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The Biblical story behind this Prophet of the Most High.
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00:00In the vast tapestry of human history, some figures emerge from the shadows,
00:04their stories echoing through millennia. They are not always heroes, they are not always villains,
00:09they are complex, caught between divine will and human desire. One such figure is a man named
00:14Balaam son of Beor, he was a prophet, he was a seer, a man who could supposedly speak with God.
00:20But he was not from Israel, he did not belong to the people at the center of this story,
00:24he was an outsider, a foreigner from a distant place called Pethor. Near the great Euphrates
00:29River in ancient Mesopotamia. This detail is important, it tells us the divine was not
00:34confined to one people. Our story now moves to a kingdom on the edge of Panic. The king of Moab,
00:40a man named Balak, looked out from his palace and saw something that filled his heart with dread.
00:45A vast multitude of people, the Israelites had set up their camp on his borders. A nation on the move,
00:51a people forged in the crucible of slavery, hardened by 40 years in the wilderness.
00:56Balak had heard the stories. He knew how they had miraculously escaped the mighty Egyptian army.
01:02He knew how they had defeated other powerful kings who stood in their way. They were, in his eyes,
01:08a force of nature. A swarm of locusts ready to devour everything in its path. Fear is a powerful
01:14motivator. King Balak was terrified. He was not just worried about a military invasion. When military
01:20might fails, where does a king turn? He turns to the spiritual realm. So he decided to fight them,
01:25with words, with a curse. And for that, he needed the best. He needed a man whose words carried
01:31supernatural weight. He needed Balaam. So Balak devised a plan. He gathered the elders of Moab and
01:37the elders of Midian, forging an alliance born of shared terror. He prepared a handsome payment,
01:42the fees for divination. And sent his most respected princes on a long journey to Pethor.
01:48Their mission was simple. Persuade Balaam to come to Moab and pronounce a curse upon the people of
01:53Israel. Balaam's message to the prophet was filled with both flattery and desperation.
01:59A people has come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the land and have settled next to me.
02:03Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are too powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be
02:09able to defeat them and drive them away. The king's request reveals how people in the ancient world
02:13understood power. It was a form of long-range spiritual warfare. When the delegation of
02:19princes arrived at Balaam's home, they laid out King Balak's offer. The promise of riches and honor
02:24was tempting. Any man would be swayed by such a proposal from a powerful king. But Balaam was not
02:30just any man. He was a prophet. He knew he could not act on his own authority. So he told the princes,
02:36Spend the night here, and I will bring you back the answer that the Lord gives me.
02:41That night, God came to Balaam with a clear and direct command.
02:46Do not go with them, God said. You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed.
02:52The divine will was unambiguous. There was no room for negotiation. In the morning,
02:58Balaam delivered the message to the princes. Go back to your own country,
03:01for the Lord has refused to let me go with you. The princes returned with news of failure.
03:07But Balak sent another delegation, even more distinguished than the first, with an even
03:11greater offer. Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything
03:17great or small to go beyond the command of the Lord my God. These are the words of a righteous man,
03:23they are noble and firm. But then, he adds something curious. Stay here for the night as the others did,
03:29and I will find out what else the Lord has to tell me. Why would he ask again? God had already given
03:35him a clear and final answer. It seems that deep down, Balaam wanted to go. He hoped that maybe,
03:40just maybe, God had changed his mind. He was looking for a loophole. A way to reconcile God's
03:45command with his own desire for the king's rewards. That night, God came to Balaam again,
03:51but this time the message was different. God said, Since these men have come to summon you,
03:55go with them, but do only what I tell you. On the surface this seems like permission.
04:01But it was a test. God was allowing Balaam to follow the path his heart desired, to see where
04:06it would lead him. So Balaam got up the next morning, saddled his donkey, and set off with
04:10the princes of Moab. He was on his way. He was going to get his reward. But the Bible tells us that
04:16God was very angry when he went. Balaam had received permission, but he did not have approval.
04:21He was walking into a divine trap set to teach him a powerful lesson. As Balaam journeyed,
04:27an extraordinary event unfolded. The angel of the Lord stood in the road holding a drawn sword
04:31blocking the path. But Balaam, the great seer, the man who could speak with God, was blind to this
04:37heavenly messenger. His mind was likely clouded by thoughts of riches and fame. He could not see the
04:42spiritual reality right in front of him, but someone else could. His donkey. The humble beast of
04:48burden saw the angel and turned off the road into a field. Balaam, annoyed and oblivious, beat the
04:54donkey to force it back onto the road. The angel moved again. A narrow path between two vineyard
04:59walls. Again the donkey saw the angel and pressed against the wall, crushing Balaam's foot. The pain
05:05only increased Balaam's fury. He beat the animal again. Finally, in a place so narrow there was no
05:11room to turn left or right, the donkey lay down under Balaam. Burning with anger he began beating the
05:17donkey with his staff, blind to the miracle unfolding all around him. It is at this moment
05:23with Balaam enraged and the donkey lying on the ground, that the story takes its most famous and
05:28miraculous turn. The Lord opened the donkey's mouth, and it spoke to Balaam. The first words ever spoken
05:35by an animal in the Bible were not a profound prophecy, but a simple logical question, what have
05:41I done to you to make you beat me these three times? Imagine the shock, the sheer impossibility
05:47of it. Yet Balaam, in his blind rage, answered the donkey as if it were the most normal thing in the
05:53world. You have made a fool of me. If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.
05:59He was more concerned with his personal dignity and his schedule than with the life of his faithful
06:03animal or the bizarre miracle happening. His pride had blinded him to divine intervention.
06:08The donkey reasoned with him, Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden to this day?
06:14Have I been in the habit of doing this to you? The question appealed to their shared history,
06:19a call to stop, to think, and then the Lord opened Balaam's eyes. Suddenly, he saw the angel of the
06:26Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword. He bowed low and fell face down. The angel delivered the
06:32rebuke, Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I've come here to oppose you because
06:37your path is a reckless one before me. God used a humble donkey to expose the prophet's spiritual
06:43blindness and save him from his own reckless ambition. It was a profound and humbling lesson.
06:48After his humbling encounter on the road, Balaam finally arrived in Moab. He met with King Balak,
06:54eager to curse them. The king led Balaam to a high place, a sacred Baal site. From there, they could see
06:59part of the vast Israelite camp. Balak built seven altars. A bull was sacrificed on each. A ram was
07:05sacrificed on each. The stage was set. The king waited expectantly for a crippling curse. Balaam
07:11went off alone to receive a word from the Lord. God gave him a message to deliver. It was not the
07:16message the king wanted. It was not a curse. It was a magnificent blessing. How can I curse those whom
07:22God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced? He spoke of Israel's unique
07:28status, their separation from other nations, their incredible numbers. He concluded,
07:33Let me die the death of the righteous. May my final end be like theirs.
07:38What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies. You've blessed them.
07:43Balak believed the problem was location. He took Balaam to Mount Pisgah. Again, seven altars.
07:48Again, sacrifices.
07:49God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. There is no
07:56misfortune in Jacob, no misery in Israel. The Lord their God is with them.
08:02Don't curse them and don't bless them.
08:04Balak tried once more to Mount Peor. For a third time altars rose and sacrifices burned. This time,
08:10Balak stayed. He looked at the camp. The Spirit of God came upon him. How beautiful are your tents,
08:16Jacob? Your dwellings, Israel? He blessed them with prosperity, strength, victory.
08:22Balak's anger exploded. He dismissed Balak, sent him home with no pay. Balak had tried to curse them,
08:27but God turned every word into a blessing. The story of Balak is so compelling it did not remain
08:32confined to the pages of the Hebrew Bible. His character, a non-Israelite who nonetheless prophesied
08:38in the name of Israel's God, captured imaginations across faiths. In Jewish tradition, the view is
08:45largely negative. A powerful but wicked figure who, in the end, used his gifts for evil. The
08:50archetype of talent corrupted by sin. In the Christian New Testament he is a cautionary tale.
08:56A symbol of corruption and false teaching, those who followed the way of Balam, who loved the wages
09:01of wickedness. While not named in the Quran, many scholars link a passage in Surah al-Araf to him.
09:07A man given signs who turned away, compared to a dog lolling its tongue.
09:12Most fascinating of all, the Deir Allah inscription, C-800 BC, speaks of Balam son of Beor. Independent
09:19evidence of a remembered seer across the ancient Near East. A real historical memory. A man whose
09:25prophecies for good or ill were remembered beyond Israelite tradition. The story of Balam, with all
09:31its strange twists and turns is not just an ancient curiosity. It is a rich source of profound
09:36spiritual lessons that speak directly to the human condition. One lesson is the sovereignty
09:41of God. Balak thought he could manipulate spiritual forces to achieve political goals,
09:47but God's purpose cannot be thwarted by human schemes. His blessing on Israel was irrevocable.
09:53And no curse, skillfully prepared and handsomely paid for, could ever undo it. Another lesson is the
09:59conflict within Balam. He knew the will of God, yet was tempted by earthly rewards. Greed clouded his
10:05spiritual vision, blinding him to the angel that even his donkey could see. The talking donkey offers
10:11a lesson in humility. God chose the lowliest of creatures to deliver correction. Wisdom and truth
10:16can come from unexpected sources. It cautions against arrogance and pride, teaching us to be open to
10:23correction. Even from those we consider beneath us. Finally, the nature of blessing. Balam was hired to curse,
10:30but blessings came out instead. God's intention to bless is stronger than any human intention to curse.
10:36If one is within the circle of divine favor, no external force or negative word has ultimate
10:41power to harm. God can turn any intended curse into an unexpected blessing. So why do we still tell this
10:47story, thousands of years after it was first written? What makes the tale of the foreign prophet and his
10:53talking donkey so enduring? It is because Balam is, in many ways, our own story. A mirror of our
10:59complexities, between higher calling and baser instincts, between knowing what's right and the
11:04temptation to do what's profitable. Universal themes. Fear of the unknown. The corrupting power of greed.
11:10The clash between divine will and human ambition. And the surprising ways truth is revealed.
11:16A prophet from Mesopotamia. A Moabite king. A simple donkey. A picture of a universal god.
11:23Sovereign over all nations. Who can use anyone to accomplish divine purposes. Ultimately,
11:29Balam's story is a testament to hope. God's plans for good are stronger than plans for evil.
11:35Turning curses into blessings. And that love and blessing will have the final word.
11:39That is a story worth telling, today, and for all time.
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