Behind the Scenes

It's been a while since I've posted; life seems to always be trying to get the best of what's important. So, here I am, dusting myself off, and moving forward.

I'm going to pick up my blogging on my writings from today's reading from the Life Journal plan. For the sake of brevity I'm not going to detail the whole story, so if you aren't familiar with the story of Balaam (and his donkey) you may want to catch up by reading Numbers 22-24. Trust me, it's a cool story, don't be scared off by the book that it's in.

"And he spoke his message: 'The prophecy of Balaam son of Beor, the prophecy of one whose eye sees clearly, the prophecy of one who hears the words of God, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who falls prostrate, and whose eyes were opened' (Numbers 24:3-4)"

I know this is kind of a cryptic verse to choose to base a blog posting off of, but I really believe it gives us quite a bit of insight into Balaam and his role in the story.

Sometimes it seems like God only talked to Israelite prophets before Jesus came and left us with the Holy Spirit, almost as if the Israelite people had a monopoly on the voice of God. But the story of Balaam shows us otherwise. Balaam was not an Israelite, in face he was a well-known seer (kind of like a psychic) who used divination to cast blessings or curses (Num. 22:6, 24:1). In fact, we know he wasn't affiliated with the Israelites at all since the Amalekite king had to explain to him who they were. Besides, he wouldn't have agreed to go curse them if he had been an Israelite, right?

But as we can see through the course of the story, God revealed himself to Balaam in a very powerful way, even though sometimes Balaam was downright uncooperative (22:12, 22:18, 22:31, 23:5, 23:16, 24:1-4, 24:16), and Balaam could not deny the source of his prophecies. Balaam says repeatedly in his prophecies that God opened his eyes and he hears the words of God. We can plainly see here that the Spirit of God was moving in people aside from the Israelites, from the beginning, as a part of the great orchestration of his master plan to eventually provide reconciliation to himself for ALL people.

And not only does this story prove that God chooses who he speaks to, regardless of their religious affiliation (provided that they submit themselves to hearing his voice), it also provides us with an awesome view of God working behind the scenes. Through this whole story, the Israelites were still in their camp, going about their business in planning to go up against the Amalekites, without the knowledge that Balaam had been summoned to curse them. But, through the (somewhat reluctant) obedience of Balaam to listen to the voice of the true God, God was able to use this situation to bless the Israelites instead.

We can't always see the plan or the big picture as God does, and I'm sure there are many times when God is bestowing great blessing on our lives that we cannot see. He is always working all things for the good of those who love him. And that is an amazing truth to be able to trust in.

I hope you enjoy reading my posts. Please follow my blog or subscribe by email (in the top right corner of my blog page), and also feel free to share this post or any others on Facebook, Twitter, or Google Buzz! Thanks for your support!