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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 1 of 5
Numbers 22:22-41
And so Balaam saddled his ass and set out with a light heart, making an advance calculation of his reward of iniquity. But in the LORD’S eyes, his way is perverse (v. 32), which indicates that it leads to perdition. Balaam pretends to obey God whilst he is in reality "drawn away of his own lust" (James 1:14). The LORD wants to make him understand it and speaks to him in a miraculous fashion by the mouth of his ass. No effect! Then the angel reveals himself to him and warns him (read 2 Peter 2:15-16). More foolish and more blind than his ass, Balaam persists and the LORD allows him to go on . . . Does it not happen that in order to stop us, God stands in the way of our own will? He sets up obstacles that speak on His behalf, if we know how to listen. There are many occasions when we should ask ourselves if the Lord may not be standing in the way of a project of which He disapproves!
The New Testament mentions "the way of Balaam", then his "error" (Judges 1:1), and lastly his "doctrine" (Revelation 2:14). To act of one’s own will always leads one further astray.
Balak and Balaam now met for their nefarious work. Together these two confederates are a type of the wicked king called "the Beast", and of the false prophet or Antichrist, who in the times foretold in the Revelation, will be driven by Satan against Israel and against God.
