month (Tishrei),

the seventh year (the Sabbatical for land and remission of debts),

seven burnt offering lambs (on festivals, twice seven on Sukkot),

seven sprinklings (in the Temple on Yom Kippur and for the purification of the leper).

He also points to the sacrificial requirement of seven bulls and seven rams for Job’s friends (Job 42:8) and the astrological significance of seven.

The magical use of seven is attested in the Bible: leprous Naaman bathes seven times in the Jordan (2 Kings 5:10, 14); Elijah orders his servant to scan the skies seven times for signs of rain (1 Kings 18:43); Joshua’s army circuits Jericho seven times on the seventh day (Josh.

6:4, 10).

In the Talmud, a medical prescription requires seven twigs from seven trees, seven nails from seven bridges, and so on.

The use of multiple altars for a single ritual is unattested anywhere else in Scripture.

Hence it must derive from a pagan practice, each altar most likely being dedicated to a different deity, for example: “At dawn, in the presence of Ea, Shamash, and Marduk, you shall erect seven altars, you shall set seven censers of cypress, you shall pour the blood of seven sheep.”

Midrashic tradition attributes the seven altars to the need to recall the altars erected previously by seven righteous men: Adam, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses.

Sefer hu-Mivḥar, in seeking an astrological explanation (i.e., seven altars for the seven planets), is close to the mark—it was part of Balaam’s divinatory technique.

Jacob Milgrom, Numbers, The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), 194.

9- Balaam taught Balak how to lead Israel into harlotry SEDUCTION/ENTICEMENT

Why is his character so important to learn from?

Because God gives us a warning regarding Balaam’s character that me must rectify: