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allying himself with Balak against Israel. On the other hand, if, according to his view
of the matter, he could have succeeded in making the God of Israel, so to speak, one
of his patron-deities, and if, upon his own terms, he could have become one of His
prophets; still more, if he could have gained such influence with Him as to turn Him
from His purpose regarding Israel, then would he have reached the goal of his
ambition, and become by far the most powerful magician in the world. Thus, in our
opinion, from the time when we first meet him, standing where the two roads part, to
the bitter end of his treachery, when, receiving the reward of Judas, he was swept
away in the destruction of Midian, his conduct was throughout consistently heathen,
and his progress rapid in the downward course.
Where the two roads part! In every great crisis of history, and, we feel persuaded, in
the great crisis of every individual life, there is such a meeting and parting of the two
ways - to life or to destruction. It was so in the case of Pharaoh, when Moses first
brought him the summons of the Lord to let His people go free, proving his authority
by indubitable signs. And Balaam stood at the meeting and parting of the two ways
that night when the ambassadors of Balak and the elders of Midian were for the first
time under his roof. That embassy was the crisis in his history. He had advanced to
the knowledge that Jehovah, the God of Israel, was God. The question now came:
Would he recognize Him as the only true and living God, with Whom no such
relationship could exist as those which heathenism supposed; towards Whom every
relationship must be moral and spiritual, not magical - one of heart and of life service,
not of influence and power? To use New Testament language, in his general
acknowledgment of Jehovah, Balaam had advanced to the position described in the
words: "he that is not against us is for us" (Luke 9:50). But this is only, as it were, the
meeting and parting of the two roads. The next question which comes is far deeper,
and decisive, so far as each individual is concerned. It refers to our relationship to the
Person of Christ. And in regard to this we read: "He that is not with Me is against
Me" (Matthew 12:30).
As always in such circumstances, God's great mercy and infinite patience and
condescension were not wanting to help Balaam in the crisis of his life. There could,
at least, be no doubt on two points. Balak's avowed wish had been, by the help of
Balaam, to "smite" Israel and "drive them out of the land" (Numbers 22:6); and his
expressed conviction, "he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is
cursed." Now, not to speak of the implied magical power thus attributed to him,
Balaam must have known that Balak's intention ran directly counter to Jehovah's
purpose, while the words, in which the power of blessing and cursing was ascribed to
Balaam, were not only a transference to man of what belonged to God alone, but
must have been known to Balaam as the very words in which Jehovah had originally
bestowed the blessing on Abraham:
(^)