God’s Word for You
Numbers 22:7-12 faith vs. knowledge
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, November 10, 2021
7 The elders of Moab and the elders of Midian went with payments for his occult practices in their hand. They came to Balaam and told him what Balak said. 8 Balaam said to them, “Spend the night here, and I will report to you what the LORD says to me.” So the Moabite officials stayed with Balaam.
Balaam uses the Lord’s name, the LORD, so he knew who the God of Israel was. How had he learned this? There could be any number of answers to this, but most obviously, Moab’s ancestor Lot had known the name of God as “the LORD” (Genesis 19:14), and the Moabites use the name “the LORD” in the next chapter (Numbers 23:17).
Balaam wanted to use the night to try to receive a vision or a dream from God. The Lord obliged him, for the Lord always has his people in mind. “Our Lord’s patience means salvation” (2 Peter 3:15), even his patience with those who are his enemies. He knows just the right moment for all things.
9 God came to Balaam and said, “Who are these men with you?” 10 Balaam said to God, “Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent messengers to me, who said, 11 ‘Look, the people that has come out of Egypt covers the surface of the land. Now, come, curse them for me. Perhaps I will be able to fight against them and drive them out.’”
The Lord did not need to ask who the men were with Balaam. The questions that God asks are always significant, and if the listener would follow them through, especially if he has committed a sin (such as Adam or Cain when they were questioned, Genesis 3:9, 4:9), his questions would lead to repentance. This would have been the case here as well. In the end, it would even have spared Balaam’s life, and perhaps the condition of his soul.
12 God said to Balaam, “You are not to go with them. You are not to curse the people, for they are blessed.”
God’s warning sets the stage for everything else that will transpire between Balaam and Israel. There is a question here about the titles for God, since Balaam has been saying “The LORD” (i.e., Jehovah or Yahweh) and Moses our author refers to the Lord as “God.” We cannot divide God by his names, as if the LORD is one but God is another, especially since all three Persons of the Trinity are all separately referred to as both “Lord” and “God,” as a quick check of the Catechism will show.
If I must venture an opinion (since Moses does not explain the difference), I will say these things:
1, It is not likely, nor perhaps even possible, that God had previously revealed himself by one title or another to this pagan false prophet. For God “foils the signs of false prophets, and makes fools of diviners. He overturns the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense” (Isaiah 44:25).
2, It is clear that Balaam already knew that the LORD (Jehovah) is the name of Israel’s God, therefore he knew both “the LORD” and “God,” but he chose only to use the name “the LORD” over the title, “God.”
3, Balaam may have seen himself as a knowledgeable man by addressing God with his proper name, “the LORD,” not realizing or knowing that faith is more than mere knowledge, and that his knowledge meant nothing to God apart from faith. What God desires in us is faith: “You made me trust in you even at my mother’s breast” (Psalm 22:9), and he has looked after us our whole lives. He is your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb (Isaiah 44:24).
4, Faith, that is saving faith, is trust or confidence in Jesus as our Savior, as Paul says: “The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
5, For Israel in the time of Moses and Balaam, trust in the Savior meant trust in the coming Savior (who would not come to earth for another 1400 years), but it was nevertheless still the same trust in the Savior. We see that this was also true for Balaam since God used him to provide a prophecy about the Savior in his fourth oracle (Numbers 24:17).
6, Those who deny that saving faith is essentially trust or confidence are simply confusing faith with the result of faith, which is the obedience to God that flows from faith.
7, Faith is not a choice man makes, but a gift God gives and pours out on us along with grace and love, as the holy Spirit teaches: “The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:14).
8, Therefore Balaam had his own reasons for addressing God as “the LORD,” but he did not realize that this was the only true God. His knowledge was not faith, and his wisdom was not wise in the godly sense. “A man’s ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all his paths” (Proverbs 5:21).
God spoke to Balaam for the sake of his people, just as God spoke also to Cyrus (2 Chronicles 36:22), to Abimelech (Genesis 20:3) and to other pagans. God does whatever pleases him (Psalm 115:3, 135:6), but what pleases him is especially the salvation of men. We have been brought to the Lord’s side by his word. We put our faith and our trust in Jesus because his gospel invites us graciously to trust in him. “I will save you,” he says, “because you trust in me” (Jeremiah 39:18). Trust in Jesus.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.