Bible Commentaries
Micah 6

Verse 5

VIII

BALAAM: HIS IMPORTANT PROPHECIES, HIS CHARACTER, AND HIS BIBLE HISTORY

Numbers 22-24; Numbers 31:8; Numbers 31:16; Deuteronomy 23:4-5; Joshua 13:22; Joshua 24:9-10; Micah 6:5; Nehemiah 13:2; Judges 1:2; 2 Peter 2:15; Revelation 2:14

These scriptures give you a clue to both Balaam’s history and character: Numbers 22-24; Numbers 31:8, and especially Numbers 31:16; Deuteronomy 23:4-5; Joshua 13:22; Joshua 24:9-10; Micah 6:5; Nehemiah 13:2; Judges 1:2; 2 Peter 2:15; and, most important of all, Revelation 2:14. Anybody who attempts to discuss Balaam ought to be familiar with every one of these scriptures.

Who was Balaam? He was a descendant of Abraham, as much as the Israelites were. He was a Midianite and his home was near where the kinsmen of Abraham, Nahor and Laban, lived. They possessed from the days of Abraham a very considerable knowledge of the true God. He was not only a descendant of Abraham and possessed the knowledge of the true God through traditions handed down, as in the case of Job and Melchizedek, but he was a prophet of Jehovah. That is confirmed over and over again. Unfortunately he was also a soothsayer and a diviner, adding that himself to his prophetic office for the purpose of making money. People always approach soothsayers with fees.

His knowledge of the movements of the children of Israel could easily have been obtained and the book of Exodus expressly tells that that knowledge was diffused over the whole country. Such a poem as Jacob’s dying blessing on his children would circulate all over the Semitic tribes, and such an administration as that of Joseph would become known over all the whole world, such displays of power as the miracles in Egypt, the deliverance at the Red Sea and the giving of the law right contiguous to the territory of Balaam’s nation make it possible for him to learn all these mighty particulars. It is a great mistake to say that God held communication only with the descendants of Abraham. We see how he influenced people in Job’s time and how he influenced Melchizedek, and there is one remarkable declaration made in one of the prophets that I have not time to discuss, though I expect to preach a sermon on it some day, in which God claims that he not only brought Israel out of Egypt but the Philistines out of Caphtor and all peoples from the places they occupied (Amos 9:7). We are apt to get a very narrow view of God’s government of the human race when we attempt to confine it to the Jews only.

Next, we want to consider the sin of Balaam. First, it was from start to finish a sin against knowledge. He had great knowledge of Jehovah. It was a sin against revelation and a very vile sin in that it proceeded from his greed for money, loving the wages of unrighteousness. His sin reached its climax after he had failed to move Jehovah by divinations, and it was clear that Jehovah was determined to bless these people, when for a price paid in his hand be vilely suggested a means by which the people could be turned from God and brought to punishment. That was about as iniquitous a thing as the purchase of the ballots in the late prohibition election in Waco, for the wages of unrighteousness. His counsel was (Numbers 31:16) to seduce the people of Israel by bringing the Moabitish and Midianite evil women to tempt and get them through their lusts to attend idolatrous feasts.

In getting at the character of this man, we have fortunately some exceedingly valuable sermon literature. The greatest preachers of modern times have preached on Balaam, and in the cross lights of their sermons every young preacher ought to inform himself thoroughly on Balaam. The most famous one for quite a while was Bishop Butler’s sermon. When I was a boy, everybody read that sermon, and, as I recall it, the object was to show the self-deception which persuaded Balaam in every case that the sin he committed could be brought within the rules of conscience and revelation, so that he could say something at every point to show that he stood right, while all the time he was going wrong.

Then the great sermon by Cardinal Newman: "The dark shadow cast over a noble course by standing always on the ladder of advancement and by the suspense of a worldly ambition never satisfied." He saw in Balaam one of the most remarkable men of the world, high up on the ladder and the way to the top perfectly open but shaded by the dark shadow of his sin. Then Dr. Arnold’s sermon on Balaam, as I recall, the substance being the strange combination of the purest form of religious belief with action immeasurably below it. Next the great sermon by Spurgeon with seven texts. He takes the words in the Bible, "I have sinned," and Balaam is one of the seven men he discusses. Spurgeon preached Balaam as a double-minded man. He could see the right and yet his lower nature turned him constantly away from it, a struggle between the lower and higher nature. These four men were the greatest preachers in the world since Paul. I may modestly call attention to my own sermon on Balaam; that Balaam was not a double-minded man; that from the beginning this man had but one real mind, and that was greed and power, and he simply used the religious light as a stalking horse. No rebuff could stop him long. God might say, "You shall not go," and he would say, "Lord, hear me again and let me go." He might start and an angel would meet him and he might hear the rebuke of the dumb brute but he would still seek a way to bring about evil. I never saw a man with a mind more single than Balaam.

I want you to read about him in Keble’s "Christian Year." Keble conceives of Balaam as standing on the top of a mountain that looked over all those countries he is going to prophesy about and used this language:

O for a sculptor’s hand,

That thou might’st take thy stand

Thy wild hair floating in the eastern breeze,

Thy tranc’d yet open gaze

Fix’d on the desert haze,

As one who deep in heaven some airy pageant aeea.

In outline dim and vast

Their fearful shadows cast

The giant forms of empires on their way

To ruin: one by one

They tower and they are gone,

Yet in the Prophet’s soul the dreams of avarice stay.

That is a grand conception. If he just had the marble image of a man of that kind, before whose eyes, from his lofty mountain pedestal were sweeping the pageants of mighty empires and yet in whose eyes always stayed the dreams of avarice. The following has been sculptured on a rock:

No sun or star so bright

In all the world of light

That they should draw to Heaven his downward eye:

He hears th’ Almighty’s word,

He sees the Angel’s sword,

Yet low upon the earth his heart and treasure lie.

That comes nearer giving a true picture of Balaam. That shows you a man so earth bound in his heart’s desire, looking at low things and grovelling that no sun or star could lift his eye toward heaven. Not even God Almighty’s word could make him look up, without coercion of the human will.

Now, you are to understand that the first two prophecies of Balaam came to him when he was trying to work divinations on God. In those two he obeys as mechanically as a hypnotized person obeys the will of the hypnotist. He simply speaks under the coercive power of God. In these first two prophecies God tells him what to say, as if a mightier hand than his had dipped the pen in ink and moved his hand to write those lines.

At the end of the second one when he saw no divination could possibly avail against those people, the other prophecies came from the fact that the Spirit of the Lord comes on him just like the Spirit came on Saul, the king of Israel, and he prophesied as a really inspired man. In the first prophecy he shows, first, a people that God has blessed and will not curse; second, he is made to say, "Let me die the death of the righteous and let my, last end – at death and judgment – be like his." That shows God’s revelation to that people. The second prophecy shows why that is so: "God is not a man that he should repent." "It is not worth while to work any divination. He has marked out the future of this nation." Second, why is it that he will not regard iniquity in Jacob? For the purpose he has in view he will not impute their trespasses to them. The prophecy stops with this thought, that when you look at what this people have done and will do, you are not to say, "What Moses did, nor Joshua did, nor David," but you are to say, "What God hath wrought!"

The first time I ever heard Dr. Burleson address young preachers, and I was not even a Christian myself, he took that for his text. He commenced by saying, "That is a great theme for a preacher. Evidently these Jews had not accomplished all those things. They were continually rebelling and wanting to go back, and yet you see them come out of Egypt, cross the Sea, come to Sinai, organized, fed, clothed, the sun kept off by day and darkness by night, marvellous victories accomplished and you are to say, ’What God hath wrought!’ "

When the spiritual power comes on him he begins to look beyond anything he has ever done yet, to messianic days. There are few prophecies in the Bible more far-reaching than this last prophecy of Balaam. When he says of the Messiah, "I shall see him but not now," it is a long way off. "My case is gone, but verily a star" – the symbol of the star and sceptre carried out the thought of the power of the Messiah. So much did that prophecy impress the world that those Wise Men who came right from Balaam’s country when Jesus was born, remember this prophecy: "We have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him."

He then looks all around and there are the nations before him from that mountain top, and he prophesies about Moab and Amalek and passes on beyond, approaching even to look to nations yet unborn. He looks to the Grecian Empire arising far away in the future, further than anybody but Daniel. He sees the ships of the Grecians coming and the destruction of Asshur and the destruction of Eber, his own people. Then we come to the antitypical references later.

If you want a comparison of this man, take Simon Magus who wanted to purchase the power of the Holy Spirit so as to make money. That is even better than Judas, though Judas comes in. Judas had knowledge, was inspired, worked miracles, and yet Judas never saw the true kingdom of God in the spirit of holiness, and because he could not bring about the kingdom of which he would be treasurer for fifteen dollars he sold the Lord Jesus Christ. Those are the principal thoughts I wanted to add.

QUESTIONS

1. Who was Balaam?

2. How did he obtain his knowledge of God?

3. What was the sin of Balaam?

4. What was the climax of his sin?

5. What five sermons on Balaam are referred to? Give the line of thought in each.

6. Give Keble’s conception of Balaam.

7. What was the testimony sculptured on a rock?

8. Now give your own estimate of the character of Balaam.

9. How do you account for the first two prophecies?

10. How do you account for the other two?

11. In the first prophecy what does he show, what is he made to say and what does that show?

12. Give a brief analysis of the second prophecy.

13. Of what does the third prophecy consist?

14. Give the items of the fourth prophecy.

15. How did his messianic prophecy impress the world?

16. When was this prophecy concerning Amalek fulfilled? Ana. In the days of Saul. (I Sam. 15).

17. Who was Asshur and what was his relation to the Kenites?

18. What reference here to the Grecians?

19. Who was Eber?

20. With what two New Testament characters may we compare?

Verse 16

VII

THE HOUSE OF OMRI

There were three dynasties only in Israel which were makers of history. First, the dynasty of Jeroboam; second, the dynasty of the house of Omri, which we are now to discuss; third, the dynasty of the house of Jehu. All of the rest of them we might put in a parenthesis – no history in them.

Only two of all the kings of Israel were appointed by Jehovah, viz.: Jeroboam and Jehu. The rest of them came to the throne, usually as the Praetorian Guard at Rome elected the Caesars – the army elected the king of Israel, and as soon as one was so declared by the army, he killed off all the family of his predecessor – that is the record of it. Only two of them had a dynasty that extended beyond a second generation.

The scriptural sources for a sketch of Omri, the sixth king of Israel are very short: 1 Kings 16:15-28, and half of a sentence in the prophecy of Micah (Micah 6:16) – two paragraphs in history and half of a sentence in prophecy. From this brief history we see that he was in command of the army of Israel besieging a Philistine city, when the news was brought that his fellow commander, Zimri, at Tirzah, had murdered the king, slain all of his family and usurped the throne. That is the news that came to Omri’s camp, whereupon his army instantly proclaimed Omri king. He gave up the siege and marched hastily to Tirzah, one of the capitals of the nation, took that city, and then one week from the time that Zimri murdered the king he committed suicide by retiring into the palace and setting it on fire – the palace became his funeral pyre. Half of the people made Tibni king, and after four years of civil war between Tibni and Omri, Tibni perished and Omri became sole ruler of the ten tribes.

His personal reign was only twelve years, but in that time he achieved these momentous things: First, he established a dynasty that held the throne of Israel for about forty-five years, and controlled the foreign policy of the house of Judah for the same length of time, and dominated the throne of Judah for fourteen years, and attracted more attention among the foreign nations than any other man since Solomon’s time. Second, he built the city of Samaria which, in one way or another, became the rival of Jerusalem for a thousand years, even up to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. Every visiting traveler has been impressed by it. All books on the Holy Land have much to say about Samaria.

Third, he enacted statutes of idolatry that corrupted Israel unto the downfall of the kingdom, a period of 200 years. Micah 6:16 tells us about that.

Fourth, by marrying his son Ahab to Jezebel, the princess of Tyre (or Sidon, as it is indifferently called, Tyre and Sidon being close together in the Phoenician kingdom), he prepared the way for Baal worship in both kingdoms, and for bringing the true religion to the lowest ebb since the flood.

Fifth, he inaugurated the unusual policy of alliance, instead of war, with the house of Judah, and that policy prevailed throughout his dynasty, Israel and Judah never being at war during the several reigns of the dynasty of Omri, and in this way he controlled the foreign policy of Judah, brought that nation into sin continually, and into conflicts with its prophets. There was no king of Judah that reigned during the dynasty of Omri that did not fall into some sin through this policy of alliance inaugurated by Omri.

There are other sources of material for a sketch of this remarkable man, about whom our Bible says so little, viz.: The Syrian, Assyrian, Moabite, and Tyrian records, inscribed on tablets and obelisks, all of which speak of Omri, and have more to say about him than the Bible does. Travelers in the Holy Land verify every geographical and topographical allusion in the history of his life. Two noted Greek historians give the history of Ethbaal, king of Tyre, as father-in-law of Ahab, and the date of their history perfectly harmonizes with the days of Omri and Ahab. Moreover, the Tyrian historians throw a very valuable sidelight on the Bible history. They show that Ethbaal, the father of Jezebel, was the high priest of the Ashtoreth (or Astarte, or Venus) and his daughter being raised in that temple, in that atmosphere, it is easy to account for her religious fanaticism in favor of Baal worship. In Vergil, Dido recounts to Aeneas her migration from Tyre, and how it led to the founding of Carthage. That Dido of Vergil was a very close kinswoman to Jezebel. I think Jezebel was the great-aunt of Dido.

Now, there is a piece of history, which I have referred to before, that is about as remarkable as any in the world. About nine hundred years before Christ a contemporary of the Omri dynasty inscribed on a stone references to Omri and Ahab, and after it had been buried more than 2,500 years it was recently dug up. I give here a translation from the first part of it, and the very man that wrote it will appear in the next chapter. Indeed we have already considered him in the life of Jehoshaphat. He is Mesha, king of Moab, that invaded Judah – he is the man that wrote it. I shall never forget the interest stirred up by the discovery of the Moabite Stone. Infidels had been confidently trusting the spade to overturn the Bible, and lo! this stone confirmed it. Mesha set up that stone about twenty-five years after Omri died. Here is a part of the inscription, following the translation of Ginsburg, the archeologist as quoted by Rawlinson:

"I, Mesha, am son of Chemoshgad, king of Moab, the Dibonite. My father reigned over Moab thirty years, and I reigned after my father. And erected this stone at Karcha, a stone of salvation, for he saved me from all dispoilers, and let me see my desire on all mine enemies. And Omri, king of Israel, oppressed Moab many days, for Chemosh was angry with his land. His son succeeded him, and he also said, I will oppress Moab. In my days he said, Let us go and I will see my desire on him and his house: and Israel said I will destroy it forever.

Now, Omri took the land of Medeba and occupied it, he and his son, and his son’s son, forty years. And Chemosh had mercy on it in my days."

Now, when Ahab was killed in the battle of Ramoth-gilead, Moab rebelled and sustained their rebellion permanently against Israel. We have already seen somewhat of this, and will see more. I often wonder as I read of the various excavations at Nineveh and Babylon, and on the Nile, and among the Canaanite states, what a marvelous providence that God permitted these buried inscriptions to come to light just at the time assault was being made upon the integrity of his Book. When I was a young fellow I heard a great infidel say, "Books? Moses write books? Why, there were no books in the times of Moses." Not a very great while after his lecture the spade turned up Canaanite library cities older than Moses. The books were only clay tablets, of course, piled up there in public libraries. One of these remarkable archeological monuments, now familiar to all students, is called the Black Obelisk, inscribed by an Assyrian. It names particularly the house of Omri. The obelisk makes interesting reading for a sidelight on this section.

The character of Omri is described in 1 Kings 16:25-26: "And Omri did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and dealt wickedly above all that were before him." We will find soon that his son surpasses in wickedness, but just now he is more wicked than any previous one, "For he walked in all the ways of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sins wherewith he made Israel to sin, to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger with their vanities." Here I raise the question as to the scriptural meaning of "vanities." We find many times in the Old Testament the word, "vanities," and it nearly always refers to vain objects of worship. It is not the vanity in female attire, nor in the apparel of dudes, but it is vain objects of worship.

He sought affinity with the Phoenicians by marrying his son Ahab to Jezebel because he was a great politician. He had little conscience, and no religion, but the kingdom that he dreaded was Syria, lying just north of him. Later in the history the dread shifts to Assyria ’with its capital at Nineveh on the Tigris river. But in Omri’s time the foe to dread was Syria with its capital at Damascus. Now, he could not afford to have a strong enemy south of him, and another enemy west of him, all the time dreading that great enemy north of him, and so, as a shrewd politician, he secured peace effectively with the Phoenicians on the west and of Judah on the south, both ratified by marriages.

The character of Ahab, his son who succeeded him, is described in 1 Kings 16:30-33; 1 Kings 21:25-26, as follows: "And Ahab the son of Omri did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord above all that went before him. And he went and served Baal, and worshipped him. And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made Asherah; and Ahab did yet more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him." They were getting worse, and the next passage says, "But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to do that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel."

Now, there is a remarkable sentence: "Whom Jezebel stirred up." Ahab could have been a moderately good man with a good wife, for he was a notoriously weak man. But his wife was a strong woman, a woman of as strong character as is known to history. She wound him round her little finger: She was the boss of that house; an exceedingly imperious woman, raised as the proud princess, the daughter of the high priest of Astarte, and she determined that her religion should be the religion of Ahab and of Judah. She was utterly unscrupulous. A weak man if bossed by a good wife, may become passably good, but if the wife be both strong and evil, he will do more harm than if the evil came from himself. As Bismarck once said to a young diplomat who extenuated a mistake because it was not a crime: "You have done worse than commit a crime; you have blundered."

Another incident bears relation to his irreverent character. This we find in 1 Kings 16:34: "In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho; he laid the foundation thereof with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof with the loss of his youngest son Segub; according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by the hand of Joshua the son of Nun." Now, in the history of Joshua we find that when he destroyed Jericho, he pronounced this curse on it: "Whoever shall rebuild Jericho shall lay its foundation in the blood of his firstborn." Ahab and Omri were builders; they built cities. So this Hiel in his day, that lived at Bethel, one of the cities of calf worship, concluded to rebuild the city of Jericho, which commanded the fords of Jordan, and was an exceedingly strong place. The Bible does not tell how, but in some way, God fulfilled the prophecy on him. Maybe in laying the foundation a stone crushed his first-born. Anyhow, before he got through with the building, all of his sons were dead.

The following lessons may be deducted from this incident: First, never embark on an enterprise that will cost you your dearest. I put my finger on that passage once and said to a church member who was keeping a retail liquor store, "You will lay the foundation of your financial success in the blood of your children." Not more than a week after that two drunken men in that saloon got to fighting and his son was killed, accidentally shot in the fight. Be careful that you do nothing that will entail a curse on your boy or the sweet little girl to come after you. I think it is a great lesson.

Another great lesson is to note how remarkable is the word of God. Ages had passed away since the blowing of rams’ horns when the walls of Jericho fell down, and Joshua lifted up his hands and pronounced that curse on the man who should rebuild it. And that word of God lay there quiescent in ambush, but rose up to life and smote to death the children of a man that many centuries after tried to fight Jehovah’s dictum. Julian, the apostate Roman emperor, read the prophecy about the walls of Jerusalem. He sneeringly put his finger on the passage in the prophecy, and said, "I will show you that this prophecy is a liar." He sent a vast number of men to go and rebuild the wall – am simply quoting Gibbon the infidel historian – and fire came out and devoured the men so that they left off the building of the wall. And consequently, when Julian was dying he used this language: "Thou Galilean, hast conquered," referring to Jesus. That reminds us of the passage in Acts: Herod slew James and imprisoned Peter, and put on a robe and made himself out to be God. The record says that the worms ate up Herod, but the word of God prevailed and multiplied. So we do not need to be very uneasy, fearing the destruction of the word of God.

The next wicked act of Ahab belongs to the history here, but is recorded elsewhere. It is found in 1 Kings 19: "And Elijah said, And the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, torn down thine altars, and have slain thy prophets with a sword. And I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away." That was one of the bitterest religious persecutions known in the history of the world.

I close this chapter with a touching incident of this great persecution. It is found in 1 Kings 18: "Now Obadiah, the master of the household of Ahab, feared the Lord greatly, for it was so that when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord that Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave, and fed them with bread and water." That verse is like an oasis in the desert, that little incident, and when we read the history of the Albigenses, the Waldenses, the Hugenots, the Dutch, and the Scotch, and of any other people, suffering religious persecution, we find some brave, bold man or woman that harbors these fugitives from the vengeance of the persecuting power; that opens the door to them; feeds them and takes care of them, though done under the penalty of death. It was the custom of the popes, when persecuting a people, to put a curse on any who sheltered them: "No man shall shelter him, no man shall give him a loaf of bread to eat, or even a drop of cold water." But this Obadiah, the master of the household of Ahab, in his heart, loved Jehovah. Now, when it comes to secreting men in two caves, fifty in each, and secretly getting food to them, knowing that everything he did put his life in hazard – say, it is better to know of a man of that sort than to know of the conquests of military heroes – his record is worthy of going into history. There are many things in history we could afford to leave out, but we want everything of that kind on record.

In this great extremity, a mighty instrument of protest and reformation did the Lord raise up. He is the hero of the next chapter: "Elijah the Tishbite."

QUESTIONS

1. What three dynasties only of Israel were makers of history?

2. How many of all the kings of Israel were appointed by Jehovah?

3. How did the rest of them come to the throne?

4. What are the scriptural sources for a sketch of Omri, the sixth king of Israel, and how did his house arise?

5. What other sources of material for a sketch of Omri, and what is the additional information?

6. What was the character of Omri?

7. What is the meaning of "vanities" as used here and most everywhere else in the Old Testament?

8. Why did Omri seek affinity with Phoenicia and Judah by marriage and how was it affected?

9. What was the character of Ahab, his son, and what the greatest influence in his life for evil?

10. What other incident bears relation to his irreverent character?

11. What lessons may be deduced from this incident?

12. What was the next wicked act of Ahab?

13. Relate a touching incident of this great persecution?

14. In this great extremity what mighty instrument of protest?