Balaam was allowed to continue on, but only if he did what god commanded. Balaam son of beor is known to us not only from the hebrew bible but also from an inscription, found in 1967 in jordan, that can be dated to the eighth century b. Briefly stated, this doctrine had to do with the fact that the israelites were the covenant people of god, this covenant could not be broken, and consequently the israelites. And when the donkey saw the angel of the lord, she pushed against the wall and. Instead of cursing the children of israel, the spirit of god came upon balaam and he blessed them. The donkey then questioned balaam about the beating. Inevitably following the doctrine of balaam is the doctrine of the nicolaitans. And according to balak, the king of moab whod really like to defeat and destroy the israelites, balaams work really does the tricki know that whomever you bless is blessed, and whomever you curse. Put together, these two words mean to subdue the people, or in other words, the clergylaity system. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. Balaams unofficial handbook of the united church of christ.
Balaam illustrates the paradox of someone who knows gods will, but willfully and deliberately disobeys, presumptuously thinking he could manipulate or bribe god. The problem with that study was that it took so long to cover the details and relate the entire story that little time and space remained. Balaams unofficial handbook of the united church of. Balaams unofficial handbook of the united church of christ balaams courier staff, ted braun, tom warren, jan bodin, mark lents on. Balaam was a pagan prophet who practiced divination and other magic arts, led israel into apostasy, and was identified as a greedy, unscrupulous man by peter and jude 2 peter 2. The word nicolaitan comes from two words in greek, niko and laos. He considered himself a devotee of every god, believing that he could communicate, work, and curse for any god. He was much like any multiculturalist we see todaywilling to dabble among all the different religions, tolerant of all, willing to take something from here and another thing from there and make a syncretistic mix.
When the donkey saw the angel of the lord, she lay down under balaam. Balaam lived near modernday iraq, we established a basis for skeptics to believe in the bible account in numbers chapter 22 of balaam and his donkey that spoke up for his self under the creator jehovahs direction. In our modern scientific society, by and large we do not engage in the kinds of magical practices discussed in this portion. The present day country of jordan where the inscription was found, was known as moab at the time of balaam. Revealing the superstition of the human mind, balak had recourse to supernatural help and sought out balaam, the soothsayer of pethora man of divination with power to bless and curse, the simon magus of his day. Balaam and balak balaam and balak story balaam and.
And he was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. Balaam hired of balak and used of god sermon index. Balaam became enraged and beat the donkey with a stick. For the right fee, hell bless or curse whomever you want. This backs up the biblical account found in numbers 2224, in which the king of moab sends the elders of midian before balaam and offers him money to curse the children of israel. If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the faq by clicking the link above. We could call this a lesson on how not to treat a donkey. Entry for balaam eastons bible dictionary one of 28 bible dictionaries freely available, this dictionary is a concise volume that has aided both layman and scholar in their study of gods word.
The angel accused balaam of perverseness, but told him to go on to moab. Open as pdf balaam, hired of balak, and used of god numbers 2224 it is a wonderful thing to see the way in which, through the overruling power of god, the efforts of satan against the people of god only bring them out the more distinctly in their own place of blessing. Balaam replied, never and then suddenly his eyes were opened and he saw why the ass behaved as she did. Media in category balaam and his ass rembrandt the following 8 files are in this category, out of 8 total. The angel upbraided balaam for his cruelty to the ass and told him that the ass saved his life. Again, then the angel of the lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on either side. It is evident that though dwelling among idolaters he had some knowledge of the true god. Balaam and the endtime church part 1 sermon by richard t. The story of balaam, referred to by peter 2peter 2. The national library of australia s copies direct service lets you purchase higher quality, larger sized photocopies or electronic copies of newspapers pages clicking on the order now button below will open the ordering form in a new window which will allow you to enter the details of your request.
The story of balaam and his talking donkey is found in numbers 22. Balaam tried to keep the donkey on the trail, the donkey squeezed balaams foot against a wall. Like balaam, balak also lives to the end of the bible. On defining a prophet a theologicalethical study of the balaam narratives of numbers 2224 herbert d. Confiar en dios y no en las supersticiones duration. Balak, balac all the men of the bible bible gateway. According to the lengthy account in the biblical book of numbers chapters 2224, which likely consists of two or more combined literary traditions, balak, the king of moab, is frightened by reports of the approaching. This balaam and balak bible story study on the story of balaam and balak events looks at the story of balaam and balak message and asks what is the story of balaam and balak about, who was in the story of balaam and balak, what is the story of balaam and balak purpose. Please check the reference to make sure it is correct. Okay, you can chuckle all you want, but people would rather this be the point of the lesson rather than what lessons we. The word niko means to conquer or subdue, while laos means people. In a previous study, we looked at the unique and fascinating story of balaam.
302 1435 1454 816 584 230 738 425 146 1397 317 1342 1132 1048 942 940 1180 874 1320 253 361 816 1391 39 836 422 263 203 14 995 737 1276 422 437 786 1175 1281