Daily Devotional

This is a passage in the account of when Balak, the king of the Moabites was afraid when he and his people saw how Israel defeated the Amorites. So they tried to enlist Balaam to come and curse the Israelites and bless him so that he might defeat Israel.

This story always instills some questions in my mind. Balaam refuses to go at first because God tells him not to. Then Balak offers him money to come and Balaam still refuses. After that God tells him to go. But I think I missed a part when I’ve looked at it before.

I've always wondered why God gets so mad at Balak even when He told him to go. But, right before that happens, Balaam tells Balak’s messengers to stay the night and he’ll ask God again. Maybe God was mad because He had already given Balaam his answer. I think He allows Balaam to go because He wanted to teach him a lesson.

It reminds me of when I would tell my kids no about something and they would continue to ask, trying to wheedle me into changing my mind. Even when I stood my ground (though sometimes it would work), I would feel angry that they just couldn’t trust me and
abide by my answer.

God knew how it would end and He wanted to spare Balaam from going against Him. But money was just a little more or a temptation than Balaam could take and he decided to question God again.

One of the Worship Team members shared this one night...
”Sometimes the answers can be 5 years ahead and we need the time to grow in our faith to handle them, God is just saying, I’ve given it to you, you just need to catch up.”

I love that! There’s a lot of hope in that statement.

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.