7b) What about Balaam?
Did God override the free will of Balaam, when he prevented Balaam from
cursing Israel?
Review the story of Balaam in Numbers 5 - 25.
Balaam was a prophet of God who had a tendency to press for his own purposes
even as he was trying to follow God's expressed will. So, when he is offered a
high price to come to Moab to curse the Israelite army, he is tempted by the
promise of wealth. He prays about it and God indicates that he should not go to
Moab. The Moabites offer him much more on their second attempt and now Balaam
really wants to believe that it's okay to oblige them. He now prays to God
saying something like, "God, I really want to do this, so I assume You
don't mind, and that you understand why it's the right thing for me to
do." So, he then takes off after the Moabite ambassador and is strangely
halted in his tracks. God's angel stops his donkey and God finally has the
donkey actually speak to Balaam as a man would speak! The angel explains the
situation, ie God really did not agree with Balaam's convenient assumptions.
So, now Balaam needs to make his final decision on who he will trust, himself
or God. He opts to trust God's judgment and offers to return to his home
without cursing the Israelites for the Moabite king, and without pocketing the
cash.
God's reply now is different. He tells Balaam that he should go ahead and meet with the Moabite king, but that he will not be able to speak against the Israelites
- God will speak through him, just as the listeners expect. You see, the Moabites recognized Balaam as God's spokesperson, so whatever he said would be taken as the words of God. Hence, God decided to intervene, as He would have done for any other true prophet of His, and communicate His feelings via a person. God waited for the prophet, Balaam to convince himself that he wanted God to speak through him, and not that he merely trusted in his own desires.
Then, God could intervene without violating free will.
In summary, God can by definition do anything needed in this story. My challenge is to show that He does it without violating free will. In addition, I need to reaffirm my position that only God knows the future and not the evil spirits. If we find case(s) where my theory breaks down according to Biblical records, I need to re-evaluate the whole theory - it must be totally consistent to be valuable theology.
16 August 2001
For more on this and a response to any questions, please email any comments to nasamike@nasamike.com