Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2026)

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Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Bible in a year podcast where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture

The Bible in a year podcast is brought to you by ascension using the great adventure Bible timeline

We'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation

Discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today

It is day 70 and so we were reading today from numbers chapter 22 and to do to do to run on me chapter 23

We're also be praying through Psalm 105 as always. I am using the revised standard version second Catholic edition

I'm using the great adventure Bible from ascension

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As I said, it is day 70 and we are reading from numbers 22 do to run me 23 and we're praying Psalm 105

The book of numbers chapter 22

Bloc someone's veilum

Then the sons of Israel set out and encamped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho and Bloc the son of support

Saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites and Moab was in great dread of the people because they were many

Moab was overcome with fear of the sons of Israel and Moab said to the elders of Midian

This horde will now lick up all that is round about us as the ox licks up grass in the field

So Bloc the son of support who was king of Moab at the time sent messengers to baylam the son of Bayor of Pithor

Which is near the river in the land of Emma to call him saying

Behold a people has come out of Egypt. They covered the face of the earth and they are dwelling opposite me

Come now curse this people for me since they are too mighty for me

Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land

For I know that he whom you bless is blessed and he whom you curse is cursed

So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand

And they came to baylam and they gave him Bloc's message and he said to them

Lodge here this night and I will bring back word to you as the Lord speaks to me

So the princes of Moab stayed with baylam

And God came to baylam and said who are these men with you and baylam said to God

Bloc the son of support king of Moab has sent to me saying

Behold a people has come out of Egypt and it covers the face of the earth

Now come curse them for me perhaps I shall be able to fight against them and drive them out

God said to baylam

You shall not go with them you shall not curse the people for they are blessed

So baylam rose in the morning and said to the princes of Bloc

Go to your own land for the Lord has refused to let me go with you

So the princes of Moab rose and went to Bloc and said

Baylam refuses to come with us

Once again Bloc sent princes more in number and more honorable than they

And they came to baylam and said to him thus says Bloc the son of support

Let nothing hinder you from coming to me for I will surely do you great honor and whatever you say to me

I will do come curse this people for me

But baylam answered and said to the servants of Bloc

Though Bloc were to give me his house full of silver and gold

I could not go beyond the command of the Lord my God to do less or more

Please now Terry here this night also that I may know what more the Lord will say to me

And God came to baylam at night and said if the men have come to call you rise go with them

But only what I bid you that shall you do

Baylam his donkey and the angel

So baylam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab

But God's anger was kindled because he went and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary

Now he was riding on the donkey and his two servants were with him

And the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand

And the donkey turned aside out of the road and went into the field

And baylam struck the donkey to turn her into the road

Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards with a wall on either side

And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord she pushed against the wall and pressed baylam's foot against the wall

So he struck her again

Then the angel of the Lord went ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left

When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord

She lay down under baylam and baylam's anger was kindled and he struck the donkey with his staff

Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey and she said to baylam

What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times

And baylam said to the donkey because you have made sport of me

I wish I had a sword in my hand for then I would kill you

And the donkey said to baylam am I not your donkey upon which you have ridden all your life long to this day

Was I ever accustomed to do so to you

And he said no

Then the Lord opened the eyes of baylam and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand

And he bowed his head and fell on his face and the angel of the Lord said to him

Why have you struck your donkey these three times?

Behold I have come forth to withstand you because your way is perverse before me

And the donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times

If she had not turned aside from me surely just now I would have slain you and let her live

Then baylam said to the angel of the Lord

I have sinned for I did not know that you stood in the road against me

Now therefore if it is evil in your sight I will go back again

And the angel of the Lord said to baylam go with the men but only the word which I bid you that shall you speak

So baylam went on with the princes of balak

When balak heard that baylam had come he went out to meet him at the city of moeb

on the boundary formed by the arnon at the extremity of the boundary

And balak said to baylam did I not send to you to call you? Why did you not come to me? Am I not able to honor you?

baylam said to balak

Behold I have come to you

Have I now any power at all to speak anything the word that God puts in my mouth that must I speak

Then baylam went with balak and they came to kira khusath

And balak sacrificed oxen and sheep and sent to baylam and to the princes who were with him

The book of Deuteronomy chapter 23

exclusion from the assembly

He whose testicles are crushed or whose male member is cut off shall not enter the assembly of the Lord

No bastard shall enter the assembly of the Lord even to the 10th generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord

No ammonite or moe bite shall enter the assembly of the Lord even to the 10th generation

None belonging to them shall enter the assembly of the Lord forever

Because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way when you came forth out of Egypt

And because they hired against you baylam the son of bayar from pithor of Mesopotamia to curse you

Nevertheless, the Lord your God would not listen to baylam but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you

Because the Lord your God loved you

You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever

You shall not abhor an idmite for he is your brother

You shall not abhor an Egyptian because you were a soldier in her in his land

The children of the third generation that are born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord

Sanitary ritual and humanitarian precepts

When you go forth against your enemies and are in camp then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing

If there is among you any man who is not cleaned by reason of a nocturnal emission then he shall go outside the camp

He shall not come within the camp but when evening comes on he shall bathe himself in water

And when the sun is down he may come within the camp

You shall have a place outside the camp and you shall go out to it and you shall have a stick with your weapons

And when you relieve yourself outside you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement

Because the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to save you and to give up your enemies before you

Therefore your camp must be holy that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you

You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you

He shall dwell with you in your midst in the place which he shall choose within one of your towns where it pleases him best

You shall not oppress him

There shall be no cult prostitute of the daughters of Israel neither shall there be a cult prostitute of the sons of Israel

You shall not bring the hire of a harlot or the wages of a dog into the house of the Lord your God and payment for any vow

For both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God

You shall not lend upon interest to your brother

Interest on money interest on rituals interest on anything that is lent for interest

To a foreigner you may lend upon interest, but to your brother you shall not lend upon interest

That the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land which you are entering to take possession of it

When you make a vow to the Lord your God you shall not be slacked to pay it for the Lord your God will surely require it of you

And it would be sin in you

But if you refrain from vowing it shall be no sin in you

You shall be careful to perform what has passed your lips for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth

When you go into your neighbor's vineyard you may eat your filip grapes as many as you wish

But you shall not put any in your vessel

When you go into your neighbor's standing grain you may pluck the ears with your hand

But you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain

Psalm 105

God's faithfulness to Israel

O give thanks to the Lord call on his name make known his deeds among the peoples

Sing to him sing praises to him tell of all his wonderful works

Glory in his holy name let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice

Seek the Lord and his strength seek his presence continually

Remember the wonderful works that he has done his miracles and the judgments he uttered

O offspring of Abraham his servant sons of Jacob his chosen ones

He is the Lord our God his judgments are in all the earth

He is mindful of his covenant forever of the word that he has commanded for a thousand generations

The covenant which he made with Abraham his sworn promise to Isaac which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute

To Israel as an everlasting covenant saying to you

I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance

When they were few a number of little account and sojourners in it

Wandering from nation to nation from one kingdom to another people

He allowed no one to oppress them

He rebuked kings on their account saying touch not my anointed ones do my profits no harm

When he summoned a famine on the land and broke every staff of bread

He had sent a man ahead of them

Joseph who was sold as a slave

His feet were hurt with shackles his neck was put in a collar of iron

Until what he had said came to pass the word of the Lord tested him

The king sent and released him the ruler of the peoples set him free

He made him lord of his house in ruler of all his possessions

To instruct his princes at his pleasure and to teach his elders wisdom

Then Israel came to Egypt Jacob sojourned in the land of ham

And the Lord made his people very fruitful. He made them stronger than their foes

He turned their hearts to hate his people to deal craftily with his servants

He sent Moses his servant and Aaron whom he had chosen

They wrought his signs among them and miracles in the land of ham

He sent darkness and made the land dark

They rebelled against his words. He turned their waters into blood and caused their fish to die

Their land swarmed with frogs even in the chambers of their kings

He spoke and there came swarms of flies and gnats throughout their country

He gave them hail for rain enlightening that flashed through the land

He struck their vines and fig trees and shattered the trees of their country

He spoke and the locusts came and young locusts without number which devoured all the vegetation in their land and ate up the fruit of their ground

He struck all the firstborn in their land the first issue of all their strength

Then he led forth Israel with silver and gold and there was none among his tribes who stumbled

Egypt was glad when they departed for dread of them had fallen upon it

He spread a cloud for covering and fire to give light by night

They asked and he brought quails and gave them bread from heaven and abundance

He opened the rock and water gushed forth it flowed through the desert like a river

where he remembered his holy promise and Abraham his servant

So he led forth his people with joy his chosen ones with singing

And he gave them the lands of the nations and they took possession of the fruit of other people's toil

To the end that they should keep his statutes and observe his laws

praise the Lord

Father in heaven we give you praise and we do you we do praise you lord god in heaven because you are good

And you're true and you are just you're just in right in all your ways and we continually affirm that truth

Even Lord when we are unfaithful you are faithful. This is a common refrain. So we give you praise

Because you are truth itself. You are justice itself and you are mercy. You're love

Let us

Let us be loved. Let us live in your justice. Let us walk in your truth and dwell in your peace

In Jesus name we pray name in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

So we have the story. This is so incredible. I love how all of these readings

Kind of coincide right now right even Psalm 105 that we just got done praying is a recap of what the

Lord had done with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and through Moses and leading the people through the wilderness and feeding them with

Quail and feeding them with mana. It's just great recap as well as the we got to hear about economy chapter 23

Baylam the son of Bayar from Pethore, Malaltamia

And how God would not listen to we're going to get that in the next couple chapters

Because Baylam is going to open his mouth

Because he's been hired to curse the people of Israel

But instead he will speak blessings upon the people of Israel

Which is a remarkable thing for so many reasons that are going to be unfolded for us in the days to come

But one of the things that I really want to emphasize right now is this

That this mysterious character. No, he's not very mysterious. There's some mysterious characters in the Bible

But but Baylam

Baylam is

Ha this

Soothsayer essentially, you know, he sees someone that is recognized by the people in that area

As being someone who has some kind of spiritual connection and clearly scripture keep saying that God is talking to Baylam

But Baylam

Since the Lord said no do not curse these people. They are my people

He says no originally, but then what happens the King of Moab

He amps up block

He amps up the whole price he says I'll offer you more money and even more honorable people will come to you like impressive

People will come to invite you to do this thing and so that's when Baylam

Seems to have God's permission like yeah, if it seems well with you go ahead and do this

But God has already let him know. God has already told him. No, don't do that

You'll only say what I want to say and I'm not going to curse my own people

But there's such an interesting thing because

As this story unfolds in the next couple days

Baylam is going to as I said he's going to speak blessings

But what we see is we see this story of

Baylam who is impressed by the powerful. He's impressed by the impressive people sent by Balak

And then they spoke into by his donkey

It's his donkey that saves his life

Which is so strange for us because

We're following the story in numbers and all of a sudden we have a talking donkey

And it can stop us and we think like wait is this Shrek? What is happening right now

But what's happening truly is a miracle and we have no idea how this worked

Was his mouth moving was it just a voice coming from inside this donkey? However this happened and it even seems like

Baylam is not even

Impressed overly impressed initially when the talkie talks to him because he's so mad that he says I'm going to kill you

and yet

This miracle that happens

That gets spoken about by the early church fathers is so interesting

That even like St. Ambrose is an example. St. Ambrose says that

The angels revealed but not to bail him. He says what offense does bail him commit except that he said one thing and plotted another

That's the thing is is that bail him was going to take money

He was impressed by impressive people and he said one thing and plotted another

Goes on Ambrose says this is in the fourth century for God seeks out the pure vessel

One not corrupted by impurity and squalor bail him was tested therefore

But he was found not found acceptable before he was full of lies and guile

You know, this is actually something that happens later on like in the New Testament and second Peter chapter 2

Peter writes and he says about some people he says they have forsaken the right way and gone astray

Following the way of Baylam son of Bayar who loved the wages of unrighteousness

But he was rebuked for his iniquity a dumb donkey speaking with the man's voice restrained the madness of the prophet

And it's just what a gift

In fact even in the litter of Jude it calls the error of Baylam is for profit

And so one of the things that we realize is is what's going on underneath all of this is Baylam is willing to sell himself

And sell his soul essentially for money for influence for fame for power

And that can be our temptation as well

And so today as we kind of journey with the people of Israel it's so good because man as Baylam is going to be blessing the people of Israel

We're going to find out something that is so incredible about the very people that he's blessing in that moment that

Man, it's going to blow your socks off. It's going to be a pretty incredible

But that's for days to come keep praying for each other my name's father Mike

I cannot wait to see you tomorrow and continue this journey with you

God bless