There is something peculiarly awful in the case of Balaam. He evidently loved money — no uncommon love in our own day. Balak’s gold and silver proved a very tempting bait to the wretched man — a bait too tempting to be resisted. Satan knew his man and the price at which he could be purchased.
His Heart Was Wrong
If Balaam’s heart had been right with God, he would have made very short work with Balak’s message; indeed, it would not have cost him a moment’s consideration to send a reply. But Balaam’s heart was all wrong, and we see him in the melancholy condition of one acted upon by conflicting feelings; his heart was bent upon going, because it was bent upon the silver and gold. But at the same time, there was a sort of reference to God — an appearance of religiousness put on as a cloak to cover his covetous practices. He longed for the money, but he would fain lay hold of it after a religiously respectful fashion. Miserable man! His name stands on the page of inspiration as the expression of one very dark and awful stage of man’s downward history. “Woe unto them,” says Jude, “for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.”
Peter, too, presents Balaam as a prominent figure in one of the very darkest pictures of fallen humanity—a model on which some of the vilest characters are formed. He speaks of those “having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls; a heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet” (2 Peter 2:14-16).
The Wages of Unrighteousness
These passages are solemnly conclusive as to the true character and spirit of Balaam. His heart was set upon money — he “loved the wages of unrighteousness,” and his history has been written by the pen of the Holy Spirit as a solemn warning to all to beware of covetousness, which is idolatry. We shall not dwell further upon the sad story. Pause for a few moments, and gaze upon the picture presented in Numbers 22 of the two prominent figures — the crafty king and the covetous, self-willed prophet. We doubt not that it will give a deepened sense of the evil of covetousness, the great moral danger of setting the heart’s affections upon this world’s riches, and the deep blessedness of having the fear of God before our eyes.
C. H. Mackintosh