Regarding having a Bible handy, I recommend
www.biblegateway.org. You can also download a great program called e-sword at
www.e-sword.net.
As far as Balaam goes (pulling up my biblegateway . . .), yes, he only blesses Israel as God commanded, but there are several things we must remember that point to his guilt.
First, he practiced sorcery. Balak expressly went to him with a divination fee, which he was perfectly willing to take. Second, God expressly told him not to go with the men. When they came back a second time with a greater fee, he asked God for permission to go again. God let him, but was clearly angered by the request (as the incident with the donkey shows). Third, there is a clear Balaam vs. God theme set up. Balak's words in 22:6 set up an important theme for the rest of the chapter. He said to Balaam, "For I know that those you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed." This is a clear echo of Gen 12:3. But God told Balaam on the first visit that Israel was blessed and could not be cursed (22:12). The entire ensuing story, then, is set against the background of God already declaring Israel's position. Balaam should have let it drop there. Fourth, 24:1 says something of the methods Balaam used while trying to fulfill Balak's request. At the third location, it says that "he did not resort to sorcery
as at other times." Fifth, there is a very subtle interchange of the divine names
Elohim (translated 'God') and
YHWH (translated 'LORD'). The former refers to God in His omnipotence and sovereignty, whereas the latter is used to refer to His covenant relationship with His people. It is very interesting to note, however, that though Balaam repeatedly calls
YHWH his God, it is not
YHWH who speaks to him, but God. We should note that the angel of
YWHW does, and it is
YHWH who gives him the oracles to bless Israel, but when Balaam goes to look for advice, God is the one who replies. The change in names is striking. Read the text yourself again, you will see that Balaam prays to
YWHW, and yet
Elohim responds.
All of these give us very good reason to believe that Balaam was, at best, a false prophet, and at worst, a medium or sorcerer. Do remember that
YHWH was not only known to the Israelites. But just because people worshipped God by the name
YHWH, it does not follow that they understood who He is, anymore than some people who use the named "Jesus" can be said to understand who He is.
Now, with that, turn to the event in Num. 25. The women are used to cause the men of Israel to fall into Baal worship, and the result is two-fold: 1) a plague that killed 24,000 people, and 2) all the men (the Israelites) who worshipped Baal were also killed. In that context, we come to Num 31. First, the general war itself was prophecied by Balaam, and required, for they attempted to curse Israel, and the entire theme of the unit was that those who curse Israel would be cursed. After the war, the women and children were saved (as was the custom! So much for Israel being so brutish . . .) and Moses responds:
- "Have you allowed all the women to live?" he asked them. "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the LORD in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the LORD's people. (Num 31:15-17, NIV)
Notice that they followed BALAAM'S advice. This goes back to what I said before. When Balaam could not curse Israel, he apparently came up with a "plan B." This shows you just how wicked of a man he really was! Further, it was the very women who were saved who were the ones who participated in the action leading Israel into idol worship. Their death, then, is punishment for their own actions.
All that's left, then, is the killing of the boys. We don't have enough information here to make much by way of a judgment call, but we can note that they are parallel to the virgin girls who are saved. We're pretty clearly not talking about babies in that case, but rather girls who are old enough, or about to be old enough, to be married but have not yet done so. It seems reasonable, then, to conclude that these boys were about the same age--not old enough to fight in the war, but certainly old enough to remember the events and have been raised in their idolatry. Under this scenario, had they been allowed to live, many of them would have held it against Israel and would have started a rebellion when they got older. God certainly knows. Also, they would have grown up and married an Israelite woman, but being men, they would have been the head of the household. Yet these people were pagans, so it is likely that they would have led those families off into idolatry, resulting in another plague.
Regarding the girls, I can't imagine any complaints for sparing their lives!
All in all, then, I think the entire event is reasonable, and there is a very clear message to it: anyone, Israelite or foreigner, who curses Israel and draws them away into idolatry, will be destroyed, as per Gen 12:1-3. If only Israel had learned that lesson! It would take a broken kingdom and their exile from the land nearly a thousand years later to learn it. Further, it's safe to say that there is much in the passage for Christians to remember. God is a jealous God. He does not take kindly to those who who corrupt His people, be they Christian or not. We serve a loving, merciful, gracious God, but He is most definitely one to be feared.
So . . . that's my extended take, for what it is worth.
