The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 326

Vere. 36-38.-Balaam and Balalc meet at last. I. BALAK's SOLICITUDE TO CON• CILIATE BALAAM AND SHOW HIM HONOUR. Ba.lak does not yet know what unhealed wounds may be in the prophet's pride, or whether that pride has been sufficiently pleased by the dignity of the second deputation and the extent of the promises it has made_. He does all he can, therefore, to minister to Balaam's vanity. The children of th_1s world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. They will leave nothmg undone to gain their ends ; they will creep to reach them, if they cannot reach them standing erect. Balak goes to meet the prophet at the utmost border of his land. It is a dangerouR thing to offend the powerful ones of this world ; they must be kept in ~ood humour. How different from the spirit in which God would have us approach him or any one whom he may send I If he sends to bless us, it is because of our need ; he is not a man, that he should be kept in a favourable disposition by our flatteries and £awnings. We need to remember this. Cornelius had o. sincere desire to serve Ood, but very mistaken apprehensions in some respects of what God required, seeing how he fell before Peter s feet and worshipped him. Let us take heed lest in our anxiety to offer God what we think he wants we are fonnd utterly insennible as to what he renlly wants. We cannot be too solicitous to please God if only we are doing it according to his will; we cannot be too solicitous to conciliat~ men. if only we a.re doing it for their good. There ie nothing degrading or unmanly, 310 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ea. nu. 2-40. nothing that compels cringing or obsequiousness, in the eer'l'ice of God. When we bow before !he grandees and plutocrats _of the world and watch their wishes as a dog the eyes of its master, then we are reptiles, not men. We must be all things to all men only when it will save them, not simply to advantage ourselves. • II. BALAAM AND BALAK MEET, IN SPITE OF ALL THB HINDRANCES POT IN THE WAY. Ba!a~ of course has_ bis ?wn notion of these hind:ances; be thinks they lay in Bnlaam'e wa1tmg for a sufficient mducement; and very likely he congratulates himself on hie i1;1sigbt, his kno:wledge of the world, hie pertinacity, hie choice of agents, and of the nght sort of ~a1t to attract Balaam. Yet after all Balak had not the slightest idea of what great hmdrances he had overcome. If he had known of God's interferences, he might have been prouder than ever ; that is, if the knowledge of these interferences had not changed his pride to alarm. Balak's earnest sending had been more potent and fascinating than, in his greeting to Balaam, he unwittingly supposed. It had outweighed the direct commands of God, the mission of the angel, the influence of a very peculiar miracle and a very narrow escape from death. How much there must have been in Balaam'e greedy heart to draw him on when even mighty and unusual obstacles like these could only stay him for a moment I Balak drew him because in his heart there was something to be drawn; and they came together ae streams that, rising miles apart, and winding much through intervening lands, yet meet at last because eacb pursues its natural course. All the obstacles put in our way to perdition will not save ue if we are bent on the carnal attractions to be found in tbat way. Drawing is a mutual thing. There was nothing in Balaam'e heart to be drawn towards God. The hugest magnet will do no more than the least to attract another body to it unless in that body there ie something to be attracted. III. THE MEETING, AFTEB ALL, DOES NOT BEEM A BATJBFACTOBY ONE. One would have thought that, after overcoming so many hindrances, these two kindred spirits would have met each other with cordial congratulations. But instead of this being so, Balak must show himself a little hurt with what he thinks Balaam's want of confidence in his word and prerogative as king. And though Balaam's difficulty has not lain in these things, he cannot explain the misundereta.nding ; he has. to hear that word '' wherefore " as if he heard it not. "Lo, I am come unto thee," ,tha.t must be sufficient. And ae to Balak's expecta.tione, he can only fall back upon the old mis- leading generalities ; he cannot meet the king with the open, eager, joyous counten- ance of one who eeee success within his grasp. Balak, he sees, has more confidence in him than he can possibly have in himself, considering the etra.nge things he has ex- perienced since he set out on hie journey. It is not even the proverbial slip between the cup and the lip that he has to prepare for. It is not the probability of success with the possibility of failure, bnt the strong probability of failure with just the possibility of encceee. " Have I now any power at all to say anything? the word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak." Not that we are to suppose Balak was unduly taken aback by ench a want of ardour and sympathy in Balaam, Very likely he thought it was nothing more than a proper professional deference to Jehovah, and that in the event all would be right; just ae men say "God willing" and "please God" when they are in the midst of schemes where God's will and pleasure are never thought of at alL-Y. Vera. 13, 14.-Balaam-the BUmmona. The story of Balaam is full of contra:ieties. The pure faith and worship of Jehovah is seen coming into strange contact with the superstitions of heathenism ; and ae regards the personal character of Balaam, utte~ly discordant moral elements are seen struggling together in the same breast. 'J'.he chief interest of the story centres in the moral phenomenon presented by the man himself- " that strange mixture of a man," as Bishop Newton well calls him. He wa.s a heathen soothsayer, and yet had some real knowledge of God. He was und~r. the influence of sordid passions, and yet was in personal converse wit~ the Spmt of truth, and received from him, at least for the time, a real prophetic gift. He had I?O part or lot with the chosen people, but rather with their worst enemies, and _Yet his "eyes were opened," and he bad very lofty conceptions of Israel's digmty and blessedness. His history has its clearly-marked stages. In this first stage v.:e hnve the summons that came to him from Balak and the answer he was constramed to 8 nd back to it. Note here- ' cm, XXIr; 2-40.J THE 1300K OP NUMBERS. 811