Torah Pearls #40 – Balak (Numbers 22:2-25:9)

In The Original Torah Pearls, Balak (Numbers 22:2-25:9), we discuss was Yehovah Balaam’s God? What kind of prophet was Balaam? Why did God seek to kill Balaam? Does Numbers 22:22 really say that the angel of Yehovah was Satan? Did Balaam announce the first recorded messianic prophecy in the Torah?

I look forward to reading your comments!

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Torah Pearls #40 - Balak (Numbers 22:2-25:9)

You are listening to The Original Torah Pearls with Nehemia Gordon, Keith Johnson, and Jono Vandor. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Jono: G'Day to Eileen in Canada, Keith in Sydney. Hey Keith! There’s another Keith in the world and he's in my hometown Sydney, g’day to you. Joan In Florida who commented saying, "Jono, I have really been enjoying listening to the podcast while I'm working. Thanks for making them available." Also, Karen in Texas, who wrote saying, "My husband and I listen to you each Shabbat. It's like sitting around the kitchen table with you three, and we learn so much. This past Torah portion was really great, and we also loved the session when you shared about the Aramaic letter. Loved Nehemia's sharing his experience on Mount Sinai. Also, I met Deb, the cultured Karaite at her home about a month ago. She's great." She is great. "Blessings to you all," she writes. Thank you so much, Karen, for that. Also, g’day to Janice who commented saying, "I'm so happy that these episodes are on iTunes now so I can listen on my way to work on my iPhone.”

Nehemia: Woohoo!

Jono: Thank you, Janice. Yes, they are. They are. And wherever you may be around the world. Thank you.

Keith: Hey, I want to...

Jono: Keith, Keith, Hang on. I gotta tell everyone what we're doing, settle down there. You ready?

Keith: Sorry about that. Yeah. Okay.

Nehemia: He always interrupts, this guy!

Jono: It's time for Pearls from the Torah Portion with Keith Johnson and Nehemia Gordon. G'Day, gentleman! Keith!

Keith: I'm sorry. I was so excited. I gotta shout out from the United States all the way over to Jerusalem, Miri Bergen. I hear that she's listening. My sister in Jerusalem. I’m so excited, thank you for listening Miri.

Nehemia: Shalom Miri!

Nehemia: Hey, I want to shout out to Julie and her family who are over in Montgomery, Alabama and listen every week. They actually posted a comment on my Facebook page, and this was in response to a comment that you had read, Jono, in a previous program in the portion of Bechukotai. It was a comment that somebody had made that I interrupt Keith, and Julie writes, "the comment the guy made about you interrupting Keith each week is funny since our family thinks Keith interrupts you way more. We very much enjoy the teachings. Thank you to all, from her family." Thank you, Julie and her family over in Montgomery, Alabama!

Keith: Hey Julie. I don't understand why you'd say I interrupt Nehemia. I never interrupt Nehemia!

Jono: Thank you, Julie! And today we are in Balak, Numbers 22:2 to 25:9. Guys, I’ve got to say, you know what? This is one of my favorite Torah portions of all Torah portions. This is so high up on my list, and I'm really excited that we're doing this right now. And it starts like this. “Now Balak, the son of Tzipor, saw what Israel had done to the Amorites and Moab was exceedingly afraid of the people because they were many and Moab was sick with dread.” It says sick with dread, “because of the children of Israel. So Moab said to the old...”

Nehemia: Well, since you're making the point that it's “sick with dread”, what do you have, Keith, in yours? What is that verse 3?

Keith: You guys, I'm very excited today. I'm actually using a different English version today. I'm using a different English version today. No, I can't use the NIV today, I'm actually using the One New Man Bible today - Revealing Jewish Roots and Power. And so, this is the version I'm using.

Nehemia: I've never heard of it.

Keith: That's right. That's why I'm using it. I want to do something that neither of you have the access to so I can get more time on the radio show. I've thought about this deeply. How can I get more time on the radio show? Come up with a version that Nehemia can’t tap on and he can see and Jono can't say, “Oh! My version says this.” No - I got one neither of you have.

Jono: What does it say in your obscure Bible, in verse 3?

Keith: My obscured Bible I have, it says, “And Moab was very afraid of the people because they were many and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel.”

Jono: Distressed?

Keith: Yes. Nehemia?

Nehemia: So, it has “Va'Yagor”, which just means, “and he was afraid”, or very afraid. It's an intense word. Terrified, I guess, is probably a good translation.

Jono: Terrified? Terrified because of the children of Israel. “So Moab said to the elders of Midian, ‘now this company will lick up everything around us as an ox licks up the grass of the field.’” Just like that. “Balak son of Zippor was King of the Moabites at that time, then he sent messages to Balaam the son of Beor at Pethor.” Now, this is kind of an obscure sentence, “which is near the river in the land of the sons of his people.” Now the river - we're talking about the Euphrates, right?

Nehemia: Yeah, whenever he talks about the river and doesn't say which one, we're dealing with the Euphrates - in the Bible, that's the Great River.

Jono: The Great River in the land of the sons of his people...

Nehemia: Which kind of would imply that Balak - he was the king of Midian, or excuse me, of Moab, but he may have actually been an Aramean from the same region as Balaam. That's kind of what this implies. So, he's having trouble and he's sending home for the expert, for the pinch hitter to come in.

Jono: For the great man, because this is what it says. “Look, a people has come from Egypt. See, they cover the face of the earth and are settling next to me. Therefore, please come at once, curse the people for me, they are too mighty for even me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land. For I know that he whom you bless is blessed and he whom you curse is cursed."

Nehemia: Can we stop here for a minute because, wow, this is... So first of all, we’ve got Balak sending back to Balaam saying, “okay, I need you, know that whoever you bless is blessed and whoever you curse is cursed.” He's almost mocking the blessing that God gave Abraham, that great blessing where God said to Abraham, “whoever blesses you will be blessed and whoever curses you will be cursed." Well, this is what they believed that Balaam had the power to do - that whoever he blessed, whatever words he spoke of blessing, that those words actually had, in and of themselves, power; and whatever curse he spoke… again, those words, they believed, had in and of themselves, power.

So, you've got this problem - well what are you going to do? He’s a professional curser, this prophet. I love the phrase here, "Behold a people has come out of Egypt, and behold, he covers the face of the earth and he is dwelling across from me." You know what this reminds me of? When Keith and I were in South Africa a few years back, we went to this really remote place. It was actually a cucumber farm, and in addition they had, like, wild animals running around the premises. There was kudu and, what were those things, Keith, with the long horns? Man, it was beautiful, and they told us how one day they woke up and there were 40,000 squatters living over on the next hill.

Jono: Wow.

Nehemia: Just living around the corner basically, a short walk away from their farm, and they're out in the middle of nowhere. They were terrified. They were legitimately terrified because these are literally people who were homeless, probably in one of the big cities. There had been a law in South Africa forbidding those people from traveling around. Indigenous African tribes had been forbidden from traveling in their own country. Well, when those laws were abolished, they said, “okay, well we don't want to be in this slum. We hear there's a spring over by that hillside,” and 40,000 of them just one day planted themselves in this remote area. The people who are living on this farm all alone, all of a sudden had these neighbors that they didn't understand, that they didn't know anything about, and a great number and they were… at least they believed them to be desperate people because they were dirt poor, and they were terrified. Every time I read this, that's the image that pops in my mind because Keith and I actually went to that, I don't know what you call it; it wasn't a township. It was really just a shantytown of shacks, and it was a frightening thing. I understood where their fear came from. Here is this mass of people that is all of a sudden at your doorstep.

Jono: You said that’s 40,000 people. In this case, I guess we're dealing with two, three, possibly four million.

Nehemia: Yeah. Can you imagine? Yeah.

Jono: “So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the diviner's fee in their hand and they came to Balaam”.

Nehemia: Woah, Woah. Is that what you have in your One New Man Bible; diviner's fee?

Keith: Okay. Well, actually this is the KJV, the Keith Johnson... you know, I've written my own translation. "And the elders of Moab left with the rewards of divination in their hand."

Jono: The rewards of divination.

Nehemia: It just says in Hebrew, 'K'samim', which really just means divination. So, these may not have been rewards of divination. It sounds like these are some kind of divinatory devices, and maybe now is the time to take a break and talk about divination. I guess we'll talk about it a little bit later on, but this is a key point. This is a key theme; this might be a Torah Pearl because I don't know if this is obvious in English. In Hebrew, this is completely obvious that Bilaam… and don't you guys call him Balaam or something like that?

Keith: Yes, Balaam.

Nehemia: Bilaam is a diviner. He's on the one hand… so Bilaam, Balaam is a diviner. Joshua, Chapter 13, verse 22, it mentions Bilaam the son of Beor, the diviner. He is the one who practices divination. So actually, here in the King James, it says, “Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer.” Soothsayer, diviner; in Hebrew that's all the same thing: 'Kosem.' The definition, you could say, of 'Kosem', is somebody who…and you can see this in the book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 18. Can we pop over to Deuteronomy 18? Can we do that? This I think is really important, because this is, I think, the linchpin to the whole chapter and understanding it in that context. Deuteronomy 18 is this beautiful passage that makes a distinction between divination, what we might call, I think, in modern terms... we would probably call this witchcraft - but divination or soothsaying, on the one hand, versus prophecy. It says there, and maybe you could read from your...

Jono: You want the New King James, do you?

Nehemia: In verse nine, yeah.

Jono: “When you come into the land which Yehovah your Elohim is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire or one who practices witchcraft," I've got, "or a soothsayer", or one who interrupts.

Nehemia: Did you say interrupts?

Jono: I said interrupts because you interrupted me!

Nehemia: Freudian slip, okay. But it's a whole bunch of things. I want to skip ahead because we'll get to this when we get to Deuteronomy 18. Can you skip ahead to verse 14? The key thing about all the things listed here is, these are ways of getting information through the supernatural. Verse 11, for example, has, "he who asks," literally, "the ghost and the familiar spirit." You want information? You want to know what’s going to be in the future? You ask the spirit to come and speak to you. You ask the ghost, you speak to the dead, you entreat the dead, you pray to them. These are the things that he calls these, the abominations of those nations, and verse 14 is the key which explains it.

Jono: “But these nations, which you will dispossess, listen to soothsayers and diviners. But as for you, Yehovah your Elohim has not appointed such for you.”

Nehemia: Okay, so we have, on one hand, the nations - they go to the soothsayers and diviners, and that's Balaam! Bilaam is a soothsayer, he’s a 'Kosem', that's the exact word in verse 14. 'Kosmim', it's the plural of 'Kosem', which is the description of Bilaam. He said that's what they do; they go to the soothsayers and diviners. That's how they get their information.

Verse 15 explains what God expects from us. We're not supposed to go to soothsayers and diviners. Let me read it from Hebrew. It says, "a prophet from among you, from your brothers like me, Yehovah will raise up and you shall listen to him according to all that you ask from Yehovah your God at Horeb in the day of the congregation saying, ‘I no longer want to hear the voice of Yehovah my God, and this great fire,’” et cetera, et cetera. So, they had this very terrifying experience at Sinai, and they said, “we can't do this anymore. We're going to die if we keep hearing the voice of God directly. We want an intermediary. We want a prophet. We want someone to come and speak God's word. And Yehovah establishes that institution of the prophet through Moses. Moses is going to be the prophet that speaks Yehovah's word. So now in verse 15, he says, “well, there's going to be other prophets like me.” Now, this is a point that Keith and I may argue about, certainly, and traditionally Jews and Christians have seen this differently. Christians have seen this as, there’s a specific prophet, in verse 15, and Jews have seen this as, this is the institution of the prophet, that this is...

Jono: Well, Yoel and I were recently having this discussion. Is it talking specifically about Joshua? Or is it talking about the prophet's, collective?

Nehemia: I don't think it's talking about Joshua because Joshua had already been appointed at this point. Here he’s talking about, in the future he's going to raise up a prophet and then, later on, he talks about a false prophet. Grammatically it says what we'd call in Hebrew, the collective singular. It's when you want to refer to the entire category in your fruit, and we can talk about this when we get to Deuteronomy 18. You want to talk about a whole category, you talk about a singular one example of it. When God created birds, it doesn't say birds, it says bird. It says he created a bird and you know, but that means bird kind, and he created a man, it's mankind.

So, this is the prophet. I think that if you read it in context, that's actually something that we probably... everybody can agree upon. How it applies in a certain theological context, let's leave that out of it. But the point here is that Israelites are supposed to listen to prophets, whereas the Pagans, the nations, they listened to soothsayers and diviners. That's what they do. Balaam is a soothsayer and diviner, but he's an unusual one in that he tries to use soothsaying and divination with Yehovah, and that's what we're going to see in this Chapter.

Jono: This is where it gets kind of interesting because it says in verse 8, "and he said to them…”; they turn up and they give him the words of Balak and he says, “lodge here tonight and I will bring back word to you as Yehovah speaks to me. So the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam.” How can it be explained?

Keith: Look, this is what I want to stop and say. Nehemia says that he uses a combination of the divination and Yehovah. The question that I've always asked is, is the guy... I mean, wherever he comes from or whatever his situation is, and whereas we're going to see as we go through the story, for whatever reason, Yehovah is actually speaking to him. And so the thing that I kind of look at it and the people who maybe have had a genuine experience, let's just say there's been a genuine experience with Yehovah - Yehovah has spoken genuinely to them and then they open up their own shop and say, “I've got the ability to tell the future and I've got this, that and the other,” and people come to them.

I've actually seen this. Whatever you want to say about it. I've seen this used in the church where there has been a successful experience. You know, something's happened and then that becomes the person that’s the prophet of the church, so now whatever that person says, it's the word of the Lord. So, I'm just wondering... and we're going to find out about him, but he has this experience that's a legitimate one, and then...

Nehemia: I think that the point of divination, or one of the keys of divination, is that the diviner thinks he can induce the prophetic experience and he also can control it. That's why I interrupted you when you said the price of divination, or how did you translate that?

Jono: The fear of divination.

Nehemia: The fear of divination, because that's not what it was. They brought divination. They brought their little bones and the special oil and whatever it is, all kinds of little things that they used. You know they drip oil into a cup, and so they've got a special magical cup, and so that's divination. They brought the devices of divination so that Bilaam could use this in their favor. He needs the seven bowls. He's got, like, all these little magical things going on and through the divination, he thinks he can control this prophecy, this experience, and he can prophesy a curse. He's like, “yeah, I'm going to do what you say.” But when it comes to it, God knows what he's got going on in his head. And, I guess I'm jumping ahead. I'm gonna let you read it.

Jono: Okay, here it goes. "Then God came to Balaam and said, ‘who are these men with you?’ And Balaam said to God, ‘Balak the son of Tzipor, the King of Moab has sent to me saying, look at the people who have come out of Egypt and they cover the face of the earth. Come now, curse them for me, perhaps I shall have to be able to overpower them and drive them out.’ And God said to Balaam, ‘you shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.’ So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princes of Balak, ‘go back to your land for Yehovah has refused to give me permission. He's refused to give me permission to go with you. And the princes of Moab rose and they went back to Balak and said, ‘Balaam refuses to come with us.’ And then Balak sent again, princes more numerous and more honorable than they, and they came to Balaam and they said to him, ‘thus says Balak the son of Tzipor, please let nothing hinder you from coming to me for I will certainly honor you greatly and I will do whatever you say to me. Therefore, please come and curse this people for me.’”

Nehemia: So, let's pop back to verse five and read to me from your One New Man Bible, Keith Johnson, Numbers 22 verse 5, just the first few words.

Keith: "He sent messengers, therefore, to Balaam.”

Nehemia: Messengers. Okay. Is that what you’ve got? Messengers?

Jono: I've got that exactly, yeah.

Nehemia: Okay. So, the Hebrew word is 'Malachim'. 'Malachim', if we didn't have a context, if you were just to translate… if you ask any Israeli what that word means, he’ll tell you, “that means angels”. And it does. That's because in Greek, the word Angelos, where we get the English word ‘angels’, is just simply the word for messenger. So, this is what we do. We do this really neat thing in English where we distinguish between different types of messengers. We say, this one we're just going to translate messenger. That one we're going to translate angel, and in Hebrew, it's the same exact thing. The reason I mentioned this is we've got this really cool thing here where Balak sends his messengers, which we could again translate as angels. Not that they're supernatural, I'm not saying that. My point is that the purpose of the messenger is to speak the message.

Then we look in verse 16, and I'll read it literally from Hebrew. "And they came to Bilaam and they said to him, ‘thus says Balak the son of Tzipor.'” Now does that sound familiar? “Thus says?” In Hebrew, that's the exact same terminology as Isaiah would use when he says, “thus says Yehovah of hosts” or Jeremiah, when he says, ‘thus says’. 'Ko Amar Yehovah', thus says Yehovah; here it says, 'Ko Amar Balak.' This is how a human messenger speaks. Therefore, why are we seeing God's messenger speaking this way as well? The prophet speaks this way, the angels speak this way, the supernatural messengers. And then what do they say? He says, “do not hold back from going with me,” is literally what it says. I think that's so interesting because, when he says ‘me’… so, this messenger that Balak sent, we don't know what his name was, but let's say his name was George, okay? So, when George says, ‘do not hold back from going with me’, who's the me? Is the me Balak? Or is that George? I don't know. It could be either. But when he says in verse 17, “for I will surely honor you greatly…'

Jono: That's Balak.

Nehemia: ‘…and all that you say to me, I will do.'” That's Balak, that's not George. George can't honor Bilaam. He doesn't have the money to do it, and he says, 'and go please and curse for me this people’. This is Balak speaking. The words are coming out of the mouth of George, but it's the words of Bilaam as “I”. That's one of the really powerful things, when Isaiah says “I” and he says, “thus says Yehovah”, and he says “I”, he doesn't mean Isaiah. It's the words of Yehovah. And here it’s the words of Balak. Just a pattern I'm seeing here.

Keith: Amen.

Jono: That is an excellent point. “Then Balaam answered George and said, ‘though Balak were to give me his full house of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of Yehovah my Elohim.’” Now Nehemia, Keith, he says, “I cannot go beyond the word of Yehovah my Elohim.” Is that what you have?

Keith: Yes, it says Yehovah, my God.

Jono: “To do less or more”. Now he's referring to Yehovah…

Nehemia: Actually, he says ‘to do little or great’. Yeah, Yehovah is his God, that's not disputed. That's the really cool thing. Later on, when he's talking about Yehovah, he says Yehovah, he says it right out, that this is who he's interacting with.

Jono: “So now, therefore, please, you stay here tonight that I may know what more Yehovah will say to me. And God came to Balaam that night and said to him, ‘if the men come to call you, if the men come to call, you rise and go with them, but only the word which I speak to you, that you shall do.’” Now things kind of get a little bit confusing here. It says, “so Balaam rose in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab.”

Nehemia: Woah, woah - is that what you have Keith? Saddled his donkey? I've been waiting for this verse for months! Are you kidding me? And you're going to read me, “saddled his donkey”?

Jono: I've got donkey. Keith, what do you got?

Keith: The Keith Johnson version says, “And Balaam rose up in the morning and got on his ass and went to the Princes of Moab.”

Nehemia: That speaks for itself. He saddled his ass. Now just explain to the people in good, nice, proper English…forget English. In Hebrew, we have two different words. We have the word, and this is interesting… it's kind of like chicken… I’m a city slicker. When I say chicken, I mean that species of bird, but you talk to somebody from the country they'll say, “oh well, you know, chicken, that's the female and the male is called a rooster,” is that right?

Jono: A male is called a rooster, that’s correct.

Nehemia: So, if you're eating a male you say, “I'm eating chicken”. Well, Hebrew is very specific like that when it comes to this species. So 'Chamor' is the male, and 'Aton' is the female. Here it's purely 'Aton'. And Old English made that similar distinction; you had donkey and you had an ass. Ass was the female, ass being the translation of 'Aton'. And 'Chamor' is donkey.

Jono: So now wait a minute – so you're telling me that the ass is female, and the donkey is male? Is that what you're saying?

Nehemia: I’m sticking with that story, yeah. I actually looked at one of these really big, massive English dictionaries and apparently, in the older phase of English, ass was specifically a female, although I think jackass could then be a male.

Jono: Keith, did you know this? I didn't know this.

Keith: Oh, I only learned it when we were sitting… I want to tell a story to the people. So Nehemia and I went through this long process, Jono, of finally doing this book, A Prayer to Our Father: Hebrew Origins of the Lord's Prayer. And my goal was always, look I can't wait Nehemia, we're going to actually get into a church. And he's like, “we're not going to be able to get into a church.” I said, “no, we're going to go to an official church.”

No, I'm talking about, this was early in the process, and my point was our first thing was that there were smaller groups of messianic organizations that were going to invite Nehemia and sometimes me. I would sign a statement of faith, but basically the thing I was really waiting for was for a church to invite us, some kind of official [church].

So, we had this Baptist church that invited us way up in Canada to come and speak about the Hebrew origins of the Lord's prayer. Well, Nehemia was in one of his modes and we went into this church, you know, it's a big huge... it's a church Jono. And in the church, Nehemia gets up to explain to the people about the difference between a male and a female donkey. He simply outright said in the Baptist church, and we haven't been invited yet back. He goes up and he says, “now you guys understand there's a difference between a donkey and an ass. Right?” And I'm like, he didn't say that at a Baptist church in Canada with the Jewish guy and a Methodist guy, black and white. It's our first big invitation. And he's explaining to these people, and I'm like, “Nehemia, you can't do that.” Well, it's already… and he continued. So, let's get back to the story.

Nehemia: Just to remind you, the context is that I had written sort of like an open letter called The Ass Speaks Out and that was actually after... I'll tell this story real quick. And really, if anybody hasn't read The Ass Speaks Out you need to go and Google that and find it.

Jono: I'll link it to this episode.

Nehemia: The context in which I posted that is, I had been speaking at this congregation… I think it was in Florida. And a man walks up to me, who now is known as the “ass man”, and he says to me, “Nehemia, I'm so happy I came. I learned so much, and I almost didn't come tonight because my congregation leader told me I mustn't go hear that nonbeliever Nehemia Gordon.” Of course, I am a believer. I'm a believer in my faith; I’m a Karaite Jew. What he meant as nonbeliever is that I'm not a Christian. “He said, ‘you mustn't go hear that, you know, that person Nehemia Gordon, he's not a believer in Jesus, you can't hear it.’” So, this man responded to him. He said to the congregation leader, “if God could use Balaam's ass to speak the truth, then surely he can use Nehemia.” I was, I suppose, flattered by that. And the proof was in the pudding in that he came, and he actually learned something and was benefited by it and edified by it. So, I've been waiting this whole time to talk about Balaam's ass, one of my favorite stories in the Bible.

Jono: Let me go back. “So Balaam rose in the morning, saddled his ass and went out with the princes of Moab. Then God's anger was aroused because he went.” How do we put those things together? Because...

Keith: Well no, hold up. It says, “And God's anger was kindled because he went and then the messenger of Yehovah stood in the road as...”

Nehemia: Let's explain why God's angry first. Can we hold off on the Messenger before we…?

Jono: Because I want to get to that. I want to get to that, but why is God angry? Because he says, I'll read it again, “If the men come to you, rise and go with them, but only the word that I speak that you shall do.” So, he gets up, he goes, and God's angry. And let me read what it says in my New King James Study Bible Notes. It says here, “God's anger was aroused against Balaam apparently because Balaam intended to do what Balak had hired him to do, to curse Israel. God could not have been angry at his going for He had given Balaam permission. But he had also given Balaam orders ‘to speak only the word which I speak to you’. Apparently, Baalam planned to say whatever brought the highest amount of money.” So that's a possibility. That's speculation, but you know, in my mind...

Keith: So, I can give another scenario?

Jono: Keith.

Keith: One other scenario is that, really, Yehovah has this ability to see the motivations of the heart and that maybe Balaam really did look at what it was that they were bringing and he said, “you know what, I'm going to speak only what Yehovah says, but I'm going to get paid.” So, in other words, he asked the first time, he said, “what are these men doing here?” He says, “don't go with them.” And then he comes back again and so maybe Balaam really did think, “I can get both, the best of both worlds. I can get paid and wait to hear the word of Yehovah”. Just another possibility.

Jono: Sure. So, either way, it's not so much the action of getting up and going with them. It's his heart that is the problem. At least we can speculate that's likely the case.

Nehemia: I think what bears that out is that later in the next Chapter, when we actually get to what he does, and this goes back to the whole divination thing…and I'll hold off until we get to the next Chapter. But you're going to see, he's going to be practicing divination and trying to, essentially, force Yehovah to let him say what he wants to say. It doesn't work out for him and eventually he gives up on that. He realizes, “okay, I'm not going to use divination like I did in the past,” and I know I'm jumping ahead. I'm already in Chapter 24 now. But when he finally has the prophetic experience, he learns the lesson. It takes him two times of failure until the third time he's like, “okay.”

Jono: We’re going to go through that. Keith!

Keith: Chapter 22, verse 22, “And God's anger was kindled against him because he went and the angel of Yehovah stood in the road as Satan against him.” Is that what it says in your verse?

Nehemia: Is that what you’ve got in yours, Keith?

Keith: The word is Satan.

Nehemia: It says that in your printed Bible, Keith?

Keith: I'm using the Keith Johnson version. I told you I'm not gonna let you guys click on your computer anymore. I've decided to look at the Hebrew and I'm mixing it with a bunch of different versions. So, what I’m telling you… well, what does yours say?

Jono: You know, I read it. It says, “God's anger was aroused because he went and the angel of Yehovah, the angel of the LORD took his stand in the way as an adversary against him,” and I thought, “ooh, I wonder what that word is.” I looked it up. Sure enough, as a satan against him.

Keith: I love this verse. Can we talk about this verse, and let Nehemia talk about this verse?

Jono: Please!

Keith: One of the reasons that it's such a powerful verse to me is that it, sort of, captures this amazing idea that Yehovah can do whatever He has to do whenever He wants to do it and how ever He wants to do it. In the English, they get real nervous when they see the word 'satan' and they decide, “we're going to reserve that specifically for the personification of the one with a capital S,” but this idea of being a 'satan' in, you know, this adversarial position. It's just another example where it's uncomfortable, but that it says that the angel of Yehovah stood in the road as a satan. And you know, again, the theological lights start going off and people are like, “no, no, no, no, that can't be!” Well, if we do any sort of walking through the Scriptures using that word, we find many, many examples where in fact that's exactly what the case is.

Jono: There’s an example, Keith, just a few verses later in verse 32. We're going to get to that. But yes…

Keith: I just liked this idea that… speaking about this idea of Yehovah's will being done and then the idea is that, His will shall be done and this is what the prayer is that Yehoshua teaches. But the idea when I see it that way, it kind of changes my view, and the view being that He is the Creator of all. And if He wants to speak through Balaam or He wants to do what He wants to do, or if He wants to stand in the way as an adversary or as a satan, He can. And it's not like there's sort of this limit to His ability to intervene or to interfere sometimes in the human affair.

Jono: Amen. Nehemia!

Nehemia: So, am I the only one who hears the siren?

Jono: What is the siren? Where is that coming from?

Keith: What are you talking about? It's a siren.

Jono: Is that your siren? Or is that Nehemia's siren?

Nehemia: Are they coming for you, Keith?

Keith: I think it's the religious police. Go ahead.

Nehemia: The religious police are coming after him because he said the word Satan. Hey, let me throw out a statistic here, which I just love this statistic. So, the word ‘satan’ appears in the King James version of the English translation of the Old Testament 19 times. And in the Hebrew, the same exact word appears 35 times.

Keith: There it is, ladies and gentlemen.

Nehemia: Isn't that interesting?

Jono: Very interesting.

Nehemia: You’ve got to ask yourself the question, “okay, so, where are they? What happened to them?” I want to go back to something Keith said. You brought up, “your will be done, and your will shall be done, in the prayer that Yeshua taught.” So, I'm not sure it was clear to the people why you brought that up. I think I know. But can you explain why you brought that up in the context of the angel of Yehovah?

Keith: Well, I was speaking to the context of, our Father in heaven is not limited, so that when these words, a word like satan…okay, so we have this theological picture. We have this picture in our mind of what that means, and we certainly don't ever want the idea that He could use one of his angels, one of the messengers, to stand as an adversary, as a satan. The idea of his will being done, “Oh God, please let Your will be done because, you know, we're fighting this battle and we just don't know who's gonna win.” But when we know His will shall be done, we know that it's within His ability to do what He wants when He wants, where He wants. I was making the connection between the two in saying that when I read the Hebrew Bible and I see the word satan, and even when Angel and Yehovah became a satan, we have other stories which we could talk about it. But the point is that He's not limited. He's not limited to do winning whatever it is…

Nehemia: What I think you're really saying is that…

Keith: Saying what I said.

Nehemia: So, I think what you're really saying is that, even what Satan does is not outside the will of Yehovah. Is that fair to say?

Jono: Well, I think if we read the book of Job, what Satan does is specifically within the will of Yehovah.

Keith: Amen.

Jono: That's what I'm sticking to.

Nehemia: So yeah, just for those who haven't read the book of Job, or don't remember, there's the incident there where it says, the angels are literally… it says, “the sons of Elohim appear before Yehovah and Satan is among them.” Then it explains there that Satan wants to be able to test Job and he wants to be able to harm Job and he can't because Yehovah has put a fence around him. He's only able to once he makes the arguments and convinces Yehovah, “okay, remove that fence so that I can get at him.” I think the point of that story is, Satan can't do anything that's contrary to Yehovah's will.

Jono: Amen.

Keith: There you go.

Jono: Here it comes: “And he was riding on his donkey and his two servants were with him. Now the donkey saw the angel of Yehovah standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand, and the donkey turned aside out of the way and went into the fields, so Balaam struck the donkey and turned it back onto the road. Then the angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path between the vineyards with a wall on this side and a wall on that side, and when the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she pushed herself against the wall and crushed Balaam's foot,” crushed it against the wall. “So he struck her again. Then the angel of the LORD went further and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left, and when the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she laid down under Balaam so Balaam's anger was aroused and he struck the donkey with his staff. Then Yehovah opened the mouth of the donkey and she said,” the donkey, the ass spoke to Balaam, “what have I done to you that you have struck me these three times?”

Now Keith, one of the things that strikes me here is that it doesn't seem odd to Balaam that the donkey's talking to him. Balaam just goes, “hey, my donkeys talking, I'm going to engage in a conversation here with my donkey.” And Balaam said to the donkey “because you have abused me. I wish there were a sword in my hand for I would kill you.” So, the donkey said to Balaam, and now they're chatting away, “am I not your donkey on which you have ridden ever since I became yours? To this day, was I ever disposed to do this to you?” And he said, “no”. Then Yehovah opened Balaam's eyes and he saw the Angel of Yehovah standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face.” Now Keith, where else in the Bible do we have a talking animal?

Keith: I know we have one in Genesis, Chapter three. We’ve got a talking animal. Let's see. Is there another talking animal?

Jono: I don't know. I mean, there's the serpent in Genesis, you're right. Nehemia, is there anywhere else where an animal talks?

Nehemia: Hmm, these are the only two that come to mind.

Jono: Yeah, okay.

Nehemia: Yeah, you would expect him to have been more surprised. He didn't say like “What the…?” The donkey just asks him a question, and he answers the question. Yeah. It's kinda strange. I do think it's interesting, verse 31, what it says literally in Hebrew is, “he kneeled and bowed down on his face,” is what it literally says. So, he's bowing down to this angel, this angel of Yehovah who... and just to go back to the satan issue which appears again in the next verse. It says, “behold, I went forth as a satan.” So, satan in this context is really little ass and maybe we didn't make that clear. The word satan…in Hebrew 'satan' just means enemy. When I read this in Hebrew, what's clear to me is, this is not an enemy of Yehovah. This is an enemy to us. This is our enemy and it's an enemy that contests us. It's an enemy that can stand in our way and cause us harm and kind of divert us from the path that we want to be on. But he's doing Yehovah's will. He is an enemy, an adversary, just not Yehovah's adversary; he's Yehovah's Angel. I think it's interesting, though, that he realizes, “okay, here's this supernatural being that has just appeared before me.” And he bows down to it. That's the first thing he does, he goes to worship it. This is the word that they normally translate in your English translations as worship. And he worshipped. So, I don't know. What do you guys think of that? Why is he worshipping an angel? Are we supposed to worship messengers, or are we only supposed to worship…?

Jono: The first thing that comes to mind, Nehemia, is when Joshua does a similar thing, if I remember correctly, before the angel, the commander of the armies of the Lord. Does it use the same word there?

Nehemia: It says, ‘and he fell on his face and he bowed down’. It does. Yeah, you're absolutely right. Joshua had the same response to his angel, who also had a sword drawn in his hand. Maybe the moral of the story is that, if someone's got a sword…

Jono: You better play it safe.

Keith: Well, there are actually two things I wanted to say about the passage. One is, I think that if an angel of Yehovah comes, and you see the angel that's been in the presence of Yehovah, just the sniff, just the smell, just the thought that this angel comes as a messenger of Yehovah. Certainly, there must be some aura, some reverential… It's like Old Spice. It says, for men, you know, they're wearing old spice. He's wearing the presence of Yehovah. You're going to fall down just being in his presence.

Jono: He's old, isn't he?

Keith: Yeah. Right. But let me just say this. Yeah, that's an Old Spice commercial. But let me just say this. I think there's something really interesting when people talk about the ass. When I look at this, I look at the fact that this was a female donkey, and you know, more men should listen to their wives. More men should listen to women because you know what? This female donkey had enough discernment to see the angel.

Think of this donkey. Here's this female donkey who can see the angel and tries to spare the life of this stubborn man.

Jono: The master, yeah.

Keith: Here you got the man on the donkey and she can see, he can't see, and then eventually he sees. But in the process... so I think there's this kind of like a beautiful picture of this idea of different perspectives. Here's the donkey’s perspective. Here's Balaam's perspective. Here's what Yehovah wants, here's what Balak wants. And it all comes down to that he intervenes and says, “you know, I'm just letting you know, you're on my mission and in my mission, here's how it's going to go.”

Jono: To point out, of course, the donkey's eyes are open. Then the donkey's mouth is open. Obviously, Balaam can speak. There's no problem there. But then it says specifically, “then Yehovah opened Balaam's eyes.”

Keith: Finally, he sees.

Jono: And finally, he sees. So Yehovah opened his eyes. So how can he… he didn't expect him to see him before then. So, it's interesting to note and I think it's probably an ideal spot, Keith, if it's possible, and if it's okay with you, Nehemia, if we can go to Psalm 119, verse 18.

Nehemia: Before you do that, there's something really profound here that you pointed out that…I just love this image here. That Balaam, Bilaam, if I can use this metaphor, he has scales on his eyes. There's a veil in front of his face and he can't see. Satan is right in front of him. He doesn't realize Satan’s standing there with a sword and he's about to walk into him, and Yehovah spares him and opens his eyes. The scales fall away, and he sees. I think this is such a powerful image, and I'm going to pray this time because you guys did the last two.

Keith: Before you pray, Nehemia, and again, you’re even telling the story. So, we have his eyes are closed. Yehovah opens his eyes so he can see. But the in between is what was it that was the intervention? It was the female donkey that finally got the attention of the man who couldn't see.

Jono: Amen. Saved his life.

Keith: Saved his life is what it did.

Nehemia: Yehovah Avinu She'BaShamayim, Ga'al Eynai, Kefi She Ga'alta Eynei Bil'Am, Kedai She Ereh Niflaot NiTorateicha. Yehovah our father in heaven, uncover my eyes the way you uncovered the eyes of Bil'Am, let the scales fall from my eyes that I may see the wonderful hidden things of your Torah.

Jono: Amen. Thank you Nehemia.

Keith: Did the Jewish man just pray for scales to fall off his eyes?

Nehemia: Amen.

Keith: May the Methodist also pray this? May the Aussie also pray this?

Nehemia: All those with scales. Be'vakasha.

Keith: Yeah, Amen. Toda Raba. Okay!

Jono: “And the angel of the LORD said to him, ‘why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you,’” there it is again, “because your way is perverse before me.” There we have it. We don't know exactly why it was perverse, but apparently it was perverse. “The donkey saw me and turned aside…”

Nehemia: Can we stop there?

Jono: Sure.

Nehemia: Do you have “perverse”? Is that what you’ve got in the Keith Johnson version?

Keith: Yeah. “And the angel of Yehovah said to him, ‘why have you hit your donkey these three times? Look, I purposely came out to stop you because your way is perverse before me.’”

Nehemia: So this may be a minor point, but anyway, the word there in Hebrew is 'Yarat'; 'Yud', 'Resh', ‘Tet’. This is what we call a ‘hapax legomenon’; a unique word. It only appears here in the entire Bible, and it really only appears here in the entire history of the ancient Hebrew language. As a result, we don't know what it means.

This is one of these words that, I know the ancient rabbis looked at and they came up with all kinds of wild explanations. They actually said that, maybe it's an acronym for something, or maybe we could break it apart and make it into two words. Basically, what they were doing is trying to make sense of this word that we simply don't know the meaning of.

Now, from the context, you can guess that it says, “for something the way before me”. So perverse makes a lot of sense, but it could be something else. You know, “long is the way before me”, or “short is the way before me”, or who knows? We don't really know. So, I think that's pretty cool, that we throw out these English translations that, it's so easy, we just burn right by it. Don't even make a mention of it. But when you look at the Hebrew, you find out there's a linguistic riddle here that we don't know the answer to. I find this type of thing brings humility. I say, “okay, I've exhausted all of the resources that exist. Everything.” You know, sometimes you don't know something just because you're ignorant. But here we don't know, even if we have all the knowledge in the world, because the Hebrew language…some of the information has been lost over thousands of years. We’ve just got to admit, “okay, we don't know what this means, ‘for something the way before me’”, is what it says.

Jono: That’s amazing. I didn’t know that. Well it says, “’I would've surely killed you by now and let her live.’ And Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, ‘I've sinned. I did not know you stood in my way against me. Now therefore, if it pleases you, I will turn back.’ But the angel of Yehovah said to Balaam, ‘go with the men, but only speak that which I speak to you, only speak the words that I speak to you, that you shall speak.’ So Balaam went with the princes of Balak. Balak heard that Balaam was coming. He went out to meet him at the city of Moab, which is on the border of Amman and the boundary of the territory. And Balak said to Balaam, ‘Did I not earnestly send to you calling for you? Why did you not come to me? Am I not able to honor you?’ And Balaam said to Balak, ‘look, I've come to you, but now have I any power at all to say anything? The word that God puts in my mouth that I must speak.’” Boy…

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: Amen.

Jono: “So Balaam went with Balak and they came to Kiryat Chutzot.” Is that correct Nehemia?

Nehemia: Kiryat Chutzot, which means the outdoor city, or the outdoor village.

Jono: “And Balak offered oxen and sheep and he sent some to Balaam and the princes who were with him, and so it wasn't until the next day that Balak took Balaam and brought him up to the high places of Ba’al. From there, he might've said that he could observe the extent of the people.” And here we are at Chapter 23.

Nehemia: Woah, woah, woah. “He might see the extent of the people”. Is that what you’ve got? Keith?

Jono: Observed the extent of the people. Yeah.

Keith: “The farthest part of the people.”

Nehemia: Yeah. So, it says, “the edge of the people.”

Keith: I'm telling you guys, my version is impressive.

Nehemia: This is a recurring theme here throughout the story, that Balak keeps thinking, “Well, we just have to look from a different angle. You've seen the whole people from here, let's go look from that angle. Now let's go to this place, and that will give you the inspiration that you need to be able to curse the people”, and Balak just doesn't get it.

Jono: No, he doesn't. He doesn't get it.

Nehemia: It's not about this angle or that angle. It's about speaking the word that's put in his mouth by Yehovah.

Jono: “Then Balaam said to Balak,” and this is Chapter 23, “’build seven altars for me here and prepare for me seven bulls and seven rams.’ And Balak did as Balaam had spoken, and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar. Then Balaam said to Balak, ‘stand by your burnt offering. I will go, perhaps Yehovah will come to me and whatever He shows me, I will tell you’. So, he went to a desolate height and God met Balaam and he said to him…” And now look, Balaam says to God, “I have prepared the seven altars and I've offered each altar a bull and a ram,” and it seems to me, Nehemia, or at least the way I read it, it's like, “Hey, I did what you said.”

Nehemia: Yeah.

Jono: Keith?

Keith: No, no, no, I actually didn't see it that way, that he had done what he'd said. I saw more that he did what they could do. And the reason that I look at that is that verse 41, “and it happened on the next day that Balak took Balaam and brought him up into the high places of Ba’al.” So basically, if you go to the places of Ba’al, the idea is we've got these altars, we offer these things. I mean this isn't going to be outside the norm for Balak at all. And so, he's just doing what they do. These are the religious things that we do.

What I thought was interesting was that he's doing what they do at the high places, and my version actually says, “and he went to a high place.” I'm looking at that as a reference back to this idea of these being high places. That's what they did. You know, you pick the highest place, you go, and you do this thing. They're sort of the spiritual experience. But then Balaam does this radical thing. He says, “well, hold on a second, let me go over here and now that we prepared the seven altars and the seven bulls, now let me go over and see what I'm supposed to do.”

Nehemia: Let me ask a question to Keith; why seven? Why seven altars, and seven bulls, and seven rams?

Keith: Seven is the number of fulfillment and completion.

Nehemia: Seven is clearly in Scripture. It's an important number. God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. What I think is going on here is that, we've got a counterfeit situation; that Bilaam knows seven's important, and what he's doing is, he's mixing the truth with the falsehood. He's going to the altars of Ba’al, to the high place of Ba’al… a high place isn't just a place that's high up on a hill. A high place is a place with altars for worshiping Yehovah as Ba’al, or for worshiping Ba’al in this case.

Jono: But it says that they built seven altars, right?

Nehemia: Okay, well, why did they build them on that spot? Because that's the sanctified spot for Ba’al. He's mixing the worship of Yehovah and the worship of Ba’al and he's taking the number seven because he knows that's an important number to Yehovah. So, you mix a little bit of the truth in there, like a counterfeit, if you think about it, the counterfeit bill. What color is your money over there in Australia? Like your hundred-dollar bills, in Australia?

Jono: Oh, all sort of ridiculous colors. Yeah, it's funny money. It's different colors and it's made of plastic.

Nehemia: Right. So, let's say your $100 bills are like pink or something like that. Right? So, somebody comes along with a blue $100 bill from Australian money, they're gonna say, “well it's supposed to be pink. It doesn't even look right.” So, he takes seven because seven is the true number, the legitimate number. And he's trying to mix in this counterfeit stuff and make it look real. I think for me the key is in verses 3 and 4, he says, and this is literally what it says in Hebrew, “perhaps if Yehovah will chance upon me.”

Then it says in verse 4, “…and God chanced upon Bilaam.” That word chance, 'Kara,' 'will happen upon', 'chance upon,' is a concept that has to do with divination. We have this happen again in verses 15 to 16. It says, “and I will chance with him here,” and Yehovah chanced upon Bilaam. I'm translating it that way because that's the meaning of this word, 'Kara', is to happen, or to chance upon. That's actually the result of this divinatory experience. He's bringing his divinations and trying to force this revelation to happen with Yehovah, and Yehovah says, “okay, I'll do it. I'll play your game.”

Jono: I'll play along.

Nehemia: “You want me to talk to you through divination? You want to play the divination game? We can do that. I'm going to meet you halfway.” And that amazes me - that Yehovah is that merciful. But then finally in Chapter 24, we finally see... It says, “And Bilaam saw that it was good in the eyes of Yehovah to bless Israel. He didn't go like each time before towards the divination and he put his face towards the desert and Bilaam lifted up his eyes and he saw…” I know I'm jumping ahead, but it's sort of to understand what we're reading in the previous chapter. “And Balaam lifted up his eyes and he saw Israel dwelling according to its tribes.” And then it says, “and the spirit of Elohim was upon him.”

Jono: Amen.

Nehemia: The first few times there was no spirit of Yehovah upon him. There was just the chance to divination.

Jono: There was a word from his mouth.

Nehemia: He received this experience. He wanted to have this supernatural experience. He wanted to have this divination happen. Yehovah said, “okay, I'll communicate with you your way. I'll play your game. But this isn't going to be true prophecy. This isn't going to be what I do with my genuine prophets. I'm not going to have the spirit of God upon you.” And then finally Balaam says, “okay, we're not going to do it my way anymore. We're going to do it His way,” and the spirit of God comes upon him. Woo! Hallelujah.

Jono: Amen. Now listen - so God puts the word in his mouth, and you were talking before about the word “perverse,” in the Hebrew, that we don't exactly know what it means, words that aren't used very often, and I'm wondering - verse 7 says, “and he took up his oracle, and said…” Now, oracle is not a word that we see a lot in…

Nehemia: It's funny that it says oracle. Is that what you’ve got in your One New Man bible?

Keith: No, “he took up his saying.”

Nehemia: Okay, and so it says, “and he took up his proverb…” 'Vayisa Mishalo' – “he took up his proverb.” This is the same exact word in the book of Proverbs - it's called 'Mishleh'. 'Mashal' is a proverb. That word is kind of a broad word. It's not necessarily just a proverb, it could be a parable. Anything that uses kind of a symbolic language is a 'Mashal.' So, he took up his proverb and he said… and that tells you that - let's read it.

Jono: “So Balak the king of Moab, has brought me from Aram, from the mountains of the East. Come curse Jacob for me and come denounce Israel. How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how shall I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced. From the top of the rocks, I see him and from the hills I behold him. There, a people dwelling alone, not reckoning itself among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob or number one-fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous and let my end be like his.” Well it kind of wasn't, was it? That really didn’t work out so well.

Nehemia: You know, I think this is really interesting. There are a few things here. One is in verse 10; he says, “who can count the dust of Jacob and who can count the quarter of Israel?” What's the name of this book in English? Remind me; that we’re reading?

Jono: We're in Numbers, what do you mean?

Nehemia: Numbers, right. It's the book of numbers, which is actually... you know, in Hebrew it’s called 'Bamidbar', which is one of the opening words, which means in the desert. But in English and in the Greek it's the book of Numbers. It's all about counting Israel, the way the book is presented in English and in the Greek.

So, he's saying, “who can do it?” The implication is that nobody can do it; they are innumerable. But Israel actually is counted in this book. If I'm not mistaken, at least three times Israel is counted. So, I think that's interesting that he says that, but that actually goes back to God's blessing to Abraham, where he says, “your descendants will be like the sand of the sea that can't be counted and like the stars of the heaven.” So, he's echoing that.

I also think it's interesting, the introduction here to this proverb of his, this parable of his, where he says, “He has led me from Aram and from the mountains of the East.” That's interesting. He's not a local, he's this Aramaean prophet, and Aram is significant. Like, you're asking, why? In Aram, are they worshiping Yehovah? Well, Aram is the land of Aramaic. That's where we get the word Aramaic, Aram. And so how is it they're worshiping Yehovah in Aram? If you remember where Abraham came from, he was from Aram, around between the two rivers – “Aram Naharaim”, which today we call that Iraq, between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers.

Back in Aram, apparently there were some people who had learned from Abraham and worshipped Yehovah and stayed behind, and they continued to be immersed in the pagan ways of that land. So, they had the right God, their faith was right, but their practices weren't. Their actions weren't. They had the true faith in Yehovah, but then they mixed it with the wrong actions. They got the divination. And I think that there's something profound in that - this is the people who got left behind back in Mesopotamia and landed in Aram.

And now for a little bit of a really interesting tidbit; this might be a Torah Pearl. So, they found this inscription in Jordan at a place called Dir Allah, which is just on the other side of the Jordan River from Israel. It's an ancient inscription, probably from around 1100 BC, and it's written in Aramaic. It mentions Bilaam, the son of Beor, by name. And it calls him 'Choze Elohim', or 'Choze Alaha', 'the seer of God.' He's described there essentially, as some type of a prophet, and there's a prophecy there, recorded, of Bilaam. So, you read the story and it sounds fantastical. We're hearing about some gentile prophet who the gentiles believe is a prophet. What’s he doing in the Bible anyway? Is that even a real character? And it turns out, not only is he real, but we have archeological evidence of him, and there's a prophecy of his recorded that's been uncovered in excavation.

Jono: So, it's a fragment, right? It certainly partially there but, there it is.

Nehemia: Yeah, because it's actually written ink on plaster, which is very interesting because it says… in Deuteronomy we'll read that's how they're commanded to write out the entire Torah - with ink on plaster. That's how it was written, and so it's not complete. Most inscriptions you find from ancient times aren't going to be complete, they're going to be missing sections. And here it's pretty fragmentary, but enough of it's been preserved to see that it's Bilaam the son of Beor and that there's some kind of prophecy that he's speaking.

Jono: Keith.

Keith: I want to say, what I think is so interesting - Nehemia's talking about why it might be that these folks knew Yehovah, that they were left behind with Abraham. One of the things I always think about is just the fact that there are no bounds. There are no boundaries from how Yehovah wants to work. So before there was an Abraham, Yehovah was there. So that when Yehovah called Abraham, He called Abram or Abraham from that place. So Yehovah crossed that river, found a man and called him out.

So it's like, well, the thing that excites me is that He can… again, this whole idea of where He's limited, you know, there are no religious boundaries, there's no border police that can keep Him from going over into Iraq if He wants to, in different parts of the world, and doing what He wants to do and how He wants to do it. So that's what I think is such a cool thing is that you know, He's big. I mean, He's amazing and He catches the attention of an Abraham and He can catch the attention of a Balaam or whatever he wants or speak through a donkey if he wants to.

Nehemia: Woah, woah, woah, hold on a second. Are you saying the Creator of the universe doesn't obey the religious border police? Is that what you're trying to tell me?

Keith: Well, well, well, it depends on who you're talking to.

Nehemia: He’s crossing the river?

Keith: He crosses the river. He crossed the river to go get Abraham. He crossed the river to go speak… I mean, that's… even when we read the story about Moses' father-in-law and they say, “yes, this is the mountain of Elohim. That's where Elohim is.” Like, what are you talking about? He can't be there. He's supposed to be over in Israel. What's he doing in… the point being is that He's not limited. And I really think there's something powerful about that.

And one thing I want to say again about the English translators, that sometimes they get nervous about how big God is. They get so nervous about how big God is, they want to try to make Him smaller so they limit words and they don't tell us certain words. 39 times at Satan, but 19 times in English - you know, that kind of stuff is an attempt to try to keep God in a box. But He's going to keep breaking out of the box.

Nehemia: You know, what I'm realizing is God speaking through Balaam's ass - that's not the greatest miracle here. The greatest miracle is God speaking through Balaam; that Yehovah had the mercy to speak through a man who was trying to use divination, trying to force him to speak what he didn't want to say. He still had the mercy to say, “okay, I'm going to meet you on your terms. I'm going to speak to you where you are, even though you don't line up with the statement of faith, with the doctrine of our community. I'm still going to come and speak to this man and communicate him because I've got a message that's important for the nations to hear. And I've got to speak through one of their people so they can hear it.”

And you know, this reminds me of... there's a Jewish story about a tribe that actually ruled southern Russia sometime around, I don't know, 700CE or somewhere thereabouts. They were called the Khazars. The Khazars were this Mongolian tribe that had come, swept in from Central Asia and conquered the steppes of Russia. They had a vast kingdom. The story is about the king of the Khazars, who wanted to be a righteous man and he brought all the sacrifices. He would slaughter 10,000 goats for his gods - he wanted to be righteous.

One night he's sleeping, and he has a dream, and the angel appears to him in the dream. He says to him - and I remember learning this when I was a child, reading this in a book written over a thousand years ago, and it’s so profound - the angel says to him something to the effect of, “your faith is acceptable before me, but your actions are not.” And the point was that the king wanted to do the right thing. His intentions were right, but he didn't know what to do. He didn't have the truth of Scripture. Then he went and he began to search. He searched all the religions of the world and the ancient Greek religions, every religion in the world.

But the point is that I believe … and it also reminds me of the story of Avi Melech, who was the Philistine King, who had a similar experience, where God said, “I know your intention is right, and so I've held you back from sinning by committing adultery with Abraham's wife.” I mean, Yehovah is that merciful, that he is going to look into our hearts and give us credit even if we're misguided. Even if we're not always on the right path, he's going to say, this is a good person who wants to do right. I'm going to give them a little bit of a nudge in that direction and I'm going to open his eyes that he may see the wonderful hidden things in the Torah.

Jono: …hidden things of His Torah. Amen, amen. And so, although Balaam was hoping that he would die the death of the righteous and that his end would be like that of Israel, it says in Numbers, I think it's 31:8, also Joshua 13:22, that he was killed by the sword by Israel. And that was his end. But in any case, Balak says to Balaam, “what have you done to me? I told you to curse my enemies and look you have blessed them bountifully.” So, he answered and said, “must I not take heed to speak what Yehovah has put in my mouth?” And so here we are at the second prophecy. And he says, “maybe if I take you somewhere else it'll work better. Let me see, let's go over here. Let's see if it works better. We've got the seven altars and the seven bulls, the rams”. They do all of that again. And he says to Balak, “‘stand here by your burnt offering. I will meet with Yehovah over there.’ Then Yehovah met with Balaam and put the words in his mouth.” And so, he goes back, and this is what he sees. “So he took up his oracle, and he says, ‘rise Balak, and here, listen to me, oh son of Tzipor. God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make good? Behold I have received a command to bless, and He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it. He has not observed iniquity.’”

Now Nehemia, this is interesting. Well, we need an explanation here. “He has not observed iniquity in Jacob nor has he seen wickedness in Israel. Yehovah his Elohim is with him.” Guys, there's a couple of bumps there. Which one do you want to deal with first?

Nehemia: Could we deal with verse 21 first? Because that's the easier one.

Jono: Okay.

Nehemia: So, the word 'Hibit' here, it really means “he looked at”. So really you could translate, “He did not look at…”, it's really not an iniquity. It's a perversion or a twisted way. He didn't look at the twistedness in Jacob, and it doesn't mean it didn't exist, but Yehovah is not looking upon that. What He's looking at in this context is the promise that He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And I think that's key in this story because earlier on Bilaam was like, “okay, I want to go curse, Jacob,” and God's like, “well, he's blessed. There's nothing we can do about it.”

I think that's the significance of verse 19. God is not a man that He should lie, right? God's already made the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's not a liar. He's going to keep that promise. That's an eternal promise. If you're saying that promise is invalidated, is abrogated, no longer applies, that Israel is no longer His people, then God's a liar. And God doesn't lie. He's not a human being. We lie. That's our nature; but God doesn't. And He's not a son of Adam, that He should change his mind. God doesn't change his mind. If He says something, He knows the future and He knows what He's talking about and it's going to happen. He's a Creator of his word.

Jono: Keith, do you want to add to any speculation on either of those verses?

Keith: No. The only thing I was going to say is - this is obscure, but I love this - it says, “and Yehovah his God is with him. And the shout of a king is among them.” When I see that phrase, “a shout of the king is among them”. One of the things - and again - I don't even know how to even approach this because I don't want to take too much time, but just this idea that there's something about this people, that's different about these people, and when it says “the shout of the king is among them,” you know, I did a little study looking at this from different angles, kind of like, how they look at the angles of the people of Israel, and dealing with “the shout of the king,” meaning the raising of the king himself. In other words, okay, the king is in our midst. Ah! It's the king, or the idea of shouting, and what does that mean? Is it the king himself that's shouting? Or is it the people saying, the king is in our midst, or is it possibly…

Nehemia: I have another explanation I want to offer. Not to interrupt Keith, but this is what we do. What is the word there for shouting? The word there is 'Truah.' Did I snatch that from you?

Keith: Okay, well that's it, ladies and gentlemen.

Nehemia: No! 'Truah' could be a shout, of course, or it could also be the blast of a shofar, and if you think about it, when the king shows up, they've got like, the little horns that go 'Do-do-do!'

Jono: Sure!

Nehemia: They were announcing his coming, and I think that that's what this may mean. The 'Truah' of the king is in his midst. And on that note, I'm going to blow the shofar. *Blows shofar*

Nehemia: That was me, not Keith.

Jono: That's not bad. Keith, what do you reckon?

Keith: Amen.

Jono: “God brings them out of Egypt. He has strength like a wild ox for there is no sorcery against Jacob, nor any divination against Israel.” And so it goes on. Oh, now let me just say, so I've got to read this. “It now must be said of Jacob and of Israel, oh, what God has done. Look! A people rises like a lioness and lifts itself up like a lion. It shall not lie down until it devours its prey and drinks the blood of the slain. Then, Balak said to Balaam, ‘Neither curse them at all or bless at all.’” Oh man, he's ticked off.

But he says, “look, I'll tell you what, let's go somewhere else. What do you reckon?” So off they go and then we are in Chapter 24. “And Balaam saw,” as you said Nehemia, “he saw that it pleased Yehovah to bless Israel and he did not go as other times to seek to use sorcery, but he set his face towards the wilderness, and Balaam raised his eyes and saw Israel encamped according to their tribes. And the spirit of God came upon him. Then he took up his oracle and he said, ‘the utterance of Balaam the son of Beor, the utterance of a man whose eyes are open, the utterance of him who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, who falls down with his eyes open. How lovely are your tents, oh Jacob? Your dwelling, oh Israel, like valleys that stretch out, gardens by the riverside, like aloes planted by Yehovah, like cedars beside the water. He shall pour water from his buckets and his seed shall be in many waters. His king…’” again Keith, “his king shall be higher than Agag. His kingdom shall be exalted.” And it's interesting, isn't it? Because it's not until like hundreds of years, and so we get Shaul. Is that fair?

Nehemia: Oh yeah. The king here is Yehovah.

Jono: Amen.

Nehemia: I think there's no question about that.

Jono: “God brings him out of Egypt. He is a strength like the wild ox. He shall consume the nations, his enemies. He shall break their bones and pierce them with his arrows. He bows down. He lies down as a lion and as a lion, who shall rouse him?” And there, here it is, “Blessed is he who blesses you and cursed it is he who curses you.” Keith, where is that from?

Keith: Hmm, I will bless those who bless, and I will curse those who curse.

Jono: Amen. Genesis, Chapter 12, verse 3, is what he's quoting.

Nehemia: So, verse 3, I think, is interesting. This expression here, where he says, “Sayeth Balaam the son of Beor, sayeth the man…” and it says, who has literally, 'Shtoom ha’ayin' which means, “who has opened eye.” That's a really interesting word, that if you change slightly and make it 'Stoom ha’ayin' it means “who has a shut eye”. In fact, we’re told that there were different pronunciations of ancient Hebrew. We're told in the book of Judges about how the tribe of Ephraim, that when they pronounced the Hebrew letter 'shin', it came out as 'sin'. And in fact, there was a war, and they used that as a password. They said to everybody, “say the word 'Shibolet'.” And when the Ephraimites said it, they couldn't say 'Shuh' 'Shibolet,' it comes out as 'Seebolet.' And they said, “oh, you're an Ephraimite,” and they killed him, the other tribes. So, if an Ephraimite said this, he would say 'Stoom ha’ayin,' “Behold the man who has the shut eye” instead of 'Shtoom ha’ayin', “Behold the man who has the open eye”. It's essentially the same letter in Hebrew, but with the dot on the right side of the letter versus the left side letter. It's kind of like a 'C' in English, which sometimes is a 'cuh,' and sometimes as a 'suh,' and it's very, very close.

And it makes you think, what a small difference between having the eye open and having the eyes shut. I mean, it really is a very subtle difference. He's the one whose eyes were shut and now the eye is open. And he actually said, 'Gilui Aynaim,' 'uncovered eyes.' That's what we say in our prayer, 'Ga'al Aynai ve Ahbita', “uncover my eye that I may see.” He now has the 'Gilui Aynaim', the uncovered eyes, the same exact words in a different format. His eyes are open now and he sees, “how wonderful are your tents oh Jacob, your dwellings oh Israel.” He now sees what he refused to see before. It was right in front of his eyes, but there were the scales on his eyes, but this time it was self-imposed and now his eyes have been opened and he's going to see what Yehovah shows him.

Keith: Amen.

Jono: So Balak's anger is aroused. He strikes his hands together. He says, “look, I told you to curse them. You blessed them bountifully these three times. I would have given you heaps of stuff, but now you can get on your ass and go home.” But this is what he says in verse 14, Balaam says, “but before I do that, let me just tell you what's going to happen to you in the latter days. And so Balaam took up his oracle and said,” and this is the fourth one, “the utterance of Balaam the son of Beor, the utterance of the man whose eyes are open, the utterance of him who hears the words of God and has the knowledge of the most high, who sees the vision of the Almighty, who falls down with eyes wide open. I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near.” What is the point of that phrase? In verse 17? “I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near.”

Nehemia: So, we start out and he says, “this is what's going to happen.” It says, 'Be'Achrit Ha'Yamim' 'the latter days' you know, that's the end times. This is an end times prophecy! And then where he says, “I see him, but not now, and behold him, but not near.” So, he's talking about what's going to happen in the end times.

Jono: So, a star…

Nehemia: So “I see him” could also be translated as “I see it”, meaning, I see what's going to happen. But maybe he sees him. Maybe he's seeing the star. This is one of my favorite verses in the bible. Read it in your translation. It's a powerful verse.

Jono: “A star shall come out of Jacob…”

Nehemia: Whoo!

Jono: “A scepter rise out of Israel…”

Nehemia: Come on!

Jono: “…and batter the brow of Moab and destroy all the sons of tumult.”

Nehemia: Now what does that mean? Who is the star? I know, certainly, Jewish sources have always understood this is referring to the Messiah. A star shall rise out of Jacob. And then it says, “a staff”, and that's the word, 'shevet', which is the staff of the ruler. So, this is the ruler. This is the king. This is the human king, and we later find out it is going to be a descendant of David. This arguably is our first messianic prophecy. The first explicitly messianic prophecy in the Bible, where the Messiah is foretold, “the star shall rise out of Jacob.”

Jono: How about that - it comes from Balaam, Keith. It comes from…

Keith: What's so interesting about that though - and this is where some folks got to be at the edge of their seat and others are in the back of their seat and hoping that we get over this verse real quick - so some from one heritage would immediately think of Revelation 22:16; you know, others would look at other… Isaiah and, “it's okay, this is what it is here.” Rather than really even dealing with that, I just think this idea that here you have now Balaam being the messenger. He's become now the ambassador of Yehovah, meaning that he's now bringing forth a message from Yehovah, and the fact that this message is coming out in ancient times. Speaking of the star that will come forth. That is something that everyone could get excited about.

Again, someone could go to the back of the book to my English Bible and go to Revelation 22:16 and it's Yehoshua. It's Jesus speaking, saying I'm the star. Or they could go to other parts of the other prophecies that are coming forth that Nehemia when he reads, or anyone that comes from a Jewish tradition that, biblical understanding, looking at the Tanakh as the word of God, certainly he's saying, “I'm waiting for that star. I'm waiting for that Meshiach. I'm waiting for that one to come.” So that's why I think this is such a powerful opportunity to find the common ground. That Nehemia could say that he would shout about the star coming and then others would shout and say about the star coming. I mean, isn't that cool? We're talking about the book of Numbers now. This was way back in the book of Numbers.

Jono: It's pretty cool.

Nehemia: Isn't this amazing that the first... and there are other prophecies that people will point to and say, “well, you know, that's a messianic prophecy,” but those are all kind of in dispute… Here's the one that I think is indisputable. That anybody looks at this, and certainly in the traditional sources, both Jewish and Christian, and say, “okay, this is talking about the coming of the Messiah, the star who will rise up out of Jacob.” And that excites me - think about this for a minute. The first prophecy we have, and this isn't with the divination, now we're talking about the spirit of Elohim is upon him. This is true legitimate prophecy, indisputably, and it's a gentile who is speaking that prophecy. The gentile was the first one to see it. That's pretty that cool.

Keith: Better say that.

Nehemia: And he's seeing the star rising out of Jacob. Israel is not ready to see it, but the gentile prophet has seen it and foretold it, and that's pretty cool. And another interesting little side point here is, there was someone in Israel's history who the entire people of Israel looked to and said, “he is the star that has risen out of Jacob.” They actually called him ‘star man’. That was somebody who is known in history as Bar Kochva. This was 62 years after the destruction of the Temple, and they were living under Roman occupation--the Second Temple. And they said, “well, the first time we had 70 years of exile. It's got to be 70 years this time as well. Sixty-two years have passed. We're not going to wait another eight years.”

And they rose up against the Romans and actually defeated them. They actually wiped out an entire Roman legion that was completely wiped out to the last man. It never appears after that in the history of Rome because, it wasn't that they were wounded and they had to replace those guys. The whole legion was wiped out, which is a big deal - for the Judeans to wipe out entire Roman legion. They proclaimed their leader, whose name was Simon Ben Kosba, they proclaimed him as the king of Israel. They said, “he is the Messiah,” and anointed him with oil. And they began to mint coins that said, ‘year one of the redemption of Zion’. This was in the year 132 CE.

Rabbi Akiva, who was the leading rabbi of the time, came to this king of Israel. He was not a theoretical king. He was an actual reigning king of Israel, a flesh and blood king. He said, “you are the star that is risen out of Jacob.” And he changed his name from Ben Kosba to Bar Kochva, which literally would mean “son of the star” or “star man”, and saying he was a fulfillment of that prophecy.

Well, in 133, they started minting coins that said year two of the redemption of Zion. And in 134 they started minting coins and said year three of the redemption Zion. You find these in archeological excavations. They're pretty common. Year four coins are very rare because the Romans came back. They actually sent in reinforcements from Britain, brought new legions that put down the rebellion in the year 135. They killed rabbi Akiva, skinned him alive actually with hot combs. And they killed Bar Kochva at the Battle of Betar, where a half a million Jews were killed in that battle, and they destroyed over a thousand Jewish villages. They said, “we can't have this happen again,” and they renamed the province of Judea. It had been called Judea since time immemorial; 'Yehuda,' the land of Judah. They renamed it Palestina after the Philistines who had once lived in that region, to strip it of its Jewish identity. If you ask most Jews today, they'll say, “well, Bar Kochva wasn't really the star man because he was killed by the Romans and he brought in three and a half years of a kingdom; but that's not what we're looking for. We're looking for the eternal kingdom - the kingdom that will last for at least a thousand years. The kingdom which Yehovah's representative will rule on earth over the entire world.” Can I get an amen?

Jono: Amen.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: Where a star will rise up…

Jono: There will be a real star man. So, verse 18, and this is what will happen also, “Edom shall be a possession, Seir also, his enemies shall be a possession, while Israel does valiantly. Out of Jacob one shall have dominion and destroy the remains of the city. Then he looked on Amalek and he took up his oracle and he said, ‘Amalek was first among the nations but shall be last until it perishes.’ Then he looked on the Kenites and he took up the oracle and said, ‘firm is your dwelling place, and your nest is set in the rock. Nevertheless, Cain shall be burned. How long until Ashur carries you away captive?’”

Nehemia: We’ve got to stop here and talk about these Kenites. So, there's nothing to do with Cain who killed Abel. This is a different group. These are people who are actually a subgroup of Midianites. This is one of the Midianite clans. For example, we hear about Chevra the Kenite, who is one of these people associated with the Midianites. This is important, because the very next story that we're going to hear about is how the Midianites say, “okay, we couldn't get you with curses. We're going to get you to curse yourself with your actions.” Then they seduce the Israelites to come worship idols, because they realized, “okay, their god’s protecting them. Let's draw them away from their god to our god and our protection will weigh out.” That's why the Kenites are being mentioned here; they're in with the Moabites.

Jono: “And he took up his oracle and he said, ‘alas, who shall live when God does this? But ships shall come from the coast of Cyprus and they shall afflict Ashur and they shall afflict Eber and so shall Amalek until he perishes.’ So, Balaam rose and departed and returned to his place. Balak also went his way,” and that is that. Now Keith, Chapter 25, will you take us through the story to the end of our Torah portion, which is verse 9?

Keith: “And Israel stayed in Acasia and the people began to commit harlotry with the daughters of Moab and they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods and the people did eat and bow down to their gods. Israel joined himself to Ba’al Peor and the anger of Yehovah was kindled against Israel. And Yehovah said unto Moses, ‘take all the leaders of the people and hang them up before…’”, oh my goodness. Wait, are you kidding me?

Jono: Seriously. “Out in the sun.”

Nehemia: What do you have there? You have, “hang up”?

Jono: That's what I have. “And hang the officers before Yehovah out in the sun.”

Nehemia: Okay. We're going to have to come back to that part. Let him finish reading.

Keith: “So that the fierce anger of Yehovah can be turned away from Israel.”

Nehemia: So, let's talk about this hanging. The word there is 'Hoka', which you could translate more literally as ‘impale’, although, and this is the interesting thing, if you look at the ancient Aramaic translation… the Jewish Aramaic translation – I'm not talking about the Pshita, which was a gentile Aramaic translation from Adessa in Turkey. But if you look at the Jewish Aramaic translation, you'll see that they translate the word 'Hoka' - to impale - as 'Salav,' which normally would be translated as ‘to crucify’.

If you think about it, crucifying and impaling are very similar things. Impaling is where you take a big stake and you jam it up into someone's body that way. Then they're up on this pole and everybody sees them and says, “that's what happens if we violate the law,” or, “that's what happens if you violate the command of the king, or if we rebel.” And so that's impalement. They're being commanded here, essentially, to be crucified, in a sense. I mean, that's what crucifixion was about as well. They put a person up on a pole and everyone would look up and say, “okay, that's what happens if we rebel against the Romans.” The Romans actually crucified thousands of people. During the rebellion with Spartacus, they actually lined the road to Rome with crucified slaves that had been conquered. The whole road to Rome for miles was lined with people crucified. So, impaling and crucifixion is essentially... I mean it wasn't a bad translation into Aramaic. I think this is really interesting because, he goes on later and he says, “do this and the wrath of Yehovah will be turned back from Israel.” I think it's interesting - these people who have sinned, they're gonna get impaled; they're going to be put up on the pole and Yehovah's wrath will be turned back from Israel.

Jono: Keith, verse 5.

Keith: Verse 5, we have to go with the New King James version because it really is a bit more important. So, read from your New King James version.

Jono: “So Moses said to the judges of Israel, ‘every one of you kill his men who adjoins to Ba’al of Peor.’”

Keith: Oh boy. Nehemia, can you read that verse?

Nehemia: “And Moshe said to the judges of Israel, ‘kill each man his men who have joined themselves, who are clinging themselves, to the Ba’al Peor.’” The significance of that is… remember the system that was set up under Moses. Moses was the high judge, and then you had judges of thousands and hundreds and fifties, etc. What that meant is, a judge of a thousand meant he had a thousand men under him. If they had a problem, they'd go to the judge of 50. If he didn't know what to do, they’d bump it up the ladder to the judge of hundred. Then they go to the judge of thousands. So, when it says, “to the judges of Israel, kill each man his men who joined the Ba’al Peor,” he's talking to the judges and saying, “okay, you've got 50 men under you. Go check if any of them worship Ba’al Peor and take care of it, carry out the judgment against them.” That's significant because later on in this section we read about Pinchas. In verse 7 it says, “and Pinchas the son of Elazar saw…”

Keith: You're not kidding me. You're not going to go to verse 7.

Nehemia: Okay, I'm gonna let you read it.

Jono: Verse 6 before we get there.

Keith: That’s it - we're never letting him read another… no that's okay, go ahead. “Children of Israel came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the entire congregation of the children of Israel who were weeping at the door of the Tent of Meeting.” And then it says, “and when Pinchas the son of Elazar, the son of Aaron, the priest saw, he rose up from among the congregation, took a javelin in his hand and he went after the man of Israel into a tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through her belly. So, the plague was stayed from the children of Israel and those who died of the plague were 24,000.” But I have to say something - when I'm reading through this, you just, you don't get a very clear view. You only get a clear view of what's happening at the end. You see what I'm saying?

Jono: Yeah. Because where does it say there's the plague? I mean, all of a sudden there’s a plague…

Keith: It doesn't say the plague. It doesn't say what's actually going... in other words, I wanted you to read your verse, Jono, to ask the question in verse number 5. Verse 6… what does it say in your verse?

Jono: In verse 6, “And indeed one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel who were weeping at the door of the Tabernacle of Meeting.”

Nehemia: I think it's time, if you've got children in the room, you might want to send them away so I can explain what actually happened here. Can I do that? Or do we have to keep the PG rating here?

Jono: No, no, you've given fair warning.

Nehemia: Okay, so, we're at the end of the portion. So, look, “a man from among the children of Israel came and he brought close to his brethren the Midianite woman.” And then later on it says, “and he stabbed them, the two of them.” Now, why does he stab them through with this pole? Well, he's carrying out the judgment that Moses had commanded. He says, “each man, go out and impale the people.” And so, he takes the pole… and this is what we call a twofer, where he takes the pole and he stabs the two of them through. Now how does he get the twofer? Well, evidently… and let's go back to verse 1, it says, “and the people began to whore after the daughters of Moab.”

So, what's happening is - and this was very common in the ancient world - the religious act that they would do, the ritual they would do to worship their god, is they would have relations with a woman and that woman would represent the goddess. The man who was having relations with her would represent the god, and that union, those relations they were performing, that was seen symbolically as Ba’al having relations with his sister, who was also his wife, who was 'easter', 'Ashtoret'. That's what this was all about - that they were having relations, and that's how he got the twofer.

They were in this… he translates it here as a tent, but the word is 'Cuba,' which is apparently a bedchamber. So, he stabs them through. He's like, “okay, this is the woman I'm going to copulate with. I'm going to join with their gods, and this is the ritual of Ba’al joining with 'easter'. So, this leader of the people of Israel is doing this with the Midianite princess, and he's doing it in front of the Israelites. Then they go into their little room and they consummate, and Pinchas is like, “well, I was commanded to take out my people who are worshiping Ba’al Peor, I better start with this guy”, who was actually a prince of Israel.

Jono: He javelins them.

Nehemia: He javelins them. He skewers them through.

Jono: He shish-kabobs them together.

Keith: I think we get the story.

Nehemia: He impales them. Okay. And he gets a twofer because they're carrying out this ritual. And there it is.

Keith: “So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel,” amen, “and those that died were 24,000”. And that's why we have the book of Numbers.

Jono: Now we're at the end of the Torah portion. That could possibly be a record. Thank you, Keith Johnson and Nehemia Gordon. Next week we are speaking about the man with the javelin, Pinchas. Numbers 25, verse 10, to 30 verse 1. Until then, dear listener, be blessed and be set apart by the truth of our Father's word. Shalom.

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Related Posts: Prophet Pearls - Balak (Micah 5:7[6]-6:8) The Ass Speaks Out Torah and Prophet Pearls Hebrew Gospel Pearls Hebrew Voices Episodes Nehemia Gordon's Teachings on the Name of God Support Team Studies
  • donald murphy says:

    wonder y u show wings on messengers?? Isn’t that a pagan attribute?

  • Saul Reed says:

    I have a question about faith. I learned that “faith” is defined as believing without seeing (not needing or requiring evidence). Is this true? From a Jewish perspective, why does God want us to believe in him without undeniable evidence? I’ve heard people claim it’s because God doesn’t want to force us to believe in him by providing evidence. However, this doesn’t make sense because God reveals himself all the time to the Israelites in the Tanakh (sending angels, performing big miracles, burning bush, glory in the temple, etc). He didn’t have a problem providing clear evidence of himself in the ancient times, so why hasn’t he provided evidence for the past 2,000 years? I’m honestly confused. Why does he require faith (believing without evidence) now but provided evidence to our ancient ancestors?

    • Servant of God says:

      Because without faith it is impossible to please Me (says God) for everything that happens in life one must believe that I Am for I Am faithful, I Am true, I Am just and I Am He and he who worships Me must worship Me in spirit and in truth and he who comes to Me must just believe.

  • In English, the jackass is the male donkey and the female is called the jenny. “Ass” comes from the Latin “asinus”. “Equus asinus” is the scientific name.

    • Bridget Scott says:

      Thank You For Posting This… It Is Good Information & Brings Better Understanding

  • Sheila Price says:

    Thank you for these pearls… they are quite helpful in giving me a more clear understanding of scriptures with Hebrew insight… thank you Nehemiah.
    In synagogue today the leader spoke of how our perception can affect things and that Balaam was possibly thinking more highly of himself than he ought to have been and was angry with God for not agreeing to let him go from the start, before the situation with the ass, and his anger kept him from seeing the angel of The Lord… the actions of the ass just added to his anger…
    personal thought… after listening to you 3… perhaps Balaam’s motivation in going was for monetary gain and he was so focused on that, that he couldn’t perceive what was right in front of him.
    I too have wondered, when reading this story before, why Balaam wasn’t surprised that the ass spoke. Was he so angry that all reason had left his intellectual thought?

  • ScottinTexas says:

    Also, this is why this “adversary” is not The Adversay but The Messenger acting to oppose Balaam’s personal will instead of carrying out ONLY YHVH’s Will! Nehemia only sees The Adversary (despite the lack of the definitive “The”) also mistakenly named “Lucifer” by some. This Messenger is NOT him for this Messenger is speaking as The Word of YHVH, NOT in his own will (as The Adversary always dies).

    Then, I love the point Nehemia makes about the “scales” on Balaam’s eyes. We all sufferfrom such scales until YHVH knows we are ready for His Truth regarding a given matter. As eith Bslaam, it is a matter of the heart. When we are ready to accrpt what YHVH may r veal, He will open our eyese, not until then. This is why and how we can read a passage dozens, hundreds of times, and suddenly, one day we read it again and tada, we finally “see” it, in other words Elohim is ginally revealingbit to us bc we sre ready to accept it.

    • Yared Radbone says:

      The real Satan or Adversary or Enemy is Azazel. The Chief Fallen Angel. The one who’s to bare all the sins of Israel for corupting the seed of YeHoVaH.

  • ScottinTexas says:

    The Messenger is used here, not the generic “a messenger,” indicating a specific Messenger of YHVH. It should also be noted that Elohim is used here then refers to the words of YHVH. The implication is thise Messenger was a physical manifestation of Elohim who actually appears as a person before the dobkey and Balaam.

    This same reference or term of art, The Messenger of YHVH, is used when a physical manifestation of Elohim appears to someone. There is a pattern of teference in those occasions.

    Contrastly, other heavenly messengers are referred to only as “a messenger,” not “The Messenger.” Further, as in other instances of someone improperly bowing to “a messenger,” this Messenger does not scold or warn Balaam from bowing or worshipping Him. Why? Surely you know, but perhaps have trouble admitting! This is the incarnate Messenger of YHVH or The Word, aka Yeshua, Elohim incarnate, the Annointed One.

    I hope you guys will test this and study it instead of disnisding it and relying overly so on Jewish traditional views (such as you mistakenly do with the AlephTav despite lack of a consistent pattern of it as a DOP).

    Still, great show, and I really value each of your perspectives!

  • I do not agree at all with your assumption that the adversary figure is malevolent. As with any of YHVH’s messengers, when they encounter someone who bows down and worships them, they correct the person. However, there are a few times in the scriptures that this worship is received. And I believe rightfully so. YHVH has a Messenger (capital M) that is different than other messengers. This One is called YHVH. This One receives worship. And He is described in Isaiah as coming (back) with a sword once again.

  • Joy Mathew says:

    The pervesness or recklessness that YHVH found in Baalam
    Numbers 22 : 32

    And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me:

    When Balak send messengers to Baalam he gave a truncated message to the messengers

    Numbers 22 : 13

    13And Balaam rose up in the morning, and said unto the princes of Balak, Get you into your land: for YHVH refuseth to give me leave to go with you.

    Instead of giving YHVH’s full message

    Numbers 22 : 12

    12And YHVH said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed .

    Balaam forebear from telling Baalams messengers that YHVH had also told him that YHVH had blessed these people and it was not possible to curse them .

    Had he given the entire message the second visit of Balak’s messengers would not have occurred.

    He was in clear violation of Deutronomy 4 : 2

    2Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of YHVH your Elohim which I command you.

    As a person with communicative relationship with YHVH , definitely he would have known that he should not take advantage of his proximity to YHVH by truncating messages delivered by YHVH . Baalam should have made it very clear to Balak’s messengers that YHVH had blessed Israel and no divination of his could change that .

    This is my understanding

    • Jonah says:

      As for jarat, JUD-RESH-TET, Strong´s H3399, there is another occurrence of this word in Job 16,11 wherefrom it might be possible to get closer to its meaning. GodH410 hath deliveredH5462 me to the ungodlyH5760, and turned me overH3399 into the handsH3027 of the wickedH7563.
      Due to the word pun here in Job, sagar, SAMECH-GIMEL-RESH, Strong´s H5462, should have a meaning similar to jarat.
      Suggesting from paleohebrew, jarat (hand/arm, head/man, encompass/contain/fence) could mean „restricted action of man“, alike in a prison. Hence, Nu 22,32 would read „the way is closed before you“. Similarly, in Job 16,11, it would read „God.. has closed me into the hands of the wicked“. Just an idea.

  • Adam Denton Harris says:

    So nice I had to listen twice. #iama3rdadam

  • Bonnie Stever says:

    I enjoy you, all three of you have so much fun together. You know when to be serious, and when to have fun. Bless You for all your input, and your time, and your enthusiasm, and knowledge. It’s so awesome to see. Keep up the good work gentlemen.

    Blessings from Ontario, Canada.

  • trish392016 says:

    Between Keith -yourself Nehemia and the host of this program am so glad to hear this interpretation about Bil’am because when i read it that scripture Bemidbar 22 iI never got where this guy was any Prophet of YAHUWAH but in the Christian world they teaches as though he is from Yahuwah and this cam only be revealed to those who really studying his word

    Another thing is about this bil’am Ass Christian find this word affending and sinful – i study a lot in the word therefore i m a person wants to do exactly as stated in the word
    I do agree with you keith i did see this donkey as a female and not a male because what i find the donkey did speak ….with these words for all this time do i ever mislead you in this way

    Now about satan being there was that messager satan i m trying to get this anyway just my opinion on this have to read more

    I don’t like debates of the scripture – when i ask a question i ask to learn

  • Rebekah says:

    These studies are always bright spots in my week. I always get excited when i see you have posted a new one. Thank You guys. You Rock!

  • Michael says:

    The first recorded prophecy is in Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

  • William Blank says:

    God said to Balaam “if the men come to call thee rise up and go with them.” The next verse does not say the men came to Balaam but that he rose up and went with them. That is why God’s anger was kindled because he went.

    • Rachel C says:

      I agree. I think the spiritual and the physical are so interconnected. Don’t we see that constantly in biblical Hebrew and in the world today? Yes, Balaam may have gotten up to go because he wanted to speak what Balak requested or speak what Yah would say but get paid, but he instigated going, and that was against Yah’s instruction.

  • Mimi says:

    Hi Nehemia, Jono and Keith. Thank you for the pearls, they are very precious to us.

    We were listening to Ezekiel 18 ‘the ways of the lord are not fair’ and heard you mention that there are a lot of places where the word ‘faithffulness’ has been translated as faith?
    We would love to know where those places are? As it really gives a different meaning altogether.

    It’s of particular interest because we meet a lot of people who say “we only need to have faith.” We disagree with these sentiments and believe that faith has to be actioned; and hearing what you said made us go, Yeah that’s sounds right.

    We also would appreciate your feedback with regards to where the man was condemned to death for gathering sticks on the Sabbath.
    From where we are sitting God said, do not kill …

    Thanks so much
    looking forward to your reply
    We love listening to what you share

    Mimi and co

    ps sorry if this is not the right place to post these questions, we kinda lost track of when we heard this.

  • Pam Means says:

    Very good Torah study! Thank you.
    Each one of you have a special contribution to the study, but, I listen a little closer for the Hebraic understanding. It gives me more insight into understanding the Jewish perspective/culture.
    My understanding of Yahovahs Word grows more each week, I ask for a special blessing on all of you for bringing Them to me.

  • Eli Haroun says:

    Question for Nehemiah. I am a Karaite Jew living in a Rabbinical community. My wife gave birth last Shabbat via c-section (non vaginal delivery). The Rabbis are requiring my son to have a Brit on Sunday the 9th day vs. the 8th day as instructed in the Torah. What is your take on this matter? I feel the Brit should have been done one the 8th day.

  • Dave Christensen says:

    I can explain the talking donkey. My grandmother was raised with American Indians who taught her to “talk” with animals. She modeled that for me. “Talk” means communication at a spiritual level. When you acknowledge the One God and that all things come from the One God, and exist in oneness with Him, then we can communicate with all things.

    I have had wild mink play and dance and run across my lap; a wild badger lick me when I was laying in the sun and snuggle up against my side; Birds come to me. A rare deer came to me and we looked into each other’s eyes for an hour when I was praising the God of all creation.

    The donkey did not speak in Hebrew audibly. Animals can be sensitive both to danger and to others connecting or not connecting with God. The donkey sensed danger and threw a fit, as donkeys can very well do. Balaam realized that his donkey had been a loyal partner all his life and that the donkey was reacting to danger ahead. God spoke to Balaam through the donkey’s intuitive fear. God opened Balaam’s “spiritual eyes”. Balaam saw danger spiritually.